Chapter 123 Dreaming of a Past Life
Sheng An returned to the small building with a heavy heart. The whole family was waiting for her to come back for dinner in the hall.
"What's wrong with An'an? She doesn't look well."
Grandma Sheng looked at her granddaughter with concern, squeezed her slightly cold hand, and quickly served her a bowl of hot soup.
The others also looked at Sheng An, and Xu Jinnian's eyes were filled with worry.
Sheng An didn't expect to be seen through, so she quickly adjusted her expression and made an excuse: "I went out with Jin Nian all day today, climbing mountains and riding horses. I'm tired, so I just want to eat and go upstairs to rest early."
Grandma Sheng had no doubts and immediately smiled: "Then let's eat quickly, and after you finish eating you can go to sleep."
The other two elders did not doubt Sheng An's words and told her to sleep in a little longer tomorrow morning and not to get up early.
Tonight is a late night, and Grandma Sheng specially prepared several extra dishes, most of which are Sheng An's favorites.
However, she didn't have a good appetite and only managed to finish the food in her bowl.
After the meal, Sheng An went upstairs to the second floor, and Xu Jinnian followed.
The tinderbox was lit, and the candle on the table was lit, bringing light to the dark room.
Sheng An didn't wash up or change her clothes. She sat on the chair by the window, watching the man walk towards her step by step, her gaze slowly moving to his face:
"I went to the neighbor's yard to deliver some food and asked Ning Sihan about that woman's identity. It turns out she is the daughter of Princess Pingyuan. She was made a princess at birth and is a true golden branch and jade leaf."
Xu Jinnian showed no surprise. He sat down in the chair next to Sheng An and took her hand, which was always cold: "Whether she is the daughter of a princess or a county princess, it has nothing to do with us."
After saying that, he stared at Sheng An's face: "It was just an unpleasant encounter, but An An seems to care about her a lot."
Sheng An shook his head, his expression inscrutable: "It's not that I care about her, it's that she gives me a very bad feeling, and I can't help but want to be on guard."
It is said that a woman's sixth sense is very accurate. When Princess Shanmin first saw Jin Nian, her eyes were filled with a strong interest and a desire to conquer.
In particular, she harbored an inexplicable hatred for Princess Shanmin, which made it hard for her not to suspect that the tragedy of her past life was directly related to Princess Shanmin.
"This woman is no pushover, so it's normal for An to be on guard."
Xu Jinnian moved closer to Sheng An and embraced her reassuringly, giving her a sense of security: "However, she is not from Qingzhou and will not appear in front of An An in the future, so An An does not need to be afraid."
Sheng An leaned against the man's chest, her eyes fixed on the flickering candlelight on the table: "Yes, I'm not afraid."
The tragedy of her past life has not yet occurred, and her enemies cannot be identified for the time being. All she can do now is to manage Shengyuan well and prolong Ning Sihan's life with her superb culinary skills.
If she could latch onto this powerful figure, when she faced the culprit who ruined her family in the future, he would have to think twice before trying to take her life again.
Perhaps because of something bad that happened during the day, Sheng An started having nightmares not long after falling asleep.
The atmosphere in the dream was eerie and unsettling; she "saw" herself floating in mid-air, where there was not a soul in sight.
Below, the mountains are towering and majestic, with only a rugged path nestled in the valley connecting the inside and outside of the mountains.
Not long after he began to float in the air, Sheng An "heard" the sound of tire tracks coming from not far away.
She drifted over uncontrollably to take a look, and only when she got closer did she realize that they were two very ordinary donkey carts.
On one of the donkey carts, there was a man and a woman sitting.
The man was tall and robust with a kind and honest appearance, and the woman looked exactly like him.
Even in her dream, Sheng An was surprised. She tried to float behind the donkey cart and found that the man and woman on the cart couldn't see her, so she boldly sat at the back of the cart and listened to their conversation.
Strangely, Sheng An could hear the sound of tire tracks, but not the two people talking.
Suddenly, the scene shifts, and in the middle of nowhere, a group of masked men appear to block the road.
The masked men, each armed with a knife, attacked the man and woman on the donkey cart without a word.
The man was very strong and protected the woman as she fought against more than a dozen masked men.
The people on the donkey cart behind were terrified and immediately turned the cart around and fled for their lives, disappearing without a trace in no time.
The man, unarmed, was no match for the masked man and was quickly stabbed through the chest and fell to the ground.
The trapped woman was unable to escape and was stabbed in the abdomen by the masked man.
Sheng An wanted to rush over to save the person, but it was as if there was an invisible barrier in front of her, firmly keeping her outside.
She could only watch helplessly as blood flowed everywhere, and the man and woman's breaths grew weaker and weaker.
The air was thick with the stench of blood, and Sheng An, in his dream, couldn't stop vomiting.
An even more gruesome scene unfolded as one of the masked men stomped on the woman's lower abdomen, grinding his foot into her: "The master has ordered that we see the bastard child in this woman's womb. What a nuisance!"
No matter how hard he pressed on her, the woman's lower body remained unresponsive. The masked man cruelly cut open her stomach and removed a bloody chunk of flesh.
The head and limbs of the fleshy mass are clearly distinguishable.
"No--"
In his dream, Sheng An screamed and sat up in a cold sweat, his heart pounding in his chest as if it were about to burst out of his chest.
Xu Jinnian immediately woke up, sat up and hugged Sheng An tightly, gently patting her back and softly comforting her: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, it's just a nightmare, nothing in the dream is real..."
Sheng An was breathing heavily, unable to distinguish between dream and reality for a moment.
After a while, she completely broke free from the dream and regained her senses; her wildly beating heart returned to normal.
Listening to the man's gentle reassurance, Sheng An curled up into a ball, clutching her lower abdomen tightly with both hands, as if the excruciating pain etched into her soul still lingered there.
Xu Jinnian noticed his wife's unusual behavior and anxiously placed his large hand on her lower abdomen: "An'an, does it hurt here?"
Sheng An looked up at him, her voice trembling slightly: "Xu Jinnian, I... I dreamt that I was pregnant, and some thugs cut open my stomach and dug out the newly formed baby..."
At this point, she could no longer continue, and two tears slowly slid down her cheeks.
The dream was so real that Sheng An realized it was very likely something that happened to her in a past life, otherwise even the details wouldn't be so vivid.
The man walking with her in her dream was Da Kui, exactly the same person Liu Huazhi had described. This cannot be explained simply by saying that what you think about during the day, you dream about at night.
In the darkness, Xu Jinnian's heart sank, but his voice remained gentle: "No, An'an is not pregnant, nor has she encountered any villains. Even if she had, I would protect you and not let you get hurt."
An'an is not a sensitive person, so for her to have such a nightmare, she must have been frightened by that woman during the day.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com