After finishing the call with her son, Zhao Rou filled a thermos with hot water and went to a hospital room.
On the hospital bed lay a middle-aged man in a patient's gown. Though older, he still looked handsome and refined. One could imagine he must have been quite the looker in his youth.
The man was none other than Li Yang's father, Li Guohai.
Li Guohai had late-stage cancer. He often suffered from shortness of breath and severe pain, so he had been living in the hospital.
Seeing Li Guohai seemingly lost in a daze, Zhao Rou hurried over and said, "Brother Hai, I was just on the phone with our son. He ran into a swarm of mud crabs at the beach and even caught several..."
She quickly repeated what Li Yang had told her.
"A swarm of mud crabs?" Li Guohai listened, then smiled. "Xiaoyang's luck is pretty good. I haven't run into a swarm of mud crabs more than five times in all my years."
Hearing this, Zhao Rou said, "You're thinking about going to the beach again, aren't you?"
When he had the time, Li Guohai also loved to go foraging at the beach, especially when Li Yang was a child and loved to trail behind him.
When they had nothing to do, the father and son duo loved to wander along the shore.
So, they weren't the least bit worried about their son going to the beach.
After talking about that, Li Guohai suddenly asked, "By the way, Xiaorou, how much money do we have left?"
When she heard his question, Zhao Rou answered, "There's still 430,000 in the account."
Li Guohai nodded. "Spend at most another 130,000 on my treatment. Keep the remaining 300,000. You and Xiaoyang will still need money."
To be honest, while the Li family wasn't wealthy, they were much better off than the average comfortably well-off family.
After more than twenty years of hard work, the Li family had amassed assets worth around ten million, but most of that money had been spent on Li Xue and Li Yang.
When Li Xue got married, Li Guohai and Zhao Rou gave her a house and a car as her dowry.
And now, Li Yang also had a house in his name in the city, bought for over four million. It hadn't been renovated yet, as they planned to do that when Li Yang got married.
The money Li Guohai and Zhao Rou had earned over the years had mostly gone into these two properties. Besides that, they had a few hundred thousand in cash on hand.
A life like this should have been free of worries. After all, you can only spend so much in a lifetime; you can't spend all the money in the world, nor can you take it with you when you go.
But unexpectedly, such a tragedy had befallen Li Guohai.
Hearing Li Guohai's words, Zhao Rou's expression changed. She said angrily, "Brother Hai, what are you talking about?"
Li Guohai smiled and said, "I know my own illness. It's incurable. The medicine is only extending my life by a few months."
He seemed to be quite philosophical about it, showing no fear of death.
In his view, he was going to die sooner or later, so it was better to leave more for his wife and son. Spending that money on him was just a waste.
"You've got some nerve, don't you? Saying things like that again!"
At his words, Zhao Rou grew even angrier and grabbed Li Guohai's ear with her right hand.
"Honey, ow, ow, ow."
Seeing this, Li Guohai quickly begged for mercy, but looking at his ear, it was clear Zhao Rou hadn't actually used any force.
After a moment, Li Guohai realized Zhao Rou wasn't speaking. He looked at his wife and saw that her eyes were red, with tears already streaming down her face.
"Honey, I was just kidding. Why are you crying?"
Seeing her like this, Li Guohai panicked. His heart ached for her, and he quickly pulled her into his arms.
Over all these years, their affection for each other hadn't faded. Instead, they were like a young couple deeply in love.
Back home, Li Yang would often sigh about how his parents were the ones truly in love; he was probably just the third wheel.
"Brother Hai, I'll go to the Zhao family again tomorrow. I'll beg my dad," Zhao Rou said through her tears.
Hearing this made Li Guohai's heart ache even more. He knew what a proud person Zhao Rou was; even when she had a falling out with her family back then, she had never been willing to bow her head.
But for his sake, she had previously gone to the Zhao family and knelt to beg that Zhao Qianxing.
He had once sworn to give his wife the best life possible, to show the Zhao family. He dreamed of becoming successful, returning to the Zhao family with his wife and children, and saying something classic like, "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west—never underestimate a poor young man." But now, this was his reality.
Li Guohai could only hate himself for being useless, for being unable to make the Zhao family look at them with new respect.
Given the current situation, his wish to make the Zhao family see him in a better light was now impossible to achieve.
"Xiaorou, don't go to the Zhao family. Life and death are decided by fate. I've truly come to terms with it now."
Li Guohai tried to comfort her. "Maybe if I keep this optimistic attitude, the cancer will be cured. Haven't you seen the news? Some people get cancer, let go of their worries, keep a positive mindset, and their cancer cells magically disappear. Maybe I can be one of those lucky ones."
Hearing this, a sliver of hope sparked in Zhao Rou's heart. She said through her tears, "Brother Hai, don't you ever talk about stopping treatment again. It doesn't matter how much it costs. Xiaoyang already said to sell the house if we don't have enough money, and Xiaoxue also said we can sell the house in her name."
"Okay, okay." Looking at his weeping wife, Li Guohai would have agreed to a hundred thousand demands, so he nodded quickly.
...
Meanwhile, after ending the call, Li Yang's gaze turned toward the sea.
It was sometime in June, the hottest time of the year. It wasn't just the shore that was busy; there were also people playing in the sea.
Li Yang looked out at the vast ocean, his mind silently pondering.
'What was that feeling just now?'
Earlier, when most of his body had been submerged in that little pool, he'd felt what everyone feels in water—a sense of insecurity as buoyancy pushes the body upward.
Li Yang had felt that at first, but it changed in an instant. His body felt no buoyancy in the water at all, making it feel no different from being on land.
'Was it my imagination?'
Li Yang thought to himself. As for the Cultivation Technique that had suddenly appeared in his mind, he was still in the exploratory phase. He knew it could rapidly improve his physical fitness, but he didn't know if it had any other effects.
After a moment's thought, Li Yang walked toward the deeper water.
The ocean floor off the coast of Coastal City had a gentle slope. Seventy meters from the shoreline, the water was just over a meter deep.
Li Yang slowly walked out to the hundred-meter mark, where the water reached a depth of one and a half meters. He slowly crouched down, feeling the pressure of the seawater.
But then, his body unconsciously changed, and the pressure vanished in an instant.
'This feeling is back!'
Li Yang thought to himself. The water was now up to his shoulders, but his body still felt as if it were on the shore.
Taking a deep breath, Li Yang plunged his head directly into the seawater.
He was holding his breath, but less than two seconds later, an expression of utter shock appeared in his eyes.