In September Xiamen, the sea breeze carrying a hint of salt swept across Baicheng Beach. Standing on a reef, Lin Xia gazed at dolphins leaping out of the sea in the distance, her memories suddenly pulled back to that same azure afternoon seven years ago. Having just graduated from college back then, she had come here with a camera to work as a travel blogger. On the guesthouse terrace, she met Shen Xinghe for the very first time.
Wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat, Shen Xinghe was intently applying pigments to his easel. Sunlight filtered through his cascading hair, casting a tender shadow across his profile. Lin Xia raised her camera and pressed the shutter, but the man in the lens suddenly turned around. The aloofness in the depths of his gaze was like a thin layer of mist: "Taking pictures of others without permission is impolite."
Blushing, she apologized, yet was drawn to the painting on his easel. It was an unfinished seascape where shattered mirrors floated on a deep blue sea, reflecting an eerie light. "Is this... a depressed ocean?" she blurted out. Shen Xinghe's hand holding the brush paused as he truly looked at the girl with the topknot before him for the first time.
Chapter 199