Chapter 120: Interpreting the Dream

Luo Qi stared in astonishment at Li Xu in Liu Li's office; Li Xu's cloyingly sweet gaze made his whole body ache, and all the pain he had endured underground surfaced in his memory once again.

"Who are you talking about?" Li Xu stood up from behind the desk. "Who did you just mention?"

"I said Du Zhengyi," Luo Qi muttered.

"Oh—" Li Xu drew out the tone, as if savoring some wonderful verse on the tip of his tongue.

This scene was terrifyingly familiar; Luo Qi remembered this voice, he remembered Li Xu's voice, and this was the second time he had heard Li Xu say this. What he was about to say next would leave Luo Qi in despair and terror; Luo Qi resisted, wanting to throw his words back at him, as if the words spoken were sharp arrows already loosed from the string.

But just like the nightmare after being wounded in his memory, Li Xu put away his delight and put on a show of hypocritical pity, "I killed him, but I had no choice. I didn't want to kill a student."

"No—" Luo Qi shouted, losing his reason; he poured a storm of rage onto Li Xu, "Take it back, take that back, or I will kill you!"

Li Xu looked at Luo Qi with delight and pity, "Can words once spoken be taken back? Can the dead be resurrected?"

Luo Qi gasped in pain; it felt like there was fire in his lungs, and he felt a strange, peculiar emotion—a belief imbued with power. His life was truly different now; he was no longer a kitten surviving on tricks. He suddenly realized that he was the legendary evil dragon, the monster in myths that even the parents who gave birth to him feared.

Luo Qi remembered, "You are about to die, and right now you are lying in a hospital unable to move. You didn't kill Du Zhengyi; he almost killed you. But I can go and kill you, so you don't keep muttering in my dreams."

"Will you really come?" Li Xu revealed a look as if he were anticipating the arrival of a lover, and Luo Qi almost rushed up to smash his face in.

Li Xu laughed, "Come, come find me; you know where I am. For those who gaze long into the Abyss, the Abyss will always gaze back at you."

"You are not Li Xu; you are just a memory. The early morning of the second day after I met you at the bar, you appeared in my dream for the first time, and you said you killed Du Zhengyi," Luo Qi said, "But this is all just your own wishful thinking."

"Really?" Li Xu laughed, "Then why are you sad?"

At these words, Luo Qi suddenly felt that he had indeed been very sad, as if he had always been sorrowful. Once this thought emerged, he immediately sank into grief—a grief that was bone-deep and desperate, carrying the coldness of an entire world.

The cold sorrow pierced his brain like a sharp blade, and the void deep in his mind was like a monster, spitting out pain and coldness he could not resist.

He woke up from the dream with a start, gasping for air, staring blankly at the ceiling above. After a long while, he reached into the quilt and pulled out the kitten that had been pressing on his chest; the kitten snuggled back in, meowing unhappily. He only cared about gasping in horror, unable to tell if it was the cat on his chest making it hard to breathe, or the nightmare from just before.

The dawn light on the window had not yet faded; the sun must have just risen, and he hadn't slept long enough to offset his fatigue. But he couldn't lie there any longer; he scrambled out of bed, hastily put on his shoes, and went out the door.

The light in the hallway was still not very good, and there were sounds of people moving downstairs; Du Zhengyi's door was tightly shut. Luo Qi did not hesitate; he couldn't even wait to send the cat to check first.

He pushed open Du Zhengyi's door. The room was quiet, and he looked anxiously at the bed, seeing at a glance Du Zhengyi sleeping comfortably wrapped in his quilt.

Luo Qi watched for a while, still unable to set his mind at ease. He tiptoed two steps, then suddenly realized that next to a Battle Mage, what difference could there be between tiptoeing and stomping?

He steeled himself and walked quickly to Du Zhengyi's bedside. Du Zhengyi's eyes were still tightly shut, as if he hadn't felt anyone approaching at all. When Du Zhengyi slept, he was almost like a child; his harmless, young face made it impossible for anyone to associate him with death. Luo Qi suddenly wondered, when Li Xu used his own status as a minor as an excuse to take him away, why could everyone in the Zhunglin ignore the fact that Du Zhengyi had been doing dangerous work three years ago?

Did this contradictory behavior mean that everyone had long been used to Du Zhengyi being a badass and risking his life? Did they not even think about whether he might not come back next time?

Luo Qi carefully reached out to check Du Zhengyi's breath.

"Luo Qi, do you know how incredibly weird you are?" Du Zhengyi said, without even opening his eyes.

Luo Qi let out a sigh of relief and almost sat on Du Zhengyi's bed, "Then say something when I come in!"

"Are you adding new bad habits every day, damn it?" Du Zhengyi rolled over, wrapped in the quilt; the bedsheet was a stylish dark blue, not at all the same style as Luo Qi's.

"I dreamed you kicked the bucket," Luo Qi said.

Du Zhengyi opened his eyes and looked at Luo Qi with surprise, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Are you looking for a beating? Go on, go find Guan Xinyue to play mahjong. If I see you again before twelve o'clock... you can imagine the consequences yourself."

Luo Qi muttered a few words, but what else could he say? Du Zhengyi was so sleepy that he couldn't even put his heart into his threats, having been disturbed from his sleep by Luo Qi's making trouble out of nothing. He felt a bit ashamed and patted Du Zhengyi's head in compensation, earning a roar from Du Zhengyi, "Get lost!"

Luo Qi turned and left the room dejectedly, closing Du Zhengyi's door. As he turned around, he saw Mahjong coming up the stairs.

"Damn, look at you," Mahjong said, drawing out his voice, "Daring to sneak into Boss Du's boudoir to act like a hooligan?"

Luo Qi jumped in fright. Guan Xinyue squeezed out from behind Mahjong; the stairs were too narrow, and Mahjong wouldn't give way, so she had to put in a lot of effort to squeeze out to watch the fun.

"Shh!" Luo Qi said irritably, "Keep it down."

"Luo Qi, is the bedsheet I picked for you pretty?" Guan Xinyue said happily.

Luo Qi felt that Guan Xinyue's mental state was getting better and better living here.

Mahjong pushed her to go down first so the two men could follow in order. "The bedsheets and clothes were all bought by this rich third-generation," Mahjong said, "Yesterday I went to exchange money with her, and after I told her how much money was in the account, she was almost flying with joy. It took a lot of effort for me to stop her from continuing to buy."

"You Mages are basically Nifflers," Guan Xinyue said.

"What's that?" Mahjong asked in surprise.

"It's a big rat spirit that searches for gold coins," Luo Qi said sarcastically.

Mahjong laughed, "Those are credit points earned by serving society; we also have Calculators to calculate social models."

"Don't understand, I'm an art student," Guan Xinyue said happily, then asked, "Luo Qi, do you like the bedding I picked?"

"It's all because of your Darth Vader that I had a nightmare," Luo Qi said listlessly.

"Scared you so much you ran into Du Zhengyi's room?" Mahjong said in astonishment, "What kind of nightmare was so scary? Dreamed that Guan Xinyue was going to buy a giant statue of Peppa Pig encrusted with diamonds?"

As they talked, they had returned to the main room on the first floor. Luo Qi said, "Dreamed that Du Zhengyi died."

"Pah," Guan Xinyue said, "Bad luck, cursing the boss in broad daylight. Besides, dreams are all the opposite, what are you afraid of?"

Mahjong smiled, "This is interesting, tell me, how did Du Zhengyi die?"