Phantom Skeleton Painting

Chapter 70.2 Dream

“Don’t worry, I’m not interested in him.” Cui Gaoyu said, “You can still trust me in this matter.”

Song Qingluo tapped his fingers on the table and said to Lin Banxia: “Okay.” It’s not that he didn’t see that there was nothing between the two, he was just curious. It was the first time they met, so why was there a sense of familiarity.

Lin Banxia put away the dishes and went into the kitchen. He saw Cui Gaoyu lowering his head and rolling up his sleeves without raising his head. He asked, “Is Bai Luze okay?”

Lin Banxia said: “Who?”

“Why, it’s obviously the person you asked about, but now you’re pretending not to know him?” Cui Gaoyu said coldly.

Lin Banxia said: “I didn’t ask.” He paused, “It’s someone Song Qingluo knows.”

Cui Gaoyu was silent. He looked at Lin Banxia with critical eyes. His eyes were piercing, as if he had cut open Lin Banxia’s skin and bones. He stared at Lin Banxia for a while, but suddenly smiled: “He has good taste.”

Lin Banxia was confused: “What did you say?”

“I said Song Qingluo has good taste.” Cui Gaoyu said.

Lin Banxia thought Cui Gaoyu was talking about his relationship with Song Qingluo, and showed a bit of discomfort.

Who knew Cui Gaoyu said: “I thought he would never have a partner.”

Lin Banxia: “…what do you mean?”

Cui Gaoyu smiled: “Don’t you already know that you are in a dream?”

Lin Banxia: “You also know?”

“Of course.” Cui Gaoyu said in surprise, “Whether I know or not depends on whether I want to know, but I am really curious about you. You don’t remember things from reality, but you remember things in the dreams. If I guess correctly, you can remember all the dreams you entered.”

Lin Banxia said nothing and pursed his lips.

Sometimes there was no answer to a question, but silence was the answer.

Lin Banxia said: “Song Qingluo said that time is running out. Since you are his friend, why don’t you help him? You entered the dream with him, right? Although I don’t remember…Aren’t we together??”

Cui Gaoyu said: “To a certain extent, we were once together.”

Lin Banxia: “Once?”

“Later, it was no longer the case.” Cui Gaoyu said, “In other words, I was no longer there.”

Lin Banxia: “…can you make it clearer?”

Cui Gaoyu said, “Okay.” He raised his hand and looked at his watch, then snapped his fingers and started walking out.

Lin Banxia didn’t understand what he was going to do. He thought that he was just trying to be cool. Who knew that when he followed him outside, he would be stunned when he saw the scene in the living room.

He saw that the screen in the living room had frozen, and the TV program that had been playing stayed on the same screen. Song Qingluo sat across from the TV like a solid statue. Even when Cui Gaoyu came to sit next to him, he did not change at all.

Lin Banxia reflexively looked for his watch. Sure enough, when he saw the clock hanging on the wall, he stopped moving.

“Here, I can do whatever I want.” Cui Gaoyu said, “Create everything, control time, in dreams, you can do anything.” He said, snapped his fingers again, and the door of the living room opened with a creak exposing the outside world.

However, unlike the flowery scene that Lin Banxia had just seen, the outside turned into a void of darkness, with no sunlight and no plants, only a deep hole that seemed to be able to suck people’s souls in.

Lin Banxia remembered Xiaohua’s words and wondered whether Cui Gaoyu was the “it” that Xiaohua had mentioned?

“I know what you are thinking.” Cui Gaoyu said, “But I am not the controller here. I am just a prisoner, a fulcrum that can be consumed to support the world.” He folded his hands and leaned on the sofa. He looked lazy, but what he said was something that sent chills down the spine. He said, “A dream cannot exist out of thin air. It needs an object to depend on. Human beings are naturally the best choice. They are rich in emotions and memories. They can be used indefinitely until their spirit can no longer support it and is on the verge of collapse.”

Lin Banxia was stared at by Cui Gaoyu and couldn’t help taking a step back.

Cui Gaoyu smiled: “Don’t be afraid, this is just a dream. Even if I shoot you, you will only be hurt in the dream. Even if you are hurt in the dream, you will not die.”

Lin Banxia said: “How did those people die?” He remembered Song Qingluo said that because this dream was contagious, many people died.

Cui Gaoyu: “I said, human beings are just consumables. In front of it, fragile wills are all disposable items. Madness is the best outcome. Survival becomes a luxury.” When he said this, he looked at Lin Banxia with eyes full of pity, “I know what you want to do. I have tried this before, but failed in the end. You must know that the consequences of failure are more terrifying than death.”

Lin Banxia said: “What…what are you going to say?”

“Bai Luze is my partner.” Cui Gaoyu said, “You may not remember it now, but I have to tell you that in reality, you must know me, because I was the only survivor when the dream was sealed last time.”

Lin Banxia didn’t quite understand, but he also felt that what Cui Gaoyu said was a very important thing, but it was a pity that he didn’t even remember it.

“Everyone thought that I survived.” Cui Gaoyu said, “They even thought that this dream was sealed. To a certain extent, it was indeed sealed. Unfortunately, the period of sealing was limited. Until I went crazy.”

Lin Banxia said: “You didn’t enter the dreamland with us this time? Then why are you here.”

Cui Gaoyu smiled: “Of course it’s because I’ve never gotten out.”

Lin Banxia was stunned.

“I’m just like you, like everyone here. I’m even the first person to recover my memory and start trying various ways to leave.” Cui Gaoyu said, “Only after I leave here can I return to reality and see him. I have tried countless methods countless times, killing myself, others, and all creatures in sight, using all possible means… Do you think I succeeded?”

Obviously not, because if Cui Gaoyu had succeeded, he wouldn’t be standing here.

Lin Banxia stared at him, feeling creeped out. Naturally, he was not afraid of Cui Gaoyu, but he felt that Cui Gaoyu wanted to tell him a more terrifying and chilling truth.

“Cui Gaoyu is still awake.” Cui Gaoyu said, “You can’t guess what he paid for it.” With another snap of his fingers, the darkness outside the house once again turned into blooming flowers, and a bright moon was placed on the dome, clear, bright, and extremely moving.

However, everything was an illusion and everything was a dream.

Cui Gaoyu stared out the window silently and said, “Have you seen the shadow on the moon?”

Lin Banxia turned around and saw nothing. Today was not the fifteenth day, but the moon was intact. There was no cloud cover, and there was no shadow as Cui Gaoyu said.

“That’s what the mountains look like.” Cui Gaoyu said, “I’ve only seen it once. When I made a deal with it, it was in the darkness, on the moon. It is the ruler of this world, the one you stepped on. Every inch of land, every piece of soil.” He closed his eyes and his voice was low and deep, as if reciting an ancient poem, “No matter what you see or smell, it is its breath. You will never wake up, madness is a compliment, death is a reward.”

After he finished speaking, he turned to look at Lin Banxia: “Even so, are you still going to try to get close to it?”

Lin Banxia was silent for a while. He almost understood Cui Gaoyu’s meaning. He did not hesitate and gave his answer calmly: “Yes, I want to try. Even if… I can’t, at least I have to let Song Qingluo out.”

Cui Gaoyu tilted his head slightly and looked at Lin Banxia curiously: “You have only known each other for less than a month, but you like him so much?”

Lin Banxia said bluntly: “I feel like we have known each other for more than a month.”

Cui Gaoyu smiled understandingly.

“How do I get out of here?” Lin Banxia said, “No matter whether I can succeed or not, I hope… I can try it myself.”

Cui Gaoyu said: “I can’t give you an answer because I am a failed attempt.”

Lin Banxia: “…”

Cui Gaoyu said: “But, I can give you some tips.” He said slowly, “The closer you get to it, the more fear you will feel. Fear will erode your will and make you surrender to it. I failed because I was afraid, what about you? Lin Banxia, ​​can you do it for Song Qingluo and sacrifice your own fear?”

Lin Banxia didn’t know if he could. He was indeed insensitive to many things. Others might scream when they saw a corpse, but he seemed to have lost an important part of his emotions. Maybe this was his advantage, but he didn’t plan to tell Cui Gaoyu.

“You are very smart.” Cui Gaoyu said, “I have to remind you that a smart but weak-willed person may die a little faster than ordinary people. Yes, die, because they are not even a consumable and have no qualification to exist.”

Lin Banxia thought of Qin Xu, Jiang Xin, and everyone who died around him. He didn’t know how many of them fit Cui Gaoyu’s statement, and how many of them could no longer return to reality.

“Okay.” Cui Gaoyu said, “It’s almost time. Do you have anything else to ask?”

Lin Banxia said: “How do I get close to it?”

Cui Gaoyu said: “The depths of dreams will give you the answer.”

Lin Banxia was slightly startled.

Cui Gaoyu stretched out his hand, and the snap of fingers sounded again. There was a soft ticking, the second hand continued to move, and the picture on the TV moved. Song Qingluo blinked and turned to look at the two people. Seeing that they were silent, he said, “When did you get here?”

Cui Gaoyu smiled: “While you were addicted to TV shows.”

Song Qingluo said: “I seem to have been sitting here for a long time.”

“Really?” Cui Gaoyu said, “Bad TV shows will always make people’s days seem like years.” He stood up and clapped his hands, as if to wipe off the dust on his hands, “I’m going back first. I wish you all the best. Have a wonderful night.” He curled his lips and winked at Song Qingluo.

Song Qingluo clicked his tongue in disgust: “Get out of here.”

Cui Gaoyu turned around and walked into the deep night. Song Qingluo stared at the door for a while and said, “When did the door open?” He looked back at Lin Banxia and found that Lin Banxia’s eyes had been staring at him. His gaze was very complicated, and seemed to hide a lot of emotions. Song Qingluo saw some joy, some sadness, and a lot of love that was about to overflow.

Lin Banxia didn’t seem to realize that his eyes had revealed his mood. His eyelashes flickered twice and he said that the weather was good today and he wanted to go out and look at the moon.

Song Qingluo suddenly laughed.

Lin Banxia asked him why he was laughing.

Song Qingluo said: “Has someone said something to you?”

Lin Banxia said: “What?”

“The moonlight is beautiful tonight.” Song Qingluo said.

“What’s wrong with this sentence?” It sounded familiar at first, as if he had heard it somewhere, but after thinking about it carefully, he couldn’t remember.

“Idiot.” Song Qingluo said, “This is a confession.” He looked at Lin Banxia tenderly, “I told you, the moonlight is beautiful tonight, please remember to say something back to me.”

Lin Banxia said: “Reply with what?”

“The wind is also gentle.” Song Qingluo taught Lin Banxia seriously, “This means that you also like me.”

The author has something to say:

Song Qingluo: Not only do you have to confess your feelings yourself, but you also have to teach the children how to respond to their confessions…

Lin Banxia: Oh, oh, oh! It turns out to be so deep!!

 

 

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