"We shouldn't have left him in the car by himself," Xu Qiuyan said regretfully.
We had actually wanted him to go in with us, but he refused. He said he hated the smell of hospitals most of all, and he seemed afraid of and repelled by medical staff in white coats.
He was like a child afraid of doctors.
He said he was afraid of injections.
So, with no other choice, we had left him in the car. I figured his attention was all on his games anyway, so he probably wouldn't wander off.
Fatty said, "This is a hospital parking lot. There should be surveillance cameras."
So we contacted the hospital and reviewed the footage.
The timestamp showed that about ten minutes earlier, a woman had come up to the car. She gently knocked on the window, and Yin Wuyu rolled it down. The woman had her back to us, while he was facing us.
I could see that he looked excited. He was saying something to the woman, gesturing with his hands as well.
The moment I saw the woman's back, I sucked in a cold breath.
She wore a purple gauze dress, her hair hanging loose. Yet she did not look disheveled at all; instead, she seemed somewhat ethereal. She was barefoot.
"How could it be her?" A sense of dread rose in my heart. Shouldn't she exist only in the Dreamscape? How could she have appeared in reality?
I bit my lip. It hurt—really hurt. This wasn't a dream. This was reality.
"You know that woman?" Fatty had clearly noticed the change in my expression. Xu Qiuyan also glanced at me. I said softly, "She's the nightmare demon. She's also that Purple Clad who had Half-Immortal Wu utterly bewitched."
Then, in the surveillance footage, Yin Wuyu got out of the car. Purple Clad took his hand and led him away.
Yin Wuyu's face was full of a blissful smile.
"This is really damned bizarre." I slapped my forehead, trying to figure out what was going on. Could it be...
At the thought of one possibility, my heart clenched. Could her dream really have come true? When I lent her the Twin Fish Jade Pendant, had she truly copied herself? Had her duplicate—or perhaps her reflection—actually appeared in this real world?
That was far too insane.
I voiced my doubts. Xu Qiuyan said it was possible, but Fatty looked at me strangely. "Even if that's true, why would she take Yin Wuyu away?"
That was something I truly could not answer.
We did not linger at the hospital. We went straight back to the hotel and called He Li, telling her not to book our tickets yet. We had to find Yin Wuyu before going back.
When we returned to the hotel, both Xu Qiuyan and Fatty followed me into my room.
"Waiting like this isn't going to solve anything. Jiang Xiaobai, can you ask that nightmare demon what's going on?" Fatty said. I knew he wanted me to enter the Dreamscape again and find her.
But I had no idea how to enter a dream. Thinking back carefully, every time I had entered the Dreamscape, it seemed to have happened passively. I had simply been pulled into it for no apparent reason. It was completely beyond my control.
Seeing the troubled look on my face, Xu Qiuyan said to Fatty, "He probably doesn't know how to enter a dream."
I nodded. Fatty's eyes widened. "So it's a passive skill?"
His words left me both amused and exasperated.
Just then, my phone rang.
The caller ID was unexpectedly Yin Wuyu's number.
"Hello!" My tone was far from pleasant, but Yin Wuyu's voice came through the receiver. "Boss, Fatty isn't in his room. I can't get in."
The moment I heard that, I rushed to the door and opened it. Sure enough, Yin Wuyu was standing outside the room next door. He held a large plastic bag filled with candy, snacks, and small toys.
"Mute, where did you run off to?" Xu Qiuyan asked, her tone mildly reproachful.
"A pretty big sister took me out to play. She even bought me lots and lots of candy."
I frowned. Purple Clad had taken Yin Wuyu away just to buy him candy and toys? That made no sense.
Just as I was about to say something, Yin Wuyu's phone rang.
He picked it up. "Hello, who is it? Big Sister? Wait a moment." Then he handed the phone to me. "Boss, the pretty big sister wants to talk to you."
I took the phone, a strange feeling rising in my heart.
"Hello!"
Purple Clad's voice came through the phone. It was still enchanting, intoxicating enough to seep into one's bones. "Hehehehe!"
Her laughter tinkled like silver bells.
"I promised you that I'd take you to see Abe Ichinan," she said after laughing.
"Where are you?" I asked.
"Island Coffee on Nanyue Road. Come alone. I don't want anyone else there."
With that, she hung up.
"What's wrong? What did she say to you?" Fatty asked curiously.
Xu Qiuyan, meanwhile, looked at me with complicated eyes.
I pressed my lips together. "She wants me to meet her. She said she can take me to Abe Ichinan."
Xu Qiuyan asked softly, "Did she also say that you had to go alone?"
I nodded. I knew she had to be feeling terrible inside. "Don't worry, I..."
Before I could finish, she smiled. She came to my side, took my hand with one hand, and gently covered my mouth with the other. "I trust you, so there's no need to say anything. If I'm worried, it's only because I'm worried about your safety."
Her words sent a warm current through my heart.
Fatty said, "You really plan on going alone?"
"Yes."
I did not know her well. If I did not do as she asked, whether she would still help me find Abe Ichinan was anyone's guess. So I decided to go alone.
"All right, then. But you'll probably need a driver. I'll drive you there. Don't worry, I'll stay in the car and won't ruin your good time." A lecherous grin appeared on Fatty's face.
Since he had put it that way, I could only agree.
To be honest, I was still somewhat wary of Fatty.
He was very capable. He said he had come to protect us, but from another perspective, could he also have come to monitor us? I really did not want to offend someone like him.
Xu Qiuyan stayed at the hotel with Yin Wuyu, while Fatty drove me to Nanyue Road.
Nanyue Road was not far from our hotel. It only took fifteen minutes by car.
Island Coffee on Nanyue Road was quite large. The moment I pushed open the door and entered, I looked around for Purple Clad.
At last, I saw her sitting at the small table by the window in the farthest corner. She gazed out through the floor-to-ceiling glass, looking somewhat forlorn.
I walked over and sat across from her.
She turned to look at me. "Only now have I realized that this feeling isn't very good."
I was somewhat puzzled. "What's wrong?"
"Being alive. Living the way you do—it doesn't feel good."
"Why?" Hadn't she desperately wanted to live in reality when she was in the Dreamscape? Now she was living in reality, yet she said it did not feel good.
"I just appeared in this world. Here, I have no family and no friends. I'm utterly alone. There isn't even anyone I miss or care about. How should I put it? I feel like I'm unnecessary, completely out of place in this world."
Her words actually made me feel a little sorry for her.
"But wasn't this what you wanted most?" I asked.
A waitress came over and asked what I wanted to drink. I ordered a pot of premium Blue Mountain coffee.
After the waitress brought the coffee over, I poured her a cup as well. "What's different between the you in reality and the you in the Dreamscape?"
She looked at me as if deep in thought. "There really does seem to be a difference. In the Dreamscape, I could control everything. But in reality, it seems there isn't much I can do."
"By the way, I'm curious. Where did you get the money to buy things for that kid?"
The question might have sounded mundane, but it was the most practical one. She should have arrived in this real world with nothing, yet she had taken Yin Wuyu out and bought him so much food and so many toys.
"Haha, is buying things difficult?" As she spoke, she picked up a napkin from the table, gently shook it twice, and it turned into two one-hundred-yuan bills. I frowned. I knew it was merely a sleight of hand, but ordinary people would never be able to see through it.
"You shouldn't do that."
"Why?" she asked innocently. Looking at her breathtakingly beautiful face and coquettish manner, all the words of reproach I had wanted to say stuck in my throat.
"Let's get back to the point. You said you'd take me to Abe Ichinan. Where is she?"
Purple Clad smiled. "Come with me. I'll take you to her right now." With that, she grabbed my hand. Her hand was soft, boneless. She held tightly onto me and ran toward the café exit. I hurriedly said, "Wait, we haven't paid yet."
Only then did she stop. I smiled awkwardly at the waitress, paid the bill, and left Island Coffee with Purple Clad.
"Um, my car is parked over there." I pointed toward the parking lot.
But she said, "It's not far. Let's walk. I don't like that Fatty. His eyes are always so lecherous." I froze. Was Fatty really that kind of person? It did not seem like it.
And how did she know Fatty had come with me?
She clearly wanted to shake Fatty off.
Before you continue