ITF Chapter77

Once his vision was blocked by the black cloth, his sense of time became blurred.

Chen Qiao sat with Bai Heting at the stern of the boat, occasionally making small talk with him during the tedious voyage. However, it was mostly just him talking and Bai Heting listening.

From his sporadic self-narrative, Bai Heting learned a bit about his family affairs.

Chen Qiao was already past thirty this year but had never married. His parents had been dead for over a decade, and he had a twenty-year-old younger brother at home who was an Alpha with top-tier pheromones.

Perhaps finding it dull to talk by himself, or perhaps just getting tired of speaking, Chen Qiao fell silent after finishing these thoughts until a large wave slapped over the bow, prompting him to speak again.

“To be honest, I didn’t expect Luo Congye to let you go.” The cool seawater splashed all over the two of them. Chen Qiao shifted to a slightly drier spot to sit down and said straightforwardly, “But this decision of his is correct. We have no place for you here.”

Bai Heting agreed with his statement. Only, it wasn’t just with them; on the other side of the ocean, there had long been no place for him either.

Chen Qiao stared at the expressionless lower half of his face and fell silent for a moment. Just as the rumors said, this man possessed a heart of stone; there were probably very few things in the world that could move him. Another wave rolled in, and he ran a hand through his wet hair before saying to Bai Heting, “Don’t sit there anymore, it’s all soaked.”

Even though his entire body was drenched by the seawater, Bai Heting still maintained his upright sitting posture. With his hands tied behind his back, his body did not move an inch as he said indifferently, “It’s fine.”

“Ah, I forgot you can’t see.” Chen Qiao stood up, finding his balance on the slightly swaying hull, and stretched a hand out toward Bai Heting, “Let me help you up.”

Bai Heting leaned his body to the side. Though blindfolded, he still accurately dodged the hand reaching toward him. Chen Qiao turned his head to exchange a glance with the other three men, only to see their expressions suddenly change as one of them shouted, “Watch out!”

Before Chen Qiao could even react, his vision spun wildly in an instant as he was grabbed by the front collar of his shirt and shoved flat onto his back against the boat by Bai Heting.

This sudden turn of events caused the sailboat to lose its balance entirely, rocking precariously as if about to capsize. Yet the dagger in Bai Heting’s hand was as steady as if he were on solid ground, and as precise as if he were not blindfolded at all.

The tip of the dagger finally stopped less than a finger’s width away from the skin, practically pressed against Chen Qiao’s throat. None of the four men had expected Bai Heting to be this alert, let alone that he would have a weapon on him. However, this split-second pause was enough for them to react. One of them lunged forward, seizing Bai Heting by the back of his collar and yanking him up. Taking advantage of his unsteady footing and the violent rocking of the boat, he shoved him straight into the sea.

Accompanied by the heavy splash of a body plunging into the water, the boat rocked even more violently. The man wiped a cold sweat from his forehead, looked down at the several severed pieces of hemp rope, and asked with lingering panic, “How did he have a dagger? Didn’t they say he didn’t have any weapons on him?”

Chen Qiao felt his throat, which had just narrowly escaped disaster, and threw those severed pieces of hemp rope into the sea before standing up by leaning on the other man’s arm.

“It’s fine. A person’s physical strength has its limits; he won’t be able to hold out for long.” Standing at the stern of the boat, he gazed out at the tiny figure drifting with the waves in the middle of the vast ocean, closing his eyes to let out a long, slow sigh.

Yet his chest was once again engulfed by a profound sense of melancholy.

His younger brother, who had possessed a limitless future and had been the exact same age as Luo Congye, would have been twenty-three this year—if only he hadn’t participated in that rescue operation in the capital three years ago.

*

The moment he splashed flat on his back into the sea, a piercing buzzing sound instantly consumed all of Bai Heting’s hearing. He thrashed around a few times in the water, doing his best to find his balance so that he could float upright, and raised a hand to rip away the black cloth blindfolding his eyes.

The brilliant glare of the sun forced him to close his eyes immediately. By the time his vision and hearing slowly recovered, that small sailboat had already pulled a considerable distance away from him. The midday sun beat straight down overhead, and as he floated in the middle of the boundless ocean, a fragment of a childhood memory that had long been lost suddenly flooded into his mind.

This was not his first time falling into the water in such a manner.

It must have been a lake, or perhaps a wild river. He was still very young at the time and didn’t know how to swim; he had struggled fruitlessly in the water for a long time, eventually losing all of his strength.

Luo Wanyin had stood on the shore watching him without a word.

His expression back then was exactly the same as that of the man currently standing at the stern of the boat. Indifferent, detached, and seemingly spent; yet within that exhaustion, there was a faint hint of relief.

As if he had been liberated from some sort of nightmare.

But on that occasion, Bai Heting had still survived. When he regained consciousness, he found himself lying flat on his back on the shore, with Luo Wanyin sitting right beside him. This beautiful Omega was drenched from head to toe in water. Perhaps from the biting cold, his body trembled uncontrollably, the corners of his eyes and the tip of his nose tinged with a deep red.

Bai Heting had reached out to take his hand, but Luo Wanyin jerked his hand behind his back, refusing to let him touch him. Seemingly realizing his gaffe, he wiped his face with the back of his hand, stood up as if nothing had happened, and walked away first.

As time slipped away silently, Bai Heting gazed at the departing silhouette of Luo Wanyin walking away alone, and his consciousness gradually began to sink into this limitless sea.

So, Luo Wanyin had held him before, he thought.

His body, much like his blurred and dissipating consciousness, continued to sink lower and lower into the unfathomable depths of the seawater.

Yet that hand, which had once flinched away in panic, chased after him now.

Luo Wanyin caught his hand within this endless, downward plunge.

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