When Xia Wenyuan woke up, he looked exhausted. He held Wu Lixia's hand tightly, and Wu Lixia felt that her knuckles were about to break from his grip, but she did not complain or pull her hand away. Instead, she looked at her husband, who was nearly thirty years older than her, with a gentle and tender gaze.
Hu Xing and Xia Wenyuan woke up at almost the same time. She frantically searched for her surroundings, but when she realized that she had escaped the dream and truly returned to reality, and that her grandfather had also woken up, she breathed a sigh of relief.
She suddenly felt incredibly tired, as if she had worked three days and three nights straight, and all her strength had been drained. Was this the aftereffect of excessive Mental Power that Qingmu had mentioned?
Wisps of smoke rose from the sandalwood incense on the altar. She saw the first piece of ash on the incense stick break off and fall into the incense holder.
Wu Lixia ordered someone to bring ginseng tea and fed it to Xia Wenyuan spoonful by spoonful with a silver spoon.
Xia Wenyuan drank the ginseng tea and felt much better. He let out a long sigh and said, "Thank you so much, Mr. Qingmu, you saved me."
"What happened?" Peter, standing to the side, Peter completely bewildered. He only knew that Elder Xia had woken up less than three minutes after lying down, while the guy in the trench coat hadn't moved an inch. How could he have saved him? Had this old man gone mad?
Xia Wenyuan ignored Peter and said to Wu Lixia, "Have someone prepare a family dinner." Then he smiled at Qingmu and said, "Please do me the honor of staying for a simple meal today, sir."
Li Wei, standing nearby, felt a surge of excitement and couldn't help but think more highly of Qingmu. Having lived in the Xia Family for many years, he knew that the old man had different standards for entertaining guests. Those who could eat at this manor were not ordinary people, and there were several types of banquets. The one that could be called a "family banquet," and which was attended by Wu Lixia herself instead of Li Wei giving instructions, was the highest level. Even among the Xia Family members, only a few of their closest relatives could enjoy it.
Qingmu didn't stand on ceremony and said, "Oh, you don't need to cook too many dishes!"
"What a country bumpkin! I thought we were visiting relatives during the New Year in the countryside!" Hu Xing chuckled at Qingmu's antics, and even her physical fatigue seemed to ease a bit.
Xia Wenyuan laughed heartily and said, "Not much, not much at all. They're all fruits and vegetables we grow ourselves on the mountain behind, and the fish in the reservoir in front are also raised by us."
After giving instructions to the kitchen, Wu Lixia returned and said, "Alright, you're bragging about how delicious the fish from the reservoir is again! You don't need to worry about what to cook. Now, Mr. Qingmu, please enlighten us and tell us how my grandfather is doing. Otherwise, while you two are chatting and laughing, we bystanders are getting increasingly anxious!"
Wu Lixia's words struck a chord with everyone, especially the clueless Dr. Peter.
"Ah, how should I put it, that shadow in your dream—" Qingmu was having a headache trying to explain things beyond their comprehension with theory, "That shadow is actually yourself."
"Myself?"
"Yes, yourself," Qingmu said. "Everyone has a shadow. Shadows only appear in sunlight. When our own bodies block the light, they appear. A shadow is the hidden side of our humanity beneath the sunlight; it's inseparable from us. Usually, we don't notice its existence, and it doesn't affect us much. But if our shadow develops self-awareness, then things get complicated."
"Self-awareness?" Peter interjected, his brow furrowed as he looked at Qingmu as if he were a monster. "You mean, Elder Xia's shadow developed consciousness and then tried to kill him in his dreams?"
Qingmu said, "More or less."
"Nonsense!" Peter blurted out in English without thinking. "If shadows have consciousness, why don't they stand up now? What's the point of going into dreams?"
Qingmu shook his head and said, "It's not this shadow, it's the shadow in your heart, understand?"
"The shadow in my heart..." Xia Wenyuan mused.
Qingmu said, "That shadow knows everything about you. It knows your memories, your habits, your interests, your vulnerabilities, and can even predict what your conscious self will do. So in a sense, it is yourself."
"Are you saying I have a split personality?" Xia Wenyuan asked.
"No, you didn't," Qingmu said definitively. "Precisely because you didn't, I'm certain that the source of this shadow's consciousness isn't you. It's an intruder!"
"Intruders?" Just like when Hu Xing first heard the word, everyone else expressed the same surprise and question.
Xia Wenyuan, on the other hand, remained calm and sat in his wheelchair, deep in thought.
As a doctor, Peter naturally didn't believe in any nonsense about mind intrusion. He also didn't think a shadow in a dream could kill. From a medical perspective, it was clearly a mental illness. What he was most concerned about was Xia Wenyuan's brain lesions, which were truly life-threatening.
"Then, Mr. Qingmu, how did this intruder you mentioned cause fibrosis in Elder Xia's gray matter?" Peter asked.
This question really stumped Qingmu.
"Maybe it doesn't matter!" Qingmu said. "I think when Professor Mei returns from Europe, we can go to his lab to do some research. You know, he has lots of novel gadgets there."
"Oh, really!" Peter sneered, thinking to himself, "Do you think Elder Xia an ordinary person? Someone you can just drag into the lab as an experiment! If that were possible, countless labs in United States would want to use him as a research subject! And he wouldn't have to resort to such conservative treatment."
"We'll discuss that when Professor Mei returns." Xia Wenyuan seemed to recall something. "To be honest, Mr. Qingmu, sitting in my position, while I wouldn't say I'm constantly on edge or sitting on pins and needles, I certainly feel like I'm walking on thin ice every day. The people eyeing our Xia Family's businesses could stretch from Wuzhong all the way to Shenzhou, and there are quite a few who want to harm me. You just mentioned that this shadow is an intruder; could you elaborate? Is it possible that someone is using evil magic to harm me?"
Qingmu knew that Xia Wenyuan already had someone he suspected, and said, "We can't rule out that possibility, but implanting a consciousness into your brain isn't easy! First, this person has to know you very well and understand your mental weaknesses; second, consciousness isn't like a chip that can be implanted into your brain with a single surgery. It needs to first have a seed of consciousness, then spend a long time in contact with you, making you lower your guard, and then take advantage of the situation to infiltrate your brain, lie dormant, and grow stronger until it becomes as powerful as you."
Xia Wenyuan said, "So it disguised itself as a shadow in my dream? Who would be wary of a shadow in a dream!"
"That's about right."
Xia Wenyuan asked, "And what is the seed of consciousness?"
"It could be an obsession, a habit, or a bit of overflowing affection," Qingmu said. "But that usually only causes you neurasthenia or schizophrenia at most, while a separate consciousness must have existed long before, just like... a soul."
As Qingmu spoke, he suddenly stood up, walked to the famous Picasso painting on the canvas, and asked, "Has this painting always hung here?"