Tidal Engagement - Chapter 1

My engagement to Pei Tinglan was a deal my father made with a share of maritime rights.

Put nicely, it’s a marriage alliance.

Put bluntly, it’s handing me over to the Pei Family so Lin Corporation could catch a breath from bankruptcy liquidation.

On the engagement banquet day, Pei Tinglan wore a dark grey suit, cufflinks of understated black pearls.

He was quiet among the crowd; when others toasted, he merely touched glasses lightly.

Someone praised him: “Young Master Pei truly has a good temper.”

Pei Tinglan smiled, didn’t answer.

At the time, I thought so too.

Until during the banquet, I overheard him talking with the Pei Family’s Old Steward on the terrace.

The Old Steward lowered his voice: “Young Master, Miss Lin doesn’t know about the Anchor matter.”

Pei Tinglan said: “She doesn’t need to know.”

“But tonight is High Tide.”

“So detain all the ships.”

I stood behind the door, my phone already recording.

The sea wind was strong, blowing his words intermittently.

But that last sentence I heard clearly.

“She’s smart, she’ll run.”

Only then did I realize, the way Pei Tinglan looked at me was never as at a marriage alliance partner pushed out by her family.

He was looking at a fish already in the net.

I didn’t make a scene on the spot.

For someone sold by her own family, the biggest taboo is wearing “I know” on your face.

I returned to the banquet hall, accepted the warm water Pei Tinglan handed me, even smiled at him.

He looked down at me.

“Wine not agreeing with you?”

“A little,” I said. “Mr. Pei is very observant.”

“Your fingers were white when you held the glass earlier.”

He said it so naturally, as if just a considerate fiancé.

I nodded, put down the glass.

“Then you must have also noticed that I don’t like others arranging my path.”

Pei Tinglan’s fingers paused briefly.

He quickly smiled.

“I’ve noticed.”

I thought he’d explain, or pretend not to understand.

He didn’t.

He simply placed a small Silver Ring into my palm.

“The island is damp. Wear it, and you won’t have nightmares at night.”

I looked down at the Silver Ring.

The inner side was engraved with a circle of very fine lines, not like decoration, more like some kind of serial number.

I didn’t wear it.

“Mr. Pei,” I said. “I sleep well.”

He looked at my hand, his eyes indifferent.

“That’s good.”

That night, I stuffed the Silver Ring into the deepest part of my bag.

At two in the morning, I was woken by the sound of the tide.

Not the tide outside the window.

It came from inside the bag.

The Silver Ring was vibrating.

I opened the bag. It lay among lipsticks and IDs, like a cold little animal.

I picked it up with a tissue and dropped it into a glass cup.

The moment the water touched the Silver Ring, a line of words floated up on the glass wall.

Seventh Anchor, has entered the tide.

I stared at that line for three seconds, then turned to open the door.

The door was locked from the outside.

Fine.

Pei Tinglan indeed didn’t underestimate me.

I took out the backup tools from the hidden compartment of my luggage and dismantled the door lock panel.

Lin Corporation used to do sea freight; when I was twelve, I learned from the ship fitter how to open emergency hatch doors.

My father always thought I only knew how to study, and obviously the Pei Family thought the same.

At two-seventeen in the morning, I slipped out of the suite.

The hallway was unlit.

The whole island hotel felt submerged underwater, the marine paintings on the walls glowing faintly blue in the darkness.

I had just reached the stairway when footsteps sounded behind me.

“Miss Lin.”

Pei Tinglan stood at the end of the hallway, his shirt collar loosened, a faint silver glimmer on his shoulder.

I didn’t turn to run.

I knew I couldn’t outrun him.

“Do all you Pei people have such good manners before catching someone?”

He stopped three steps away, didn’t come closer.

“You can’t leave the island tonight.”

“Reason.”

“Sea fog is rising.”

I let out a laugh.

“Pei Tinglan, I have a recording in my hand, and I’ve also looked up your family’s marriage records for the past twenty years.”

His expression finally shifted.

I continued: “Every Pei matriarch disappeared seven years after marriage. Official records say sea accidents, health retreats, overseas settlements. You want me to stay on the island? Fine. But don’t try to fool me with fog.”

The hallway fell silent.

The tide pounded against the windows, wave after wave.

Pei Tinglan suddenly raised his hand and pressed his left shoulder.

A scale was about to break through there.

He said quietly, “You’re even faster than I thought.”

“So?”

“So I can’t let you leave even more now.”