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Chapter 89: Flirt and Sleep
Chapter 89: Flirt and Sleep
Zhou Chenglei quietly closed the book and glanced at Jiang Xia, who was diligently translating at the desk.
He stood up without a word, hiding the book and replacing it with another. However, this one didn’t capture his interest as much.
Jiang Xia had been translating from seven in the evening until half past eleven. The mosquito coil had burned out, and she had only managed to translate a quarter of the book. This was despite the fact that she had read both the original and the translation before.
She turned around and saw Zhou Chenglei sitting on the edge of the bed, holding an English book and looking lost in thought.
He gets lost in thought too? Jiang Xia found this a bit surprising.
“What are you thinking about? Why aren’t you sleeping?”
Jiang Xia glanced at the watch on the table, realizing it was already half past eleven.
Zhou Chenglei snapped out of his daze and replied calmly, “I was reading, but there were some parts I didn’t understand.”
Zhou Chenglei knew a bit of foreign languages. He had suffered from language barriers in the past, almost causing a mission to fail. Being the type of person who liked to control everything and avoid the unpredictable, he had learned English, Russian, Korean, and Vietnamese over the years.
He wasn’t fluent, but he could generally manage basic reading, speaking, and guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words. Writing, however, was a different story. He could only manage to write down the gist of things.
Some of his superiors even joked that he was a diplomat who had been sidetracked into the military.
“Which part?” Jiang Xia stood up and walked over to him, but her knee accidentally hit the table leg. Her leg went numb and hurt, and she gasped, “Ouch!”
She bent down to rub her knee. Sitting for so long had made her legs go numb, and the sudden collision only made it worse!
Zhou Chenglei quickly put down the book, stood up, and walked over to her, squatting down and touching her knee. “Did you hurt yourself? Let me see.”
Jiang Xia replied, “No, just a bit numb.”
Hearing this, Zhou Chenglei began to massage her knee until she said, “It’s fine now, not numb anymore. Let’s go to sleep. We have to set sail tomorrow.”
They hadn’t been out to sea for several days, and she was eager to earn more money to buy a boat.
Zhou Chenglei stood up and lifted her into his arms, carrying her to the bed.
Their eyes met, and even though they were already very close, Jiang Xia’s heart still pounded.
Zhou Chenglei slowly leaned down, but Jiang Xia thought about how early they needed to wake up the next morning. It was almost midnight.
She turned her head away and pushed him gently, “It’s too late. We have to set sail tomorrow. Let’s go to sleep early, okay? I’m tired.”
Zhou Chenglei paused, then buried his head in her neck. “You can rest at home tomorrow. I’ll go out to sea. How about that?”
“Not a chance.” Jiang Xia refused.
If he spent an hour on foreplay, he wouldn’t get any sleep tonight. He would be out at sea all day tomorrow, and fishing was a physically demanding job. He wouldn’t be able to handle it without a good night’s sleep.
Zhou Chenglei didn’t say anything for a moment, then he softly agreed. He got up, checked the mosquito net for any mosquitoes, turned off the light, and climbed back into bed. “Sleep well.”
Jiang Xia turned on her side, wrapping her arms and legs around him, resting her head on his arm. “It’s a bit hot.”
Feeling her closeness, Zhou Chenglei’s pent-up frustration and jealousy began to dissipate.
He picked up the large fan and gently fanned her, even kissing her forehead.
Jiang Xia, resting her head on his strong arm, kissed his chin and pinched his earlobe. “Remind me tomorrow not to translate until this late.”
Her fingertips brushing his ear sent a shiver down his spine, and he tightened his grip on her. “Go to sleep.”
He knew she was playing with him!
Jiang Xia, satisfied with her little act, fell asleep peacefully.
Zhou Chenglei, however, took a while to calm down. He looked at the person snuggled up to him, softly snoring. As he watched, a sense of peace washed over him.
He couldn’t resist leaning down to kiss her, then kissed her again, and again, losing count of how many times. Finally, he put down the fan, closed his eyes, and tightened his hold on her waist, quickly falling asleep.
The next day, around four in the morning, the couple set out to sea.
This time, Jiang Xia didn't fish. She wore a headlamp and sat in a corner, using the bottom of an inverted large bucket as a table. She laid a clean cloth on it and began translating.
While Jiang Xia translated, Zhou Chenglei fished, and Zhou's father steered the boat.
Zhou's father felt a sense of relief seeing the couple, one fishing and the other translating. He had already heard from Jiang's mother that Jiang Xia could earn a hundred yuan for translating a thick book and fifty yuan for a thinner one.
With both of them working so diligently and in harmony, how could they not have a good life?
He thought about his elder son's wife, who was hardworking but too petty. Yesterday, she had subtly accused Jiang Xia of favoring Zhou Zhou, their younger son, in front of Ah Lei. She even said that the two of them favored Zhou Zhou. This led to another argument between the elder son and his wife.
How could they make money with all this constant bickering?
Yesterday, when he and his elder son went out to sea, they only earned about thirty yuan, and each of them got less than ten yuan. But he saw his younger son catch enough fish in just an hour to earn the same amount.
The only downside was that Zhou Chenglei was so focused on Jiang Xia that he barely paid attention to anything else.
As the sky gradually brightened and the sun rose, the morning light fell on Jiang Xia, her soft hair gently brushing her fair face, making her look incredibly gentle and beautiful.
Zhou Chenglei watched her quietly, wishing he could capture this moment forever.
Zhou's father glanced at the fishing rod and cleared his throat, "There's a fish on the line!"
He was really fed up. Even when a fish was on the line, it was always he who noticed.
Zhou Chenglei retracted his gaze and calmly reeled in the fish.
An hour later, Zhou's father had reminded Zhou Chenglei over a dozen times about fish on the line. Finally, it was time to pull in the net.
If they didn't pull it in soon, he would have been tempted to stab Zhou Chenglei's eyes with the fishing rod, making him both deaf and blind!
Jiang Xia carefully packed away her book in a plastic bag to keep it dry and clean.
Seeing the two men struggling to pull in the net, she knew it must be full of fish.
Sure enough, when they pulled it up, it was bursting with a large catch of bright red fish.
Jiang Xia put on gloves and exclaimed, "Are these more red snappers?"
Zhou Chenglei's arm muscles bulged as he strained, "No, they're red snappers."
In the village, they called them red fish because of their color.
Zhou's father added, "They're not as valuable as red snappers, but they're still good. I heard someone managed to farm them, though I don't know how."
The two men finally managed to pull the large catch onto the deck and spread it out.
Jiang Xia immediately sat down to sort the fish, while Zhou Chenglei fixed the net and then joined her.
As the sun rose higher, they began to pull in the second net, which was even fuller than the first!
Another haul of red snappers!
Zhou Chenglei remarked, "These fish aren't common around here. Why are we catching so many today?"
Zhou's father explained, "The house shook a few times the night before last when you two weren't here. It must have been an earthquake on the other side of the sea, scaring the fish over here!"
Jiang Xia looked at Zhou's father in shock, "An earthquake?"
"It wasn't really an earthquake, just a slight tremor. The roof tiles didn't even fall."
"Thank goodness!" Jiang Xia breathed a sigh of relief. She was about to continue sorting the fish when she noticed something different about the distant island today.
(End of Chapter)
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