“Qian’an, ah, are you sick?”

Looking at the tall young man who claimed he’d just had a nightmare, Aunt Su frowned, unable to hide the worry in her eyes. 

Aunt Su had been at the Fang residence for a great many years, and it could be said that she watched Fang Qian’an grow up. In her memory, even when he was beaten by Fang Chengke and couldn’t get out of bed, he had never looked as close to death as he did now.

This person, who was usually the most domineering and arrogant, now seemed to have lost his soul.

His face was incredibly pale, his eye sockets black and blue.

Fang Qian’an’s unusual haggardness made her very anxious.

“…..Or should I say, where does it hurt? Qian’an, ah, you’re already this old. You should know how important it is to take care of your body.” Aunt Su looked at Fang Qian’an doubtfully, suspecting that it could be something from Fang Chengke’s beating the day before. “How about I call Lao Chen and ask him to take you to the hospital? Ai, Lao Fang is so cruel to just send you back like this. How can something like this still happen in Beijing? I’ll just make the call and ask Dr. Xu to come and take a look.”

Aunt Su talked and talked, babbling inadvertently.

After Fang Qian’an returned with Fang Chengke, many of the benefits he enjoyed from the old man naturally came to nothing. If a certain person had a headache or fever, he could only go to the hospital. It was impossible to call the family doctor like before.

Fang Qian’an rubbed his head, feeling a headache as he looked at the older woman who was starting to look aggrieved on his behalf. He said perfunctorily: “I really am fine. The old man didn’t do anything to me yesterday. Don’t overthink it, I just really didn’t sleep well…..”

When Fang Qian’an spoke like this, Aunt Su could ultimately only give a sigh: “Then how about you come down and have some soup? Can you eat something? I saw that you didn’t eat much yesterday, aren’t you hungry?”

“No, I have no appetite,” Fang Qian’an said without thinking. After a brief pause, he added: “I have to go to school right away.”

“School?”

Aunt Su was stunned for a moment, almost unable to respond.

Fang Qian’an was so anxious to go to school that he couldn’t even eat? If she hadn’t been the one to bring up the boy in front of her, Aunt Su would have thought that the person who’d appeared in this bedroom was Fang Qian’an’s substitute.

Not to mention a remote place like City A, even while enjoying truly top-notch educational resources in the capital city, Fang Qian’an never went to school seriously.

But today, Fang Qian’an, the renowned underachiever, king of laziness, and teacher longevity reduction machine, was actually rushing to school.

In such a hurry that he didn’t even have time to eat breakfast.

Aunt Su watched, dumbfounded as Fang Qian’an rushed back into the room, threw something on randomly, and rushed out the door. She was unable to recover for a long time.

“This kid…..is finished. Did he fall on his head yesterday?”

The older woman watched Fang Qian’an’s back as she murmured, the worry on her face only increasing.

*

Fang Qian’an naturally had no idea that his bizarre behavior had caused great worry for Aunt Su.

All he could think about was yesterday’s dream within a dream within a dream within a dream…..and the frail young man who had appeared there. 

“A-Xiu.”

Sitting in the car on the way to school, Fang Qian’an raised his hand and looked at his arm with an unconscious murmur.

When he first woke up that morning, Fang Qian’an had wondered several times if he could still be trapped in a dream.

The feeling of weightlessness and wind passing when he jumped from the 7th floor railing, hugging the other boy, was still vivid in his memory, but what was even more vivid was…..the other party’s wild heartbeat as he clung to his chest when they jumped.

Because of the force used, the boy’s body seemed as if it was embedded in his arms.

Inexplicably, Fang Qian’an had a strange intuition — if he hadn’t woken from the nightmare at that time, he would have most likely dreamt about the final outcome.

He and Li Xiu would have fallen to the ground under the influence of gravity and become a big mass of bloody flesh. At that point, it would be impossible to completely distinguish which parts belonged to whom among the fused remains.

“Heh—”

A strange chuckle full of greed and satisfaction suddenly came from the back seat.

The driver, Lao Chen, immediately tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

The sound was odd, and didn’t sound entirely like Fang Qian’an.

But wasn’t there only Lao Chen and Fang Qian’an in the car right now, ah? As Lao Chen thought, he subconsciously glanced at Fang Qian’an in the rearview mirror.

The latter was not smiling at this time, and his pale-as-paper face was in a trance.

Lao Chen stared blankly for a second.

Maybe he had pressed something just now and actually heard something from outside the car.

At that moment, Lao Chen didn’t overthink it.

Just as Lao Chen was about to withdraw his gaze, he suddenly met Fang Qian’an’s eyes in the mirror.

“Wu?!”

One of the boy’s extremely light-colored eyes quivered strangely, and with an abrupt vibration, it was pushed aside by a different blood-colored pupil.

In one eye were a pair of bizarre double pupils.

Time seemed to stretch very long.

For a brief moment, Fang Qian’an stared unblinkingly at Lao Chen. He suddenly grinned.

Lao Chen suddenly heard a sound that was like tinnitus. His head spun, and the man immediately stepped on the brakes in a panic, stopping the car dangerously at a red light.

“Hey, who’s that, ah? He’s driving like crazy—”

He had almost run into a pedestrian on the crosswalk, who cursed angrily at Lao Chen.

Although there hadn’t been an accident, no matter what, Lao Chen would normally have gotten out of the car to deal with the situation. Presently, he held the steering wheel tightly with both hands and remained in his seat for several seconds.

“Fuck, Uncle Chen? What are you doing?!”

Fang Qian’an wasn’t wearing a seatbelt in the back, and the sudden stop caused him to hit his head. At this time, he was looking at Lao Chen with an irritable expression, and his tone was just on this side of cursing him.

Lao Chen slowly turned his head to look at Fang Qian’an. The latter’s eyes were not strange at all.

It was as if everything just now was an illusion.

Fang Qian’an glared at Uncle Chen and raised his voice again: “Uncle Chen! Green light!”

At the same time, a car behind theirs honked continuously. Lao Chen quickly sat upright as if waking from a dream, and continued to drive forward under the guidance of the traffic lights.

The man licked his lips as he drove, trying to calm down.

“Apologies, Young Master Fang. I was a little distracted just now.”

“Tsk.” Fang Qian’an was upset today, and his mood became even worse after being tossed around by Uncle Chen like this. “You have to watch the road carefully even if you’re distracted, right? You almost hit someone just now! Ah, seriously, I should have driven the car myself…..”

Seeing that Fang Qian’an was as bad-tempered as always, Lao Chen’s heart relaxed somewhat.

Fortunately, Qiming’s magnificent school gates soon appeared in Uncle Chen’s field of vision.

When the car drove up to the school, Fang Qian’an got out at once without saying a word and rushed toward the teaching building with great strides.

And Lao Chen in the driver’s seat looked in the direction he had gone for a long time, a strange expression on his face. Then he let loose a long sigh.

Lao Chen wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and muttered with a wry smile: “What the hell…..is wrong with me?”

It must have been some kind of hallucination just now, right?

Fang Qian’an was more or less the child he had watched grow up. No matter how he thought about it, it was impossible for him to have two pupils in one eye.

But even as he thought this, Lao Chen was still tense as he drove.

He couldn’t explain why, but he felt that the Fang Qian’an sitting behind him was a bit creepy.

It was a very strange feeling.

Just like when you stare at a word for a long time and it starts to seem a little abnormal.

Looking at Fang Qian’an now, he unexpectedly felt that the more he looked, the stranger that person became.

*

Due to the incident on the way to school, when Fang Qian’an arrived, Class 1A’s morning self-study class had already begun.

When his eyes landed on the class full of students, the corners of Fang Qian’an’s mouth twitched and his footsteps instinctively slowed. Fortunately, he quickly saw Li Xiu sitting in the last row.

The boy who almost always immersed himself in homework looked a little off today. He clearly had a pen in his hand and papers spread out on the table, but the eyes looking down at those papers were empty. His fingers didn’t move for a long time, and the paper was blank. He was obviously distracted.

The early morning sunlight shone on the slender boy through the window glass, making his pale cheeks look like they were about to become translucent. 

Th-thump—

Fang Qian’an distinctly felt something in his chest start to pound wildly.

Even the trauma from the classroom dream last night faded away at once.

“A-Xiu—”

Walking fast, Fang Qian’an took a deep breath, rushed into the classroom, and grabbed Li Xiu, dragging him out.

“Fang Qian’an! What are you doing?!”

Li Xiu struggled for a moment, but the strength of his struggling in Fang Qian’an’s grip was no different from the scratching of a kitten, with no effect at all.

Staggering along the way, Fang Qian’an dragged Li Xiu right to the class lounge.

There was nobody else there early in the morning.

As soon as Li Xiu entered, Fang Qian’an pushed him directly onto the sofa, which was as big as a bed. Then came the click of the door being locked.

“Fang Qian’an, what’s wrong with you?!”

Li Xiu struggled to hold himself up, cursing at the tall boy who was slowly turning around at the door.

Just like Fang Qian’an, Li Xiu also had thick dark circles under his eyes. The frail youth’s cursing had no energy at all, and there was a slight hoarseness to his voice, like he had been crying.

Fang Qian’an took a deep breath and licked his lips, staring at Li Xiu with bright eyes.

“I had a dream last night. A nightmare.” One step. Two steps. Fang Qian’an suddenly came to Li Xiu, standing in front of him like a mountain. “I thought I was definitely going to die in it, but fortunately I had you there.”

Li Xiu shivered violently upon hearing these words, and after half a beat, his stiff voice sounded in the lounge.

“……Psycho. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Fang Xian’an blinked.

Holding the edge of the sofa with one hand, he suddenly leaned down and drew close to Li Xiu.

He said: “You dreamed about me too, right?”

This position brought the two of them very close together. Fang Qian’an’s golden eyes seemed more and more like those of some big cat. And when Li Xiu saw himself reflected in those eyes, he inexplicably felt like the pitiful prey being targeted.

His heart palpitated, and Li Xiu lowered his head to avoid Fang Qian’an’s focused gaze.

“A dream. You had a dream, you idiot. Fang Qian’an, I still have morning self-study to do, what do you want…..”

Before he could finish speaking, Fang Qian’an directly grabbed his wrist.

“Look, here’s proof,” he said.

Li Xiu followed his gaze to look at his palm — there were teeth marks on the edge of it, along with blood stains.

Those were left behind when he was trying not to scream in the nightmare.

Li Xiu: “…..I can’t bite something when I’m sleeping?” 

Who couldn’t see Li Xiu’s extreme evasion? But Fang Qian’an didn’t let him go.

“Okay, what about this?” As he spoke, Fang Qian’an stood up, took a few steps back, and took his shirt off in front of Li Xiu.

“Cough…..what are you doing?!”

Li Xiu was caught off guard when he saw Fang Qian’an taking off his clothes, and nearly choked on his own saliva.

“I’m showing you my evidence.”

Fang Qian’an didn’t hear Li Xiu’s panic. The boy spoke easily as he showed his back to Li Xiu.

On both sides of the boy’s muscular back were several clearly visible scratches.

It was impossible not to be scared when jumping off the railing. Even the most courageous person, when hugging someone as they jumped, couldn’t help but use force to dig his nails deeply into the other’s flesh.

There were many bruises on Fang Qian’an’s back, but the slightly red and swollen scratches were still very conspicuous.

The boy turned his head and stared at Li Xiu, speaking every word with the utmost seriousness: “When I woke up this morning, I kept trying to convince myself that it was only a dream.”

“But when I was getting dressed, I found these…..there’s no way I could have scratched myself in these positions, right?”

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Chapter 20 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 22