Chapter 57

Even Zhou Chengze thought the dream was utterly absurd, so he told it as a joke, and even his tone of voice carried a hint of self-deprecation and teasing.

He wanted to tell Xiang Wan about his dream from that day as a joke, but seeing that she remained silent for a long time, and considering that her wheelchair had suddenly stopped, he thought that his words had offended her, and he nervously wanted to explain.

He knew he had been rejected after confessing his feelings to Xiang Wan, and saying this now sounded like he was testing her. He hurriedly tried to defend himself: "You've misunderstood, I wasn't..."

Seemingly after thinking it over, he felt that his wording was not quite right, so he changed his words again: "I really had a very strange dream those two days."

“I’m telling the truth, I’m not lying to you.”

Seeing that Xiang Wan remained silent, his voice sounded somewhat nervous.

He had his back to her, so he couldn't see her expression unless she turned her wheelchair around.

Hearing this, Xiang Wan remained calm, though her eyes held a complex expression. She released her grip on the wheelchair, took out a pack of women's cigarettes from her pocket, and quietly lit a cigarette...

She knew, of course, that Zhou Chengze wasn't lying, because in their previous life they were indeed engaged in six months, and no one knew that better than her.

Their positions were in everyone's blind spot, so although others could see them, they couldn't see what they were doing.

Even though Zhou Chengze had his back to her, he could tell from the smell of smoke that Xiang Wan was smoking.

This was the first time he had ever seen a woman smoke, and also the first time he had ever seen someone he liked smoke.

He wanted to advise her that smoking was harmful to her health, but he felt he had no right to speak, so he held back and didn't say anything.

He didn't know why she suddenly started smoking, but he felt that it was related to what he had just said.

But after Xiang Wan heard that he had a dream, she neither asked him about what happened next nor made any statement. He thought he was overthinking it and that it was just a strange dream.

When Xiang Wan was halfway through drawing her lottery ticket, Zhou Chengze neither tried to persuade her nor stopped her. He simply stayed quietly by her side, trying his best to minimize his presence.

Just when he thought Xiang Wan would finish the whole cigarette like that... Chen Yan quietly came over.

He snatched the half-smoked cigarette from her hand from behind, but said nothing else.

Xiang Wan didn't say anything, and didn't even look at him.

Seeing that her cigarette had been stubbed out, she wasn't angry. She simply took out another cigarette from the pack.

However, before the second cigarette could be lit, Chen Yan snatched it away again.

Xiang Wan remained silent and wanted to take a third cigarette, but Chen Yan preemptively pulled a cigarette out of the pack: "Since you like smoking so much, I'll smoke with you."

As he spoke, he lit the cigarette, but before he could even put it to his lips, Xiang Wan snatched it away, extinguished it, and threw it into the snow.

You can't smoke.

"Why?"

He interrupted Xiang Wan's thoughts, his tone somewhat cold: "There's no reason."

Chen Yan's body tensed up, then relaxed after a while. He looked at Xiang Wan's back and, as if by magic, pulled out a few sparklers from his pocket and handed them to her.

He pretended nothing had happened: "Xiang Shuhan, let's set off fireworks together."

Xiang Wan turned her head to look at him, and the image of him jumping into the dry well without hesitation flashed through her mind again. Her attitude softened, but she did not accept his suggestion: "Why don't you push him to see the fireworks?"

The three people in the snow all knew perfectly well who "he" referred to.

"I still have some things to take care of at the company, so I asked them not to bother me."

Even if Secretary Huang is a workaholic, she wouldn't talk to Xiang Wan about work on New Year's Eve. It's not that she wants to deal with work; she really just wants to be alone.

The entire sky was ablaze with fireworks, and even the air was thick with the smell of gunpowder, yet Xiang Wan walked towards the second floor of the villa without looking back...

Outside the courtyard, Chen Yan stood in the snow, watching her receding figure. Suddenly, a voice in his mind began to bewitch him, saying that the distance between him and Xiang Shuhan was just like that winter in Lijia Village ten years ago—

Unreachable.

Even her haughty walk is exactly the same as it was back then.

Chen Yan was looking at her, and Zhou Chengze, in his wheelchair behind her, was also staring blankly at her back.

The dream from that day was like a vine, tightly binding him, and he dreamt of that day countless times when he closed his eyes.

Often, after waking up from a dream, even if people remember what they dreamed about, they can't recall the details. But Zhou Chengze remembered the details of that dream perfectly, as clearly and vividly as if it happened yesterday.

He repeatedly recalled that absurd dream, only to find that many of its details overlapped with reality, and even some things he didn't know before matched reality.

While he was hospitalized, he overheard Xia Yueshen talking to the attending physician at that hospital. It was then that he learned that Xia Yueshen was Xiang Wan's family doctor.

But before that, he could swear that before he dreamed, he didn't even know Xia Yueshen was a doctor.

However, in that dream, Xiang Wan suffered a heart attack, and it was Xia Yueshen who performed the emergency treatment on her, and he had no idea that Xiang Wan had a history of heart disease.

Is it really possible for a person to have such a logical dream without knowing anything about it?

Or was this a precognitive dream?

But strangely, many details in the dream don't match up with reality.

For example, Xiang Wan in the dream said that his and her wedding would be arranged after the car pilot project was on track.

In the dream, Wang Yidong clearly said that Xiang Wan was already 26 years old. That is to say, in that dream, it was in the year Xiang Wan was 26 that the Automotive Navigation Program was launched.

However, in reality, Xiang Wan had already come up with the car navigation plan when she was a junior in college, at the age of 21.

Are these just coincidences?

Or are they from a parallel universe? Or perhaps their past lives?

Zhou Chengze didn't believe in these supernatural phenomena, but the dream was really too bizarre, and both he and Zhou Xinyi in the dream had personalities that differed from their real selves.

Aside from his past life, he really couldn't think of any other explanation for that dream.

If Xiang Wan was his fiancée in his past life, does that mean that the bond between them was so deep that he shouldn't have given up so easily?

Even if Xiang Wan may like Chen Yan now.

Sitting in his wheelchair, Zhou Chengze looked at Xiang Wan's back, then at Chen Yan's back, and began to ponder...

*

Because Xiang Wan had said she didn't want to be disturbed, everyone stayed in the living room downstairs and no one went upstairs.

It was past midnight, but they had just finished setting off fireworks and were still in a state of high excitement. So, apart from Wang Yidong and Xia Yueshen who had gone back to their rooms to sleep, no one was sleepy at all.

The Spring Festival Gala broadcast domestically has already finished airing, and they are sitting on the carpet playing Ludo.

Although it was the first time Zhou Chengze and his sister had played this game, they quickly mastered it after the trio explained the rules.

Shen Feiyang didn't really enjoy playing games, so he just sat to the side eating fruit and watching them play.

As for Che Nanbei, perhaps she wasn't having a good day, because even though Jiang Zhuochun and Zhou Chengze had reached the final stage of the game, she still had two Ludo pieces and hadn't even left home yet.

But she couldn't get a 6 every time she rolled the dice, so she could only watch helplessly.

Her luck was so bad that even Shen Feiyang, who was watching from behind, couldn't help but chuckle.

Every time Che Nanbei rolled a number, Jiang Zhuochun on the other side would laugh so hard she couldn't stand up straight: "Our Miss Nanbei, you really have good luck."

Zhou Xinyi across from him couldn't help but laugh silently. Che Nanbei rolled his eyes at someone, ignoring his sarcasm.

The villa was brightly lit, and everyone was having a great time, except for three people.

Chen Yan wasn't playing games; instead, he sat on the sofa in a daze. Zhou Chengze was playing games, but his attention kept drifting towards the stairs on the second floor.

As for Xiang Wan, she walked alone from the back door towards the wooden house...

Inside the wooden cabin outside the villa, she only turned on a dim wall lamp. Instead of going inside, she curled up on a bench outside, wearing a down jacket, and quietly pondered.

She was surrounded by smoke rings she exhaled, and though the smoke swirled around her, she remained immersed in it all.

Xiang Wan felt as if she were in a fog, like a trapped beast with an uncertain future, fighting against an unseen enemy, who she didn't even know who the enemy was.

She didn't know whether Zhou Chengze's recollection of his past life was a good thing or a bad thing for her, but she felt that, given his personality, he would probably entangle her for a while because of it.

Xiang Wan dislikes these kinds of uncontrollable things; in fact, she finds them quite annoying.

She knew smoking was bad, but when she was confused, she enjoyed the stimulant effect of nicotine. However, she only smoked one cigarette, then stood in the snow for a long time, lost in thought, before finally getting up and walking towards the villa…

By the time Xiang Wan returned, it was already very late at night.

Everyone returned to their rooms, and the lights in the lobby on the first floor were turned off, leaving only a few dim wall lamps.

She walked towards the second-floor staircase, but when she reached the corner, she heard Shen Feiyang and Che Nanbei's voices coming from her room.

She raised an eyebrow and slowly walked towards the room. Before she even pushed the door open, she heard the ghostly screams of two people inside.

It seems that Che Nanbei wanted to tell ghost stories, but Shen Feiyang wouldn't let her.

"There's an old Norse legend about a vampire who lived for a thousand years who had a particular fondness for women wearing red dresses, and it's said..."

"Aaaaaaah, Che Nanbei, shut up!"

"It is said that every midnight, he would come out to forage for food and search for beautiful girls..."

Before Che Nanbei could finish speaking, Shen Feiyang, unable to bear it any longer, picked up a pillow and slapped it across her face: "Stop talking!!"

"..." Che Nanbei raised an eyebrow, then suddenly put his hand on Shen Feiyang's shoulder, "He just appears like this all of a sudden..."

Before she could decide what to make up next, Shen Feiyang's scream nearly made her fall off the bed.

"Ah—ah ah—ah ah ah ah—" Shen Feiyang was still in shock, his voice shrill, "Don't touch me!!!"

"You are the one!!! Don't hit me." Even Che Nanbei, the one who started it all, felt wronged; Shen Feiyang had hit her arm incredibly hard!

The two men picked up their goose feather pillows and were fighting fiercely.

When Xiang Wan opened the door, this was the scene that left her speechless...