178: Chapter 178 Star Island Holiday: The Gentleman Male Lead 7

Chatting along the way, Xia Qingyuan and Meng Zhu slowly strolled around Xingdao Resort.

Before long, the two of them came to a small square.

In the center of the square stood a weathered stone tablet, covered with somewhat blurred inscriptions.

Meng Zhu stopped in his tracks, looking somewhat curious.

"What is this?"

"Oh, you mean this? This is the history of our village."

Xia Qingyuan walked up to the stone tablet.

"Actually, we aren't people originally born and raised on Xing Island."

"A long time ago, in order to escape the chaos of war, our ancestors migrated here together and then established the village."

"They swore to share weal and woe together, passing it down all the way to this day."

She turned her head, her tone carrying undisguised pride.

"You know what? All the employees in Xingdao Resort are not only my colleagues, but also my fellow villagers."

"When the Su Group acquired this place back then, one of the conditions was that they had to provide jobs for all the villagers."

"Therefore, to me, Xingdao Resort is not only my company, but also my home."

"Home..."

Hearing this word, Meng Zhu was slightly taken aback. The original owner's memories and emotions surged up, and his mood visibly plummeted.

Not to mention that the original owner had no home, in fact, how could Meng Zhu himself ever have had a home in the Light and Shadow Federation?

He didn't suppress the emotions in the original owner's memory, letting them continuously ferment.

This also made Meng Zhu subconsciously want to leave this place.

"Mr. Meng Zhu, look over there quickly!"

Xia Qingyuan didn't notice his abnormality; instead, she grabbed his arm and excitedly pointed to the nearby open-air stage.

On the stage, several villagers wearing traditional attire were performing a dance with rustic and even somewhat strange movements.

Before Meng Zhu could ask, Xia Qingyuan enthusiastically introduced it.

"This is a sacrificial dance. When our ancestors first arrived here, they had nothing and had to rely on the sea to survive."

"Therefore, to pray for peace and a good harvest, the tradition of sacrificing to the sea god gradually came about."

She looked at the performance on stage with a brilliant smile.

"Xing Island Village has always been like this, everyone is very united..."

"Let's go for a walk by the beach."

Meng Zhu suddenly spoke up, abruptly interrupting her words.

Xia Qingyuan belatedly turned her head, only to find that Meng Zhu's mood was somewhat poor.

There seemed to be bitterness in the depths of his eyes.

She was stunned for a moment, then obediently nodded.

"O-Okay."

...

Shortly after, the two walked side by side on the beach.

Waves washed against the shore one after another, and the sea breeze blew fiercely, making a rustling sound.

Meng Zhu's emotions seemed to have eased somewhat.

He suddenly spoke up and asked.

"Miss Qingyuan, since when did you start liking to collect stones on the beach?"

Recalling the past, the corners of Xia Qingyuan's mouth couldn't help but curl up.

"That was back when I was a child. The family wasn't well-off, and every time I encountered unhappy things, the neighbor older brother would find ways to make me happy."

"The gifts he gave me were pretty stones or shells he ran to the beach to carefully pick and collect."

When she said this, her tone couldn't hide that pure happiness and joy.

Meng Zhu keenly captured the light in the depths of her eyes.

He knew that the "neighbor older brother" in Xia Qingyuan's mouth was Cheng Wang, the male supporting role in this movie world.

At this moment, she clearly still liked that person in her heart.

Meng Zhu didn't expose it, just followed her words.

"Then what happened later? How did it become you picking them yourself?"

"Later, because I myself also grew to like these stones and shells."

Xia Qingyuan answered with a smile.

"So, I started going to the beach to pick them myself, and then gave the prettiest ones back to him."

Meng Zhu looked at Xia Qingyuan, his tone devoid of bitterness, as if stating a fact.

"I really envy him."

"What?"

Xia Qingyuan felt she might have heard wrong.

"Yes, I really envy that neighbor older brother of yours."

Meng Zhu looked straight into her eyes.

"I am twenty-seven years old this year, and I've only just received the first seashell you gave me. Moreover, I don't even know if there will be a next time in the future."

These words once again left Xia Qingyuan's eyes with nowhere to rest.

She stammered and said.

"Mr. Meng Zhu and I... are friends, s-so there will definitely be a next time."

Meng Zhu knew when to stop while he was ahead, a flash of amusement crossing the depths of his eyes.

"Then, has Miss Qingyuan ever picked up sea glass before?"

"No."

Xia Qingyuan shook her head, her tone somewhat regretful.

"I really wanted to pick up a piece of sea glass to give to a friend before, but this kind of thing depends on luck, and I've never managed to pick one up."

"Did you want to give it to the neighbor older brother?"

Meng Zhu casually followed up with a question.

Xia Qingyuan didn't answer, instead asking him back somewhat stiffly.

"What about you? Does Mr. Meng Zhu also have the habit of frequently going to the beach? Otherwise, how could you be so lucky as to pick up such pretty sea glass?"

Meng Zhu turned around, facing the sea as the sea breeze blew against his face.

"The sea is something I've always yearned for."

"The beach is just the auditorium where I appreciate it."

After hearing these words, Xia Qingyuan's heart twitched inexplicably.

She thought that deep inside Meng Zhu's heart, there must be a very deep sorrow—a sorrow that perhaps only the sea could contain.

She didn't continue to question him, just quietly stood by his side, accompanying him as they walked and watched the waves together.

Unknowingly, noon had already passed.

Xia Qingyuan didn't take Meng Zhu back to the hotel's restaurant; instead, she said she wanted to treat him to a very delicious small diner.

That was a rice noodle shop with fish in a small alley.

The lobby was filled with small wooden tables. Being the lunch hour, the shop was also packed with customers.

Everyone was sitting close to one another, voices rising and falling in succession, full of the mundane hustle and bustle of ordinary life.

Meng Zhu was somewhat unaccustomed to it—not that he wasn't used to it personally, but rather influenced by the original owner's memories.

The noise made him somewhat uneasy.

Xia Qingyuan sensed his rigidity.

While pulling him to sit at a small table in the corner, she continuously found topics to chat with him.

"Please wait a moment for me, I'll bring the fish noodles over."

Before long, Xia Qingyuan walked over carrying two bowls of steaming fish noodles.

"Careful, it's hot."

As soon as she placed the two bowls of noodles on the table, she immediately let out a "hisss" sound and quickly grabbed her earlobes with both hands.

Seeing her in this state made Meng Zhu find her extremely adorable, and he couldn't help smiling.

"It really is hot, eh? Why are you laughing?"

Xia Qingyuan glared at him with red ears, then picked up a spoon and chopsticks, teaching him very earnestly.

"When eating fish noodles, you must use a spoon to drink the soup. Come on, experience its deliciousness!"

Right at this moment, several middle-aged uncles and aunts at the neighboring table noticed them and playfully teased them with a smile.

"Look over there, isn't that little Qingyuan? When did she get such a handsome boyfriend, oh?"

"That's right, and she didn't even introduce him to us."

"It's not like that, no way!"

Xia Qingyuan's face turned beet red all of a sudden.

"Please don't talk nonsense. This is my friend, not a boyfriend."

Watching her flustered explanations and listening to the surrounding good-natured laughter,

Meng Zhu's mood improved.

What previously felt noisy now instead felt warm.

"Why didn't Mr. Meng Zhu help me explain, and instead you're still smiling? The uncles are annoying, but Mr. Meng Zhu is even more annoying."

"What? But I didn't do anything."

"Precisely because you didn't do anything, that's why you're annoying."

Xia Qingyuan rolled her eyes in disdain.

Holding back his laughter, Meng Zhu took a sip of the delicious fish soup with a spoon.

...

Throughout the entire day, the bullet comments weren't many, appearing rather sparse.

It wasn't that they had nothing to say, but rather that they didn't want to disturb that kind of atmosphere.

Miraculously, it wasn't any sort of ambiguous atmosphere.

It was friendship.

[They really look like friends, if Meng Zhu didn't harbor those kinds of thoughts.]

[Still don't understand? It's actually the female lead's personality—that kind of pure, unpretentious little-sunshine personality.]

[Right, the female lead could probably become good friends with anyone.]

[Her kind of personality is precisely what the male lead, who lacked love since childhood, needs. The attraction can be called fatal.]

[So is there any hope? I see that the female lead is really different towards the male supporting role; even her memories carry happiness.]

[Hard to say, Meng Zhu still needs to work hard.]