Nightmare

After Ding Yebai returned home, Yang Zhi drove to the university.

Late at night

Jinghuai University

Inside the graduate dormitory

"Waaah!!!!"

Yang Zhi had a nightmare. After crying out, she suddenly sat up in bed.

Clack.

Luo Luo was startled awake at the same time.

She turned on the light and hurried to Yang Zhi's bedside to ask what was wrong.

"What happened, Xiao Zhi? Another nightmare?"

"..."

Yang Zhi rubbed her head miserably, acutely aware of the cold sweat on her forehead.

Luo Luo immediately hugged her and patted her back.

This wasn't Yang Zhi's first nightmare.

It was a lingering effect of having survived the massive earthquake.

She was always afraid that the people closest to her would leave again, and as a result, she kept dreaming about exactly that scene.

Yang Zhi hunched over, pressing her knees against her chest. Her whole body felt weak, and her breathing grew faster and faster.

It was obvious she was working hard to calm her unease and terror.

Luo Luo stayed beside her, soothing her all the while.

"It's all right now, Xiao Zhi. Everyone's here."

After a long while

Yang Zhi opened her eyes. After the nightmare, she looked as though she had lost her soul, completely lacking her usual vitality.

"Ah..." she sighed with a pale face. After wiping away the tears at the corners of her eyes, she forced a faint smile at Luo Luo and stroked her head. "Sorry, I woke you up."

"I'm fine. It's you I'm worried about. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

No wonder Yang Zhi liked sleeping in. She really struggled to get out of bed.

Because for her, getting a good night's sleep was a rare thing.

So whenever she had the chance to sleep peacefully, she had to seize it.

Yang Zhi had suffered from insomnia almost every day during her adolescence. It had improved considerably after she became an adult, but she still had nightmares two or three times a month now.

"Xiao Zhi, get some good sleep." Luo Luo comforted her once more.

Yang Zhi nodded.

"Luo Luo, you should hurry back to sleep too."

"If anything happens, just tell me."

"Mm."

Before leaving, Luo Luo patted Yang Zhi on the shoulder again. Then she walked to her own bed, lifted the covers, and lay down to sleep.

Yang Zhi sat on the bed with her legs stretched straight out. After looking toward Luo Luo for a while, she stared blankly ahead.

Her gaze moved from the pen holder on her desk to the neatly arranged books, then to the photograph of her and Grandma and Qiqi playing in the snow in the courtyard...

Bit by bit, her gaze shifted to the right. Finally, she saw the little white rabbit hair clip lying in the corner.

She slowly raised her eyes and touched her long black hair. Then she threw off the covers and climbed down from the bed listlessly.

Her slippers dragged along the floor. Just from the sound of her footsteps, it was clear she had little strength.

Clack--

She turned on the small desk lamp, adjusted it to its dimmest setting, pushed back the chair, and sat down.

"A hair clip...?"

She looked at the little white rabbit hair clip for a while, then faced the mirror and used it to pin back the bangs on her forehead.

"Hmm..."

She tilted her head and scrutinized her face again and again.

Although people outside always said she was a gentle, fresh, exceptionally beautiful woman with an artistic air, she felt she was, at most, just a somewhat pretty person.

Once she pinned back the bangs on her forehead with the hair clip, she immediately looked different.

Actually, her three-seven side-parted bangs added a quiet, refined air to her appearance. But once she pinned them back...

Well, it was hard to describe the feeling.

In any case, it looked quite nice.

Yang Zhi took off the hair clip again and stared at it, letting out a soft sigh.

"When was the last time someone gave me a hair clip?"

"I think it was when I was little. Mom gave me one..." As she spoke, a relieved smile appeared on her face.

Ding Yebai gave this to me...

Come to think of it, that kid had seemed a little strange lately.

It was as if he was looking at me strangely.

His eyes kept wandering, and he clearly looked troubled.

Yang Zhi scratched her cheek with a finger. An inexplicable emotion rose in her heart. "Is there something he wants to say?"

Actually, when she thought about it carefully, she had been acting rather strange lately too.

She kept thinking about him for no reason, worrying about how he was doing on his exams, worrying about whether he was happy, and wondering if he was under a lot of pressure.

"Forget it." Yang Zhi shook her head and rubbed her aching temples. Then she took her mother's old-fashioned phone out of her bag.

She lit up the screen and opened her messages. The message from all those years ago appeared immediately.

[Baby, if you can survive, remember that Mom will always love you.]

Yang Zhi read it as she looked at it.

Her voice was so soft that it sounded like two sheets of thin paper brushing against each other.

"Mom... I dreamed about you again."

"If it weren't for me, would you be living a good life now?"

"I miss you so much... I really miss you."

After a long while, she closed her hand around the phone and pressed it to her chest. She lowered her head, overwhelmed with sorrow. Her longing felt as though it would tear her chest apart, but she could never hear a reply again.

Yang Zhi later went out onto the dormitory balcony and moved a chair there.

Because it was a little cold, she casually draped a piece of clothing over herself.

Ding-dong--

Her phone suddenly lit up. Yang Zhi picked it up and saw a message from Ding Yebai.

[I saw that you're online on Douyin. Why aren't you asleep yet?]

Yang Zhi figured she must have accidentally tapped it just now.

[Why aren't you asleep either?]

She sent the reply.

[I'm doing problems.]

[It's already one o'clock. You should go to sleep early.]

[Then why aren't you asleep, Sister Yang Zhi? Are you having insomnia?]

Yang Zhi wanted to type [I had a nightmare] on the keyboard. After hesitating for a while, she only entered [Mm, but I'm fine. I came out to the balcony for some air. I'll be fine in a little while.]

Ding Yebai didn't say anything more. He only sent, [Staying up late is bad for your health. You're so tired every day, Sister Yang Zhi. You need to get proper rest.]

The two of them didn't continue their conversation.

Ding Yebai continued working through his practice papers, while Yang Zhi lazily leaned against the back of her chair and looked up at the bright moon in the sky.

However, the nightmares didn't end. For some reason, they had actually become more frequent this month.

There had probably been four or five by now.

Waking up startled in the middle of the night after sleeping peacefully felt awful.

She kept dreaming about her loved ones leaving and the devastation of the great earthquake. These things had made Yang Zhi almost afraid to sleep.

"This October is practically a Black October," Yang Zhi joked.

Because she wasn't sleeping well, she had little energy in class.

Ding Yebai observed her and noticed that her dark circles had become rather severe.

After all, for someone with fair skin like her, even a little darkness or a red pimple on her face would stand out especially clearly.

The weather was getting colder and colder. Ding Yebai watched her clothes increase day by day, while her eyes also grew increasingly less lively than before.

Something must have happened.

He kept thinking that.

Her insomnia was getting rather serious. He had heard Sister Yang say that she also had some kind of PowerPoint presentation to submit soon. She was incredibly busy too.

At the end of the month, Ding Yebai took another monthly exam.

As usual, he got full marks in mathematics and the science comprehensive exam, while he scored 125 in Chinese. As for English, he had astonishingly scored 123.

123! A score he had never expected.

That day, he waited happily for Yang Zhi to arrive.

At seven thirty, he opened the door and saw Yang Zhi standing elegantly before him. She wore a long black wool coat and a white scarf. Her long hair was pressed beneath a white beret tilted at an angle, and she held her bag in both hands.

None of that was the main point. Ding Yebai noticed her obvious dark circles at a glance.

"Are you all right...?" he asked.