Frozen Harbor (1)
The Queen Anne arrived in Britain and officially began her voyage across Europe. After leaving Liverpool, she docked at a new port every day.
During those days, every morning the passengers aboard the cruise ship opened their eyes to a brand-new sunrise over the sea, and to an entirely new journey. They met and parted from different countries and cities, and every day was a wonderful and romantic date.
The day before, they had still been strolling through Trinity College Dublin, visiting Ireland’s oldest library. The next day, they were already at the Tour de France, visiting one of the most famous landmarks on the western coast of France. Yesterday, they had still been standing in an antique bookshop by the Spanish coast, their fingertips brushing against obscure texts from the ancient Roman era. Today, they were already sitting in a bar in Porto’s old town, gently swirling the port wine in their stemmed glasses.
And whenever the colorful itinerary of the day came to an end, when they returned to the port at night, dragging their tired bodies along, they could always see the enormous, silent figure of the Queen Anne from afar. The brilliant lights glowing from the cabins seemed to be guiding the wandering travelers home.
Over time, it became a habit. Many people, without even realizing it, developed an illusory sense of belonging to the cruise ship, as though this place really were home.
Tan Guhong and Luo Jingming began to get along as naturally as an ordinary couple.
Without either of them realizing it, perhaps sometime after Liverpool, perhaps sometime before Liverpool.
Nine to five, three meals a day, inseparable. They climbed the oldest surviving lighthouse from the Roman era in A Coruña together. They walked hand in hand across the Luís I Bridge spanning the Douro River. They nearly got lost on the streets of Brest because they had misread a map. They even walked for four hours just for the sake of a flyer advertising what was supposedly the most authentic ham and seafood paella in Spain.
He was a very considerate and romantic lover. Every morning, her private butler, Miss Lucy, would place a bouquet of brightly colored, dew-covered flowers in the vase in her sitting room. Sometimes they were teddy sunflowers, beloved by Van Gogh. Sometimes they were pale and elegant blue bellflowers. Sometimes they were fragrant, richly scented lilies.
She felt that the scene before her seemed somehow familiar. Only later did she remember that he had told her that this was how his parents had been when they were alive.
Perhaps a person’s view of love really could be deeply shaped, without them realizing it, by their parents when they were young.
And then there was kissing.
Very frequent, very natural kissing.
On the streets of foreign countries where no one knew them, on the deck beneath a star-filled sky in the stillness of the deep night. After every good morning and good night. When they had finished their parfait and she frowned, complaining that it was too sweet. When the fountain rose high into the air and she smiled as she looked at him.
Tan Guhong had never known before that kissing could be such a happy and comfortable thing.
There was no denying that there had always been an irresistible attraction between the two of them. Something primal, inexplicable, even nakedly direct. Hormones? Dopamine? Or perhaps some other chemical substance governing the body’s instincts was at work. Even when reason suppressed their feelings again and again, neither of them could escape it.
So perhaps they might as well let things take their natural course for the time being.
……
Beneath the pitch-black, tranquil night sky, the Queen Anne sailed silently through the Strait of Gibraltar, slowly leaving the magnificent Atlantic Ocean behind and entering the gentle, tranquil Mediterranean.
The two of them sat in beach chairs on the private balcony deck. At first, he had been reading beneath the light while she watched a movie on her tablet. Later, he put down his book and watched the movie with her. Later still, whether because their eyes met at some point or because their fingertips happened to touch, they inexplicably began kissing.
The location was simply too perfect for it. Taking advantage of the moment, he directly pressed her down onto the beach chair and covered her body with his. Their bodies overlapped, their legs tangled together, in a position more intimate than ever before, leaving none of their bodies’ primal reactions any room to hide.
Luo Jingming was wearing nothing but a pair of cotton lounge pants. Tan Guhong could clearly feel the heat of his arousal and desire, yet he continued kissing her lips again and again, his hand gently stroking her face and neck, unhurried and leisurely.
When the kiss ended, he slowly pulled back a little, but their gazes remained tangled together.
Ever since they had laid everything out in the open last time, he no longer wore his glasses whenever they were alone together. She had laughed and teased him about it, only for him to turn the tables on her and say that he was afraid the glasses would press against her while they kissed.
Now his sharply defined, handsome face was only inches away. She could clearly see the currents surging beneath the smile in his eyes. He did not move any closer, but neither did he make any attempt to hide them. He simply displayed those feelings plainly before her.
She smiled. “Did you plan for this day a long time ago?”
On the very first day she moved in, she had noticed that there was only one beach chair on the balcony. It was wider than a single chair, but narrower than a double one. She had never paid much attention to it before. It was only today that she finally realized just how perfectly suited this chair was for kissing.
For kissing in exactly the position they were in now.
He smiled. “What do you think?”
She deliberately refused to answer. She pushed him away, sat up, and reached for the iced fruit juice on the table beside her.
It was early June, the beginning of summer. The Mediterranean climate was neither cold nor hot, but the juice had been sitting there for quite some time, and the ice cubes in the glass had long since melted. Only wisps of lingering coolness remained, along with a layer of damp condensation on the glass.
She carefully wrapped her hand around the slippery glass and took a sip of the sweet-and-sour juice. He came up behind her again, slipped one arm around her waist, lowered his head, and kissed her right ear.
She instinctively shuddered all over and could not help trying to pull herself out of his embrace.
He tightened his arm and continued kissing her a few more times. Twice on the earlobe, once on the outer rim of her ear, exactly where her three ear piercings were.
Helpless, she drew out her words and asked lazily, “What are you doing?”
He chuckled softly and spoke in a low voice.
“Did it hurt when you got your ears pierced?”
“Of course it did.”
But who could blame it, when it could no longer hear? It ought to be given some new task, after all.
“Is this the most outrageous thing you’ve ever done?”
She turned her head and asked in return, “Do you mean now, or in the past?”
“Is there a difference?”
“Of course. Now, no.”
As things stood at this moment, the most outrageous thing she had ever done was probably to enter into a relationship with the man in front of her, knowing full well that there could be no future for them, and to have a romance that she knew was doomed from the start.
“The past?”
“The past…” She smiled and slowly said, “The past, also no.”
He raised an eyebrow slightly. “Then what was it?”
She leaned close to his ear and drawled out two words:
“Se-cret.”
It was practically revenge for what he had done that day.
He laughed helplessly and shook his head.
She bit down on the colorful straw, tilting her head as she looked at him with a smile that was almost not a smile.
“How does it feel?”
The feeling of being kept in the dark?
“Not bad. My curiosity isn’t that strong, either.”
She shrugged, indifferent.
“Fine, then let’s each keep our own secrets.”
Bzzzt.
The two phones lying side by side on the table vibrated at the same time. There was no need to look. It was today’s cruise newsletter. The app sent out a push notification every evening, covering the next day’s theater performances aboard the ship, opening hours for the entertainment facilities, sightseeing guides and weather conditions for the cities where they would dock, and so on.
Tan Guhong picked up her phone, opened the notification, and looked through the details. She could not help smiling.
“We’re in Spain again tomorrow.”
Spain surrounded Portugal on three sides. They had passed through A Coruña in western Spain, Porto and Lisbon in Portugal, and after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, their route turned and brought them once again to eastern Spain, to Barcelona.
Just as she was lowering her head to carefully study the sightseeing routes around the city, she suddenly heard Luo Jingming say,
“I’m not getting off the ship tomorrow.”
She glanced at him.
“Okay, got it.”
It did not matter. Once they were in Spain, she would not get lost on the streets even if she went by herself.
But he only smiled and gently pressed down on the hand she was using to scroll through her phone.
“You’re not getting off either.”
Only then did she truly look up, puzzled.
“Why?”
“Because tomorrow at noon, I’m inviting someone aboard for lunch. This person is Spanish, and I need a translator.”
She found it amusing. “You’re short of a Spanish translator?”
“Because this itinerary was decided at the last minute, there isn’t a translator accompanying us on the ship. And this meeting is temporarily confidential, so we can’t find someone locally at the last minute.”
“But I can’t do simultaneous interpretation.”
She frowned, very much wanting to point at her hairline and show him. She was just an ordinary translator.
“No simultaneous interpretation needed. Just ordinary interpreting will do. Is that okay?”
“It’s okay, but…”
“But what?”
She smiled. “It’s just that hiring me as a translator is very expensive.”
His eyes held a smile. “How much?”
“That depends on how much you can afford.”
“The global real economy hasn’t been doing well lately. The company’s expenses exceed its income, and we’re truly short on cash.” He sighed, deliberately furrowing his brows and pretending to think seriously for a moment before saying with difficulty, “Miss Translator, why don’t you consider letting me work off the debt?”
She clicked her tongue twice and looked at him disdainfully. “Mr. Pretty Boy, don’t forget, you’re only eight hundred a night!”
“Then why not work off several nights?” He lowered his head until his forehead rested against hers, his tone coaxing and persuasive. “If that’s not enough, then just keep working it off. Until you’re satisfied.”
She did not know when he had eaten another mint. Its sharp, cool scent lingered faintly around her, filled with an indescribable temptation.
She slowly moved back, putting some distance between them.
“Then let’s save it up for now.”
He neither agreed nor disagreed. His dark eyes watched her with a smile, as though he could see straight through her heart.
She gave a small cough, putting aside her joking mood, and said seriously, “What is this person’s position? What are you going to discuss? You’d better give me the information beforehand, so I don’t get stuck on some technical terms tomorrow.”
After all, her specialty was translation related to mine construction and engineering projects.
Luo Jingming paused for a moment before asking, “Do you remember why we met in Ecuador?”
“I remember. You said it was because of work, that you went there to look for a project manager.”
Although everything that happened afterward had even made her begin to wonder whether such a person had ever really existed at all.
“This time, the person I’ve invited is that very person. His name is Moreno. He is the chairman of an ocean-going port company. The company is primarily engaged in the development, operation, and management of container terminals, and operates the largest container port by throughput along Spain’s southeastern Mediterranean coast. Yaozhong Shipping intends to acquire it.”
Tan Guhong thought carefully about what he had said.
“Yaozhong Shipping wants to expand its presence along the Mediterranean?”
As far as she knew, the Liang Group’s shipping business had previously been concentrated in Asia and the Americas. They had some involvement in Europe, but very little.
“That’s right. For quite a long time to come, Yaozhong Shipping’s focus will gradually shift from Asia and the Americas to the Eurasian and African continents. Because this region will be the most economically dynamic area of global development in the future.”
The Eurasian-African economic sphere?
Tan Guhong could not help thinking of the series of policies and economic plans the country had implemented in recent years, and she laughed despite herself.
“You really do think far ahead.”
“It’s not me. It’s Grandpa.”
“There’s no difference…” She gave him a half-smile. “With Grandpa Liang placing so much trust in you, I don’t think there’ll be any difference in the future either.”
But he shook his head.
“No one can figure out what Grandpa is thinking.”
“That’s beyond me. I just want detailed materials on what you’ll be discussing tomorrow.”
Negotiations involving a multinational acquisition were bound to be a tough battle.
Luo Jingming smiled.
“Don’t worry. We won’t discuss anything related to the acquisition tomorrow. It’s just an ordinary private meeting. I’m inviting Mr. Moreno aboard to have some authentic Chinese food.”
Although Luo Jingming had put it that way, once he returned to his own room, Tan Guhong still intended to uphold her professional standards. She planned to look up some relevant information online first and do some preliminary preparation.
She picked up the pad lying to one side and unlocked the screen. The movie, which had been frozen halfway through just now, automatically resumed playing. She was just about to pause it and exit when her finger suddenly froze.
She finally understood why he had suddenly kissed her just now.
The scene playing in the movie was of the male and female leads parting after a wonderful date. The next moment, the male lead began a long, passionate, sincere confession:
“You can’t imagine how much I feel like making love to you. Not just once. Over and over again, for the rest of my life.”
“You can’t imagine how much I long to make love to you. Not just once, but again and again, for a lifetime.”
Tan Guhong lay on her back in the beach chair, covering her face with the pad, and let out a long sigh, seeming both sorrowful and happy.
Luo Jingming, this man…
✦
Today’s Film Recommendation:
Life Is Beautiful (1997, Italy)
Synopsis: The film tells the story of a Jewish father and son who are sent to a Nazi concentration camp. The father uses his imagination to lie to his son, telling him that they are actually taking part in a game, protecting the child’s innocence from being hurt.
Recommendation: A true classic among World War II films. The happy life of the male lead’s family of three in the first half stands in stark contrast to the shadow of war in the latter half. The film contains very little graphic violence or footage depicting brutal killings. In fact, its overall tone is even lighthearted and comedic, yet you can still sense, through the details, the cruelty of war and the way it tramples and destroys the goodness in human nature, whether in family bonds or in love.
That said, the part in the first half where the male lead pursues the female lead is genuinely so cute and sweet.
✦
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