"Who? Who's outside?" Liu Yilin shouted urgently.
Ning Beichen was also anxious. He directly leaped from the second-floor balcony, rolled on the ground after landing, and then fled in a hurry.
By the time Liu Yilin came out to check, he was nowhere to be seen.
"Yilin, what's going on outside?" Cheng Chen asked her from inside.
"Nothing, just a mop fell from the balcony." Liu Yilin replied.
Soon, she left the balcony and closed the sliding door. Ning Beichen had told her to always close it when she slept. These two sliding doors were not ordinary glass but reinforced bulletproof glass, designed to prevent anyone from sniping Liu Yilin from a distance.
Ning Beichen sneaked back into his room, panting, his mind filled with the refreshing image of Liu Yilin. Although he had slept with Liu Yilin before, he had been so drunk then that he hadn't paid attention to anything.
"No way!"
"The 'Iceberg' actually has a better figure than Ye Ya'er and those models from Armani." Ning Beichen muttered softly, feeling a little restless.
"Could it be... I haven't exercised recently? That's why I'm getting excited even by the sight of the 'Iceberg'?"
"Looks like I need to go see Ye Ya'er when I have time." Ning Beichen attributed his reaction to his excessive virility.
However, Ning Beichen quickly snapped out of his wandering thoughts. This was not the time to be thinking about such things.
"My head hurts!" Ning Beichen felt uneasy because he couldn't monitor Liu Yilin's room. Now that the balcony sliding door was closed, he had no way to peek without breaking in.
But so far, the woman hadn't shown any unusual behavior. Ning Beichen had even considered if he had misunderstood her and she just happened to know witchcraft.
He sat there thinking. Suddenly, Ning Beichen felt his eyelids grow heavy.
After an unknown period, Ning Beichen suddenly woke up, finding himself lying on a simple bamboo bed, his body bandaged like a zongzi. Ning Beichen moved, feeling immense pain all over. He looked down at his body and saw a recently bandaged, serious wound on his chest. He couldn't tell if it was a gunshot or stab wound. Moreover, the scene before him felt strangely familiar, as if he had experienced it before.
"What happened to me?" Ning Beichen exclaimed. He clearly remembered being in his room, trying his best to protect Liu Yilin, so how did he suddenly end up in this place?
"Could it be that protecting Liu Yilin was just a dream? And now I've woken up?" Ning Beichen was utterly perplexed.
"Brother Chen, you're finally awake." At that moment, a woman with short red hair entered from outside, exclaiming in surprise.
"You... you're Qiuqiu?" Seeing her, Ning Beichen felt a pang in his heart for some reason. He got up from the bed without caring about anything and hugged the short-haired woman.
"Brother Chen, what... what's wrong with you?"
"Qiuqiu, you're really Qiuqiu, you're not dead!" Ning Beichen said excitedly.
"Brother Chen, what you're saying is so strange. How could I die? I want to be by your side forever." Qiuqiu said shyly.
"That's great, that's great, Qiuqiu, you're not dead." Ning Beichen held the red-haired girl tightly, shedding tears of excitement. In the very long dream he had while injured, Qiuqiu had died at the hands of enemies while protecting him. Although Ning Beichen had later dismembered everyone involved in Qiuqiu's death, it couldn't bring Qiuqiu back, and it became a lifelong pain in his heart.
"Brother Chen, I'm not dead, you don't need to worry." Qiuqiu was startled by Ning Beichen's actions, but being held in his arms, she revealed a happy smile.
After a long while, Ning Beichen reluctantly let go of Qiuqiu, looking at her face with reluctance. Qiuqiu was not his woman, but a girl he had found. Her background was very pitiable, and Ning Beichen had always treated her like a sister. But in that dream, Qiuqiu had died, and he hadn't protected her well enough, which became an indelible pain and nightmare for Ning Beichen.
After that, Ning Beichen saw many companions and friends who had been in that dream or were no longer alive, which brought him immense joy. Even if this was just a dream within a dream, Ning Beichen didn't want to wake up, because he was afraid that as soon as he woke up, these people who had disappeared would cease to exist. The happy times of the past re-emerged.
Under Qiuqiu's careful care, Ning Beichen's injuries had almost healed after a period of recuperation. But for some reason? Looking at the familiar Qiuqiu and the friends who were supposed to be dead, Ning Beichen felt a sense of unease. He walked alone into a bamboo forest. This bamboo forest was very familiar to Ning Beichen, as it was where his career as the King of Darkness began.
...
Meanwhile, in Liu Yilin's room, Tara, disguised as Cheng Chen, carried Liu Yilin on her back with a ferocious expression. Liu Yilin, with her back turned, couldn't see Tara behind her. She was currently muttering, wondering why Ning Beichen was so quiet, as this was unlike him.
"Could this guy have fallen asleep?" Liu Yilin pondered. However, she too began to feel her eyelids grow heavy. Just as she was about to close her eyes, the red string on her wrist suddenly emitted a red glow, instantly dispelling her drowsiness.
"The red string is glowing!" Liu Yilin became alert. She remembered the strange words Ning Beichen had told her in the women's restroom. Ning Beichen had said that if someone used witchcraft on her, the red string on her wrist would emit a red light visible only to her. He had also instructed her not to panic if the red string glowed, and even less so to let anyone know. She had to find him alone as soon as possible.
Liu Yilin was not foolish. Combining this with Ning Beichen's strange attitude towards Cheng Chen earlier, she immediately became wary of her classmate whom she hadn't seen for five years.
"Chenchen, I'm a bit thirsty. I'm going down to get some water." Liu Yilin said calmly.
Tara, disguised as Cheng Chen, nodded. Watching Liu Yilin leave, she couldn't help but frown. She had just used a witchcraft spell on Liu Yilin that would make her fall asleep and dream. But for some reason? Liu Yilin hadn't fallen for it.