He looked around and noticed that the woman who had just been by his side on the beach had disappeared, which immediately prompted him to sit up from the sand.
No one answered; all that responded to him was the sound of the sea breeze whistling past and the crisp noise of the waves slapping against the shore.
She couldn’t have been... washed away by the sea again and drowned, could she?
He remembered that when he came ashore earlier, she had appeared to be lying limp in the shallow water, which suddenly caused his heart to "thump" with anxiety, and he quickly stood up from the sand.
"An Ning, where are you?"
"I’m here... Mucen, I’m here..."
Finally, someone replied to him, but the voice came from behind him, out of a clump of waist-high weeds.
How did she get there? What was she doing?
Mucen hurried over: "What are you doing in there? Come out quickly!"
Ye Ning had already sensed the cool air coming from the other side by that point, and hearing the man outside questioning her displeasedly, she quickly turned her head and said, "There’s a way out here, Mucen, come in quickly."
Mucen, standing in front of the weeds, paused for a moment.
Was there really a way out through this tangle of weeds?
He was skeptical, but since the woman inside had said so, he pushed aside his distaste and pushed through the weeds.
Once inside, the thick smell of dampness came rushing into his nostrils, accompanied by the scent of rot and decay, causing him to frown and instinctively cover his nose as he continued walking forward.
He was a rich young master with a severe penchant for cleanliness; when had he ever been to such a place?
While Ye Ning waited, when she finally saw him appear before her, what she witnessed was the sight of a man covered in sea sand that hadn’t even dried yet, his nose covered, eyes fixated on the weeds as if he were looking at the plague, breaking them off with the dead branch in his hand to clear a "path of light" before he was willing to come over.
Indeed, a young master was still a young master, no matter how many years had passed, his ways remained the same.
Ye Ning found it somewhat amusing to watch but held back her laughter to avoid detection, waiting for him to approach before pointing behind her, "Smell that, is there a breath of fresh air coming through?"
Mucen leaned in to check and after a moment, nodded, "Indeed there is, we can move on!"
In a matter of seconds, he naturally transformed from the follower to the leader.
Ye Ning didn’t argue, instead, after he started giving orders, she picked up the dead branch and continued to lead the way, "The environment here is not good, I’m shorter, I’ll go first."
Her implication was clear: she would blaze the trail, he would follow...
Mucen frowned, wanting to say something, but in the end, upon seeing the dusty and decaying mess of weeds blocking his path, he tacitly agreed to her approach.
Forget it, he could just give her an extra bonus when they got back.
And so, the two of them finally began to move forward.
In fact, Ye Ning’s guess was completely correct; just beyond the dense weeds was the exit of the beach, and on the other side of the weeds was the fishing village nearby the sea area.
However, as Ye Ning walked ahead, she suddenly felt that something was not quite right behind her...