Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Three months after the breakup, my illness relapsed.

A dream I hadn’t had in a long time returned to torment me.

In the dream, a gloomy yet handsome man kissed me, engaging in the most intimate of acts, all while pressing a gun against my waist.

With agony in his voice, he told me he loved me, then pulled the trigger with bloodshot eyes.

The gun fired, but there was no bullet.

My dagger, however, sliced through his throat without a moment’s hesitation.

In the dream, the man died. Before he drew his last breath, a triumphant smile played on his lips-a smile that pleaded with me to take him home.

A wave of immense sorrow washed over my heart, and I woke up gasping for air.

It sounds absurd, but this dream has haunted me for three years. The heart-wrenching pain from the dream lingers even after I wake, leaving me trapped in the agony of losing a lover for a long time.

I saw a psychiatrist because of it. I told him I had fallen in love with a man from my dreams.

That man’s name was Gu Ye.

After hypnosis and sleeping pills proved useless, the doctor suggested I try dating. He wanted to see if I could “transfer my affections” to someone else, or at the very least, use it as a form of “detox.”

That was when Jiang Dong appeared.

He looked exactly like the man in my dreams.

I once believed he was the Gu Ye from my dreams.

The same eyes, the same voice, even the same careless curve of his lips when he smiled.

In a bar, eyes hazy with drink, he leaned against a corner and tugged at the hem of my shirt, asking if I could take him home.

That single look felt like a lifetime ago.

I thought my Gu Ye had finally stepped out of my dreams.

I took him home and watched over him on the sofa all night.

But when he opened his eyes and met my sorrowful gaze, he was overcome with amusement.

His shoulders shook as he laughed. “Are you disappointed because nothing happened?”

As he spoke, he glanced at my neckline. “Next time, pull your collar lower. Maybe then I won’t fall asleep so fast!”

Despite his rudeness, a sense of destiny compelled me to cast aside my pride and be with him.

At first, I loved him so deeply I couldn’t pull myself away.

During blood-red sunsets, I would ask him, consumed by insecurity, if he would ever leave me.

In the middle of the night, startled awake, I would reach out to stroke his neck, only able to fall back asleep once I confirmed there was no wound.

I poured all the debt I owed Gu Ye in my dreams onto him, indulging his every whim.

I cleaned up his messes without a word of complaint.

When he was hospitalized, I cared for him day and night, terrified that if I blinked, he would vanish just like in the dream.

He would often stare at me blankly, murmuring about why he hadn’t met me sooner.

At the time, I didn’t understand the deeper meaning behind his words-not until that date on Valentine’s Day.