Seizing Dreams

Translated by: DMlations/Zryuu

Edited by: Amelea and FistFullOfDollars

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Yu Hao motioned to Zhou Sheng to wait, then ordered the warriors who were guarding the front of his palace to bring them some drinks. A moment later, the warriors had carried a table over. The table was laid with two cups of coffee and some snacks. Only then did Yu Hao sit down with Zhou Sheng as they continued watching.

“What a bunch of nonsense!”

“Look at this, and this, these are obviously marks left behind by an uppercut, then a straight punch. Do you need me to simulate it for you? Come, stand up! Let’s do a simulation of the original scene......”

“What do you want to do?! Doctor! Nurse!”

“You have horrible upbringing!” Lin Xun shouted angrily, “Horrible! Get out!”

Zhou Sheng’s voice could be heard, “Yo Professor don’t get so agitated, I’ll ring the bell for you to call the doctor!”

When he saw how Lin Xun had been enraged and Zhou Sheng’s signature ‘meaningful smile’, Yu Hao almost spat his coffee out.

“Then afterwards he turned into a madman.” Zhou Sheng shrugged and his armour made a soft clanging sound. He took a sip of his coffee and said, “The coffee in your dream tastes better than the one in reality......he scolded me for rumour-mongering and notified Kaikai to quickly get his ass over, then I was......chased out of the ward. End of story.”

In the end, Zhou Sheng added while Yu Hao was still in thought, “I didn’t want to meddle with another couple’s affairs, but I really couldn’t bear to watch any longer. After being exposed, he would have more misgivings and probably wouldn’t use as much strength next time.” He sighed again as he spoke, “Why does this kind of asshole exist in the world?”

Yu Hao contemplated, “Laoshi must know about Lin Xun’s domestic violence, do you think that’s his motive for murder?”

Zhou Sheng answered, “Your thinking is too simplistic, there must be something else that’s fishy about this.”

Yu Hao answered, “What else could there be?”

Zhou Sheng, “You sure you want to hear it?”

Yu Hao, “Of course, isn’t that why we came here?”

Zhou Sheng, “Not entirely......ok ba, it’s just my guess. I think the car accident was contrived by someone.”

“No way!” Yu Hao instantly exclaimed, “Don’t think that way!”

Zhou Sheng said impatiently, “See! I knew you’d scold me.”

Yu Hao quickly changed his tune, “I just think...that it isn’t necessary for him to do that.”

Zhou Sheng said, “He drove the car, his wife sat in the passenger’s seat, she didn’t fasten her seatbelt, after the accident he didn’t even come on the first day of New Year, I can’t be sure that this was a homicide, but I can tell that this person wants his wife dead. Haven’t you heard of the ‘Three Main Pleasures of Middle-Aged Men’? Promotion, getting rich, dead wife — perhaps, this kind of violent scum really does want his wife to die soon.”

A sudden chill came over Yu Hao. Zhou Sheng said, “Think about it. For a normal couple, if the wife suffers from a severe concussion after a car accident, why wouldn’t he be by her side the next day? And instead lets Chen Yekai watch over her by himself? Connecting it to the bruises caused by domestic violence, the relationship between that couple must have already......”

Zhou Sheng was talking, but Yu Hao couldn’t listen to him anymore. Like a flash of lightning, a realization suddenly struck him and an important detail became elucidated ......

“I’ve sat on that BMW.” Yu Hao murmured.

“Ah?” Zhou Sheng looked at Yu Hao with a baffled expression.

Yu Hao clearly remembered the day he sat in Chen Yekai’s car and was driven back to school after he had been scolded at the flower cafe. In front of the driver’s seat that day, there was a light red perfume bottle, and the car was beeping nonstop. Yu Hao even thought that he had broken something, so he was quite flustered.

“Fasten your seat belt.”

Yu Hao fastened the seat belt and the beeping noise stopped.

Chen Yekai’s expression looked frighteningly cold. He maneuvered the steering wheel and drove towards a 24 hour hot pot shop. Yu Hao buckled his seat belt and said, “I’m not eating. I’ve already eaten dinner, Laoshi.”

Yu Hao told Zhou Sheng what happened that day. Zhou Sheng looked at Yu Hao suspiciously, “Oh? So he drove Lin Xun’s car and sent you back?”

“If she didn’t wear her seat belt.” Yu Hao immediately said, “The car alarm would go off!”

Zhou Sheng, “Do you not know that there is something called a seat belt buckle in this world?”

Yu Hao seldom rode private cars, so he didn’t really understand. Zhou Sheng was halfway through explaining when he suddenly thought of something, “No, when you sat in the car that day, there was no seat belt buckle.”

Yu Hao said, “Chen Laoshi even reminded me to fasten my seat belt at that time.”

After Zhou Sheng mulled it over for a moment, he said, “In other words, it was at least after that day that Lin Xun inserted the seat belt buckle.”

That didn’t prove much, but Yu Hao already has some faith in Zhou Sheng’s theories. Though it seemed really horrifying after considering everything carefully......

“Liang Jinmin actually wouldn’t fasten her seat belt?” Zhou Sheng ate one of the snacks, “That is quite amazing of her. That couple has been abroad for so long, foreigners get fined if they don’t wear seat belts, yet they didn’t form a habit of doing so while they were there?”

Yu Hao said, “I think Chen Laoshi definitely has more inside information about this.”

Zhou Sheng, “Insufficient information, unable to determine anything.”

“Is it good?” Yu Hao was distracted by Zhou Sheng’s actions.

“Not bad.” Zhou Sheng chewed on the snack, “The delicious food you eat in reality will appear in your dreamscape, symbolising your happy memories of it. In fact, we can’t actually taste anything. The only signal that gets sent to our consciousness is that it ‘tastes good’, but it’s not real.”

Yu Hao was suddenly burning with questions, yet his mind was in a frantic and jumbled mess so he didn’t know where to start.

Zhou Sheng suggested, “It’s too late today, do you want to enter his dream tomorrow night to take a look?”

Yu Hao, “That’s possible?”

Zhou Sheng, “Of course it’s possible. He usually helps us a lot, so we can treat this as repaying the favour ba.”

The two of them looked at each other in silence. Yu Hao was still immersed in Zhou Sheng’s deductions.

“How could such a thing happen?” Yu Hao looked around him. The glow of the sunset shone upon them, and the bricks of the palaces glimmered with a golden brilliance. He said, “Dreams are much more beautiful than reality.”

“Otherwise, why would people say ‘sweet dreams’?” Zhou Sheng said, “But you definitely can’t get too engrossed in dreams. For a period of time, all General wanted to do was sleep, because whatever he wanted would appear in his dreams. So he became more and more disillusioned with reality, and at last, it burst with a pop like a soap bubble.”

Yu Hao couldn’t enter his palace at will when he dreamed, and perhaps he had been here, but he wouldn’t remember anything after he woke up. He could only construct such a beautiful dream by relying on Zhou Sheng’s ability. Listening to Zhou Sheng’s words now, perhaps his sense of loss would double after he woke up.

“I understand.” Yu Hao said, “But, let me remember this dream tonight ba.”

Zhou Sheng didn’t insist on anything. He raised his hand, and the light from the setting sun spilled gently onto him.

Yu Hao closed his eyes. Zhou Sheng pressed his hand against his forehead.

“You were right, General.” Yu Hao said, “Even in my dream, I wouldn’t be your opponent.”

“Don’t be corny!” Zhou Sheng said, “Good night!”

Yu Hao woke up. He felt about for his phone groggily and checked the time — 4am, he could continue to sleep. But Zhou Sheng got up from the adjacent bed and went to take a bath. Yu Hao played games on his phone for awhile and yawned. When Zhou Sheng came back in his underwear, he lifted his blanket and burrowed underneath it.

“Zhou Sheng.” Yu Hao said.

“Un.” Zhou Sheng was staring at his phone.

“I’m sorry.” Yu Hao said, “I just didn’t want to implicate you.”

“Never mind what they say.” Zhou Sheng casually said, “I don’t care about it.”

Yu Hao said, “If there are people pointing at and talking about you behind your back, how could they be ignored? If it was really just that then so be it, but they even accused you unfairly like that......”

Zhou Sheng, “Are you picking a fight again?”

So Yu Hao could only stop talking while riddled with guilt. Zhou Sheng said helplessly, “My little ancestor! Why the hell do you care about other people’s opinions so much? Does it affect your graduation? How much money you earn? What you eat? Would you lose a piece of meat if they talk about you?”

Yu Hao said, “Maybe it’s because my Grandma used to care, so because I was raised by her, I also became very particular about other people discussing my parents. Also, if they talk about me, I can accept it, but if they talk about you, I can’t.”

Zhou Sheng said, “Just pretend you can’t hear anything people say behind your back, and catch anyone who dares to say anything. I’ll hit one whenever one comes along, once you hit them enough, no one will say anything anymore. It’s not any of their damn business, they’re just salty carrot eaters who worry about the taste of bland ones because they have nothing better to do. Come come, what did they say in your class chat? Add me in, I’ll cuss them out for you one by one.”

How could Yu Hao dare to add Zhou Sheng in? He quickly said, “They didn’t say anything.”

Zhou Sheng, “Then you dragged this out with me for half a day? Do you think it’s amusing to make fun of me like this?”

Yu Hao, “......”

Zhou Sheng’s irascible appearance immediately reminded him of the Great Sage who carried a Jingubang on his shoulder and looked like he wasn’t afraid of the heavens or the earth — he would smash whoever dared to block his way with one swing of his rod. Then he began to laugh.

“Are you still changing dorms?” Zhou Sheng asked.

“Not anymore.” Yu Hao answered.

Zhou Sheng turned off the lights and put his phone down. Yu Hao laid down on his side in the darkness as he faced Zhou Sheng.

After awhile, Zhou Sheng suddenly said, “That day, you didn’t see the back of the cycling competition’s poster, did you?”

Yu Hao replied, baffled, “No, why?”

“Nothing. Good night.” Zhou Sheng said.

Yu Hao, “???”

The next day, they attended classes as usual, and Yu Hao still sat with Zhou Sheng. Yu Hao knew that everyone in the lecture hall was snickering and staring at them, and it felt like his back was being repeatedly pricked with thorns. But Zhou Sheng just did whatever he wanted. He laid sprawled on the table as he took a nap and didn’t show the slightest reaction.

Yu Hao kept composing his mental state and told himself not to care about other people’s opinions. In the afternoon, Zhou Sheng went for his volleyball class while Yu Hao took a nap and did his own revision in the library. The spring sunshine streamed in through the large french windows, making him drowsy, and he couldn’t help but lie on the table to take a short nap.

He felt like he had been trapped so deeply that it was impossible to extricate himself from the pit — he liked Zhou Sheng too much. Why did he always end up liking straight men? And the worse thing was, Zhou Sheng always treats him so well. This caused Yu Hao to be walking on eggshells everyday as he was afraid of losing what he had, and it was exhausting. Once someone was afraid of losing what they had, they couldn’t help but court their own death — to torment others, and to torment themselves.

If this torment continues, Zhou Sheng would get irritated with him sooner or later and tell him to get lost. Countless thoughts turned over in Yu Hao’s mind during his afternoon nap, but they all subsided gradually. After awhile, those thoughts would bubble to the surface again — sometimes it would be sweet, sometimes upsetting, until he was smacked awake by someone——

“Yu Hao, you’re not going to the gym to take a look?” A guy from a sports class said, “Something happened, a fight broke out, let’s go!”

“What?” Yu Hao hadn’t fully roused yet, his face looked blank.

This afternoon, the gymnasium ushered in the largest-scale group fight between two classes since the establishment of the college, which caused a huge sensation throughout the entire school. Zhou Sheng had taken down ten people by himself with ease, and with this one battle, he had turned into a god!

When Yu Hao rushed to the gymnasium, there was a student from the photography club with a DSLR who was showing off his excellent photography skills to his juniors: high-speed dynamic high-speed continuous capture, 20 shots per second, continuous fast playback like a 24 fps movie. Within his shots, Zhou Sheng had wrapped up his fist with his sports clothes as he beat up the students from Sports Class 3 until they were crawling around on the floor.

Yu Hao, “......”

The huge volleyball court was completely empty, and a lot of nosebleeds had sprayed onto the walls. There was even the leather shoe of a security guard discarded on the floor. Yu Hao looked at this scene for a moment before turning tail and running towards the administrative office of the college.

“You’ve come just at the right moment, Yu Hao.” When the League Secretary saw Yu Hao arrive, she waved to him, “I was about to go look for you.”

Yu Hao had just arrived at the corridor when he saw Zhou Sheng, Fu Liqun and a huge group of guys from Sports Class 2 standing on the left side of the corridor as if they were made to stand there as a punishment. The guy who had led the guys in Sports Class 3 to provoke them at Golden peak still had an active nose bleed — he looked just like a defeated cock as he stood still at the other side of the corridor and awaited punishment.

Zhou Sheng had both his hands stuffed into his pockets as he looked to the other side like he was bored stiff. But as soon as Yu Hao came, Zhou Sheng immediately started frowning.

“He’s here.” The League Secretary pushed the door of the conference room and brought Yu Hao in. The Dean, Lin Xun, Xue Long, the Vice Principal and Class 3’s form teacher were all there, and even Ye Jin was there as well. Only Chen Yekai was nowhere to be found.

Zhou Sheng immediately pushed the door open and came in, “This has nothing to do with Yu Hao!”

“Zhou Sheng, get out.” The Dean said coldly, “We will not tolerate your impudence!”

Yu Hao quickly waved his hand at Zhou Sheng to ask him not to be impulsive. Originally, he thought that everything had been settled, but he really didn’t expect that they would still end up fighting. And Chen Yekai’s absence now perturbed him.

Xue Long said, “Yu Hao, do you know what happened?”

Yu Hao answered, “I don’t know. I was studying alone in the library.”

In the past, Yu Hao would have probably cooperated with Xue Long, but after Shi Ni’s case, he already knew that the Vice Principal and Xue Long were biased against him. This time, even the Dean was here, so the situation must be even more serious than the previous time.

“Sit down and talk.” Professor Lin Xun offered politely.

The Dean sighed. This was the third time Yu Hao saw Lin Xun. The first time was at the college’s literary art’s performance, and the second time was in Zhou Sheng’s memory playback when they were in the conscious world.

“What is there to even say about this?!” The Vice Principal exclaimed, “This is absolutely ridiculous! It’s not even something that can be discussed!”

Xue Long said to everyone, “Let me say it ba.”

“O.” Yu Hao looked tentatively at Xue Long and asked, “Xue Laoshi, what happened?”

Xue Long could instinctively sense that Yu Hao seemed to have changed a lot as compared to how he was like in the past. He took this reaction to mean that he had become even more slippery than before.

“To make a long story short.” Xue Long said, “Zhou Sheng fought with the students in Sports Class 3 over some prior disputes, and some of them were related to you, so we called you to come to ask you about the situation.”

It was exactly like what Yu Hao had guessed. Sports Class 2 and Sports Class 3 had volleyball classes today. Someone from the other side called Lei Hongbo started it first; he spiked the ball with deadly intent and had spiked it at the setter’s head.

The setter was Fu Liqun. Fu Liqun gave the others a meaningful look, then he got another hit to his head. Five seconds later, Fu Liqun jumped up to intercept the ball at the net as he cooperated with another tall guy called Xia Ye, then they smashed two balls in succession into Lei Hongbo’s face. Immediately afterwards, both sides gave the other a few pushes, then they broke out into a fight as they had been spoiling for.

In the next moment, Lei Hongbo rushed forward with a group of people to come to blows with the other side, but Sports Class 2 suddenly dispersed with a whoosh, and Zhou Sheng — who had just finished warming up — appeared.

Yu Hao only hated the fact that he had not been present at the battle where Zhou Sheng completely turned into a God.

“Tell us about what happened on Golden peak ba.” Xue Long said, “According to what the other students said, after you came back from treading the green, you egged Zhou Sheng on to ask Hong Leibo to fight outside the school. Was that the case?”

Yu Hao gazed at Xue Long calmly, “I egged Zhou Sheng?”

“That’s what someone else said.” Xue Long said uneasily.

Yu Hao thought, you’re doing that again? So he said, “Who said it? Ask that person to come out and confront me.”

The Vice Principal put his glasses down and said, “Yu Hao, what on earth is wrong with you? Why are you always stirring up trouble?”

The Dean had been staring at Yu Hao with a complicated gaze the whole time. It was as if her sharp eyes could look straight through Yu Hao’s heart. All of Yu Hao’s hairs were standing on end from her gaze, and he paid even more attention to the fact that Lin Xun was present. Why was he here? This matter had nothing to do with him at all.

“What trouble did I cause?” Yu Hao asked innocently, “Lei Hongbo was the one who threatened us on Golden peak first, and he almost attacked Zhou Sheng then.”

The form teacher of Sports Class 3 was a tall and skinny pole-vaulting graduate student from the sports department. He didn’t know how to deal with this situation. After all, he was a newly graduated student who had just obtained his master’s degree and dealing with a large-scale group fight far surpassed the limits of his ability. He did his best to say, “I wasn’t around then, and after Hongbo came back, he said that nothing was wrong and that it was all just a misunderstanding.”

“Where’s Chen Laoshi?” He can testify that after we came back, we had all talked it out properly.”

“Chen Yekai has resigned.” The Dean said calmly, “He handed in his resignation letter today, and I’ve already approved it.”

—