Chapter 136: A Baffling Dream

Chapter 136: Chapter 136: A Baffling Dream

Gu Nuan Nuan’s third maternal aunt was a real piece of work. Instead of going to a hospital when someone was sick, she insisted on consulting a fortune teller. And what happened? After some mystical calculations, the fortune teller told her that Zhang Tianci would fall ill because his good fortune was being stolen by their family’s daughter. The only way to break the curse was to send their daughter to the fortune teller’s home to serve as his concubine for a few years. As a bonus, this would supposedly mend her son’s fortune for his next life, allowing him to be reincarnated into her womb and guaranteeing she’d have a son again.

Any normal person would have seen this for the utter nonsense it was, but unfortunately, Gu Nuan Nuan’s third aunt was not a normal person. Not only did she take it to heart, but she even came home and managed to convince Gu Nuan Nuan’s third uncle. They insisted on sending her second cousin, a girl of eighteen or nineteen in the prime of her youth, to be defiled by the old fortune teller, who was in his fifties and even older than the uncle himself. In the end, helpless to resist, her second cousin committed suicide when her family wasn’t watching. Even in death, she was saddled with the blame for causing her younger brother’s death.

In the end, Gu Nuan Nuan’s third aunt refused to admit that she herself had caused the deaths of her son and daughter. Even when the doctor told her that her son’s condition hadn’t been serious and that he would have been alive and kicking if his treatment hadn’t been so cruelly delayed, she still insisted that her daughter had killed him—all because her daughter had been selfishly unwilling to sacrifice herself to change her brother’s fate...

"Master, are you thinking about something unhappy? Is that why you’re in a bad mood?"

"It is something rather depressing. Sigh, let’s not talk about it." Hearing Cao Cao’s voice, Gu Nuan Nuan snapped out of her thoughts. ’In this lifetime, with me here, Cousin Laidi and her poor little cousin should be able to avoid death. Still, I need to think carefully about how to help them through this crisis and also teach my third aunt a lesson she’ll never forget. Luckily, there’s still time. That poor cousin of mine hasn’t even been born yet, so there’s no need to rush.’

Gu Nuan Nuan shook her head, tossing aside those unsettling thoughts, and praised Cao Cao, "It was all thanks to you today. The filling I would have made with my own recipe wouldn’t have been nearly as delicious as the one you suggested."

"I’m always happy to serve you, Master! Being able to help you is Cao Cao’s greatest honor, you know!" Cao Cao chirped, instantly becoming cheerful.

"Heh heh..." Gu Nuan Nuan couldn’t help but laugh, amused by her Plant Pet that was so good at both acting cute and sucking up.

The next day was Sunday, the day they had arranged to go into the mountains, which meant they had to wake up earlier than usual. So that night, Gu Nuan Nuan drifted off to sleep early, sinking into sweet dreams.

In stark contrast to her peaceful slumber, a certain someone in a dorm room at Jingcheng University, thousands of miles away, was not sleeping nearly as well.

In the middle of the night, Luo Hongyi suddenly awoke. He opened his eyes in the darkness, stunned to find himself in an unfamiliar place. He could even hear a chorus of snores rising and falling around him. This left him momentarily dazed. ’Where... where am I?’

"..."

Luo Hongyi wasn’t dazed for long. As a flood of memories rushed into his mind, the shock in his eyes grew. ’Jingcheng University dorms... a first-year student...’

’What’s going on? Am I dreaming? Did I dream that I’m back in the dorm room from when I first started university?’

Closing his eyes, he listened intently to the sounds around him. It only took a moment for Luo Hongyi to confirm that there were indeed three other people in the room besides himself.

’Something’s not right. Something’s very wrong.’ ’Why would I suddenly dream that I’m back in my university dorm?’ Unable to make sense of it, Luo Hongyi swung his legs out of bed and headed toward where he remembered the bathroom was.

As he touched the objects he passed, the sensation was too real for a dream. Paradoxically, this only heightened his sense of unreality.

’Just go back to sleep. Maybe when I wake up, this bizarre dream will be over.’

His mind a whirl of confusion, he returned to his bunk and lay down. Luo Hongyi forced himself to close his eyes, to think of nothing, and slowly drifted back to sleep.

But Luo Hongyi was destined for a restless sleep. When sounds from his surroundings stirred him awake again, his head was throbbing with a dull ache—the aftereffect of a night filled with chaotic dreams.

He then noticed the sky was faintly lit with the dawn, but his surroundings were still not the familiar scene he expected. Instead, it was a view that was both strange and yet vaguely familiar.

"..."

Even though summer days dawned early, the sky was still dark when Gu Nuan Nuan was woken up. It was only by the time she, her grandfather, and her mother—each with a basket on their back—set foot on the path into the mountains that the sky had begun to grow hazy with light.

Breathing in the fresh mountain air, Gu Nuan Nuan let out a blissful sigh.

Such was the paradox of human nature: countless people struggled their way from the countryside to the city, only to gain a foothold and realize that the ultimate goal for those in the city was to return to the countryside—to live a carefree life with a small courtyard and a plot of land.

The mountain path was difficult, but for the current Gu Nuan Nuan, it was no problem at all. She even found herself having to deliberately slow down to match her grandfather’s and mother’s pace.

After walking for two or three hours, there was still no sign of the wild pheasants her grandfather had mentioned. Gu Nuan Nuan, however, following Cao Cao’s prompts, had gathered a good number of wild vegetables and flowers that were just a few steps off the path—things that could be eaten, used as seasoning, or brewed into tea.

Zhang Dazhuang was quite surprised that Gu Nuan Nuan always managed to come back with something useful, but he didn’t say anything. After all, they were common mountain plants, so it wasn’t entirely strange for a child to recognize them.

What he found truly strange, what he hadn’t expected, was just how many of these plants the child Nuannuan could identify. That was completely beyond his expectations.

As they walked, Zhang Minzhen wiped the sweat from her brow, panting as she asked her daughter again, "Nuannuan, are you tired?"

"Not tired at all." Gu Nuan Nuan knew her mother was just saying that because she herself was tired, and she shook her head, hiding a smile.

"How can you not be tired yet?" Zhang Minzhen stopped and plopped down on a rock by the path, panting as she said to Zhang Dazhuang, "Dad, I can’t go on. I need to rest."

"We’ve barely been walking, and you’ve already rested two or three times. Honestly, you can’t even keep up with a little kid and an old man like me. If you ask me, it’s because you haven’t gotten enough exercise these past few years."

Shaking his head with a smile, Zhang Dazhuang stopped as well. He had expected Nuannuan to be the one who couldn’t handle it and would be complaining nonstop, but here she was, still as energetic as ever. In contrast, his own daughter’s stamina was far worse than the last time she had visited.

"Dad, don’t call yourself an old man! You’re still strong and vigorous."

As she spoke, Zhang Minzhen twisted open the military-style canteen she was carrying to take a sip of water, only to find it was empty. She couldn’t help but sigh. "I feel like I’ve barely had a few sips. How is it empty already?"

"I still have some. Here, drink mine." Zhang Dazhuang reached for the gourd hanging at his waist.

"I have some, too." Gu Nuan Nuan was a step ahead of him, already holding her gourd out to Zhang Minzhen.

"There’s still this much left? Haven’t you been drinking any the whole way?" Zhang Minzhen took the gourd from her daughter, startled by how heavy it felt in her hand.