Summer 2023.

Lamma Island, the harbour city.

Outside the window, the night was dark.

In a sea-view B&B near Banyan Bay, Xia Li sat in front of the glass window of the café wearing a white cashmere shawl, with a cold coffee in her hand and a piece of cheesecake that was only half left.

The warm yellow lights in the café shine down, reflecting her face in the transparent glass.

Xia Li sat in front of the computer with a frown, revising the paper according to the tutor's request.

Xia Li is a recent graduate of Beijing University majoring in design, and has been busy with graduation design exhibitions and papers all day long.

The school attaches great importance to this year's graduation exhibition, and hereby issues a statement that as long as the graduation exhibition ranks in the top three, there will be a generous bonus, as well as benefits such as employment support in the future.

In order to be able to get this generous bonus to alleviate the pressure on his family, Xia Li deliberately bought a ticket and came to Hong Kong City after handing in his thesis.

It's just that I didn't expect that as soon as the plane landed at Hong Kong Island Airport, I received a message from my tutor asking her to revise her thesis.

The mobile phone at hand rang inappropriately, and then a voice call from her friend Chu Shishi also popped up on the computer.

Xia Li rubbed his somewhat sore neck, took out a Bluetooth headset from the computer bag that was placed aside, put it on, and then moved the trackpad and pressed the answer button on the computer screen, and continued to change the paper seriously.

Loud heavy metal music sounded in the earphones along with Chu Shishi's voice.

"Li, guess who I met at Bessie?"

Bessie is a well-known bar in the capital.

Xia Li kept typing on the keyboard, and didn't seem interested in it:

"Who?"

"Qi Du."

Qi Du is the youngest son of the Qi family and the fiancé of Xia Li in name.

Today was supposed to be the day they got their certificates.

"Anyway, did Qi Du reply to your message?"

Chu Shishi's voice sounded in the Bluetooth headset again, and this time the noisy heavy metal music was much quieter.

Xia Li tapped on the keyboard, picked up the mobile phone he put aside and clicked on the dialog box with Qi Du.

The conversation between the two was still stuck on the message he sent to Qi Du yesterday.

[Remember to get the certificate at half past nine tomorrow.] 】

But the owner on the other end of the message didn't seem to see it, and he hasn't replied until now.

Xia Li put down his mobile phone, took a sip of the cold coffee at hand, and calmly revised the paper on the computer:

"Nope."

Chu Shishi on the other end of the phone sighed: "Qi Du did this...... Are your marriage covenants numbered? ”

"I don't know, anyway, I plan to stay in Port City for a while, let's go back and talk about it."

Her marriage contract with Qi Du was a marriage contract made when Old Man Qi was still alive.

At that time, Mr. Qi suffered from liver cancer and died soon after.

In the last time, he proposed a marriage contract between Xia Li and Qi Du with Xia Youming, who came to visit him.

Originally, it was said that Xia Li would wait until he graduated to consider the marriage contract between the two, but in the past half a year, the Xia family's capital chain suddenly broke, and overnight it changed from occupying the top of the entire business circle in the capital to the Xia family that everyone in the circle would laugh at.

And the only thing that can save the Xia family at the moment is the marriage contract between Xia Li and the Qi family, so the marriage contract has been advanced by many days.

Speaking of which, Xia Youming agreed to this marriage at that time just because he didn't want Old Man Qi to have regrets in the end, but he didn't expect that the Xia family would one day be reduced to the point where they could only be saved by marriage.

This can be regarded as a mistake, leaving a way back for the Xia family.

Xia Li also accepted the path given to her by God, as long as she could save the Xia family, she was willing to do whatever she wanted.

But what she never expected was that Qi Du would release her pigeons directly on the day of the license.

In the afternoon of the same day, Xia Li bought a ticket to Hong Kong City, saying that he was going to come here to collect wind and go to the temple to burn incense, asking the Bodhisattva to bless the Xia family.

Before the incense was burned, the tutor's paper revision was sent first, causing her incense burning schedule to be postponed by one day.

"Okay, you should also pay attention to safety when you are alone in Port City." Chu Shishi was still caring about Xia Li one second ago, and the next second, she changed her words, "Remember to help me burn a marriage incense when you burn incense, it's up to you whether my sister can get off the list this year." ”

"Got it."

After hanging up the phone, Xia Li sent the revised paper to the supervisor's mailbox, and turned his head to look at the sea view outside the window.

She gathered her shawl and walked around the chair behind her to the balcony behind the café.

Xia Li put one hand on the wooden railing in front of him, felt the salty sea breeze blowing in his face, and his eyes fell on the beach not far away.

In the dark night, the waves crash against the beach, as if all the hustle and bustle is cut off, as if softened by the quiet night. Looking up at the starry sky slightly, the sky looks like a black velvet dotted with precious stones.

At the junction of heaven and sea, it seems to be another world.

A quiet and untouchable world, a world where you can forget all your worries.

Xia Li's elbows rested on the railing, holding his head and watching intently, not noticing the movement behind him not far away.

"Brother Yin, what do you think of my homestay?"

Not far away, Qi Zhou, who was wearing a black shirt, pushed open the door of the café and turned slightly sideways to let the man next to him advance.

The man in a white shirt and black trousers stepped into the café, looked around indifferently for a week, and finally landed on the slender back on the balcony and paused.

It seems to overlap with the figure in the depths of memory.

Qi Zhou walked into the bar and skillfully took the expensive coffee beans on the side:

"A taste of my craft?"

Xie Yin retracted his gaze, walked to the bar and sat down unhurriedly, turning slightly sideways to look at the balcony.

There was the sound of the coffee machine starting behind him, and Xia Li turned around and suddenly crashed into a deep eye.

The man not far away sat a little lazily on the bar seat, his long legs were idle, and the hand with the Buddha beads was naturally on the bar.

She was slightly stunned, she always felt a little familiar with the man's face, as if she had seen it somewhere.

But she couldn't remember it.

Xia Li came back to his senses and didn't think much about it.

Walked straight back to where he was before, and stuffed the computer on the desk into his bag to go back to his room to rest.

The man sitting at the bar just picked up the coffee cup on the table when he passed by the man.

Xia Li's peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the man's movements, and the cuffs of the white undershirt were layered up, revealing the tense cyan veins on his arms.

When he raised his hand to take the coffee from the bar, his arms were well-defined and powerful.

Xie Yin's gaze fell on her, and his slender fingers held the handle of the cup and handed it to his lips.

Xia Li pushed open the glass door of the café and walked out, and at the same time, Qi Zhou, who had finished wiping the coffee machine, noticed that Xie Yin's gaze had been staring at a certain place, so he looked curiously along his line of sight, thoughtfully.

"Brother Yin, do you know that beautiful girl?"

Xie Yin took a sip of coffee, and his tone was indifferent: "I don't know." (I don't know.) ）

Qi Zhou looked at him with a little more gossip in his eyes, and sat down beside him with coffee:

"I don't know I've been staring at people for so long, don't you fall in love with this beautiful sister?"

The man just gently flicked a string of Buddhist beads on his wrist and did not speak.

The next day, Xia Li got up early in the morning and took a taxi for more than an hour to reach the temple.

In the temple, the sound of Buddha is lingering, and the bells are far away.

The bluestone slabs were covered with moss, and the bells hanging from the corners of the eaves swayed gently with the occasional breeze.

Xia Li bought three handfuls of incense in the incense shop, one was the marriage incense that helped Chu Shishi, and the other two were career incense.

She reverently held the incense and bowed to the four directions of the southeast, northwest and north, hoping that the Xia family could get better and better, and that her career after graduation would be smooth.

Xia Li turned around and inserted the incense into the incense burner on the side, and then walked up the stairs to the Buddha hall.

She stumbled upon a corner of the hall and caught a glimpse of a man in a black silk suit with his back to her, as if talking to the abbot.

Because the Hong Kong language spoken by the two was a bit complicated, Xia Li didn't understand it very well, but the male voice in her ears was clear and good, which made her slow down a little.

The summer weather in Port City is indeed changeable.

Obviously, it was sunny one second, but the next second, the clear sky was instantly covered by dark clouds.

Immediately after, heavier raindrops fell from the sky to the ground.

When Xia Li stepped out of the Buddha hall, it happened to be the time when the rain was the heaviest.

She stood in front of the door of the Buddha hall, looking at the mountains in the distance, which were chaotic at the moment, all shrouded in black oppressive clouds, and the sky seemed to crack a huge opening, pouring down towards the earth.

Xia Li sighed, and his memory was suddenly drawn back to the heavy snow in winter five years ago.

All she remembered was that the man stopped beside her with an umbrella and asked her sideways if he wanted to take her for a ride.

But Xia Li couldn't remember the man's face clearly, and in the impression that his face should belong to the handsome category, but she had forgotten the specific facial features.

Xia Li stood under the eaves, watching the raindrops that were like beads dripping from the eaves and smashing on the bluestone stairs to splash small splashes.

She thought about waiting for the rain to light up before leaving, but the monk on the side told her in a Hong Kong Mandarin that the rain would not be small for a while.

Xia Li sighed again, looking at the non-stop rain, she hesitated to rush out in the rain like the other tourists in the temple.

At this moment, a figure suddenly appeared beside her.

It seemed that the powerful aura of the owner of the body made Xia Li subconsciously turn his head to look, but saw the man's cold side face.

The man was holding a long-handled black umbrella, with a crisp side face, a straight nose and thin lips, but the gaze in front of him was faint, revealing a sense of indifferent alienation all over his body.

Xu noticed Xia Li's gaze, and the man on the side turned his head to look at her.

The eyes are facing each other.

Xia Li's breath missed a beat in vain.

It was the man sitting at the bar in the café last night.

Xia Li was still hesitating about how to talk to the man and ask him if he could give him a ride, but he didn't think that the man in front of him would open his mouth first.

"Girl, would I like to give you a ride?"

Xia Li was stunned, and the familiar and unfamiliar words seemed to match the year in his memory again.

She pursed her lips slightly and nodded, and said in that broken Hong Kong language:

"Sorry for you, sir."

(Excuse me, sir.) ）

Xie Yin changed the umbrella in his hand, and the hand wearing the Buddha beads was inserted into the bag, and casually motioned for Xia Li to come closer:

"It's not a problem."

When he walked down the stairs of the Buddha hall, Xia Li suddenly felt that he was in a trance.

She turned her face to look at the man holding the umbrella, wearing a black silk suit, the buttons of the shirt were meticulously tied to the top, and the exposed Adam's apple was a little sexy.

His gaze unconsciously moved up slowly, only to feel that the man's bones were born with a sense of coldness and nobility, and with that face with almost perfect facial features, Xia Li suddenly felt that God was a little unfair in his heart.

Why can't she marry such a man, but marry a playboy like Qi Du!

The man lowered his eyes slightly, and his deep and cold gaze crashed into Xia Li's eyes.

Xia Li's heart tightened, and he looked away in a panic and lowered his head.

The man raised his eyebrows slightly nonchalantly.

The two walked quietly.

Xia Li was a little absent-minded all the way, she still felt that this man was a little familiar, and she vaguely guessed in her heart whether it was the same person as the gentleman she met in the vestibule of the temple five years ago.

When he was about to reach the vestibule through the bamboo forest, Xia Li suddenly raised his eyes and asked:

"Sir, have we ever met?"