114. Dream [1/87]
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Lin Nan suddenly felt a wave of crisis and hurriedly deleted that junior’s QQ and WeChat accounts, only to helplessly realize he had already given him his phone number.
Some people just like pretty faces, regardless of gender…
He used to think that a gay dude wouldn’t go for his type; the real ones would obviously prefer more masculine traits and would reject anything feminine. But after Chen Yao’s reminder, he suddenly recognized that there are people who hover in between.
Gender doesn’t matter, as long as it’s pretty.
How terrifying.
By evening, Lin Nan was so spooked he didn’t even dare take a shower. He climbed into bed dressed in his daytime clothes, all orderly.
He began to feel like the dorm wasn’t very safe either; Chen Yao’s eyes always had this weird glint in them, and Tu Junhui had a strange attitude toward him lately… What if these two were the type that only saw appearances and ignored gender?
But he wasn’t feeling sleepy at all. His roommates were glued to their computers, playing games or watching anime, while he was just cradling his phone, clueless about what to do.
He glanced over at Tu Junhui’s computer screen, where this guy was grinning like an idiot at some anime loli in military gear with blonde hair. Lin Nan couldn’t fathom what was so funny; it all felt a little too 2D for him.
“Lin Nan, why are you in bed so early?” Chen Yao strolled in after his shower, tossing on a T-shirt. He snatched the towel draped over Lin Nan’s chair to dry his hair and looked up, asking, “You’re acting a bit weird today.”
Lin Nan couldn’t just spill that he was on guard because he heard Chen Yao say some surprising stuff at noon, right?
“Nothing’s weird!”
Chen Yao just shrugged, grumbling as he settled back into his spot to get gaming.
The weekend was almost here. Lin Nan had planned to let Liu Yi from Yonghui Supermarket know he’d be handing out flyers tomorrow, but before he could find Liu Yi’s WeChat, he got a message from Wu Guodong.
“Wanna come over to my place for a couple days this weekend? I finally get two days off since National Day!”
Lin Nan immediately guessed what Uncle was up to. Whatever it was, it was clearly a mission from his mother.
“Broke, I’ve got a part-time job this weekend,” Lin Nan typed back.
“Your uncle’s loaded! What do you mean ‘part-time job’?” Wu Guodong sent back a generous-looking response, followed by a red packet. Lin Nan eagerly opened it, only to find thirty bucks inside.
That didn’t align with Uncle’s usual spending habits at all!
“You’re not my uncle! My uncle always gives me at least five hundred!”
“I’m out of cash.”
Wu Guodong was just as exasperated. Lin Nan’s mother borrowed fifty grand from him, leaving him with only a few thousand for living expenses and rent.
“Then I might as well work part-time, I could still make three or four hundred in two days.”
“Then you’ll pay me back?”
“Come pick me up tomorrow.”
There was no way Lin Nan would return money he had gulped down; that would be so not his style.
Once they settled everything, he began to ponder what Uncle would say when they met tomorrow. From Uncle’s tone in the chat, it didn’t seem like he was coming to scold him. It was probably a gentle reminder to drop out for a while and prepare for some surgery.
Or maybe it was an explanation regarding his father’s words?
He didn’t want to face it. His father had grown cold in Lin Nan’s heart, even if at that moment the old man was just angry at his mother and didn’t truly comprehend the situation.
Lying back on his bed, he could almost hear the two phrases his father had said echo in his ears, making his chest heave with anger all over again.
He should’ve confronted his father directly back then instead of turning and running away in a fit.
In his mind, he imagined what he would say during that confrontation; he definitely couldn’t curse, but he might point at his father’s face and ask if he meant what he said. Then he’d slap him for good measure before storming off.
Time passed, the ruckus in the dorm gradually faded, and as Lin Nan fiddled with his phone, his mood started to lighten after a few funny videos. Soon, overwhelming fatigue washed over him, and his eyes began to droop.
In just a few minutes, he was slumped over and fast asleep.
But in his dream, it was like he blinked and suddenly found himself on a massive battlefield. Before he could even process it, he heard a frantic voice from afar.
“Lilith! Lilith! You’re slacking off again!”
“I’m not!” Lin Nan instinctively retorted, only to be jolted by the realization that his voice had morphed into a bright, girly tone. He glanced up to see a giant towering over him, his face a blur—total mind-boggle.
The giant stood directly before Lin Nan, suddenly cracking a whip on the ground. The sound of the whip slicing through the air clashed with the thunderous impact on the ground, causing Lin Nan to flinch.
“Keep going! If you don’t train hard, you won’t get fed today!”
Keep going with what?
Though his mind was busy with those thoughts, his body was obediently starting to move. His arms spread wide, and a fireball, about the size of a fist, ignited in mid-air.
This has to be a dream, right?
Lin Nan finally started piecing things together—though his mind wasn’t fully awake in the dream, fear crept into his heart at the sight of the giant. Terrified thoughts flooded in.
This was his father… Lilith’s father.
The giant’s face was hazy, but the sight of him with one hand on his hip and the other wielding a whip was etched deep into Lilith’s memory.
Had she… killed him herself?
Lin Nan was mechanically releasing fireball spells, quickly growing weary to the point he could barely stand, yet, under the whip’s threat, he squeezed every last drop of magic from his body, ultimately collapsing helplessly into the sands.
So, I’m Lilith, at the age of four?
Hatred began to surge from deep within, a genuine emotion that belonged to Lilith at that time.
As he experienced Lilith’s past in the first person, Lin Nan realized that compared to her life, his childhood was practically a paradise.
If Lin Nan’s father was neglectful in his pursuit of money, then Lilith’s father was overly responsible, pushing her to become exceptional while employing brutal punishment for any failure—subjecting Lilith to immense pressure; if she failed to earn his approval, the resulting punishment was beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
Though Lin Nan felt no pain in this dream, when Lilith’s head was forced into a water tank, that choking sensation and sense of crisis washed over him, jolting him awake in a panic.
Gasping for breath, Lin Nan felt sweat trickling down his forehead. Staring blankly into the dark dorm room, he suddenly grasped why Lilith went from being a neighborly playmate in Li Na’s eyes to the witch she later became.
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No way am I letting this drag on past a hundred!
