Chapter 23: Having a Nightmare
Lu Zhiyin woke up as usual and sat up.
She rubbed her eyes and opened them blearily, but what met her gaze was no longer that terrible world.
The computer was off, the room was a bit messy, and the bedding on the bed was familiar.
Lu Zhiyin wouldn’t forget, this was her home, had she returned?
Could it be that the so-called deity had taken pity and let her go home just like that?
Thinking this, Lu Zhiyin noticed a few strands of hair hanging down in front of her eyes.
She touched her body, below her chest… her gender had not changed back.
She still maintained a female body.
“…Ha… ah, I’m not mistaken…”
Disbelieving, Lu Zhiyin slapped herself. The sound was loud, but it didn’t hurt.
Unwilling to accept reality, Lu Zhiyin brought one hand to her mouth and bit down hard.
There was no pain, no blood, not even a tooth mark.
This… was really just a dream.
“…”
Feeling a bit disappointed, Lu Zhiyin quickly cheered up.
Even if it was just a dream, it wasn’t bad, was it? At least she could temporarily escape that terrible world.
As she thought this, the bedroom door opened, and walking into the room was not her parents as she remembered them, but the person who had used her as bait last night.
Leng Qing Qiu.
“…You, why are you in my house…?”
Looking at the figure standing at the door, Lu Zhiyin momentarily forgot this was just her dream and asked dumbfoundedly.
“…”
Leng Qing Qiu at the door didn’t speak, she just smiled silently.
Without a word, Leng Qing Qiu walked to the bedside, roughly pulled Lu Zhiyin’s hair, and dragged her off the bed.
There was no pain, and Lu Zhiyin didn’t react immediately. She was dragged several steps before coming to her senses.
She began to struggle, trying to grab Leng Qing Qiu’s hands to free herself, but failed.
Even though this was her own dream, and she knew it clearly, she couldn’t resist the person who appeared in her dream.
“Let go of me, let me go… you bastard!”
Her hands never stopped struggling, and Lu Zhiyin’s mouth was also busy. However, Leng Qing Qiu seemed not to hear her, and just dragged her out of the bedroom.
The white-haired girl was dragged across the ceramic tiles. Although there was no pain, it gave her a strange discomfort all over, as if ten thousand ants were gnawing at her heart.
Exiting the bedroom, what appeared before Lu Zhiyin’s eyes was not the orderly and warm living room of her memory, but a completely unfamiliar street.
Under the dim streetlights, the doors on both sides of the street were shut, and alleys divided the houses.
Looking at the familiar street layout, for some reason, Lu Zhiyin began to feel a sense of fear.
Dragging Lu Zhiyin to the center of the street, Leng Qing Qiu left without a word. She stood in the shadows, where the streetlights couldn’t reach, and watched Lu Zhiyin coldly.
“…”
Lu Zhiyin remained silent. She wanted to stand up, but was powerless.
Why? Why, even in a dream, did she still have to maintain this crippled body? Why, even though it was her own dream, did she still have to be bullied by others?
Lu Zhiyin didn’t understand, she truly didn’t understand.
She hammered the concrete ground with her fists. Around Lu Zhiyin, from the shadows that the streetlights couldn’t illuminate, figures in black appeared.
As the faces of the people in black were exposed under the streetlights, Lu Zhiyin saw the lecherous old man’s face who had pushed her away earlier.
“You guys…”
Before she could finish speaking, Lu Zhiyin’s back began to sweat uncontrollably.
She gripped the ground, trying to retreat, but had nowhere to go. Everyone around her was these lecherous individuals.
Soon, the first person approached her, pinched her jaw, and the familiar touch made Lu Zhiyin feel even more disgusted and frightened.
“Get lost, get lost…”
Waving her arm, accompanied by an indescribable pain, she woke up from the dream.
“…”
Opening her eyes, the white bedroom ceiling told her it had just been a nightmare.
She was no longer in bed, but on the floor by the bed, with cold ceramic tiles beneath her.
Her back of the head still ached a bit. If nothing unexpected happened, Lu Zhiyin must have fallen out of bed.
“Hoo…”
She didn’t feel pain. On the contrary, she felt fortunate.
Fortunate that the sudden pain had woken her up. Although it was just a nightmare, and things she hadn’t seen were unlikely to appear in a dream, but what if?
After all, this world did have so-called deities.
Well… deities unworthy of being called deities.
Recalling the scene in the dream where Leng Qing Qiu threw her onto the street, Lu Zhiyin was a little lost in thought.
“If I help her again later, will I have to be bait too?”
Lu Zhiyin muttered to herself, pursing her lips.
She didn’t want to be used as bait at all. Just like the self she knew, she was very timid.
“Achoo… Achoo…”
She sneezed twice. It was probably because her hair wasn’t completely dry before she slept. She felt a bit uncomfortable now.
She was very mentally fatigued. After such a nightmare, her mental state had hardly recovered at all.
Lu Zhiyin slowly climbed back into bed. She glanced at the mirror opposite the bed.
In the mirror, Leng Qing Qiu’s favorability had reached 48.
It seemed to be growing quite quickly?
Flipping out her wallet for money, she found a bunch of change inside, and the most conspicuous three hundred-yuan bills, two of which Leng Qing Qiu had given her yesterday.
Now, including the money on her person, she had 480 yuan, which wasn’t bad, right?
“…”
Pursing her lips again, clutching the wallet in her hand, Lu Zhiyin began to consider her future livelihood.
“I can’t keep doing whatever Leng Qing Qiu wants. If one day she loses her mind and doesn’t step in on time, I’m done for.”
Muttering to herself, Lu Zhiyin realized this.
She should probably save some money to buy a used phone and then try to write novels like the protagonist in the game. She just didn’t know the price of electronic products in this world.
When she played games before, she hadn’t bought any electronic products. After all, she wouldn’t do stupid things like losing her phone in the game.
Closing her eyes, Lu Zhiyin looked at the heroines’ favorability in the mirror again.
“I’ll focus on Leng Qing Qiu first, save money for a phone, and then go for other heroines. As for Qin An… I should still avoid her for now…”
Having temporarily set this course of action, Lu Zhiyin instinctively felt that Leng Qing Qiu was easy to win over.
After all, her favorability was currently the highest, almost over half.
“Haaawn…”
After thinking of her course of action, Lu Zhiyin yawned.
Her spirit was still very weak.
However, due to the previous nightmare, she didn’t dare to sleep any longer.
Returning to her wheelchair, she left the bedroom and went to the living room. She looked out the window at the street outside.
The sky was gradually brightening, and the streetlights had been turned off.
In a little while, she figured she would have to go to school.
“…Should I proactively go to school with Leng Qing Qiu later?”
Thinking about this overly simple question, Lu Zhiyin closed her eyes.
