Chapter 678: 惊梦

The moment he entered the room, Xiao Cheng felt that his sanity, which was on the verge of slipping away, was slightly restored.

This was a very ordinary small house, but it appeared that it hadn't been cleaned in a long time, with a considerable amount of dust accumulated.

Although in the dream he couldn't smell anything, Xiao Cheng could sense that the inside of the house was like a completely different world from the outside, and the atmosphere here should be quite warm and comforting.

"Xia, I've bought the vegetables and come back."

No sooner had the words been spoken than Qi Xia's figure emerged from the innermost room. He reached up to scratch the back of his head, his expression somewhat dazed.

"An...?" Qi Xia murmured softly, "What is this...?"

Upon seeing Qi Xia in person, Xiao Cheng quickly stepped forward: "Hey! Qi Ge, can you hear me?"

But Qi Xia clearly couldn't hear Xiao Cheng's words; he was just staring straight at the girl in white clothes.

"Qi Ge!"

Xiao Cheng walked up and tried to pull at Qi Xia, but Qi Xia's soft-looking clothes were as hard as steel, and no matter how Xiao Cheng touched them, they didn't budge at all.

"Qi Ge, your world is sick!" Xiao Cheng shouted loudly, "You have to find a way to hold on to your mind!"

Yet, his loud voice didn't even echo in the room.

"Xia, you look so tired. What's wrong?" the girl in white clothes asked.

"I... I don't know..." Qi Xia scratched his hair vigorously, as if trying to recall what had happened.

From his expression, it was clear he had already been affected; he was on the brink of accepting his dream as reality.

"It's okay, Xia," the girl in white clothes said with a light laugh, "Don't put too much pressure on yourself. I bought some vegetables today, and I'll make something for you to eat."

"Oh..." Qi Xia nodded absentmindedly.

The girl in white clothes reached for the two plastic bags, revealing an unusually sweet smile, then asked, "Xia, I bought two kinds of vegetables. Guess what I'm going to make today?"

Qi Xia paused for a moment, thought for a few seconds, and said, "Bean sprouts... and stir-fried eggplant?"

"Huh?" The girl in white clothes opened her mouth in surprise, "How did you guess that?"

She placed the plastic bags on the kitchen counter and opened them to show Qi Xia.

"I only bought two things today, one is bean sprouts and the other is eggplant. I can't believe you got it right on the first try."

"I..." Qi Xia smiled shyly, "I was just guessing randomly..."

At the sight of what was in the plastic bags, Xiao Cheng slowly opened his mouth wide: "Qi... Qi Ge... Wait a minute..."

Qi Xia still heard nothing and stepped forward to hug the girl in white clothes from behind, whispering, "You've worked hard."

"I'm not tired. Just wait, I'll make it for you right away."

Xiao Cheng felt a chill run through his entire body as he looked toward the kitchen counter.

The bag that was supposed to contain "bean sprouts" was filled with wriggling earthworms, while the bag that was supposed to hold "eggplant" contained a bloody heart.

"Qi Ge... Can't you see this...?" Xiao Cheng asked with trembling lips, "What's happened to you?"

Xiao Cheng's mind raced. Qi Xia's dream was presenting a situation he had never encountered before.

Normally, people having nightmares know they're in a dream; they panic, feel afraid, and want to escape until they wake up. But Qi Xia was different.

His dream was full of flaws— the world outside the window was in chaos, and bizarre things were happening around him— yet in his eyes, everything seemed perfectly normal.

It was less like dreaming and more like he was hypnotizing himself.

The girl in white clothes dumped the bag of earthworms into the vegetable basket, then turned on the faucet. Thick, black, sticky blood flowed out, pouring over the writhing creatures in the basket.

While that was happening, she walked over to the counter, picked up the heart, and swiftly chopped it into chunks with a knife. Her fair fingers were now stained with fresh blood.

Xiao Cheng had to cover his mouth several times to suppress the urge to gag.

Meanwhile, Qi Xia turned around with a blank expression and walked over to sit on the sofa.

Only then did Xiao Cheng notice something odd about the house. It was clearly a place for two people, but the living room had only a single sofa and a small dining table.

Theoretically, the two of them couldn't sit down to eat at the same time.

"Qi Ge..."

Xiao Cheng followed Qi Xia into the living room, desperately trying to get his attention.

"Can you hear me?!"

He kept waving his hand in front of Qi Xia's face, but Qi Xia just sat with his head down, lost in thought, seeing nothing.

"This is just a dream!" Xiao Cheng shouted, "We're both trapped in the dream!"

Qi Xia sat quietly for a while, then stood up and slowly walked to the window to gaze outside.

Xiao Cheng followed his line of sight and saw that Qi Xia seemed to be looking at the "sun" in the sky.

The massive pupil in the sky turned at that moment to meet Qi Xia's gaze.

"Today's sun... is so beautiful."

"Qi Ge!"

Xiao Cheng was at a complete loss. If Qi Xia couldn't see, hear, or feel him at all, how could he rebuild his mental defenses?

As the owner of the dream, Qi Xia should have control, yet he seemed to have lost it entirely. What kind of strange situation was this?

Qi Xia paid no attention to Xiao Cheng and instead glanced down at the window. Right then, a crack appeared visibly on the glass.

Both Xiao Cheng and Qi Xia noticed the crack, and their expressions turned strange.

Qi Xia reached out a finger to trace the crack, murmuring, "Strange."

"Is this the 'Bing Yin'...?" Xiao Cheng stared wide-eyed at the crack in the window, but quickly felt it didn't make sense.

Was this crack really caused by entering the dream?

Even the wrinkles on Qi Xia's clothes couldn't be smoothed out, so how could someone create a crack on this glass window?

"An..." Qi Xia called softly.

"What's up?" the girl in white clothes called from the kitchen, "Xia, did you say something?"

"Our window is broken..." Qi Xia muttered.

"The window...?"

The girl in white clothes, wearing a white apron, walked out, wiping her hands on it as she went, leaving two red bloodstains on the fabric.

"Huh...?" She approached the window and saw the crack.

"How did this happen?" Qi Xia asked.

"I don't know..." The girl in white clothes shook her head with a smile.

"Was it a bird?" Qi Xia blinked, his expression a bit dull, "But I didn't see any bird just now..."

"Maybe someone was playing a prank?"

The girl in white clothes covered her mouth and chuckled lightly, then slowly turned her head, smiling sweetly at Xiao Cheng.

"You say so?"