Chapter 496: 495 Nightmare
What she didn’t expect was that the memories she had forgotten had reappeared in her dreams.
She dreamt of Fu Jingyi, a man with an unpredictable disposition who alternated between being kind to her and terrifying her like a demon.
“Girl, drink this bowl of medicine, and I won’t have to give you an injection.”
He approached her with the medicine in his hand. She retreated in small steps, shaking her head while crying, “I won’t drink the medicine, I won’t drink the medicine.”
“If you don’t drink it, I will lock you up and starve you for seven days and seven nights.” Fu Jingyi, who had been coaxing her with kind words just a second ago, suddenly darkened his face, his eyes became menacing and his words were ruthless.
Pushed into a corner, Fu Jingyi grabbed her by the collar and flung her onto a nearby chair, forcing her to swallow the bitterly unbearable medicine.
Only after she had finished drinking the medicine did he give her a piece of candy, coddling her, “Good girl, only if you behave this way, take medicine and get injections every week until you grow up, can you become really pretty.”
Her childhood life was like a movie, in which she was not the audience but the protagonist.
Since she began to remember things, in addition to traditional Chinese medicine, she also took other medications. In her dream, she even passed out once after taking the medicine.
When she woke up, Fu Jingyi told her that she had been unconscious for three days.
It was a drug overdose, he said with joy, “Girl, thank you, you made me find the cause. You won’t have to take any medicine these days.”
The scene shifted, and Wen Ran saw the little boy who often appeared in her dreams.
Seemingly aware that this was a dream, she became excited when she saw Mo Xiuchen. For the past dozen years, she had never been able to make out the face of the boy in her dreams.
Everything was shrouded in darkness.
But this time, she could see clearly!
He was an eleven-year-old boy, extremely thin, with delicate facial features. Apart from his youthful appearance, he looked very similar to the adult Mo Xiuchen, especially his eyes, which did not carry the innocence of a child nor fear, only a chilling indifference that made one’s heart tremble.
In the dream, she was heartbroken when she saw Mo Xiuchen like this.
She fell down by the door, peering inside through the crack.
Hearing the conversation inside, she learned that someone wanted to kill the boy, wishing him a brutal death and a life filled with torment.
They even suggested using him as a test subject for their elderly superior. The petite girl outside turned pale at the thought, recalling the medicine she had been forced to take and the needles she had been pierced with since she was little, as well as the fate of several children of her age. Suddenly, she felt a strong urge to save him.
Hearing footsteps approaching, she pressed her lips together and ran off.
She ran to Fu Jingyi’s laboratory in his absence, stole his medicine, and then ran out again. After dinner, she went to the room where Mo Xiuchen was locked up.
Outside, two men who were watching him were drinking and chatting. One of them said, “I’ve never seen such a kid before. He didn’t even make a sound, but the look in his eyes was as if he wanted to tear me to pieces. It was terrifying.”
“I also find it eerie. The boy can really endure. We didn’t even use anesthesia, yet he endured all the pain.”
When Wen Ran walked over, she sweetly called out, “Uncle Li, Uncle Wang, what are you guys talking about?”
Seeing her, the two men immediately smiled and replied, “Nothing much.”
She raised the bag in her hand and said, “These are the snacks I stole from the kitchen for you to accompany your drinks, just as I promised Uncle Li last time.”
A few minutes later, the two men collapsed onto the table.
Wen Ran pushed open the door and, without daring to turn on the light, approached Mo Xiuchen in the dim light from outside. She couldn’t see his face, only the pair of indifferent eyes. She reached out her small hand to hold his.
His palm was cooler than hers!
Not only was it cold, but it was also faintly trembling. He stared at her and coldly asked, “Who are you?”
She smiled faintly and whispered, “They want to kill you. Let’s go, I’ll take you away!”
**
In a villa in the suburbs, Mo Xiuchen didn’t fall asleep until one o’clock in the morning.
Lying alone on the spacious bed, his chest felt empty without the familiar warmth of Wen Ran.
Unable to sleep, he got up from the bed, lit a cigarette, and went to the window. Through the transparent glass, he stared at the calm night sky.
He tried to calm his restless mind, but even after smoking half a cigarette, his heart still could not settle down. Recalling Gu Kai’s words, he turned back to the sofa and extinguished the cigarette in the ashtray.
He sniffed his hand. His fingers had the smell of smoke.
He frowned, picked up the thermos from the coffee table, unscrewed the lid and took a sip of water, then returned to the bed and took a selfie on his phone.
Despite receiving no response to the photo and message he sent during dinner, he typed attentively: Ranran, I’m not used to being alone tonight. I can’t fall asleep tossing and turning. When are you coming back?
His fingers lingered on the send button. After hesitating for a moment, he put away his phone.
If he sent a message to Wen Ran at this time, he would definitely wake her up.
He didn’t mind his own insomnia, but he couldn’t make her lose sleep with him. He laid back down and picked up his phone again, flipping through the photos of him and Wen Ran on Bali Island.
Various sceneries, different times, and her different smiles… radiant, elegant, gentle, shy, tender, pure…
Each one was different but also similar, all making him fall deeply in love.
He took a deep breath. Now that he thought about it, the happiness of those twenty days on Bali Island felt stolen. If he hadn’t taken her abroad back then, he would’ve had to face the current situation twenty days earlier.
Thinking of what Gu Kai had told him earlier, his heart ached again. Considering how resolute Wen Ran had been toward him, he touched the photo on his phone and suddenly pulled up the messages from earlier. He steeled his heart and clicked send!
At the same moment, Wen Ran cried out and woke up from her nightmare.
Bai Xiaoxiao, who was lying next to her, was awakened by her cry. Opening her eyes, she saw Wen Ran sitting on the bed, her face pale and her eyes full of fear.
“Ranran, did you have a dream?”
Bai Xiaoxiao sat up and asked with concern.
Wen Ran’s breathing was irregular. As she turned to Bai Xiaoxiao, her gaze lingered on her face for a few seconds, and then she abruptly hugged her.
“Ranran!”
Bai Xiaoxiao paused, sensing Wen Ran’s body trembling. Feeling uneasy, she raised her hand to gently soothe Wen Ran’s back and said softly, “No matter what you dreamed of, it was just a dream, so don’t be afraid.”
Wen Ran struggled to calm her erratic heartbeat. Her voice shivered, reflecting her suppressed fear and terror, “That wasn’t a dream, it was my childhood!”