“Are you really willing to bear this?”
“I have no choice.”
“You do have a choice; you just can’t see it.”
“Then that means there is no choice.”
*(sighs deeply)*
“Will you tell him all of this?”
“No.”
“What will you tell him then?”
“I will tell him that he is just a patient, and from now on, he can rest.”
“They won’t let you say those words.”
“I won’t allow them to stop me.”
Wu Xie opened his eyes; the car was still on the highway. He shook his head, realizing he had been sleeping too lightly, and his head was a bit aching.
Zhang Haike in his mind was still talking non-stop, which was really annoying.
Aren’t you just afraid? Afraid of the endless changes that come after breaking the rules, what does that have to do with me? You didn’t even exist in this world at first; you are not something that must exist. To me, it’s even more painful than my own hair.
He touched his head.
Damn it, my beautiful hair! At this age, I don’t even know if it will grow back after shaving it off.
He thought of Brother Chu and sighed, telling himself he absolutely could not become like that.
He closed his eyes slowly and began to drift back to sleep. He heard Fatty’s voice.
“No one wants you to become like this. Many things can still go back; what are you afraid of?”
“And then?”
“And then?”
“Am I just going to stay here, Wang Meng staring at the ceiling while I look at the door? Everything around me is changing, and I’m just stupidly smiling at those changes. I don’t know when fate will ambush me again.” Wu Xie extinguished his cigarette in front of Fatty, “And by that time, you guys will have long left me one by one, leaving me to face those fists all alone.”
Fatty sighed, “You have a point there.”
He woke up again, realizing it was the phone ringing. Rubbing his temples, he looked at the screen.
It was a fine notification, 18 points deducted. How does Fatty drive?
But it also proved that things over there had become quite intense; Fatty’s counterfeit license plate was linked to this phone, and neither the license plate owner nor the phone’s name had anything to do with him. According to their agreement, if the first step was successfully executed, Fatty would run a red light to signal.
It seems to have been very successful; he ran three red lights.
So far, everything was going smoothly, which was due to his smoke bombs and the speed of the ambush being very fast, catching the opponent off guard.
The counterattack from the opponent would soon come, resolute and instantly wiping everything out, restoring everything to its original course.
Come on, he thought of Li Cu’s face; surely the heavens would stand by his side just this once.
Su Wan weighed the stone while asking Li Cu, “That person, was the content of the dream fragmented or continuous?”
Li Cu found it very strange, “Why do you ask that?” He noticed the white powder on Su Wan’s face and thought to himself, where did you get so much of this powder? What about the others? But he couldn’t voice it; a strong urge to suppress made it impossible for him to even bring up that thought. He was very curious about this question; as soon as he thought of it, other thoughts would forcibly rush in.
Su Wan seemed completely uninterested in discussing this matter and instead was curious about his stone and the dream he mentioned.

Su Wan said, “This is very crucial. Haven’t you watched a lot of foreign films? Sometimes, even coherent dreams are made up of fragments. If you don’t fully understand the fragments of the dream, it’s very likely that the consciousness of the dream will be completely opposite to your own consciousness.”

Li Cu didn’t understand: “You must have watched too many Hollywood blockbusters; don’t complicate things.”

“Yes, don’t think too complicated.” Suddenly, a voice came over, and both of them were taken aback. The person who had just spoken appeared right in front of them again. Su Wan was startled and almost fell over.

But almost instantly, Su Wan sat up. The shock and abruptness he felt just moments ago disappeared, and he found it strange how this person had appeared. However, he realized he wasn’t actually curious; everything felt perfectly natural to him.

He was puzzled by his own sense of normalcy, while also feeling that this puzzlement was meaningless.

Li Cu felt the same way; his mind became somewhat muddled. He almost immediately forgot about Su Wan’s appearance and thought that their previous conversation had not been interrupted at all. He asked the person, “So you said you dreamt that we went into the cave together?”

The other party replied, “Yes, actually, this young man makes a lot of sense. My dream is indeed fragmentary. You all accompanied me inside, but the cave isn’t very deep. If we go in from this side, it would probably take only ten to twenty-five minutes to reach the interior of the cave, and after spending about five minutes inside, we could fill up the packaging and come straight out.”

Su Wan said, “You only dreamt about there being a lot of gold inside. Just because the first half of your dream is accurate doesn’t mean the second half is. If there’s no gold, only danger awaits.”

Li Cu interrupted Su Wan and continued to the other person, “How about this? I’ve never believed in fate. I’m telling you clearly that we won’t go down with you; you have to go in alone. I want to see how your so-called fate in the dream works.”

Su Wan laughed, “Wow, Duck Pear, you’re playing reverse psychology with God. Can you handle that?”

Li Cu replied, “If there really were such a thing as fate, we would have a reason to go down. Fate definitely wouldn’t change because of your actions; otherwise, it wouldn’t be called fate.”

Before Li Cu finished speaking, he saw the person across from him nodding and smiling, “Yes, yes, yes, this young man is absolutely right. If fate could be chosen, then it wouldn’t be fate.”

At that moment, a voice suddenly echoed from inside the cave. It seemed to come from the bottom of the cave, far away and very faint, but in this quiet place, everyone heard it very clearly—it was Liang Wan’s voice.

The person opposite said, “Many things—who says fate can’t be a magical thing?”

Li Cu leaned over the cave entrance, listening carefully to the sounds inside. He heard a very faint cough. He knocked on the cave wall with his water bottle, producing a sharp “clang clang” sound, and shouted, “Sister, is that you?”

The sound of “tang tang” echoed down, reverberating for a couple of minutes before they finally heard a response from below—intense coughing and excited voices. Li Cu confirmed it was Liang Wan; she seemed unable to speak.

He exchanged a glance with Su Wan, who said, “How did she get down there? She doesn’t have a rope; did she roll down?”

Li Cu assessed the hole. If it were deep and she had fallen, she would have been a mess by now, which indicated that the person was correct—the hole wasn’t very deep. Overthinking this was pointless.

Li Cu turned on his flashlight and shone it down, then said to the person, “Alright, we’ll go down with you, but we won’t help you carry anything, and don’t try to pull any tricks on us.”

The other party chuckled and said, “Don’t worry, there’s a substantial fortune inside, enough for all of us. I won’t keep it all to myself; it wouldn’t mean anything to me. But we can’t go down just yet; you need to have a good dream first.”

The handsome man in white handed Su Wan a stone, and Su Wan received it with great delight.

“Now, just sleep. Use this stone as a pillow, and you’ll dream about how to collaborate with me.”

Li Cu and Su Wan exchanged a glance, then both lay down on the ground, resting their heads on the stone and closing their eyes. The handsome man in white smiled, his mouth slowly stretching wider and wider, his laughter growing increasingly eerie.