Chapter 63

The factory was very new, lacking the worn-out feel of the last century. Large machinery hadn’t been installed yet, it was still incomplete.
Inside, Wen Jiu realized that although the factory looked new from outside, it was neglected. It wasn’t dilapidated, but with no cleaning for three to five years, dust and grime had built up, giving it a dull color and unpleasant odor.
Many children were bound. Counting roughly, there were over thirty. Likely drugged, most kept their heads down, slouched, too weak to cry or fuss, their eyes glazed.
More than half gradually drifted to sleep at night, collapsing drowsily to one side. The remaining, slightly older kids, aware of their surroundings, kept watch cautiously.
Yet they were still children, unable to stay awake long. Eyelids drooped, hands bound and mouths taped, exhausted, they toppled over.
Wen Jiu gasped, reaching out, but her hand passed right through them.
…She was dreaming; she was a ghost.
A ghost couldn’t touch the living, so she withdrew her hand.
The children slept deeply. Wen Jiu floated closer to observe. Some were ordinary-looking; others strikingly beautiful. Boys and girls mixed, hard to tell who outnumbered whom.
From their clothes, most seemed to come from well-off families.
Having spent a year with Qin Yao, Wen Jiu could quickly recognize high-end brands.
It was normal for girls to have cute dresses, but young boys in high fashion indicated loving, wealthy families.
One fully conscious little boy, dressed like a doll, immediately caught Wen Jiu’s attention.
From his back, he looked about four or five, yet radiated a distinct aura, almost as if he came with his own spotlight, standing out from the others.
Curious, Wen Jiu floated to a different angle.
She first observed from afar, then closer.
So familiar a face.
She touched her chin, realizing where she had seen him.
Wasn’t this a miniature version of Shen Xingzhou?!
The face resembled him, but the aura wasn’t the same.
Adult Shen Xingzhou had wet, innocent, puppy-like eyes. This child’s eyes, though young, carried a depth of thought, like a dark, still pool.
In novels, this is a typical trait of main male leads, or sometimes the antagonist or supporting male.
Wen Jiu floated closer, taking advantage that the boy couldn’t see her, staring intently, almost pressing her eyes to his face.
Rustling sounds blended with the children’s snores, barely noticeable.
The boy had somehow freed his wrists from the ropes and ripped off the tape over his mouth with nimble movements.
His gaze was sharp, looking at floating Wen Jiu. Probably worried about the guards hearing, he whispered, startling Wen Jiu.
“Big sister, what are you doing?”
In Wen Jiu’s dream, she was a ghost; the boy was real.
No one else could see her, only the boy.
His shout frightened her.
Panicking, Wen Jiu fell back, but as a ghost, she couldn’t fall, so she hovered two steps back, locking eyes with him.
The boy wasn’t interested in a staring contest. Lowering his voice, he said, “Big sister, can you help me escape?”
Wen Jiu didn’t know if he could hear her, but she tried, “How do you want me to help?”
“Can you distract the people at the door?”
“I want to, but I can’t touch them.” She felt helpless.
The boy frowned, his innocent face puzzled. “Why can’t you touch people?”
He reached out and pinched her fingertip.
Wen Jiu: !!!
She’d thought it remarkable he could see her. Now he could even touch her?
She was a ghost!!
Perhaps due to his touch, Wen Jiu became corporeal.
Her floating legs were pulled by gravity, finally grounded.
“You, you, you” Wen Jiu was too shocked to form a complete sentence.
Was this her dream, his dream, or both? How did it follow his rhythm?
“Who’s speaking?” Outside, someone’s ears twitched. Hearing the noise, they barged in, yelling.
All the children inside had taped mouths, they couldn’t talk. If a voice was heard, a child must be trying to escape.
Wen Jiu couldn’t find a hiding place, so she lay down, covering several sleeping children with her body.
Luckily, she was small, and the kids sprawled around her, hiding most of her.
She clutched tightly with both hands, heart racing.
“Thump-thump, ” Her heartbeat roared in her ears.
“I checked, they’re fine. It’s the middle of the night, in a desolate area. There shouldn’t be a woman’s voice, can’t be ghosts.” A different person’s voice, distinct from earlier.
The voice didn’t come from outside, it sounded like someone had just walked out from the side.
“What a joke. We’re already doing this kind of work and you’re afraid of ghosts?” It was the same voice from before.
“Then you must have misheard. It’s my first time working with Second Master Chu on this. I just came from inside, didn’t see anyone. The kids are all dead asleep, like pigs in the village, no way they can talk, at most a little snore from their noses.”
The second speaker clearly intended to push the first person out.
“Let’s go, let’s go. Honestly, it’s a bit unsettling. Maybe you’re too tired from staying up all night and seeing things. I can stay watch for a bit while you get a couple of hours of sleep.”
The second voice gradually moved farther away, likely pushing the first person outside.
“Fine, then you keep watch for a while. Whatever ghost noises, I’ll take a nap, definitely won’t hallucinate again.”
Footsteps receded until Wen Jiu could no longer hear them, leaving only the light snores of the children. Only then did she exhale.
“Big sister, let’s run.” The boy, pretending to sleep, stood up and quickly untied the ropes around his legs.
“We need to go outside and bring reinforcements to save the others,” he said.
Even in this absurd dream, Wen Jiu sensed a thread of logic.
“Mm.” She picked up the rope the boy had just freed, holding it in her hand.
When they had first come in, two guards had been at the door. Now, only one remained.
He turned and saw Wen Jiu, pupils flickering.
A woman? How could there be a woman in the warehouse? Weren’t all the victims of Second Master Chu children?
When the ropes and tape were pressed toward him, he could have dodged, but he didn’t, he deliberately stood his ground.
He didn’t ask how Wen Jiu appeared here. Instead, he pointed a direction: “Run that way, not east. East leads to the village, they’ll send you back.”
Wen Jiu recognized the voice, this was the same person who had pushed the previous man to stop him from checking.
A good person, helping them escape, Wen Jiu thought.
“Let’s go.” She picked up the little boy, remembering to thank him: “Thank you.”
She turned and ran. The boy was a bit heavy; she almost dropped him while adjusting.
If it weren’t for the guard pointing out the direction, Wen Jiu would have been lost in the desolate night, unable to tell east from west.
“Big sister, put me down. I can walk myself.”
Wen Jiu didn’t argue, she set him down.
“Big sister, do you trust him? He’s the one who kidnapped me.”
Wen Jiu was startled. “He’s letting us go, surely not for fun?”
She said it, but her feet didn’t stop moving.
Run first; worry about the rest later. If they caught up, it would be bad.
Even though it was a dream, everything felt so real.
At first, being a ghost was fine, nobody could see her, floating around. But now, corporeal, running on raw earth without pavement, her feet began to ache.
Large stones littered the path, nearly tripping her.
Once this dream ended, she wouldn’t mock TV shows where people trip while running.
Her heart raced uncontrollably. The path ahead was unknown, pursuers could appear at any moment, the ground was rough, and she still had a little kid in her arms.
She forced herself to focus, managing not to fall.
Though the boy questioned things, he too didn’t stop running for a second.
“Stop!”
Sure enough, someone was chasing them.
Wen Jiu ran while glancing back cautiously.
Headlights shone, nearly blinding her.
Unfair, she and the boy were running on foot, while their pursuers had motorcycles.
The bikes weren’t ideal for this rough path, but their speed was incredible.
The lights constantly swept over them; there was nowhere to hide.
Spotting a tree, Wen Jiu quickly turned, clutching the boy, momentarily forcing the motorcycle to halt.
“Hey, brother, your driving sucks. I’ll go first, you stabilize the bike and follow!”
It was that same voice, the one helping Wen Jiu and the boy escape.
As he approached, claiming to help, he kicked the bike wedged by the tree, sliding it further.
The man struggling with the bike hadn’t realized a traitor was on their side. He urged, “Go first! That’s Second Master Chu’s key target, bring him back quickly.”
“Where did the woman come from? Not from your village, right? Forget her, bring the kid back.”
While he spoke, the one pursuing Wen Jiu delayed a bit, then pretended to run after them.
The sounds faded; Wen Jiu couldn’t gauge her distance.
She ran through tall grass, panicked, and fell into a pit.
The drop wasn’t high, she could climb out. But being stuck at that moment felt like a trapped animal.
As Wen Jiu anxiously clutched the boy at the bottom, the rescuer’s voice returned, along with the approaching roar of the motorcycle.
“Brother, you’re fast. Bike’s ready, pick me up so we can catch up.”
“Whoosh, whoosh, ” The motorcycle stopped.
“Get on! You’re supposed to chase someone, don’t lose them!”
“Brother, two legs can’t beat two wheels. Pick me up, we’ll catch them. They can’t escape with the bike.”
“You’re right. Get on.”
Hearing the motorcycle leave, Wen Jiu and the boy climbed out.
From ghost to human in the dream, now starting a death-escape, it really made her experience the full kidnapping scenario she hadn’t lived today.
To ease the tension, Wen Jiu hoisted the boy while joking: “Aren’t you afraid I’m a ghost in the wilderness? Trust me so much? If you aren’t caught, I might eat you.”
“I like to eat tender little kids the most,” he said.
Under the moonlight, the boy watched her struggling out of the pit. He pursed his lips, extending a tiny hand to help.
“Big sister, stop joking. Let’s get out of here first.”
Wen Jiu thought that made sense. Using hands and feet, covered in dirt, she climbed out.
Afraid of dragging the boy back, she didn’t rely on him.
“Let’s go!” She scooped him up again, ready to run.
They couldn’t go back or toward where the footsteps had disappeared, so left or right it was.
“Left or right?”
The rescuer had said not east. Wen Jiu, being a southern native, couldn’t easily tell directions like northerners.
“Left. Right is east.”
She followed him, running left.
“I don’t know if you’re a ghost or human, but I can see and touch you. You helping me escape feels more human than the ones who kidnapped me,” the boy said, explaining the earlier joke.
“You’re really cute,” Wen Jiu gasped, her throat burning from running.
In dreams, mass escapes were terrifying, especially with no destination.
She wished someone would wake her, she truly couldn’t run anymore.
But the dream felt too real.
“Bang, ”
“Bang, bang, ”
Gunshots rang across the open field.
Wen Jiu felt air rushing past on both sides, spinning like a vortex. She didn’t dare look back, but could see her stretched shadow ahead, lit by the pursuers’ headlights.
This time the lights covered a much wider area than the motorcycle before. She heard tires scraping stones.
Two legs couldn’t outrun two wheels, let alone four.
With nowhere to escape, Wen Jiu looked back to see small cars chasing them.
Not just one car, three. Behind were motorcycles and electric bikes, lights illuminating the area.
Tense, she swallowed and joked to the boy, “What kind of golden nugget are you? Everyone’s trying to catch you.”
The boy lifted his head at her, neck straining. Though small, his eyes were deep, like a villain in a book.
“Big sister, they’re chasing me because my ransom is three hundred million.”
“Run first, I’ll cover you. They won’t hurt me, otherwise they won’t get the money.”
Wen Jiu wanted to run, but at this point, she was frozen.
Never mind guns and cars, this sheer force left her legs weak.
If not for the high-speed escape with the three brothers earlier, giving her some experience of narrowly escaping death, she would’ve collapsed.
“Whoosh whoosh, ” Suddenly, helicopters appeared.
One after another, three helicopters.
Spotlights scanned, drawing closer, about to reach them.
Wen Jiu: “……”
She took a deep breath. “The kidnappers are so powerful, they even deployed helicopters to chase you.”
The boy shook his head in her arms. “Big sister, they should be here to rescue us.”
The kidnappers, knowing the helicopters weren’t theirs, quickly turned off their lights.
But that was just fooling themselves.
They needed a hostage.
Wen Jiu realized this too. At the boy’s shout of “Run!” she grabbed him and ran.
Gunshots rang out behind them.
The kidnappers knew they wouldn’t get the ransom if the host escaped. Before fleeing in their vehicle, they fired several shots in Wen Jiu’s direction, trying to take the pair down as a buffer.
The enormous impact sent Wen Jiu sprawling forward.
The boy in her arms fell with her.
The car drove off in the opposite direction. One helicopter chased it, while the other two scanned the area with their lights, searching for the boy.
Wen Jiu lay on the ground, her knees and palms scraped against the stones, blood spreading.
But the pain barely registered, being shot hurt far more than these scrapes.
Feeling her life rapidly slipping away, her eyes went blank. She couldn’t summon even the tiniest bit of energy.
Amid the unknown terror of death, she still marveled at how real the dream felt, the pain was terrifying.
She kept silently repeating to herself to wake up, but her eyelids felt too heavy to close.
“Big sister, we’ll be safe soon. Hang in there.”
Wen Jiu struggled to lift a small finger, and the boy grabbed it.
She couldn’t move, any shift made her insides ache.
She couldn’t speak, and her eyes wouldn’t close or blink.
It seemed that Second Master Chu’s gunshot had left a shadow in her mind; even in a dream, she felt the pain of being shot.
Wen Jiu felt like crying.
The boy reached out and wiped her tears.
Both their hands were dirty; Wen Jiu could feel the mud mixing with her tears on her face, making her even more uncomfortable.
“No, no.” She had a touch of OCD.
Her words didn’t even finish.
Every time she tried to speak, her lungs felt like broken bellows, unable to draw breath, and leaking air at the same time.
“Big sister, I’m Shen Xingzhou. What’s your name?” The boy tried to keep her awake, chattering on, “Big sister, what kind of personality do you like...”
Wen Jiu didn’t know what he was doing; the kid just talked too much.
She’d been shot, couldn’t she be left to rest quietly for a moment?
She was dreaming! Maybe if she fell asleep again, she could wake up.
Her eyes were open, so she saw the boy’s crystal tears.
Under the helicopter’s spotlight, the droplets on his cheeks reflected tiny fragmented lights.
He hadn’t cried during the terrifying escape, but now tears streamed down.
Wen Jiu felt pity and, knowing the helicopter would land soon, decided to chat with him a little.
“My name’s Wen Jiu.
I like obedient… well-behaved people.
Don’t cry.
You’re crying so… ugly.”
Each word popped out painfully; every syllable made her body ache.
It was excruciating, she couldn’t even pinpoint exactly where she’d been shot.
Wen Jiu didn’t want to think about it.
She figured the helicopter people had found the boy anyway, so she closed her eyes, waiting for the dream to end.
“Big sister, ” In a daze, she heard the boy’s panicked call.
Stop calling, she wanted to wake up.
Wait, what did he say his name was?
Shen Xingzhou??
The Shen Xingzhou she knew??
“Jiujiu, wake up.
Big sister, Jiujiu, wake up quickly.”
The voice was clear and familiar, with a noticeable hoarseness, like from staying up several nights in a row.
But the clear, gentle tone hadn’t changed.
Wen Jiu immediately recognized it, this was the Shen Xingzhou she knew.
Emerging from the terrifying dream, she moved her limbs, feeling healthy and whole, without a trace of pain, and opened her eyes.
So bright.
Her eyes watered from the light; she quickly closed them.
Then, she felt a warm embrace.
The arms holding her were strong but trembling.
The overwhelming presence enveloped her.
Wen Jiu knew it was Shen Xingzhou. Instinctively, she reached out, hugging him, “It’s okay, I’m back.”
“I just had a nightmare… it was terrifying.”
“Shen Xingzhou, were you ever kidnapped as a child?”
Wen Jiu had never been the type to linger in pain. She not only pulled herself out quickly, her thoughts were fast and clear.
“Mm.” Shen Xingzhou held her head in his chest, his voice muffled.
She almost couldn’t breathe!
Didn’t he notice his own abs and chest muscles? Wen Jiu used her hand to turn her face.
“Were you crying, Shen Xingzhou?”
Something felt off. Wen Jiu stepped back and finally saw tears on his face.
Matching the small Shen Xingzhou from the dream.
One was a grown-up version, one a child, tears in the same places.
In the dream, little Shen Xingzhou wiped her tears. In reality, Wen Jiu wiped Shen Xingzhou’s.
“Don’t cry. I’m perfectly fine.”
To distract him, she picked up the previous nonsensical topic. “Shen Xingzhou, I dreamed of you as a child. You were kidnapped, we ran together, and I got shot.”
“But it was only a dream, when I woke up, I was completely fine!”
She almost wanted to show off her healthy, whole limbs to him.
Shen Xingzhou drew her closer, resting his chin on her shoulder.
Behind him, his moist, pure eyes transformed into the deep gaze of little Shen Xingzhou from her dream, a bottomless abyss compared to his childhood self.
He lowered his voice, clear and crisp: “Jiujiu, that wasn’t a dream. It really happened.”
“When I was five, I met you. You told me your name, then vanished into fragments of light.”
“I thought it was a dream… but I saw you again when I grew up.”
In the Ji family garden, Wen Jiu peeked around, her wide, startled, curious eyes exactly like his expression the first time he met her.