OBS 090 Call Dad
090 Call Dad
Wang Zhe jumped into West Lake.
The lake water was a bit cold, and it instantly soaked through my clothes.
It's very close to the shore here, and the water isn't actually deep, only about chest-deep. But for someone who can't swim and is extremely terrified, it's no different from deep water.
Zhu Qi struggled desperately in the water, waving her hands wildly, and choked on several mouthfuls of water.
Wang Zhe waded through the water, grabbed her arm, then went behind her, slipped under her armpit, and hugged her tightly.
"Don't move! Stand up straight!"
Wang Zhe shouted loudly, while firmly planting his feet on the bottom of the water and forcefully lifting Zhu Qi upwards.
"Cough cough... cough cough cough!"
The moment Wang Zhe grabbed her from behind and forcibly dragged her out of the water, Zhu Qi coughed violently, gasping for fresh air.
The sudden sense of rescue and the feeling of security brought by those strong arms instantly shattered all her psychological defenses.
In a daze, it felt as if time had turned back.
She remembered when she was seven years old. In her family's swimming pool, she accidentally slipped into the deep end. It was the same desperate suffocation, and it was the same pair of strong hands that lifted her up.
That was her father.
For reasons she couldn't talk about, she rarely saw her father, and opportunities to play together were even rarer. But it was precisely on that day, in her most helpless moment, that her father rescued her from her desperate struggle.
That was also the moment in her memory when her father was at his greatest and most imposing.
At this moment, the relief that followed extreme terror caused Zhu Qi's brain to short-circuit for a moment.
She collapsed into Wang Zhe's arms, her voice trembling with tears, and whispered:
"dad……"
The sound wasn't loud, but at that moment, it was exceptionally clear to the ears of the person beside them.
Wang Zhe: "..."
His movements suddenly froze.
Wang Zhe was stunned. He looked down at the handsome senior in his arms, who was soaking wet and disheveled, and his eyes became extremely strange.
"What did you call me?"
Upon hearing Wang Zhe's voice, Zhu Qi suddenly snapped back to reality.
She opened her eyes, turned to look at the young and handsome face, and then recalled the word that had just slipped out of her mouth...
In an instant, I felt a rush of heat to my head, my cheeks burned, and even the roots of my ears felt like they were on fire.
Good heavens! What have I done?
He called a freshman two years younger than him "Dad"?!
"I...I..."
Zhu Qi stammered, trying to explain, but found that it was impossible to explain. She was so embarrassed that she wished she could just go back into the water and drown.
At this moment, Su Xiaocheng ran to the shore in two steps, crying out, "Sister Qiqi! Sister Qiqi, how are you? You scared me to death!"
Because of the distance of a few meters, and because Zhu Qi's voice wasn't loud, Su Xiaocheng didn't hear the word "Dad," but only saw Zhu Qi leaning against Wang Zhe's chest, lost in thought.
With Wang Zhe's help, Zhu Qi scrambled ashore in a fluster, sat down on the grass in a disheveled state, wiped the water off her face, and lowered her head, not daring to look at Wang Zhe.
She could only whisper to her junior, "I...I'm fine."
Wang Zhe also climbed ashore, completely soaked.
He glanced at Zhu Qi, who wished she could disappear into the ground, and decided to be a good person and pretend he hadn't heard the address she had just received.
"It's good that you're alright," Wang Zhe said calmly, wringing out the water from his clothes. "Actually, the water was very shallow there. As long as you stood up straight, your head would be above water. If you hadn't panicked, there would have been no danger at all."
"I...I can't swim, and I panicked as soon as I went in, so..." Zhu Qi explained softly, completely losing her usual cool and aloof demeanor, and instead sounding like a little girl who had done something wrong.
After saying that, she secretly raised her head and looked at Wang Zhe.
Under the sunlight, Wang Zhe's white T-shirt was soaked through, clinging tightly to his body and outlining the thin yet muscular lines of the young man. His hair was still dripping wet, sliding down his cheeks.
But he didn't complain or laugh at her disheveled state; he simply stood there calmly, his eyes carrying a reassuring composure.
Zhu Qi's gaze was somewhat vacant.
Besides the shame brought by that awkward "Dad," another strange emotion was quietly spreading in my heart.
This whole scene was witnessed by Su Xiaocheng, who was standing nearby.
Su Xiaocheng looked at Zhu Qi's blank and shy gaze, and saw how she kept staring at Wang Zhe despite her disheveled appearance, and her heart immediately went on high alert.
Is this what they call a hero saving a damsel in distress? What will happen next?
Su Xiaocheng gritted her teeth secretly, her hands, hidden behind her back, clenched into fists.
At this moment, Wang Zhe coughed twice, breaking the brief silence.
He pointed at Zhu Qi, then at himself: "Well, we're both soaking wet now, so we definitely can't go shopping in these clothes. We need to go back to the hotel first."
Zhu Qi then realized what was happening and looked down at herself.
The white T-shirt became somewhat transparent after being soaked, clinging tightly to the body, and the outline of the underwear underneath was faintly visible.
"what!"
Zhu Qi gasped in surprise, quickly crossed her arms over her chest, and blushed even more.
With that expression and her wet hair, she looked anything but handsome. At this moment, no one could possibly mistake her gender.
Anyone would realize that she was a beautiful girl who was shy and timid.
When Wang Zhe saw this, he didn't stare at it intently, but instead turned away quite gentlemanly.
Then he asked, "Senior, do you have any clothes to change into?"
Zhu Qi said somewhat flusteredly, "I have a spare set of sportswear. But yours..."
"I brought some too, I can change at the hotel," Wang Zhe said.
Zhu Qi stared at his retreating figure as he turned away, her eyes suddenly welling up with tears. These tears, however, were not the tears of a lake.
Suddenly, she stood up and said, "It's because of me that you got all your clothes and shoes soaked while saving me... So, let me take you to buy you a new set!"
"There's really no need for that, you're too kind. Just wash and dry it." Wang Zhe waved his hand in refusal.
"We absolutely have to go!" Zhu Qi's stubbornness flared up immediately. "It's settled then! Go back to the hotel, take a shower, change your clothes, and I'll take you to the nearby shopping mall. I also need to buy some clothes."
Hearing her insistence, Wang Zhe thought about it and decided not to refuse anymore.
Since someone's paying anyway, why not take advantage of them? Besides, after this incident, his relationship with Zhu Qi has clearly gotten closer, which will definitely be beneficial for swindling investors in the future.
So the three of them started walking back.
Wang Zhe remained riding at the front, while Zhu Qi followed closely behind him, glancing at his back from time to time with gratitude and a hint of shyness in her eyes.
Su Xiaocheng rode behind the two of them.
She looked at the two wet figures in front of her. Although she couldn't see Zhu Qi staring at someone's back, her heart still felt as sour as if a basket of lemons had been squeezed out.
The petite girl gripped the handlebars tightly with both hands, her knuckles turning white.
She gritted her teeth, staring at Zhu Qi and Wang Zhe's retreating figures, and muttered to herself in a voice only she could hear:
"Clearly, I was the one who started first..."
Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.