Chapter 27: Floating to the Surface

  When Su Tong woke up in the morning, for a moment, she almost forgot who she was and where she was. She only felt warm and cozy, with sunlight shining on her face, very comfortable. In her dream last night, she seemed to have dreamed of something romantic and passionate. After waking up, she couldn't remember it clearly, but vaguely remembered that she and Tang Ao were together, behaving intimately like a couple in love. Although the details were already a bit fuzzy, thinking about it now still made Su Tong feel hot and fluttery in her chest. She didn't understand why she had such a dream, although it wasn't a nightmare, it made her feel somewhat embarrassed. It's said that dreams are a kind of projection of one's subconsciousness, could it be that her impression of Tang Ao was not just that he was very good and trustworthy? Were there some shy thoughts about him that she hadn't realized herself?

  "My goodness, Su Tong! You're really something else! Luckily it was just a dream, otherwise nobody would know except you yourself. If not, I'd have to find a hole in the ground to hide!"

  Su Tong lazily narrowed his eyes and buried his face in the soft quilt, taking a deep breath.

  No! She suddenly realized that the smell on the quilt was not familiar to her, and she hurriedly opened her eyes to take a look. The bed sheet was a blue plaid pattern, and the pillowcase was light blue too. Even the pillow itself was different from hers! She was startled and quickly sat up, looking around in all directions.

  A room with the same layout as his own bedroom, but without wallpaper, only four white walls. On one side of the wall stood a very simple double-door closet, one door of which was open. From Su Tong's current angle, he could see a row of neatly hung, clean men's shirts inside.

  The scenes in front of her made Su Teng's chaotic memories flash back, she remembered that the night before, she was attacked by Zhang Min, and also remembered that Tang Xiao arrived in time to subdue Zhang Min, rescued herself, and drove her back to the city. However, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember what happened after she fell asleep in Tang Xiao's car. It seemed like she had fallen asleep in the car, then had a somewhat romantic dream, and then woke up here. This bedroom should be Tang Xiao's, and he must have brought her back last night and settled her in his own bedroom.

  Su Tong tried hard to recall the blurry part of her memory, but always felt that a part of the memory chain was broken and couldn't be recalled. After thinking again, an idea suddenly appeared in her mind - that peach-colored dream, it couldn't be true, could it?

  The thought suddenly popped up and scared her, and she felt ashamed and embarrassed about the possibility, instinctively wanting to hide back under the covers. As a result, she lay down so violently that the back of her head bumped squarely against the bed frame with a loud thud, causing her to let out a soft hum of pain.

  The sound of her bumping into the head was also heard by people outside the bedroom, footsteps came from afar and approached, the bedroom door was knocked gently a few times, and then Tang Ao's voice came in: "Su Tong, are you awake? Can I come in?"

  Su Tong covered the back of his head with one hand, which was painful from being bumped, and quickly pulled open the quilt with the other hand to take a look. He confirmed that his clothes were only slightly wrinkled, but not disheveled in any way. Only then did he respond, his mind tangled over whether or not he should ask Tang Hao about what had happened last night. If he didn't ask, what if he really had done something embarrassing and was unaware of it, and people would laugh at him behind his back? But what if it really was just a dream? Wouldn't asking be self-incriminating?

  After getting the permission, Tang Ao gently twisted open the door lock and pushed the door to enter. It seemed that he had been awake for a long time, dressed neatly, but with very deep dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn't rested well the night before, or even more exaggeratedly, it seemed like he hadn't slept at all.

  "Su Tong, how are you feeling now? Is there anywhere on your body that feels uncomfortable?" Tang Ao entered the door and did not immediately walk forward. Instead, he stood at the entrance, his two eyes staring at Su Tong, asking about her physical condition while subtly observing her expression and reaction.

  Su Tong looked at him with a cautious expression, and his heart felt even more ominous. He tried to ask tactfully: "What happened last night?"

  As soon as she finished speaking, Tang Ao's face became unnatural, and there seemed to be a faint flush on his face. He cleared his throat and didn't directly answer Su Tong's question, but instead asked her: "How do you feel now? Do you have a headache or neck pain or anything like that? I... yesterday night was also no other choice, can only think of ways to make you 'calm down' first, then think of ways to solve the problem. If you feel uncomfortable anywhere, don't bear it and not say it, I'll take you to the hospital for a check-up."

  Su Tong's two hands grasped the quilt, with an urge to jump out of bed quickly, rush out to buy a ticket, and fly to the Yellow River to commit suicide. Looking at Tang Ao's reaction, do you need to ask more? It's obvious that he really did those stupid things last night, and when he woke up, he thought it was just a dream!

  She felt even more embarrassed, her face red as if it was about to bleed.

  Tang Ao looked at her and guessed that she might have remembered something, so he took another look. Apart from being shy and embarrassed, her overall mental state was quite good, and she didn't seem to be uncomfortable in any way. He let out a sigh of relief and smiled: "Don't think too much about it, you weren't in control of yourself last night, that's why things happened the way they did. Don't have any guilty feelings about it." Actually, I was worried that I hadn't drawn that kind of talisman before, afraid it wouldn't work well or create more problems because my brushwork wasn't good enough. But now seeing you're in high spirits, I'm relieved. Come on, breakfast is ready, let's go eat together.

  In this case, how could Su Tong still have the face to eat breakfast calmly, thinking about his vaguely remembered actions in the "dream", even if Tang Xiao can pretend to be nonchalant, he would find it hard to feel at ease. No matter how out of control things were, they were all done by himself, running over to hug someone's waist and refusing to let go was him, blowing air into someone's ear was also him, standing on tiptoes to initiate a kiss was still him.

  Good grief, how embarrassing! Let's just find a crack in the ground and hide for a few years!

  So as not to sit in front of Tang Ao and be burned alive by the heat on her face, Su Tong felt that she should find an excuse to escape quickly. So she bit her lip and stammered: "I... I won't eat breakfast, I have to go home, change my clothes, and go to work..."

  Tang Ao glanced at his watch: "But it's not even 6:30 yet, you're not thinking of going to work this early, are you? I thought about it for half the night and I think I have a rough idea why your colleague Zhang Min was possessed and attacked you, and why you were also entranced after I brought you back home. Including what that dark spirit hiding in your house is, I've got some conclusions. Don't you want to listen to me explain while we eat breakfast?"

  “Think…” Although she felt a bit embarrassed, Su Tong nodded in agreement. She knew that avoiding the issue could temporarily avoid the awkwardness, but the temptation Tang Ao offered was too great. It’s said that to solve a problem, one needs to know its root cause. Su Tong had been troubled by these strange events for days and was on the verge of collapse. Especially after this embarrassing episode, she couldn’t wait to figure out what was going on, why she had gotten entangled in all this, and how to resolve the issue.

  Tang Ao let out a slight sigh of relief and made a gesture as if he was about to walk forward: "Do you need me to help you get past?"

  "Don't!" Su Tong's reaction was extremely quick, just like a cat whose tail had been accidentally stepped on. Her reaction startled Tang Ao, who was about to come over and help her up. Seeing this, she felt a bit embarrassed and hastily said, "I'm fine, I can walk by myself. You...just wait outside for me."

  What a joke, but thinking about the physical contact between the two people in that "dream" last night, Su Tong was already emitting hot air all over her body. If Tang Ao really came to support herself, she would have spontaneously combusted!

  Under the temptation of wanting to know the root of things, Su Tong slowly got out of bed and walked out of the bedroom with small steps. Firstly, she was embarrassed in her heart and couldn't face Tang Wei anymore. Secondly, after last night's shock and toss, her physical strength had not fully recovered yet.

  Tang Ao sat on the sofa in the living room, with a simple breakfast of milk, coffee and bread on the coffee table in front of him. Su Tong sat down beside Tang Ao, looking somewhat embarrassed, took the milk handed to her by Tang Ao, held it in her hand but didn't drink it hastily. She actually had no appetite at all now, feeling like she was sitting on pins and needles.

  Tang Ao felt a bit embarrassed, but the thing that made him feel embarrassed was quite different from Su Tong's. He looked at the small coffee table in front of him and said with some difficulty: "I usually live alone, and sometimes I have at least two meals a day in the studio, so I don't deliberately buy dining tables or anything like that when I occasionally cook at home. This meal can only be served on the sofa, sorry about that. I was going to make something delicious this morning, but last night I was thinking about things and fell asleep just before dawn. I had just woken up for a short while when I heard some noise in the bedroom, guessing it was you waking up. You were so exhausted from yesterday's ordeal, I was afraid you'd be hungry, so I quickly prepared some simple dishes. Just fill your stomach with these for now."

  "Don't say that," Su Tong felt even more ashamed because of Tang Ao's attitude, "These past few days have been me causing you trouble...because of me, you can't even rest well, and you've been running around everywhere, worrying and toiling away...I'm already feeling very guilty about it, and last night, I also..."

  Tang Ao raised his hand to signal her not to rush into saying those things, and casually handed her a piece of bread. "You told me before that you went on a trip to Changqing Mountain and hurt your foot there, didn't I remember correctly? Before that, when I met you at the hospital, you hadn't gone to Changqing Mountain yet, right? So why did you go there later?"

  Su Tong didn't expect Tang Ao to suddenly ask about this matter, so he told him again about the time those seven kids went on a spring outing to Changqing Mountain and mysteriously fainted: "I just went to take a look at where those few kids were originally found, and as a result, I don't know how I ended up hurting my ankle. When I fell down, I thought it was because I had tripped over a tree root, but when my colleague came over to help me up, she said that there weren't any exposed roots around."

  Tang Ao listened and then asked: "After you fell, apart from your foot being injured, was there anything else uncomfortable? How are the seven children now?"

  "I was...” Su Tong thought for a moment, suddenly remembering a detail he had overlooked. “I was also cut by something at the time, and there was a small wound on my hand with some blood coming out. Then... I also picked up a small figurine, it was very small, not even as big as the palm of my hand, I thought it was interesting so I brought it back. As for those seven kids, I contacted the hospital yesterday morning and they said that nothing has changed except their body temperature dropping slowly, and their heart rate and breathing becoming slower."

  "What does that small statue you saw look like? Can you tell what material it was originally made of?" Tang Ao asked, his expression looking very serious.

  Su Tong shook his head: "I don't quite see what material it's made of, that small sculpture is carved into the shape of a little kid, looking very lifelike. I brought it back and put it on the craft shelf at home. If you want to take a look, I can bring you over to see."

  "Alright, after we finish breakfast, let's go take a look." Tang Ao nodded, "I also hope you can take me to the hospital to see those few kids. I keep feeling that if we can figure out why they're unconscious, it might be helpful in solving your case. Or maybe, if we can solve your case, it might also help them."

  "You mean to say... these two things are related?" Su Tong was a bit surprised, but also felt that it made sense. Those few children were found unconscious in the courtyard of that abandoned mansion, and he himself had mysteriously sprained his ankle there, leaving behind two strange black handprints. The probability of these two events being related was still quite high.

  "I thought about it for a long time last night, and after hearing what you just said, I'm even more certain of my guess." Tang Ao told Su Tong the question he had figured out the previous night, "Actually, many signs are connected together, and it's not hard to see the truth behind them. I'll give you a hint, think about it yourself. First, after you went to Changqing Mountain, there was a black handprint on your ankle, what about the size of that handprint?"

  "It's especially small, two hands are not enough to wrap around my ankle." Su Tong replied.

  Tang Ao nodded: "Then when you were frightened at home, what did you hear?"

  "The sound of a child's crying." Something in Su Tong's mind began to surface.

  "You picked up a figurine in the shape of a child, yesterday morning Zhang Min came to find you, he entered your house, stayed for a while, and at night became uncontrollably enchanted, and then you were the same, and the reactions of both of you... " Tang Ao looked at Su Tong's embarrassed expression, cleared his throat, and didn't continue, skipping over these, and getting straight to the point. "So with all these signs put together, linked up, man, woman, baby... what do you think you can make out?"

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