Chapter 678: Startling Dream
The moment she stepped into the room, Xiao Cheng felt her rapidly deteriorating sanity recover slightly.
It was a very ordinary little house, but it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a long time, covered in dust.
Although she couldn't smell anything in the dream, Xiao Cheng could sense that the inside and outside of the house were like two different worlds. The smell in here should have been warm and cozy.
"Xia, I'm back from shopping," the girl said again.
As soon as the words fell, Qi Xia's figure emerged from the innermost room. He was scratching the back of his head, his expression somewhat dazed.
"An...?" Qi Xia called out softly. "What am I..."
Seeing Qi Xia appear in person, Xiao Cheng quickly stepped forward. "Hey! Brother Qi, can you hear me?"
But Qi Xia clearly couldn't hear Xiao Cheng's voice. He just stared straight at the girl in white.
"Brother Qi!"
Xiao Cheng walked over and tugged at Qi Xia, but though his clothes looked soft, they felt as hard as steel. No matter how she pulled, they didn't budge at all.
"Brother Qi, your world is sick!" Xiao Cheng shouted as loudly as she could. "You have to find a way to hold onto your heart!"
But her thunderous voice didn't even create an echo in the room.
"Xia, you look really tired. What's wrong?" the girl in white asked.
"I... I don't know either..." Qi Xia scratched his hair vigorously, as if trying to remember what had happened.
But judging by his expression, the damage was already done. He was starting to accept his dream.
"It's okay, Xia." The girl in white gave a soft laugh. "Don't put too much pressure on yourself. I bought groceries today. I'll make you something to eat."
"Oh..." Qi Xia nodded absently.
The girl in white picked up two plastic bags, revealing an exceptionally sweet smile, and then asked, "Xia, I bought two kinds of ingredients. Guess what I'm going to make today?"
Qi Xia paused, thought for a few seconds, and then said, "Bean sprouts... and braised eggplant?"
"Huh?" The girl in white opened her mouth in surprise. "How did you guess?"
She placed the plastic bags on the kitchen counter, opened them, and showed Qi Xia.
"I only bought two things today—one is bean sprouts, the other is eggplant. I didn't expect you to guess it in one try."
"I..." Qi Xia smiled sheepishly. "I was just taking a wild guess..."
Seeing what was inside the plastic bags, Xiao Cheng slowly opened her mouth wide. "Brother... Brother Qi... wait..."
Qi Xia still couldn't hear anything. He stepped forward, wrapped his arms around the girl in white from behind, and whispered, "You've worked hard."
"I'm not tired. Just wait, I'll make it for you right away."
Shivering with cold dread, Xiao Cheng looked at the kitchen counter.
The bag for the "bean sprouts" was filled with writhing, wriggling earthworms. The bag for the "eggplant" contained a bloody, dripping heart.
"Brother Qi... can't you see it...?" Xiao Cheng asked, her lips trembling. "What's happened to you?"
Xiao Cheng's mind raced. Qi Xia's dream was showing her a situation she had never seen before.
Normally, people having nightmares know they're in a nightmare. They panic, they're afraid, they want to escape until they jolt awake. But Qi Xia was different.
His dream was riddled with holes. The world outside the window was in chaos. Bizarre, unnatural things surrounded him. But in his eyes, everything seemed perfectly normal.
It wasn't like dreaming. It was more like hypnosis.
The girl in white dumped the bag of earthworms into the washing basket and turned on the tap. Thick, black, sticky blood flowed from the faucet, drenching the squirming creatures in the basket.
While that was going on, she walked to the counter, picked up the heart, and grabbed a kitchen knife, neatly slicing it into chunks. Her pale fingers were soon soaked in blood.
Xiao Cheng covered her mouth several times, forcing herself to swallow and not throw up.
Qi Xia, looking completely oblivious, turned around and walked over to the sofa to sit down.
It was then that Xiao Cheng noticed something strange about the room. It was supposed to be a place for two people to live, but the living room only had a single armchair and a small dining table.
In theory, they couldn't sit down and eat together.
"Brother Qi..."
Xiao Cheng followed Qi Xia into the living room, desperately trying to get his attention.
"Can you hear me?!"
She kept waving her hand in front of his eyes, but Qi Xia, head bowed in thought, saw nothing.
"This is just a dream!" Xiao Cheng shouted. "We're both trapped in a dream!"
Qi Xia sat quietly for a moment, then stood up and slowly walked to the window, gazing outside.
Xiao Cheng followed his gaze and realized he seemed to be looking at the "sun" in the sky.
The enormous pupil in the sky turned at that moment, locking eyes with Qi Xia.
"The sun today... is beautiful."
"Brother Qi!"
Xiao Cheng was at her wit's end. If Qi Xia couldn't see her, hear her, or feel her at all, how was she supposed to rebuild his mental defenses?
He was supposed to be the master of this dream, yet he seemed to have completely lost control of it. What kind of twisted situation was this?
Qi Xia didn't notice Xiao Cheng at all. Instead, he looked down at the window. Suddenly, a crack appeared in the glass, visible to the naked eye.
Both Xiao Cheng and Qi Xia noticed the crack. Both of their expressions turned strange.
Qi Xia slowly ran a finger over the crack, muttering "strange" under his breath.
"Could this be the 'cause'...?" Xiao Cheng's eyes widened at the crack in the window, but she immediately felt something was off.
Was this crack really caused by "entering a dream"?
She couldn't even smooth out the wrinkles on Qi Xia's clothes, but someone had managed to put a crack in the glass?
"An..." Qi Xia called softly.
"What's wrong?" the girl in white's voice came from the kitchen. "Xia, did you say something?"
"The window in our house is broken..." Qi Xia murmured.
"The window...?"
The girl in white came out wearing a white apron. She wiped her hands on the apron as she walked, leaving two bright red handprints on the fabric.
"Huh...?" She walked over to the window and looked. Sure enough, there was a crack.
"How did that happen?" Qi Xia asked.
"I don't know..." the girl in white shook her head with a smile.
"Was it a bird?" Qi Xia blinked, his expression still vacant. "But I didn't see any bird just now..."
"Maybe someone's playing a prank?"
The girl in white covered her mouth with her hand and giggled softly. Then she slowly turned her head, wearing a sweet, tender smile... and looked directly at Xiao Cheng.
"Don't you think so?"