The Seventy-Sixth Night(2)
The next day, he took her to the snorkeling spot. The equipment they needed was already prepared. The two learnt some techniques and signs from the instructor before carrying the equipment and going down.
She walked into the water with Feng Jing. Watching the water slowly rise above her waist, she felt a little scared. The hand that was holding the man tightened slightly, and she looked at him saying, “Ah, I’m a little nervous.”
“Don’t be scared, I’ll go down with you,” He reassured with a smile. “The instructor is following too.”
“Okay.”
Just then, the instructor had taught them plenty of ways to get over the fear. As she recalled it, she adjusted her frame of mind.
Seeing that she was prepared, the instructor had them put on the goggles and fins and prepare to dive.
At the snorkeling spot, the couple slowly entered the water under the guidance of the instructor. The water first rose past her chest then her head as if swallowing her from all directions. Feng Jing pressed her hand as if telling her not to be anxious and slowly adjust her breathing. She looked at the man whose face was full of reassurance… It slowly dawned on her that he was within easy reach, it was then that her fear gradually dissipated.
As they sank deeper, more shoals and corals slowly appeared. The waters here were amazingly clear. She watched the schools of fish swim by her, the curiosity and newness of everything had completely replaced the fear from earlier.
Reaching out, she watched the little fish swim over her palm. She excitedly looked towards Feng Jing, seeing him smile at her as they slowly swam forward together.
Jiang Ran’s attention was already completely drawn in by the underwater world as she took plenty of pictures. It was now that Feng Jing pulled her and pointed at a coral. Confused, she looked at him and then again at the coral, unsure as to what he wanted her to see.
He pointed again, then went himself to take something from behind the coral. Then, he slowly turned around to face Jiang Ran before raising the object in his hand.
It was a ring.
Jiang Ran stilled. Her first thought was that someone had lost their ring here when snorkeling, but then she found it strange. It was a diamond ring, the kind you could tell was expensive at one glance. If someone came snorkeling, they would have taken it off first.
She swam closer to take a look and paused in shock. This was not something left behind or lost because it was the spitting image of the sketch Feng Jing had shown her before.
Her breathing picked up again. She looked at the man before her, hovering in place with a little uncertainly. He already received the ring? When?
At this moment, Feng Jing swam over to her, raised her left hand, and carefully slid the ring on her ring finger.
The instructor filmed the entire scene with the underwater camera he had brought, it was simply beautiful.
After they surfaced, Jiang Ran still felt like her brain was sluggish. She went back to shore with Feng Jing and looked down once again at the ring on her finger to confirm this was not a dream.
She looked up and asked, “You… planned this?”
Feng Jing laughed and pulled her towards the shore. He did not speak, but Jiang Ran’s heart was still pumping wildly. “You asked me out snorkeling for this?”
“How was it, isn’t it very romantic?” he said, smiling.
She turned away, refusing to look at his sparkling eyes. “It was okay.”
“How about this?”
It was unknown when the flowers appeared at the shore. Feng Jing took one and knelt down to gift it to her. The tourists on the beach started making a commotion, and Jiang Ran hurriedly accepted the flowers before pulling him up.
“Congratulations!” The instructor exclaimed in English as he handed the camera to Feng Jing.
A bashful Jiang Ran returned to the hotel with her man under a sea of curious gazes.
“You’re really annoying, doing all this and not telling me in advance!” She fell onto the bed, using the back of her hand to cool her still hot face.
How could they even go out in the next few days, it felt like every tourist on the island knew them now!
Feng Jing took the memory card out of the rental camera and inserted it in the computer. “Where’s the surprise if I told you? I spent a long time planning today.”
She propped her head on her hand and looked at him. “Oh, no wonder I felt that you were acting odd the last couple of days. You really were doing something behind my back.”
The handsome man simply broke into a peal of laughter and said nothing.
She asked again, “When did you get the ring? Back in the country?”
“Yeah, I had been musing about how to give it to you after getting it.”
“— you could have just given it to me.”
“How would I do that, there’s still got to be some sort of ceremony.”
At this moment, Jiang Ran recalled the scene of him putting the ring on her underwater, and her heartbeat sped up. “But you hid the ring behind the coral? Such an expensive thing, weren’t you afraid of losing it?”
“How could that be, I only pretended to get it… it was in my hand the whole time.”
Jiang Ran: “——”
He has so many ‘ways’.
“It’ll be all right if the ring is in the seawater, right?”
This was her diamond wedding ring, after all.
“It was for such a short while, there’d be no problems.” After he finally managed to retrieve the files, he went to sit with her, laptop in hand. “Come have a look at the pictures.”
“All right.”
Feng Jing started going through them one by one. They were not long underwater but had quite a number of pictures.
“This is quite good, it’s so pretty. This one, this one, it’s good too!”
As the photos went by, Jiang Ran finally settled on the last one.
In the photo, Feng Jing was looking down as he put the ring on her finger. The blue seawater shimmered as the colourful schools of fish swam around them.