Ling Nian didn’t know how long he had been walking. When he snapped out of his daze, a lush garden with white walls stood before him.
The garden was pristine, as if it had always been this elegant and exquisite.
Ling Nian stared in astonishment and took a step inside.
“Ah Nian, you’re back?”
A kind elderly man with silver hair sat at a stone table in the courtyard, sipping tea. The familiar feeling, as if only a year had passed, made Ling Nian’s eyes well up with tears, rendering him speechless.
Soon, more people from the estate gathered. All the familiar faces surrounded the stone table, sharing jokes and laughter. Ling Nian’s baby brother, who had just turned one month old, waved his little hands and laughed heartily.
“Come and sit,” Ling Nian’s father, dressed in a suit, his features blurred but recognizable, said with a gentle smile. “You naughty boy, you’ve been out playing for so long without giving your old man a message.”
“…” Ling Nian remained silent as his father patted his back, holding his baby brother in his arms. His mother gently placed her hand on his head and scolded, “With your personality, how can we not worry when you’re away from home? Tell Mom and Dad, have you made any friends, our Ah Nian?”
“I have,” Ling Nian replied, his head lowered, looking at the ground. Everyone around him was dressed for summer, but the grass beneath their feet had a tinge of yellow. It was a flaw in the illusion, and Ling Nian knew it. Nevertheless, he answered his mother’s question within the illusion, “I’ve made many good friends. They’re very nice, just like family…”
His voice remained steady, but tears fell silently onto the yellowing grass.
“You don’t need to worry,” Ling Nian said, “I can do just fine on my own.”
His mother patted his head. “Indeed, our second son’s big brother. Our Ah Nian has grown into a fine young man.”
“Take a look at whose son he is,” his father laughed heartily, shaking Ling Nian’s shoulders back and forth. “Well done, son!”
“Ling Nian!”
A distant voice broke through the illusion like a gust of wind, abruptly shattering the surroundings. Ling Nian gritted his teeth and opened his eyes from the dream, only to meet the concerned gazes of Ji Yu and Xi Nan.
Ji Yu pulled out a handkerchief to wipe away his tears, speaking gently as if comforting a child. “It’s alright, don’t cry.”
Xi Nan stood there frozen for a moment, then turned and ran to the side, using a large leaf to collect some water and carefully offering it to Ling Nian. He said with great care, “Don’t cry, Ling Nian. Did you have a bad dream?”
“A beautiful dream,” Ling Nian replied, his voice hoarse, after managing his emotions. “A beautiful dream.”
“We did too,” Ji Yu sighed. “We had a… very beautiful dream.”
The three young men fell silent for a moment and then emerged from the illusion, getting ready to face the challenges before them.
They still wore their masks, but the surroundings were not like the environment of Shexing. There was no fog; it was clean and clear. Visible dewdrops clung to the exposed plants, and the sound of flowing water came from nearby. The air filtering through their gas masks was fresh.
Incredibly, where were they?
“What about ZouXing and the others?” Ling Nian removed his mask. “Are you both the same as me?”
Ji Yu nodded, “I vaguely ran into the mist, and the next thing I knew, I was just waking up. I had no awareness of when I fell asleep. As for ZouXing and the others… before I saw you and Xi Nan, I had already wandered around the vicinity. This place seems like a maze; no matter how I try to navigate it, I can’t seem to get out, and there’s no sign of them or the military camp.”
Ling Nian attempted to activate the light-brain, but it failed. Even the communicator made from Shexing material showed no response. He resigned himself to the situation. “There’s something strange with the magnetic field around us.”
Certainly, they were still on Shexing, but whether it was the characteristics of the illusion or their inability to leave, it was like the Bermuda Triangle on Earth. They were very close to ZouXing and the other two, yet they couldn’t see each other due to the influence of the magnetic field, creating two separate “spaces.”
“Let’s put our masks back on for now,” Xi Nan said quietly, repositioning the mask on Ling Nian’s face. “Even if the air here looks clean, it might still be toxic. Although it takes prolonged exposure to have a negative effect, it’s better to be cautious.”
Ling Nian silently put the mask back on, his hidden smile invisible to everyone. “Thank you.”
After their emotions settled, the three of them began discussing how to find a way out. Xi Nan and Ling Nian followed Ji Yu as he explored the area again, and it indeed seemed like a maze. No matter where they went, they always ended up back in the same familiar place.
Suddenly, Xi Nan remembered the ghost story Li ZouXing had told them and shuddered. “Could we be experiencing… ghost walls?”
Ji Yu and Ling Nian felt a chill down their spines. “Don’t say that. The ghost story ZouXing told us was purely fictional.”
But whether it was a psychological effect or not, this picturesque and natural landscape suddenly took on a terrifying aspect in their eyes.
There’s definitely no such thing as ghosts in this world!
How could there be ghosts?
Absolutely not, absolutely not!
…I’m so scared QAQ
…
Meanwhile, Li ZouXing and his team were diligently searching for their missing teammates in the mist.
The deeper they went into the fog, the stronger a certain attraction grew in their minds.
However, behind them, Si Wo Lin suddenly closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep, collapsing heavily onto the damp ground.
Seeing Li ZouXing’s complete lack of reaction, Gu WenCheng, who had been watching closely, was at a loss for words. He and Li ZouXing crouched down together to check on Si Wo Lin’s condition. But before they could discuss it further, something unexpected happened. Li ZouXing suddenly felt dizzy, and Gu WenCheng noticed this immediately. His face turned pale.
“ZouXing!”
“Run…” Struggling to say these two words, Li ZouXing also succumbed to an irresistible darkness.
Gu WenCheng caught him, his expression turning grim. The anger made him more serious than ever before. The tremendous fluctuations in his mental power caused the surrounding mist to begin dissipating.
“My lord.”
A slender middle-aged man emerged from behind a tree, speaking in a calm tone as he reported, “As you ordered—”
With a loud crash, the giant tree next to him was uprooted from its base and fell heavily beside the middle-aged man. Flying branches cut across his face, but he dared not move.
“Get lost.”
Gu WenCheng suppressed his killing intent and said, “Who told you to touch him?!”
The middle-aged man named Nord felt a sense of dread and immediately kneeled down to apologize, “Please forgive me, my lord.”
Li ZouXing was sleeping peacefully, showing no signs of distress.
Gu WenCheng’s hand gently brushed over Li ZouXing’s brow before finally casting a deep and menacing gaze at his subordinate.
Nord had a bad feeling rising within him. “My lord, I only gave him a pleasant dream!”
Nan and energy crystals functioned similarly, with one enhancing physical strength and the other boosting mental power. The attraction felt by the Dream Team was simply the unfiltered Nan element remaining in nature, which had been absorbed by them after using energy crystals. As for why they fell into a dreamlike state and got separated, it was merely because Nord wanted to report matters properly when he finally had the chance to meet Lord Walter.
Gu WenCheng’s dark eyes remained fixed on Nord. Nord’s instincts told him that if he didn’t leave immediately, his boss would really give him a blow. He quickly rolled back into the thick fog, looking disheveled and defeated.
Si Wo Lin lay on the ground, looking pitiful, while Li ZouXing, nestled in Gu WenCheng’s arms, received a completely different treatment.
A pleasant dream?
This at least managed to temper Gu WenCheng’s anger somewhat. But it also brought with it a desire to pry.
What kind of pleasant dreams would his little sunshine have?
…
In what felt like the blink of an eye, Li ZouXing found himself sitting in a familiar study.
The surroundings were recognizable, filled with an Earthly design aesthetic, devoid of exotic shapes and high-tech conveniences. It was so simple that it made him feel a sense of surrealness.
On the desk lay an open book. With just a glance, Li ZouXing knew it was the contents of “The Journey on Hand.”
He flipped through a few pages, and the parts he hadn’t read became blank, as illusions couldn’t magically fill in the content that he hadn’t seen.
Li ZouXing stood up, pushed open the door, and walked outside.
The entire villa should have been quiet, but there were sounds and the aroma of food coming from the kitchen, which had never been used before.
Li ZouXing leaned against the kitchen door, watching the person inside busily going about their tasks.
“ZouXing,” the person cooking saw him and abandoned everything they were doing, joyfully running over to give him a fragrant kiss. “How did you sleep? I was a bit too much last night.”
“That’s quite a thing to say…” Li ZouXing closed his eyes, savoring the kiss. “You should worry about your butt first.”
The first thing Gu WenCheng, who had sent a thread of his own mental energy into Li ZouXing’s mind, saw was this image.
Ecstasy overwhelmed his rationality, and Gu WenCheng broke into a silly grin. Li ZouXing was dreaming about him, and they were so intimate. Did he need to say more?
The other person liked him!
An overwhelming sense of sweetness filled his heart. Gu WenCheng felt like a fool, radiating an aura of happiness that could be mistaken for a pink bubble bath. If his subordinates could see him like this, they probably wouldn’t believe it and would be shocked into disbelief.
Li ZouXing had dreamt of him.
Li ZouXing liked him.
Joy, joy, joy.
This was the most intoxicating elixir in the world. Just a whiff of it made Gu WenCheng feel carefree.
How could he be this happy?
He couldn’t suppress the smile on his lips, and his chest was filled with a magical emotion, so full and warm. Gu WenCheng’s gaze lingered thickly on Li ZouXing, running over him again and again. The grip around him tightened.
He was his.
Even if Li ZouXing told him it was just a dream, could Gu WenCheng really let him go? He had dreamt about him, after all.
The intense joy continued for nearly half an hour before Gu WenCheng regained some semblance of rationality. Li ZouXing’s dream was also coming to an end.
Gu WenCheng replayed the dream in his mind again and again, his face flushed. His brilliant brain completely disregarded the dream’s incongruous elements and focused solely on the fact that “he had taken Li ZouXing.”
He had taken Li ZouXing, could a man take another man?
Could a man possess another man?
Li ZouXing’s reply, “You should worry about your butt first,” kept flashing in his mind.
So…
Gu WenCheng had an astonishing ability to learn, so could he use his butt to take Li ZouXing?
How would he use his butt?
What was the specific process?
In the dream, he had “taken” Li ZouXing many times, and his tone seemed to express concern that Li ZouXing couldn’t handle his desires. Would taking Li ZouXing with his butt burden him in any way?
After all, the simple meaning of those two sentences revealed that in the dream, Gu WenCheng saw Li ZouXing as the one receiving.
These questions were like a fog, and Gu WenCheng had no clue, but his subconscious told him that the direction he was speculating in was correct.
But there were still some things he hadn’t figured out.
He hadn’t figured them out yet.
After a while, it was actually Si Wo Lin who woke up first. He rubbed his head and slowly sat up. “I…”
Then he saw the posture of Gu WenCheng and Li ZouXing, and he stared at Li ZouXing, who was sleeping so peacefully in Gu WenCheng’s embrace, in silence.
The differential treatment made him feel a subtle sense of heartache for himself.
Author’s Note:
Hahaha, Cheng Cheng, keep going! Yes, you’re heading in the right direction, absolutely right!
Translator’s corner:
SHOOOOCK!!!!! Gu WenCheng is the bottom? I thought he’s the top… ‘-‘
