Chapter 11: Close

Qiao Yu had a dream. She dreamed of Jiang Zhan as a child. He was locked in a small dark room, and no matter how she shouted, he didn't respond. Then the scene suddenly changed, and it became the laboratory where she was in her previous life. She stood outside a glass curtain wall and saw Jiang Zhan lying on a hospital bed inside. She began to shout again, but he still didn't open his eyes. Then the wall of the laboratory inside the glass curtain wall suddenly dropped down, and a large number of alien species poured in from all directions, moving densely towards Jiang Zhan's bed. Qiao Yu desperately knocked and hit the glass, but it was of no use. She could only watch Jiang Zhan being drowned in thousands of alien species...

"A Zhan!"

Qiao Yu woke up from a nightmare and found herself in a completely unfamiliar dark room. The curtains were drawn, the room was dark, and her vision was a little blurry.

Qiao Yu called out anxiously twice, but found that her voice was a little hoarse and she couldn't make a loud sound. So she simply threw back the quilt and prepared to get out of bed to look for Jiang Zhan.

But before her feet touched the ground, a hand reached out from the darkness and stopped her from lifting the quilt. Then a small wall lamp lit up.

The sudden light was a bit dazzling. Qiao Yu blinked and after adjusting to the light, she found that Jiang Zhan was sitting on a single sofa beside her bed, staring at her without blinking.

The dream just now flooded into Qiao Yu's mind, and her eyes began to moisten again. She rushed over and knelt on his legs, her arms tightly wrapped around Jiang Zhan's neck, her face pressed against his neck, and she just hung directly on Jiang Zhan.

Jiang Zhan's body stiffened for a moment, but he quickly wrapped his arms around Qiao Yu and held her tightly in his arms.

Jiang Zhan gently buried his face in her hair and took a deep breath. The delicate fragrance of her hair, the delicate skin against her neck, the warm breath against his ear, and her intimate, dependent embrace only made him increasingly restless. The raging beast within him pounded against the cage of his rationality, roaring and wanting to break free, to tear her apart, to devour her, to merge her into his flesh and blood, so that she could never be separated from him again.

Jiang Zhan closed his eyes, suppressing the desire that was clamoring in his body. His voice was as soft as a feather: "Why don't you sleep a little longer?"

She slept for less than two hours.

Qiao Yu was still frightened. She lay in his arms and shook her head, her voice a little hoarse: "I had a nightmare."

Jiang Zhan stroked Qiao Yu's hair and coaxed her softly, "It's okay, dreams are all fake."

Qiao Yu didn't say anything, but tightened her arms around him.

Although Jiang Zhan liked her closeness, he was also worried about her health, so he just hugged her quietly for a while, then coaxed her: "Ayu, be good, you need to rest now, sleep a little longer, I will stay here with you, and I won't go anywhere, okay?"

Qiao Yu shook her head. She didn't want to do anything now. She just wanted to hold him like this.

Jiang Zhan was helpless and remained silent for a while, then he coaxed her, "Then why don't we just lie down for a while instead of sleeping, okay?" He was afraid that she would get dizzy if she sat for too long.

After a while, Qiao Yu finally nodded.

Jiang Zhan felt a little relieved, stood up, put one arm around her waist, and the other hand supported her thigh. He picked her up like a child and gently put her back on the bed.

Jiang Zhan pulled down her arm from around his neck and tried to pull the blanket over her, but Qiao Yu stopped him. Jiang Zhan looked up and saw her looking at him with her big, wet eyes, and gently moving to the side. He felt a surge of warmth in his heart, but he remained calm and asked, "Do you want me to lie down with you?"

Upon hearing this, Qiao Yu's cheeks turned slightly red and she lowered her eyelashes a little embarrassedly, but still nodded shyly.

Jiang Zhan looked at Qiao Yu with a complicated expression. He didn't understand what had happened to cause such a drastic change in her attitude towards him. But beyond his doubts, he felt an irresistible temptation and an unbearable boiling in his heart.

He longed for Qiao Yu so much.

From the age of eleven to twenty-four, he had loved her for thirteen years, waited for her for thirteen years, and endured her for thirteen years. There was not a moment when he didn't want to hold her in his arms and melt her into his flesh and blood.

Jiang Zhan took off his shoes under Qiao Yu's expectant gaze and carefully lay down beside her, trying his best to restrain his desire to touch her. It was very difficult for him to endure it, but he couldn't refuse. He had always been irrationally obedient to her and couldn't refuse any of her requests.

But Jiang Zhan could bear it, but Qiao Yu couldn't.

As soon as Qiao Yu saw Jiang Zhan lying down, he immediately wrapped his arms around his neck, put his face against his neck, and rubbed his forehead against his chin affectionately.

Jiang Zhan both loved and found her flirtatious behavior like a little kitten difficult to tolerate. He gritted his teeth, suppressing the dark thoughts rotting in his bones. He gently put his arm around her waist through the quilt and said softly, "Ayu, go to sleep, I'll be here with you."

The room fell into silence for a moment.

Qiao Yu had calmed down a lot at this time. She didn't want to sleep. She couldn't ignore the steel plate at the gate. She had to find out whether Jiang Zhan also knew something.

She looked up at Jiang Zhan's profile and saw that he had his eyes closed, so she asked softly, "Zhan, are you asleep?"

Jiang Zhan naturally couldn't sleep. When he heard her calling him, he opened his eyes, pulled down her hand that was around him, held it in his palm and kneaded it gently, his voice a little hoarse: "No, what's wrong?"

Qiao Yu held his hand in return, "I... want to ask you something."

"Well, go ahead." Jiang Zhan kissed the top of her head with a gentle expression.

Qiao Yu propped himself up and sat up, holding his hands with both hands, looking straight at him, and asked tentatively: "A Zhan, why did you replace the front door of your house with a steel plate?"

Jiang Zhan sat up upon hearing this, leaning against the headboard, and replied, "For safety." After a moment's deliberation, he softly asked, "Ayu, did you... also dream about something?"

Qiao Yu's mind buzzed as he keenly grasped the key word "dream" and asked anxiously, "Dream? Ah Zhan, what did you dream about?"

Qiao Yu's face was pale, her eyes filled with anxiety and panic. This reaction, combined with the large quantity of items she had purchased some time ago, made Jiang Zhan almost instantly certain that Qiao Yu must know something.

"Half a month ago, I started having a recurring dream. In it, many people came back to life and turned into monsters that bit anyone they saw, and the people bitten would turn back into monsters." Jiang Zhan no longer hid anything and told Qiao Yu everything he knew. "When I first had this dream, I just thought it was strange and didn't pay much attention to it. Until the third night, I dreamed of an earthquake in G City, and the next afternoon, an earthquake really happened in G City. The epicenter, magnitude, and even the time were exactly the same as in my dream."