"I still want to collect seashells..."
After sunset, the beach playground closed, and Qiu Wuji reluctantly clutched a handful of seashells.
"Why does the beach have to close?" the old lady asked, puzzled.
"The risk of accidents increases at night. If someone accidentally gets swept into the sea, or swims too far because they've eaten too much, rescuers might not be able to find them in time, and the rescue becomes more difficult... Closing is reasonable." Chu Ge looked at her adorable expression and wanted to laugh. She had seemed uninterested in anything before, but in the end, she did no different things than children, even her reluctance to leave while collecting seashells was no different.
What happened to being calm and collected?
"What's the point of all these seashells...?" Chu Ge had plenty of experience with this. He used to collect them like crazy when he was a kid, accumulating piles only to find they were unsightly and had nowhere to go, so he always ended up throwing them all away...
Qiu Wuji guessed what he was thinking and grumbled, "The seashells I collect are special! They're not what you think!"
Chu Ge realized, "Could they have some kind of spiritual energy?"
"Yes, I picked out the ones with even a tiny bit of spiritual energy," Qiu Wuji said. "There must be treasures in the underwater world. I'll go down and explore tonight."
Chu Ge's first reaction was worry: "Your clone, diving into the deep sea, especially at night... isn't that dangerous?"
His second reaction was a silent scoff. If he was going to go out to sea to find real treasures, wouldn't these broken seashells with a little bit of spiritual energy just be a waste of time?
"Never mind, I dare not say it. I'll get a beating if I do."
Qiu Wuji was indeed satisfied with his concerns, smiling as he said, "We'll see. This isn't the deep sea, so it shouldn't be a big problem. If I really felt it wouldn't work, I wouldn't have been so reckless. You just weren't lucky enough to have it."
Chu Ge said, "If there are monsters in the sea, why are so many people playing on this beach..."
"So it's probably not a monster, just an object," Qiu Wuji said. "Most likely a rock, a bead, or something like that, hidden in the seabed mud... I've seen plenty of these kinds of encounters."
Chu Ge thought for a moment, "Since humans have superpowers, what if animals become spirits? Logically, that's not allowed after the founding of the People's Republic of China..."
Qiu Wuji: "?"
"Ahem, it's nothing." Chu Ge pondered that human superpowers couldn't mutate people, so it wasn't the concept of becoming a demon. Even if a fish could attack someone through a net, that wouldn't be a significant phenomenon. Monsters probably don't exist.
But if there really is a place with extremely rich spiritual energy and few human settlements, then it's hard to say.
But at least in such a human-friendly residential area, monsters are unlikely to appear; they should have been eliminated long ago, so no one has ever heard of them… Mom and her colleagues aren't just sitting around doing nothing; otherwise, why would they be so busy that they don't have time to come home?
Thinking this through, Chu Ge suddenly felt a little proud. It turns out his parents are guardian angels.
"Sigh..." Chu Ge stretched. "I thought I'd be able to fight monsters like Ultraman after cultivating, but in the end, I'm just chatting and joking online. Even when I take beautiful women out, I haven't seen any fights or being hit on. It makes me wonder if the beauties around me aren't charming enough..." Qiu Wuji's eyes flashed dangerously. "You want to find someone else, right?"
Chu Ge: "..."
"Where do you get so many bullies who publicly harass women these days? Do you think this is your book, where the protagonist gets into trouble every time a woman is eyeing him?" Qiu Wuji sneered. "There was a handsome man who was just harassed, quite the lucky guy."
Chu Ge said, "So tell me, why is it that when a man harasses a woman, he's a bully, but when a woman harasses a man, she's lucky?"
Qiu Wuji stroked his chin, deep in thought. This seemed like a philosophical question.
But the result was pretty much the same: the man gets beaten up, and so does the woman! If that woman hadn't known better, she would have been beaten to a pulp!
She huffed, "Where are you going to go if you just keep walking like this? Looking for that woman from earlier?"
Chu Ge said helplessly, "To eat. It's getting dark, you might not be hungry, but I am."
"Oh... what are you going to eat?"
"Since we're at the seaside, seafood is the obvious choice."
Chu Ge didn't know if seafood was eaten the same way in Nanjiang as in other places, but it was very different from Japanese seafood. Raw fish was rare; most dishes were cooked, with light preparations like blanching or steaming. Fish, shrimp, and crab were dipped in prepared sauces, melting in your mouth with a delicate, exquisite flavor.
It's a pity it's expensive. Even though they live in a coastal city, they rarely eat it. Qiu Wuji had been here for so long and had never eaten seafood... Oh, he'd bought what were supposedly sea fish at the market and fried them, did that count?
Qiu Wuji had never eaten seafood in his previous world either... When his cultivation was low, he didn't go to the seaside to eat; when his cultivation was high, he practiced fasting and mainly consumed elixirs and herbs, never touching ordinary food. This was his first time eating seafood, and the old lady ate it with her mouth full of sauce, her face glowing. "Delicious, this is delicious! Chu Ge, eat this... What kind of shrimp is this?"
"We call this mantis shrimp, but they call it 'pipi shrimp' outside... I haven't written these things over there, but logically, they've naturally derived from them."
"I've heard of 'pipi shrimp,' it seems to describe someone as mischievous."
"Haha, that's where the name comes from."
"This boiled shrimp is delicious, I'll get some later... It's just hard to peel, but that's no problem for me." Qiu Wuji used her magic, placing a whole shrimp on Chu Ge's plate: "Eat this, eat this." Seeing her enthusiastic expression, Chu Ge felt a warm sense of satisfaction.
That's good.
He put the shrimp back on the plate for Qiu Wuji: "Eat more if you like, I've eaten these before."
Qiu Wuji looked up at him, her mouth still moving as she ate the shrimp.
There was still some sauce on her lips.
Chu Ge instinctively grabbed a tissue and reached out to wipe the sauce from her lips.
Qiu Wuji continued watching him, her lips moving slightly, but she didn't move away, letting him wipe her face.
A little girl at the nearby table took out her phone and snapped a picture. She was filled with envy, thinking the scene was beautiful.
Qiu Wuji, who used to use magic to disable cameras when secretly photographed, didn't stop him this time. She simply turned to the little girl taking the picture and said, "Send me a picture of what just happened."
The little girl, a little nervous at the sight of the person being photographed speaking, breathed a sigh of relief: "Sister, you two have such a good relationship."
Qiu Wuji glanced at Chu Ge, her face hardening.
Chu Ge smiled but didn't speak.
The little girl sent the photo and cautiously asked, "Can I post it on Weibo?"
Qiu Wuji looked at her profile in the photo, and Chu Ge's gentle actions and expressions, lost in thought for a moment, then suddenly chuckled: "Sure."
I'm no longer someone without a status, needing to hide. Even if the whole world sees my picture, so what?
The only downside was the possibility of everyone misunderstanding their relationship… Oh well, it wasn't the first or second time someone's been misunderstood.
The girl happily posted on Weibo, also scolding her boyfriend: "He doesn't even wipe my mouth!" Her boyfriend, caught in the crossfire, muttered, "That guy's got ulterior motives. Wiping my mouth now, he'll shove it when we get back…"
The girl didn't hear him clearly, but Chu Ge and Qiu Wuji did.
Neither of them were angry. Qiu Wuji chuckled instead: "Do all men say the same things behind my back?"
Chu Ge remembered the last time he mentioned cotton candy balloons and smiled, "Maybe."
Qiu Wuji smiled slightly. Repeated similar situations didn't necessarily prove that all men say the same things behind someone's back; rather, they proved that other girls thought Chu Ge was great and envied her.
Qiu Wuji had never been envied for anything like this in her life. People always envied her only for how strong she was.
But experiencing it several times in the modern world was a strange feeling.
A strange sense of smugness crept into her expression.
She regained her elegant composure, slowly peeling a crab: "There should still be staff cleaning the beach. When would be a good time for us to go?"
Chu Ge said, "Let's wait until everyone's asleep. Even if someone's on night watch, it'll be easier to avoid them."
"Where do we go after dinner? And how do we get back..." Qiu Wuji was starting to understand: "The bus doesn't have night shifts, right?"
Chu Ge blinked, meeting Qiu Wuji's questioning gaze.
After a full three seconds of silence, she slowly said, "Of course, we'll stay at a hotel."
Her voice wasn't lowered, and the man and woman next to her heard her. The man blurted out, "See, see, I guessed right! What good intentions can a man possibly have!"