Chapter 153 In those dreams, he was him, and yet he wasn't him.
Shen Yun's movements were too natural.
So natural that it seemed somewhat abnormal.
"Thank you, I can do it myself." Yu Qingzhou said, reaching out to take the towel.
Without thinking, he grasped Shen Yun's hand directly.
After rinsing in the hot water for a while, Yu Qingzhou gradually warmed up, and her palms also became warm.
Holding Shen Yun's hand now, I felt a chill in the air.
In the short time it took Yu Qingzhou to think to herself.
Shen Yun spoke up: "Let me do it. If it weren't for me, Senior wouldn't have caught a cold."
Yu Qingzhou then let go of his hand, allowing the boy behind her to gently wipe his hair.
There had been a few scattered sounds of water before, but now it's quiet.
Yu Qingzhou gradually began to feel sleepy, but the faint, cool fragrance of plum blossoms beside her helped her regain her energy.
I couldn't help but marvel at the wonder of human relationships.
I first met Shen Yun about a month ago. At that time, I vaguely felt that the young man was nice and really handsome, but I didn't think much of it.
After all, she's someone who looks so cold and aloof.
Who would have thought, Yu Qingzhou thought, even Shen Yun herself probably never imagined, that two people who were originally complete strangers could have such a close and intimate time together, like old friends.
What's even stranger is that Yu Qingzhou felt the scene was strangely familiar.
“Deep charm”.
"Um."
"I didn't realize you were so good at these little things in life, besides studying." Yu Qingzhou was making conversation for the sake of it.
Shen Yun didn't stand on ceremony and readily agreed: "This is also part of learning." After a pause, she added, "Actually, I'm a pretty good cook too."
—Should we say that you can't judge a book by its cover?
Yu Qingzhou was genuinely surprised this time.
You really don't look like it—
"So what do I look like?"
A deep, resonant voice came from behind, seemingly carrying a hint of amusement. Perhaps infected by this amusement, Yu Qingzhou also relaxed a little.
He casually replied, "It's more like sitting and waiting for food."
After saying that, he realized it was a bit inappropriate, so he added, "But he probably didn't eat much."
No sooner had he finished speaking than a soft chuckle was heard.
This time, Yu Qingzhou heard it clearly: Shen Yun had indeed laughed.
"Senior guessed correctly, but only half right," Shen Yun said in a low voice.
Yu Qingzhou's curiosity was piqued, and she couldn't help but ask, "Which half?"
Shen Yun smiled, this time for real.
"I don't usually eat much because I'm a picky eater."
He said, "But if I come across something I like to eat, even if I'm stuffed to death, even if my skin is torn and my intestines are spilling out, even if I can't open my mouth anymore, I will never share even a tiny bit with anyone else."
"..."
Yu Qingzhou couldn't understand how someone could say such shocking things in such a nonchalant and calm tone.
He suddenly realized that he knew too little about Shen Yun.
Just then, Shen Yun suddenly said, "Why isn't Senior talking? Could it be that you're scared?"
Shen Yun seemed to lean down, getting closer, her breath softly brushing against the back of her ear, slightly chilly.
Yu Qingzhou slightly shrank her neck, and then smiled.
“That joke of yours was indeed a bit scary,” he replied.
Shen Yun remained silent.
He was just wiping Yu Qingzhou's hair gently through the towel.
Yu Qingzhou felt a chill run down her spine, not in a metaphorical way, but in a real way.
After a while, Shen Yun finally seemed to have finished wiping.
Yu Qingzhou felt the aura behind her recede, and the deep, resonant voice rang out again, now positioned higher up.
"Yes, I was just kidding."
The boy explained casually, saying he was joking, but then suddenly reverted to his usual serious tone: "Senior, you're not taking this seriously, are you?"
"How could this be..."
Why wouldn't I?
That day, Yu Qingzhou caught a cold and returned to the dormitory, but surprisingly, she didn't see Lan.
He didn't eat anything, and while lying in bed, he developed a fever in a daze.
In Yu Qingzhou's limited memory, this was the first time she had ever been sick.
My whole body felt like it was on fire, as if my hands and feet were tied up and I was being roasted over a fire.
In a daze, it felt like I was having a lot of chaotic dreams.
I saw many figures coming and going around the bed.
At one moment, she was a thin woman, holding his hand and silently weeping.
The young man, with a calm gaze, held him in his arms, gently feeding him the medicine spoonful by spoonful, cupping his cheeks.
The boy with blue eyes was lying on the edge of the bed, rubbing his smooth cheek against the boy's palm with a devout and careful manner, just like an adorable cat.
There were also elderly people, children, and young girls...
【Junior Brother——】
[Senior Brother Yu?]
【Young Taoist Priest.】
【elder brother! 】
Why is it called loquat?
[...]
Numerous sounds mingled and clashed together.
It was all jumbled up in Yu Qingzhou's mind.
It seemed to be calling him, but it also seemed to be calling someone else—
Finally, he struggled to open his eyes and saw a smiling face in his swaying vision.
Their faces were obscured, but they exuded an overwhelming sense of familiarity, as if they had known each other for a lifetime.
"Take some medicine, it will make you feel better..."
A gentle voice came from beside the bed, and Yu Qingzhou could barely make out that the person was Lan.
As soon as he realized this, the hallucinations that had been bothering him seemed to vanish all at once.
All that remained were blurry figures in my field of vision.
But he still couldn't see him clearly, couldn't see Lan's face clearly.
In a daze, he actually saw another Lan next to Lan.
It's just not so distinct; one is more tangible, the other more indistinct, like a shadow floating in the void.
Now Yu Qingzhou was certain that she had gone mad from the fever.
"It's okay." Lan's voice was gentle as she leaned closer, carrying a reassuring aura. "Drink your medicine, and you'll get better soon."
Lan repeated it again before Yu Qingzhou noticed the medicine in the other person's hand.
It was impossible to tell what the ingredients were; the bowl was a dark, reddish-brown color with a strange, slightly fishy-sweet taste.
As they spoke, Lan helped Yu Qingzhou sit up, placing her on the edge of the bed so that she could rest her head on her shoulder.
Yu Qingzhou felt as if she had been transformed into a clay or wooden puppet, unable to move and at the mercy of others.
But what he hates most is being controlled by others.
How could I be so willing at this moment?
Have you forgotten?
A voice suddenly rang in my ears.
Yu Qingzhou turned her head in that direction with great effort, only to see a fair hand holding a porcelain spoon.
The spoon held dark red droplets, which were slowly brought closer to his lips.
At the same time, the voice rang out again from the other side—[Have you forgotten?]
Forgot... what?
Yu Qingzhou was puzzled. The smooth edge of the spoon had already touched his lips, and the faint, sweet, fishy taste slid into his mouth little by little.
Yu Qingzhou's body began to tremble slightly.
Where had he tasted this flavor before...?
Where is it?
--at what time?
Why, why is there so much blankness in his mind?
Why can't he remember anything... anything?!
Click—
The sound of breaking dishes reached my ears.
Yu Qingzhou snapped out of her daze.
Only then did he realize that he had pushed Lan's hand away forcefully in his distraction.
The porcelain spoon and the small bowl containing the medicine fell together and shattered on the floor beside the bed.
Not only that, the scalding hot soup in the bowl spilled out and landed directly on Lan's hands.
"orchid!"
Yu Qingzhou felt a buzzing in her head and hurriedly checked Lan's hand for the burned spot.
However, when Yu Qingzhou actually lifted her sleeve and saw the mark, she was stunned again.
That red mark coincidentally overlapped with the mark I had seen on Shen Yun's hand before!
Despite their different origins, the color and shape are clearly... clearly...
"It's okay."
Lan smiled and spoke softly, seemingly unaware of the strangeness in Yu Qingzhou's expression.
He simply patted the boy's forehead reassuringly.
"Wait me a moment."
As Lan spoke, she began to bend down and pick up the broken pieces on the ground.
Soon, not a single crumb remained on the ground.
As Yu Qingzhou watched Lan's departing figure, something suddenly came to mind.
"Lan." He couldn't help but call out to her.
"Um?"
Lan stood by the door and turned to look at him.
Light streamed in from the corridor, creating a dim, half-lit atmosphere.
"I saw Shen Yun's face today..." Yu Qingzhou leaned against the headboard. His body was still burning hot and his head was dizzy, but his consciousness was very clear.
"What happened to his face?" Lan asked softly, her tone revealing no particular emotion.
—Are you laughing?
Or some other expression.
Yu Qingzhou couldn't see her; Lan's upper body was hidden in the shadows and couldn't be seen clearly. Only her voice drifted over from afar, as if in a dream.
What if this is a dream?
When did it start?
When will it end?
—Yu Qingzhou didn't know.
But Yu Qingzhou knew that at least she could personally expose all of this and reveal the dream that had trapped her in for who knows when.
Every dream has its own key elements.
Like the demon-revealing mirror in a horror story.
Beauty fades to dust in an instant, and demons pierce through the painted skin of a beautiful woman; it's all just a matter of right and wrong.
Is it choosing to continue wallowing in dreams...?
Or should we confront the truth, whether it be cruel, bloody, or completely unexpected...?
It was never a problem.
He was tired of his own ignorance, so he decided to open the bottle containing the truth.
Even if the bottle contains the devil who has been trapped for over three hundred years, determined to kill the fisherman, at least he can give himself a quick death.
My tongue feels heavy.
It felt like it was being pressed down.
But Yu Qingzhou still tried her best to utter her own fragments of truth from her heavy lips and tongue.
“I saw your face on that face… I saw your face on that face.”
"Oh, I see. You saw it."
Lan answered in her usual tone and stood there quietly.
Yu Qingzhou couldn't see his face, but she could feel his gaze. He showed neither anger nor embarrassment at being exposed, nor did he reveal a terrifying face with blue fangs like a ghost in a story.
"However, there's nothing we can do about it."
Lan spoke again, her tone unexpectedly light: "Yu Qingzhou... Master Yu... Junior Brother... Senior Brother... and Little Loquat..."
He recounted the titles that Yu Qingzhou had heard in her half-awake, half-asleep state.
Use different tones and voices.
It's like a child excitedly showing off the candy he's received, a whole handful of his favorites.
The room in front of me gradually changed its appearance.
The modern dormitory building gradually transformed into a box-like, square room.
As Yu Qingzhou leaned against the bed railing, she became the cold inner wall of the coffin.
He lay inside, heavy as if carrying a thousand-pound boulder.
I don't know when, but the orchid by the door has disappeared, or perhaps it never existed at all.
All that remained was a deathly silence in the room, and the thought of being dead.
【—Do you remember?】
"That's what the voice asked."
Indeed, I remember now... about the fact that he had actually died a long time ago.
He fell from a great height, his body shattered to pieces, his intestines spilling out, his eyeballs falling out of their broken sockets and dangling long from his neck, which was bent at an unbelievable angle to one side...
But that's not the worst part.
The most terrifying thing is that even at this point, he still did not die immediately.
Later, he was trapped inside this clay sculpture and could not get out.
For many years, he has repeatedly woken up and repeatedly entered into dreams.
In those dreams, he was himself, yet not himself.
Every time he woke up, it came at the cost of death. This was the only time he woke up alive from his dream.
Yu Qingzhou didn't know what this meant, but perhaps it was an opportunity—he had a feeling that the person he was waiting for was about to arrive.
Sure enough, just as this thought flashed through her mind, Yu Qingzhou heard footsteps coming from afar.
The sound wasn't loud, but in such an environment, you could hear a pin drop.
As the footsteps drew closer, Yu Qingzhou felt her long-dormant heart begin to beat faster.
But that's impossible.
His physical body is dead.
That heart, naturally, has also perished.
What was truly restless was the Azure Sky Sword sealed beneath him.
Because the Azure Sky Sword contained a wisp of Yu Qingzhou's soul that he had severed years ago, he used this as a price to sever the contract between himself and Li Xiao.
Unfortunately, the method that Yu Qingzhou had finally found back then was broken by the person who trapped him here, and then the link was re-established.
However, it was precisely because of that person that Yu Qingzhou was able to sense the emotions of the wisp of remnant soul within the Azure Sky Sword.
It was excited, overjoyed and exhilarated.
Because I sensed the presence of my kind that was drawing ever closer.
Because it does not yet know the purpose of the visitor's trip.
How could Yu Qingzhou not know? After all, he had been longing for her for so long, almost to the point of being obsessed with her.
So he knew, of course, that the other party had come to kill him.
—Kill him, and put an end to this karmic entanglement.
This allowed him to escape from this endless daydream.
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