Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 95: A Proposal

Huangsu Police Station, Youzhao City.

Officer Xiao Zhou opened his thermos and took a big gulp of strong tea. His sleep had been getting worse lately. Memory loss, general weakness, and a strange sense of sleepwalking while on duty had left him unsettled.

His coworkers were all sluggish too. Maybe a flu was going around he thought while yawning.

Just before nightfall, a young man in a red T-shirt came in asking for help.

It was strange. The wind was howling outside, but the guy was wearing only a T-shirt, his skin pale from the cold. He was thin too, like he hadn’t eaten properly in days.

Officer Xiao Zhou immediately felt alert. He rushed to bring him into the reception room and handed him a warm glass of sweet milk.

The young man looked rough, but his face was striking. His features were gentle and his eyes clear like a student’s. His black hair fell neatly along his cheeks, making him look like a model young citizen.

At his feet stood a fluffy little black dog, clinging to his pants, big eyes darting about like black grapes.

Oddly, Xiao Zhou felt the young man looked familiar. Could this be a celebrity? Or an influencer?

He seemed to have seen this person somewhere…. Before…

“My name is Fang Xiu. I haven’t been able to reach my cousin,” the young man said shyly. “Her name’s Hu Die. Her number is 1××××××××××. I lost my phone and luggage. I didn’t know what else to do…”

As he spoke, his head drooped pitifully, looking helpless.

His speech carried an odd accent. It didn’t sound like the local dialect but more like the unclear pronunciation of someone with a hearing impairment.

Oh no… he’s disabled.

Xiao Zhou felt a pang. He enunciated clearly, “Don’t worry, just warm up first. We’ll contact—what’s your cousin’s number again?”

Fang Xiu watched his lips carefully and repeated the number slowly.

Xiao Zhou jotted it down and jogged back to the office to make the call. Thankfully, someone picked up quickly.

“Hello? Ms. Hu? This is the Huangsu Police Station…”

Though he sympathized with Fang Xiu, safety came first. Xiao Zhou immediately asked about their actual relationship, just in case someone was using the situation to harass her.

Face with his question, Ms. Hu was silent for a moment.

“…I understand. I’ll come pick him up right away,” she said calmly.

Xiao Zhou let out a breath. “Okay. If you have any clothes, it’d be good to bring a jacket for him.”

The kid looked half-frozen. A sudden chill like this could easily cause a cold.

Hu Die chuckled softly and hung up.

As the sun set, night fell quickly. Snow drifted outside the windows. Most building lights were dark, and the whole city seemed to sink into shadows.

Inside the empty reception room, Fang Xiu sat by the window, eyes fixed on the falling snow. The little dog lay across his feet, occasionally licking its nose.

Creak.

The door opened, and Hu Die stepped in gracefully. She was carrying a large shopping bag with a brand-new down coat inside. It was bright red, a good match for Fang Xiu’s T-shirt.

Her curled hair was dusted with snowflakes, which soon melted into shimmering beads, soaking silently into her hair.

“You shouldn’t be able to understand human speech anymore.”

She set the bag down in front of him and sat across from him. “Your group has some skills. After more than five loops, even Disaster Resolvers can barely hold human form.”

“But you… you can still communicate normally. How are you managing that?”

Her voice was curious, a hint of girlishness flashed across her face.

Fang Xiu watched her lips move and responded slowly, “I really can’t understand spoken language. I’m just reading lips and mimicking pronunciation.”

He touched his throat, feeling the vibration of his vocal cords.

“As for how the others are coping, I wouldn’t know.”

“So you’re saying you’re not with those sneaky ones.” Hu Die propped her chin on one hand. “I can tell, you’re more likable. At least you asked me to meet you at the police station instead of stalking me like a creep.”

“Now, tell me. Why did you bring me here?”

Fang Xiu stared at her.

She was still wearing that burgundy sweater. She smelled warm and cozy, still looked young at a glance, but the lines at her eyes and lips told a different story.

“I’d like to ask you to die, Ms. Hu Die,” Fang Xiu said politely. “…In other words, it’s time to wake up, Meng Xiaomeng.”

Beside him, Bai Shuangying slowly turned his head.

…Not long ago, he had fully deciphered the looping spell.

The Immortal E had fused the dreams of the entire city into one shared illusion, crafting a dreamscape based on reality but not quite real.

Once Hu Die died, the dream would reset to 18:00. on the 17th. Her death followed a single rule: she would only pass right before or after Meng Xiaomeng died with no delays.

“No matter how powerful the Immortal E is, it can’t override cause and effect. At most, it can influence people’s awareness.” At the time, Bai Shuangying told Fang Xiu confidently, “It is probably that what you dream at night, you achieve during the day.”

For example, if one dreamed of spending a long life in their dream, they would wake up and still be young, but wiser due to decades of experience they had “experienced”. Or, if one dream of a path before an impending tragedy, and chose a different path, they would feel as if they were reborn when waking up.

Countless people would wish for such a yellow millet dream.

But of course, such beautiful things always had a price.

The E wasn’t some benevolent wish-granter. If someone died or went mad in the dream, who could say what the real-world consequences would be?

“Hu Die exploited a loophole. Dissolving a living soul takes time, so the Immortal E’s judgment is delayed.”

“She cast a spell on herself. As soon as she shows signs of death, the dream retreats by one day. That only destabilizes the mind and harms the soul. She doesn’t need to truly wake up.”

Fang Xiu: “Got it. She’s using her soul as a security deposit to delay payment.”

Ordinary dreamers remained unaffected. Everyone has strange dreams now and then, and most people forget them upon waking.

Disaster Resolvers weren’t so lucky. Every loop deducted their sanity like clockwork.

Bai Shuangying believed he had solved the mystery of the Immortal E:

Dreams at night become truths by day.
Unstable minds distort body and soul.
Break the cocoon, become the butterfly, only to fall into the Yellow Springs.

In reality, perhaps Meng Xiaomeng had faced some misfortune, or she and Hu Die had grown apart. Hu Die, wanting to mend things, used the E to make her dreams come true.

She probably hadn’t intended to trap anyone in a loop. As the controller, she could stay lucid in the dream, unlike the Disaster Resolvers who had to sacrifice their sleep.

But something went wrong. Her daughter was caught in a death loop. Afraid of her daughter paying the price upon waking, Hu Die extended the dream, trying to find a solution.

Well, a mother’s love for her child. Bai Shuangying couldn’t feel it personally, but he’d heard the stories.

He told Fang Xiu his theory, and Fang Xiu just smiled. “You’re surprisingly optimistic for someone who claims to hate humans.”

“Because you seem to attract these kinds of E’s,” Bai Shuangying replied matter-of-factly.

For some reason, Fang Xiu stared at him for a long while, then gave him an unusually long kiss. He liked the story Bai Shuangying had imagined. He smiled for a full thirty minutes.

At the time, Fang Xiu didn’t confirm the theory. Instead, he fell into a long silence.

Then he began drifting along, until Zhuang Pengdao took action, prompting Fang Xiu to make his surprise visit to the station.

Bai Shuangying had assumed Fang Xiu had come up with a balanced plan. He never expected him to open with “please go die”.

When did his human become this rude?

And more than that, Fang Xiu had called Hu Die “Meng Xiaomeng”.

Upon hearing the name, Hu Die’s expression darkened. “What did you call me?”

Fang Xiu: “I said ‘go die.’”

Hu Die: “…”

Hu Die: “…I meant my name.”

Fang Xiu scratched his head sheepishly and smiled. “Sorry, I’m a bit sleep-deprived… I called you Meng Xiaomeng.”

Hu Die stood up, the smile gone from her face. “So you came here just to be crazy. Goodbye.”

Fang Xiu didn’t stop her.

“You could keep living like this,” he said, his voice a little muffled. “Avoiding Disaster Resolvers while feeding on their souls, dragging this out as long as you can.”

Hu Die paused but didn’t look back. “Winners win and losers lose. Everyone plays the game. It all depends on their own abilities.”

“Living this same day over and over. Trapped in this city’s eternal winter.”

“That’s most people’s life anyway. There’s nothing wrong with it,” she said softly. “I haven’t lived enough. I’m only in my thirties.”

“…You’ll never see your mother again.” Fang Xiu spoke slowly. “If you turn back now, you might still get to see her.”

Hu Die turned around slowly. Her eyes were a little red.

“You’re still just a teenager.”

Fang Xiu’s tone was oddly gentle. “You only dreamed for ten-odd years in one night.”

“You tried to raise yourself, to fix something that went wrong. But it didn’t quite work. You got stuck, didn’t you?”

Hu Die’s expression gradually faded. She returned to the table and sat down again.

“I was just letting you all fend for yourselves before,” she said quietly. “But what’s the point of making me mad now? Want me to give you a quick death?”

“No, I came to negotiate.”

Despite the exhaustion, his dark eyes burned like fire.

“If ‘you’ are willing to end this, I’ll get you out of this deadlock. The price is your dream life. You’ll forget everything. It’ll be as if you died.”

Fang Xiu stared at Hu Die. Bai Shuangying stared at Fang Xiu.

…He suddenly realized he had never told Fang Xiu that a Disaster Resolver’s soul could be used as a substitute. Yet Fang Xiu had said it like it was obvious.

And this offer of his wasn’t the “normal solution”.

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