Chapter 379: Xiuyuan~ The moon is so round tonight

The desert night arrives quickly; in the short ten-plus minutes of the car ride, the sky outside the window has turned completely from purple-gray to ink-blue.

The lights of the camp in the distance light up one after another in the darkness, like stars scattered across the wilderness.

And the original sand-dashing camp has also completely changed its appearance at this moment.

The large tent used as a reception center during the day is now hung all around with warm yellow string lights, swaying in the night like fireflies.

A huge handmade carpet is spread in the center of the courtyard, its red and blue geometric patterns looking archaic and gorgeous under the reflection of the firelight.

Low tables and thick cushions are placed all around, and the tables are already set with steaming grilled meats, Arabic flatbreads, various dipping sauces, and freshly cut fruits and vegetables.

The charcoal fire crackles on the grill, and the air is filled with the charred fragrance of the meat, as well as the slightly scorched, crispy aroma of the Arabic flatbreads.

After returning to the camp, Liu Zhimin gets out of the car with Lin Xiuyuan, and then sits down with him on the cushions near the fire.

Then follows a series of photo-taking and sanitizing routines, only this time the camera has been replaced by a mobile phone; it is only after finishing that the two officially begin their meal.

When the meal is half over, the rhythmic Arabic drum music suddenly sounds in the open space in the center of the courtyard.

Several Arab women wearing bright long skirts and tassel waist chains step onto the carpet barefoot and begin to dance an enthusiastic and unrestrained belly dance.

Liu Zhimin, facing this kind of dance for the first time, holds her cup and watches, somewhat mesmerized.

Not until the song ends does she turn her head to look at Lin Xiuyuan, the dancing firelight reflected in her eyes as she asks, "Xiuyuan, have you seen this kind of dance before?"

"I've seen it in short videos, but this is my first time seeing it live." Lin Xiuyuan leans back into the cushions, his posture relaxed. "It's not quite what I imagined; it's much more infectious in person."

"Then do you think our kind of stage performance is better, or is this one better?"

As a dancer herself, Liu Zhimin doesn't know why, but this thought suddenly popped up, wanting to make a comparison.

Lin Xiuyuan, being asked, is also a bit bewildered; after a long moment, he replies, "Your dance styles aren't even the same type, how can they be compared?"

"It's just a feeling." Once a woman starts a mode of female competition, she cannot stop, and Liu Zhimin is no exception.

So, hearing this, Lin Xiuyuan already understands the situation and laughs, "If you put it that way, then there's no need to ask; I definitely prefer your kind of stage."

"Why?" Liu Zhimin's eyes light up.

"I'm a person who is more nostalgic; I don't really like people of foreign races," Lin Xiuyuan explains.

However, Liu Zhimin is not very satisfied with this answer, so she looks at Lin Xiuyuan for a long time, staring, gazing.

Lin Xiuyuan, feeling his scalp tingle from being watched, quickly adds, "Uh, well, naturally you are prettier and dance better."

"Smooth talker. Forget it, I won't make things difficult for you."

After looking at Lin Xiuyuan for another two seconds, Liu Zhimin bursts into a laugh, and after that, she says nothing more, just continuing to gaze at the scene of song and dance in the center.

That exquisite profile looks exceptionally soft in the flickering firelight, and the curve of the corners of her mouth when she is occasionally amused makes Lin Xiuyuan think of that team leader he met at the seaside Villa in Seoul.

Come to think of it, it has been a long time since he last saw her.

The silver moonlight has unknowingly spilled over the camp, plating the warm yellow lights with a layer of cold, clear outer garment.

The Arabic music switches from a cheerful dance tune to a more melodious and soothing melody; the belly dancers exit, and several musicians sit at the edge of the carpet, beginning to play the oud and hand drums.

The sound of the strings is mournful and long, like the desert itself whispering.

Just as Liu Zhimin feels the whole night is about to end perfectly in this exotic, romantic atmosphere, a completely different kind of music drifts over from not far away.

It is the distortion wall of an electric guitar, the beat of a heavy bass drum machine that makes one's chest cavity numb, and the sound waves woven by electronic synthesizers, full of modern industrial feel.

These sound waves rudely and temptingly tear through the archaic tranquility of this Arabian night.

It makes Liu Zhimin turn her head to look in the direction the sound is coming from; it is brightly lit there, light beams crossing and scanning in the night sky, and the silhouettes of a huge stage outline and surging crowds are vaguely visible.

Lin Xiuyuan, beside her, also notices the situation.

So he beckons a passing waiter to ask what kind of event is happening over there.

The waiter, being asked, looks in the direction of his gaze and answers with a smile, "Oh, they are holding a desert electronic music festival there these two days. They've invited quite a few DJs from Europe, and it will last until the early morning. Many young guests go over there to have fun."

After hearing the answer, Lin Xiuyuan looks at Liu Zhimin, not extending an invitation in words, but asking with his eyes.

And Liu Zhimin, meeting his gaze, slowly curves the corners of her mouth and nods gently, her smile carrying a childlike, eager anticipation.

"Let's go~" Lin Xiuyuan puts down the cup in his hand and stands up. "It's so fun, I want to go see it too; I don't think I've ever attended any music festival."

Liu Zhimin, at his side, also gets up, and they leave the Arabic carpet under the silver moon side by side, walking toward the night sky that is being cut into pieces by electronic light beams.

And as they walk closer, the low-frequency tremors that sounded quite subtle from a distance gradually turn into a physical impact that one can clearly feel resonating in their chest cavity.

The road is not long, but because they have to go around several temporarily built board houses and trucks piled with sound equipment, it actually takes them ten-plus minutes.

The ground transitions from soft sand to a compacted gravel road; the feel underfoot becomes solid, but the surrounding lights become brighter and more chaotic.

It is not the kind of carefully designed landscape lighting, but the industrial-feeling direct light beams that only temporary stages have.

Liu Zhimin, walking half a step in front, has a light gait, occasionally turning sideways to avoid equipment boxes piled on the side of the road, and occasionally trying to look over the board houses to see the stage further away.

That ponytail, which was tied up earlier for the meal, swings back and forth behind her head, and the edge of the hood of her cream-white hoodie is also lifted and dropped by the night wind.

Then, they round the last dark curtain blocking their view.

The scene before them suddenly opens up.

It is a vast stretch of sandy ground temporarily requisitioned, now completely occupied by thousands of people and a giant stage.

The stage is built from rugged black steel pipes into a geometric frame, towering and transparent, like a futuristic desert totem.

A dozen sets of moving head lights shoot out dense beams from different directions, crossing, scanning, and cutting in the night sky, churning the ink-blue canopy into fragmented color blocks.

Scarlet, electric cyan, laser purple, and then suddenly switching to incandescent white.

In the center of the stage, the DJ's figure is outlined as a black silhouette against the backlight; the person raises both hands high, precisely pushing the faders on the mixing console.

The heavy bass drum machine explodes with a bang, like a detonated heavy bomb.

It is a low frequency that can pass directly through the eardrums, making the cranial cavity numb, and even the sand underfoot resonates along with it.

At the same time, the crowd, like wheat waves pulled by the same invisible rope, raises their arms in unison, undulating up and down, screams and music merging into one.

Liu Zhimin, standing on the periphery, takes a deep breath, facing the sound waves rushing toward her.

Her eyes are made to shine by the constantly changing lights, the entire restless stage reflected in her pupils.

"Wow!!!"

She shouted at the top of her lungs, but her voice was still drowned out by the massive volume of the music; however, Lin Xiuyuan heard her next sentence.

"So comfortable, this kind of scene is still more suitable for young people like us."

Standing to one side, Lin Xiuyuan was in no hurry to squeeze inside.

After casting a glance around, he compared the scene to the oud and hand drums still playing at the campsite not far away; the clamor constructed here by electronic synthesizers and heavy bass was indeed more direct, and it struck at human instinct in a more unreasonable way.

But before walking into that crowd, Lin Xiuyuan did not forget to lean close to Liu Zhimin's ear, intending to say something first.

It was just that the music was truly too loud; he had to press his lips almost against her earlobe to make his voice penetrate that thick wall of sound.

"Zhimin, there is a problem we need to pay attention to first."

Turning her head, Liu Zhimin blinked, did not pull away, and shouted back at the same volume, "What problem?"

"There are too many young people here." Lin Xiuyuan's speaking pace was not fast, and he tried to enunciate every word clearly.

"Look, almost everyone is holding a phone up; some are filming the stage, some are filming themselves, and some are randomly scanning the crowd around them. I don't know how many people here have their cameras recording, nor do I know whose lens they might sweep over. If the two of us happen to get caught by some wide-angle lens and then get clipped out by someone with ulterior motives and put on the internet—"

Lin Xiuyuan stopped speaking, and although he hadn't finished his sentence, Liu Zhimin already understood.

However, she did not answer immediately, but instead looked deeply at Lin Xiuyuan for a few moments.

The lights swept across her face, changing from blue to pink, then from pink back to a normal warm white, and then she suddenly smiled.

That smile was very light; it didn't look like she had been amused, nor was it any kind of polite smile.

It was a softer, heartfelt smile.

"Xiuyuan~ I think I finally know why."

"Know what?"

"Know why I've only met you a few times, yet I'm already so heart-fluttered."

Tilting her head slightly, Liu Zhimin spoke very straightforwardly, her gaze resting on Lin Xiuyuan's face, as if confirming something, or perhaps simply admiring something.

It was so straightforward that the smile habitually hanging on Lin Xiuyuan's face faltered for a moment.

He subconsciously leaned back, as if he had been gently pushed by that sentence.

The movement wasn't large, but the surprise was real.

Fortunately, Liu Zhimin did not feel embarrassed by his reaction; instead, she smiled even more happily.

With her eyebrows curved, she continued, "You know, the people around me, whether they are professional contacts or private acquaintances, are all so utilitarian. This activity is fun, I want to go. This person is useful, I want to befriend them. This matter is good for me, I want to do it."

Liu Zhimin's voice sounded exceptionally clear in the gaps between the massive music.

"Although they also say caring things to me, that kind of care goes in a circle and eventually lands back on themselves. So, having seen too many selfish people, suddenly meeting someone who isn't thinking 'I want to go in', but rather 'will you have trouble if you go in'—"

Saying this, she looked at Lin Xiuyuan quietly, "People like you, a warm little sun, are really too rare."

Having heard this, Lin Xiuyuan didn't respond; mainly, he didn't know how to respond.

He couldn't exactly say, "Actually, I'm afraid of being filmed; if I get exposed, the people around me and the secrets I carry are even more troublesome than you imagine. What if I get exposed because of you?" right?

That would be too much of a mood-killer.

Moreover, the atmosphere had already been built up to this point, and he wasn't some wooden statue, nor was it his first time getting along with a girl; he knew when to say what, and when silence carried more weight than words.

So, thinking of this, Lin Xiuyuan first smiled, then found a very legitimate reason, "Uh, although that's how you put it, one still has to consider your teammates. If I brought you out to play and it caused some strange rumors for your team, that would be bad."

And this reason, falling into Liu Zhimin's ears, turned into another kind of thoughtfulness.

Not only caring about her, but also caring about her future, and caring about the entire environment she was in.

At this, her eyes softened even more.

"Mm, what you said is also right."

At the same time, she slightly restrained the straightforward offensive from just now and thought about it seriously, "Then how about we don't squeeze in?"

""

As she spoke, she turned to look at the surging crowd on the dance floor, then looked at the areas near the edge of the stage that were packed solid, and pointed to the relatively sparse open space behind the crowd.

"Look, it's quite empty behind the crowd. We can just listen from the back; we can feel the atmosphere, there are fewer people, and the lenses shouldn't be able to scan that far."

"That works." Lin Xiuyuan glanced in the direction she pointed and nodded, "Saving some trouble is good too."

So, the two of them did not squeeze into the most fanatical core area, but instead followed the edge of the crowd and circled around to a relatively loose area about thirty meters in front of the stage.

Here, one could still clearly feel the impact of the music and see every movement of the DJ on stage and every switch of the lights, but people were no longer squeezed chest-to-back, and there weren't so many arms holding up phones overhead.

More importantly, there were no intense directional light beams scanning here; the entire crowd was in the peripheral zone covered by the stage lights, with hazy light and shadow, and faces unclear.

It was very suitable for two people who didn't want to be captured by a lens.

As for issues like tickets or admission fees, they didn't constitute any obstacle at this moment.

These public-facing desert music festivals in Dubai were often supported by the local royal family or conglomerates; they didn't lack this bit of income, and all they wanted was popularity and atmosphere.

Therefore, there weren't even decent ticket-checking turnstiles at the entrance; there were only a few staff members wearing fluorescent vests standing there, smiling and nodding to indicate when they saw people coming.

Free entry and exit, welcome.

When Liu Zhimin stood still on that relatively empty patch of sand, her toes tapped the ground lightly along with the faint beat.

The music on stage was also transitioning from a section of intense drum machine to a longer, more hypnotic electronic melody; the low frequency still made one's chest go numb, but the rhythm became lazy and psychedelic.

Listening to this kind of dance music, as an idol's habit and instinct, her body also began to move.

At first, it was just a light sway, her shoulder blades tracing small arcs through that cream-white hoodie.

Then the amplitude gradually grew larger, and her waist, as if moved by invisible fingers, began to twist into soft waves along with the melody.

The overall movement was not deliberate, very casual and immersed, making every twist of hers full of infectious power, with a sense of defenseless freedom.

In the time that followed, driven by the music, Liu Zhimin would occasionally raise her hands, her slender fingers opening and closing in the air, as if catching the sand dust dancing in the light beams.

Sometimes she would let her ponytail swing left and right with her movements, a few stray hairs slipping from her forehead and sticking to her slightly flushed cheeks.

During this period, that section of her waist exposed between the hoodie and the cargo pants appeared and disappeared with every twist and turn, with tiny beads of sweat seeping out on her skin.

It shimmered with a moist luster in the dim light.

In the end, as she danced more and more immersed, she became more and more self-forgetful.

She then turned around in a very spirited manner, faced Lin Xiuyuan, and reached out to grab his wrist.

Come on!

The sound of her shouting was swallowed by the music, but that enthusiasm was conveyed without reservation.

The next second, Lin Xiuyuan was pulled by her into that rhythmic space that belonged only to Liu Zhimin.

Although he was not particularly good at dancing, he did not resist either, letting her hold his hand while he matched her steps with the simplest movements and swaying.

His gaze, however, remained fixed on her face, her body, and every expression that blossomed from her joy.

Then, after an unknown amount of time, Liu Zhimin suddenly hugged him.

It was the very passionate, very uninhibited kind.

She wrapped her arms directly around his neck, hanging her entire body on him, and led him to jump along with the wildest drum beats.

Joyful laughter rang out crisply in the gaps of the music, rushing straight into Lin Xiuyuan's ears.

At the same time, her hot breath sprayed against the side of his neck, and her cropped sweatshirt slid upward with her movements, revealing a section of her waist that was delicate, warm, and constantly rubbing against his clothes.

Enjoying all of this, Lin Xiuyuan let Liu Zhimin lead him, while his arms did not forget to wrap around that small waist to prevent her from losing her balance in her overly enthusiastic jumping.

His gaze passed over her constantly heaving shoulders and landed on the changing stage lights in the distance, then retracted, landing on her side profile, which was close at hand and slightly glistening with sweat.

On this sandy ground surrounded by deafening music and a crowd dancing wildly, Lin Xiuyuan's quiet gaze appeared, by contrast, very calm and profound.

He watched the person before him laugh, watched her jump around, watched her occasionally close her eyes and become completely immersed in the melody, and watched those strands of hair brush against his jaw with every toss of her head.

And when Liu Zhimin opened her eyes for the umpteenth time and looked up at Lin Xiuyuan, she finally met those eyes.

At the moment their eyes met, she froze for a second.

In that instant, Liu Zhimin saw only him in her eyes, and she also saw, deep within those eyes that remained calm amidst the kaleidoscope of colors, a tiny, panting version of herself.

In this second, she suddenly understood something.

Her heart felt as if it had been lightly touched by something, so she stopped thinking and, without hesitation, stood on her tiptoes.

The surrounding music was still deafening, the light beams were still sweeping wildly, and the crowd was still screaming and jumping.

But behind that sound barrier and wall of light, this moment was quiet.

A warm, soft pair of lips lightly covered the corner of Lin Xiuyuan's lips.

The sensation was like the first cool breeze after nightfall in the desert, like fine sand flowing silently over a sand ridge, like the weight of moonlight landing on skin.

It was very light.

It was very soft.

It was very moist.

It was also what caused the body of the unprepared Lin Xiuyuan to pause slightly for a moment.

He felt those slightly trembling eyelashes brush against his cheekbone, felt the waist that had stiffened in his palm due to her held breath, and felt the trace of her body pressed tightly against his chest, appearing somewhat distorted.

Only then did he hear Liu Zhimin's voice, which was delayed by several seconds.

The voice came from beside his ear; it was emitted by the lips pressed against the corner of his mouth, the sound spilling out from between their intertwined breaths: "Xiuyuan~ the moon is so round tonight."

Hearing this, Lin Xiuyuan did not waste time looking up at the moon.

Instead, he lowered his head and, in the gap where the noise and silence intertwined, responded to this kiss.

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