How an Honest Woman Won the Alliance's Number-One Fleet Commander

Synopsis:




Yun Shui is very ordinary. Utterly unremarkable.




After passing the civil-service exam, she joins the fleet as a clerical officer, spending every day writing reports and making virtually no impression on anyone.




But for all her outward innocence, she has the audacity to secretly covet the lofty, aloof fleet commander.




And she is spectacularly stubborn about it. She absolutely refuses to admit it.







Then disaster strikes.




An earthquake hits the fortress. The fleet commander is injured and, after an accident, loses his memory.




Yun Shui lends him a helping hand.




The amnesiac fleet commander asks, “I hear you’re my lover?”




Yun Shui: ???




Wait…




Something this good actually happened to her?!







The fleet commander is tall and handsome. Even with his memory gone, he hasn't turned into an idiot.




Yun Shui doesn't take the initiative, but she doesn't exactly refuse, either. Whatever she dreams about, she says.




And so she commits the mistake every woman makes at least once.




How many steps does it take to win over a fleet commander?




Step One: A Gift from Heaven.

After losing his memory, Yun Shui's moral standards take a temporary nosedive, and she grits her teeth and pretends to be his lover.




Step Two: Take Advantage of the Situation.

Afraid that the fleet commander's memories might return, Yun Shui timidly takes advantage of him in all sorts of ways.




Step Three: Know When to Stop.

After all, this is deception. Manipulation. The behavior of a scoundrel.




Yun Shui still manages to restrain herself.




She doesn't take the fleet commander's first time.




Two months later, the fleet commander's memories return. But he has completely forgotten everything that happened while he was amnesiac. He remembers only what happened before the earthquake.




Yun Shui is disappointed, of course.




But she is also grateful to heaven for giving her a limited-time experience card. She is perfectly satisfied.




She didn't get greedy.







The fleet commander's memory returns, and everything goes back to normal.




But strangely enough, every now and then, he dreams.




In the most absurd of these dreams, he actually does all sorts of wicked things to Yun Shui. Her eyes are wet. Her lips are soft.




During the day, they may have just finished an argument.




But the moment he falls asleep, his dreams are nothing but runaway fantasies.




The fleet commander thinks he must have gone insane.




Until, after exhausting every possible avenue, he manages to recover a lost photo archive.




The photographs are irrefutable evidence.

They really had once held each other close.

Spring flowers had been in full bloom.

Everything had been radiant.







The fleet commander's expression darkens as he goes to settle the score with Yun Shui.




Yun Shui looks everywhere but at him and changes the subject, eventually promising, “What's in the past is in the past.”




The fleet commander: “Is this what you call liking someone?”

Yun Shui: “Huh?”

The fleet commander: “Oh. So your affection only lasts two minutes, and you can just cancel it afterward?”

Yun Shui: “…”

The fleet commander says coldly, “You lied to me once. Don't you think you owe me an explanation?”

Yun Shui: ?!!







The fleet commander always reminds her of the tail end of a summer many years ago—

Cicadas raining down their cries, a pair of quiet eyes beneath a parasol tree, the feelings of youth hovering there, half-visible and half-hidden.







Someone once said that when St. Elmo's fire appears, it means a storm is coming. Uncontrolled electrical charges set the pitch-black surface of the sea aglow with an eerie, cold blue light.




The first time I saw it was on a windy night like that.




You stood at the very end of the harbor, with rippling blue light behind you, bright as stars.




The storm really was coming.

I was absolutely certain of it.