Chapter 89: Drunk to the Eyes

I arrived in Sanya, so seafood was a must. After washing up at the hotel, it was almost dark outside. So I called up Xiao Gang and took the elevator down with Zhang Qi.

After meeting up with Xiao Gang and his wife in the elevator lobby, we immediately walked to the gate of the residential compound, took a bus, and after much effort finally found the legendary Chunyuan Seafood Plaza. This was a seafood market that's been hyped up by tourists from other places. Seafood sales and processing were completely separate, with dozens of seafood processing shops lined up in a small area. They had no names, only serial numbers in rows, like the one we were at "Row 9, Stall 2".

Seafood prices were incredibly high, but since we were already in the lion's den, no matter how expensive, we had to steel ourselves and eat them. We casually ordered some things, watching one hundred-yuan bills after another flow into other people's pockets, and then we began a long wait. The food came slowly, and by the time we finished eating it was already nine o'clock. But everyone was still not full, so in a bind we had to run to a nearby street stall for some midnight snacks.

Back at the lodging, Zhang Qi and I bought a few bottles of beer and some side dishes to go with it from the supermarket downstairs, then sat on the balcony of our room, enjoying the sea breeze and chatting until it was late at night.

Zhang Qi yawned and went to bed first, while I continued drinking alone on the balcony, a bitter taste gradually spreading in my heart.

Lifting my head, quietly gazing at the beautiful starry sky, I easily found the brightest star.

Little fool, are you thinking of me again? I tightly closed my eyes, letting the sea breeze caress my cheeks, as if someone was beside me, gently wiping away the tears streaming down my face with their fingers.

Lele, is it you? Or is all of this just a dream?

The phone was playing Jiang Meiqin's song "Dear, why aren't you by my side?" Being right there, there was suddenly an inexplicable feeling in my heart...

The next day, the arrangement was scuba diving at Dadonghai. Thanks to Uncle Candi, we got to dive for free. The car passed through some bumpy dirt roads and came to the entrance of a large-scale diving club. Uncle Candi chatted with someone at the diving consultation desk for a while, then handed us over to a staff member standing nearby.

Uncle Candi was from Hainan himself, so there was no need for him to join in the fun, and Xiao Gang couldn't swim, so he hadn't wanted to go, but under our repeated persuasion, he finally decided to dive with gritted teeth.

Each of us was given a locker, and after putting our things away, I took my swim trunks and went straight to the changing room. After coming out, the staff took us to get our diving suits.

Dozens of diving suits were all piled up in a heap outside the changing room. With the help of the staff, we successively put on thick diving suits and diving shoes. Without zipping them up, we just carried the heavy clothes and waddled forward like penguins. Soon a coach came over to train us on the most basic diving knowledge, mainly some hand signals commonly used underwater: the thumb represented direction, one circle plus three upright fingers meant OK, and waving the hand flat left and right meant discomfort.

After the training, we were herded onto a small boat like ducks, and the boat took us to a diving platform not far from the shore. There were already quite a few people waiting to dive there. Among this group, I even saw a young boy around ten years old.

The staff fastened a lead weight belt around our waists, then had us sit on chairs and wait in line.

After about half an hour, it was finally my turn to go into the water. After going in, the coach put a device with an oxygen tank on me and then put a mask on my eyes. We first did some basic training on the surface, and once I confirmed I could breathe through the mask, the coach took me down.

At first I thought it was just practicing, but I didn't expect it to start so quickly. A wave of unexplained tension combined with the pressure of the seawater made me almost choke. Luckily I knew how to swim, and after a while I got used to it and gradually understood the trick of breathing through my mouth.

Before my eyes was nothing but blue seawater, very murky and foggy, I couldn't see the end, then I saw the reef not far away. The deeper I went, more fish appeared around us.

The water was very still, I could only hear my own heavy breathing, I never knew my breathing could be so loud. As depth increased, my ears finally couldn't take it, so I didn't dare to push it, I immediately reached out and waved left and right, the coach pulled me up slowly to the surface.

Back on the surface, it felt like waking up from a dream. After a while, Xiao Gang and Zhang Qi also came up, everyone on the platform described in detail the various situations encountered during the dive, then rested for a bit, and only then reluctantly boarded the small boat back to the shore.

At noon, Uncle Candi treated us, taking us to eat authentic Hainan cuisine. After lunch, Zhang Qi said he was going to Danzhou to find a classmate, so Uncle Candi first drove around to drop Zhang Qi at the station, then took us to Yalong Bay, the last stop of this trip to Sanya.

Following Candi, we sneaked into Yalong Bay through a hidden small path without spending a single cent.

Only after personally seeing Yalong Bay would one know what real sea was like. Strolling on the beach, it seemed like walking into a dream. The sand was white as snow, fine as dust, soft as cotton, and the seawater was even clearer and bluer, with very high visibility, intertwined with the vast sunny sky, hard to separate, as if the whole person was placed in this blue world.

Soaking in the seawater as transparent as a swimming pool, it felt incredibly good, and suddenly some reluctance to leave...

I slept until dawn, woke up in the morning, the room was empty, silently packed my luggage, checked out of the hotel, then took a bus straight to the station.

Xiao Gang still had a few more days to accompany Candi in Sanya, while today I was going to meet Zhang Qi in Wenchang, where there was Zhu Yi from the school who rented a house with us on the student street.

The ticket I bought was for the 11 o'clock bus, and there was still time, so I wandered around the pedestrian street near the station and then walked into a McDonald's restaurant.

It was already evening when we arrived in Wenchang. Zhu Yi decided to take me and Zhang Qi for a stroll along the beach, and he also brought some local friends along.

Just yesterday we had been to Yalong Bay, so looking at Wenchang's sea, it didn't feel as good. But there were quite a few barbecue stalls on the beach, so we casually ordered some grilled skewers, and someone bought a coconut, while eating and discussing the evening plans.

After discussing for a long time without reaching a conclusion, we finally decided to go shopping. But a bunch of big men shopping is never very interesting, and soon everyone felt bored.

We rested briefly at the hotel, Zhang Qi suggested going to a bar to drink.

So, with Zhu Yi's friend driving, the group swept towards a famous open-air bar in the area. With the Olympics approaching, there were Olympic flags hanging everywhere in the bar, filled with festive atmosphere. In the center of the stage, a beauty was singing that classic song "Poisonous Fragrance", and the passionate performance won thunderous applause from below.

We sat down in the long corridor in the corner. Perhaps because the atmosphere was good, everyone drank heartily. I unknowingly drank a lot, probably to the limit, and even forgot how I got back to the hotel in the end.

The next day when I woke up, my head was throbbing with pain, my memory was a blur, and I couldn't remember anything about yesterday's drinking. When I got up and saw the mess all over the floor beside the bed, I vaguely remembered that last night I had thrown up.

I wearily walked into the bathroom, splashed cold water on my face, and felt a bit better.

We were taking the 1:30 PM flight back to Xiamen, but it was still before 10 o'clock, yet Zhu Yi had already ordered lunch for us at the hotel restaurant. Not having much appetite, I just ordered a bowl of century egg and pork congee, and managed to drink a few sips. Once the hot porridge went down, I no longer felt as nauseous as before.

After lunch, and with time almost up, Zhu Yi hailed a taxi in front of the hotel and accompanied us to Haikou Airport. In the departure hall at the airport, we said goodbye to Zhu Yi, then changed our boarding passes, dragged our luggage, and lined up behind the long security queue.

Probably due to mild alcohol poisoning, the whole person felt like falling apart, anyway quite uncomfortable. After struggling through security, the moment I got on the plane I immediately leaned back in the seat and fell asleep, not even touching a bite of the in-flight food I loved most.

Upon arriving in Xiamen, I unfortunately encountered the evening rush hour, and the traffic was a mess. Just taking the bus from the airport to the station took over an hour...

Zhang Qi's car left half an hour earlier than mine. After dropping off Zhang Qi, I called my mom to tell her about the approximate time I would arrive home, then sent a text message to Candi, telling her we were safe all the way.

After finishing all that, my car was almost there too.

It was already after 9 PM when I got home. After hurriedly showering, I immediately climbed into bed to sleep.

(Chapter modified on 2010.10.16)