Chapter 095: Gliding Elegy

There were fourteen and a half days left until the battle performance, inside the top honeymoon suite of the Blue Moon Grand Hotel.

Le Xiaotian returned to the room, discarding the car keys, wetsuit, gliding suit, and flight suit. He saw Chen Fang, who had already risen from bed. A dozen or so female adjutants beside them had been watching movies, reading novels, and listening to music until they were utterly enraptured.

“Feeling better?” Le Xiaotian asked.

“Mmm.” Chen Fang replied with visible excitement. The group that had been immersed in the Dance of the Universe game had become ten years younger, their bodies and spirits in a state of unprecedented vitality. This allowed them to overlook the age difference and remain together with Le Xiaotian.

“Commander!” Upon seeing Le Xiaotian return, the adjutants set aside their entertainment and straightened up.

He waved a hand to signal that courtesies were unnecessary, then walked to the bedside, took a bottle of water, and drank. Le Xiaotian smiled. “You all go eat first. Xiaofang, change into something comfortable too. We’ll go gliding in a bit.”

The adjutants offered no further objection; they were soldiers who followed orders without question.

Chen Fang looked surprised. “Gliding? I can’t glide at all.”

After changing, Le Xiaotian laughed. “I’ll take you with me. Come on, eat first, then we go.”

They finished a simple meal, rested for ten minutes, and drove to the coastline of Blue Moon Island, where they prepared to begin gliding.

Chen Fang, tightly encased in the wetsuit from head to toe, felt the wind rush across her and saw only endless ocean stretching before her. She trembled. “Le, can I not glide?”

He placed the diving goggles over her eyes and then attached waterproof in-ear headphones. “If you want to keep your perfect figure exactly as it is, you need to repeat the same level of extreme exercise you did yesterday. Only that way can it last.”

Chen Fang understood the principle, yet by visual estimation this cliff drop would be more than a thousand meters high. Jumping from such a height and landing on the rocks below would be fatal.

Without giving her time to think further, he put on his own black goggles, stepped back several paces, and prepared to sprint. “Hold on tight.”

Chen Fang grew terrified, her arms locked around his neck, legs clamped around his waist, her entire body pressed close. She whimpered, “Le, can we not jump?”

He stepped back to a safe distance, then charged forward toward the cliff edge.

At the brink he leaped.

“Ah—!” Suspended in midair, Chen Fang cried out. Though wearing earphones, she still felt the fierce wind whipping across her face and the gale rushing into her mouth; she instantly shut it.

With his left hand he gave her buttocks two quick slaps, a faint smile on his lips. His body language urged her to stay calm.

He calculated speed as they plunged downward. When he tapped the play button on her earphone with his right hand, he spread his arms and began gliding. The high-end black gliding suit caught the wind and lifted them both, the descent slowing.

These complex calculations and judgments meant nothing to Chen Fang; she knew only panic and screams.

Yet the moment music filled her earphones, she fell silent.

In an instant the listening mood unfolded. The track Le Xiaotian had chosen for her, Monody, began to play (produced by TheFatRat, featuring Laura Brehm’s ethereal solo lament).

The low, resonant ship-horn note opened with a sense of vast emptiness. Wind-chime tones added an otherworldly shimmer; the deep, heavy electric cello’s strong bow stroke opened the melody with resonant power.

The violin’s muted technique blended with the Irish flute, neither losing its soaring momentum nor its boundless vitality. As the flute’s clear, melodic notes rose, the mood deepened further. Chen Fang grew utterly still; it was beautiful.

A few simple instruments and a scale appeared, and she understood—this was another divine song.

The small military drum entered, lighter and more brilliant than the bass, its rhythmic patter breaking the beat. The tuba and three French horns joined, instantly heightening the grandeur.

This was a powerful electronic dance piece built on a rich orchestral foundation.

The music reached the point where the bass drum and electronic timbres took the lead, driving the emotion with a relentless forty-four-beat pulse.

At that moment Chen Fang had the leisure to admire the man beside her. Against blue skies and drifting clouds, wearing black goggles, he looked breathtaking.

Their bodies remained pressed tightly together, sharing warmth. It felt wonderful. The golden light of the setting sun seemed warmer still.

Le Xiaotian spread his arms fully. From the thousand-meter cliff they had dropped, he now skimmed along the deep-blue sea, the water parting beneath them like a ship cutting waves.

Suddenly Chen Fang heard an astonishing female voice in her ear, pure and unearthly. She turned and saw Le Xiaotian wearing in-ear headphones, singing along.

An electronic dance track carrying such a lovely female vocal was an unexpected delight.

Matching his lip movements and the lyrics in her mind, Chen Fang parted her lips and sang with dreamy eyes: “Summer in the Hills, Those Hazy Days I Do Remember~”

On the clear blue sea, warm wind drifting, Le Xiaotian and Chen Fang sang together:

“In the height of summer among the mountains,
Those hazy days are still vividly in my memory.
We run steadfastly,
Tread across the entire world.
Witness the changing of seasons,
The road we walk is a legend.
The mountains and peaks, the hardships and obstacles cannot block our yearning for the sea.
Now our arms are open wide,
This is our home.
The world we have created has never been so tenacious.
I can still hear your breath in the breeze,
See your figure under the shade of the trees.
Hold on, the memory never fades.”

Quiet, distant, ethereal, and wondrous, Chen Fang felt her soul rise. She hugged Le Xiaotian tighter still, gazing at the beauty of nature in awe, immersing herself in its embrace.

She wanted time to stop right there, yet feared that after stopping it would feel unreal. She fell into a dilemma.

The cold sea water soon brought her back.

Sizzle—!

Gliding ended, the two dove from the sea surface, entering deeper and deeper, Chen Fang’s body meeting the water first.

Her buttocks were chilled by the sea, and she twisted with a startled cry.

Removing the earphones and switching off the music, Le Xiaotian and Chen Fang had completely sunk beneath the waves.

Plop! Plop! They surfaced again, the beautiful sounds of nature echoing in their ears.

He took off his goggles and looked out at the cliff they had already glided several nautical miles. Turning, he smiled. “Xiaofang, let’s race again. If you lose, you surrender your body to me. If I lose, I surrender mine to you. Fair enough?”