Yin Chao patted her shoulder and comforted her. "Don't dwell on it. Maybe this is just a dream."
"A dream?" Bai Yu murmured, pinching herself hard.
The pain made her bare her teeth.
She could feel pain. How could it be a dream?
She hurried after Yin Chao toward the rooms.
The interior seemed Japanese in style, with several quilts and sleeping mats laid side by side in each room.
Yin Chao, Bai Yu, and Mo Nan naturally took one room, while the others had enough tact not to join them.
The rain had grown much quieter. Drops fell from the eaves, their soft pattering like a potent sleeping aid.
One by one, the players fell asleep.
Even the experienced veterans slept soundly.
Outside the empty rooms, the middle-aged woman sat on the floor, facing all their doors.
She held a palm-sized silver bell.
When she gently shook it, its muffled ringing sounded like a closely spaced trail of footsteps.
"Shh... Good children, go to sleep..."
She spoke softly, like a loving mother soothing her newborn to sleep.
A boy's giggling came from a dark corner, heavy with unmistakable malice.
Bai Yu distinctly remembered falling asleep, yet she had somehow returned to her childhood.
To the time she, Bai Xu, and Bai Tan had spent vacationing at a country estate.
Those were the most carefree days in her memory.
There was no war, no death, only happy people everywhere.
"Bai Yu, look at this flower!"
A little Bai Xu ran toward her, holding up a wildflower he had picked by the roadside.
She took the little flower and smiled sweetly.
The mischievous Bai Tan climbed a tree and tossed fallen leaves onto their heads.
The frightened maid kept circling beneath the tree, coaxing Bai Tan to come down.
The endless