Ou Mucen also surfaced, wiping the droplets of water from his face as soon as he did so, his gaze sweeping around him.
"There’s a beach over there, let’s swim towards it."
After scanning the area, he spotted a beach roughly five hundred meters away and pointed toward it, indicating they should swim over.
Ye Ning found it hard to look at him.
The incident beneath the sea had been too embarrassing; she didn’t dare to speak to him boldly.
So, with her face blushing and a soft "um," she stretched out her hand, ready to let him pull her along as they swam across.
But this man, floating on the surface, glimpsed her extended hand and, with dewy beads glistening on his handsome face, a trace of mockery flashed in his eyes, "Do you think you’re just a ’message in a bottle’?"
Message in a bottle? What did he mean by that?
Ye Ning didn’t understand until the man glanced at her own body; then, she had an epiphany!
He meant for her to hold on to his body—it was the only way he could use his hands to paddle and carry her across. Merely holding hands, he wouldn’t be able to swim with her at all.
So he compared her to a message in a bottle?
Feeling both hot in the face and irritated, she looked at his robust body suspended beneath the water, and finally, her heart pounding, she mustered the courage to move closer.
"Where should I hold on?"
"Where do you think you should hold on?"
The conversation couldn’t continue!
Ye Ning closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his waist.
This was the first time she had ever taken the initiative to embrace a man.
The man’s physique was impressive, his strong bones and perfect lines, devoid of any excess flesh, were like the finest works crafted by a master, and holding him made her heart race even faster.
And the body she clung to tensed for a moment as her delicate hands climbed up to his chest and cautiously pressed against him from behind, stirring a different sort of emotion within him.
"I’m holding on now..." Having successfully embraced the man, Ye Ning hung on his back and told him shyly.
Ou Mucen’s eyes flickered, looking at those slender, pale fingers struggling to hold on to his muscular chest, the corners of his eyes twitched, and finally, a smirk appeared.
"Have you ever seen lifeguards in the water carrying people out ?"
Remaining in that position, Ye Ning was frozen for at least a dozen seconds, and she couldn’t counter with a single word.
Was he doing this on purpose?
Was he doing it on purpose?!
Ye Ning really wanted to curse.
Thankfully, at that moment, the lunatic finally started to get serious.
So Ye Ning only saw him stretch out his long arm, pull her from behind to his side, and then he positioned her on his right shoulder.
With realization dawning upon her, Ye Ning blushed again, as the new position brought her even closer to him.
Ou Mucen, however, didn’t pay attention to this; carrying someone in water, this was indeed the standard position. If he didn’t do this, how could he carry her across?
Yet, when he reached out to wrap his arm around her, a brief discomfort flared in his upper left abdomen.
It must have been a strain!
But it was just a momentary pain, and then it was gone, so he dismissed it and began swimming with one hand towards the beach, taking her with him.
By this time, they had already exceeded the four-hour mark given by the organizers.