Chapter 54
She was wearing a sporty mini skirt and dark brown sunglasses, sitting on a lounge chair, comfortably sipping orange juice.
He knew she loved orange juice. During the last rehearsal of the stage play, she would drink orange juice during every intermission, which is why Zhou Chengze remembered her favorite drink.
Zhou Chengze knew that Xiang Wan couldn't see him in her dream, so he sat opposite her and stared straight at her. His eyes revealed undisguised affection and excitement, and even the sound of his heart beating faster in his chest unconsciously.
Her face was flawless; she had only applied a little lipstick, yet she was already so beautiful that it was impossible to look away.
Zhou Chengze kept looking at Xiang Wan, but noticed that her gaze was always on him in her dream.
Although it was just a dream, he still felt somewhat flattered.
He had never experienced being gazed at by Xiang Wan like this before. Even when they were rehearsing the stage play, they rarely made eye contact. It wasn't that he didn't look at her, but that she never turned around to look at him.
He followed Xiang Wan's gaze to his dream self, watching himself swing his racket. He simply swung the club lightly, and the ball flew through the air and slowly rolled toward the hole.
Xinyi looked at him with admiration: "Brother, you're so amazing."
Upon hearing this, he smiled and ruffled his sister's hair in his dream, his eyes sparkling with laughter: "Xinyi can do it too, I'll teach you."
"Thank you, brother." Zhou Xinyi skipped over and affectionately wrapped her arms around his. "Brother, you're so kind."
He seemed used to his younger sister's coquettishness, and just looked at Zhou Xinyi with doting eyes.
"Xinyi, when you swing the racket, you should put your weight on your feet."
"At this point, you need to aim your eyes at the ball."
One sibling was earnestly teaching his younger sister how to swing the racket, while the other's eyes were only on her older brother.
Not far behind, Xiang Wan, under the sunshade, seemed to have gotten used to the siblings' intimate behavior. She only frowned slightly and didn't say anything.
However, Zhou Chengze, who was opposite her, was so shocked that he dropped his ski goggles on the ground. He was so surprised that he didn't know what to say or how to react.
From the moment he started rubbing Xinyi's hair in his dream, he frowned the entire time, his gaze towards the two of them filled with scrutiny and suspicion.
He and Zhou Xinyi grew up together. From the moment his mother, Li Taohua, brought her home and said that she would be his sister, he had always treated Xinyi as his own sister.
Moreover, Xin Yi's personality in the dream was also very strange. In the dream, she was always jumping around, very lively and outgoing, as if watching the real and fake Monkey King. Zhou Chengze was a little confused about which one was the real Xin Yi.
But Xinyi, whom he had been with for over a decade, had always been a very introverted person. The two had never engaged in any intimate behavior such as touching each other's heads or linking arms.
It was as if he were looking at two siblings from a parallel universe, but with completely different personalities. Zhou Chengze always felt strange. But apart from that, there was no other overly intimate behavior between the two, so he just felt a little odd.
He picked up the ski goggles that had fallen to the ground, still processing what he had just witnessed. However, he had only processed half of it when he saw Xiang Wan get up out of the corner of his eye.
Zhou Chengze turned his head to look at the orange juice on the table next to him, which was only half-finished. He could guess with his toes that Awan was definitely unhappy because of what had just happened.
Even he couldn't accept it, let alone his fiancée Xiang Wan. But Xiang Wan didn't say anything, still maintaining the decorum between them: "Chengze, I'm a little tired, I want to go and rest first."
Even Zhou Chengze was a little worried for his dream self. Fortunately, when he heard that Xiang Wan was tired, he quickly put down his golf club and walked towards her.
“Awan, I’m not going to fight anymore. I’ll go back with you.”
Zhou Chengze breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this, but the lively Xinyi in the dream spoke up again the next second: "Brother, you go with sister-in-law, I can fight by myself, it's okay."
Despite this, her expression didn't seem like anything was wrong; rather, it was more like a strategic retreat, a way of trying to win her brother's company.
Seeing that her brother still seemed hesitant, she lowered her head and spoke as if to herself, at a volume that all four people present could hear:
"I grew up in the countryside and have no idea how to play golf."
"..."
Hearing this, Xiang Wan's expression remained unchanged, but the expression of the dream version of himself beside her changed. He looked at his sister with doting and indulgent eyes: "Xinyi, I'll take Awan back to her room first, and then I'll come back to continue teaching you how to play golf."
"Then I'll practice my swing and wait for you."
"..."
Zhou Xinyi was satisfied with her words in the dream, but Xiang Wan and Zhou Chengze, who were watching from the side, fell completely silent.
Xiang Wan was feeling unwell because of her heart condition, while Zhou Chengze, who was watching from the sidelines, was shocked by the actions of the two siblings in the dream.
From the very beginning, Zhou Xinyi has been acting strangely. Not only has her personality changed drastically, but her behavior has also become somewhat inappropriate.
But he and Zhou Xinyi grew up together since childhood. Although they were not related by blood, they were closer than siblings. He did not think that he and his sister in his dream would have any improper relationship. He just thought that the two of them were a bit silly.
He was still preoccupied with the question of why he and Xinyi in his dream were acting so strangely when he saw Xiang Wan suddenly collapse to the ground in front of him.
Zhou Chengze and the man in his dream were both panicked at this moment, and the two of them surrounded Xiang Wan.
They were all somewhat at a loss. Xiang Wan, who was already having difficulty breathing on the ground, remained calm: "I've had a heart attack. Dr. Xia is in the rest area. Call her..."
Perhaps due to oxygen deprivation in the brain, her pupils were somewhat dilated.
No one could see Zhou Chengze, so he could only stand there, staring blankly at his dream self, and following Xiang Wan's instructions, make an emergency call to the family doctor. The family doctor seemed to be nearby and arrived shortly after receiving the call.
Zhou Chengze also recognized the family doctor; it was Xia Yueshen, who had traveled with him to Northern Europe this time. However, he had never known that Xia Yueshen was Xiang Wan's family doctor; he had always assumed that the two were just friends.
Xia Yueshen kept performing CPR on Xiang Wan. In her dream, she had already called for an ambulance, but the manor was large and it would take time for the ambulance to arrive.
Throughout this time, Dr. Xia remained kneeling on the ground, racing against time to perform CPR on Xiang Wan. She pressed down on the ground with great effort, as if she were saving her own family member.
However, Xiang Wan's heartbeat slowed down, and even her pulse became weaker and weaker.
Although Zhou Chengze knew it was just a dream, perhaps because the images were too clear, or because some details overlapped too deeply with reality, he was somewhat incredulous that it was a dream.
He watched as Xiang Wan's pupils grew increasingly unfocused, as if he were playing a real 3D game. He couldn't help but feel somewhat immersed in it, feeling despair because Xiang Wan was about to die.
Just when he thought the dream was about to end, he felt his soul slowly becoming lighter, and then gradually slipping out of his control, attaching itself to the body in the dream...
Zhou Chengze looked at his palm in disbelief, watching his body gradually merge with his dream self.
Just when he thought it was a fantastical dream, Xiang Wan, who was lying in his arms, suddenly sat up as if she had a sudden burst of energy before death and slapped him across the face.
Because of a sudden heart attack, the slap wasn't particularly forceful, but it still stunned both of them.
Zhou Chengze didn't know what he felt like in his dream, but at this moment he was still pondering why Xiang Wan had hit him in his dream.
He wasn't exactly angry; he was more bewildered. Just as he was pondering the reason, he found that the dream was changing like waves once again.
When he opened his eyes again, all he saw was a pure white ceiling...
Just as he was wondering where he was, he saw Xiang Wan sitting to the side with a somewhat indifferent expression.
Zhou Chengze was unsure whether this was another nightmare or the real world, so he looked around with some hesitation.
Seeing that he was awake, Xiang Wan's face showed genuine joy. She turned around to call the attending physician, but Zhou Chengze on the hospital bed grabbed her wrist.
"Xiang Wan, do you have a heart condition?"
When he asked this question, his eyes were filled with a mixture of emotions.
Seeing Xiang Wan safe and sound, Zhou Chengze's first reaction was excitement that she was still alive, but at the same time he felt strange about why he would have such a bizarre dream.
And just as Xiang Wan was dying, why did his soul merge with his dream self? Was it just a bizarre nightmare, or some kind of supernatural superstition?
Xiang Wan had her back to him, so Zhou Chengze couldn't see her face clearly. But seeing that she didn't answer for a long time, he stared at the pure white ceiling, wondering where he was.
Looking at the IV drip bottle on the back of his hand, he suddenly remembered that he seemed to have just experienced an avalanche.
He guessed he must be in the hospital, and just as he tried to get up, he felt a sharp pain in his head.
He winced in pain, but he didn't utter a sound, his grip on Xiang Wan's hand tightening unconsciously.
Noticing Zhou Chengze's unusual behavior behind her, Xiang Wan's back stiffened instinctively.
After a long silence, she turned to look at him and asked casually, "How did you know I have a heart condition?"
The illness of the successor of the Xiang Group will not be made public, so apart from the Xiang family and a few close friends, no one outside knows about it.
Logically speaking, Zhou Chengze in this life shouldn't know that she had a heart condition.
After she finished speaking, Zhou Chengze was also stunned. He had only asked her this tentatively because he was still shaken by the bizarre dream he had just had.
Unexpectedly, Xiang Wan actually had a heart condition, just like in the dream.
A moment of confusion flashed in his eyes, and for some reason, he subconsciously chose to conceal it: "Jiang Zhuochun mentioned you before."
After listening to his explanation, Xiang Wan nodded, realizing that she had probably been overthinking things, and quickly composed herself.
Neither of them noticed anything unusual about the other. A few seconds later, Zhou Chengze released Xiang Wan's hand. Instead of calling the doctor, she sat down beside his bed.
The two looked at each other in silence. Zhou Chengze glanced around the ward and asked softly, "How long have I been unconscious?"
"Two days," Xiang Wan replied briefly.
He nodded, his eyes filled with surprise as he looked at her. His eyes lit up considerably: "Thank you for taking care of me for so long."
Xiang Wan was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, then realized that Zhou Chengze must have misunderstood something. She calmly distanced herself from the situation, saying, "It was Zhou Xinyi who took care of you."
She paused for a moment, then said, "She took care of you for two days straight without sleep, and just fell asleep now."
Upon hearing Xinyi's name, Zhou Chengze inexplicably recalled the lively and outgoing, yet somewhat overly affectionate, Xinyi from his dream. He subconsciously frowned, suddenly feeling a sense of resistance to seeing this younger sister...
But Zhou Chengze didn't think he would do something so foolish as to distance himself from his sister of decades because of a dream. However, he was in a state of confusion and preferred to be alone rather than surrounded by friends and family.
He was still staring blankly at the ceiling when he said to Xiang Wan, "Don't tell Xin Yi I'm awake yet. I want to be alone for a while."
Outside the ward, Zhou Xinyi, who was carrying a washbasin and a hot towel, stopped in her tracks upon hearing this. After a moment of stunned silence, she quietly closed the door that she had just opened a crack...
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