Sharing Dreams with My Bestie's Cousin

Wen Yiwan had a pleasing smile on her face all along, and stood up again to pour orange juice for Wen Zhi, but Wen Zhi didn’t drink it and turned to Gu Rang beside her, "I want strawberry juice."

Gu Rang stood up, "I’ll go make it for you."

"Stay where you are!" Mu Yanzhou spoke up, his tone deep and heavy.

With the look of someone enjoying a good show, Wen Yiwan deliberately curled the corners of her lips with pride, surely this time Mu Yanzhou was going to scold Wen Zhi!

After all, since Mu Yanzhou agreed to marry her, he had grown even stricter with Wen Zhi.

Mu Yanzhou then said to the standing Gu Rang, "Make less, she’s been like this since she was little; if she has juice, she won’t eat her meal."

Gu Rang showed no change in expression, nodded, and went to do it, "Understood."

Wen Yiwan’s hand, holding the chopsticks, clenched tight with force, things weren’t going as she thought they would, and immediately she interjected, "Making juice is something the servants can do, there’s no need to bother Gu Rang with it, delaying the meal."

Wen Zhi looked at Wen Yiwan, "I don’t trust any of the servants at home. Who knows if they get instructed to slip something like a laxative into my drink, then I’m really doomed."

"Zhizhi, what nonsense are you talking about? In your own home, who would dare to harm you?" Wen Yiwan kept her composure with a smile to shift the topic, "Look how much your father dotes on you, remembering all those bad habits of yours from a young age so clearly. Don’t move out this time, stay at home."

Wen Zhi didn’t show a hint of a good face to Wen Yiwan, her tone full of sarcasm, "Staying at home makes it more convenient for you to abuse me, doesn’t it?"

Wen Yiwan had maintained her pleasant expression for so long, but this time she couldn’t keep it up, her voice even carried a heavier tone, "Zhizhi, how can you say that? I am, after all, your aunt."

Wen Zhi laughed as if she had heard an especially funny joke, "Other aunts double as mothers in a figurative sense; only you have put it into literal practice. Quite an accomplishment this year, wasn’t it?"

Wen Yiwan’s face turned an angry pale, as she stood up abruptly, "Wen Zhi! You are completely lawless!"

Mu Yanzhou said in a stern voice, "Sit down."

Wen Yiwan couldn’t contain her anger, "Yanzhou, you need to control her, she’s been provoking me since she came back, and now she’s doing it during the meal, such ill-breeding."

Mu Yanzhou asked, "Are you blaming me for not teaching Zhizhi well?"

Although it was a casual question, Wen Yiwan felt like all her hairs were standing on end. She sat down and laughed awkwardly, "Of course not."

"The strawberry juice is ready."

Gu Rang placed the freshly made cup of strawberry juice next to Wen Zhi, replacing the orange juice.

Wen Zhi said, "Thank you."

Gu Rang sat down beside her.

Wen Zhi’s mood wasn’t affected by this meal, and the only one who could not eat was Wen Yiwan, but she had to restrain herself until everyone finished before leaving the table. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Wen Zhi could imagine that Wen Yiwan would probably go crazy back in her room!

Because she hadn’t won the fight against her tonight!

After dinner, Wen Zhi nestled on the sofa in the living room watching TV. She listlessly switched channels, occasionally fiddling with her bracelet, maintaining a knee-hugging posture, her feet bare and cooling off outside.

Mu Yanzhou brought a blanket over to cover Wen Zhi’s feet, "You’ve always been frail since you were little, and you’re always disobedient, not taking good care of your body at all."

Wen Zhi hugged her knees, and did not utter a word.

Mu Yanzhou’s gaze fell on the extra bracelet on her wrist, he asked, "Did you pray for this yourself?"

Wen Zhi shook her head, "A friend passed it on to me."

Mu Yanzhou, "Which friend?"

Wen Zhi opened her mouth, then hesitated.

Should she tell or not?

Maybe not.

After all, it was time to turn the page on her contact with Shang Hexing. As for the bracelet, she had no intention of keeping it as a souvenir, she decided to pack it away and store it.

Thinking this, she heard her father ask, "Have you been getting close with Shang Hexing recently?"

Upon hearing this, Wen Zhi’s eyes revealed a trace of peculiarity, but it vanished in an instant.

Mu Yanzhou did not miss that fleeting peculiarity in Wen Zhi’s eyes, which only made him more certain of his guess. He merely reminded her, "Zhizhi, he is much older than you, you should think it over."

Shang Hexing was already thirty.

Thirty and established.

It was the age at which a man is at his most mature, steady, and perfect in every aspect.

"I’m also twenty-four, just six years younger," Wen Zhi said without thinking, the words nearly slipping out.

Mu Yanzhou smiled, "Just?"

Wen Zhi’s face became very unnatural, "I didn’t mean anything by it, just speaking off the cuff. Besides, it’s not a matter of whether or not I should think it over with Shang Hexing; the vast disparity between our statuses is a huge gap by itself."

Mu Yanzhou of course knew, "He is the person the Han Family has groomed for that position. If the Han Family knew you were together, they would likely try to stop it."

"Dad, I’m not with Shang Hexing," Wen Zhi said, her voice suggesting she was correcting her father’s implication that she and Shang Hexing were already a couple.

Mu Yanzhou chuckled, "I know, but Zhizhi, it’s okay to express your affections openly."

Wen Zhi subconsciously shook her head.

Mu Yanzhou spoke softly, "Zhizhi, you are my daughter, how could I not understand you?"

"If you truly understood me, you wouldn’t have sent me away a year ago," Wen Zhi’s voice contained a hint of sullenness.

This was the hurdle in her heart, one she could never get over in her entire life. In truth, if it came to hate, Wen Zhi understood she had no right to hate her father because he had never treated her poorly. On the contrary, he had given her the very best.

Mu Yanzhou sighed, with a torrent of words he wanted to say, but he swallowed them back down, only admonishing, "Zhizhi, you should take good care of yourself in the future."

These words sounded like a last will, but Wen Zhi’s mind was elsewhere, not paying close attention to the underlying meaning of his words.

She returned to her upstairs bedroom.

Wen Zhi took off the bracelet she was wearing on her wrist and placed it in her jewelry cabinet, not intending to take it out again.

She lay down, tossing and turning while staring at the ceiling, unable to feel sleepy. Just before falling asleep, she took out the Buddha Beads once again.

A year ago, she had used these Buddha Beads to enter Wen Yiwan’s dream.

Wen Yiwan wasn’t the actual murderer of her mother.

But that dream wasn’t without its insights.

In the dream, she learned from Wen Yiwan that it wasn’t a single person who killed her mother—it was many people acting together.

Among those implicated was Chong Wanyin.

A strangely inexplicable connection.

Wen Zhi couldn’t fathom the reason behind it.

That’s why she was especially keen to enter Chong Wanyin’s dream; she wanted to uncover some secrets unknown to others from her dream, she wanted to know more... whether Chong Wanyin had taken part in killing her mother, whether she too was a murderer...

Perhaps because she had effortlessly entered Wen Yiwan’s dream with the Buddha Beads, she naively thought it would be just as easy with Chong Wanyin.

However, things turned out to be unexpectedly complicated, and she hadn’t even touched the edge of Chong Wanyin’s dream.

How then should she get the Buddha Beads back onto Chong Wanyin’s wrist...

It seemed there was no perfect method left.

Unless she kidnapped Chong Wanyin!

But if she really took that step, there would be no turning back.

Wen Zhi stared at the Buddha Beads for a long time until she fell into a deep sleep...