Beianqi's Misunderstanding

Su Ming led the zombies, carrying a bone umbrella and a deck chair, and a beverage box on his back, slowly drifting to a bay where the water was crystal clear and the fish were clearly visible. He set up the parasol and deck chair, did some warm-up exercises, and then jumped into the water.

Although he had only ever swum in a pool before, the water was calm today, and Su Ming quickly adapted. After swimming for a while...

He then tried diving to tease the mollusks on the seabed.

When he surfaced, he found the short-haired girl sitting on a deck chair, drinking the juice he had prepared.

"Hey! I worked really hard to prepare!" Su Ming protested.

Beianqi giggled, downed her juice in one gulp, and even let out a burp.

"You'd rather stuff yourself to death than leave me a single bite," Su Ming complained.

The girl took out a water bottle and waved it at Su Ming, "I brought one too, this is for you!"

Su Ming climbed out of the water, took the water bottle, and took a sip. It was chilled orange juice, cool and refreshing.

"Where did Sister Ailisha go?" Beianqi asked.

Su Ming sensed the White Bone Mark. "She's flying around randomly on the other side of the island; I don't know exactly what she's doing."

"Isn't she coming over?" Beianqi asked doubtfully. "Aren't you two lovers?"

Su Ming was surprised, "Why do you think that?"

Beianqi also looked surprised. "How could this be! The nightgown that Sister Ailisha lent me, was it a gift from you? It had a swan pattern on it, I thought..."

"A swan?" Su Ming asked, puzzled. "That's a little yellow duck!"

"The Rong Swan is yellow," said Beianqi. "Swan motifs represent courtship, especially the Rong Swan, which has always been a symbol of couples."

Su Ming was absolutely certain that this pattern was a duck on Earth, but this kind of cross-dimensional cultural glitch...

It's nothing unusual anymore.

"That garment, like the equipment, was transported from my world. Its pattern doesn't hold any special meaning in that world," Su Ming explained.

"Ah, I misunderstood." Beianqi was very embarrassed. She had actually been wondering how the two of them could be together, Chestnut Crow Scholar was an undead.

She changed the subject, "Hey Su Ming, can you swim backstroke?"

Su Ming shook his head; he only knew how to do the breaststroke and the doggy paddle.

"Would you like to learn? Lying on the sea and drifting with the waves, that feeling is amazing—it's so calm today!"

Su Ming was intrigued. He glanced at Beianqi and asked, "Are you available to go into the water?"

The girl chuckled, took off her outer clothes, revealing tight shorts and a sleeveless top underneath, and said, "I've changed my clothes!"

"Then I'll leave it to you, Ms. Bei!"

When Beianqi took off her coat, Su Ming felt something was off. It wasn't until she got into the water that Su Ming realized where the incongruity came from—the girl, who was originally just curvaceous, had an even more pronounced figure after getting into the water. Water droplets covered her upper body, smooth as satin in the sunlight.

He immediately felt that his piety toward a certain religion had been violently challenged.

Beianqi noticed Su Ming's gaze and knew what he was wondering about. "I usually wrap myself in strips of cloth to make it easier to work," she explained generously. "You should understand, it's troublesome for girls too."

No, I don't understand! Su Ming screamed inwardly.

Beianqi plunged into the sea and didn't surface for a long time. She wiped the water off her face and waved to Su Ming.

Su Ming put down the juice, took a deep breath, jumped into the water, and swam over.

Beianqi was a very good teacher. She quickly explained the key points of the backstroke to Su Ming and demonstrated it herself.

The azure sea, the girl's light tan skin, her soft clothes swaying with the waves, occasionally revealing the fair skin of her sun-tanned face.

As he made another mistake and Beianqi prepared to demonstrate again, Su Ming pressed down on the girl's shoulder.

"I'll do it, you just need to correct it," Su Ming suggested.

"All right."

Backstroke looks simple, but it requires a high level of water feel, and Su Ming, who has very little swimming experience, was unable to maintain his balance.

Beianqi had to support him and patiently guide him. After half an hour, Su Ming was finally able to lie on his back on the sea surface by kicking his legs.

"You've finally learned it!" Beianqi was also exhausted.

The two lay on the sea, gazing at the blue sky. The sunlight was a bit dazzling, so Su Ming unfurled a layer of brownish light.

A sense of comfort arises spontaneously amidst the gentle breeze and rippling waves.

"Su Ming, could you take some time to fix the shower valve in the room?" Beianqi suddenly asked.

A few days ago, Su Ming taught the girl how to use the showerhead: turning the valve to the letter H meant hot water, and turning it to the letter C meant cold water.

However, what he didn't expect was that when Beianqi used it later, she reversed the mixing valve a full turn, breaking it off!

Things designed for Earth's human physique are indeed unsuitable for another world.

"I'm sorry, I completely forgot about it," Su Ming said apologetically. Everyone had been busy installing and debugging the MK71 these past few days, and Su Ming hadn't thought of it.

It must be somewhat inconvenient for Beianqi to use Zijin's bathroom.

But when he looked at the girl, he noticed she seemed hesitant to speak. "What's wrong?"

"Last night, when I was taking a shower, Scholar Li suddenly walked in."

Su Ming choked on his water. What was this all about? "No, cough cough—what did she do?"

"I grabbed something and then went out." Beianqi found Su Ming's reaction a little strange. "It's not a big deal for girls to be seen, but I have an unsightly scar on my back from an injury." She explained to Su Ming, "I don't really want to be seen."

Su Ming didn't understand this logic.

Beianqi also had a scar several centimeters long on her abdomen. Although her left wrist had recovered, it still inevitably left a dark mark, which the girl never tried to hide.

Moreover, on a normal seagoing vessel, the crew would definitely use public shower rooms, so there would be no possibility of hiding them.

However, Su Ming didn't press the matter. "I'll go fix it in a bit," he replied.

****

When Zijin flew over on her broom, the two were building sandcastles on the beach.

She was covered in feathers, and a transparent bag containing a bunch of round things was hanging from her broom.

"Seabird eggs?" Su Ming guessed.

Zijin nodded and landed. "I heard you were planning a bonfire party, so I gathered some ingredients."

She looked at what Su Ming and Beianqi had piled up. At first, she thought it was a sandcastle, but when she looked down, she realized it was a ship. It was very large and had a very detailed design.

"Hey, is this what you call 'working undercover'?" She glared at the two of them angrily. "I'm just idly collecting bird eggs, and you two are happily doing research?"

Su Ming retorted, "No way! We were just talking about how to cross the Arctic Ocean, and I told her about a type of ship called an icebreaker that can navigate through ice sheets up to a meter thick."