Chapter 45
Xujia Village sat in the northwest corner of Jiangsu Province, 450 kilometers from Shanghai.
Like other small towns abandoned by the mainstream, its streets were desolate. Young people were scarce—anyone with ambition had left for the cities. Sparse clusters of elderly folk sat on little folding stools by their doorways, their deeply lined faces perpetually wearing friendly, ready smiles.
"Xia is back..."
"Xia? Oh, Lian's girl."
"Isn't she about to finish high school?"
Lian Xia, who had already graduated from college: ...
Between gleaning pleasantries, she'd expected to find her house empty. Instead, a middle-aged woman stood grinning at the doorway—short, wearing a dirty light-colored apron. She was the very picture of any country housewife you might pass on the road.
"You're back?"
"Mm, I'm back."
A few months ago, Lian Xia had entrusted her late father's old house and the land allotment to her uncle's family to watch over. She hadn't expected them to move the whole clan right in.
Inviting gods in is easier than seeing them out.
Seeing her drag her luggage inside in silence, the auntie carried on chatting as if nothing were amiss: "They say you went to Shanghai to make big money. After all these years, you must've saved up a lot, huh?"
"I went there to study, not to make money, Auntie."
"A girl like you, what's the point of reading so much?" The woman clucked her tongue: "Still, coming back is good. Right now, the most important thing for you is to get married."
"Remember your neighbor Ximei? She's younger than you and already has two kids running around..."
When Lian Xia didn't respond, the woman nudged her: "Your parents are gone, and if we don't help you decide, are you really going to wait until you're past thirty?"
"Let me finish studying first."
"Don't—keep studying and you'll really become an old maid..."
Lian Xia stood at her bedroom door, her head throbbing from the relentless drone of advice.
Her room had been taken over by her younger cousin. The once-white walls were plastered with celebrity posters. Her own things had been shoved into corners, dusty and neglected.
"Auntie, where am I supposed to sleep?"
"You can share a bed with your cousin. We're all family—what's mine or yours..."
"No. I need quiet for studying." She turned around, her voice firm: "You can stay here, but I need this room to myself. And it has to be quiet, day and night. Otherwise, move out."
Her aunt stared at her, stunned, as if watching a soft bun suddenly turn to stone.
Fortunately, the threat worked.
Her cousin, who worked at a clothing shop in town, was urgently summoned home. Even her younger cousin playing in the mud by the pond couldn't escape. The family spent three hours clearing out Lian Xia's room until it was barely habitable.
Not only did the little boy complain, but her cousin Lian Qiu made snide remarks all through the move. Under the pile of junk they removed, Lian Xia found her father's black-and-white memorial photo—its glass now cracked from being pressed under heavy objects.
"Why does this keep happening to me? Why does this keep happening to us?"
"It's not my fault!"
She cradled the photo, wanting to cry but having no tears left.
"Don't cry."
Suspecting she was hallucinating, she whipped around—and saw a familiar silhouette standing against the light.
His tone was light and teasing: "Dad's right here."
"Xichen?"
As his features came into focus, Lian Xia's dry eyes suddenly overflowed: "Is it really you?"
"It's me."
She wept with joy but purposely pushed back: "You're not my dad!"
He feigned turning away: "Should I leave then?"
"No—don't go!"
"Then come here, hurry."
The figure in the light reached out both hands toward her, as if encouraging her to come closer.
Lian Xia broke into a smile through her tears.
Chapter 46
When Gu Xichen woke again, Xie Yun's large face was hovering right in front of him.
The doctor very properly hit play on a recording: "Come, let's listen to Chairman Gu's sleep-talking."
The recording began with a jumble of murmurs—low and tender.
"Don't cry, Daddy's right here."
Dad-dy's-right-here.
In that short dream segment, he'd repeated that phrase four times.
Gu Xichen: ????
Xie Yun's expression was subtly complex, exuding an air of deep contemplation: "If I sold this audio clip to the media, would I be financially set for life?"
"Did I say that?"
Xie Yun's mocking look said: Who else would have said it?
But Gu Xichen carefully reviewed his romantic history and was fairly certain he'd never asked anyone to call him daddy.
Could it be... some specific kink?
Hiss...
"While you're just waking up, let's go." Yun Lu sat some distance away, looping the sleep-talking recording: "Now, tell us what you remember about that dream."
After careful consideration, she'd decided to help Gu Xichen enter the dream to retrieve fragments, then piece them together into a "possibly existing, Schrödinger-esque reality."
"I still only remember a little."
Yun Lu nodded, her expression encouraging him to continue.
"I dreamed about a place covered in posters... it seemed like a different room from before."
"Hm? Scenery changed?"
"Yes, she seemed to have left her original environment."
He'd dreamed of appearing behind her again—a thin silhouette sitting before him, cradling a photo of an older man and weeping.
"An older man's photo? Can you describe his appearance?"
Gu Xichen tried hard to recall, then shook his head helplessly.
"And the girl's appearance?"
Seeing his eyes brighten, Xie Yun quickly handed him a pen and paper. But they'd clearly overestimated his artistic ability. The two of them studied the resulting sketch for a long while before Yun Lu couldn't help but remark: "Now that's what I call a true soul-level artist."
Xie Yun also chimed in: "If you hadn't said it was a girl, I would've assumed it was a slime monster."
Gu Xichen: ...
"New approach—you can't find her, but maybe she can find you!"
"Good point!"
Seeing Gu Xichen nod repeatedly, Xie Yun dropped another depth charge: "All those girls who came to visit you—could she have been among them?"
"Could she?"
"Tsk tsk, too bad they were all turned away. I still remember the way one girl called out to me—so pitiful, eyes brimming with tears. And how did our Mr. Gu reject her?"
He mimicked Gu Xichen's low voice perfectly: "I'm sorry, I don't have any sponsorship programs right now."
What could Gu Xichen say to that?
Seeing him stunned as if struck by lightning, Yun Lu kindly offered: "Don't overthink it—what are the odds..."
"Hey, what odds? The girl is nobody from nowhere, so she's hard for us to find. But flip it around—he's trending on Weibo every other day. For 300 yuan you could buy photos of him peeing in the mud as a kid."
Gu Xichen: ...
After a long pause, he suddenly jolted upright.
"Pull up the security footage—quick!"
Chapter 47
The room was cold and sparsely furnished. A sliver of pale light came through the small window.
It was dawn.
Lian Xia had actually fallen asleep at her desk, and when she woke, the tears on her face had long dried.
In the dream just now, she'd actually seen Gu Xichen again—buried her face in his shoulder and cried while he comforted her for ages, shamelessly milking her father's name for verbal advantage.
What a jerk.
She relived the person in the dream, sipping the warmth that was fading in reality, smiling one moment and crying the next.
When the emotions had drained away, she finally got up to wash.
Outside the door, her aunt scurried past, looking pleased with herself.
"You're up?"
"Mm, good morning, Auntie."
Most of the men in the village worked elsewhere. The women left behind were so bored that they'd spin a tiny morsel of gossip into a ten-course feast.
"Do you remember Ximei? Your neighbor Ximei?"
"Mm?"
"Her husband's cousin's wife has a distant relative in Shanghai! And you're in the same place—what a coincidence, right?"
Coincidence, coincidence.
Not just the same Shanghai—the same planet, actually.
Lian Xia was busy studying and didn't pay it much mind. But a few days later, her aunt simply had Ximei bring the Shanghai person to their house.
The two stared at each other and spoke in unison:
"It's you?"
The pull of fate was almost like a curse—even fleeing to the countryside couldn't shake it.
This fine city fellow was none other than the delivery guy Chen Xi. Except he didn't look like he was delivering packages anymore—dressed in a sharp suit, he seemed like a proper young professional. If not for those familiar, shifty eyes, Lian Xia would have almost suspected he'd been possessed by Gu Xichen again.