Unsent Letters from the Deep Sea

She had less than three months to live. He chose to spend the rest of his life sinking into the same deep sea. Shen Yu'an stayed at the Lujiao Bay Monitoring Station for three years, dealing with water temperature, coral coverage, and bleached area every day. He thought that was all. Until Su Nian appeared. A photographer who was taking pictures of "disappearing things" had unusually cold hands. When he smiled, he first lowered his head and then raised his eyes. She said that she photographed corals because they turned white and shiny after death, as if they refused to admit that they were dead. Later, Shen Yuan learned that she was not just talking about coral. Degenerative neurological disease, vision, movement, speech, all disappear. The median time doctors gave: three months. Su Nian made a list on the back of the tide table: go to the deep sea again, watch a real sunrise, sit on the lighthouse for a night without talking, and listen to the waves from beginning to end. Shen Yu'an accompanied her to complete each task. He still held her hand until she could no longer see, walk or speak. "If one day I can't turn off the lights myself——" "I'll lock you up." This is not a story about death. This is a story about "just in time". Twenty-one meters deep into the sea, on a piece of sand where there was once nothing, blue coral is growing.