Song Xingzhi a vécu sous le règne de l'empereur Huizong

Chapitre 62

"Lanlan, whether you are Zhuangzi or a butterfly, you must first nourish your spirit before you can seek the answer!"

Yu Susu put down the thermos and instead reached out to grab her, forcibly lifting her head. "Lanlan, we don't know what you dreamed about or what you went through, but Xuan'er and I stayed by your bedside for six days and five nights, and the Lanlan we were waiting for was definitely not like this! Tell me what happened to you, okay?"

Jiaolan bit her lip, looking vulnerable, and just kept shaking her head without saying a word.

She herself is so confused that she can't even distinguish between everything, how is she supposed to explain it to Susu?

Helpless, Yu Susu took a deep breath and decided to find the answer herself. "When you first woke up yesterday and saw me, you called out 'Suxin' Eryu. So can I assume that I appeared in your dream, but with a different name?"

Jiaolan bit her lip, staring blankly at her. Yu Susu remained silent, simply returning her gaze. After several minutes of this silent staring, Jiaolan finally nodded, "Yes. But—"

"But what?"

"The pure heart in my dream... is dead."

"What?" Yu Susu exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock. "Dead...? How did he die?"

“She suffered from congenital asthma, perhaps due to some kind of trauma…” Jiao Lan closed her eyes. Even now, the heart-wrenching pain she felt when she saw Su Xin’s body at the Xue residence was still so intense that it suffocated her.

She suddenly realized why she hadn't connected Suxin and Susu when she first met Xue Suxin in the Song Dynasty.

"And what about Xuan'er? I suppose she also appeared in your dream?" Yu Susu asked after catching her breath.

"Yes, Xuan'er, my guard." The last time she saw Xuan'er was when she entrusted Xu'er to her. She wondered what happened to Xuan'er and Xu'er after she suddenly disappeared.

No... that was just a dream...

She woke up, which meant everything had vanished like smoke...

"Susu," she suddenly called out quietly.

Yu Susu was turning around to serve her porridge when she heard this and replied, "What?"

|5| Jiaolan squinted at the clear blue sky outside the window, and asked blankly, "Can I go back to my dream?" There are people who need her there, there is the path she must walk, everything about her is there...

|1| Yu Susu paused in her porridge-serving hand, then resumed her work. “Lanlan, don’t overthink it. Whether it’s Zhuangzi or the butterfly, a dream is just a dream. No matter how real it may seem, it can never replace reality.”

|7| He turned around and handed her the porridge, saying, "Have some porridge."

|z| Jiaolan blankly took the bowl and murmured, "But... I feel like I'm going back to my dream." Here, she could no longer find the meaning of her existence. Xuan'er told her that her parents had abandoned her when they learned that she might never wake up again, and Susu and Xuan'er had their own paths to walk. Only she... in this world, she was the only one who was lonely.

Her husband, her child, her friends, and the path she was about to take were all in the Song Dynasty of her dreams, where everything belonged to her, and she had to find a way back.

|Say| Jiaolan ate her porridge blankly, and there was no more conversation in the room for a moment. However, the closed door was suddenly pushed open, and then Xuan'er's excited voice came through:

"Lanlan! Look who's here!"

Volume Four: Like a Dream, Yet Not a Dream, Chapter 68, Zhuangzi's Dream of a Butterfly (2) (Modern Version)

The beautiful woman, dusty and travel-worn, had waist-length curly hair that was a natural brownish-yellow, which made her fair face appear even more radiant. Her beautiful face was adorned with a bright and dazzling smile that caught the eye of anyone.

As soon as she entered the ward, she took off her handbag and threw it on Jiaolan's bed, then pounced on Jiaolan.

"Lan'er! Auntie misses you so much!"

Jiaolan, somewhat flustered, hugged her back. Feeling the warm embrace and the tender voice of the person holding her, she choked back a sob and softly called out, "Auntie..."

In this world she wanted to discard like trash, besides Su Su and Xuan Er, there was only one person who truly cared for and pitied her: her aunt who was holding her tightly in front of her.

My aunt's name is Yuan Yi. She is my mother's younger sister and a somewhat mysterious woman. My aunt is often not in the country. She had surgery when she fell ill and then lay in a coma for a week, which led my parents to abandon her and leave. This was because my aunt was not in the country and my parents had not contacted her. Otherwise, if my parents wanted to abandon her, they would probably have been scolded by my aunt.

"Lan'er, I heard you just woke up yesterday. How are you? Does your head hurt from sleeping for so long?" Yuan Yi had hugged her enough, so she let go and looked her up and down, her smiling eyes filled with warmth. "After you're discharged from the hospital in a few days, you can go home with your aunt, how about that?"

Jiaolan was slightly taken aback, thinking that her aunt probably knew everything. She nodded obediently, "Okay."

"Good girl." Yuan Yi smiled and helped her lean against the headboard. "Come on, sit down. Auntie has something to tell you."

Jiaolan glanced at Yu Susu and Ye Xuan'er, who had quietly slipped away, and turned back to ask softly, "What is it?"

Yuan Yi smiled but said nothing. He patted her and then reached out to hook her handbag, unzipped it, took out a long object wrapped in red silk cloth, and handed it to Jiao Lan with a mysterious smile: "Open it and take a look."

"This is..." Jiaolan glanced suspiciously at Yuan Yi, whose face was full of mystery. With curiosity, she peeled back the red silk layer by layer. When the last piece of red cloth was lifted, she froze, staring incredulously at the object in her hand, unable to speak.

Wrapped in red silk was a rectangular gold plaque, slightly larger than a normal person's palm. A red double knot was tied at the bottom of the plaque. Jiao Lan couldn't recognize the intricate patterns carved on the back of the plaque, but she was very familiar with a single character surrounded by a circle of relief patterns on the front.

It was the character "秦" (Qin).

Jiaolan trembled uncontrollably, "Auntie...this is...this is..."

Yuan Yi gripped her hand tightly, staring intently at her, and said softly, "Lan'er, this is the token of Zhao Defang, the fourth son of Song Taizu, the Prince of Qin. I searched for ten years to find it for you."

"Help...help me find it?"

"Yes." Yuan Yi reached out and covered the token in her hand, forcing her to look up at her. "Lan'er, do you still remember a dream you had when you were ten years old?"

Jiaolan's chaotic thoughts made it impossible for her to concentrate. She couldn't believe that she was actually holding Zehua's token in her hand. Could this token be the same one that Zehua and Zhao Guangyi had asked her about?

But...but...wasn't all of that just a dream? How could things from a dream appear in reality?

"Lan'er? Do you still remember that dream of yours?"

Jiaolan looked up at her blankly, "What dream?"

Yuan Yi raised her hand and tenderly stroked her cheek. "When you were ten years old, you had a very strange dream. You were so panicked that you couldn't find anyone to talk to. I happened to visit your sister, and you told me about the dream. That's when we became close. Do you remember?"

Jiaolan frowned and thought for a while, then slowly nodded, "I remember that matter, but what about that dream you mentioned... what kind of dream was it?"

Yuan Yi smiled mysteriously, “A dream of spring poison.”