Because of the darkness, the young woman didn't notice that she was running on the very edge of the road and had left behind the better part of the forest. The last of the senses that she had got lost as her already injured body rolled down till she reached a cemented footpath.
Right after the last roll, her body stopped moving and everything became still. She couldn't move an inch. Her consciousness started disappearing and her eyes eventually closed. Only a distant voice of someone panting and the flow of water reached her ears. The flow of water...it appeared quite close to her.
Before she could have completely submerged herself into that unconsciousness, something noisier hit her ears. As if something massive moved while causing a huge eruption of vibrations on the footpath and...and waves hitting the shore?
The sound of waves hitting the shore was coming. A frown got on her face as the girl gathered every ounce of her energy to force her eyes open.
And she was lying right along the shore!
Water was so near to her and the sea up in her front was lightened by the huge ship that was moving to the port nearby. A port! She could see a seaport right in front of her.
She had fallen from the side of the road and gladly because of the absence of huge rocks, she wasn't knocked dead. It was as if the god was finally showing mercy upon her.
-
In the lavish outdoor bar of the ship.
"Damn! I hadn't thought your mother would again end up ruining our trip!"
"Yang Feiyu, you should have learnt by now that anything in this world was possible but not Qin Lixin's mother changing her old tactics!" The voice teased while the owner of it patted his friends shoulder sympathetically.
"Xu Haotian, this time I agree with Yang Feiyu. Even I hadn't expected her to force our ship to stop in the middle of nowhere with the message that cars are waiting for you."
And the one in the question, Qin Lixin silently listened to his friends' complaints and gulped the drink in frustration. Even though he knew they were just kidding around, yet this time even he was tired of his mother.
When would she learn to leave him alone? He wasn't a kid anymore!
As he chucked another mouthful of the bitter wine, he glanced out to the right side of the port that they were approaching. He kept looking there for the next one minute, after which his eyes squinted a bit and before his friends could even react, he threw the glass of wine away and removed his coat.
"Hey hey man, what the heck are you doing?"
"You know, we are not like that!" Xu Haotian looked horrified as he covered his chest with both hands.
Qin Lixin looked coldly at him and slapped his coat harshly on his chest while forcing each letter out, "Shut up!"
Before they could say something else, the next they witnessed was their friend heroically stepping on the taffrail and making a huge jump from there into the sea.
"QIN LIXIN!!"
"What the heck!?! What got into you??"
"He really threw himself into the water! What the f***?"
All three of them instantly got to the handrail of the ship and looked down. Their eyes stretched to the best of their width.
"Did he get so tired from his mother that he thought of doing this?" Yang Feiyu posed the last question as he swept his eyes over the dark sea to search for his friend. "Woahh, I couldn't even see the waves forming anywhere. It's as if he had already been engulfed by the sea- SHITT!!!"
"Inform the security team! What if something happened to him?? His mother wouldn't let us live in peace!!!"
As Liang Guohua hurriedly took out his phone from the pocket, his eyes fell to the right side of the port and saw a person struggling, whose white gown was bulged with water and long hair were spread out in the sea. "Watch there!! Is that a girl drowning there?"
Yang Feiyu and Xu Haotian simultaneously turned to the direction their friend pointed at. Noticing something else, Xu Haotian almost cursed. "Watch a little far from that girl, could that be Qin Lixin??"
When Qin Lixin jumped into the sea, he hadn't expected the water to be freezing cold which would instantly make his limbs go numb. After two minutes of warming himself to the temperature, he moved his arms at full speed to get to the girl as soon as he could.
Gladly, he had the experience of swimming in the cold water. Otherwise, someone else might have started hyperventilating the moment they jumped. For the first time, he felt something good coming out of those weird bets and challenges he and his friends used to make.
As he propelled himself forward, the taste of the wine on his tongue was replaced by the cold tingling sensation. He threw out the water that had gone inside his mouth and nose with the eruption of the coughing.
The day couldn't get any worse. He hadn't even imagined that he would be forced to save a girl while putting himself through the pain!
What was he even thinking? He could have just told his guards to jump into the sea.
Crap!
Soon after, he reached the girl and pulled her sinking form into his arms. The pale and anxious face of the girl, who in a reflex held the approached shoulders, had a slight change as she slowly opened her eyes to find a mysterious man holding her body tight.
That face tensed up right when Qin Lixin too felt something off.
Her waist, where he had his hold...why it seemed as if there was a wire tied to it. And just when he thought so, a very croaky-aggressive voice grumbled loudly.
"CUTT-!!!!!"
"WHO IS THEREE? WHO RUINED THE SCENE?" Director Song who was extremely engrossed in the scene and whose body was just about to dance in excitement looking at how good the scene was going got enraged on finding some unwanted person entering the scene.
Even the three friends who had hastened the captain to reach the port within minutes and were hastily running to get to where Qin Lixin was got confused.
"Did I just hear someone speaking through the mic?" Liang Guohua asked with uncertainty.
"Uh- are my ears ringing? I think I heard someone saying cut?" Yang Feiyu cleaned the ear with his finger and tried hearing again.
"Maybe because of the chilly weather, all of us are going through the same side effect." Xu Haotian brought out his theory. He waited for a few more minutes but nobody spoke. "See, I was right! There is no on- Ohh!
"WHO IS THERE? HOW DID SOMEONE ENTER THE SCENE?? WHAT WAS SECURITY DOING???" Director Song went ballistic!