There’re Always Paranoid Thoughts to Monopolize Me - Extra 13.2

After a long time, the room finally quieted down.

Qin Ke turned and opened the door. There was no one in the outer room anymore. The dishes on the table were still untouched, and the outer door was tightly closed, as if no one had ever been there.

In the quiet air, the girl let out a soft sigh.

Hopefully… it wasn’t what she thought.

****

The wedding day arrived as scheduled.

From that day on, Qin Ke indeed hadn’t seen the child appear before her again, until the day of the wedding.

The wedding of the Huo family’s eldest son naturally had no shortage of invited guests. Some were old family friends or Huo Zhonglou’s friends, but more were those who, not lacking in number, were trying to curry favor by leveraging the Huo family name.

Qin Ke disliked such occasions the most. After accompanying Huo Zhonglou to toast a few tables of elders, she found an excuse of not being able to handle alcohol well and snuck out of the main hall of the main building, avoiding the servants and entering the backyard.

The main door leading from the main building to the backyard had a porch. After coming out, there was a wide pebble path, with a small fountain about several dozen meters away in the middle of the path.

The wedding was grand, and almost all the servants in the house had been pulled to the front, so the fountain pool and the surrounding dense shrubbery in the backyard were particularly quiet. One could faintly hear the chirping of birds and insects hidden among the leaves and shadows.

The street lamps in the backyard were also designed in a classical European style, with a light tinge of antique bronze, making even the falling water droplets from the fountain appear crystalline with a hint of pale gold.

Qin Ke couldn’t help but walk over.

When she was only a few meters away, her figure suddenly stopped.

There was a long bench behind the fountain, originally hidden in the tree shadows and in her blind spot, so Qin Ke hadn’t noticed it before coming over.

It wasn’t until now, when the shadow of the bench appeared in her view, that Qin Ke noticed what she had overlooked was not only the existence of this bench, but also the boy sitting silently on it.

However, the boy’s position was not on the seat of the long bench.

—

He was facing opposite to the long bench, precariously sitting on the narrow, about two-finger-width edge of the backrest.

This bench had a unique style with an exceptionally high backrest. Combined with the low guardrail of the inset fountain behind it, the boy was dangling his legs with nothing but air beneath his feet, and below that was the bottom of the fountain pool, about one and a half meters deep from the ground…

Qin Ke’s face suddenly changed.

If he really fell in, who knows what kind of accident might happen!

“Child, what are you doing sitting there? Come down quickly!”

“….”

The boy had been looking down since Qin Ke first noticed him, unclear whether he was watching the water in the fountain pool, or his own reflection in the water, or perhaps neither. After hearing Qin Ke’s voice, he paused for a few seconds before slowly raising his head.

His eyes were coated with a faint layer of gold from the bronze-colored light.

Amidst the chirping of insects, the boy suddenly smiled.

This was the first time Qin Ke had seen this little boy smile. It was beautiful, but somehow made her heart feel cold. The next second, she heard her thoughts validated – the boy sitting on the high chair back tilted his head slightly.

“Do you want me to jump down like this, sister?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he placed his hands on either side of him, as if he might leap down at any moment.

Qin Ke’s pupils contracted sharply.

“…Don’t!”

With an almost abnormal level of physical coordination, the boy actually managed to stop his movement precisely at the point just before jumping down.

He lowered his eyes to look at the pale-faced Qin Ke, smiling silently, but his eyes were ice-cold.

“I thought sister didn’t care whether I lived or died, but it turns out you do worry.”

Qin Ke: “……”

Now she just wanted to know how, in such a short time of just a few days, Huo Jingyan had managed to “take care” of him in a way that turned such a well-behaved child into this current state-

Suddenly remembering his behavior on the last night before he was taken away, Qin Ke felt a pang of guilt.

It seemed there had been signs even before.

“How’s the wedding?” The boy glanced vaguely in the direction of the front hall, “It seems very lively.”

Qin Ke forced a smile.

“Don’t try to speak in an adult’s tone, it sounds very strange…”

“I’m not trying, it’s just that for some reason, apart from not remembering where I came from or things from the past… I seem to understand everything, sister.”

The boy’s smile gradually faded, finally turning into a completely expressionless look.

“Just like I know about your wedding, know that after today passes, you can never be mine again.”

He’s becoming more and more like someone…

Qin Ke’s heart trembled.

On the surface, she still tried to maintain a smile, “Be good, come down from behind that chair first, okay?”

“Okay.”

“?”

So obedient?

Before Qin Ke could react, she saw the boy fall backwards. The next second, his entire person disappeared from her view.

“–!!”

Qin Ke’s face instantly turned pale.

Her scream was choked in her throat, unable to come out due to extreme fear.

After being frozen in place for a few seconds, she suddenly came to her senses, running over with almost stumbling steps, grabbing the armrest of the long bench and turning around–

Behind the tightly covered backrest of the long bench, the boy was sitting safely on the chair.

Qin Ke’s legs weakened, and she almost collapsed to the ground.

Still shaken, her chest was heaving uncontrollably, her breath rapid.

“Are you… trying to… scare me… to death?”

Just as Qin Ke finished speaking, the wrist she was resting on the seat was suddenly pressed down.

Qin Ke looked up, “Child, stop messing around, or I’ll really–”

“Qin Ke, you are mine.”

“–!?”

This suddenly familiar light voice made Qin Ke’s hair almost stand on end.

Huo, Jun!

Qin Ke widened her eyes, trying to see clearly the true appearance of the person in front of her, but contrary to her wishes, all the light seemed to be sucked away at this moment, leaving only complete darkness, a darkness that could devour everything.

In this terrifying darkness, only that familiar voice slowly approached.

The cold sensation kissed her lips.

“No one can compete with me for you, not even my past self.”

“…!”

Qin Ke had no time to say anything before she felt the hard pebble ground that had been supporting her body suddenly become soft. That softness silently rose up, gradually enveloping her “body”, and finally swallowed all of her consciousness into darkness.

A few minutes later.

The servant who came out looking for her glimpsed a slumped figure on the corner of the bench, became greatly alarmed, and hurriedly ran over–

“Miss Qin? Miss Qin!”

“…Mmm.”

The girl slowly propped herself up. She looked blankly at the bench, then at the servant supporting her.

“Why am I… here?”

“I don’t know. You said earlier you wanted to go for a walk. When I didn’t see you return, I came out to look for you and found you sleeping here alone.”

“Oh…? Did I fall asleep here?” Qin Ke shook her head helplessly, “I must have been really tired… Surely because the wedding was so exhausting.”

The servant sighed in relief and smiled, “I’m glad you’re alright. Let me take you back.”

“Okay.”

The girl stood up and walked towards the front hall with the servant. Faint voices drifted back through the evening’s insect chirping.

“I don’t know why, but I feel like… I’ve forgotten something.”

“Oh? Is it something important?”

“Probably not. Well, I won’t think about it then– Oh right, how’s Huo Zhonglou doing? Were there still guests making him drink earlier?”

“Indeed there were. I saw Young Master Zhonglou was almost drunk.”

“And none of you tried to stop them?”

“Haha, Miss Qin, besides you, who in the Huo family dares to manage Young Master Zhonglou? He clearly only listens to you.”

“…”

The voices gradually faded into the long night.

The sky was like water, the moonlight serene.

****

–[It’s time to wake up, beautiful lady.]

Who?

Who was calling her…

Qin Ke struggled to open her sore eyelids, light gradually filling her vision once more.

“My head feels so heavy…”

Qin Ke unconsciously murmured, shaking her groggy head.

She felt as if she had taken a nap and had a dream, a very long dream. So long that it seemed like a lifetime ago, making her completely forget what day it was.

“Where am I…”

When her rationality finally returned bit by bit, Qin Ke instinctively looked around her surroundings.

A casually set up pointy tent, a short and narrow small table, a glass ball that looked like it came from a street stall…

Wait.

A glass ball?

A certain memory suddenly returned to Qin Ke. Her pupils contracted as she looked up at the opposite side in disbelief.

The familiar old man, with his familiar benevolent smile.

“How do you feel, beautiful lady?”

Qin Ke opened and closed her mouth, taking a while to find her voice. “Did you make me…”

“Oh, this old man didn’t do anything.” The old man smiled as he slowly packed up his things, unhurried and leisurely. “I just gave you guys a comfortable place to lie down and sleep.”

“…”

“As for what you dreamed about in your sleep, what you resolved, that was your own decision. It had nothing to do with this old man.”

As he spoke, the old man had already stood up.

Qin Ke still gazed at him in confusion, perhaps too shocked to know what to say.

Until her brain belatedly processed one word he’d used.

[You guys]

Qin Ke: “…”

Could it be that the child in the “dream” was really…

Just as Qin Ke was about to stiffly turn to the side, she heard someone’s clothes rustling as they slowly rose from a sleeping position on the low table.

Qin Ke smiled stiffly, “Did you… sleep well?”

“Not bad.”

Huo Jun slowly rubbed his neck, his voice calm and steady.

“…”

Qin Ke let out a long sigh of relief, her smile becoming much more genuine.

“Then let’s go back–”

The voice by her ear suddenly lowered, with a gloomy smile.

“Sister?”

Qin Ke: “…”

Qin Ke: “!!??”