Misty Fog (Part Two)

The dream collapsed rapidly in a short time, with countless shattered lenses and debris rushing towards her. Zhou Zeyu hurriedly got up to avoid them, but the next second, a feeling of weightlessness enveloped her. She lost her footing and fell into bottomless darkness.

With a bang, she broke out in a cold sweat and opened her eyes wide, only to be met with an unfamiliar gray-white ceiling.

A belated pain shot through her back. She tried to move her body and realized that she was lying crookedly on the floor, wrapped in a thick blanket, which greatly reduced the pain of falling off the bed.

The problem was that the blanket was wrapped around her too tightly, so much so that she had to exert all her strength to sit up from the ground, rubbing the back of her head and groggily looking around.

Zhou Zeyu sat there blankly for a long time until he heard deliberately lowered footsteps at the door, followed by Coach Xu's voice.

"Fell off the bed again?"

She gave a perfunctory reply, struggled to get up, put the blanket back on the bed, and slowly walked over to open the door. "You guessed it again."

Coach Xu smiled and reached out to brush the dust off her hair. "It's okay, go back to sleep for a while. I'll wake you up when it's time for dinner."

Zhou Zeyu nodded, her hair still frizzy, and was about to walk back when she paused, then turned around and asked, "Where's Solkov?"

"You mean that young man?" Coach Xu said. "You'd have to ask you. How would I know?"

When asked, she didn't know either.

Zhou Zeyu clutched her head, feeling a splitting headache. She only remembered that she had cried loudly for a long time in front of Sorkov in the study, and then she seemed to be dizzy and had no memory of it. When she woke up, she had already rolled over and fallen to the ground.

As for Sorkov... he probably went deaf from all her crying.

Even though she hadn't drunk a drop of alcohol, she inexplicably felt like she was having a hangover. Her mind went blank, and she even staggered as she walked. She walked to the bedside, sat down, sighed, and let herself fall onto the bed.

The beds in Sorkov are very soft, almost like the bed of the Princess and the Pea in the fairy tale. The mattress alone has several layers, and when you lie on it, you immediately sink in. It's so soft that you can't find any support, and it feels like you're floating on a cloud, unable to move at all.

She closed her eyes drowsily, but fearing she was starting to dream again, she turned over and covered her head with the blanket.

"They'll suffocate."

Zhou Zeyu jolted awake, threw off the covers and sat up in bed, but then unconsciously fell back down because the mattress was too soft. "Where did you come from?"

Solkov closed the study door, took off his glasses, and casually placed them on the bedside table. "You appeared out of nowhere. Did you sleep well?"

She recalled the bizarre and chaotic dream, a look of sorrow crossing her face, and she couldn't help but sigh, "I slept very well."

Do you realize that your words are completely unconvincing?

"I know."

Sorkov seemed to laugh. "What were you dreaming about?"

Zhou Zeyu looked up, stared at him suspiciously for a moment, then sighed resignedly, saying with a mix of complaint and helplessness, "I really don't understand, do you really have mind-reading abilities?"

"possible."

She suddenly remembered something, raised her eyebrows, and glanced at him guiltily: "You didn't hear me talking in my sleep, did you? What did I say?"

He looked at her, a faint smile appearing on his lips. Although it was subtle, Zhou Zeyu was certain he was teasing her. "He didn't say anything."

"You really didn't say?"

"Really, no."

Zhou Zeyu glanced at him with some skepticism, but she was too lazy to investigate further. Anyway, it didn't matter if she screamed in her dream, unless Sorkov held a recording pen close to her ear and recorded her directly.

You wouldn't really do that, would you?

Sorkov clearly didn't understand her inexplicable train of thought, and turned to look at her in confusion, "What are you doing?"

Zhou Zeyu was just guessing and didn't tell him what it was. However, the guy seemed to be thinking about something else, and a strange, inexplicable look of guilt flashed across his face. He squeezed out a short, weird laugh and turned to leave.

"Wait!" She jumped out of bed and quickly called out to him, "Why are you running? Did you really record it?"

Sorkov's back froze for a moment, then he quickly turned around, letting out a sigh of relief. "Recording? I didn't."

Zhou Zeyu narrowed his eyes and looked him up and down: "If you didn't record it, then what did you do?"

However, Sorkov remained unfazed, looking at her with an incredibly calm smile and an air of composure: "What do you want me to do?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Zeyu made a face like he had been bitten by a bedbug, shrank his head, and took two steps back in fear. "I'm getting goosebumps."

Sorkov seemed to have a strong urge to sneer, but the sarcastic laugh was forcibly suppressed as soon as it was uttered, evolving into a strange, incongruous sound.

"Why are you making that face? Have you forgotten what you just did?"

"Just now?" Zhou Zeyu blinked, clearly unsure which "just now" he meant. She racked her brains for a while before cautiously replying, "Did I do anything just now? Does falling off the bed count?"

Sorkov didn't reply, but just stared at her expressionlessly, his voice suddenly turning sinister: "You really don't remember? Did you sleep yourself silly?"

Even so, it seems that Zhou Zeyu cannot righteously say that she did not, after all, she really slept soundly for a long time, and her head is still aching slightly, so she cannot completely guarantee that she did not become mentally impaired in her sleep.

She rubbed her already bizarrely messy hair, looking completely bewildered. "What did I just do?"

Sorkov was walking past her, rummaging through something on the table behind him. The sounds of pulling drawers and flipping through papers drowned out his voice, so much so that even when she strained her ears, she couldn't hear him clearly and had to embarrassingly ask him to repeat himself.

"What did you say?"

Sorkov paused, looking down at what he was holding. He glanced at it casually, then hastily folded it and stuffed it into his pocket. "Are you sure you want me to say it again?"

She adopted a very polite expression and nodded gently and courteously: "If possible."

Perhaps he had never seen her like this before, or perhaps he had a clear understanding of her character, but Solkov knew without even looking that she was being obnoxious, and without turning his head, he snorted, "I'll ask you one last time, are you sure?"

Actually, Zhou Zeyi didn't have any strong desire to know at first, but seeing his hesitant look piqued his interest, and he revealed a very malicious expression, "What, is this something you can't tell me?"

He finally turned around, but a sinister expression quickly appeared on his face. He crossed his arms, leaned against the table, and looked at her with a smile.

Are you sure?

When Zhou Zeyu saw his treacherous smile, she realized that something was probably wrong. But the die was cast, and it was too late for her to take back her words. She could only grit her teeth and give a vague reply.

His unspoken words were quickly drowned out by Zhou Zeyu's scream. She covered her mouth, her eyes wide with disbelief, "Really?! No, I, I didn't... I didn't, right?"

As she spoke, her expression grew increasingly guilty, until finally her voice became barely audible, and she buried her face in her hands, leaving only her eyes darting around.

Solkov chuckled, having no intention of continuing the argument, reached for his coat hanging nearby, gestured for her to continue sleeping, and then grasped the doorknob to leave.

"Wait, wait a minute!"

He turned around. "What's wrong?"

Zhou Zeyu walked up to him and subconsciously licked her lips. "Did I really kiss you?"

Sorkov seemed stunned. After a long while, he shook his head helplessly: "Whether it's true or not, don't lick your lips when you say things like that. It doesn't look like regret, it looks like you're reminiscing. Zhou Zeyi, I have to say, sometimes you really are like a rogue."

Zhou Zeyi felt like his brain was about to explode. He stammered, trying to squeeze out a few words, but the more he thought about it, the more he felt that his current explanation was not only useless, but also like trying to cover up the truth. So he simply stopped talking and solemnly patted his shoulder.

"I'm sorry!" She placed her hand on his shoulder and said with utmost righteousness, "I'm so sorry for what I did to you. I was probably too upset at the time and I was a little mentally unstable. Please believe me, I'm not usually like this."

Sorkov was completely bewildered by her serious attitude. He looked at her several times before he was sure she wasn't joking and seemed to be sincerely apologizing.

However, the next second, he regretted his misjudgment.

Zhou Zeyu, who had been looking serious, suddenly leaned forward, gave him a grinning expression, and then pointed to his right cheek with a malicious glint in his eye.

"As a courtesy, you can also give me a kiss on the cheek."

Solkov closed his eyes, feeling as if his dignity and reason were being rapidly eroded, and the heavy sigh sounded more like a lament than a sign of helplessness. He quickly skipped the moment of astonishment and looked at her with a bitter expression, unable to even manage a cold laugh.

What landed on Zhou Zeyu's face wasn't a kiss, but a light slap. Sorkov withdrew his hand and instead brushed the dust off her hair.

Zhou Zeyu let out a soft "ouch" and touched her right cheek in annoyance. Of course, she knew he wouldn't retaliate in kind. Even if Sorkov were out of his body, he wouldn't do that. So she was just making a harmless joke.

Or, to be more precise, it could indeed be described as flirting.

"Aren't you going to sleep?" He looked down at him irritably. "Then leave my room."

"Why did you kick me out so quickly?"

Sorkov glanced at his watch, so fast that Zhou Zeyu was certain he hadn't seen a single pin drop. "You've slept for almost ten hours, how can you say it's so fast?"

"That long?" she asked, somewhat surprised. "No wonder I had such a headache while I slept."

As she was touching her head, she looked up again and suddenly met Solkov's uneasy gaze. He frowned slightly, staring worriedly at her right cheek, his lips pursed, and his raised hand quickly lowered, showing a hint of panic.

Zhou Zeyi subconsciously touched his face. "What's wrong?"

"I...I didn't use any force..."

Zhou Zeyu suddenly jolted awake, pulled out his phone from his pocket, quickly opened the camera, and saw, sure enough, a clear red handprint was left on the face that Sorkov had just photographed.

An inexplicable silence fell between the two, neither seemingly knowing what to say. One was at a loss, while the other was helpless. Soon, the helpless one spoke first.

Did it hurt you?

She looked up and saw that Sorkov had somehow gotten close to her, staring worriedly at her cheek, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing the reddened area, which tickled.

They were so close that when Zhou Zeyu realized it, he found that his breath could even make his eyelashes tremble slightly, but the other person did not react at all, just silently and attentively looking at her face.

As if possessed, she suddenly nodded very seriously and said, "It hurts a lot."

For some reason, Zhou Zeyu suddenly remembered that when she was a child, every time she fell down while running around, her parents would always look at her so closely, applying iodine to the wound while gently blowing on it, saying something like blowing on it would make it stop hurting.

Actually, it was completely useless. As Zhou Zeyu grew up, she knew that it was just a trick to coax a child, but she didn't know if it was just psychological, but she suddenly felt that it seemed to work, at least for now.

Do you treat me like a child?

Sorkov seemed to be taken aback for a moment. He quickly distanced himself from the two of them, but his expression was somewhat bewildered.

"Do you think of me as a child?" Zhou Zeyu wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt a sudden bitterness in his eyes, which he quickly masked with a smile. "Maybe."

"Actually, you didn't hit me too hard; it's just that my skin is prone to redness."

"real?"

"real."

Sorkov took two steps back almost imperceptibly, nearly leaning against the door. "If you do that, people will think I'm bullying you."

Zhou Zeyi neither confirmed nor denied it, but honestly admitted, "I'm sorry, actually I was the one who bullied you."

He looked clearly annoyed. "Indeed."