Chapter 176: An "Absurd" Dream

Chapter 176: Chapter 176: An "Absurd" Dream

Gu Nuan Nuan’s mind was a complete mess; she couldn’t think at all.

"Master, the nightmare."

Cao Cao’s voice popped up at the critical moment.

’Right, the nightmare.’

Gu Nuan Nuan was like a drowning person clutching at a straw. She blinked, and large tears streamed down her face, impossible to stop. "I had a nightmare. I’ve been having them every night. I saw... I saw..." Recalling the past, she could still remember the feeling of panic from when she was a little girl and heard the terrible news about her uncle—it was as if the sky itself had fallen.

They say children are the most sensitive. Back then, she might not have fully understood the impact of losing her uncle on her grandpa, grandma, her aunt and two cousins, or even on her and her mother. But her intuition told her it was definitely not a good thing for any of them.

Her face turned pale and she couldn’t help but shiver. "I saw everything. It was so scary. I’m scared..."

"What did you see?" Wen Xiu shot up, rushed to Gu Nuan Nuan’s side, and squatted down, holding her as she asked urgently.

"Blood... so, so much blood. A whole bus full of people..." Gu Nuan Nuan’s eyes went vacant as she mumbled. She suddenly snapped back to her senses and clamped her mouth shut, looking at her grandmother in alarm. Unsurprisingly, she saw the shock in her eyes.

It wasn’t just Wen Xiu; everyone else was stunned, hardly believing their ears.

"Nuannuan... slowly, tell Uncle what else you saw." Zhang Wei Qiang knelt and took Gu Nuan Nuan’s hand.

"I... I didn’t see Aunt and my two cousins get on the bus," Gu Nuan Nuan murmured, her expression lost. "Only Uncle got on. In the end, the bus fell off a cliff. Not a single person..." made it.

"AHH—"

Gu Nuan Nuan’s words made Lin Qin cry out before she clamped a hand over her mouth, staring at her in shock. Yesterday, when she had brought food to Zhang Wei Qiang, the two of them had indeed discussed it. She and the two children wouldn’t go back to her parents’ house first; Zhang Wei Qiang would go alone. Just now, when she’d suggested that Zhang Wei Qiang stay home while she went with the children, she had been saying it partly out of spite. But... for Nuannuan to say this... ’I never told Nuannuan that I or Zhang Wei Qiang were going to my parents’ home tomorrow. Could it be... could her nightmare actually be real?’

"That’s impossible. Did you accidentally overhear something and... just imagine it?" Even Zhang Wei Qiang felt his own words were a bit of a stretch, but he couldn’t think of any other reason to explain Gu Nuan Nuan’s incredible nightmare.

"Uncle, I’m begging you, please don’t go. And Aunt, and my two cousins, please don’t you go either, okay?" Gu Nuan Nuan was still trembling. She didn’t know if this excuse would be enough to stop her uncle’s family, but she had already made up her mind. ’I have to watch them. I can’t let a single one of them slip away. Even if it means staying up all night until eight o’clock tomorrow morning, I have to guard my uncle’s family.’

’If only I had just drugged them.’

Gu Nuan Nuan was suddenly filled with regret. ’With Cao Cao’s help, it wouldn’t have been that hard to put a plant-based powder in the family’s water—something that would make them weak for two days without causing any permanent harm...’

’Why didn’t I think of that sooner?’

But alas, there’s no medicine for regret in this world.

Gu Nuan Nuan sighed and could only look at her uncle with hopeful eyes, persistently asking for his promise. "Please, Uncle?"

Zhang Wei Qiang hesitated. Two little figures were wrestling in his mind. One was named Logic, and it scoffed at Gu Nuan Nuan’s nightmare. The other was named Intuition, and it chose to believe. His heart leaned a little toward Intuition. "...If this is real, shouldn’t we try to stop the other people from getting on the bus..."

The words sounded so absurd even to himself that he shook his head and chose Logic again. "Nuannuan, it’s not that Uncle won’t promise you, but who would believe something like this? Your aunt’s family has an important event tomorrow. If none of us show up for such a laughable reason, that... that would be too outrageous, wouldn’t it?"

"We should listen to Nuannuan. It’s better to be safe than sorry." Zhang Dazhuang looked at Gu Nuan Nuan seriously. Based on his years of experience, he could see the panic in her expression was completely genuine. Taking into account the child’s strange behavior over the past few days, which he had also noticed, his heart tightened. Some things in life were mysterious and couldn’t be explained by common sense. He couldn’t help but side with Gu Nuan Nuan.

"I’ve also had this nagging feeling of unease for the past few days, but I never knew why. Now that I’ve heard what Nuannuan said, it feels like this is the reason. Qiangzi, I think you and your wife should listen to Nuannuan this time. Otherwise, I really won’t be able to rest easy. If... if tomorrow passes and it turns out this was all for nothing, I’ll personally go with you to apologize to your in-laws." Following Zhang Dazhuang, Wen Xiu also nodded repeatedly in agreement, holding the same "better safe than sorry" attitude.

"..." Zhang Minzhen was dumbfounded. She looked from one person to the next, feeling the whole situation was just too bizarre. How could she put it? Believing it felt somewhat ridiculous, but not believing it... she thought about her daughter’s changes recently and felt she couldn’t ignore this sudden, strange behavior.

"Should we go or not?" Lin Qin herself was conflicted now. Like Zhang Wei Qiang, she had two little figures in her mind locked in a tug-of-war.

’Tomorrow is my little brother’s engagement day. Mom specially sent someone to tell me that she’d consulted a fortune-teller. Me and the two kids don’t need to come—even if we did, we’d have to stay away because our zodiac signs clash with my future sister-in-law’s. But Zhang Wei Qiang *had* to be there, because the fortune-teller also said his presence would bring good fortune to the new couple. Since my parents don’t know that Zhang Wei Qiang is on unpaid leave, they specifically instructed us over and over that even if he had to take a day off work, he absolutely had to be there...’

"Dad, Mom, it’s my brother-in-law’s big day, after all. My father-in-law and mother-in-law even sent someone to make sure I’d be there. Look, just because of Nuannuan’s nightmare, for no good reason..." In the end, reason won out over intuition in Zhang Wei Qiang’s mind. He made his decision and spoke earnestly to Zhang Dazhuang and Wen Xiu, "I can’t just completely disrespect my in-laws like that, can I? If I do, how can Lin Qin face her family in the future?"

"Uncle, have you thought about this? If something really happens to you, how are Grandpa and Grandma supposed to face Aunt? And how could Aunt face her own parents?" Gu Nuan Nuan saw that her uncle seemed to have made up his mind. She knew what he was capable of, and she was terrified that even with all her effort, she might not be able to stop him in the end. She finally broke down into loud sobs, her cries filled with a heart-wrenching grief that was painful to hear.

At the same time, no longer caring how much she was revealing, she added, "Uncle, you have to believe me, you have to! I also saw in the dream that at the end, Aunt was all alone and so pitiful. Later... later, it seemed like she blamed her parents. They even argued, and in the end, she even cut off ties with her family and never went back again..."