Chapter 43: That Beach
After playing around for a while and taking a quick shower, Mu Le was really tired and fell asleep without even noticing.
When she woke up, the sky outside had already turned a dim yellow.
She casually grabbed her phone from beside her and saw that it was already past five in the afternoon, almost six.
Yawning, she got up from the bed and looked at the man sitting not far away, working on his laptop. She complained a little, “Why didn’t you wake me up?”
Hearing that, Xiao Yuze paused for a moment. He turned around, saw her slightly messy hair, and couldn’t help but smile. “Did you sleep well?”
“Don’t change the topic. Didn’t I ask you to wake me up around four?”
She fixed her slightly messy clothes, got off the bed, and walked over to him.
Xiao Yuze closed his laptop, stood up, and patted her head helplessly.
“You were sleeping so soundly. I didn’t have the heart to wake you.”
“…Oh. I’m so hungry. Let’s go eat.” Ignoring him, Mu Le patted her flat stomach, frowning slightly.
Her hunger was becoming more and more obvious.
Thinking about it, she hadn’t eaten much today, so it made sense she felt so hungry.
Of course, Xiao Yuze didn’t refuse her request. He calmly packed up his laptop, and after both of them changed into casual clothes, they went downstairs.
On the first floor of the hotel, there was a restaurant. They could also rent equipment to do barbecue outside, but Mu Le was too hungry to bother with that.
Luckily, the hotel was large, and the restaurant had many kinds of food. Not only seafood, but also grilled meat and fish.
Xiao Yuze wasn’t very hungry. After the food was served, he sat there and watched the girl across from him eat like she hadn’t eaten in days.
Even though her eating style wasn’t very elegant, he found it unexpectedly cute.
In front of him, Mu Le was really carefree, maybe even a bit too much. But that was actually a good thing. At least it showed that even after becoming a girl, she was still very relaxed around him.
If it were another girl, even just a friend, she probably wouldn’t act this openly in front of a man.
“Do you want to go for a walk?” After she finished eating, Xiao Yuze pulled out a tissue and gently wiped the bit of oil she missed at the corner of her mouth, while she looked a little shy.
Even though she had slept a bit too long, there were still many people on the beach.
And the seaside in the afternoon had its own special feeling.
Although Mu Le didn’t change into a swimsuit, and since they had just eaten, Xiao Yuze didn’t suggest any intense activity. Just taking a walk was actually a very good choice.
As for his suggestion, the girl nodded without hesitation. “Mm!”
Xiao Yuze smiled and reached out to hold her hand. Mu Le thought for a moment, but didn’t pull away.
Since they had plenty of time, neither of them was in a hurry. They simply enjoyed this rare peaceful moment within the lively surroundings.
The bright sun had already started to set, changing from a shining gold to a softer orange-red, making the color of the beach look gentler.
The couples on the beach also seemed to be covered in a warm, happy glow, giving off a gentle feeling.
Mu Le wore a light plaid shirt on top and shorts below, with cute sandals on her feet. She looked around the place with curiosity.
The sea truly had a powerful charm. Under the sunset, the endless blue looked even more beautiful and hard to describe.
Taking a deep breath of the slightly salty air, Mu Le let go of Xiao Yuze’s hand, kicked off her sandals, and ran barefoot toward the sea.
Xiao Yuze was about to say something, but she had already run far ahead.
He shook his head, picked up the sandals she left behind, and followed after her at a relaxed pace.
The golden sand had been warmed by the sun all day. Even though the seawater touched it from time to time, stepping on it still felt unique.
But it was soft and loose, making it very comfortable to run on.
“Put your shoes back on. There might be something sharp in the sand. What if you get cut?”
Mu Le ignored the voice behind her. She bent down, picked up a shell, and held it out to Xiao Yuze like she was showing off a treasure.
“Look, what do you think this looks like?”
Xiao Yuze looked at the shell in her hand, thought for a moment, then said with some confusion, “A shell?”
His answer made Mu Le speechless. She snorted softly.
“No, it looks like an idiot.”
“Hmm, now that I look closely, it does look a bit like you, Lele,” Xiao Yuze said with a smile, touching his chin.
“Idiot!”
Mu Le glared at him as if she was unhappy, then turned around and went back to entertaining herself, completely forgetting about him for a while.
For her, coming to the beach for the first time, there were so many interesting things. Even though she couldn’t go swimming because of her clothes, it didn’t affect her good mood at all.
But when she thought about swimming, she suddenly realized a problem…
She put down the hermit crab she had just picked up, hesitated for a moment, and then walked toward Xiao Yuze, who had been sitting there watching her.
“Tired?” Xiao Yuze sat casually on the sand and smiled when he saw her coming over.
Just now, Mu Le had been running all over the place, kicking the water, playing with the sand. She made rows of neat footprints, then watched as the waves washed them away, enjoying it again and again.
He really couldn’t understand where such a small body got so much energy from.
Even though he had reminded her not to move too much after eating, Mu Le didn’t take it seriously at all.
After walking over, Mu Le sat down beside him, showing a hesitant expression.
Seeing that look, Xiao Yuze raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong?”
She usually only looked like this when she needed help with something and found it hard to say.
After hesitating for a while, Mu Le finally looked at him and spoke slowly, “Um… Aze, do you know how to swim?”
“Yeah. Why? Don’t tell me… you don’t?” Xiao Yuze thought about it and realized he had never seen her swim before.
“…Yeah.”
That was the problem she had just remembered. She… didn’t know how to swim at all. She could just play in the shallow water near the shore, but since this was a rare chance, it would feel like a waste not to fully enjoy it.
Actually, a long time ago, Mu Le was quite interested in swimming. The feeling of being surrounded by water felt very comfortable.
Until one time, when she went to a swimming pool with her father, who sometimes did very careless things…
After that, Mu Le became a little afraid of swimming and never really tried it again.
As for what happened…
Even now, when she thought about it, she couldn’t help but feel speechless.
That silly father of hers threw her into the air and then didn’t catch her! She swallowed a lot of water, while Mu Cheng just laughed at her pitiful state.
For a long time after that, Mu Le was afraid of water. Like a cat that fears water, she would just quickly rinse herself when bathing.
Although as she grew older, those feelings slowly faded…
Because of that incident, her interest in swimming disappeared. Later, with her personality and other reasons, she never thought about learning to swim again.
She even still had a slight instinctive fear of water. The feeling of almost drowning as a child was hard to forget.
Back then, she even ignored Mu Cheng for a long time, and only forgave him after he apologized many times and gave her gifts.
Sometimes, Mu Le felt helpless about her father, who could be serious one moment and suddenly act strangely the next.
She hadn’t thought much before coming here, but since she was already here and had plenty of time, she wanted to try swimming again.
Maybe in the future she would come to the beach or a swimming pool again. If she learned now, she wouldn’t have to worry about it later.
Even though she couldn’t swim, Xiao Yuze could, right? It should be easy to learn.
The beach, the sea, swimming, good food. She wanted to experience everything so this rare holiday wouldn’t go to waste.
“Then I’ll teach you?” Under the sunset, Mu Le couldn’t clearly see Xiao Yuze’s expression, but the smile on his lips seemed a bit strange.
“Okay…”
Mu Le blinked and nodded without hesitation.