She Comes Into My Dreams Every Night - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Summer Illusion

Summer.

The sunlight wasn’t intense; it filtered through the green leaves on the branches, mingling with the sound of cicadas that had appeared out of nowhere.

A cool breeze blew past her, stirring the fur of the yellow dog accompanying her. Its hair tips flickered. Su Huaiwang smiled, took off her gloves, and stroked its head.

The yellow dog squinted its eyes, enjoying the touch, but its ears immediately perked up, turning alertly towards its owner’s front.

Su Huaiwang looked up in that direction. Beyond the layers of dense fence, sunlight, and shadow, a young girl wearing a straw wide-brimmed hat stood in the shade of a tree, smiling radiantly.

The characteristic dizzy feeling of summer rushed to Su Huaiwang’s head. She suddenly felt she was having a hallucination, her mind permeated by the refreshing sensation of a popsicle taken from the refrigerator on a scorching hot day.

The girl saw her. Her exquisite face smiled at Su Huaiwang, eyes curved and soft. Su Huaiwang instinctively smiled back, then immediately felt her smile was too stiff and nervously stood up from the vegetable garden.

Little Huang pressed against her calf in warning, its muscles taut, and its tail unconsciously drooped.

“Xiao Wang!” Only then did Su Huaiwang see the neighbor’s grandmother standing beside the girl. The white-haired old farmer, who was over seventy but still incredibly energetic, was waving and greeting her with a warm smile.

“Grandma Chen.” Feeling a little guilty, she took off her hat and gloves, pushed open the small gate in the fence, and walked into the shade where they were standing.

Because of the earlier trance, Su Huaiwang was still nervous, her gaze awkwardly skipping past the girl next to Grandma Chen.

“This is Lin Jue, she just moved over. Look at that little face, so pretty!” Grandma Chen said, reaching out to pinch the young girl’s cheek. Lin Jue smiled along with the action, not at all resistant to the elder’s affectionate gesture.

Her skin was indeed lovely. Just by looking, Su Huaiwang could feel how delicate and soft her skin must feel under Grandma Chen’s touch.

Su Huaiwang uncomfortably licked her lips, partly due to the awkwardness of not having met a stranger in a long time, and partly because she hadn’t had water after working in the garden for so long.

Lin Jue noticed her movement and pulled a bottle of ice water from the small bag at her waist: “Here.”

Su Huaiwang’s expression immediately became flustered. Her already warm face turned even redder: “Thank you, but you don’t have to. My house is right there…”

The girl chuckled: “Just consider it a welcome gift.” She pointed to a house next to Su Huaiwang’s: “I’ll be living there from now on. I’m new here and unfamiliar with the area, so I’ll be troubling you with many things in the future. Please accept it, Big Sister.”

With that, she extended the bottle of mineral water toward Su Huaiwang again.

Grandma Chen, beside them, added: “Oh, Xiao Wang, just take it. Xiao Lin gave me a bottle too! Look at this girl, so considerate! Not like my grandson—even if he died of thirst outside, he wouldn’t think to bring you a drink.”

Su Huaiwang awkwardly parted her lips but finally said thank you and accepted the water.

To mask the unnatural feeling caused by not interacting with peers for so long, she twisted the cap and took a sip.

The ice water flowed down her throat, driving away the scorching heat in her body. Su Huaiwang took a large gulp, feeling the coldness hiss up from her stomach.

Lin Jue watched the movement of her throat as she drank, and the faint smile on her face became a little more genuine.

Grandma Chen continued to chatter away, enthusiastically playing matchmaker with her local accent:

“Xiao Lin is just a little younger than you, twenty years old. She moved here alone. I often see you by yourself, so now you finally have someone to keep you company.”

Su Huaiwang saw the wrinkles spreading at the corners of Grandma Chen’s eyes as she spoke, knowing she was genuinely looking out for her. She sighed, swallowing the thought that “a five-year age gap is quite big.”

She never thought of herself as lonely; the two dogs and one cat at home were enough company. She didn’t exactly dislike other people, but she certainly wasn’t fond of them either.

However, the girl in front of her seemed overly well-behaved and pleasing, making her long-dormant heart flutter slightly, giving rise to a few unwarranted expectations.

Su Huaiwang hid her hand behind her back and awkwardly wiped it on her work pants, then extended it again: “Hello, we’ll be neighbors now. My name is… uh, Su Huaiwang.”

She hadn’t said her own name for so long that her tongue felt stiff when she spoke it, and she almost mispronounced it.

The warmth that had just faded from her face rose again.

Lin Jue bowed her head slightly. Her long, elegant eyelashes were clearly visible under the occasional golden light that pierced through the tree shade. Su Huaiwang couldn’t help but notice that her eyes were quite light-colored, like translucent amber in the summer light.

A cool hand clasped hers in return.

“Lin Jue, the ‘Jue’ in this character.”

The girl naturally reached out with her other hand, turned Su Huaiwang’s hand over, and wrote the character “玦” on her palm. It tickled. The meticulously manicured fingers were very cold, and Su Huaiwang’s palm felt as if it had been stroked by a fine stream of water.

Su Huaiwang was startled and flinched her hand back. Lin Jue seemed not to notice, releasing her hand immediately after finishing the character. Su Huaiwang pulled her hand back behind her, where the sensation of the other person’s skin seemed to linger.

As if to dispel the feeling, the hand clenched into a fist behind her back.

“The ‘Huai’ of yearning, the ‘Wang’ of hope,” Su Huaiwang introduced her name carefully, following the girl’s example.

Grandma Chen looked at the two of them with satisfaction, sighing: “People who are well-educated really are different.”

Before her sigh faded, a shout came from the village below the slope: “Grandma! Grandma! Where did you go?”

Grandma Chen immediately glared, yelling back at the top of her lungs: “Stop shouting! I’m coming back!”

The shouting below stopped. Grandma Chen turned back: “Look at my grandson! He’s a teenager and still so boisterous.”

“He’s back?” Su Huaiwang asked. Grandma Chen usually lived alone; her son’s family was in the city and only returned occasionally during holidays.

At the mention of her grandson, Grandma Chen’s face was covered in smiles: “He is, came back for summer vacation. Next year he’ll be in the eleventh grade, so he probably won’t be able to come back then.”

Grandma Chen sighed and shook her head: “You two chat. I’ll go see what that little rascal wants. You young people have things in common, so I won’t interfere.”

Su Huaiwang nodded, watching Grandma Chen’s departing figure, steeling herself to be alone with Lin Jue.

She could almost feel the awkward air spreading between the two of them.

Lin Jue was slightly shorter than her, but Su Huaiwang had her head bowed so low that she could only see the other’s luminous, jade-like hands.

They were beautiful hands—slender, pale, with faint blue veins on the back, smooth and soft. Su Huaiwang instantly recalled many descriptions: pale shoots, green onion stalks… And the feeling of Lin Jue gripping her hand flashed back to her mind at an inappropriate moment.

Su Huaiwang felt like she might be suffering from heatstroke.

“I just moved in, and I still have things to tidy up. It’s not convenient to talk much under the bright sun. May I come for a formal visit tomorrow?”

Whether it was because she noticed the flush on Su Huaiwang’s face or was genuinely in a hurry to go back and unpack, Lin Jue spoke.

Su Huaiwang nodded hastily: “Yes, yes!” She hesitated for a moment and then asked, “Do you need any help?”

She wouldn’t normally stick her nose in other people’s business, but seeing the girl’s slender limbs, she asked anyway.

Lin Jue was surprised for a moment, then smiled: “No, thank you. I actually don’t have much stuff, and I’ll be done tidying in a little while.”

The girl gently declined Su Huaiwang’s offer. Delayed rationality returned to Su Huaiwang’s mind. She was secretly disappointed that she hadn’t managed the boundary well and raised her hand to wave goodbye to Lin Jue:

“That’s hard work. I’ll head back then. Goodbye.”

Lin Jue waved back warmly. Su Huaiwang turned and walked toward her own house.

What she didn’t see was that after she turned away, the girl in the white dress stood under the tree and watched her for a long time.

The heat waves of summer folded and rippled, making her lower body look somewhat transparent. She didn’t look like a living person, but rather like a summer illusion, or perhaps… a ghost.

—

Drip.

Su Huaiwang turned on the air conditioner. The cool air gushed out, and she let out a long breath, lying down on the lazy chair in her room.

Mimi jumped over from some unknown corner and delicately settled on her. Su Huaiwang stroked its fur a couple of times, her mind still replaying Lin Jue’s face.

Grandma Chen wasn’t wrong; Lin Jue was indeed beautiful, with a gentle, mellow beauty that wasn’t overly aggressive but was hard to forget after one glance.

Twenty years old—the age to be in college. Why would she move to this remote, desolate place alone?

Su Huaiwang closed her eyes, her hand resting on the cat’s back, dozing off for a moment.

Besides her, there were two dogs and one cat in the air-conditioned room—her entire family. She was 25, unemployed, occasionally painted or wrote short pieces for pocket money, and had enough savings to support her until old age. She had no grand dreams or goals. Two years ago, she moved into this house, and since then, rarely left.

The cat lying on her was simply named Mimi. It was originally a stray that she adopted. It was a beautiful calico cat with fluffy fur and natural eyeliner markings.

The two dogs were named Da Hui (Big Grey), a gray-furred wolfdog, and Little Huang, a classic Chinese rural dog who had just been working with her in the garden. Strangely, for some reason, Little Huang had been anxious and tail-tucked since they came back.

Su Huaiwang patted the side of the chair and called Little Huang over.

Little Huang trotted over, naturally rubbing its head under her palm. Su Huaiwang rubbed it, wondering if it was unwell and if she needed to take it to the vet.

Perhaps sensing Su Huaiwang’s thoughts, Little Huang’s head trembled more violently, and it let out soft whimpers.

Fortunately, Su Huaiwang eventually let it go, patting its head and deciding to observe it for a few more days before deciding.

The dogs and cat were not old; Su Huaiwang hadn’t had them for long. She only gained the right to have pets after her parents passed away.

The lazy chair was comfortable, and Su Huaiwang gazed listlessly at the cleanly painted ceiling.

Lin Jue.

A beautiful name, a beautiful person, about to become her neighbor, moving into the villa next door.

In this mountain, the base of the hill was rural, and higher up were a few abandoned villas. This was a resort project her parents had invested in, but like her parents, it failed halfway through the venture. This allowed Su Huaiwang to purchase the current villa at a lower price.

She lived here to avoid people. Why was Lin Jue here?

Though the girl looked quiet, a certain vitality could still be seen in her every move, unlike her own lifelessness.

The new neighbor was like a stone tossed into the long-still lake of Su Huaiwang’s heart. She now felt a little abnormal, unable to drive the curiosity about Lin Jue out of her mind.

A tangled mess of thoughts slipped by, but what she failed to notice was that in her memory, there was no recollection of the neighboring house being renovated or furniture being moved in.

Both she and Grandma Chen had overlooked this, naturally accepting the fact that a living person was moving in.

Her memory seemed wrapped in a thick fog, impossible to lift.

Su Huaiwang felt as if something was wrong, but couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.

She sighed, having to attribute these feelings to the nervousness of having to socialize again.