Chapter 71: Chapter 71: Dreams that Seem Real But Aren’t Chapter 71: Chapter 71: Dreams that Seem Real But Aren’t Wu Xuehan couldn’t help asking when she saw Tang Li return in men’s clothes, “Did your dad bring you back?”
At dusk, Tang Li left, telling her that she was going out to dinner with her family.
“It wasn’t.” Tang Li took off her blazer and hung it over the back of a chair, met Wu Xuehan’s curious eyes, and couldn’t help but smile. She added, “Also a senior relative of sorts, he was on his way home and gave me a lift.”
Wu Xuehan sat astride a chair and told Tang Li with a worried frown, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream is going to recast the female lead again. If it keeps up , I think this show is going to get axed.”
Now, there’s only half a month left until the freshman welcome party.
Once the lead is chosen, rehearsals are needed.
If the lead actors lack chemistry or if one isn’t professional, ten-plus days is simply not enough time.
Yu Sui had already been rehearsing for nearly a month.
If the musical is axed, she won’t get to play the “tree.”
Thinking about her role as the tree—
Wu Xuehan was so worried, she couldn’t sleep.
This was her first official stage performance.
She had even told her family; her parents were now looking forward to seeing her in her stage costume…
Tang Li had walked onto the dorm balcony.
From here, she could see a corner of the courtyard gate.
She didn’t see that sedan.
She told herself silently.
That same evening, the deep night at the Han Family home.
Han Jifeng awoke once again from those turbulent dreams, the bedside lamp was on, bathing him in its orange glow, which instead of warm felt oddly oppressive.
Fragments of the dream were still swirling in his mind.
As real as if they had actually happened.
He had been having such dreams for over ten days.
Although each dream was different, they were interconnected, as if they were part of a life he lived in another world.
In these dreams, Lai Shengxia and her fiancé got married and then divorced.
Han Jifeng stood in front of the wash basin, droplets of cold water still on his chin. He looked at himself in the mirror, the scenes he dreamed of tonight seeming to manifest before his eyes.
It was in the presidential suite of a five-star hotel.
Lai Shengxia was in a black evening gown, her long hair pinned up with a few strands falling on her cheeks, adding seductive charm. She held a red WOC clutch, her eyes slightly lowered as she hurried past him, about to leave in haste, only to have her wrist grabbed by him, halting her steps to the door.
Between their breaths was the thick scent of alcohol.
In the dream, he held Sheng Xia tightly.
As if regaining a treasure, he was unwilling to let go again.
Lai Shengxia struggled fiercely against his shoulder blades, her eyes wet and red, the pain of her biting on his shoulder—all of it felt incredibly real. He pinned Sheng Xia down on the bed, their lips and teeth entangling, experiencing a soul-stirring shiver long missed, knowing it was wrong, yet unable to refrain from drawing close to her.
If the Han Family hadn’t fallen, Lai Shengxia was meant to be his wife.
They loved each other, yet had to part like forlorn swallows.
When he entered Lai Shengxia’s body, he felt none of the satisfaction or pleasure he had imagined.
Han Jifeng wiped his face with a towel. Almost every dream ended in an argument, but the one he argued with wasn’t Sheng Xia, but another woman.
Each time, his face would turn exceptionally irritable and furious.
He had lived for more than two decades and never lost his composure like that.
Yet, in front of that woman, he revealed unprecedented coldness and ruthlessness.
Until one day, when the woman started to become silent in the face of his anger.
At that moment, he didn’t feel relieved but rather a profound sense of loss.
He had met her—she was a relative staying with the Lai Family, that girl named Tang Li.