Know Yourself in the Dragon World

Chapter 233 People will always fall into one dream after another (Part 1)

Chu Zihang vaguely knew that he was in a dream, but he didn't quite understand why he was here.

For many years, he occasionally had nightmares, also about that rainy night.

Could it be that because I saw her again, I returned to Building 31 in my dream?

The old building has a red brick exterior and a cement balcony that looks shabby and grayish.

Chu Zihang stood under a sycamore tree with dry branches, looking up at the sun setting in the west, half hidden behind the old residential buildings.

The remaining half of the sunlight was cut into pieces by the dead branches.

That Christmas, Chu Zihang returned home alone, taking the key with him.

He spent a long time recovering from his injuries while gathering his courage.

A young person's courage always needs to be brewed and accumulated, even for Chu Zihang.

It took him a long time to build up the courage to face Odin, so he had no doubt that he would retreat and drive back.

But he seems to have been doing this thing all the time.

Now that he has encountered another incident, he needs to muster up the courage to face it again.

But Odin's incident was a lesson for him, so he wouldn't hesitate for too long.

December 2010, 12, Christmas.

The academy should be immersed in joy, but Chu Zihang came here alone and sat under the paulownia tree.

Sit from afternoon till dusk.

It happened to be Saturday, and the children in the community were having fun playing and frolicking.

He watched the children coming and going, and from time to time he could hear parents telling their children to stay away from them.

Chu Zihang didn’t know what he was looking at. He was just looking for something to do while recalling some past events.

Deep in his memory, he had been here before. In middle school, there was no Jörmungandr, the King of the Earth and Mountains, but only the head of the Shilan Middle School Dance Troupe.

That summer was unbearably hot. He followed the girl here. The sycamore trees were lush and leafy. He stared at them for a long time.

The girl said that he could be stunned by a tree, but in fact he was just recalling the characteristics of the paulownia tree.

It was a very cool room. Even without air conditioning, it didn't feel hot.

For his thesis, Chu Zihang was organizing books on the only table. Behind him he could hear a girl practicing on a yoga mat.

It was a beautiful summer, a summer that will never come back.

It was not until the sound and smell of cooking wafted out from the community building that Chu Zihang stood up and walked towards the door of the apartment building.

In the dim light, you can see all kinds of small advertisements posted on the walls of the corridor.

Lock picking, drain unblocking, effective treatment of certain special diseases...

Chu Zihang's memory became clearer and clearer, and he came to the door with ease.

By chance, the old lady from the neighbor's house came out, looked at Chu Zihang in confusion, and said, "No one has lived in her house for a long time."

Chu Zihang nodded and said, "I know."

How long had she stayed in this city? Chu Zihang didn't know, but in his memory, it was at least three years.

Three years is a short time…but it felt so long at that time.

"Are you Xiao Mi's relative?" asked the old lady.

"Classmate." Chu Zihang said, "Come and help her get some things."

"Oh, so she came back once this year?" the old lady wondered.

Chu Zihang pretended to be calm and replied, "Yes, but I still forgot to pack some things."

"Will she come back?" The old lady sighed: "Xiao Mi is really amazing. A girl can go to the capital to work hard on her own."

"She probably won't come back." Chu Zihang said softly, "She is studying abroad now."

"This girl...she didn't want to come back and didn't want to sell the house to me. She also said that she might come back to live in it in the future. After all, I took care of her for several years, but now she has started to lie to me." The old lady didn't look very happy.

Chu Zihang was thinking about what Xia Mi would do with her grandmother when she returned here this year.

It should be easy for the first-generation king to create memories of himself in the minds of ordinary people... So the old lady really thought that Xia Mi was an orphan who relied on her own efforts to go from this second-tier city to the capital, and then to a farther foreign country.

It is indeed an inspirational story. Perhaps the old lady will tell it to her grandchildren and use it as an example.

In fact, Xia Mi was just a passerby, both to the old lady and to Chu Zihang.

But the traces left by passers-by are unforgettable, and this is true for everyone.

"I don't want to abandon the place I'm used to living in," said Chu Zihang.

The old lady stopped talking and walked downstairs carrying the garbage bag, turning back from time to time to glance at this young man who had no manners and could not even smile.

Just like someone coming to collect debts.

Chu Zihang was indeed here to collect a debt. The girl owed him a past, and her memory would be completely fulfilled here.

He inserted the key and turned it.

After taking a deep breath, slowly push it open.

Very slowly, and the door felt very heavy.

A damp and moldy smell hit me in the face, and the sound of the door opening raised a cloud of dust.

The setting sun shines through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows and into this not-quite-real house.

The layout is the same as it was many years ago, a cage-like room where you can see everything at a glance.

There was no toilet. After spending an afternoon here in junior high school, Chu Zihang left not only because he had finished his thesis, but also because he needed to go to the toilet.

Do dragons also need to go to the toilet? Chu Zihang suddenly thought of this question.

There is no kitchen, and to solve the food problem, there is only a gas stove in the corner and a refrigerator of unknown brand and year.

In the few months I got to know her again, she seemed to be always out of money.

Han Qiu said that Xia Mi, Finkel and Lu Mingfei were the same type of people, all poor.

Hehe...Han Qiu...

Chu Zihang finally let out a long breath after taking a deep breath.

He closed the door and walked around the room in small steps.

It's like visiting an old friend whom you haven't seen for many years, or like searching for a treasure.

He reached out and touched the dusty stove. She had come back this year but hadn't cleaned it. It must have been done in a hurry.

There was only an empty box of yogurt in the refrigerator, and the torn hole looked like a mouth mocking itself.

What Chu Zihang didn't know was that during the summer vacation of this year, Xia Mi returned to this city from the capital in order to erase some traces, but after meeting Han Qiu, she fell into a long period of thinking and consideration.

On a quiet night, she looked out at the city while holding a bowl of yogurt and made the most important decision of her life in the darkness.

Out of habit, Chu Zihang took out the yogurt box and took it down with him to throw away when he left.

Turning around, he saw the cabinet diagonally opposite the stove, an old-fashioned chest of drawers.

I remember that she took out the yoga mat from there that day.

Next to the cabinet was the desk where he used to work. It was still the same, just a little older.

The bed was placed in the middle of the room, but I remembered it was placed next to the window before.

It’s better to be next to the window. There’s not even a TV here. When you’re bored at night, you can lean against the head of the bed and look at the bright lights outside the window.

If you are lucky, you can see the plane with its lights flashing moving forward in the night.

Maybe she would wonder where the people on the plane were going.

The area between the bed and the desk was no longer large enough to accommodate a yoga mat, and the girl practicing yoga disappeared without a trace.

Chu Zihang tried not to associate the girl with Jörmungandr, but he could not forget that night in the Nibelungen.