Chapter 127

Chapter 127

That night, Qin Ying thought she would be unable to sleep.

But as she leaned against the headboard, reading through the notes she had copied by lamplight, her eyelids felt as if heavy stones were dragging them down.

The notes were still in her hand. She clearly felt as though her eyes were open, yet her consciousness gradually slipped beyond her control, sinking into a hazy dream from which she could not wake.

When she came to herself again, she found she was standing inside a white room.

Dizzy as if drunk, she swayed unsteadily amid the white halo of light.

All around her was dead silence. Qin Ying could hear only the thudding of her own heart.

She looked down and found herself wearing a little gauze dress with a white background and Red Flower print. A drool bib hung around her neck.

Her head moved beyond her control, looking around the empty room that had no windows and no door.

Stumbling, she felt along the seamless walls and began to cry in a thin, childish voice.

“Where’s the door? Let me out.”

Qin Ying’s mind grew even more muddled, but the fear dredged up from the depths of her memory wrapped around her like a great net.

She could not remember how long she had been locked in this empty white room.

One day, two days, or even longer.

A voice kept urging her to go open the door, to grasp the doorknob.

Qin Ying hugged her head and curled up in the corner, silently resisting that control.

The voice said something else, but Qin Ying could no longer hear it.

Amid a crackling static like a faulty connection, a child’s corpse appeared eerily in front of Qin Ying’s toes.

Warm blood flooded over her toes.

The child, fallen in a limp, broken heap, stared quietly at Qin Ying with dilated pupils.

The double pupils in its right eye trembled twice, as if saying to her: Hello, nice to meet you. Goodbye.

Qin Ying felt as if she had screamed, but she could not remember the details.

She only realized that this seemed to be the death people spoke of.

Would she die too?

Qin Ying did not know. She moved her bloodstained toes, eyes wide, icy tears streaming down her face.

The white room was shaking.

Many people were cheering in delight: the experimental subject had opened the door.

“Ah!”

Qin Ying let out a short cry and woke from the nightmare.

Light filtered through the white linen curtains, falling across her snow-white ankles.

Qin Ying lay flat on the bed like a corpse at a murder scene, silently staring at a tiny spot of mold on the ceiling.

It took her a while to recover before she managed to move with difficulty, curling into a small ball on top of the blanket.

“Supreme Deity.”

A somewhat hesitant voice sounded, carrying the scent of soap.

Qin Ying’s lips moved. For a moment, she actually failed to recognize whose voice it was.

Only when a palm warmer than normal human body temperature hesitantly pressed against her shoulder and helped her up, brushing aside the strands of hair stuck to her cheeks with sweat, did she vaguely remember.

Oh. There was someone else at home.

It was Han Lie.

Qin Ying did not remember how she was lifted into a sitting position.

When she came back to herself again, a towel had been draped over her shoulders, and she was holding a cup of hot water.

Half a stalk of Yao Grass floated in the cup. After steeping in the hot water, the rich fragrance of Yao Grass filled the room.

The scent was invigorating, and Qin Ying snapped out of her daze at once.

Han Lie was half-kneeling in front of her, his iron-gray-rimmed eyes carefully studying her pale face.

Seeing her pupils focus, Han Lie brightened and gently supported the back of her hand.

He was signaling for her to drink the Yao Grass Water in the cup.

Qin Ying lowered her eyes and stared in silence for a moment at the half stalk of Yao Grass floating in the cup. Then she gulped down the warm, slightly scalding water in one go.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

Faced with Han Lie’s question, Qin Ying tilted her head slightly and did not answer.

Han Lie said again, “I’m sorry. I used the Yao Grass without permission.”

Before he could finish asking for forgiveness, Qin Ying’s hand came to rest on his shoulder.
“No need to apologize,” Qin Ying said hoarsely. “I’m glad you’re here.”

She sat up straight. The towel slipped from her shoulders, and her mouth was filled with the sweet fragrance of Yao Grass.

“You should lie down for a while.” Han Lie fumbled in a panic, wanting to press Qin Ying’s shoulders and stop her from getting up.

But his fingers halted just before they touched her, making him look especially clumsy and flustered.

He was wearing the Black Trench Coat, and the last burn mark on his face had faded until it was almost invisible.

His intelligence was visibly returning. Once the Zheng Serum that had splashed onto him wore off, he would probably turn back into a tiny peanut man and return to the World in the Box.

Qin Ying let out a soft breath and said, “Pour me a glass of milk.”

She forced herself to stand. When she stepped out of the room, she nearly trod on the little dog Wangcai in front of her door.

Wangcai was sitting on the doormat outside Qin Ying’s room. Seeing that she was fine, it breathed a sigh of relief, swung its rump, and ran off.

Besides Wangcai, Fuzhu the white deer and the fluffy Hou were also crouched on the mat.

Like Han Lie, they had guarded Qin Ying from the other side of the door all night.

From downstairs came the faint fragrance of rice porridge. Qin Ying’s heart softened.

She bent down, scooped them up, and gathered Fuzhu together with a hundred or so Hou into the hem of her tank top.

Through the fabric, she could feel them wriggling in the pouch of her shirt.

Qin Ying ran her fingers over their soft fur.

Suddenly, from the kitchen downstairs came the clanging of a pot lid. Water overflowed the rim and dripped onto the grate of the gas stove with a sizzling hiss.

Han Lie, who was standing protectively behind Qin Ying, changed expression.

He had porridge cooking on the stove.

Han Lie remembered clearly what Qin Ying had once told him: if a gas stove was extinguished by water, it was very dangerous. At the same time, he was worried about Qin Ying, who was in poor condition.

After one panicked instant, he said, “Forgive my rudeness.”

With that, he swept Qin Ying up in his arms, carried her downstairs like a gust of wind, and set her on the living room sofa.

Then he rushed off in a frenzy to turn off the stove.

With a shirtful of little animals bundled against her, Qin Ying got to experience a human roller coaster.

When she sat on the sofa and lowered her head, the little red-furred dogs stared up at Qin Ying with a hundred or so pairs of tiny sesame-seed eyes, looking just as dumbfounded as she felt.

At the sight, she burst into laughter.

The confusion and fear from her dream receded.

She leaned back against the sofa.

The red-furred puppy-like Hou and Fuzhu treated her like a little mountain to climb.

The most tactful one, Fuzhu, stood on Qin Ying’s shoulder and rubbed its White Jade-like antlers against her chin.

“All right, you guys go watch TV.”

Qin Ying pulled over a cushion. This cushion had already become the Hou’s viewing platform.

The moment she laid the cushion down, the Hou and Fuzhu gathered on it, sitting in neat rows and waiting to watch Tom and Jerry.

Huodou Wangcai dragged over its little dog-mama plushie and hopped up beside Qin Ying’s leg.

It used its paw to nudge its precious baby a little closer to Qin Ying, apparently asking to let her hug it.

Qin Ying opened her arms and placed Huodou Wangcai, plushie and all, onto her lap.

“I love you all.”

Qin Ying was never stingy about speaking her feelings aloud.

The little white-spotted dog squeezed against her chest flailed its paws and rolled its eyes, looking like it could hardly stand it.

Only its tail wagged faster and faster.

Han Lie stood by the dining table, holding a bowl of plain porridge and a glass of milk, his face flushed red.

After a long while, he averted his eyes and set everything down on the coffee table.

Before Qin Ying could thank him, he hurriedly said, “I will go prepare your toothbrush and toiletries.”

With that, he turned to leave, only for his foot to catch on the trouser leg that had abruptly grown too long.

He shrank at incredible speed, completely buried beneath his clothes.

Then, swishing a lion-like tail, one tiny little figure sat on top of the pile of clothing.

The Zheng Serum that had splashed onto him had finally run out of effect.