Chapter 26 Shackles in the Dream
——She was trapped in the maze of memories and couldn't tell which one was the real him.
The sedative's effects were like a tide, sweeping Ruan Xingchen's consciousness into the depths of the ocean. In the darkness, fragments of memory flickered and intertwined like fleeting glimpses, only to shatter just as clarity threatened.
She stood at the edge of her dream, watching her younger self squatting on the mud, writing something crookedly with a branch.
"Brother Xiaohan, your name is so nice!"
The little girl's voice was as clear as a bell. Ruan Xingchen wanted to get closer, but was suddenly pulled into another memory.
Dream·17 years ago·Medical camp
The tent fluttered gently in the wind. Ruan Xingchen sat beside the hospital bed, swinging his legs as he folded candy wrapper boats. The boy in the bed had a bandage on his left eye, but his right shone brightly like a star.
"Here you go!" She placed the boat in his palm. "Today's wish is—I hope Brother Xiaohan's eyes get better soon!"
The boy held the boat carefully, as if he was holding the most precious treasure in the world.
The picture suddenly tore apart.
The adult Mo Xiaohan stood in a pool of blood, with corpses lying all over the place at his feet, and the scar on his left eye was hideous.
He turned around and stretched out his bloody hand towards her: "Xingxing, come here."
Ruan Xingchen stepped back in horror, but bumped into someone.
Turning back, it was the young Mo Xiaohan, looking at her with broken eyes: "You said... you would wait for me..."
Two figures kept alternating in the dream, one was gentle like moonlight, the other was violent like a devil.
She covered her ears and screamed, "Who of you is real?!"
Ruan Xingchen sat up suddenly, cold sweat soaking his pajamas.
The rain was pouring down outside the window, and lightning illuminated the figure sitting by the bed.
Mo Xiaohan held a wet towel in his hand, his eyes incredibly gentle.
"Having a nightmare?"
She shrank back reflexively, and dreams and reality overlapped at this moment. Was the man before her the gentle boy in her memory, or the demon who slaughtered people in the auction house?
Mo Xiaohan saw her fear, silently put down the towel, and took a step back: "I'll let the maid accompany you."
He turned to leave, but the corner of his clothes was gently pulled.
Ruan Xingchen himself didn't know why he did this, but he instinctively didn't want him to leave.
"I dreamed..." Her voice trembled, "I gave you a candy wrapper boat..."
Mo Xiaohan froze, slowly turning his head, his eyes filled with turbulent emotions, yet he suppressed them, not daring to reveal them: "When was this dream?"
"When I was a kid... in the medical team's tent..."
This was the first time she took the initiative to bring up a fragment of memory.
Mo Xiaohan knelt on one knee beside the bed and asked cautiously, "Do you remember what happened later?"
She shook her head blankly, her eyes falling on her left hand. She pointed at the ring on her ring finger and said, "Is this...you giving it to me?"
Lightning flashed, illuminating his moist eyes: "I put it on you with my own hands. It's my mother's heirloom."
"She said it was for the girl who would light up my life."
Ruan Xingchen held the ring in silence for a long time, and finally, under Mo Xiaohan's gentle gaze, she slowly lay back on the bed.
He tucked in the corner of the quilt for her, moving so gently as if he was afraid of breaking the fragile glass. He didn't turn and leave the room until her breathing became regular.
In the manor's treatment room, the psychiatrist looked at the monitoring report with a frown:
"Ms. Ruan has a serious cognitive split in her subconscious—she separates the 'you in childhood' and the 'you now' into two people."
Mo Xiaohan stood in front of the window, his black shirt's shoulder lines stretched straight, but it couldn't hide the depression emanating from his bones.
He stroked the ring on his ring finger and said in a hoarse voice: "Treatment method?"
"You can't force correction, otherwise it will aggravate PTSD." The doctor handed over a plan, "You need to slowly build connections through familiar things, such as..."
The doctor looked at the candy wrapper boat in Mo Xiaohan's hand.
That night, Ruan Xingchen found a stack of colorful candy wrappers on the bedside table.
She picked up one of them, and an inexplicable sense of familiarity came over her. Her fingers folded automatically.
Bow, stern, sails...
When the last corner was folded, the bedroom door was gently pushed open.
Mo Xiaohan stood at the door holding a cup of hot milk, and the ring on his left ring finger gleamed brightly under the light.
He looked at the candy paper boat in her hand and asked softly, "What is your wish today?"
This sentence is like a key, instantly opening the gate of memory——
"I hope Brother Xiaohan's injury heals quickly!"
The voices of childhood overlapped with the present, and Ruan Xingchen's tears suddenly fell on the candy wrapper: "I hope... I can remember... who you are..."
Mo Xiaohan put down the milk and knelt on one knee in front of her. He held her hand and placed it on his forehead: "Whether you want to remember it or not..."
"You will always be my eternal day."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
