My Chongxi Husband Is Faking His Coma novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Sea

Lin Zhi saw the sea at six in the morning.

He stood in the doorway of a white bungalow on a beach in Hainan, with his bare feet on warm wood.

He stood there for a long time.

It was grey at the edges and silver in the middle, and it kept moving, and it did not stop.

"It's very big," he said.

"Yes."

"I thought it would be, I don't know. Tidier."

"It has tides," said Zhaoran, behind him. "They aren't tidy."

Lin Zhi laughed, and then, to his own surprise, did not.

He put his hand over his mouth.

"I'm fine," he said, muffled. "It's the salt."

"I know."

They went down the sand together.

Zhaoran wore rolled trousers.

Lin Zhi wore a shirt he had bought at the airport, which had parrots on it.

The first wave ran up the beach and wet their ankles.

Lin Zhi shrieked.

"It's cold!" said Lin Zhi.

"It's twenty-eight degrees," said Zhaoran.

"It's cold for something that big!"

Zhaoran took his hand.

He walked him in slowly, to the knees, to the thighs.

The water pulled at their legs, and the sun came up pink behind the headland.

Lin Zhi clung to his arm with both hands, rigid.

"Don't let go," said Lin Zhi.

"Never," said Zhaoran.

"I mean in the water. Don't let go in the water."

"I mean in the water too," said Zhaoran.

He stood behind him, with his arms around his waist and his chin on his shoulder.

He held him up in the shallows while the swell lifted them gently and set them down.

After a while, Lin Zhi stopped being rigid.

He leaned back.

"This is page one," he said, to the sky.

"Page one," said Zhaoran.

"I want to say something very stupid."

"Please," said Zhaoran.

"I'm so happy I could die."

"Don't," said Zhaoran. "I've only just got you."

Pei Wen arrived at nine, by taxi, with two suitcases and a sunhat.

"I'm not here," he said, from behind a palm tree.

"I'm staying at the hotel down the road. I'm only here for the bags and the schedule."

"And to tell you your grandmother has asked for photographs, a postcard, and a conch shell."

"A conch shell," said Zhaoran.

"A big one," said Pei Wen.

"I'll find a big one," said Zhaoran.

In the afternoon, he made dinner.

It was the first time Lin Zhi had seen him near a stove since the villa.

He sat on the counter and watched anxiously.

Zhaoran cooked as he did everything else, with enormous concentration and no flair.

He cut the scallions into perfectly even rounds.

He made congee, and a fried egg with lacy edges, and put them in front of Lin Zhi with a pair of chopsticks.

"You didn't have to," said Lin Zhi.

"I know."

"I'll owe you."

"No," said Zhaoran. "That's the point. Eat."

Lin Zhi ate the whole bowl.

It was a little salty, and a little thick.

He could not remember eating anything that had tasted so much of being looked after.

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