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Chapter 10 Dreamland
Jian Chi was dreaming again. This time, his body seemed to be riding on a leaf blade, flying high into the sky, and seeing everything at a height that was enough to overlook the entire Saintston College.
Every detail was as clear as it happened in reality, as if he should have known this; every grass and tree here, everyone who passed by, including himself.
The leaf blade lost it’s buoyancy in the air and Jian Chi fell straight down as if stepping on the air.
The wind whistled past his ears and rang together with the sound of a ‘bell’. He maintained his original posture on the bed. Only after a long time did he realize that sound didn’t come from his dream, but his phone by the side of his bed.
“……Hey?”
“Jian Chi, are you alright? I heard that you were splashed with water yesterday. It’s all because of that Bai Xiyu. It’s not enough for him to kill himself, yet he wants to pull you along!” Zhang Yang’s angry and worried voice was transmitted through the receiver, dispelling the drowsiness at once.
Jian Chi propped up his body, rubbed his sore eyelids, and replied, “I’m fine, but I might not be able to wear the uniform…”
The voice was cut in half, and Jian Chi looked at a brand new suit and uniform stacked beside the bed, slightly startled. For a moment, he suspected that he had hallucinated or hadn’t woken up.
After hesitating for a moment, he reached out and took the shirt, which was exactly the same size as the original. If it wasn’t for Zhang Yang who was still shouting loudly in his ear, he would have regarded what happened yesterday as a dream.
“Jian Chi, Jian Chi? What did you just say?”
“It’s nothing,” Jian Chi, who had already returned to his senses, put down his uniform and comforted Zhang Yang. “You don’t have to worry, I’m fine. I’ll tell you later in class.”
“Are you really okay? Don’t lie to me. If you feel uncomfortable, ask for a leave. Your attendance rate is still 100%. It’s no big deal to ask for a day off.”
Jian Chi said, “No, I’m fine now. If you keep talking, you may miss the morning class in twenty minutes.”
Zhang Yang could only hurriedly end the exhortation and hang up the phone. Jian Chi threw the phone aside, and a few minutes later there was a vibration, but he didn’t have the heart to look.
The door lock of the bathroom clicked, and Wei An, who had just finished washing, came out. His eyes under the thick-bottomed glasses swept across Jian Chi, some pity, some irony, as if saying ‘who told you not to listen to my warning, you deserved it’.
Jian Chi didn’t want to talk to him, and simply asked, “Do you know who sent this uniform?”
This sentence seemed to have some magical power, making Wei An’s proud face suddenly look a little ugly. He spat out a sentence: “People from the student union.”
Jian Chi understood for a moment, and was inexplicably surprised.
Although he only rejected Ji Huaisi’s kindness yesterday, he still received the other party’s gift in another way. He couldn’t help but feel some guilt, but it was undeniably more warm.
Walking into the bathroom, he changed into a fitted uniform and Jian Chi wiped his face with water droplets with a towel. The movements of his hands stopped unconsciously. He looked at himself in the mirror, and a few blurry images flashed in front of him.
It was last night’s dream again-Jianchi rarely dreamed before, but these days, he had been dreaming of strange things every night.
Every time he woke up, he couldn’t remember the content of the dream, and the unusual development made him feel a little uneasy.
“Jian Chi, your face doesn’t look very good,” Zhang Yang said after meeting him. “Would you like to go to the infirmary during your lunch break?”
Jian Chi wanted to refuse, but the dream that kept emerging in his heart seemed to remind him something faintly. He pressed his temples and pondered, “Okay.”
Psychology talked about the connection between dreams and mental psychology last week. Freud believed that dreams are the content of repressed consciousness, presented through disguise.
Jian Chi wanted to find out what the repressed fragments in his heart were, and hoped that he would find the answer right away.
On the way to the infirmary, Jian Chi felt a few eyes sweeping over him, without any malice, just gloating at his misfortune like watching a good show and gossip, which made him uncomfortable.
He looked ahead and ignored them one by one. Zhang Yang originally wanted to accompany him there, but he was called away by the president of the tennis club as soon as he walked out of the classroom, so Jian Chi was the only one left.
“Is there something wrong with your body?”
The school doctor was unexpectedly young, wearing a white lab coat with the word ‘Qin Zhao’ on his badge. On the bridge of his nose was a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, and when his phoenix eyes swept over, he felt like he was being looked up and down like an object. He straightened his back involuntarily.
“Recently, I always dream of some strange things,” Jian Chi said slowly while organizing his words. “I rarely dreamed before, and this happened when I came here.”
“Can you describe your dream?” Qin Zhao asked.
Jian Chi showed a bit of confusion, not knowing how to explain this strange phenomenon, “I don’t remember.”
“Don’t remember?” Qin Zhao lifted his eyes under the lens, releasing a hint of an unfriendly aura. He placed his hands on the table, “Dreaming is not a bad thing, it’s a signal from the brain to give you a good rest. Maybe you’re just putting too much pressure on yourself.”
“But these are not like ordinary dreams,” Jian Chi unconsciously accelerated his speech, “It’s like…”
“Like what?”
“Reality.” Jian Chi said.
Qin Zhao smiled indifferently, “And you can’t remember what happened in your dream at all.”
The other party’s inattentive attitude made Jian Chi feel a little frustrated, but that was no surprise. It seems that he can’t expect the school doctor to solve his suspicions, so he changed the subject, “Do you have any medicine here that can improve sleep quality? Someething similar to sleeping pills?”
“I can give you half a tablet,” Qin Zhao stood up and opened the high cabinet where the medicine was stored, “but…”
“But?”
Qin Zhao didn’t answer, then suddenly stopped his voice and movements. It looked like a machine that had just finished its operation, erasing its life aura for 0.01 seconds.
When Jian Chi met his eyes again, he faintly realized that the school doctor in front of him seemed to be different from just now.
Qin Zhao circled around, touched the white coat on his body with interest, turned around, tapped the solid wood table with his index finger, and approached Jian Chi with the sound of ‘da da’.
Before Jian Chi stepped back, Qin Zhao had already leaned over and let out a low laugh from his throat, his voice mellow and low: “But I have a better way to give you a good night’s sleep.”
If Jian Chi was awake at the moment, he would definitely say ‘No, thank you’.
But Qin Zhao’s hand was covering his forehead irresistibly, and the world in front of him suddenly spun. Light and shadow overlapped, and there was no consciousness anymore.
Jian Chi had a long, long dream.
He rode the blade to fly through a blur of fog, pushed aside the layers of obstacles, and saw a very absurd scene in the vastness – a person, a person with the same appearance as him.
Familiar limousines, familiar campus gates, Jian Chi was wearing a Saintston uniform, and on the first day of school, he met the arrogant Han Fang and the enthusiastic and straightforward Bai Xiyu. He was caught in the aggressive atmosphere, and he didn’t make a sound to ease the embarrassment, nor did he refuse Bai Xiyu’s last request for a visit-they became friends.
Jian Chi thought that they were the same people, mediocre, cautious, studying hard to get admitted to a prestigious university, but he was very wrong.
Bai Xiyu disregarded the hierarchy brought by the brooch, and did not listen to his and Wei An’s persuasion to stay away from those ‘upper class pigs’. In retaliation, he approached Ji Huaisi to talk about his grievances, and then continued to entangle with these people.
Others laughed at him for being overly self-sufficient and scheming, but Jian Chi could see clearly the moving expressions, affection, anger and jealousy in the eyes of those men.
Jian Chi understood the development of the situation one step ahead of everyone, which was absurd and unbelievable-Bai Xiyu actually used such a naive method to win the hearts of those arrogant men.
It turned out that they were not the same person. Bai Xiyu was confused, innocent, straightforward and bold. He was careful, calculated, and pretended to be generous even though he was unwilling.
Jian Chi hated Bai Xiyu, and when he discovered this, he hated himself even more because of his jealousy.
The manuscript he worked so hard to prepare was not as good as Bai Xiyu’s muddle-headedness. Whether it was selecting student council members or participating in the New Year’s dance, he tried his best to be better than Bai Xiyu, but the one who captured all the attention was never him.
When Bai Xiyu complained that those people were chasing him, Jian Chi just thought it was funny and ironic. If he didn’t want to get it, why did he insist on provoking them in the first place?
If he didn’t want it, why can’t he give it to him?
Jian Chi thought that he was no worse than Bai Xiyu. He was also a special student, and he was also from a small city. They were so similar, but the things they possessed were very different.
Jealousy swallowed up reason at some point. Jian Chi tried to learn Bai Xiyu’s every move, showing weakness in front of those people, but in exchange, he received a cold look and undisguised ridicule. His despicable mind was ripped off and revealed completely. Because he was not Bai Xiyu, so what he did was just an imitation, a joke.
Under the bewitchment of those who used their heads, the evil thoughts that had been suppressed for too long finally overwhelmed his conscience. Jian Chi used a lie to trick Bai Xiyu into the storage room and locked the door. He just wanted to vent his unwillingness, completely unaware that Bai Xiyu had a psychological fear of the dark.
When those people came to rescue the collapsed Bai Xiyu, Jian Chi’s reason finally came back. He remembered the consequences of those who harmed Bai Xiyu, and the uncontrollable fear swallowed him – what did he do?
Jian Chi’s crime could not be covered up. He was taken to the office of the student union. Shao Hang knocked him to the ground with a punch. There was a tingling pain in his cheek. He was lying on the cold ground and heard the president Shen Shuting give an ultimatum without any emotion: “Now you have two options, voluntarily drop out, or wait for the school to expel you.”
Shao Hang seemed to say ‘really disgusting’ next to him, Wen Chuan stared at him with cold eyes, as if he was looking at a piece of garbage, tearing up his remaining self-esteem completely.
Ji Huaisi, who had always been kind to others, faded his smile, approached and said coldly: “Jian Chi, you have to be responsible for what you did.” Whether it was to leave in embarrassment or leave with dignity, Jian Chi chose the latter.
He didn’t tell anyone. He left the school as he came, and no matter how Jian Chengchao asked, he didn’t tell the truth.
All the colleges and universities that accepted him with a smile when they saw his transcript, hesitated or declined politely when they saw the resume from Saintston. No one dared to take on a man who dropped out of the prestigious Saintston College for unknown reasons, and he was shunned by everyone.
It was only at this time that Jian Chi realized what he had thrown away because of temporary jealousy. He found Bai Xiyu again, knelt down and asked for forgiveness, but what he found was not an opportunity, but those who he once admired and now only feared.
Shao Hang tugged at his collar as he did in the office that day, with a hint of sarcasm and disgust hanging from the corner of his mouth, “Why don’t you go back to where you belong?”
“I just think……”
“I don’t care what you’re thinking about,” Shao Hang looked at him, as if pinching an ant that he hated, “Leave Chuanlin and never appear in front of Xiao Yu, you are not worthy.”
Jian Chi felt like his heart was being ripped apart by a knife. He wanted to explain that he didn’t have any plans. He really felt regret and apologetic. He just wanted the opportunity to go to another school, to end this nightmare.
But he still didn’t deserve even this little thought. He and Bai Xiyu were completely different from beginning to end. It’s ridiculous – when Jian Chi wakes up, this was the only thought in his mind.
Even if the person in the dream had the exact same face and the exact same family as him, Jian Chi knew that it was not him.
Bai Xiyu’s every move, including the love-hate entanglement with those men, actually corresponded to everything that happened in reality – angering Shao Hang, talking to Wen Chuan, and being targeted and ostracized everywhere. If he followed the development of the dream, he will soon discover Wen Chuan’s secret and attract the other party’s attention. He will have love at first sight with Ji Huaisi at the concert, join the student union for him and meet the dictator president She Shuting, creating a new round of entanglement…
Jian Chi had never even heard the name of the last person, and vaguely saw in a dream that he had golden hair, emerald pupils, and an equally handsome face.
“You’re awake?”
Jian Chi pressed his painful temple and sat up from the bed in the infirmary. Qin Zhao leaned back in the chair and reminded him without raising his head: “Lunch break is over in ten minutes.”
This intricate dream made Jian Chi think that several hours had passed, but he didn’t realize it was only thirty minutes. He suppressed his surging emotions and stared at Qin Zhao, “What did you do to me just now?”
Qin Zhao’s phoenix eyes were frivolous, and he didn’t seem to understand what he was talking about. “According to the regulations, I can only give you half a sleeping pill. If the situation gets worse, you can come back to me.”
Jian Chi knew that this was not true. Qin Zhao clearly put his hand on his forehead and did something. He didn’t give him sleeping pills. Everything that just happened was as incredible as the dream just now.
These inquiries were all muffled. Unable to utter a word, Jian Chi gave birth to a ridiculous idea, maybe the Qin Zhao just now was not the real Qin Zhao, just like him.
In the autumn of October, the temperature had not yet cooled down. Jian Chi shivered while sitting on the bed, and his back was soaked in cold sweat at some point. He hurriedly walked out of the infirmary under Qin Zhao’s inquiring eyes. He didn’t even have time to put on his shoes properly, and only halfway through, he realized that he mixed up the left and the right.
He desperately, desperately needed to verify something.