Eating a Meal

As soon as they left the teaching building, Zheng Wuyou glanced at her phone. She'd left a video playing all night, and now the battery icon was flashing red. She decided to have the others take a taxi from the school gate first.

She went back to the dorm to get her power bank.

Renting a power bank outside was convenient, but for some reason, whenever Zheng Wuyou rented one, it would run out of charge before her phone had even gained a few bars.

Maybe the Goddess of Luck had blacklisted her.

Feeling her phone vibrating nonstop in her palm, Zheng Wuyou didn't need to think hard to know that the others were bombarding the group chat with messages.

They were probably telling her to hurry up.

"Why are you rushing me? You know how far the dorm is from the gate." When she finally reached the entrance, Zheng Wuyou gave Yuan Ling an exasperated slap on the butt. Yuan Ling sprang forward in alarm.

"There's a hot guy!" Once she saw that the one who'd slapped her was the person who was always groping her, Yuan Ling rolled her eyes, grabbed Zheng Wuyou's hand, and tugged her a few steps forward.

"Where are the other two?"

How had two of them disappeared while she was gone to get a power bank?

"The driver's stuck in traffic, so they went to the restroom. Oh my god! That hot guy's coming over!"

Following Yuan Ling's darting gaze, Zheng Wuyou saw a very artsy-looking man in a white shirt with a turned-down collar walking straight toward them. The black earring in his left ear glinted in the sun.

Zheng Wuyou met his foxlike eyes, then awkwardly looked around. The only people waiting for a ride here were the two of them.

He looked like that, and he was walking straight toward them?

Was he some kind of gym or art-class salesman of the year?

"We're not signing up!"

As soon as the man reached them, Zheng Wuyou pulled Yuan Ling two steps to the side, firmly sticking to her no-membership policy.

"..." The man seemed momentarily speechless, then couldn't help laughing.

"Who told you I was trying to sell you a membership?"

The man pointed to a black SUV parked across the street. A tall young man stood beside it, arms folded, staring at them without blinking.

"See? Do you know Miao Laisheng? Our Brother Sheng sent me to find you ladies."

"..." The figure reaching out from the water in Zhu Family Village overlapped with the man across the street. Zheng Wuyou had thought that once she left Zhu Family Village, she'd never see her dream companions again—especially Miao Laisheng...

She hadn't expected him to find her...

But that black shirt, that stance, those friends... Was Miao Laisheng mixed up with the underworld?

"Our Brother Sheng has never gone out of his way to meet a girl before. Won't you ladies do him the honor?" The man had just put a hand in his pocket when Yuan Ling shoved him with a deft twist. He stumbled and nearly lost his balance.

Where did this girl get all that strength?

Ever since she'd spotted the black car, Yuan Ling had looked puzzled. But her expression soon shifted to scorn and anger.

She stared at the artsy-looking man with contempt and said harshly, "What do you take us for? Get lost!"

Then she grabbed Zheng Wuyou and turned to leave.

Realizing there'd been a misunderstanding, Zheng Wuyou gently patted Yuan Ling's hand and whispered, "Um, Yuan Ling, I know the person across the street."

Then she leaned close to Yuan Ling's ear and quietly explained a few things. Yuan Ling's tense expression instantly turned excited. She was so thrilled that she didn't know what to do with her hands.

"Really? It's him? You said you hadn't given away any information. He actually managed to find you here!" Yuan Ling asked in surprise, her voice brimming with barely contained excitement.

Zheng Wuyou nodded. She was absolutely sure she'd never told anyone which school she attended.

Yuan Ling grew more and more excited. She kept marveling to herself at how capable this man was, and her interest in Miao Laisheng deepened.

Just then, Zheng Wuyou turned to look at the man. He smiled at her, then casually pulled a business card from his pocket and said, "Oh, right. I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Ben Yu, and I'm a good friend of Miao Laisheng. Don't rush to wonder how we found you. That's a little secret."

He winked mysteriously, then bent forward in a gentlemanly invitation for them to cross the road with him.

Zheng Wuyou hesitated, but in the end decided to follow Ben Yu.

After all, she had far too many questions. She'd noticed earlier that Ben Yu wasn't wearing a watch, which meant he hadn't been in the dream.

Then why was the chance of people in her dorm entering the dream so high? Was it really connected to what had happened yesterday?

There had to be some overlap between their experiences.

After crossing the road, Zheng Wuyou, who didn't want to get tangled up in anything outside, still ended up seeing Miao Laisheng in the waking world.

He stood there, looking at her with the same detached expression as before, his eyes revealing a certain resolve.

Seeing Miao Laisheng again in real life still made Zheng Wuyou's heart skip a beat. This man might be more capable than she'd imagined.

After sending the address to Wushen and the other girl, Zheng Wuyou sat across from Miao Laisheng and his three companions in a private room at a luxurious hotel.

Thinking back to last night, meeting Miao Laisheng in real life was actually pretty awkward.

Bored, Zheng Wuyou fidgeted with her fingers and looked at Miao Laisheng, who had been staring at her the whole time. For a moment, neither of them said a word.

Seeing how quiet and strange the atmosphere had become, Ben Yu hurried to break the ice.

"Come on, eat! What are you waiting for? Don't be shy. It's on me today!" He handed the menu to the pink-haired girl, who also looked awkward. He couldn't figure out what his good friend was up to. After finding the girl, he still hadn't gotten to the point.

"Were you there yesterday?"

"There? What do you mean?" Zheng Wuyou recalled the warning from the police station and couldn't tell what he meant by the question. So she dodged it and asked him to clarify.

Seeing that communicating with Miao Laisheng would take forever, Ben Yu simply stepped in as their interpreter, laying out the details of what they'd experienced yesterday and how they'd found her today.

It turned out that after the three of them left the police station last night, Miao Laisheng had gone with his mentor to investigate the bizarre corpse. While his mentor spoke with the other officers, Miao Laisheng examined the female corpse himself.

When he got home, he continued looking through the related case files.

Unfortunately, he still couldn't figure out what had caused it...

Until he found himself in that dream.

When he woke up early that morning, Miao Laisheng discovered a watch on his wrist. He'd never liked wearing watches, so he knew it was an ominous sign. Then a text message arrived on his phone.

He looked at the police bureau's group chat, where they'd posted about several new bizarre cases from the night before. Among them were a few familiar faces.

So the dream's NPCs... hadn't lied. Deaths in the dream corresponded to deaths in real life.

After considering all the possible reasons he'd entered the dream, Miao Laisheng settled on the female corpse as the most likely cause.

With his mentor at the bureau's help, he went to the police station where the girls had given their statements early that morning and looked through the case files.

Among the long list of names, he saw a familiar one—Zheng Wuyou.