Chapter 227 A Big Dream
Qiao Song felt like she was soaking in water, like a stone washed by a river. She wanted to move but couldn't. She had been repeating the same thing for hundreds and thousands of years and felt so bored.
There are more than one stone in the river, but she seems to be the only one who feels bored.
There’s something lonely about being different.
Sometimes she would talk to the water plants in the river, which were frightened at first.
There are a lot of water plants coming and going in this river. They are crowded together and occasionally hang on the rocks, which slows down the melting process. She took this opportunity to make many friends.
Later, she got to know many water plants, and the water plants took her ashore, where she saw the outside world for the first time.
Later, she made a pact with these noisy and moving water plants.
She left the river and soon entered another place.
Unlike the cold river, this sphere was narrow and dark. She thought she would live a lonely life like before, until someone's voice rang out:
"I heard the baby's heartbeat."
The icy-cold water temperature began to rise, becoming warm and comfortable. The spacious river channel became narrow, and a very weak light shone through the small sphere, as if someone was looking at her through the window.
Later, there were always two people talking through the window, but most of the time it was the same voice.
The voice was gentle and fond of laughter. Sometimes it hummed a song, sometimes it told a story, and sometimes it did nothing but talked to her by pointing its fingers at the window.
She grew bigger and bigger until the hole could no longer hold her.
One day, she was wrapped in amniotic fluid and left the dark world.
The silver knife turned into lightning and suddenly split the window, and she was born.
When she was one or two years old and just learning to speak, the day she learned to say "Mom", this gentle and beautiful woman suddenly burst into tears, as if she had lost and found something important, but it seemed that what she got was not the original one.
Before she was three years old, she was called Xiaoman. Every time her mother called her name, her expression was gentle and sad.
Before I was born, I heard two voices, but in the end, only my mother was left at home. The only thing I knew about the other person was a photo, hidden in a dark green drawer.
When she was three, she had a new name.
"Mom, my name is Qiao Song, and I want to use the name I gave myself."
The child's suggestion was adopted.
From then on, her mother's expression was not so sad when she called her name.
When he was four years old, Qiao Song began to dismantle the tables, chairs and benches at home, and when he was five years old, he turned them into electrical appliances.
At the age of nine, she was in the third grade, and she broke her sixth grader's teeth in her first fight.
The mother just squatted down and asked her: "Xiao Song, have you ever felt wronged? Did the other party bully you first?"
Qiao Song told the truth: "They said I was talking to the mirror, that I made friends with invisible things, that I was a psychopath, and that I was a freak without a father."
But those water plants in the mirror were friends she had known before she was born.
That was the first time Qiao Song saw the gentle Ms. Shu angry. The well-mannered mother turned the office upside down.
Qiao Song only then realized that his mother was also very powerful. She could make the other party apologize and compensate without using her fists, just by talking.
During that period, Shu Ruyue took her daughter to see a psychologist.
Doctor Qiao Songhe said: "The water plants occasionally jump onto my shoulders and do exams and homework with me, as well as play chess, fishing and darts with me. They are teaching me these things and I like to learn."
Qiao Song also learns very quickly, whether in studying or other aspects. If it weren't for her occasional weird behavior, she could even skip a grade at this age.
But Qiao Song cherishes going to school and even cherishes every day of his life.
She doesn't want to move forward too quickly and always wants to grow up slower and slower.
The doctor had never seen such a mature and sober child, but her childlike innocence and cuteness were also real.
Finally, the doctor could only say that this is a way of helping oneself concentrate on studying by talking to an imaginary friend. It occasionally occurs in some gifted children and will not have a big impact on the children. The fantasy may disappear when they grow up. If you want to control it, you can choose to take medicine.
Ms. Shu did not let her daughter take the medicine, and not long after, Qiao Song also transferred to another school.
The new school is very beautiful. The teachers will no longer protect other students who like to bully others, and Qiao Song no longer uses his fists to grit the teeth of senior students.
The old principal sometimes sighed: "Xiao Shu, you two both look gentle and polite, but who does your daughter look like? There is a big yellow dog that likes to bite people in the food court at the back door. I was going to call the security team to catch the dog and take it to the hospital, but the vicious dog ran away with its tail between its legs when it saw your daughter."
Shu Ruyue smiled and squatted down to happily kiss Qiao Song's face: "Of course, our baby is so cute and amazing."
After kissing her daughter, Shu Ruyue would immediately teach her: "Mom can let Xiaosong do whatever she likes, but Xiaosong can't let herself get hurt, otherwise Mom will be so sad that she will cry every day, her eyes will be blinded by crying, and she won't be able to eat. It's so miserable."
Qiao Song didn't want her mother to suffer so much, so she attacked even harder than before, trying to hit her mother with one strike and not let her lose a single hair.
At school, not only people, but even dogs don’t dare to mess with her.
After graduating from Chunlai Primary School, Qiao Song went to the best middle school in the city. From there, she was obsessed with knowledge in books, but everything in the books was dead, and she liked fresh, moving life.
Occasionally, her mother would ask her, "Xiaosong, can you still see your friends in the mirror?"
Qiao Song nodded.
But the number of water plants has been decreasing. They either withered or simply melted away from the mirror and no one knew where they went.
Qiao Song is still very busy. In between being a good daughter and a good student, she has experienced all kinds of life. At first, some bosses were unwilling to hire child laborers, but later, looking at Qiao Song's determined eyes, they didn't know what miserable life experience he had imagined.
Qiao Song even got her wish and became a famous kid in a certain snack street who made delicious fried rice.
The water plants did not lie to her. Every different life is more interesting than what is said in the story.
By the time she went to college, there was only one waterweed left in the mirror.
Qiao Song did not tell her mother that the water plants in the mirror were actually the souls in the river that had made a deal with her.
Everyone had to give Qiao Song their proudest survival skill, and the last one, he gave Qiao Song another precious thing, which was about to expire.
Qiao Song herself understood that the older she got, the more conflicting memories she had in her mind. She always saw a black river with silvery-white light in her dreams.
Later, in addition to the illusions in the mirror and dreams at night, she would occasionally hear auditory hallucinations when she was awake. The sound of a rushing river followed her like a ghost, like some kind of cruel countdown.
Qiao Song knew that he didn't have much free time left.
She went home more and more frequently, always finding ways to go home to see her mother.
Shu Ruyue still has the bad habit of not liking to eat.
There is an empty room at home, which was his father's study before he passed away. Qiao Song seldom goes there, but his mother likes to stare blankly in there. Sometimes she sits there for a whole day, flipping through a few books and photos.
The photo albums at home are also very strange. The pages are never filled up, leaving several gaps, as if left for other photos.
Qiao Song doesn't like taking photos. All her photos are from her childhood, and she strongly requested that they be placed in another small box, separated from this strange family album.
She was keenly aware that she might have received a huge and precious gift, and she could no longer completely erase the last trace of someone else's life in this house.
Tomorrow is May 30, 2025, the day when Qiao Song disappears from the real world and goes to the Infinite Highway game area.
She heated up some milk for her mother, watched her drink it and fall asleep, and then Qiao Song entered the study.
She opened the photo album.
Pieces of paper began to appear in those blank spaces, like slowly exposing photographic paper, and new images slowly emerged.
Qiao Song saw a handsome man with a sunny smile and a determined and happy expression. Shu Ruyue was half leaning in her husband's arms, with a one-month-old baby in her cradle.
The child grew up day by day. In the timeline of the photo album, his father still died in an accident when he was three years old. The boy was not as naughty as Qiao Song, but he was also very rebellious. He formed a band, participated in marathon long-distance running competitions, liked outdoor rock climbing, and finally, after graduating from college, he plunged into the gaming industry, which was called a cancer at that time.
Shu Ruyue is always the good mother who shields her children from all rumors. In an era when the gaming industry was not well-received, she still regards her children as her pride.
"No matter what you do, just live your life happily."
The last photo in the album flickered with fragments of newspaper appearing and disappearing.
Shu Ruyue's child fell into a coma and became a vegetable in an unexpected major chain car accident on May 30, 2025.
At that time, a new game he made had just been launched.
The family album ends here. There will be no new photos from now on. The timeline of this family has come to a standstill.
The photo album in his hand seemed to have unstable pixels, constantly breaking into pixels, and then merging back together after Qiao Song held it tightly.
There was a sighing sound in the air.
It seemed to be asking why I had to open this photo album, why I had to enter the study, this would not be a beautiful dream.
However, Qiao Song glanced at the wall clock. There was still some time left before the critical time node. She gently pushed open the door of her mother's bedroom. Shu Ruyue liked to sleep on her side, with her hands together and slightly curled up, as if to protect something in her arms.
Qiao Song sometimes wondered if he was too mean and greedy, as if he was taking up someone else's place.
But if there was only one hour left, she still wanted to sleep here for a while, to be greedy for a little while.
Shu Ruyue seemed to hear her daughter talking. With her eyes closed, she could still hold Qiao Song in her arms, as if she had done it countless times before. She slowly stroked her head, hummed softly like when they were children, and coaxed her to sleep.
When she was a child, Qiao Song was very easy to coax and she seldom cried or made a fuss. As long as Shu Ruyue was willing to tell her any story, little Song would listen with relish with her big eyes open, as if everything in the world was quite interesting to a stone that had been sleeping in the cold lake for hundreds or thousands of years.
Little Stone also just realized that there is such a warm place in the world.
Qiao Song quietly crawled into her mother's arms, as if she had returned to the time when she was still a ball. The water around her was so gentle, and the warm light shone in from outside. There were fingers tapping on her belly on the window, as if they were looking forward to her birth.
It turns out that life is such a warm thing, a thousand times better than river water.
Death there is like the floating water plants, the stones that sink to the bottom, and the still and silent night. But to the stones there, living once as a human being is like a mirage in the water that will break when touched by the water surface.
In the mirror-like surface of the water waves, the last water plant disappeared.
Qiao Song returned to the icy river water. She had never felt so cold before.
Once you have seen the sun, you will never be able to endure the darkness again.
It turns out that the river of life and death is really filled with dead souls.
It turns out that she is really a greedy thief.
"Not a thief."
Someone gently held her hand. It was not her mother's voice, but it sounded very familiar.
Qiao Song heard her say, "This is what we agreed upon at the beginning. Each of us exchanged our most precious things with you for a chance to be resurrected. Each of us taught you the skills and life techniques that we are most proud of in our lives. Only one idiot, I don't know what we talked about, but in the end he gave his memories to you."
There was a slight smile in the voice at the end.
Huo Siran appeared in the darkness. Two pairs of curved and spiraling horns had grown on her head without her noticing. Her eyes were like whirlpools filled with intertwined memories and dreams.
"Qiao Qiao, both parties of the equal exchange agree to this transaction. You helped Ms. Shu bring back the child she would have lost, and you also gave us another chance to start over. You saved a ship that was about to capsize, but we only gave you a dream."
"Have a good sleep. Don't wake up too soon this time. Don't look through that photo album. You need a good rest."
Wei Yang's eyes dilated, and the vortex in his pupils turned into the swinging light of a light bulb.
The surrounding water became hot again, warm enough to feel like sunshine, enveloping Qiao Song as always.
Just like when I was in my mother's womb.
The sound of cold flowing water was blocked out, and Qiao Song finally fell into a deep sleep this time. She curled up, and the damage on her body caused by the river water began to repair itself extremely slowly.
She fell asleep in her dream.
In the dome-shaped building of the fairy tale city, there was a big bed piled with dolls. The sunlight barely shone onto the bed through the colored glass. When Qiao Song opened her eyes, she felt like she had a very long sleep. She was somewhat dazed and deeply sunk into the thick quilt. There was a warm smell of sunshine on the quilt.
As far as the eye can see, the ceiling is hung with wind chimes of various strange shapes, like a group of little angels surrounded by golden light, with feathers of dream catchers floating above their heads.
Qiao Song also saw a little elf, who suddenly came out from a birdcage-shaped wind chime with a look of surprise and touched her forehead with a mini glowing wand.
"Yeah, I've finally recovered. I'll go and inform everyone~"
A few seconds after the elf flew out, the door opened. The giant bedroom, which was as spacious as a living room, was already filled with countless dolls and toys, as well as various fairy tale books. At this time, a large group of people rushed in.
Gao Chengcheng, who was in the lead, seemed to have cried, with red eyes. Behind her followed a rabbit wearing home clothes and holding a feather pen.
Further back was Huo Siran with goat horns on his head and another tall and silent shadow.
Qiao Song felt as if some of his previous questions had been answered: "Can Wei Yang's ability also hypnotize himself?"
Otherwise, why did Aunt Huo always firmly believe that she was a player, and then, at some point, she gradually became different from before?
Gao Chengcheng's eyes widened in disbelief: "Qiao Qiao, you almost died this time, why are you using your brain as soon as you wake up?"
Maotu muttered quietly in the background: "People who think quickly are like this. Unlike you, you were asked to be a mermaid princess, but you got lost in the sea for three days and the story was almost over."
Gao Chengcheng got angry when she heard this: "It's not that I'm lost, it's that the underground location of your fairy tale city has been messed up by others a long time ago, and you don't know anything about it."
When Maotu heard Gao Chengcheng's questioning of him, he immediately had an 800-round information analysis battle with her about how many unknown forces had invaded the Fairy Tale City.
Aunt Huo regained her position, asked Rabbit and her heir to go to the side, and pulled in someone who had been hiding outside the door.
"Because you were attacked by the snake before, your dream has collapsed once. To weave a new dream, you need new materials. I had to find a guy who can help."
Feeling Qiao Song's gaze, Li Yuan's jaw tensed slightly.
He seemed to be wearing a coat made of black feathers, and even his eyes were covered by crow feathers.
Qiao Song sat on the bed and stretched out his hand.
Somehow, Li Yuan quickly understood what she meant. He stopped for two seconds, walked to the bedside and lowered his head slightly.
Qiao Song raised his hand and lifted the feathers that were covering the crow's eyes.
She held Li Yuan's face and looked at him quietly for a while.
"As expected, you and mom look a bit more alike."
Li Yuan could sense her mood, a little depressed and a little sad, but much better than he had originally expected.
He boldly grasped the hand on his cheek, pursed his dry lips, and then spoke: "Your previous memories are not all false. After I obtained the permission to open the door, I can open a crack in the door and contact a small part of reality."
Qiao Song just looked at him quietly, waiting for him to finish his next words.
Li Yuan felt a little awkward when being stared at like this:
"...My mother had trouble sleeping after I became a vegetable. Later, she often went to another world in her dreams. This city was very similar to the real world. She had a daughter here..."
Suddenly, Li Yuan felt that Qiao Song was looking at him strangely.
He swallowed nervously and continued to give several paragraphs of supporting evidence, all trying to explain that the memories of Qiao Song after he became a human were not false, but that Shu Ruyue had really had contact with her.
That love is not fake either.
Qiao Song also gave Shu Ruyue, who looked haggard in reality, a new reason to eat after waking up from her dreams again and again.
"My mother wanted to have a daughter for a long time, but you know, my father..."
Li Yuan felt the hand beside his cheek suddenly stroke his face gently, and then placed it on his head.
"It's okay. You don't have to comfort me. Thank you."
An indescribable feeling of warmth seemed to be transmitted through the hand.
Li Yuan thought, after Qiao Song became a human, he was no longer the cold and irritating stone.
"That……"
Li Yuan was about to continue talking about the history of their ferry trip a long time ago, when Qiao Song suddenly looked into his eyes, thought for a moment and said:
"Since the life I experienced was not entirely a fake one, nor did it completely replace your experience..."
"So, in that case, we should be brother and sister. No, in terms of date of birth, I should be earlier than you. Yes, when I say earlier, I mean earlier. Don't look at me like that."
"I haven't fully remembered the things that happened before I crossed the river. At that time, I was probably still a stone with a bad temper. If I bullied you often, I will change in the future..."
Qiao Song suddenly felt that the little crow's expression was becoming uglier and uglier.
She felt that she was quite experienced in being a sister. Hadn't she taken good care of Xiao Ni, Tang Xiao Xiao and the others?
"Don't worry, I won't pinch your mouth for no reason anymore."
As long as Li Yuan doesn't transform into the complete form of Crow for the time being, she shouldn't have that impulse for the time being.
The main thing is, I don’t know what I’ve experienced before, but every time I see this little black bird appear, it’s like it’s formed into muscle memory.
"Don't worry, Aunt Shu is my mother in my heart. I will help my mother take good care of you and treat her son as my own brother."
With every word Qiao Song spoke, Li Yuan's face, which was originally so white against the black feathers, became increasingly bloodless. In the end, even his jawline went from being tense to trembling slightly in disbelief.
He took a deep breath and was about to speak when he felt some kind of vibrating resonance in the air.
Maotu, who was originally discussing intelligence with Gao Chengcheng about which bastards were secretly causing trouble in their territory, suddenly got angry and kicked with his rabbit legs, almost hitting his head on the ceiling.
"Li Yuan!!! If you, a stinky crow, dare to use the Word Spirit, the whole Fairy Tale City will collapse!!! I've just patched up a circle here! If you want to say something harsh, go out and say it, don't open your mouth here!!"
Gao Chengcheng had never seen this rabbit speak so fast before, as if Li Yuan could flatten this copy of the game partition just by saying a few words at this time.
Li Yuan, wrapped in feathers, looked like a fluffy ball that was about to explode with anger. Several dialog boxes appeared next to his head, as if he wanted to explain something, but in front of Qiao Song's loving look at his brother, his dialog boxes ended up shattering to the ground.
The Rabbit doesn't know what he wants to do.
The sulking crow couldn't speak, and was afraid of suffocating himself. Finally, he couldn't bear it anymore and simply opened a portal and left without looking back.
As soon as he left, the vibration in the space disappeared.
Maotu looked at the place where Li Yuan had stood before. The plush carpet on the ground had inexplicably aged and collapsed. Maotu immediately rushed to Qiao Song to complain:
"Look how rude he is, and you don't do anything about it! This guy has been sleeping in hell for decades, but he still can't control his temper. He came to someone else's house as a guest and messed up my living room! I'll teach him a lesson in the future!"
Qiao Song suppressed her laughter and nodded seriously: "I will talk to him. I'm sure he will listen to me as his sister."
After she finished speaking, she couldn't help herself and picked up a black feather that had fallen on the bed sheet, her eyes curved with laughter: "Wasn't he able to speak a few words normally just now? Why did he become like this all of a sudden?"
Gao Chengcheng was still a little slow to react and asked Aunt Huo in a low voice what had happened.
As the only one who knows all the truth and little secrets, the Sheep now has a subtle expression.
She glanced at Qiao Song, who looked innocent, and finally paused for a few seconds on his obviously fake expression. She seemed to understand something and finally explained:
"Crow can speak normally sometimes, but when his mood swings, he tends to lose control of his power. This is the sequelae of him voluntarily accepting the Gate of Hell."
Gao Chengcheng said "oh", as if he knew what it meant to accept the Gate of Hell.
Huo Siran gently turned his head and continued with Qiao Song: "Next, the other zodiac signs should also make their final preparations one after another. We are destined to face Chen Long, just like when we were on the boat crossing the river. After all, we are not on the same path as them."
Qiao Song recalled for a moment and suddenly thought of something: "Speaking of this, regarding Zootopia and the river under this city, I have a rather risky suggestion."
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