Free Web NovelChapter 375: Chapter 281: A Suggestive Action
Then, realization hit him. He shouted angrily at Su Yue, who was already speeding away, "You cunning woman..."
Before his voice even faded, Lin Li, who was several steps behind, dove into the sea and sped after Su Yue, who was already dozens of meters away.
SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASH...
Sending water splashing, Su Yue cut through the sea with the graceful, methodical strokes of a professional swimmer.
Seeing the buoy drawing ever closer, a smile filled Su Yue’s bright eyes.
Unfortunately, her happiness was short-lived. Suddenly, she heard an indignant voice from behind.
"Su Yue, you cunning woman! How dare you play dirty..."
Startled by Lin Li’s voice, Su Yue glanced over her shoulder.
She had assumed that by getting a head start, she would have left Lin Li far, far behind. She thought it would be impossible for him to catch up and that her victory was all but guaranteed.
But now she discovered Lin Li had actually caught up. He was just to her lower right, and not far off either—only about a dozen meters away.
"How can you be swimming so fast?"
According to Su Yue’s calculations, between her superb swimming skills and her little head start, a clumsy swimmer like Lin Li should have been at least a hundred meters behind her by now, not closing in on her like this.
"Hehe, you don’t need to worry about how I’m so fast. All that matters is that this race is mine to win." Seeing the utter shock on Su Yue’s pretty face, Lin Li’s previous anger completely vanished.
He laughed heartily, then picked up his pace again, closing the distance to just two or three meters.
Su Yue, who had felt confident in her advantage, had been perfectly calm. But when she saw Lin Li accelerate again and quickly pull up parallel to her, she started to get anxious, and her limbs began to move faster reflexively.
Unfortunately, quickening her movements now didn’t increase her speed. Instead, it only served to disrupt her rhythm.
In a swimming race, losing your composure and breaking your rhythm is the worst thing that can happen. Su Yue’s speed actually began to drop instead of increase, and at that moment, Lin Li surged past her to take the lead.
After another moment, the distance between them had grown to sixteen or seventeen meters. She watched Lin Li pull farther and farther away after overtaking her.
Su Yue knew she had no chance of winning the race now, but she didn’t give up. She was still determined to finish the entire course.
「A short while later.」
A figure with a well-proportioned build rose from the sea and walked onto the beach.
Lin Li had taken about fourteen and a half minutes to cover the 1,500-meter distance, and that was without speeding up again once he was sure his victory over Su Yue was guaranteed.
If he had pushed himself, he could have finished the entire course in under twelve minutes.
But doing so would have been too out of the ordinary. After all, completing the course in such a short time was not something a regular person could achieve.
To avoid making Su Yue suspicious, it was best not to do that.
Lin Li stood on the shore, looking out at the restless surface of the sea. His gaze landed on Su Yue, who was panting for breath as she struggled to swim toward him.
For an ordinary person like Su Yue, swimming that fast in a race consumed an immense amount of stamina. It would have been impossible for her not to be exhausted and out of breath...
After waiting for a few minutes, Su Yue rose from the sea and walked toward the shore.
"HUFF... HUFF... HUFF..."
Swimming 1,500 meters at full speed had left Su Yue completely exhausted.
Her fair, flushed cheeks were covered in water. Once on shore, she raised a hand to wipe her pretty face and brushed back a wet strand of hair from her ear. Her red lips parted slightly as she asked between gasps, "How do you swim so fast?"
Lin Li chuckled, looking at the exhausted Su Yue, and teased, "Tsk... Was I swimming that fast? It felt fine to me. Maybe you’re just too bad at this! That’s why you think I’m fast.
If I had known you were this slow, I would have given you a one or two-minute head start at the beginning."
"..." On the receiving end of his taunts, Su Yue’s eyes went wide as she stared at Lin Li, her cheeks puffed in silent indignation.
She wanted to retort, but there was no way to argue back. The fact was, she had lost.
Seeing Su Yue puffing her cheeks, Lin Li recalled how she had toyed with him at the beginning, leaving him helpless in the sea. He was overjoyed now; the feeling of wiping away his earlier humiliation was fantastic.
Once she had caught her breath, Su Yue straightened up. Looking at the smug Lin Li, she lifted her chin, puffed out her chest, and asked.
"I lost this race. According to our agreement, the winner can make one request of the loser. So, go ahead! What do you want to ask for?"
Lin Li, whose head was filled with the joy of victory, was suddenly brought up short by Su Yue’s words. The smile on his face vanished, replaced by a conflicted expression.
Lin Li had been so preoccupied with practicing his swimming technique that he hadn’t even thought about making a request, and for a moment, he had no idea what to ask for.
The agreement was that the winner could make one request of the loser, and this request had no limits—it could be anything.
If it had been anyone else, looking at a beauty like Su Yue, they would have certainly made a request that would let one’s imagination run wild.
But when it came to Lin Li, he was stumped.
Su Yue could also see that Lin Li clearly hadn’t thought about what request he would make.
She had been feeling a little depressed from losing the race and being mocked, but seeing the conflicted look on Lin Li’s face, her mood instantly lifted.
Then, Su Yue’s glistening black eyes darted about playfully. A mischievous expression appeared on her face as she slowly approached Lin Li, parted her red lips, and said in a soft, low voice.
"As long as it’s something I can do, you can ask for anything at all!"
"Uh..."
Lin Li looked at the gorgeous Su Yue, at her undulating curves, at her cinched, slender waist...
Watching her slowly approach him, step by step, while murmuring words that could easily send one’s imagination running wild, his heartbeat couldn’t help but quicken.
As Su Yue watched Lin Li’s increasingly flustered expression, the stunningly beautiful smile on her face grew even more radiant.
At that moment, she found herself feeling that losing this swimming race was actually a pretty good thing.
Lin Li watched Su Yue continue to approach him, his mind racing.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man in the distance lying on the ground, enjoying a back massage from his five-year-old son. Inspiration struck, and he made his request to Su Yue.
"I’ve figured out my request. I’ve been practicing my swimming in the sea so frequently lately that my shoulders are really sore. I want you to rub my shoulders for me."
Su Yue, who had been thoroughly enjoying teasing Lin Li, stopped dead in her tracks upon hearing his request. She stared at him, completely astonished.
Su Yue really hadn’t expected Lin Li to make such a simple request. ’This blockhead is as timid as ever,’ she thought.
"What, is that not allowed? You’re the one who said at the beginning that I could ask for anything..." Lin Li said quickly when he saw Su Yue staring at him in astonishment, assuming she was unwilling.
Su Yue, who had actually been feeling a little expectant, rolled her eyes at Lin Li with an expression of deep exasperation, as if disappointed that he wasn’t living up to his potential. She said,
"It’s... fine. It’s just rubbing your shoulders, right? A piece of cake... Honestly! Couldn’t you have come up with a more difficult request?"
"Uh... What do you mean? What kind of ’difficult request’?" Lin Li asked, confused. In his mind, asking Su Yue to rub his shoulders was already a pretty demanding request.
"You don’t know what a difficult request is? You really have no imagination. Here, let me give you an example. For instance, you could have asked me to..."
As she spoke, Su Yue broke into an incredibly alluring smile. She raised a slender finger, as delicate as a scallion, and gently tapped her own rosy lips in a gesture that was sure to send one’s imagination wild.
...
