Sharing Dreams with My Bestie's Cousin

Wen Zhi raised her other hand and rubbed her sleepy eyes, reminding Meng Fan, "It’s not early anymore, the sun’s already high in the sky."

After speaking, Wen Zhi slowly got up from the bed, bracing herself on it.

Meng Fan, seeing that Wen Zhi hadn’t noticed yet, slipped off the bed and into the bathroom first.

Less than a minute later, Wen Zhi’s voice came from outside:

"Meng Fan, this hotel seems dirty. Look at my watch, how did it get such a big spiderweb on it after I woke up?"

Meng Fan popped his head out of the bathroom: "Really? Then let’s leave the hotel quickly; we’ll stay at grandma’s tonight, guaranteed clean." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Wen Zhi responded with an "oh."

She lifted her wrist to examine the spiderweb on the watch screen more closely, yet the more she looked, the more something seemed off, until her hand touched the screen,—and her face changed from confusion to a stupor—

"Meng Fan, I just realized that it’s not a spiderweb; it’s the screen that’s shattered."

Meng Fan dared not make a sound.

...

The watch wasn’t completely broken; it could still be turned on, but the biggest issue was that the screen wasn’t responding.

Meng Fan said guiltily, "Perhaps the inner screen got damaged, it’s usually fine if it’s just the outer screen that’s shattered."

Wen Zhi’s lips downturned, on the verge of crying but holding back: "Woke up to a loss of half a million, and the watch doesn’t connect to the phone."

Meng Fan patted his chest: "No worries, I’ll give it to you."

Yet Wen Zhi still couldn’t cheer up: "It’s actually my fault too. I shouldn’t have worn the Buddha Beads and the watch on the same wrist."

But Meng Fan comforted her: "This actually indicates a very important thing."

Wen Zhi immediately asked, "What does it indicate?"

"Look, the Buddha Beads link you to your uncle, and the watch links you to Nian Xun," Meng Fan explained logically: "This means that your uncle is really the one destined for you, and anything that might destroy your relationship with him will disappear."

Wen Zhi pursed her lips, her expression very peculiar: "The watch was a gift from Nian Xun, I know the connection. But why would the Buddha Beads be linked to Shang Hexing?"

Meng Fan: "..."!

Oh no, it seems that I spoke too soon, Zhizhi hasn’t recovered her memory yet! I guess she hasn’t dreamt about her uncle in these past few months.

Wen Zhi even specifically clarified: "Meng Fan, these Buddha Beads were given to me by someone named Gu Rang, not Shang Hexing."

Meng Fan deftly switched topics to gloss over: "Zhizhi, do you feel like Nian Xun likes you?"

As expected, upon hearing this, Wen Zhi immediately clarified: "No, no, Nian Xun and I are just friends; my dad asked him to look after me."

Meng Fan walked to the door and opened it, saying sideways, "Silly girl, just because you think that way doesn’t mean Mr. Nian does—plus, he’s so young. Come on, let’s go to grandma’s."

Wen Zhi hadn’t considered this possibility, as Nian Xun was always quite impatient with her and seemed to have a bad temper.

Anyway, time to leave.

The two of them exited the hotel together.

From Meng Fan, Wen Zhi learned that the old lady’s place was still quite far from the hotel. There was a large prairie between Licheng and a small county town; it took almost an hour and a half by car.

As the car departed from the wide road and began to follow a winding one, about twenty minutes later, even Meng Fan, who was usually unshakeable, nearly felt nauseous.

Meanwhile, Wen Zhi was still holding up well.

"Zhizhi, I usually never get carsick, but it seems like every time I come here, I do," Meng Fan curled up snuggling into Wen Zhi’s arms, looking utterly listless.

Wen Zhi was gripping her backpack and looking out the window: "Just look at the scenery outside more; it really is beautiful."

The driver with his somewhat broken Mandarin chimed in: "You’ve seen nothing yet, wait till you reach Gongnaisi Great Prairie, then you’ll realize you have wasted the first half of your life."

Wen Zhi chuckled, thinking to herself that the driver was really exaggerating.

She looked down at Meng Fan, who was now feeble and curled up against her, barely making a sound.

After driving for another ten minutes, Wen Zhi noticed Meng Fan’s complexion turning quite pale and he was murmuring something, prompting her to call out urgently to the driver: "Stop the car, stop the car."

The driver asked, "We still have half an hour to go to our destination, are you sure you want to stop here?"

Wen Zhi struggled to speak: "My friend is about to pass out."

Hearing this, the driver briskly found a spot to pull over.

Wen Zhi got out first, gathered her spirits a bit, then with the driver’s assistance, helped the pale-faced Meng Fan out of the car.

"Meng Fan, are you okay?" Wen Zhi gently cradled Meng Fan’s face to steady him.

Meng Fan, with his eyelids half-closed, was extremely lethargic: "I can’t take it anymore, I’m too dizzy."

Wen Zhi asked, "So do we go back to the hotel, or rest here a bit longer?"