“This… looks really shaky.” Luo Yu looked at Yu Sen worriedly. “And the ladder is so wet; it would be easy to slip off.”

“But if we don’t go up now, there won’t be any time left.” Yu Sen struggled to clear his throat. “I can’t stay on this small boat any longer. It’s too cold.”

Si Xuanyang immediately decided, “I’ll carry you up.”

Yu Sen choked for a moment, “What kind of nonsense are you talking about? Do you think you’re in the special forces? With this wind and such a narrow, swaying ladder, you still want to carry a grown man? Have you lost your mind again?”

Si Xuanyang grabbed Yu Sen’s ice-cold fingers, glanced irritably and gloomily at the soft ladder, and stubbornly said, “But you’ll fall.”

Then, he added fiercely, “I won’t let you fall.”

Yu Sen sighed lightly, noticing that people were already starting to climb from a nearby small boat. Time was running out. After a moment’s hesitation, he said to them, “You guys go up first and see if there’s a rope you can throw down to me. I’ll tie it around my waist as extra security. If things get really bad, you can pull me up. It’s better than trying to climb up while holding on to me.”

Si Xuanyang frowned slightly, still a bit dissatisfied, but he had no other options.

He nodded at Si Nan and Luo Yu and said in a low voice, “You two go up first. Once you find the rope, lower it down.”

Then he helped Yu Sen sit up straight and massaged his frozen hands and feet, saying gently, “I’ll climb behind you. Take your time, don’t rush. If you slip, I can hold your legs.”

Yu Sen frowned but said nothing. He didn’t like this plan, as it would be too dangerous for Si Xuanyang climbing behind him if he slipped.

But he also knew that this was Si Xuanyang’s last bottom line. It was absolutely impossible for Si Xuanyang to go up first and leave him behind, and there was no time to argue further.

Si Nan and Luo Yu had been training their stamina seriously outside recently. Although the sea wind was strong and made them tremble on the ladder, they managed to climb steadily.

On the wooden boat, Yu Sen’s hand was held and rubbed by Si Xuanyang. As he was feeling dizzy, a sudden sharp pain jolted him, causing his hands to spasm reflexively.

“What’s wrong?” Si Xuanyang’s heart skipped a beat. He grabbed Yu Sen’s wrist and brought it under the light of the kerosene lamp.

Under the light, many small wounds on the base of both thumbs were fully exposed. These were the wounds Yu Sen had secretly inflicted with his nails earlier to keep himself awake. Blood had flowed then, but no one noticed in the darkness. By now, the seawater had washed away the bloodstains around the wounds.

The wounds had become pale and shriveled from soaking, with skin and flesh peeling away, a shocking sight under the lamp.

The seawater, with its salt, must have caused intense pain when it entered the wounds, but Yu Sen’s consciousness had been too muddled to feel it. Now that he had regained some awareness, he felt a sharp, piercing pain.

He raised his eyes slightly, only to see Si Xuanyang’s eyes redden, seemingly in more pain than he was. The hands holding his wrist were trembling violently, likely due to the shock.

Yu Sen exerted a little strength and pulled his hand away.

“Don’t look.”

Si Xuanyang stared at him, saying nothing.

Yu Sen could feel that he was angry, but his mind was too numb from the cold. He had forgotten all his usual tricks to soften or please Si Xuanyang and didn’t know how to apologize, so he just blinked blankly.

But he only guessed half of it right.

Si Xuanyang was indeed angry, but not at Yu Sen.

He was angry at himself, at the cursed clock, at the sea, at the boat, at the soft ladder… His anger could sweep across anything, except Yu Sen.

This person was always special to him.

But now this special person was slow in his reactions, coughing twice, moving his fingers, and cautiously saying, “Sigh, my hands are still a bit stiff…”

Si Xuanyang gave him an ambiguous glance, then grabbed Yu Sen’s hand and brought it to his mouth, where he put three cold fingertips directly into his mouth.

Yu Sen: “!!!!!!”

He yelled hoarsely, “What the hell are you doing!!? Can you show some restraint out here at sea!”

The warm, moist tongue flexibly curled around his knuckles, causing Yu Sen to twitch all over, with blood rushing to his head in an instant, shocking him so much that he wasn’t dizzy for two full seconds.

“Let go of my hand!”

Si Xuanyang only released his hand slowly when he saw Yu Sen’s lower lip had turned a slight shade of pink from biting it, “I was just trying to warm you up…”

Yu Sen quickly pulled his hand back, took a deep breath of cold air, and wiped his hand on Si Xuanyang’s body with a fierce expression, “It’s all covered in saliva…”

Si Xuanyang frowned slightly and lifted Yu Sen’s hand, “Don’t rub so hard; it’ll hurt your wounds.”

“I can’t feel anything anymore, just a bit itchy.” Yu Sen pulled his hand back and avoided looking at Si Xuanyang, feeling a bit too embarrassed to meet his gaze.

When this man went crazy, he was really uncontrollable.

Sucking on someone’s fingers always carried some ambiguous, intimate undertones beyond just warming them up, at least in Yu Sen’s mind…

However, after all this commotion, his body did feel warmer. Yu Sen rubbed his wrist and heard Si Nan shouting from above.

“Yu Ge! Yang Yang! I’ve tied the rope. I’ll throw it down now. Catch it!”

Yu Sen looked up and saw that the two had successfully climbed onto the deck.

“Throw it! Aim well!” Si Xuanyang waved at them vigorously and then pulled Yu Sen closer to him, holding him tight, “Watch out for the rope; don’t let it hit you.”

“I’m not blind.” Yu Sen muttered softly.

Si Xuanyang chuckled, “In this light, you’re practically half-blind.”

Yu Sen gave him a resentful side-eye but didn’t respond.

Just then, a hemp rope was thrown down from the ship, hitting the bow of the wooden boat. The kerosene lamp shook violently a few times and then fell into the sea with a splash, extinguishing the light.

“You’re such a jinx…” Yu Sen sighed helplessly.

Without the kerosene lamp, and being right under the pirate ship, the light from the deck didn’t reach them. Normally, one could still see, but Yu Sen had mild night blindness and was dizzy, so his senses were nearly half-paralyzed.

“Half-blind” was an understatement.

But after all the bad luck he’d experienced, he could calmly accept the reality. After all, he firmly believed that he and the clock were completely incompatible.

Si Xuanyang hooked the rope over, found that it was the right length, and guessed that the other end was probably held by Si Nan and Luo Yu. He tugged the rope and shouted up to the deck, “Si Nan! Better tie the rope to a fixed pole, just to be safe!”

Luo Yu stuck his head out and looked down, “Got it! It’s already tied up! Come on up!”

The rope was a common hemp rope, very strong, strong enough to support a person’s weight.

Yu Sen tilted his head and thought for a moment, then spread his arms towards Si Xuanyang, raising an eyebrow teasingly, “Come on, baby, I’ll give you a chance to play around and tie me up.”

But this time, Si Xuanyang didn’t respond with his usual banter. His face was serious, and he carefully wrapped the rope around Yu Sen’s waist.

Yu Sen’s clothes were wet from the seawater, clinging to his waist and revealing familiar curves. Those were curves that Si Xuanyang had measured countless times with his arms. He could imagine the snow-white, soft skin even with his eyes closed, so soft that it drove him crazy. During their intimate moments, he would support himself there, not daring to use too much force.

But now, he had to tighten it with this rough hemp rope.

Si Xuanyang stared at the rope in his hands, suddenly finding it extremely unpleasant.

…

After a while, Yu Sen noticed that the person in front of him had suddenly frozen in place. He pushed him with confusion, “What’s wrong, baby? The rope is fine, hurry up. Everyone else on the other boats is almost on board.”

Si Xuanyang snapped out of it, exhaled a breath of cold air, and tied the knot, his hand veins bulging from the effort.

Yu Sen let out a muffled groan of discomfort as his body was pulled forward into an arc. He grabbed Si Xuanyang’s shoulder and leaned on him, his head spinning.

Si Xuanyang supported him, pressing him closer into his arms, “Are you okay?”

“Mm…”

Yu Sen paused briefly, then used Si Xuanyang’s hand to half-crouch up.

Compared to his hands, the strength in his legs seemed to recover more slowly, as if he was stepping on cotton.

He frowned slightly and turned his head, saying, “Wait until I’ve climbed up halfway before you come up. Don’t stay too close to me, or I won’t be able to move.”

Si Xuanyang was silent for a moment, then sighed, “Let’s talk after you actually get halfway up.”

“…”

Yu Sen’s mouth twitched: Damn! Another day of being underestimated by my boyfriend!

He snorted sarcastically, held his breath, and slowly pulled the soft ladder towards himself, trembling as he stepped onto it.

After taking the first step, he didn’t dare look back. Once off the wooden boat, his body felt like a leaf, swaying in the air without any support. The surroundings were pitch black, and cold wind howled through his clothes.

Yu Sen closed his eyes, his strength quickly draining away in this situation. If it weren’t for Si Nan pulling the rope upward from the start, reducing his burden, Yu Sen might have found it impossible to climb even these few rungs.

His palms were so cold they felt like they were about to break. He rested his arms on the ladder, his heart racing rapidly due to low blood sugar. He swallowed hard, but couldn’t suppress the physiological panic.

At that moment, his weakened calf seemed to be gripped tightly by something. Yu Sen slightly lowered his head, his eyes blurred by the cold wind, unable to see Si Xuanyang’s face, but he knew the guy was just below him, standing on the same soft ladder, very close, close enough to touch with a single kick.

The force coming from the rope almost felt like it was about to break his waist, but under these two supporting forces, Yu Sen suddenly found the strength to continue climbing.

He held his breath and once again, slowly, step by step, climbed up the ladder until he saw Si Nan’s cheerful big head. It was only then that he felt like he had come back to life.