CH 41

“Did everyone go down with a buddy?” Yan Suizhi, gazing at the once again calm sea surface, asked out of the blue.

“Mn. None of them went down alone,” Gu Yan said. “This isn’t their first time diving. Joe had also arranged instructors for them.” 

He kept typing on the holographic projected keyboard to reply to various work emails. During which, he didn’t even look up more than a couple of times, yet he still took notice of various things.

It was much safer to have an instructor along. As such, Yan Suizhi relaxed. “I was actually quite tempted to say earlier that it’d be better for Jason Charles to stay onshore, but that would have been too much of a buzzkill.”

Jason Charles was the man who yelled that it was too hot and wanted to go nude earlier, after which was made fun of by the others because of his belly.

The tapping on the keyboard paused. Gu Yan raised his gaze. “If memory serves me right, I don’t seem to have introduced you to him by name.” 

Wasn’t a certain someone being a little too careless?

But Yan Suizhi didn’t stumble at all. He shrugged very naturally. “Outstanding people have the right to be known. His courtroom style is wonderful, I admire him greatly.”

Gu Yan, “…”

“But I would never have expected that he’d have such a good relationship with you.” The esteemed Professor Yan never bat an eyelid when pulling nonsense from thin air, nor did it burden him in the slightest. As a result, when he finished speaking and lifted his head, he saw that Lawyer Gu wasn’t even typing anymore. He just kept looking at him in that way, the expression on his face reading ‘I’ll just quietly watch you keep praising.’

“Is something the matter?” Yan Suizhi’s eyes crinkled.

Gu Yan watched him for several seconds. Then, he averted his gaze, continuing to type on his keyboard and speaking in a very calm tone. “Nothing much. I’ll help to pass your words on to Jason.”

The mirth in Yan Suizhi’s eyes deepened. This reminded him of how in school, when the professor praised a particular student, the other students who didn’t get praised would feel a tad disappointed. He defined this as the little conniving thoughts between young students.

He felt that the current Gu Yan could be having a little bit of this type of feeling. And for some reason, it really tickled him that such a thing would manifest in Gu Yan, perhaps because such thoughts were exceptionally incompatible with the characteristically calm and indifferent facade that Gu Yan wore. 

Yan Suizhi admired it for a moment before appeasing, “You’re amazing too, it’s a great honour to be your intern.”

Nonsense spewed out his open mouth with alacrity.

Gu Yan’s entire face turned even more paralysed hearing it.

For Lawyer Gu, these words could give him slight indigestion. He went mute for a good while, then turned back to continue the previous topic, “Jason put on a little weight in the last couple of years. But Joe got fitting gear for him, so it shouldn’t be a problem for him to dive.” 

Whatever nonsense of ‘admire you, respect you, you’re amazing’ was selectively deleted from his brain.

At around two o’clock, Uncle Chang had wine and refreshments served as instructed, most of which were placed on a white table prepared on the beach for those coming up from the dive to enjoy at any time. There were also two separate portions delivered to Gu Yan and Yan Suizhi.

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Those men walked towards the shore, spitting out their regulators and taking off the gear covering their faces, smiling at Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan. “You’re really not going down to have fun? It feels great!”

Yan Suizhi swept a look over. Jason Charles’ physique was very striking amongst them; the diving suit prominently outlined the various curves all over his body that shouldn’t be there. But it was obvious that the size of the gear that Joe had prepared for him did fit him well, and it wasn’t uncomfortably tight.

Gu Yan scanned an eye over Jason’s impressive body shape, saying, “If you keep indulging yourself, next year when Laura and the rest go diving, you’ll be held down to the shore.” 

Jason huffily waved the tube of his regulator. “Don’t worry, I won’t grow any fatter.”

The other two onshore were Joe’s childhood friends. One was named George Manson, and the other was named Zhao Zemu. The former was obviously an exercise junkie. The curves of his musculature were smooth yet not overly rugged. The latter, on the other hand, was very thin. He was likely the leanest of all the men on the island today.

Even Ke Jin, who had a pathological condition, was a little better than him.

The instructor accompanying their dive had also come back to shore with them. 

While there weren’t currently any ladies on shore, the group struggled out of their gear and tight diving suits as they walked, stripping down to a pair of close-fitting swim trunks, then strutting to the small building ahead to rinse themselves off.

The diving suits and gear were tossed into small mounds on the shore near where Ke Jin was resting. Ke Jin’s reaction was a little belated. It took a long time before he slowly lowered his head, gazing at the piles of gear not far off from him. He seemed to look at them with slight interest, or possibly, just looking for another spot to fixate on and daydream.

“I’m going back to the villa for a while.” Gu Yan finished clearing the emails on his smartphone and, after informing Yan Suizhi, got up to head back.

The afternoon sun shifted. Not much later, it moved to an angle that directly hit Yan Suizhi’s eyes. He squinted and raised his arm to block the rays, then decided to go back and find a pair of sunglasses. 

But he had only walked back a few steps when he bumped into Uncle Chang.

“Are you looking for sunglasses? Come with me.” Uncle Chang took him to pick out a pair of sunglasses. Before he left, he thought of helping Gu Yan take a pair too.

Uncle Chang ended up simply bringing the whole box out, following Yan Suizhi back to the beach.

Jason Charles and the few others, who had gone off to shower, had now returned to the shore and were standing around the table with their chilled wine, chatting. 

“Gentlemen, the sunlight is dazzling. I’ve brought sunglasses over,” Uncle Chang said.

“Thank you, you’re too thoughtful,” Jason Charles said. “But we’re going back underwater in a while, so we won’t need them for now.”

Zhao Zemu cracked a joke. “I won’t need them either. I’ve night blindness.”

George Manson grumbled, “That joke really froze me up.” 

The others all laughed. Zhao Zemu shrugged innocently as he sipped his chilled wine, “Just the thing to cool you guys down. But I really do have night blindness.”

As Yan Suizhi walked past them, George Manson suddenly glanced his way, holding a glass in his hand. A hint of inquisitiveness appeared in his gaze.

“Have I seen you somewhere before?” George Manson raised his glass at him.

Yan Suizhi also raised it back at him from a distance off. “Yeah. We just met ten minutes ago when you came to shore.” 

Everyone roared with laughter.

George Manson also chuckled, saying, “You’re pretty amusing. What I mean is, have we met before?”

He directly made his way over with his glass. “Just now when you stood with your back against the sea, I felt a little deja vu.”

Yan Suizhi, “That’s a pity. I seldom go to the beach.” 

George Manson shrugged. “Forget it then, don’t mind me. It was only for a brief moment earlier; I suspect that it was only the scene that looked familiar to me. Now that I’ve walked closer, I don’t sense it anymore.”

After they rested for a while, they quickly walked over to the mounds of gear they had each divested and re-donned their diving gear.

“It’s much tougher than before to put back on after taking it off,” Jason Charles complained.

“Probably because you’re sweating so much, I guess.” George Manson said, “I think it’s fine.” 

In his gear, Jason Charles had already worked up a headful of sweat, feeling so hot that his face had steamed slightly red. Yan Suizhi had just finished eating a cheese cracker. When he turned over and saw the flushed complexion of his face, Yan Suizhi’s eyebrows drew together.

He was just about to call out to Charles when he saw that the other man had already dived headfirst into the sea, stuffing a regulator mouthpiece into his mouth as he swam towards the dive boat floating in the distance. From the looks of it, he wasn’t faring too badly.

Yan Suizhi frowned as he watched those people get on the boat. The diving instructor said something to Charles and adjusted his gear for him in passing, after which each of them went underwater one after another.

There was an instructor, whatever was he worrying for… 

He dropped his gaze. While Gu Yan’s deck chair remained empty, he reached out and took a glass of chilled wine from the nearby counter. A sip should be quite pleasant in this environment.

However, just as his fingers gripped the stem of the glass, Gu Yan’s hand swooped down from the sky and plucked the glass of chilled wine out of his hand, setting it aside and conveniently stuffing a cheese cracker into Yan Suizhi’s now empty hand instead.

Yan Suizhi, “…”

The corners of his mouth twitched as he turned over. At some point in time, Gu Yan had stood behind him, and was now patronisingly looking down at him askance. He said coolly, “I’ve a responsibility to ensure that my intern doesn’t get drunk on a business trip.” 

“…”

As the two of them stared each other down, Joe’s voice carried over the sound of water.

“Since when have you started minding others?”

Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan looked towards the voice. Young Master Joe dropped the gear he had taken off onto the soft sand, raising his hand to comb his dripping wet hair back as he walked towards the shore. 

He bent down and shook his head, flinging off the water droplets from his hair. He spoke to Gu Yan from a short distance away. “Didn’t you never care about what other people did before? Why have you suddenly changed? I heard you refusing to let your intern drink as soon as I came back to shore.”

Gu Yan didn’t bother to answer him. He simply raised his hand and pointed at Ke Jin.

Young Master Joe followed his finger and looked over.

Actually, Ke Jin wasn’t doing anything; he wasn’t even making a sound. But with just one look in that direction, Joe bounded over like a frisbee flung, tossing his question to Gu Yan wholly to the back of his mind. 

With a mere offhand mention, Lawyer Gu casually subdued others with the effort it took to blow dust, neatly extricating himself out of a fight.

While the atmosphere on the shore was harmonious, a man struggled in the sea in panic.

Jason Charles initially thought that he shouldn’t have a problem diving today, but little did he expect that the deeper he went, the more the pressure mounted on his body. His chest grew increasingly stuffier, feeling so tight that his limbs were uncoordinated. He could hardly breathe.

This bodily reaction was a little overboard. This wasn’t something that should happen on a normal dive. 

At this point, the first blunder he made was instinctively gasping for breath. But breathing too quickly in this situation was a grievous mistake; doing so would not ease the stuffiness in his chest.

When the discomfort passed a certain threshold, he began to struggle, trying to pull at the diving suit on his chest to relieve the tension.

But his overly agitated movements were, likewise, a grievous mistake.

It was only at this time that his brain, short on oxygen, sluggishly responded—it seemed, the size of the diving suit he was wearing wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t the one that fitted him.