Chapter 19 Dream within a Dream He entered a dream within a dream.
As soon as Gu Yinyan entered the entrance hall, he saw a thinly dressed figure.
The girl in front of me had bare, white shoulders, and her body was covered in water droplets.
Gu Yinyan recalled the patch of white and pink cosmos flowers he encountered in his neighborhood during his morning run, their blooming heads standing tall among the blossoms.
Soft petals, slender stems and roots, beautiful yet fragile.
He turned his back and closed the door.
Liang Yizhi looked completely bewildered, and blushed so much that her collarbone, neck, and the area behind her ears turned completely red.
She stammered, "You...you...how did you get here..."
Gu Yinyan said, "You said there's no hot water, so I came to see if you need any help."
"Then you don't need to... come over after only two minutes, right?"
Liang Yizhi pouted. She knew it wasn't Gu Yinyan's fault, but she was the one who suffered, so she still wouldn't let it go.
Gu Yinyan asked, "Then I'll leave?"
“Hey—” Liang Yizhi called out to him again, her posture hesitant, “I’m done showering…it’s the bathroom in my room, why don’t you go and take a look?”
After saying that, she stepped on the two pink bunnies on her feet, grabbed the bath towel in one hand, and ran away.
Gu Yinyan turned around only after the sounds had faded away.
As he passed the spot where Liang Yizhi had just been standing, he felt his feet touch something.
Gu Yinyan bent down and picked it up; it was Liang Yizhi's hair tie. He casually slipped the red satin hair tie onto his wrist and slowly headed towards Liang Yizhi's room.
Push open the bathroom door.
A wave of humid, hot air rushed in, filling his nostrils. The mirror and the sliding glass door were all fogged up with the marks left by the people who had just been there.
Vague, moist, and elusive.
Above the enclosed space, a lingering scent remained: sweet steam and the floral fragrance of shower gel.
Gu Yinyan tilted his head back slightly.
-
Liang Yizhi quickly rinsed off in the bathroom and dried herself off before coming out. Although the hot water had warmed her up a bit, she had already caught a chill, and after all that commotion, her head was spinning even more.
After thinking it over, I realized that I had mistakenly opened the door for Gu Yinyan just now, probably because he was sick.
After putting on her pajamas and coming out, she found Gu Yinyan talking on the phone outside her room.
Liang Yizhi stepped forward and asked, "What's wrong?"
Gu Yinyan hung up before saying, "I just checked, and the mixing valve in the bathroom is broken, causing hot and cold water to mix. Someone will come to fix it tomorrow morning."
Liang Yizhi nodded.
It was resolved so quickly.
She lowered her head slightly, seemingly lost in thought. Gu Yinyan gazed at her and spoke:
What happened to your face?
"What?"
Your face is very red.
As he spoke, he placed the back of his hand against Liang Yizhi's cheek: "It's still very hot."
Gu Yinyan's hands were very dry, and when they touched his cheeks, they felt icy cold, like a drop of water falling into a desert during a severe drought, fleeting and gone in an instant.
Her hair was still wet, and a stray hair near her ear accidentally brushed against Gu Yinyan's fingertips. His hand was slippery, so he gently rubbed two fingers together.
"Go dry your hair."
He turned to leave. The next second, his wrist was grabbed again.
Liang Yizhi pressed further, "Are you leaving?"
The soft, warm hand, like the hair tie from before, wrapped around his wrist. His pulse, connected to his heart, lay hidden beneath his snow-white skin, beating rhythmically.
Gu Yinyan didn't shake him off, and patiently explained, "I'll go buy you medicine."
Liang Yizhi dislikes being alone. Whenever she is alone or her parents are not home, she always wants someone to be with her. This has improved a lot since she grew up and started living alone.
But now, because of illness, the bitterness of loneliness and isolation in my heart has been magnified infinitely.
After hearing Gu Yinyan's words, she finally replied, "Okay."
When Gu Yinyan returned home, the house was very quiet.
He prepared the fever reducer and cold medicine he had bought for Liang Yizhi, took the kettle upstairs, and knocked on her door.
Liang Yizhi's voice was hoarse and weak: "Just come in."
Gu Yinyan brought the medicine and water to the bedside: "Get up and drink some."
Liang Yizhi sat up, placed another pillow behind her to lean against it, and drank the medicine with warm water.
Gu Yinyan stood to the side and glanced around the room.
It was exactly the same as when he came here as a teenager.
Liang Yizhi is a sentimental person, so the layout and storage of her room can be described as absolute maximalism, with all sorts of strange and wonderful things.
She could preserve even things that he considered trash very well.
Gu Yinyan isn't very good at this.
For Gu Yinyan, the only way to preserve an object in a long time and in good condition is to hide it away and keep it within easy reach.
That's the safest way.
He stood quietly to one side.
"What are you looking at?" Liang Yizhi asked, holding a cup in her hand.
Gu Yinyan lowered his gaze: "It's nothing."
"Is it that one?" Liang Yizhi's voice was still hoarse, and the swelling and pain when she swallowed made her put down her water glass, wanting to catch her breath.
"Do you remember? That was the first thing you gave me when you came to our house for lessons."
Gu Yinyan followed her gaze.
On the glass cabinet against the wall sits an ethereal drum. Although it hasn't been used in a long time, its surface remains smooth and clean, looking brand new.
When he first visited the Liang family to meet Liang Youde, he brought a gift for each member of the Liang family out of courtesy.
Before coming here, he went to a music store and saw this ethereal drum. The shopkeeper told him that the ethereal drum is easy to learn and, as one of the sound therapy instruments, has a delicate and pure tone that has a wonderful effect of calming the mind.
He remembered that the Liang family's youngest daughter also studied music, and thought that this ethereal drum might be a good gift for a girl. He also thought that playing it in his spare time would add some fun, so he bought it.
Liang Yizhi helped him recall: "Cough cough... You were still outside the door at the time, hesitating for a long time before daring not to come in..."
"It's not that I'm afraid, it's that I don't want to disturb your piano practice," Gu Yinyan corrected. "Besides, you've been treating me like a deliveryman."
It was an evening when the setting sun blazed down.
When Gu Yinyan first came to the Liang family, he obeyed his father's orders and personally presented the gift to Liang Yizhi.
Go up the stairs and you'll arrive at the entrance to the music room on the second floor.
The door wasn't fully closed, and the soft, deep sound of a cello drifted out from inside.
The girl sat by the window, the sunlight outside dyeing her skirt red, and between her legs, the cello, heated almost to a fiery red by the setting sun.
The melody is deep and somber; the scenery outside the window, the notes under the bow, and the girl in the long dress are all telling the same story.
Gu Yinyan stood silently outside the door for a long time, listening to the entire piece of music through that crack.
Liang Yizhi put down her zither and bow and stood up, only to find someone standing outside the door.
She panicked, thought for a moment, and quickly ran to the door, opened it, and pulled the person inside.
Before Gu Yinyan could react, Liang Yizhi in front of him spread out her hands and asked, "Where are the things?"
The moment their eyes met, Liang Yizhi was stunned by his excessively handsome face, her breath catching in her throat for a few seconds as she pondered why He Man would send such an eye-catching character to run errands for her—it was too conspicuous.
Gu Yinyan pondered for a few seconds, then picked up the ethereal drum he was carrying.
"What is this?" Liang Yizhi asked. "Where are my things?"
"The Ethereal Drum." Gu Yinyan only answered the first part of the question, "It's a gift for you."
"?"
"I am a student who starts learning from Teacher Liang today. Please take good care of me."
Gu Yinyan delivered the gift and left without any further pleasantries.
Liang Yizhi drank the last sip of warm water, leaned against the soft pillow and said, "At that time, I really liked a male celebrity, so I bought a lot of his merchandise. In order to prevent my parents from finding out, I could only send it to He Man's house and have her bring it to me."
“You know, my dad doesn’t like me being a fan of celebrities. He always thinks it’s unreliable for me to like those pretty boys, as if my idols can only be Bach and Mozart.”
Gu Yinyan said, "Perhaps Teacher Liang just doesn't like the guy you're pursuing."
Gu Yinyan had seen it before; her phone's screen saver was that person.
He couldn't remember the celebrity's name anymore, only that the man had permed hair, had a pair of smiling eyes that could make girls swoon, wore a leather jacket and pants, and stood on the stage singing with a standing microphone.
Liang Yizhi retorted: "Ahem... Don't slander my idol..."
She kept coughing, and Gu Yinyan said, "Alright, you talk too much. Go get some rest."
As he took the glass from her hand, his wrist was suddenly grabbed again.
He raised his face and met Liang Yizhi's eyes.
Because of her fever, her cheeks were flushed and hot, and her eyes were brimming with tears, as if covered by a thin layer of mist.
She tilted her head back, her eyes filled with the pale yellow light of a fluorescent lamp, and looked at Gu Yinyan: "Can't we stay?"
The way it looked was like a stray cat seeing a kind person who came to feed it, its eyes reluctant to let the person go.
She said, "Wait until I'm asleep before you leave."
Gu Yinyan didn't say anything, but silently put down the cup in his hand.
Seeing that he had given up the idea of leaving, Liang Yizhi let go of his hand and shrank into the quilt.
The lower half of her face was covered, revealing a pair of clear eyes, like a harmless little animal in the mountains and forests.
Liang Yizhi said softly, "Just sit here for a while... You know I fall asleep very quickly, you can leave in a little while."
“...You are an adult now, Liang Yizhi.”
“To correct you, it’s an adult patient.” Her voice was weak, but she still tried to argue. “Just for a little while, I’ll fall asleep soon…”
Gu Yinyan looked at the person covered by the blanket.
Her bangs were scattered haphazardly, and her eyelashes drooped down, spreading out in a fan-shaped arc.
He knew, of course, that she always fell asleep very quickly.
Many times, in this room, Liang Yizhi would rest peacefully and unguarded beside him. And he would quietly observe her sleeping with his insightful eyes.
That night, Liang Yizhi had many dreams.
Dreams overlapped, creating multiple layers of dreams.
In her first dream, she dreamt that she was in a huge swimming pool, playing in the water with several close friends.
It was probably because of the medicine that the bacteria and viruses in my body were fighting fiercely with my immune system, and my consciousness was floating in a daze, neither rising nor falling.
The cold water from the pool poured over her did not wet her; instead, it relieved some of the heat in her body.
In her sleep, she murmured something and called out the name of the person beside her:
"Gu Yinyan".
A familiar voice responded to her immediately:
--"I am here."
The second dream.
She dreamt that she was back in junior high school, in the familiar schoolyard, sitting by the window during class. A notebook lay out in front of her, filled with dense notes.
When Liang Yizhi was in school, she was very keen on taking notes. She carefully selected a suitable notebook for each course and then used colorful highlighters to mark the contents of the notes.
In her dream, she was also making marks with a highlighter. After writing a paragraph, she looked up again.
The lecturer on the stage had somehow become Gu Yinyan.
His black hair was neatly styled, and he wore a shirt and trousers with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He also wore a pair of refined and elegant glasses, looking every bit the intellectual.
Liang Yizhi in the dream also paused.
She stared straight at the podium and saw Gu Yinyan's full, beautiful lips moving, but she couldn't hear what he was saying.
Seemingly noticing that she was daydreaming, Gu Yinyan on the stage suddenly stopped, and under the gaze of the entire class, slowly walked off the stage and to her side.
Liang Yizhi raised her head slightly.
The faces in her dreams were always blurry, but the part below his nose was exceptionally clear in her dreams.
She saw Gu Yinyan lean close to her ear, his lips moving, his voice hoarse:
"Liang Yizhi, you are always so careless."
She thought he was going to point out her mistakes in her studies and was preparing to humbly accept his advice, but Gu Yinyan continued:
"You shouldn't just open the door for anyone."
"You shouldn't have appeared in front of others dressed like that."
After tucking her hair behind his ear, he whispered in her ear, "You shouldn't have told a man with ulterior motives to stay by your side."
His voice murmured, as if a warm breath were truly breathing on her ear. Like a snake flicking its tongue, making a rustling sound, giving her some kind of warning.
"Liang Yizhi, you are too careless."
A refreshing breeze blew through the window, causing the dense foliage to tremble, and the sunlight falling on the pages of the book floated around, as refreshing as a romance novel.
Gu Yinyan's voice seemed to have missed the gentle breeze, only carrying the chill that followed, making one's hair stand on end.
This strange combination left her feeling conflicted.
She tried to open her eyes with slight unease, but her hazy vision was half blocked by a tall, dark shadow.
Caught between dream and reality, a sense of unease gripped her, and she called out again, "Gu Yinyan."
It's like seeking a reassuring signal.
He responded quickly again.
"I am here."
Having received the reply she desired, Liang Yizhi was finally satisfied and fell into a deep sleep again, drifting into the next dream.
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