When Ramesses ' Mental Power was fully unleashed, Yao Jingjing saw the boundless desert, with scattered pyramids resembling children's toys piled up on the beach.
She remembered seeing a similar desert in her mother's dream when she saw her great-grandmother, only it wasn't as vast and clear. It clearly transcended the boundaries of her mother's dream, perhaps a spiritual remnant left by her great-grandmother in that old photo album box.
Furthermore, a long time ago, Qingmu led her into the desert at the other end of the Dream Corridor guarded by the white cat, intending to return the corridor to her, but she did not have the ability to protect it at that time.
The endless yellow sand and the vast expanse of heaven and earth put immense pressure on Yao Jingjing. She couldn't find the edge of the dream, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't break free from its mental constraints.
She began to experience the long-lost feeling of nightmares, as if a heavy stone was pressing on her chest. She tried to escape the nightmare by relaxing her mind and adjusting her breathing, but her consciousness only saw the blurry outline of the bar and the chaotic lights before being quickly enveloped by the powerful mental vortex and returned to the boundless quicksand.
She began calling out to her mother, then her great-grandmother, until she called out Qingmu's name, and then she saw the young, red-haired king sitting in the pyramid palace.
Ramesses wore a tall crown and a leopard-skin cloak. His red curly hair and crimson beard hung down like flowing flames. The flames flowed from his shoulders to his hands, and then from his hands to the coral-like crimson scepter.
"So his name is Qingmu." The young Ramesses smiled, a far cry from the lifeless figure he'd been sitting in the corner of the bar. "He taught you well, but unfortunately, he was too stingy; he taught you too little."
Yao Jingjing said, "He's not stingy, it's just that he went to a very far place."
"Yes, I see him," Ramesses said. "I also guessed who he was."
"Who is he?"
"Like me, a king who guards a sacred land. What he didn't have time to teach you, I will complete for him." Ramesses shook the red coral branch in his hand, and a burst of Mental Power shot into the sky like an explosive stream of flames.
Fire rain began to fall from the sky.
The flames landed on her, and Yao Jingjing felt an unbearable burning heat. But she had to endure it; she knew the other party was testing her and also guiding her. Indeed, Qingmu had been gone for too long. Compared to before, Yao Jingjing's progress was almost unbelievable even to herself. She had encountered so many problems along the way, and could only figure things out little by little. If Qingmu were here, she might have made even greater breakthroughs long ago.
The pyramids, palaces, and Ramesses are gone. Only yellow sand and fiery rain remain between heaven and earth.
Yao Jingjing felt hot and thirsty, like a traveler who had been hiking in the desert for three days without water. She saw an oasis ahead, with a blue lake that shimmered like a jewel, and even the wind blowing from there carried a hint of coolness.
She walked and walked in that direction, not knowing how long she walked, it felt like an eternity, but the oasis remained in the distant distance.
She saw her clothes tear in the wind, turning into dust and mixing with the surrounding sand. Her muscles began to atrophy, and her skin became dry and wrinkled from lack of water, like parched earth during a drought. She felt her skin clinging to her cheekbones, her lips so thin they were just a line, and her mouth and nostrils filled with sand and dust. Her fingers slowly stiffened, drying into withered branches in the sun.
She knew that if she couldn't make it to the oasis and find water, she would soon become a dried-up corpse, buried permanently in the sand.
Just then, she heard someone calling her from behind, "Yao... Jingjing!... Jingjing!... Jingjing!"
She slowly turned around and saw a shiny bald head, reflecting a dazzling white light against the yellow desert. For the first time, she realized that men could look good with shaved heads.
Yao Jingjing couldn't help but chuckle, though the stiff, almost carbonized muscle fibers on her face completely prevented her from showing any smile. She thought of the hair she cared about and the hair of the man who cared about her—one had a messy, unkempt hairstyle, the other was bald, and she actually found both attractive. Sometimes she really had to wonder if there was something wrong with her own aesthetic sense.
Hou Biao walked, he called out " Jingjing, Jingjing " all the while, his strong, ox-like body beginning to wither in the desert. Yao Jingjing watched as his clothes turned to ashes, his muscles slowly contracted and carbonized, and his skin tightened, but his bald head remained as bright as a mirror.
He walked up to her and grabbed her withered hand. " Jingjing, I've come to save you."
When Yao Jingjing heard these words, she wanted to cry. It was as if a lonely and desperate child heard the call of a loved one, a person who had fallen into an icy lake grabbed a lifeline, or a night traveler in the darkness saw the dawn. Tears welled up in her eyes, and while her joints could still move, she used the last bit of strength in her fingers to grasp the hard-won hope.
Two withered hands clasped tightly together, their bodies, stiff as corpses, supported and leaned on each other in the boundless desert as they walked toward the distant oasis.
The sandstorms covered their footprints, blinded their eyes, and blocked their ears. They could not see, hear, or even feel the existence of the world.
But Yao Jingjing knew he was right beside her—his shiny bald head, like a lamp, illuminating some dark places in her heart. She felt a trace of warmth, coming from an indistinct void, clinging to her body, flowing within her, proving that both she and he were still alive.
Just then, she suddenly felt a tremor, the sandstorm returned, the world reappeared, and a loud shout came from the void:
"That's enough already. There's no point in being all lovey-dovey all the time. Can't you be a little more considerate of other people's feelings?"
The sound shattered space like a thunderclap, a fierce wind arose, yellow sand swirled, the sky sank, and the earth vanished.
Yao Jingjing knew this was a sign that the dream was collapsing. She looked to the side and Hou Biao gazing at her with deep, dark eyes, but there was a childlike innocence in his gaze.
She successfully exited the dream and found herself standing up from her seat. Hou Biao was standing right in front of her, face to face, their hands clasped tightly together.
Bi Shenghua stood to the side, hands on her hips, glaring at them with a look of both anger and amusement.
Yao Jingjing blushed and quickly let go, but Hou Biao held on too tightly and she couldn't break free for a moment. She remembered what Bi Shenghua had said about Hou Biao's amnesia, and when she looked at Hou Biao again, she found him standing there like a child, at a loss, but his eyes were clearly full of affection when he looked at her.
Bi Shenghua shook her head and said, "I'm leaving him in your hands. You'd better find a way to make him forget what Qingmu asked you to do. I can handle little kids, but I can't handle older ones."
After she finished speaking, she turned to look at Ramesses in the corner, frowned, and asked, "Who is he?"
Before Yao Jingjing could explain, Ramesses stood up, his cloak completely covering him, his hands hidden in his pockets, head down, saying as he walked out, "Just a chance encounter, nothing more than a drink."
Hou Biao was clearly hostile towards him, watching him leave warily until he walked out of the bar and down the street outside the bar window, disappearing into the vast night.
As Yao Jingjing passed by the window, she clearly heard Ramesses' voice transmitted into her consciousness through the glass:
"Your great-grandmother's grave is empty; there's no body inside at all. Look at her picture; she hasn't aged, perhaps she's still alive. Ah, look how spirited she was when she joined the army, just like a man!"
Yao Jingjing's heart skipped a beat. Before she could ask anything, Ramesses had already disappeared. When she came to her senses, she saw Bi Shenghua, looking at her with a half-smile.
She then realized that she and Hou Biao were still holding hands tightly, and had not let go.