Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“The flowers are quite pretty.”

Song Jinbie said it in a low voice.

I gave a soft “Mm.”

“I’ll accept the flowers. As for the person, he’s not bad-looking.”

Letting people misunderstand was the only way to cover for Lin Ying and the others.

“Flowers have thorns. They prick.”

Song Jinbie pulled the bouquet away and tossed it into the bucket.

The bucket held the fish he’d caught.

“You only caught three?”

“Just enough for you to eat.”

“…”

I narrowed my eyes.

Song Jinbie really was an interesting man.

Sometimes he was so domineering he made you want to kill him. Other times, he would take these petty little digs at you, all quiet and roundabout.

Right now, I was truly looking forward to regaining my memories-looking forward to carrying the fullest impression of my sworn enemy and experiencing the confusion and raw instinct of Song Jinbie’s barren memory.

Only the complete me knew best how to wring fatal pleasure from him.

As I calculated in my heart, the weather in the distance turned strange and unpredictable.

The clouds sank low, wrapping the sea in a suffocating darkness. Wind, waves, and torrential rain came pouring down.

In an instant, the boat began to heave violently.

The captain shouted, “The storm’s here! Turn back, now!”

Song Jinbie immediately gripped my arm. Our bodies collided as the two of us hurried toward the escape cabin.

A huge wave slammed over us. No matter how extraordinary our skills were, it still knocked us into a hard stumble.

The bow tilted sharply. Song Jinbie slid to his knees beside me.

For a moment, an image suddenly overlapped with the scene before my eyes.

Song Jinbie, blood at the corner of his mouth, moved with clean, efficient precision, his gaze sharp as a falcon’s.

A black, formfitting uniform filled my entire field of vision. My eyes widened slightly, and I quickly raised my hand, ready for close combat.

The memory that flashed through my mind made me put up my guard without hesitation.

But Song Jinbie clasped my wrist and blocked the massive sheet of seawater crashing down on us.

I snapped back to myself and realized his eyes were no longer as cold and arrogant as they had been in my memory.

We stared at each other for a moment.

Our pupils reflected each other’s silhouettes.

Song Jinbie narrowed his eyes by the slightest degree, then rose and retreated at the same time I did.

“This is bad! The deck’s cracking! The rudder’s out of control-we can’t hold against the storm! Everyone evacuate to Boat No. 2!!!”

The captain’s voice was hoarse from shouting.

Another wave crashed over. Seawater had already seeped in beneath our feet.

Song Jinbie and I leaned half our bodies out.

With a crack, the railing snapped.

My whole body hung from him, my nails digging hard into his back, while Song Jinbie’s arm clamped around my waist.

With one hand, he gripped the broken wood and hung from the side of the boat.

Beneath our feet, the black sea churned.

The familiar deadly situation. The familiar closeness.

In that instant, my memories returned completely.

But there was no time to think. The railing was about to split.

Song Jinbie and I exchanged a look.

He released my waist, and I used the force to step onto his palm, launching myself up and flipping back onto the boat.

At the same time, the railing broke apart.

I flung him a length of rope with my other hand.

He caught it smoothly with his free hand, planted his feet against the hull, and flipped himself back up.

The bottom of the boat was already filling with seawater.

Song Jinbie and I moved swiftly, leaping toward Boat No. 2.

Logically speaking, the boat was tottering on the verge of collapse and could barely withstand a touch. If two people moved at the same time, it was very likely to cave in.

But our coordination was perfect, and we reached the safe vessel just before the boat dropped into the sea.

If I hadn’t recovered my memories, I would have suspected that he and I had trained together since childhood.