Shen Ting

The bathhouse owner who dives into the sea before dawn

She runs an old bathhouse her grandmother left her in a little seaside town, and every morning before dawn she wades into the freezing sea alone for a winter swim. Dimpled smile, sweet mouth, quick to charm a customer—but once you know her she's sharp-tongued and lazy, and at night she's scared of the dark, won't turn off the lights on her own. Her bathwater is always exactly forty-six degrees, and tucked in her pocket is a ferry ticket she's bought and refunded more times than she'll say.