Chapter 213 - 167 Fallen Baby’s Dream_2

Words : 1641 Updated : Sep 29th, 2025

Chapter 213: Chapter 167 Fallen Baby’s Dream_2Mom was trying to persuade Dad not to lose his temper. "Have I really had mental illness?" Zhou Xuan tried hard to remember, and an image inexplicably unfolded in his mind—a cold sweat drenched him as he pulled open the drawer by the bed, trembling as he took out a bottle of medication labeled "Bromine Acid." He twisted off the cap and poured the entire bottle into his mouth... "Did I really have an illness?! And a very serious one at that?!" "This image isn’t real, it can’t be!" Zhou Xuan still refused to believe it. Who knows how many days had passed—Zhou Xuan constantly heard the sounds of lights being turned on and off, machines beeping, doors opening and closing. An endless cycle. Until one day, his mother entered the hospital room, bringing along a monk. In his comatose state, Zhou Xuan knew this because his father began angrily berating his mother again: "Why did you bring a monk here? Li Ling hasn’t woken up because his brain was injured; he hasn’t recovered yet." "Old Zhou, the doctors already said that Lingzi’s brain is fine. He just can’t face the fact that he killed our mom in the accident—he’s avoiding it!" "Even if he’s avoiding it, what good will bringing a monk do? Is he magically going to stop avoiding it?" "Don’t keep badmouthing monks. This is Master Jing Miao, a renowned monk in our city. He can help Lingzi wake up." Because of Master Jing Miao, Mom and Dad began arguing again. At the peak of their argument, the hospital room’s door opened. "Family members, I hope you can have faith in modern science. Don’t bring in these bizarre rituals. And as for the monk, this is a hospital—please leave." "Doctor, my son has been in a coma for a month now. Let this master perform some rituals—what if it works? What if..." "...There’s no what if..." "It’s worth a try, isn’t it? This is my son... I just want to try, can’t I?" Mom pleaded with the doctor. The doctor let out a deep sigh: "Sigh!" The hospital room door closed again. "Master Jing Miao, please, perform your ritual." "Amitabha Buddha." After hearing the Buddhist chant, Zhou Xuan heard Master Jing Miao speaking near his ear: "Master Li, it wasn’t you who killed Grandma. Someone is influencing you—there are little ghosts lurking around you." The sound of chains rattling suddenly echoed near Zhou Xuan’s ears. Right after that, a pure silver pendant descended in front of his pitch-black vision. It was a pendant shaped like an adorable Bichon Frise. Seeing the pendant, Zhou Xuan felt a surge of emotions, recalling a conversation he had with his former girlfriend in a past life. "Brother Ling, I want to buy a Bichon." "The place we’re renting doesn’t have room for a Bichon." "But Bichons are so cute." His former girlfriend, Qin Yiyi, had shared a sweet period of time with him. However, like many young couples weighed down by financial constraints, they eventually parted ways. The Bichon Frise pendant was a gift Zhou Xuan had given to Qin Yiyi. "Brother Ling, I’m sorry. I’m terrified of being poor. My mom arranged a match for me—someone from my hometown, whose family runs a restaurant business." "I really don’t want to wake up at the crack of dawn every day to catch the bus, terrified of being late and having my pay docked. I don’t want to scrimp and save just to eat out. I’m really scared of being poor." "Yiyi, I’m about to get promoted; my company is making me a team leader! I’ll get a salary raise very soon." "Brother Ling, you’re a good man." Once again, Zhou Xuan heard their breakup conversation in his ears. The only way he could try to keep her was by mentioning his promotion and salary raise, even though the title wasn’t significant, and the pay increase was minor. After their breakup, his career had taken off, soaring to unprecedented heights. But by then, Qin Yiyi had already married someone else... That relationship could only take the form of "regret," forever buried in his heart. "Benefactor Qin fell critically ill and passed away, but she still remembers all the good you’ve done for her. She’s been visiting you recently, as a ghostly presence staying near you. That’s why you’ve been experiencing strange hallucinations. You’re not mentally ill; what you’re seeing is the result of Benefactor Qin’s influence." "You shouldn’t avoid it anymore. It wasn’t your fault that Grandma died!" "Master Li, open your eyes. As long as you open them, you’ll see that there are still many people who care about you: your father, your mother, your friends—they’re all waiting for you!" "Lingzi, open your eyes. What happened to Mom isn’t your fault." "Li Ling, Li Ling!" Countless voices were calling Zhou Xuan’s name. "Could it be... that everything was just my hallucination? Jing Country, Sister, Master, the storyteller, the tattoos, the Ancestor Tree— they never existed. This is all something I fabricated in my mind to escape Grandma’s death?" "Lingzi, please wake up. Mom saw your eyelid move. Open your eyes and look at Mom? Since you’ve been in this coma for more than a month, Mom’s hair has turned so much gray. Don’t you feel sorry for her?" As Mom spoke, she began to cry sorrowfully. "Master Li, now that you know the truth, your inner demon is gone. It’s time to wake up." "Mom, I’ll open my eyes—I’ll open them now... I want to see you again so badly!" "No... I can’t open them... They’re all waiting for me to wake up. But if I open my eyes, would I completely fall into the Forbidden Tower’s trap?" Zhou Xuan had completely lost the line separating reality from the dream world. "No, no, I refuse to believe that Jing Country is fake. You’re not real—this is the dream! Jing Country is the reality!" "But my mother’s voice can’t be faked... When I was a child and my father failed in business, we were burdened with debt. The creditors came knocking for money every Lunar New Year. Mom leaned against the door, not daring to open it. Only after they left did she squat at the door and cry." Mom’s crying—Zhou Xuan could never forget that sound, not in his entire life. His eyes twitched as if he wanted to open them, but he still didn’t dare. "I’m so tired, Mom... My heart is so, so tired!" Zhou Xuan’s spirit was nearing a complete breakdown. At the very edge of collapse, he suddenly made a fierce decision! "I can’t tell what’s real and what’s a dream, so I’ll weave a dream for myself. I’ll slumber eternally in my own dream, and if the storyteller, Dream Generation, and Jing Country were all just fabrications I made while in a coma to escape reality, then fine—I’ll deceive myself one more time!" Zhou Xuan almost instinctively made the motion of putting on a mask, then extended his left hand into the sleeve of his right arm, gently tapping a concealed object: his gavel. "Crack!" The gavel’s sharp sound reverberated. The storyteller’s ninth-level technique—"I am the Dream Master." Zhou Xuan wove a delightful dream for himself—a "Dream Master’s Dream" capable of completely severing the line between fantasy and reality. In the dream, there was a beautiful house, facing the sea, where spring blossoms bloomed endlessly. By the seaside stood a dining table. Zhou Xuan and Zhou Lingyi were scrubbing mud off oyster shells. From time to time, Zhou Xuan would crack open an oyster and dangle its milky-white, quivering meat near Zhou Lingyi’s mouth. Zhou Lingyi opened her mouth to eat the oyster meat, her eyes crinkling into a smile as she said, "Brother, this oyster is so sweet." Zhou Xuan’s father, mother, grandma, Yuan Buyu, Senior Brother, and Fifth Brother sat around another table, grilling meat over a charcoal fire and sipping beer in big gulps. Little Fuzi and Mu Hua were splashing in the sea, "plop, plop." Yun Ziliang strolled along the shoreline, hands clasped behind him. As he walked, he pointed toward the vast ocean and declared grandly, "In that broad expanse of ocean lies a Big Dragon. One day, I shall find it!" Yuan Buyu thought Yun Ziliang was out of his mind. "Why don’t you quit dragon seeking and focus on eating? What a bunch of nonsense about finding a dragon!" He urged Zhou Xuan, "Xuanzi, hurry it up! We’re waiting for those oysters." "Brush on some garlic sauce—when it’s grilled, it’ll smell amazing." The dream was incredibly beautiful, and Zhou Xuan’s heart felt at ease. But there would always be someone who didn’t want him to stay in such a mesmerizing dream forever. "Boom!" A deafening crash echoed, and Zhou Xuan saw an enormous blob of flesh, relentlessly slamming against the sky of his dream world, each collision shaking his dream to its core, making the ground quake and the seas roar. Zhou Xuan didn’t panic. He remained calm. Everyone in the dream world stayed calm—those splashing in the water continued splashing, those eating oysters kept eating. The Master of the Dream wasn’t panic-stricken, so neither were the inhabitants of the dream. Zhou Xuan cupped his hands around his eyes and stared intently upward toward the sky. "That giant blob of flesh... It looks like... like an underdeveloped infant! But much, much larger than a baby." In Zhou Xuan’s eyes, the colossal flesh was lacking fully formed features. Its fingers and toes were still webbed, not yet separated, but its arms, legs, head, and torso were discernible. This was a prematurely aborted fetus. By sealing himself within his dream, Zhou Xuan instead began to see everything outside his dream with unprecedented clarity.

Chapter 213 - 167 Fallen Baby’s Dream_2

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