Chapter 70 The Sound of Pomegranate Blossoms in the Rain (Part 1) Whose Dream?
After submitting her materials, Xia Zhu still had some time before the lunch break ended, so she deliberately walked back to the classroom through the wisteria-covered corridor where the flowers were just beginning to bud. The hallway was quiet, and the afternoon sun was somewhat lingering, making one's eyelids feel heavy. Even those who arrived at the classroom early were just taking a nap at their desks.
As I approached the entrance to Class 35, I heard several people talking inside the classroom, their voices so loud that they could be heard from outside.
"Do you know what this is called? This is called being shameless. You think you're so high and mighty just because you're good at studying. You'll smile at you if you spend a little money, and then you'll come running with a smirk if you lift a finger."
"Hey, I thought hers was pretty difficult, so I let you choose something else. I didn't expect it to be so easy. No challenge at all, Lao Zhao. We admit defeat."
It was Zhao Bingzhi and the male classmates.
Xia Zhu stopped in her tracks; even if she was slow to understand, she finally comprehended the meaning.
From beginning to end, it was all just a gamble orchestrated by these bored people who thought they were right. Unfortunately, she completely misunderstood, assuming that Zhao was also a friendless person, and even developing a sense of kinship with him.
"What do you know? Women are all worthless like this." Zhao Bingzhi's voice sounded like he was discussing the value of some kind of item. He was an experienced expert who knew the market well, and his eloquent pronouncements in front of others could repeatedly diminish its value.
"Oh? Old Zhao knows so much about women? Is it because you have two beautiful older sisters?"
The people around him laughed lewdly, but Zhao Bingzhi, caught in the middle, didn't say anything more.
"So, so, are you really going to go to some museum with that Xia Zhu?"
"Why not go? We paid for the tickets. Didn't you guys notice? That girl seems to have grown up quite a bit since she came back from winter break."
Sometimes, Xia Zhu really finds it hard to understand why people are so different from each other, even though they grow up and learn in the same environment. What kind of brain and physiological structure can form such meaningless and vulgar tastes?
She wasn't actually angry; she was more confused and curious. If there really were crazy scientists who liked to kidnap people for human experiments, they should be the ones to be kidnapped and studied. How could a creature with a penis growing in its brain walk upright and disguise itself as a normal person?
"When someone gives you a polite smile like you're a fool, a bunch of trash actually get together and start having a good time."
It was Ye Li's voice.
Xia Zhu withdrew the step she was about to take.
"We weren't talking about you, why are you meddling?" Although they felt ashamed and indignant, the boys didn't dare to really confront Ye Li. After all, her family was powerful and influential, and she had a particularly sharp tongue; she wasn't easy to deal with. If they encountered a true Celestial Dragon, their brains would instantly sprout from their necks.
"Am I wrong? They're so self-satisfied with just a little bit of cheap charity, as if they think others are the vending machines downstairs, where they can just put in a few coins and get something out of them. It's ridiculous."
Xia Zhu was a little stunned; she really hadn't expected Ye Li to speak up for her.
The classroom was completely silent. The next second, a pair of shoes came into her view. When Xia Zhu looked up, she met Ye Li's beautiful, upturned eyes. She had always known that this person had always been this beautiful, but now, standing here, she shone like an unparalleled goddess.
Ye Li seemed surprised to run into the person in question around the corner. A hint of embarrassment flashed in her eyes, quickly masked by a feigned arrogance. She crossed her arms and raised her pointed chin.
"What are you looking at, you idiot?" he said, then squeezed past Xia Zhu's shoulder.
It's always like this; the road is so wide, but Ye Li always bumps into her shoulder, as if Xia Zhu is blocking her way.
"Here you go." Xia Zhu slammed the museum ticket on Zhao Bingzhi's table, then held out her palm to him. "Give me back my money." After all, the money wasn't wrong.
"Wh...what?" Zhao Bingzhi didn't expect Xia Zhu to return to the classroom so quickly. He didn't know how much she had heard. Feeling guilty, his body and speech subconsciously became timid and hesitant.
"Give me my money back."
As long as it doesn't fall on his head, it's not a big deal. The group of people who were just having a heated discussion with him are now all watching the show with amusement. Zhao Bingzhi took out the crumpled wad of change from his pocket and, in a daze, put it into Xia Zhu's hand.
Xia Zhu took back the money and prepared to leave, but after thinking for a moment, he returned to his seat and scrutinized Zhao Bingzhi from head to toe with an almost pitying look.
"Also, I don't like ugly things."
*
With the documents submitted, the leave of absence was mostly completed. All that remained was to wait for the approval before she could set off back to Shushan Town. However, before leaving, Xia Zhu planned to go home one last time to see her grandfather, tell him about her amazing experiences over the past few months, and pack her things.
With no burden in her heart, she slept soundly for once, her limbs feeling heavy as she sank deeper into the covers. In the darkness, the talisman on her ear flickered a few times before going out again, just like back at Xuanyuan Hill, but the sleeping Xia Zhu was unaware of it.
A gust of night wind blew open the previously closed window, and the flimsy, thin curtains struggled and floated in the air like a wisp of smoke. A pale hand reached out from the darkness and grasped the windowsill, then slipped inside. The owner of the hand unceremoniously stepped onto the desk and chair that Xia Zhu had wiped clean, then slowly walked to the bedside, looking down at Xia Zhu, whose face was calm and whose breathing was long and even.
He stared at her unguarded face for a long time, until the sky outside the window flickered and the night owl cried out before dawn. Only then did he squat down and take Xia Zhu's wrist, which was hanging loosely, in his hand adorned with a pigeon-blood red ring.
An unfamiliar pulse beat in his palm, and a melancholy expression spread across his face. His gray irises resembled a hazy mist in the dim light. If Xia Zhu had opened his eyes at this moment, he might have thought he was lost in a thick fog.
But she didn't actually open her eyes, and she saw Ying Huo, who shouldn't have been there.
"You've been following me again." The air temperature against her skin wasn't low; early spring clearly didn't have that kind of weather yet. The light was supposed to be blinding, making it impossible for her to see Ying Huo clearly, yet she inexplicably knew it was him.
"Don't put it so harshly, what do you mean by 'again'?" His nonchalant smile slowly became clearer in the fading sunlight, and as the light moved outward, the surrounding scenery gradually came into view.
Xia Zhu rubbed his temples and heard some sparse cicada chirping in his ears.
She changed her approach, saying, "Oh, you're following me again."
Ying Huo raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. He had indeed followed her all the way from the foot of Mount Kongtong to the school.
Hearing and sight returned to normal; the surrounding green trees and buildings, the bright sun overhead, and the noisy cicadas—everything was incredibly real. But Xia Zhu remembered that she was still at school before she went to sleep, and school didn't look like this.
The two were standing in a sandy area. The rusty seesaw smelled of metal under the scorching sun. The swing with ropes of different lengths was moving without wind. In front of them was a row of old-fashioned residential buildings. Iron security bars and sky-blue glass were embedded in the buildings like two-dimensional images, giving them a very millennium style.
Judging from the situation, for some unknown reason, Fu Yu was ineffective, and Xia Zhu entered the dream in her physical body again.
She remembered something and looked warily at Ying Huo beside her.
"What? I came in because I noticed you were about to be sucked into the demon's dream."
“I’m not the kind of person who forgets kindness.” He finished speaking and glanced at Xia Zhu sideways.
"Are you also entering a dream through consciousness?"
"Is that so?" The afternoon sun was too dazzling, so Ying Huo tilted his head back slightly and squinted. His cold and expressionless face revealed no emotion, and he pronounced the two simple words in an obscure way.
"That's right, aren't you and I equally special? Two people of unknown identity, trying to blend into the crowd, one turning lead into gold, the other... Let me guess, what kind of divination power does Xia Zhu possess?"
Ying Huo's words suddenly reminded Xia Zhu that she had put the small sword in her desk drawer before going to bed. Without a weapon, Xia Zhu had the illusion of being naked in broad daylight. She subconsciously reached for her waist.
Ying Huo noticed this action and asked Xia Zhu a question that puzzled him.
"If... you were carrying that sword, could you wield a so-called merciful sword in this dream?"
His words were cryptic, and Xia Zhu frowned, staring directly at Ying Huo.
Her eyes were indeed filled with confusion. This discovery made Ying Huo somewhat disappointed. He composed himself, put his hands in his pockets, and walked past Xia Zhu toward the residential building on his own.
"This is pointless. Let's just kill the monster and get out of here." He said coldly.
For some inexplicable reason, Xia Zhu lowered her head, straightened her cotton pajamas, and followed Ying Huo with a bewildered expression.
People started appearing around her, and she guessed that this dream might be similar to the one with the giant celestial maiden. The area was vast, with many NPCs, and the people coming and going were dressed in styles from the early 2000s.
All the buildings, figures, and roadside flowers and trees were shrouded in a warm, yellowish light, giving them the texture of an overexposed old photograph. It was hazy and dreamlike, like being lost in a fog. The green grass, the mottled walls, the shimmering sunlight, the blurred faces—everything seemed like slowly flowing, bygone time. Even Xia Zhu felt a bittersweet ache, a subtle itch in her heart.
As she approached the residential building, she keenly smelled a bitter, grassy scent in the air. The smell was familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. Listening to the occasional chirping of cicadas and looking at the swaying sun overhead, she tried to guess that this must be a familiar solar term.
Suddenly, a little girl came running from afar, stumbling and falling. She had her head down, her two little braids swaying back and forth, and she wore a delicate and cute little dress and bright-colored little leather shoes. However, her small body looked somewhat unreal, as if it were about to collapse in the rising steam.
Xia Zhu assumed the girl's face would be blurry like any other passerby, but as she ran closer, he saw her stubborn eyes and tightly pursed lips. She clenched her fists and ran with her eyes fixed on the ground, which was dangerous; she could easily fall if she wasn't careful.
Sure enough, two steps away from her, the little girl stepped on her right foot with her left foot and fell forward. Xia Zhu subconsciously raised her hand to catch her, but watched helplessly as the girl's body passed through her hands and fell heavily to the ground.
She lay there, her small body struggling to suppress the trembling, her soft sobs muffled in her throat. A second, two seconds passed, and the little girl clenched her fists again and got up from the ground. The scrapes on her knees and wrists looked shocking, but she didn't stop to treat her wounds. Instead, she stood up again in one go and ran into the apartment building with her head down.
Xia Zhu stared blankly at her hands, then turned to watch the little girl's figure disappear around the corner and murmured, "I know whose dream this is."
Ying Huo, who had been observing coldly, was not surprised at all by her discovery. His ambiguous gaze lingered on Xia Zhu carefully, as if he were admiring a satisfying work of art.
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Author's note: The fifth dream has begun. The recent clicks have all been zero. I won't be sad as long as I don't read it.
The new episodes are simpler; I won't be writing long storylines anymore.
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