She Comes Into My Dreams Every Night - Chapter 43

Chapter 43: The First Reaction Is Naturally to Punch

【I never in my wildest dreams thought she would ask me what love is】

【Do you think that’s really possible? A twenty-year-old knows absolutely nothing about this?】

Tu Zhizhuo looked at her phone, thoroughly amused.

Someone was panicking, but she wouldn’t say it.

She replied calmly: 【But considering what she said before—raised in the countryside, orphaned, plus not very good with phones—isn’t it quite normal for her to be completely clueless about these things?】

【She must have had some exposure with people her age, right?】

Su Huaiwang on the other side of the screen was still skeptical, but Tu Zhizhuo continued to offer excuses for the person she barely knew.

【Hard to say. Did you ask about her educational background?】

【No】

【You don’t even ask about her education. Are you even a lesbian?】 Tu Zhizhuo teased, immediately receiving a furious backlash from Su Huaiwang.

【Isn’t it impolite to ask such private questions right away! Besides, I’m not the type to care about education!】 This sentence was sent and then immediately retracted by the other person within two seconds.

【Wait, it’s not like we’re dating. Why do I need to know all that?】

Still being stubborn, still being stubborn.

Tu Zhizhuo held a toothpick in her mouth, replying from the driver’s seat.

The sky was completely dark. The orange streetlights cast their glow, and the distinct scent of fresh-cut grass from the outskirts drifted in, kept out by the tightly sealed car windows.

【Well, you can ask next time. She’s a friend; the more you know, the closer your relationship is. I even know you wet the bed when you were three】

【Shut up】

【I’m serious. What if she really buried her head in books during school and was completely oblivious to the outside world? What if she went to a rural school with only one student?】

Seeing Tu Zhizhuo’s reply, Su Huaiwang irritatedly scratched her head.

More questions were being drawn out in her mind.

If that were the case, it still wouldn’t make sense. Moreover, if she could easily buy a villa, her family shouldn’t have lacked the money for her to study in the city. Did she become rich overnight?

It felt like something was blocking her thinking. No matter how much Su Huaiwang thought, she couldn’t figure it out.

She simply buried her head in her pillow to vent her frustration.

Tu Zhizhuo’s next reply came.

【Relax. Don’t be so paranoid all the time. Just ask whatever you want to know. She won’t keep it from you】

That was logically sound, but…

Su Huaiwang still hesitated, her finger hovering over the screen, unable to type a full sentence for a long time.

Tu Zhizhuo’s next message popped up quickly.

【I’m rushing home, gotta go. If I’m not on time, those two old folks will throw a tantrum again】

Right, Tu Zhizhuo had told her.

After leaving her place, she had to go back to her parents’ house.

Su Huaiwang sighed, finally deleting the heavily edited and revised sentences, and seriously typed: 【Have a safe trip】.

Tu Zhizhuo didn’t reply again. Su Huaiwang turned over, looking at the ceiling, feeling melancholic.

…

On the other side.

Although she had sent Su Huaiwang a message saying she was leaving, Tu Zhizhuo hadn’t actually rushed off.

Instead, she got out of the car and stretched.

She hummed a tune and walked into a nearby convenience store to grab a bottle of water.

She was very thirsty after dinner.

While drinking water in the driver’s seat, she inadvertently caught a glimpse of a dark black car in her rearview mirror.

Like her, the car was parked by the side of the road. She couldn’t tell if it was because the light was too dim, or if she was developing slight night blindness from not eating enough carrots lately.

She couldn’t see the interior of the car, only feeling like a layer of murky, black frosted glass was coating the entire vehicle, making it look filthy and sinister.

Tu Zhizhuo felt inexplicably uncomfortable, forcing herself to look away.

She placed the half-finished bottle of water in the center console and started the car.

Self-driving was the most common mode of transportation in the country where she lived, so Tu Zhizhuo’s driving skills were actually slightly better than Su Huaiwang’s.

For instance, even though there weren’t many cars in the suburbs at night, Su Huaiwang wouldn’t dare drive so fast, but Tu Zhizhuo did.

The car sped by, not even slowing down at intersections with flashing yellow lights.

Yet, despite her speed, she still couldn’t shake off the black sedan closely trailing her.

Tu Zhizhuo’s hand shook as her eyes uncontrollably darted to the rearview mirror.

The black shadow consistently maintained a fixed distance behind her.

Taking a few deep breaths, Tu Zhizhuo forced herself to calm down.

Kidnapping? Unlikely. Her father had long since retired from his position. What good would kidnapping her do? A crime? That was possible. After all, you could never predict which person around you was a potential psychopath.

Tu Zhizhuo gritted her teeth and slammed the accelerator.

If you want trouble, you should know your place!

Her parents lived in the southern mountainous suburbs of the city, and the road leading there was naturally winding and curvy, with tall hillsides on both sides and a tunnel every so often.

Tu Zhizhuo sped through the road, which was a constant interplay of light and shadow from the rustling trees.

The warning light on the fuel gauge lit up. Tu Zhizhuo quickly glanced at it, her eyes widening instantly.

No way, out of gas?!

She swore that in the last ten years, she had never hated her careless nature as much as she did now.

There was no way the remaining fuel was enough to get her home.

Tu Zhizhuo’s heart was practically in her throat.

She looked fearfully at the rearview mirror, only to find the black sedan had vanished.

She immediately let out the breath she had been holding, but before she could feel relief for even two seconds, Tu Zhizhuo became alert again.

Maybe she just temporarily shook it off, and it’s actually still following her.

No, I can’t let my guard down.

She needed to find a place to stay and call her parents to pick her up.

Someone who had lived alone in a foreign country for several years couldn’t possibly lack caution.

The car pulled into a gas station.

The red-painted, brightly lit gas station helped calm her nerves.

She got out of the car, her phone tightly clutched in her hand.

The suburban gas station, on a weekday night, was deserted, with not a single car around.

It was self-service, something she rarely saw domestically, yet here it was.

Ignoring everything else, Tu Zhizhuo initially planned to fill up and then rush home, but out of the corner of her eye, she caught another glimpse of a black shadow.

The sedan, she didn’t know when, had parked by the grass next to the gas station. Its dark front window faced her, making it look utterly bizarre.

It had never turned on its lights, whether at the convenience store or while speeding down the road after Tu Zhizhuo. It was always like this.

Following her, watching her, waiting for her.

Tu Zhizhuo’s legs turned to jelly. She instinctively bolted towards the gas station convenience store.

She ran fast, almost tripping, but finally managed to push open the store door successfully.

The woman was panting heavily, without any regard for appearances, attracting the attention of the clerk behind the counter.

“What’s wrong, madam? Is someone chasing you?”

Tu Zhizhuo wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and looked up.

Seeing the clerk’s normal, concerned, and slightly nervous face calmed her slightly.

She nodded. “I’ll just stay here for a while and wait for someone to pick me up…”

The black sedan lurking outside the window was gone.

The woman realized this instantly.

But instead of feeling relieved, she was terrified.

Slap! Tu Zhizhuo slapped the back of her own neck.

She felt a physical ache on her neck, as if something was biting her there.

Her heavy breathing stopped, and even her heartbeats slowed down.

Tu Zhizhuo held her breath, though she didn’t know why.

A string of numbers unconsciously popped into her mind, abrupt, yet suggestive of something.

41563289474.

It was an irregular string of numbers, so why did she remember it so clearly?

She repeated the number a few times in her head. For now, there was no answer.

An icy breath blew onto the back of her neck. Tu Zhizhuo stiffly turned her head.

The clerk’s face was now terrifyingly close to her, so close that Tu Zhizhuo could see its displaced eyeballs and the maggots crawling in the gaps between the flesh.

A scream was strangled in her throat.

Tu Zhizhuo instinctively threw a punch.

The mechanically smiling face was easily knocked aside, rotating ninety degrees like a puppet’s head.

The thing wasn’t annoyed, though. Instead, it chuckled.

“Gu-guest, guest, guest, guest… You seem, seem, seem…”

Like a stuck tape recorder, the voice repeated itself in the small convenience store.

It sounded neither male nor female, but like countless voices blended together.

Tu Zhizhuo seized the chance to run, but a large, icy hand grabbed her ankle.

Thud! Tu Zhizhuo fell face-first onto the ground.

“Hiss!” Tu Zhizhuo couldn’t help but cry out in pain.

But soon, a greater pain came from her ankle.

A large hand, completely disproportionate to the clerk’s small body, tightly clamped around her ankle. Tu Zhizhuo winced in pain, knowing without looking that her ankle was surely bruised and swollen now.

She cursed, using her other foot to kick the increasingly inhuman monster.

The monster’s skin seemed fragile. Every time she kicked it, some human tissue flaked off. After several kicks, the face was a gruesome sight.

But it was still chuckling, flicking out a scarlet, snake-like tongue, attempting to lick Tu Zhizhuo’s calf.

“Screw this!” Tu Zhizhuo couldn’t take it anymore. Embracing the thought of mutual destruction, she lunged toward it.

In the nick of time, a tremendous crash sounded. All the lights around them went out, plunging everything into complete darkness.

“Ahhhhhh!!!!!”

It wasn’t Tu Zhizhuo who screamed.

Tu Zhizhuo’s ears were ringing from the sound. She quickly covered her ears to prevent damage to her eardrums.

The force around her ankle loosened, but it still hurt immensely. She probably wouldn’t be able to walk anytime soon.

A flash of lightning tore through the air, and Tu Zhizhuo saw a woman’s windswept hair.

Thunder rumbled out of nowhere.

A burnt smell permeated the air, a nauseating mix of roasted meat and burning trash.

The woman in the darkness casually formed a hand seal, dispelling the unsettling odor.

She crouched in front of Tu Zhizhuo, her palm gently covering her injured ankle. “Are you alright?”

A warm sensation flowed into the bruised area, feeling both numb and itchy.

In the darkness, Tu Zhizhuo didn’t bother with a composed expression. “It’s a pretty big deal.”

The other person seemed to look up. In the pitch black, Tu Zhizhuo could only see the faint golden glow of her eyes.

Those eyes focused on her. The woman’s voice was muffled. “My apologies for the delay.”

…

A pristine white hand reached out.

From a spatial crack.

The frowning girl then stepped out of the crack.

Disgusted, she avoided stepping on the littered ground of this world.

She sniffed the air.

Every scent left at the scene was captured by her.

…Heh, she was one step too late. Tu Zhizhuo had been rescued.

Lin Jue looked up at the sky. There was a clear scorch mark on the ceiling of this crude little world.

It was a mark left by lightning. The other person was in a hurry and very crude.

And now, she had even fled without properly cleaning up the mess.

Lin Jue closed her eyes. Moments later, the world returned to tranquility.

She opened her eyes. The surrounding world had already changed.

Inside the gas station, cars were refuelling in small groups. The convenience store clerk, oblivious, was sitting behind the counter, looking bored.

Lin Jue clicked her tongue, her expression clearly showing intense disdain.

Useless celestial master. She can’t even clean up such a small mess. I have to do it for her.

—What if I miss Su Huaiwang’s sleeping time?