Chapter 296: The Whole City Wears Armor of Gold

Soft sunlight from Yun Capital filtered through the curtain seams, spilling into the ward filled with the sweet scent of flowers.

Feng Yu Shu walked to the bedside table and replaced the wilting autumn begonias in the vase with a bunch of golden osmanthus.

Late autumn, the ninth month, was the season when osmanthus bloomed in full glory; the people of Yun Capital favored osmanthus trees as street trees, and every year at this time, the sweet, rich fragrance subtly soaked into every street and alley of the ancient city, golden blossoms unfolding like patches of gold along the green belts.

The scent of osmanthus soars to the heavens; the whole city wears armor of gold.

Feng Yu Shu gazed down at the flower stamens in the vase, her vision blurred.

She remembered how, last year at this time, Bai Zhi had left home for the first time to begin her freshman year at university in Yun Capital; unable to let go of her daughter, she had followed along, buying an apartment in the residential district beside the campus to stay and accompany her.

It had been autumn then too, and the downstairs neighbors had spread fresh-picked osmanthus on bamboo trays to dry.

That afternoon, the lady downstairs had just picked up her child from school; perhaps because she thought Bai Zhi, standing by the roadside waiting for her mother to park, was beautiful, she insisted—begging and cajoling—until she shoved two osmanthus cakes into the shy girl’s hands.

“Oh right, Bai Zhi… she likes osmanthus cakes…” Feng Yu Shu snapped out of her memory, bent down, and tossed the wilted begonias into the trash bin.

Straightening up, Feng Yu Shu glanced again at her daughter, asleep and motionless on the hospital bed, and said bitterly: “Bai Zhi, Mommy’s going to buy some osmanthus cakes. Wait here for me, okay? Be good…”

Large tears rolled down her cheeks, blurring her view of her daughter and drowning the words still unspoken in her throat.

Feng Yu Shu wiped her tears, and just as she was about to step away, she looked up and met a pair of eyes as clear and gentle as autumn water.

“Bai Zhi?” Feng Yu Shu’s mind went blank; the tears she had just wiped away surged forth again, her voice breaking: “You—you’re awake?”

Waking to see her mother weeping by the window, Bai Zhi was confused. “Mom? How long have I been asleep?”

Feng Yu Shu hurried to the bedside, crouched down, and gripped Bai Zhi’s hand. “Nearly four days. You’ve been lying here, unresponsive no matter how we called you… The doctors couldn’t find a cause, so they’ve been giving you IV nutrition…”

Four days?

Bai Zhi felt the weakness in her body; the details of her nightmare still vivid: “I…”

“Bai Zhi, did you have another nightmare?” Feng Yu Shu tightened her grip on her daughter’s hand, her expression serious.

“...Yes.” Bai Zhi nodded.

“Can you tell Mommy what you dreamed?” Feng Yu Shu asked again.

She was no longer the helpless mother who understood nothing. She knew of the strange entities, understood many secrets beyond ordinary people’s reach—even that she herself was a Transcendent who controlled two different malevolent spirits. Now she could interpret what those “nightmares” in Bai Zhi’s diary truly meant.

Bai Zhi thought for a moment, then briefly recounted her dream to her mother: “I dreamed I was in a castle, where ghosts wandered from another world, and lamps that could illuminate both the surface and the hidden realms…”

Feng Yu Shu listened patiently, then suddenly changed expression: “You mean—you dreamed of Ning Zhe?”

“Yes…” Bai Zhi smiled faintly, lips pressed together. “But not ‘dreamed of Ning Zhe’—I ‘met Ning Zhe in the dream.’ He seemed to be troubled by the same nightmare, pulled into that world with me… We shared the same dream, Mom.”

“Huh?” Feng Yu Shu froze, forgetting to blink. As one of only two survivors of the Hejia Village anomaly incident, she knew the rules of Taiyi: a strange entity capable of stealing another’s identity—not just identity, but memories, abilities, even the rules of the anomalies a Transcendent wielded, and the divine powers they controlled, could all be partially stolen.

So, had Ning Zhe stolen her daughter’s identity?

Why? Was it to gain Bai Zhi’s dream-entering ability? Was that a Transcendent power too?

In an instant, Feng Yu Shu thought of many things. She treasured this only daughter as her life; anyone who dared so much as touch a single hair on Bai Zhi’s head would face her immediate, furious retaliation—no matter the cost.

But Ning Zhe—only Ning Zhe—though she knew he had very likely done something dangerous to her daughter, she could not summon even a trace of hostility toward him.

“How could this be… I…” Feng Yu Shu clutched Bai Zhi’s slender wrist, utterly lost: “What’s happening to me…?”

“It’s thanks to Ning Zhe,” Bai Zhi added. “Otherwise, I’d probably have remained asleep for a very, very long time. Ning Zhe found the castle from our dream in the real world, went there, resolved the anomaly, and ended the nightmare.”

“Is… is that true?” Feng Yu Shu’s face lit up, like a drowning person grasping a lifeline. “He pulled you out of that castle?”

Bai Zhi nodded. “At the end of the nightmare, I vaguely saw a small sealed room, cramped, furnished with simple items. A tall, hunched figure curled in the corner, skin dry and clinging tightly to bone, like a skeleton. It was sleeping in the corner…”

“Around its chest hung a necklace—a coarse hemp cord strung with countless bent fingers, like Buddhist prayer beads wrapped around the neck. It was a ghost wearing ‘prayer beads.’ It was sleeping in the corner…”

“It was asleep… and I woke up.”

Not a single word, not a single detail, was wrong!

As Bai Zhi spoke, her pale face bloomed with a smile: “Ning Zhe didn’t lie to me—he truly solved the castle’s riddle, captured its ghost…”

“Yes, yes… thanks to him.” Hearing her daughter’s voice, Feng Yu Shu’s inner turmoil gradually calmed.

Yes, yes—Ning Zhe stole Bai Zhi’s identity to help her. It must be so. How could he ever harbor ill intent? I must have misunderstood him. Ning Zhe was simply helping Bai Zhi in his own way. How could I have doubted him?

Yes, it must be like that…

Feng Yu Shu repeated the same words over and over in her mind, until the crushing terror threatening to tear her soul apart slowly faded.

“Mom.”

“Hmm?” Feng Yu Shu looked up into her daughter’s eyes.

“I want osmanthus cakes.”

“Of course. Mommy will go buy some right away.” Feng Yu Shu stood, gently stroked Bai Zhi’s forehead, and turned to leave the ward: “Wait here for me.”

Bai Zhi lay on the bed, watching her mother’s back vanish through the doorway, whispering softly: “Will I meet you again in my next nightmare?”

For the first time in her life, the possibility made Bai Zhi actually look forward to her next nightmare.

(End of Chapter)