Wishing You Smooth Sailing

"???"

Han Ziyue stood there blankly, as if she were looking at an idiot, then glanced up at Zhang Yuan.

Her eyes were full of confusion, as if she were asking why an idiot was standing there.

Zhang Yuan said irritably, "That's just how he is. He's actually pretending to be stupid. What was it—Thirty-Six Ways to Flirt with Girls? Monkey Steals the Heart? Pretend to be innocent? Pretend to be stupid? Simp mode?"

"Pretending to be stupid is one of them, too. He's trying to flirt with you!"

Han Ziyue giggled until her cheeks turned a little red.

Li Zhendong had been exposed and leaped up in a rage. "What? You're saying I'm pretending to be stupid? How am I pretending? Everything I said is true!"

"I just like white. I think it symbolizes purity..."

"Ugh..." Zhang Yuan felt like he was about to throw up.

Amid all the joking and banter, his mood slowly improved. It wasn't as if he'd be setting off alone, anyway. He had all these buddies with him—what was there to fear?

With nothing else to do, Zhang Yuan invited Wang Lili and Xu Yunjing, the two upperclassmen, to go to the water park with them.

It was their last day. They really couldn't study any more.

"Hello, Wang Lili?"

"I'm with my boyfriend, and we're on our way to see a movie..." Wang Lili said apologetically.

Zhang Yuan didn't mind. "Forget the movie. We're leaving tomorrow."

"All right, then. Is my boyfriend coming too?"

"Bring him along. It's fine!"

"Don't make it all couples!" Li Zhendong hurriedly protested. "What am I supposed to do by myself? Be a third wheel? Bring a few more girls so I can experience being surrounded by beauties."

"Then I'll invite a few of my girlfriends. Whether you can charm them is up to you," Han Ziyue said with a laugh.

"Thank you so much, beautiful young lady."

Li Zhendong said it in an exaggeratedly dramatic tone.

Soon, the group of ten arrived at the water park in Xisha City.

Federal Credits were actually called "Xia Credits" in the strictest sense. They were Xia Kingdom's national currency. A hundred years ago, Xia Kingdom had become a major energy exporter, and electricity prices were directly tied to the national currency. Over time, the "Huaxia Credit" became the common currency throughout East Asia.

"Federal Credits" was a name fabricated by the media in certain foreign countries, in an attempt to sow discord among East Asian nations for malicious political purposes. But not only did that scheme fail; with time, "Federal Credits" really did become the name people used.

So its purchasing power was quite strong, and the tickets weren't expensive. Forty credits per person was enough.

The girls quickly changed into their swimsuits, revealing expanses of snowy-white skin, then began helping each other apply sunscreen.

Li Zhendong pretended not to care, but he was actually sneaking glances. Zhang Yuan smacked him.

"What are you doing? Have you never seen a woman before? You're being such a creep."

"That one with you... She's gorgeous. Where'd you find her? Impressive! Go help her put on sunscreen." He gave a thumbs-up.

Zhang Yuan was terribly embarrassed. "What do you mean, 'the one with me'? She's my ex-girlfriend's younger sister. I already knew her, and we happened to run into each other here. Don't read too much into it."

"No wonder she looked familiar." Li Zhendong rolled his eyes, thinking, Your ex-girlfriend's younger sister? It'd be strange if I didn't read into that.

After that, the giant serpent slide, the sky-high twister, the six-color slide, and the other water attractions set off shrieks from both the men and women.

For safety, many of the rides required pairs.

He wasn't some dullard. How could he not know what Han Ziyue was thinking? And he'd enjoyed spending time with her over the past few days.

But now that things had come to this, he thought it over carefully and decided to let it go. There was no need to stir up more trouble.

"You only act like a normal person at times like this. If you're scared, you can scream louder, like me—ahhh!" Han Ziyue wiped the water from her body with a towel.

She had a great figure, with curves in all the right places and not an ounce of excess fat.

Zhang Yuan looked up at the sky. "I'm not scared. I'm just screaming along with you so I don't seem like a loner..."

"Is that so? You're deliberately trying to fit in? The sun might have made me even darker. And the water washed everything off—sunscreen really isn't much use."

"..." Zhang Yuan didn't know how to respond.

That night, Zhang Yuan was dragged along to dinner again, much to his dismay.

Li Zhendong was already having the time of his life, completely lost in the moment. Judging from the look on his face, every cell in his body was yearning for girls.

Why?

Maybe he'd run into a catfish a while back and wanted to make up for it now?

Or maybe it was because they were leaving soon.

The moment he stopped, he couldn't help thinking about that matter, and a sense of loss grew stronger and stronger.

The end of the world was drawing closer, and the friends before him were drifting farther and farther away.

"You men—could you stop just eating and do something? Especially you, Zhang Yuan!" Wang Lili's voice jolted him out of his thoughts.

They had to grill the meat themselves, making this a restaurant with a bit of a specialty.

Zhang Yuan kept eating. "No, no. I need to enjoy being looked after by my upperclassman while I still can. Once we're on the spaceship, I won't get to be looked after anymore."

The girls laughed again.

"Why don't we go sing at a KTV?"

After dinner, the girls dragged Zhang Yuan to a strange-looking building.

He felt like he'd never been so decadent in his life. It was as if he'd crammed a lifetime's worth of fun into a single day.

Inside the KTV, men and women were paired off everywhere. Zhang Yuan couldn't help marveling at how open-minded this international city was. There were not only high school and college students, but even a lot of middle schoolers! Young men and women were paired off everywhere, much more uninhibited than people had been in his time...

A couple had even slipped into a corner to kiss passionately. Sure, it was a corner, but it was still a public place!

Couldn't they show a little restraint?

"Come on, cheers! Here's to you reaching your destination safely!"

"Cheers! A three-thousand-year journey sounds so awesome! We'll all be dead by then."

"Cheers!"

Li Zhendong said casually, "What's so awesome about it? Just think how brutal it'll be when we wake up from cryosleep..."

He stopped halfway through, as if realizing something, and said no more.

Wang Lili was good at keeping the mood light. She hurriedly said, "I'll sing a song first... An old song from the old era, with a new arrangement."

"The pilot of the spaceship is a mighty, dashing man!"

"Junchi's spaceship flies like the wind..."

"Beneath the boundless starry sky... I'll wander with you..."

"My heart is as vast as the universe!"

Laughter and cheerful voices filled the room as everyone joined in the revelry.

After the song, everyone looked earnestly at Zhang Yuan and Li Zhendong and said, "Wishing you smooth sailing!"

Zhang Yuan clinked glasses with them and took a sip of beer. "And I wish you all a bright future!"