As the evening air was cool, the Xia Family's dinner was set up on the garden terrace halfway up the hill in the manor. Surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing a lake on the other, the sunset reflected in the sky, and the lake surface was as smooth as a mirror, offering an unobstructed view of the surrounding scenery.
Dr. Peter was not qualified to attend the Xia Family's dinner party, while Li Wei remained standing by, fulfilling his duty as a bodyguard. Only Xia Wenyuan, Wu Lixia, Hu Xing, Xia Tian, and Qingmu were at the dining table on the terrace.
During the meal, Xia Wenyuan asked Qingmu for his bank card number, saying it was a reward to express his gratitude. Qingmu didn't stand on ceremony and wrote down the card number, handing it to the Xia family's butler.
After the dinner, since Hu Xing also needed to go home, she gave Qingmu a ride home instead of letting Li Wei drive.
The car had barely left the manor when Qingmu's phone beeped. He glanced at it, then began counting on the screen. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6..."
"What are you doing? Are you going to try hypnosis again? I'm driving!" Hu Xing said.
Qingmu counted it again, scratched his head, and said, "Your grandfather transferred some money to me. The number 3 has six zeros after it. Hey, how much money is six zeros again?"
"You're already lost with so little money? Look how happy you are!" Hu Xing snorted, thinking that Qingmu was showing off on purpose.
Qingmu started counting on his fingers. "Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands..." After counting on six fingers, he exclaimed, "Wow!" "Three hundred thousand!"
Hu Xing said, "Can you even count? There are six zeros after 3, that's three million, okay!"
"Uh..." Qingmu looked at his fingers and counted them again, as if Hu Xing was lying to him, then opened his phone and looked at the screen, "It really is three million!"
Hu Xing shook her head and sighed, "Do you know how pigs die?"
Qingmu chuckled and shook his head, while Hu Xing giggled as she gripped the steering wheel.
An unfamiliar old English song was playing from the car stereo, its soothing melody echoing throughout the car.
"What are you thinking about?" Hu Xing asked when she noticed that Qingmu had suddenly fallen silent.
"Oh, I'm wondering how to spend this money," Qingmu said.
"You money-grubber!" Hu Xing laughed and scolded, but was also very curious, "How do you plan to spend it?"
"First, pay the rent and food expenses, buy some good food for the Boss Coal, buy Ruhua a couple of outfits that make her look more like a woman, then treat everyone to a meal at the Zhuangyuan Pavilion... Hey, calculate for me, how much will this cost? How much will be left?"
Hu Xing was truly at her wit's end with him; she couldn't understand how this guy's brain worked. She simply stopped talking about money with Qingmu and instead asked about the dream, "I still don't understand how I got into my grandfather's dream. Tell me."
Qingmu said, "You wouldn't understand even if I told you."
Hu Xing said unwillingly, "You're such a cheapskate, fine, don't tell me then."
Qingmu said, "Wait until you can consistently enter a lucid dream state before thinking about this."
Hu Xing then asked, "How do I enter a lucid dream?"
Qingmu said, "It's the same process as today, except I wasn't next to you, so it's easy for you to give up. Just try a few more times, but..."
"But what?"
"Having lucid dreams isn't a pleasant experience!" Qingmu said. "If you can't control your subconscious, you can't control your dreams. You can only be a conscious observer, watching everything you experience in your dream."
"For example, you might be standing perfectly fine, and suddenly the ground beneath your feet sinks; or you might be enjoying a delicious lunch when a Tiger suddenly pounces on you from behind. These aren't the worst of it. What's truly awful is the intense realism of lucid dreams. Unlike ordinary dreams, which are often chaotic, you can vividly recall the experience upon waking, as if it had actually happened. If you have these dreams too frequently, you might develop schizophrenia and become unable to distinguish between reality and dreams."
Now it was Hu Xing's turn to nod and ask, "So what should I do?"
Qingmu said, "Now I know how pigs die."
"Alright, let me ask you something serious." Qingmu changed the subject, "What happened to your grandfather's daughter?"
"Oh, you mean my aunt!" Hu Xing sighed. "She's the only child my maternal grandfather and Aunt Xia had. Actually, she's not much older than me. When I was little, I even got scolded by my mom for mistakenly calling her 'older sister'!"
"Although we're about the same age, we don't hang out much. She got into University of California, Berkeley on her own when she was a teenager, which is much more impressive than my niece who aspires to be a police officer. I don't know much about her, except that five years ago, she suddenly came back from the United States, had a big fight with her family for some reason, and ran back to United States."
"And then?" Qingmu asked.
"Later, her family couldn't contact her. At first, they just thought she was being stubborn and didn't pay much attention, until they discovered that the bodyguard my grandfather had secretly arranged for her had also disappeared. They realized the situation was serious and immediately reported it to the police. But no matter the police, the FBI, or the overseas Chinese gangs my grandfather used his connections to get help, they couldn't find her. It was as if she had vanished into thin air..."
"Then how do you say he passed away?"
"That's what the FBI said. About six months after she disappeared, they found my aunt's belongings while solving some case, and later they said they caught the murderer who killed her. My mom and Aunt Xia both went to the trial. According to the murderer's confession, he initially only intended to kidnap my aunt to extort money, but he accidentally killed her."
"What a coincidence? Was the body found later?" Qingmu asked.
"No," Hu Xing said. " The United States police are too inefficient, they didn't find much evidence, and the lawyer messed things up, so the murderer later recanted his confession."
"The court acquitted him?"
"No, the suspect has other cases on his record," Hu Xing said. "But my aunt died in vain; it still makes me angry!"
Qingmu pieced together these fragmented pieces of information, gaining more confidence in his own assumptions.
"Maybe your aunt didn't die and has been living in Wuzhong all this time!" he said.
"How is that possible?" Hu Xing looked at Qingmu as if he were an idiot. " Wuzhong is the Xia Family's stronghold, and my aunt is so outstanding. If she lived in Wuzhong, how could the Xia Family not find out? It's as ridiculous as your Boss Coal being mixed in with a flock of white doves and you not being able to see him!"
Qingmu thought about it and agreed, so he smiled and dropped the subject.
It was quite late when they got back to Liuying Lane. Seeing the renovation notice posted outside the bar, Qingmu realized that the bar would be closed for the next few days.
He's always too lazy to bring his keys when he goes out, and today the bar was closed, so he took out his phone to call Ruhua, bracing himself for a scolding.
But no one answered the phone.
He had no choice but to bang on the door. Fortunately, the street had a vibrant nightlife, so he wasn't worried about disturbing the neighbors. But no one answered the door after he knocked for a long time.
Seeing his helpless expression, Hu Xing said, "How about... you stay at my place for the night?"
"That's not a good idea!" Qingmu said.
Hu Xing thought this guy was quite decent, and was about to say she trusted him when she saw Qingmu light a cigarette, lean against a pillar in the porch, exhale a large white smoke ring, and say with a sidelong glance, "What if I lose my virginity!"
"What a Datou!" Hu Xing stomped her foot angrily, got into the car, and slammed on the starter. "Fine, don't go then!"