When he came to his senses, he was standing in front of a bamboo forest.
The deep green bamboos swayed in the wind and rain, and the green waves overlapped in layers, rushing towards him from the eaves of the pavilions exposed in the distance. The air is moist and fresh, filled with the light aroma of grass and trees, which makes you feel relaxed and happy.
But this is just a dream.
He clearly remembered what happened before falling asleep, so he understood that this was just a dream he had on the mountain road. No matter how real it seems, as long as the accompanying blue magpie shouts a few times, it will all disappear.
Still, the dream was surprisingly real. He looked back, looking past the hazy rain and fog, and saw the outline of a building in the distance. The city was brightly lit, but shrouded in gloomy clouds, looking both prosperous and dim.
This place looked like the suburbs of a certain city, but Luo Binhan didn't remember that there was such a bamboo forest in the suburbs of Lihai City. The pavilions deep in the bamboo sea are full of ancient charm, as if calling him to come closer.
He walked into the forest with curiosity and walked along the stone path. The bamboo shadows were layered on both sides of him, and the green color was so thick that it seemed to drip down with the rain. The scene was light and pure, as if even the sounds of the world had disappeared.
This place and the hustle and bustle of the outside world are like two different worlds.
He walked forward without thinking about anything, until he heard some man-made movement deep in the winding path.
Swish, swish, swish. The rhythmic and dragging sound was the broom made of dead branches falling on the stone slab. He knew someone was sweeping the floor ahead.
Because the atmosphere around him was so peaceful, he followed the sound without thinking. Turning around the winding stone path, the source of the sound was a girl holding a broom and wearing a black hair shawl.
She wore a light white dress and ribbon sandals. Because he faced the pavilion, only Luo Binhan's back was left, like a lonely and delicate white butterfly, which could be blown away by the wind and rain at any time.
Luo Binhan watched the hem of her skirt fluttering, and the familiar feeling made his heart surge.
"Piaris," he murmured.
The movement of the girl's hand paused. She put down the broom and let out a long sigh.
"It's a miracle you haven't been killed by any woman."
Zhou Yu turned around gracefully and looked at him with her trademark polite expression. That kind of look is her "combat mode", which is both elegant and distant enough, specially used to deal with people other than Zhou Yu.
If it were in the past, Luo Binhan, who had a deep shadow about this, would never dare to talk back. But since it was just an accidental dream, he felt that it didn't matter how wild he was.
"Why?" He said with a smile, "I am such an innocent young man from a good family, who has the nerve to kill me? Aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning?"
"Yes, after all, it depends on the owner's face when throwing a potted plant. Do you want me to give you a label? You can write the owner's name to prevent it from being lost."
She spat out harsh words without any hesitation, and her thin, bloodless lips raised a rather vicious smile. That is never shown in front of Zhou Yu's eyes, but it is indeed a side of her nature. Sadly, even this extremely bad personality flaw makes Luo Binhan feel nostalgic now.
"I'm going to die," he said to himself.
The drizzle hit Zhou Yu's hair. She brushed away the raindrops with her hand, and then said coldly: "When you're done wandering around, leave quickly. This is not the place you should be."
"Where on earth is this? It looks very artistic to me, and I even hired a butterfly spirit to be the cleaner."
"...Do you want to become a beautiful crystal statue?"
"What?"
Zhou Yu tilted her head, as if she didn't want to talk to him anymore. She closed her eyes and said: "The master of Yulou will not see you. If you know the truth, go back immediately, otherwise it will be annoying waiting for that guy to come over."
"Who's coming over? Zhou Yu?"
Luo Binhan immediately felt a little excited. He hadn't chatted with Zhou Yu for a long time, and he urgently needed to express his feelings during this period, even if it was just in a dream.
Unfortunately, Zhou Yu shook her head and rejected his idea.
"Zhou Yu won't come here now. He has many important things to do. But you, you have made no progress no matter where you are, are you still planning to wait for death?"
"Not really." Luo Binhan said honestly, "It's very chaotic outside right now. I have to be quiet here. I won't go out until someone calls me."
Zhou Yu raised her slender and curved eyebrows, and finally swept the ground without saying a word. Luo Binhan couldn't help but feel a little bored, and he said boldly: "Do you know what I have experienced during this time? How about I tell you about it?"
"...Are you so unwilling to be lonely that you want to chat with the dead in your dreams? I'm really worried about your interpersonal relationships. How about trying talking to a trash can? That can at least lighten the burden of life for others."
Luo Binhan didn't mind her cynicism at all. He thought that the character in the dream was no different from a trash can, and it was so fun to make the butterfly spirit angry. He deliberately talked a lot of nonsense to her. It wasn't until the broomstick in Zhou Yu's hand was dangerously twisted that he closed his mouth with satisfaction.
"It's all boring stuff," she said dryly.
"Aren't we also going to be implicated?" Luo Binhan said, "If that insect really comes over, not only the savages, we won't be able to offend it either, right?"
"It's better to leave by boat. That place has nothing to do with you in the first place."
"Didn't we cause the trouble?"
"It's rare for you to have such self-awareness. But please don't take yourself too seriously. Even if you don't do anything, you will wake up sooner or later. It's just a gap of a few decades."
"How do you know decades?"
"Just saying it casually. Do you want to be more realistic about what you dreamed about?"
A person in a dream told him that things in dreams don't have to be real, which really made Luo Binhan feel weird. He complained and said: "Isn't this unbearable? The savage is usually very polite to you and lets you eat and drink for free. Now when someone is in trouble, we run away. Who will eat for free in the future?"
Zhou Yu swept the stone road with a cold attitude, as if she wanted to sweep the already clean road until it was spotless.
"You know that, right?" she said.
"What do you know?"
"Don't you know how this matter will be resolved? Otherwise, you wouldn't have come here. People who don't have important things on their mind can't find Yu Lou."
She tilted her head slightly and smiled lightly.
"Yes, it's what you think. How far should it go? It's hard to say. If you really care about it, just cover that world."
"What the hell?" Luo Binhan asked even more inexplicably.
"I'm talking about you. If you really don't like what you see, then close your eyes."
"Huh? Am I crazy? As long as I don't open my eyes, the world won't exist?"
There was absolutely no intention of making fun of fools. Zhou Yu fiddled with her hair and said in a matter-of-fact tone: "Yes, isn't that what happened?"
A high and loud whistle came from a distance.
Luo Binhan looked over subconsciously and saw a white crane flying in the distance. The chirping of cranes echoed over the bamboo sea.
"Looks like he's back." The girl said in his ear.
Luo Binhan was startled when he heard Zhou Yu's voice coming so close. He turned his gaze back and found that the other person's face was less than ten centimeters away from him.
Her deep eyes, sickly pale skin, and beautiful appearance with a melancholy temperament all make people want to retreat. Although Luo Binhan really thought so, he couldn't move his feet at all.
Eyes as dark as pool water stared at him. There is no hint of lust in his sight, like some kind of transparent and cold inorganic substance.
"Although Zhou Yu doesn't agree, I think it doesn't matter. I'll give you a little hint, Luo Binhan. Regarding how to use your eyes..."
Those eyes were all he could see.
The gleaming visual organ is embedded in the human eye socket like a fake made of crystal. After meeting the eyes of the fake pair, the air around them seemed to freeze. The heartbeat was getting louder and louder, and every beat seemed to be hitting some invisible barrier.
There was a crisp sound of rattling coming from the body.
Zhou Yu retreated toward the rear lightly. Her eyes shine like two bright moons. Luo Binhan wanted to reach out and grab her, but he couldn't bend his joints at all.
Regardless of the skin or bones, the moment he looked into those eyes, his body began to creak. He struggled a little harder and his whole body fell to the ground. The torso was smashed to pieces, and the arms rolled out with a grunt.
He stared blankly at the cranes flying in the sky, and found a crack appearing in his sight. Of course it wasn't that the sky was cut apart, it must have been that his face and eyeballs were also cracked.
What has actually happened?
With doubts, he looked sideways at the ground beside him. There was neither blood nor minced meat, just many beautiful and shining crystal fragments.
He realized that it was his body.
"These are the eyes of 'Jingzu'. Although their nature is different from yours, the vision they see is similar. Do you understand this? It's that simple to make the world disappear."
The white skirt is fluttering, like a butterfly flying in the air, making a slight sound like pollen.
"But what you see will never be forgotten, Luo Binhan. If you use that vision to modify the world, what you see will in turn modify you. If the whole world disappears, who will you be then? "
Slender hands lifted his head up, then ruthlessly let go. His vision flipped rapidly in the air until he suddenly hit the ground.
His vision collapsed and scattered, like a mirror broken into hundreds of pieces, sinking into the rain-soaked mud. When Luo Binhan suddenly woke up from his deep nightmare, the dampness and coldness of the rain and fog still remained in the depths of his eyes.
