Coach: Coaching the Grizzlies at the beginning, playing the bantam

After the rain stopped, the smell of grilled squid wafted through the open-air theater, but Hannah pulled Lu Yong upstream.

The Tiger Sculpture Square was empty under the moonlight. She stood on tiptoe and gestured to the tiger's teeth: "Does it look like the expression you make when you dunk?"

Just as Lu Yong was about to retort, a ethereal cry suddenly came from the sea.

A group of sperm whales were breathing in the distance, and the mist they sprayed looked like silver pillars in the moonlight.

"I heard that whales can remember melodies for twenty years." Hannah hummed the Dai tune she learned in Xishuangbanna, and suddenly she felt her shoulders sink - Lu Yong's tiger-pattern T-shirt covered her.

"If it's cold," his suggestion was interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone.

Hannah scrolled through the comments section and screamed, "Look! Someone said we are a couple promoted by the aquarium!"

Lu Yong responded by lifting her onto his shoulders and spinning her around like he was holding a trophy after winning a championship.

Hannah's shell necklace flew out and happened to catch the street light switch.

The whole square suddenly lit up, and the surveillance camera twenty meters away captured this scene: the silhouette of the basketball coach looked like a boy riding a whale, and the girl's flying blonde hair was dotted with spots of light.

As the sycamore leaves of the Bangchuidao State Guesthouse rustled, Hannah was arguing with the map software: "It's only three kilometers in a straight line, but the navigation system has to take seven detours!"

Lu Yong spun the basketball with one hand, his bronze skin glowing in the morning light: "The coach will teach you how to take a shortcut." He suddenly lifted her up by the knees and lifted her onto his shoulders, "Hold on tight, the human navigator is activated!"

The uncles doing morning exercises on the boulevard all looked sideways - the two people with a huge height difference looked like a moving letter i. Hannah's floral skirt swept across the back of Lu Yong's neck, and the dew-soaked sycamore leaves happened to fall into her open canvas bag.

"I can see the sea!" Hannah suddenly pulled his ear, "Put me down! The shell beach is glowing!"

After the tide receded, the reef area was covered with emerald seaweed, and Lu Yong's basketball bounced between the cracks of the rocks, making an ethereal echo. Hannah bent down and picked up a spiral shell: "This is a souvenir from 38.87 degrees north latitude." She suddenly paused - "LYHN 2021" was written in fluorescent pen on the inner wall of the shell.

"I drew it secretly in the kitchen of the hostel yesterday." Lu Yong blocked her punch with a basketball, "Don't hit me in the face! I still have to teach the Coast Guard how to play basketball this afternoon."

Before he finished speaking, a whistle sounded in the distance, and a white patrol boat cut through the mist. Standing on the bow was a captain wearing a basketball jersey.

Hannah narrowed her eyes: "Have your fans infiltrated the Maritime Administration?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the captain threw a sealed bag containing iced cherries and a handwritten challenge: "Coach Lu, if you beat our team, I will send you to Bangchui Island!"

The temporary ball stand was erected on the deck of the patrol boat, swaying at a 30-degree angle with the waves.

Lu Yong pinned the sports camera on the brim of Hannah's hat: "Help me record the winning goal." The sea breeze lifted the hem of his jersey, and the longitude and latitude tattoo on his waist was faintly visible as his muscles rippled.

When Lu Yong jumped up and shot the ball for the thirty-seventh time, brushing against Hannah's fingertips, the captain suddenly blew the tactical whistle.

The moment the wave crest hit, the entire ship tilted like a slide, and the basketball drew an arc that defied physics in the air - and actually fell steadily into the basket that was shaking with the waves!
"This is cheating!" Hannah grabbed the guardrail and screamed, but the camera honestly captured the scene of Lu Yong hovering in the air at the same level as the seagull.

On the challenge letter that was wetted by the waves, a bright red official seal gradually emerged - it was Zhang's special permit to land on the island.

The pebble beach of Bangchuidao was covered with barnacles, and the soles of Lu Yong's sneakers were covered with shell fragments.

Hannah suddenly pointed to the rock wall and said, "Does that cave look like a whale's mouth?"

When the expedition flashlight illuminated the carvings on the cave ceiling, the two held their breath at the same time - Japanese signs from the 1930s were intertwined with brand new fluorescent spray paint, and the newest line was clearly "LY&HN→".

"I brought the youth training team here last week." Lu Yong's lie was betrayed by the echo in the cave. Hannah touched the basketball keychain stuck in the crevice of the rock. The pendant was the one she lost in Xishuangbanna last year.

"So you had already..." Her question was interrupted by the sudden influx of waves.

The tide rose much faster than expected, so Lu Yong pulled her to higher ground.

The soaked jersey stuck to his back, and the old wound stung. Hannah suddenly pushed him towards the reef: "Hold on!"

She stepped into the knee-deep sea water and lifted up a camouflaged rock slab - there was a foldable speedboat hidden in the emergency cabin!
As the sunset dyed the speedboat a tangerine color, Hannah was using a knife to pry oysters. "I learned these emergency skills from the Arctic expedition team when I sponsored them last year."

She deliberately made it sound light, and caught a glimpse of Lu Yong rubbing his waist from the corner of her eye. "Is the spinal compensation problem acting up again?"

Lu Yong took out the envelope from the waterproof bag. The moisture made the ink turn blue. "Actually, today's plan is this - first I'll show you the ocean observatory I helped design, and then I'll use a projector to project the Northern Lights in the whale cave."

Hannah suddenly kissed his chattering lips, and the speedboat swayed gently on the waves.

As they separated, she shook half an oyster and said, "You should have known earlier, rather than making a perfect plan." The lights suddenly lit up at the observation station in the distance, and the entire outline of Bangchuidao turned into a beating heart monitor.

When the Coast Guard patrol boat found them, Lu Yong was teaching Hannah to use a basketball barometer to predict tides.

The captain looked at the boat full of oyster shells and smiled bitterly: "You two have turned your proposal plan into a wilderness survival plan."

On the data screen of the observatory, Lu Yong's spinal pressure value curve perfectly overlapped with the tide chart.

The proposal video that Hannah secretly uploaded is being played on a loop at the Arctic research station. In the video, the basketball coach tied the diamond ring to the back of a tidal crab with a bandage, but his finger was caught in a funny way.

On the easternmost reef of Bangchui Island, the word “LY 爱HN” made of fluorescent shells is breathing in the moonlight.

The rising and falling waves draw new contours every six hours, like a never-ending process of vow renewal.

As the morning mist swept over East Harbor, Hannah's canvas shoes were stepping into the third pool of water.

Lu Yong put away the dripping umbrella tip, looked at the replica of St. Mark's Bell Tower in front of him and smiled bitterly: "Why is this water city of Venice even wetter than Italy?" "Because the sea fog in Dalian is magical." Hannah raised the coffee cup to his lips, the cappuccino foam stuck to the tip of his nose, "The map says that the canal will high tide at nine o'clock." Before he finished speaking, the whistle of the gondola pierced the morning mist, and the turquoise sea water suddenly overflowed the stone steps, crushing their reflections into thousands of golden stars.

Hannah suddenly stopped in front of the glass creative store. The mix of Venetian masks and seagull specimens in the window was too magical, but the white mist she exhaled when she got closer made a certain object visible - a shell necklace lying in a pile of Sardinian coins, and the pendant was the fluorescent heart from Bangchui Island.

"The limited edition that was sold out last week!" The clerk lifted the velvet curtain, "But customers need to complete the challenge." She pointed to the lighthouse on the other side of the canal, with a fluttering orange flag visible in the dim light, "Find the time capsule under the flagpole and you can redeem the prize."

Lu Yong's sneakers rolled over the wet stone slabs: "This activity seems to be tailor-made for the two of us." The second half of the sentence was stuck in his throat, and Hannah had already dragged him towards the pier in the fog.

The canal branched into countless tributaries in the morning mist, and Hannah's footsteps suddenly disappeared. Lu Yong turned around and saw girls wearing feather masks floating by, each wearing the same shell bracelet on her wrist.

"Playing hide-and-seek is too old-fashioned." He shouted into the air, and the tail of his voice was swallowed up by the sudden sound of the accordion. A baroque window suddenly opened, and Hannah's silk scarf fell down and hooked his shoulders: "Come up! You can see the location of the capsule here!"

The attic was filled with ancient maps and sextants, and an old man in a tuxedo was wiping a brass telescope. Hannah leaned close to the lens and exclaimed, "There is no capsule under the flagpole!" Lu Yong noticed that the old man's brooch flashed - it was the Xishuangbanna silver ornament she had lost.

When the midday sun split the thick fog, they were trapped in the mirror museum. Countless Lu Yong and Hannah were refracted in the prism, and even the sound of breathing was cut into pieces. "Close your eyes." Lu Yong suddenly covered her with his tie, "Follow your heartbeat."

Hannah's fingertips touched a cold bulge under her warm palm. When she opened her eyes, the mirror array had changed channels, and the time capsule was rotating in the bulletproof glass - inside was a yellowed boat ticket, with "Venice" written as the destination, but the date was the summer of 2014.

"This is my ticket to attend the painting summer camp after the college entrance examination!" Hannah's pupils trembled, "Then it was cancelled due to the typhoon."

Lu Yong suddenly coughed and took a half step back. The red flush on his neck revealed the secret. That year, he worked part-time as a security guard at the dock and watched a cruise ship full of art students disappear in the rain.

As dusk fell, they finally collapsed on the steps of the musical fountain.

Hannah shook the shell necklace she had found: "So you've already seen me when I was sixteen?"

Lu Yong's defense was drowned out by the roar of the fountain.

The water screen movie happened to be playing "The Legend of 1900". When the virtual waves flooded over the real steps, he suddenly pointed to a certain frame: in the corner of the deck in the heavy rain, a boy in a security uniform was painting in a sketchbook - the flying ponytail and beret were clearly Hannah in her teenage years.

"You drew me secretly!" Hannah's exclamation blended into the fountain symphony.

Lu Yong took out a knife and pried open the secret compartment at the base of the time capsule: 365 sketches fluttered like white doves, from her clear spring eyes at the age of eighteen to the corners of her lips stained with cherry juice yesterday.

Surveillance footage from Venice that night showed a couple turning a gondola into a bumper boat.

While Hannah's scarf was wrapped around the bridge pier statue, Lu Yong was using his tie to tie up the boatman who had secretly slipped a love letter into his pocket - the old man in a tuxedo turned out to be the guest guest of the B&B.

In the glass cabin at the top of the Donggang Lighthouse, there are two items in the newly added time capsule: a ship ticket that did not depart in 2014, and a double ticket for an Antarctic cruise that will take effect in 2034.

The moonlight shines through the capsule shell, projecting the handwritten words on the bill onto the sea surface.

“Some routes may be late, but those who love each other will always be in the same boat.”

.........

The wooden boardwalk at Fisherman's Wharf was still covered with morning dew, and Hannah's skirt had already swept past the seventh bronze seal sculpture.

“This isn’t even a pier!” She turned around and looked at the navigation system on her phone. “The map is full of coffee cup icons!”

Lu Yong was bending over to study the tide timetable. Hearing this, he pressed his index finger against the tip of her spinning shoe and said, "Go to where the salty smell is strong."

Three minutes later, they broke open a faded blue-painted wooden door, and the sea breeze wrapped in the smell of fishing nets and diesel blew in their faces - this was the real entrance to the sea for the fishing boats.

In the corner of the shipyard, old sampans were piled up into a small hill. Hannah stood on tiptoe to reach a rusty compass: "The needle is stuck on a shell." Inside the verdigris-mottled glass cover, a palm-sized giant clam was spitting out half a piece of yellowed letter.

"This is the 'Seamen's Rules' from 1999 years ago." An old boatman in rubber pants suddenly appeared and tapped the compass casing with a wrench. "But there's a love poem on the back." On the turned copper chassis, faded red paint was scribbled with sentences in Russian and Chinese. The last line of small words made Hannah hold her breath: "Na, in the spring of , the anchor chain entangled my rose."

Lu Yong stroked the name that shared the same name as his mother with his thumb and joked, "My father's fleet often sailed on Russian routes."

Before he finished speaking, the old boatman walked away humming "Katyusha", and the silver shell dangling on the key chain was exactly the same as the one on Hannah's wrist.

At noon, the fish market was steaming with the sweet smell of oysters, but Lu Yong was grabbed by the sleeve by the stall owner: "Young couple, come and have a puzzle party!" Under the ten-square-meter plastic shed, a locked ice sculpture was placed in the center of the eight-immortal table, and the word "1999" was faintly visible on the embedded wine bottle.

"The rules are simple." The eldest sister patted open five sea urchins, "You can get the key if you answer the name of the dish correctly!" The first sashimi was arranged in the shape of a rose, and Hannah dipped it in horseradish and wrote "Coral Kiss"; the second charcoal-grilled scallop was embedded with lemon slices, and Lu Yong blurted out "Lunar Eclipse"; the third steamed turbot was just served, and he suddenly held her hand as she poured tea: "This is the love dish when my father proposed to me."

When the ice sculptures shattered, what came out was not champagne, but frosted kvass. The old boatmen who had just returned from a rafting trip laughed, the light bulbs on the roof swayed with the sound of the boat whistle, and the love poems of 1999 floated in the foam.

As the sunset turned the mast of the fishing boat into a harp, they boarded the blue-painted "Xina". Hannah found a wet "Navigation Log" in the cockpit. Most of the page of April 1999, 4 was torn off, and the remaining words were covered with creases: ". The anchor chain was abnormally entangled, and the rose box fell into the sea."

Lu Yong suddenly turned on the high-intensity flashlight, and the fluorescent markings on the edge of the tear became visible - it was actually a nautical chart, and the coordinates pointed to a reef three nautical miles away.

The moment the searchlight illuminated the reef area, Hannah's scream startled the pelicans that were roosting at night. Tens of thousands of fluorescent blue algae were flickering with the surge of the waves, as if the underwater galaxy was pouring down. Lu Yong pulled out a nylon rope from the tool cabin: "Hold on tight, the needle-in-the-haystack operation has begun."

When the metal detector beeped for the third time, Hannah pulled on half of the anchor chain.

Where the rust was peeling off, the rose gold ring from twenty years ago was tangled with the nylon rope, and the Russian abbreviation on the inner wall of the ring flashed with her trembling.
When returning, Hannah added a new page in the "Logbook": "In the summer of 2021, the rose and the ring emerged from the water, but a fool mistook the bottle cap for a wedding ring."

The accompanying picture is a selfie of her with her little finger hooked on the bottle cap, and in the background, Lu Yong is being fed strong liquor by the old crew members.

The real rose gold ring was strung into a necklace and hung in front of the bow of the "Xina". In the dark blue of the fluorescent seaweed, the projections of the two Cyrillic letters swayed with the waves, like the overlapping moon tides of twenty years ago and twenty years later.

The next day, the stall owner updated the riddle: the real name of the steamed turbot is "Undersea Starry Sky", and the answer is hidden in the fingertips of every couple who touch and separate. (End of this chapter)