Peerless Beauty – Chapter 112

Dream

I remember this dream particularly clearly

She stood at the doorway, backlit, wearing a black robe. Her face showed no discernible expression as she silently observed Lu Yinxi.

            

“I’m sorry for disturbing you,” Lu Yinxi said, lowering her head when Jian Qing didn’t speak for a while. She apologized again in a low voice, turned to press the elevator button, preparing to leave.

“Come back,” Jian Qing finally spoke, “It’s 1 o’clock.”

Lu Yinxi turned back, her eyes brimming with barely contained joy, but her words were still hesitant: “It’s alright, this area is the city center, it’s lively and safe even at midnight.”

            

Jian Qing had always been more considerate towards women. In the past, in that virtual world, there was a female assistant at an academic conference who went to the station late at night to pick them up and take them to the hotel. She would ask the female assistant to send a message reporting her safe arrival home.

Lu Yinxi noticed this similarity and felt even more elated.

Jian Qing stepped aside, making room: “Come in.”

            

It wasn’t a tone of negotiation, but more like a command.

Lu Yinxi pressed her lips together, suppressing a smile, and quickly stepped inside, fearing that Jian Qing might change her mind in the next second and leave her outside.

After changing shoes and entering, the first thing she did was take off her coat and hang it on the standing coat rack by the entrance.

            

A living habit identical to Jian Qing’s.

At the entrance, there was a UV disinfection lamp. During winter, when there was no sunlight, Jian Qing would turn on the UV lamp to disinfect the coats.

Lu Yinxi hung her coat on the coat rack.

            

Jian Qing watched her practiced movements, a thoughtful expression on her face.

Lu Yinxi glanced over, guessing what Jian Qing might be thinking, and explained, “I’m also in the habit of taking off my coat when I get home.”

In fact, she never had this habit before. It was only after living with Jian Qing for a while that she developed the habit of taking off her coat first when coming back from outside, and never touching the bed without changing clothes.

            

Jian Qing made a sound of acknowledgment and led Lu Yinxi to the guest room.

Lu Yinxi followed her closely, asking in a low voice, “How did you know I was outside?”

“There’s a surveillance camera.”

            

She had installed a surveillance camera at the door. When she woke up in the middle of the night, she habitually took a glance and saw a pitiful figure leaning against the wall.

Lu Yinxi made a soft “oh” sound.

Jian Qing asked her, “How old are you this year?”

            

“Huh?” Lu Yinxi didn’t understand why Jian Qing was asking about her age, and answered in a daze, “I’m 25 years old.”

“25 years old,” Jian Qing repeated, her tone carrying a hint of mockery. “That’s quite young. You’ve only met me a few times, and you dare to sit outside my door?”

Lu Yinxi then caught the implication in Jian Qing’s words—

            

This ice cube was again criticizing her in a roundabout way.

Mocking her for being 25 years old, not that young anymore, yet still lacking self-awareness for protection.

Hmph.

            

If it weren’t for that face of yours, who would be willing to sit outside your door…

These words remained unspoken, only daring to grumble quietly in her heart.

“You’ll sleep here,” Jian Qing led Lu Yinxi to the guest room next to the bedroom, opened the door, and pointed to the wardrobe. “The bedding and blankets are in the cabinet. They were washed a few days ago.”

            

When she was in a bad mood, she liked to do a thorough cleaning of the house.

A few days ago, after handling all the affairs following her mother’s passing, she had thoroughly cleaned the house from top to bottom. Everything that could be washed was disinfected and cleaned.

Lu Yinxi walked in without hesitation, opened the wardrobe, and took out the sheets, bedding, and blankets. She skillfully made her bed, not acting like an outsider at all, but with the ease of someone in their own home.

            

Within three downs and five ups (an idiom meaning to do something quickly), she made her nest. Lu Yinxi turned around to see Jian Qing’s inquiring gaze. She fidgeted with the hem of her clothes, too embarrassed to ask for a set of pajamas.

Sleeping in her clothes wouldn’t be so bad…

Jian Qing stood with her arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe, watching Lu Yinxi with a cold expression, unlike her former gentleness.

            

If Lu Yinxi didn’t know her, she might have thought she had annoyed Jian Qing.

Well…

Being hugged by a strange woman on the street, who cried and clung to her, begging to be taken home.

            

After coming home, giving her food, hot water, dry clothes, and an umbrella, she still refused to leave, shamelessly squatting outside the door.

If it were herself, she’d probably want to call the police.

Fortunately, Jian Qing’s likes and dislikes were easy to discern. She wouldn’t spare even half a glance at things she disliked.

            

The fact that she was willing to waste so much time on her proved that she wasn’t annoyed by her presence.

Thinking of this, Lu Yinxi suddenly recalled a conversation from before—

In that world, she had asked Jian Qing why she brought her home.

            

Jian Qing had said, “You asked me to.”

At that time, she didn’t quite believe it.

Now, thinking about it, it was likely that the “her” in that world had indeed shamelessly stuck around at Jian Qing’s home.

            

The Jian Qing of this world still favored dark-colored clothing.

The black robe she wore accentuated her fair skin and slender figure, while also adding a sense of noble distance.

It had been a long time since Lu Yinxi had felt this sense of distance from her. Looking at Jian Qing, she mustered up her courage and asked, “It must be quite late now. I’m sorry for disturbing your rest. Do you have work tomorrow?”

            

Jian Qing gave a slight nod.

“Then, Dr. Jian, please rest early. Good night,” Lu Yinxi bid her farewell.

Jian Qing didn’t respond to the good night wish. Instead, she fixed Lu Yinxi with a sharp gaze: “I never told you my name. How do you know my surname is Jian?”

            

Lu Yinxi was stunned.

Indeed, since their reunion, Jian Qing had never introduced herself by name, only mentioning that she was a doctor.

Yet, when saying goodbye after dinner, she had already addressed her as “Dr. Jian.”

            

“Do you know me?” Seeing Lu Yinxi’s lack of response, Jian Qing took a step closer, her body nearly touching Lu Yinxi’s, and pressed, “You know my name, my habits, my experiences, and you’ve been inquiring about my work and family. If you don’t know me, then you must have been investigating me behind my back. Perhaps our meeting wasn’t a coincidence either. You didn’t mistake me for someone else; you were looking for me. Why were you looking for me?”

She had guessed almost everything correctly.

Her thoughts were still as delicate and sharp as ever.

            

Except for that one thing about their encounter under the overpass—

That truly was a coincidence.

Lu Yinxi only knew that Jian Qing used to work at that hospital and was later ordered to stop practicing. She didn’t know that Jian Qing had already returned to clinical work.

            

Given her current identity, it wasn’t appropriate for her to appear in crowded hospitals. Since coming to Shanghai, she had been paying others to gather information.

It wasn’t until this evening that she went for a walk near the hospital without much hope.

Then, under the overpass, she bumped into Jian Qing holding a black umbrella.

            

“Speak,” Jian Qing urged Lu Yinxi to explain.

“I had a dream, and in that dream, I saw you. The dream was long and felt very real. Later, when I saw you on the street, I couldn’t help but look into your background,” Lu Yinxi explained, half-truthfully and half-falsely, having been seen through once again by Jian Qing’s piercing gaze. “Your experiences in reality are very similar to what I dreamed about. It’s too incredible, so I wanted to get to know you.”

Given Jian Qing’s cautious nature, she wouldn’t choose to believe immediately, but rather pretend to believe while observing and probing for other inconsistencies.

            

Lu Yinxi, familiar with her tactics, gave her a preemptive strike: “I’m not sick, I don’t have delusional disorder. I’m telling the truth. Please don’t send me to the psychiatric department.”

Jian Qing raised an eyebrow slightly, asking in confusion: “Why would I send you to the psychiatric department?”

You should ask yourself that…

            

“Maybe because you’re a doctor, you tend to associate things with illnesses,” Lu Yinxi said, rubbing her nose bridge.

When she first arrived in that virtual world, this person had her sent to the psychiatric department to see the chief physician.

Jian Qing: “You remember the person from your dream so clearly?”

            

People dream every night, often more than once.

During the early and middle stages of sleep, the human cerebral cortex is active, and the hippocampus, responsible for memory, is still working. It helps to remember events that occur in dreams. When entering deep sleep, the hippocampus gradually stops working, entering a resting state, no longer performing memory tasks or recording dreams.

Therefore, even if one has a vivid dream, upon waking and opening one’s eyes, the dream scenes disappear without a trace, like sand blown by the wind.

            

People forget the dream and also forget the act of “forgetting.”

As if it never happened.

Lu Yinxi said, “I don’t know why, but I remember this dream particularly clearly. I can recall every detail.”

            

Not just clearly, but deeply engraved in her heart and mind.

Jian Qing asked again, “What did you dream about me?”

Lu Yinxi paused for a moment, then smiled slightly, looking at Jian Qing with eyes as gentle as water, and softly replied, “I dreamed that you became a very important person to me…”

            

Her tone was soft, her smile sweet.

The coldness in Jian Qing’s heart melted at this tenderness. She averted her gaze, retracting her imposing aura, and took a step back. No longer pressing for answers, she looked at Lu Yinxi for a few seconds, then turned around, leaving with a light farewell: “Good night.”

Lu Yinxi watched Jian Qing’s retreating figure, her brow furrowed.

            

If she didn’t ask now, who knew when she’d muster up the courage to ask again…

She raised her voice, sounding somewhat urgent, calling out to Jian Qing: “Although it might be impolite to ask, I dreamed that you had a tattoo on your back. May I ask, Dr. Jian, do you really have a tattoo on your back?”

Countless questions swirled in her heart. She desperately wanted to know if this “Jian Qing” before her was truly her Jian Qing.

            

Jian Qing stopped, her back to Lu Yinxi. She didn’t answer immediately. After a few seconds of silence, she lowered her head and unhurriedly untied the belt of her robe.

“Is it like this?” She lowered the robe to her waist, brushing aside her soft, raven-black hair, revealing a back as white as mutton-fat jade.

Lu Yinxi hadn’t expected this person to be so direct.

            

She looked at the fair skin and the tattoo on the shoulder blade, her face slightly reddening.

Hesitating for a second, she walked over to examine it closely.

As she gazed, she unconsciously reached out her hand. Just as her fingertips were about to touch that alluringly eye-catching flower, she quickly withdrew her hand.

            

“Don’t catch a chill,” she said, pulling up Jian Qing’s robe. She moved to Jian Qing’s front, intending to tie the robe’s belt for her.

In an instant, realizing this gesture was too intimate, she stepped back. Looking at the disheveled person before her, she said, “It’s this tattoo, exactly the same. Manjushaka, also called Higanbana. Its flower language is ‘endless love.’ Legend has it that it can make people remember their past lives…”

Jian Qing tied her belt unhurriedly, slightly furrowing her brow: “Is that so? Initially, I thought it looked like a blood cell. It has another name, Lycoris. Lycoris contains alkaloids, and its inner amine salt has shown anti-tumor effects in animals. That’s why I had the tattoo artist ink it.”

            

Lu Yinxi was taken aback by her words.

This familiar tone, breaking the artistic and romantic atmosphere…

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The author has something to say:

            

This chapter shouldn’t be angsty at all, right~~~

*Mini theater

Lu “Artistic and Romantic” Yinxi: The flower language of Higanbana is blah blah blah…

            

Jian “Serious Science Explainer” Qing: It has another name called Lycoris…

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