Beach Volleyball

Kong Hanyue pondered for a moment and asked Liu Man Man, "What should we do this afternoon?"

Liu Man Man also fell into deep thought, as she hadn't thought about this question either.

Kong Hanyue then looked at Yuxue, "According to the tour plan, what should we be doing now?"

Taking out her phone, Yuxue checked her original plan, "According to the plan, this afternoon was meant for sunbathing."

"I see, sunbathing," Kong Hanyue nodded, finalizing the decision.

Changing back into swimsuits, everyone headed to the beach. The maids set up sun umbrellas and lounge chairs and brought over a large bucket of ice with a variety of drinks for them to enjoy.

Each member of the group lay down on their lounge chairs, looking at the clouds in the sky, as the scene fell quiet.

Ten minutes later, Kong Hanyue couldn't take it anymore, "This seems a bit boring."

"Mainly because we've already taken a nap, and now we can't sleep," agreed Liu Man Man with Kong Hanyue's thoughts.

"How about we do something then?" Suggested Xia Yu, who was also a bit restless.

An Siyao and Hu Liang Lu had no objections.

"What should we do?" Everyone pondered.

A maid nearby suggested, "How about watching volleyball? My master and his friends all enjoy it very much."

To avoid misunderstandings, she added, "The female friends the master had brought before also enjoyed it, saying it was popular in the first district."

"Watch volleyball?" Xia Yu was puzzled.

"Yes, originally we could have had teams of three with six people, but now we can only have teams of two," said the maid.

Xia Yu glanced at the young and beautiful face of the maid, asking, "Do we need to change into swimsuits?"

The maid was currently wearing an athletic swimsuit, similar to the one An Siyao and the others were wearing, which almost covered her entire body.

"Yes," the maid replied.

It was no wonder that An Tian Feng could enjoy beach volleyball – he really knew how to have a good time.

"Shall we take a look?" Kong Hanyue was somewhat interested, seeking Liu Man Man's opinion.

"Forget it," Liu Man Man wasn't interested in the maid.

Upon hearing this, Xia Yu sighed in disappointment.

However, Liu Man Man immediately added, "Let's play?"

Xia Yu's spirits were instantly revived, this was even better!

Upon receiving instructions, the maid moved a net from a nearby hut and took out a volleyball.

Volleyball was also one of the mandatory sports in physical education classes. All the girls, except An Siyao, could play. As for Xia Yu, even if he couldn't, his physical abilities would easily allow him to.

With three people per team being too many and likely restrictive, they decided on teams of two.

Xia Yu originally planned to team up with An Siyao, but when he saw that Kong Hanyue didn't pair up with Yuxue and instead chose Liu Man Man, he quickly picked Yuxue.

This sister was extremely sensitive to being "abandoned." If she were left alone even in the presence of her brother and mother, she might become very sad.

In the absence of Xia Yu as a competitor, Hu Liang Lu successfully partnered with An Siyao, which delighted her.

Xia Yu wasn't disappointed about not being able to team up with An Siyao.

If he was with An Siyao, constantly focusing on his teammate wouldn't look good. However, if he and An Siyao were on opposing teams, looking at her would be perfectly normal.

Each of the three teams sent one person to play a mixed doubles match. Xia Yu and Kong Hanyue held their palms up, while An Siyao held hers down, so Xia Yu's team and Kong Hanyue's team started the game first.

After going on the court, Xia Yu quickly eliminated Kong Hanyue and Liu Man Man with a score of three to zero.

"Damn it, give us a break!" Kong Hanyue sat on the ground with her head in her hands.

During the match, besides serving a ball, Kong Hanyue and Liu Man Man never touched the volleyball.

It had been just over a minute since they went on the court, and this was already after picking up the ball and pulling for a while – otherwise, they would have had to leave in less than half a minute.

"You're actually so cruel to Auntie too!" Liu Man Man also complained about Xia Yu's misdeeds on the side.

"I'm not an auntie!" Kong Hanyue immediately dropped her condemnation of Xia Yu and defended herself.

After the two of them left the court, An Siyao and Hu Liang Lu went on.

Xia Yu chose to watch from the sidelines. Under Hu Liang Lu's urgent guidance, An Siyao could barely play some easy balls, and the two of them took turns with Yuxue.

Ten minutes later, they lost to Yuxue.

Although Yuxue's volleyball skills were quite good, compared to the trained and greatly improved agility of Hu Liang Lu, her skills still fell short. If they played one-on-one, Yuxue would most likely lose, but An Siyao was holding Hu Liang Lu back, so Hu Liang Lu couldn't let loose.

After winning, Yuxue excitedly high-fived Xia Yu and eagerly faced off against Kong Hanyue and Liu Man Man.

"Xia Yu, you're not allowed to move!" Kong Hanyue and Liu Man Man restricted Xia Yu's freedom and began their contest with Yuxue.

After all, Kong Hanyue was older and had not touched volleyball since leaving school, while Liu Man Man often went out to perform and skipped many gym classes, making the two of them even less effective than the held-back Hu Liang Lu.

Soon, Yuxue defeated the two of them and once again fought alongside Hu Liang Lu.

Due to excessive physical exertion, Yuxue lost the game to the other side.

Xia Yu and her came to the sidelines and watched Hu Liang Lu, Kong Hanyue, and Liu Man Man compete.

As expected, Liu Man Man and Kong Hanyue lost the game again. After a good rest, Yuxue went back on the court, defeated Hu Liang Lu again, and the cycle began.

Xia Yu, who was deprived of the right to touch the ball, wandered around with a camera, taking pictures of them.

When they were tired of playing, the six of them went back to the lounge chairs to rest, enjoying the warm sea breeze and drinking cold beverages, comfortably spending the afternoon.

In the evening, they gathered to critique the photos Xia Yu had taken, and then each of them returned to their bedrooms.

Xia Yu opened the curtains, lay down in bed, and looked out at the beach.

The moonlight tonight was weak, and the beach was pitch black, with only a few red signal lights shining.

Seeing nothing with her eyes, her ears became more sensitive, and the sound of the waves reached Xia Yu's ears.

Listening to the sound of the waves, the irritation in Zhu Mei's heart was gradually washed away.

By rights, Zhu Mei should have been staying in the apartment to prevent any retaliation from the Grey Reef Company.

However, Zhu Mei couldn't stand to look at those people all day, discussing how to restore the royal family, but when she stayed in her room alone, she felt suffocated.

So, she sneaked out.

Her good behavior these days had made Li Hua forget that she was a rebellious girl who secretly met with a brown bear, and Li Hua didn't notice her actions at all.

She didn't go to any remote places, and at the moment, more than a dozen tourists were eating barbecue about ten steps away from her.

After her mood calmed down, the sound of conversation next to her reached Zhu Mei's ears.

It was in Chinese, which Zhu Mei had specifically studied in the palace and could understand.

"What's behind that mountain in the east?"

"Private territory, I guess it belongs to some wealthy tycoon."

"They even rented a whole beach area, tsk tsk tsk."

Zhu Mei stopped listening to what they said next, as she was already heading back.

The tourists' mention of private territory reminded her of the royal territory that Li Hua had mentioned, making her feel a bit down again.

When she returned to the apartment building, Li Hua was looking for her. She used the excuse of missing two elevators and successfully deceived Li Hua.

After taking a bath in her room, Zhu Mei returned to her bedroom, took off the pendant from her neck and placed it on the bedside table, then got into bed.

"Goodnight, Little Bear." Turning off the light, Zhu Mei whispered to the pendant containing the brown bear's ashes.

Her consciousness gradually faded, and she soon fell asleep.

She didn't know how long it had been when she was woken up by a crackling sound.

Opening her eyes, Zhu Mei listened carefully. The sound was coming from the living room, which was quiet at the moment.

Feeling uneasy, she got out of bed quietly, keeping an eye on the bedroom door.

Recalling that she had locked the door before going to sleep, Zhu Mei felt slightly relieved.

However, at that moment, she heard a faint sound coming from the keyhole.

An enemy!

Zhu Mei's heart clenched instantly, and she fumbled to pick up a chair from the floor and stood by the door to wait.

After the door lock clicked for five seconds, it automatically opened.

After a second of silence, the doorknob slowly moved, and the person outside opened a crack in the door.

Since the curtains were tightly drawn, the room was pitch black, and the intruder couldn't see Zhu Mei standing by the door. He pushed the door open about thirty degrees and entered the bedroom.

He was greeted by a chair swung forcefully by Zhu Mei.

"Ah!" The chair hit the intruder solidly on the head, and he fell to the ground.

Not daring to check on the intruder, Zhu Mei stepped over his body and was about to run out, but suddenly remembered the pendant and rushed back to get it.

Going through the living room, Zhu Mei arrived at Li Hua's door. Li Hua hadn't closed her door, which was meant to rescue Zhu Mei at the first sign of trouble, but it had put herself in danger.

At the door, Zhu Mei saw two shadows inside and realized that Li Hua had been subdued.

"What's going on over there, Second Brother?" The person in Zhu Mei's room sensed something was wrong.

Luckily, he didn't know that Zhu Mei was in the other room, or he would have realized that the male scream just now must have meant that his companion had encountered some trouble.

"Run!" Li Hua's voice rang out.

Zhu Mei immediately stepped forward, opened the door, and quickly entered the elevator, pressing the button for the third floor.

Seeing the elevator doors close, Zhu Mei breathed a sigh of relief.

The elevator slowly descended, soon reaching the sixteenth, fifteenth, fourteenth floors...

At that moment, Zhu Mei suddenly thought of something.

Since the 23rd floor was attacked, were the people on the 3rd floor really okay?

She left in a hurry and didn't bring her phone, otherwise, she could call to confirm.

She then thought that the person upstairs must have a phone, and upon realizing that she had run away, they would definitely call their accomplices downstairs.

With this in mind, Zhu Mei immediately pressed the button for the tenth floor and stopped there.

Each elevator has a display showing the floor it is on, and Zhu Mei, aware that if the elevator stopped for too long at a floor, it might attract attention, went on to press buttons for the ninth, eighth, seventh... and many other floors.

Zhu Mei didn't know if this would work, but she had no other way.

Thinking that she always wore a mask when she went out, Zhu Mei knew that they couldn't know her real face. She then quickly walked down the stairs, though the elevator stopped at each floor, it was certainly slower than her, but the sooner she could escape, the better.

The stairway was brightly lit, but it did nothing to dispel the fear in Zhu Mei's heart.

Arriving at the 4th floor, Zhu Mei heard some voices discussing what late-night snacks to buy. They were tourists living in the apartment building.

Zhu Mei quickly followed the two men downstairs.

Her beautiful face made the two men, who were wearing only shorts, feel a bit embarrassed, so they ended their conversation and tried to act serious.

Soon they arrived at the third floor, and Zhu Mei became more nervous.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" a malicious voice suddenly rang out.

They were two bald men standing behind the stairway door. Seeing them, Zhu Mei's heart sank, she knew that the younger brothers and companions on the third floor were in great danger.

The two bald men had received a report that one person had escaped, but now there were three people coming down, so they stopped them to ask questions.

"What are you talking about?" The two tourists turned their heads, looking puzzled at the bald men.

The language the two bald men spoke was a common dialect in District 23 and District 26. Although it was a variant of Chinese, it was even more difficult to understand than the local dialect, and the two tourists from District 1 could not understand it.

Zhu Mei also pretended to be puzzled and looked at the two bald men.

Seeing their expressions, the two bald men smiled. They waved their hands in a gesture of saying goodbye, but said, "Get lost, idiots."

The two tourists were deceived by the apparent friendliness of the bald men, thinking that what they said must be a polite way to say goodbye. So they enthusiastically learned the phrase and said goodbye: "Get lost, idiots."

The two bald men hissed, holding back their anger with gloomy faces.

Zhu Mei's heart calmed down, and she continued to follow the two tourists downstairs.

At that moment, the voices of the two bald men rang out again: "Woman, stop!"

Zhu Mei felt a shock in her heart and instinctively stopped and prepared to turn around to pretend to be a tourist to explain, but after turning her head, she realized that the tourists could not understand the two bald men's words.

So she asked in Chinese, "What? I don't understand your language."

The two bald men waved their hands, letting her leave.

Upon reaching the first floor, Zhu Mei let out a long sigh of relief.