Chapter 21: Nightmare

That night.

The moon is dark and the wind is strong.

A cold wind blew, and the leaves in the gloomy and dark Desale Forest rustled. A strong smell of blood mixed with the ugly smell of rotting corpses came from the darkness.

Disgusting.

Little Taozhi squatted in the bushes, raised his little head and looked at everything dark and unclear around him.

Where...is this place?

Cold and smelly.

The little guy huddled up in fear, holding himself tightly with his little hands.

Zhizhi really wants to go home...

Tears welled up in the little guy's wet eyes, and he sniffed, trying hard not to cry.

Sudden.

"Boom——"

A loud noise cut through the air, breaking the eerie silence of the forest.

Not far away, a giant beast rushed towards Tao Zhi.

The giant beast was covered in black and purple fur and looked like an ape, but it had sharp fangs, and its two eyeballs glowed fluorescent green like copper bells, and a pungent smell of blood permeated its entire body.

It's extremely terrifying.

Xiao Taozhi's body trembled slightly as she huddled in the bushes. In order not to attract the attention of the strange beast, she bit her lips tightly to prevent herself from making any sound.

“Ouch…”

Suddenly, the strange beast let out a painful howl.

Tao Zhi carefully stuck his head out, only to find that the terrifying beast had been covered by a large net flashing with lightning, and a group of men in black military uniforms were standing around the net.

The leading officer stood tall, his back to Tao Zhi. She couldn't see his face clearly, but could only hear his indifferent command: "Close the net."

Suddenly, another strange beast jumped out from the bushes behind Tao Zhi, leaped over Tao Zhi's head, and pounced straight at the leading man!

The man didn't sense the danger and just turned slightly to report the situation to headquarters.

That familiar face is clearly...

Land stop!

Tao Zhi shouted anxiously: "Dad, be careful! Dad! ..."

But no matter how loud she shouted, the man seemed not to hear her.

She watched helplessly as the giant beast got closer and closer to Lu Ting, until its huge body completely covered the man. Tao Zhi was so anxious that tears fell from her eyes.

Tears blurred Tao Zhi's vision, and everything around her became unclear in an instant...

…

"dad--"

Little Taozhi woke up suddenly, and when she opened her eyes she saw a pink bedroom and Nangong Yao coming in with hot porridge.

The horrific scenes in the dream flashed through the little guy's mind like a movie, and each frame was clearly imprinted in his mind.

Little Taozhi was extremely frightened and started crying out "Awooo", sobbing as if he had suffered a great injustice.

"What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?" Nangong Yao hurriedly put down the bowl in her hand, hugged the little girl in her arms, and gently stroked her back.

“Wuwuwu,” Taozhi’s big eyes were wet, and her soft, baby voice was nasal. “Zhizhi… Zhizhi dreamed… dreamed that a monster beat up Daddy… Wuwuwu… Zhizhi didn’t protect Daddy well… Wuwuwu…”

Nangong Yao paused patting Xiao Taozhi's back and became suspicious.

How did this little guy know about Lu Ting’s actions last night?

"Everyone said it was a dream, but it must be fake. Lu Ting just sent me a message asking if I had woken up!"

"Really?" The little guy's sadness turned into joy in an instant, the tears in his eyes stopped as he looked at Nangong Yao expectantly with his big wet eyes.

"certainly."

To prove she wasn't lying, Nangong Yao opened the light magnetic ring and retrieved the voice message Lu Ting had sent her: "Nangongyao, is the baby pregnant yet?"

Little Taozhi excitedly crawled to Nangong Yao's side, grabbed her wrist and said excitedly: "Daddy, Zhizhi is up!"

Nangong Yao was amused by the little guy's behavior. "This is not a call. Even if you tell Lu Ting now, it will take some time for him to receive it. His signal is not very good over there, so there is a delay in sending text messages."

"Hmm," Tao Zhi scratched his head in confusion. "Auntie Yaoyao, what is a salt pond? Is it a pond with a lot of salt?"

Not knowing how to explain to Xiaotuanzi, Nangong Yao simply said: "Anyway, if you finish this bowl of porridge, your father will be able to hear what you just said."

"Okay~"

Little Taozhi agreed obediently, climbed up, slowly got down from the bed by grabbing the edge, and sat quietly in the high chair to drink porridge.

Nangong Yao saw that Xiao Taozhi was obedient and went out with peace of mind.

As she walked out of the room, Nangong Yao's expression instantly became serious.

Her eyes lightly fell on the recent text message records with Lu Ting. There were several messages in a row, all sent unilaterally by her.

But all of them fell on deaf ears, with no response.

Lu Ting's last reply, which was the audio file he played for Tao Zhi, was sent at 21:39 last night.

Nangong Yao's body stiffened.

No wonder…

Last night, Lu Ting, contrary to his usual behavior, specifically told her not to eavesdrop, but she thought it was just a private conversation between them.

Unexpectedly...

Perhaps, he had already anticipated that he would be imprisoned, so he recorded this audio and sent it to her early to reassure the little one.

The little guy was relieved, but she was worried to death about him now!

This bastard...

Nangong Yao clenched her slender fingers so tightly that she didn't even notice her nails digging into her flesh.

“Dong—dong—dong—”

Hearing a slight knock on the door, little Taozhi, who was enjoying her meal, raised her face from the wooden bowl that was bigger than her face and asked, "Who is it?"

There was silence outside the door for a moment before someone answered: "It's me, Nangong Jue."

It’s Brother Jue.

Little Taozhi wiped her mouth with the handkerchief on the table before running to open the door for Nangong Jue.

"Brother, what do you want to talk to Zhizhi about?"

Nangong Jue was a little embarrassed to speak for a moment. He hesitated for a long time before finally uttering a few words: "Yesterday..."

Sudden.

The housekeeper's voice came from the door: "Master, you are here too. The master wants you and Miss Taozhi to go to his study immediately."

Nangong Jue’s scalp tightened.

His intuition told him that it was over, and what happened yesterday must have reached his father's ears.

His father will definitely punish him severely!

In stark contrast to Nangong Jue's fear, little Taozhi was jumping around all the way, looking very happy.

"Grandpa!" Little Taozhi happily threw herself into Grandpa Nangong's arms.

The old man was so happy that he picked up little Taozhi and put her on his lap. He couldn't help but pinch the little guy's tender face.

After one night, the light red marks on the little guy's skin caused by ultraviolet rays had almost disappeared.

"dad."

Nangong Jue knew he had made a big mistake, and his heart was trembling with fear, even his voice was much less confident than before.

Nangong Wei smiled and responded lightly, and his turbid gaze fell back on Xiao Taozhi.

The old man asked kindly, "Little darling, Grandpa heard that this little brother bullied you last night. Grandpa wants to know if what they said is true?"

"Dad, I..."

Just as Nangong Jue was about to argue, he was stopped by a smiling look from Old Man Nangong.

"Little darling, tell grandpa first."

(End of this chapter)