石器盒子

Xu Youning screamed and suddenly jumped up from the bed with sweat all over her head. She couldn’t even tell where she was at the moment. She just wanted to see her grandma right away, so she removed the quilts and got out of bed.

Due to the fact that she had laid in bed for too long without having eaten a thing, she fell the moment she stepped out of bed. Her whole body simply collapsed.

Mu Sijue walked in from outside and saw Xu Youning falling down. He rushed over the hold her, but it was too late. He could only lift her up as soon as he could.

“Xu Youning, you...” Mu Sijue was about to admonish her when he saw Xu Youning’s red eyes. His words stopped and were turned into an inquiry. “What’s wrong?”

Xu Youning lifted her head and helplessly caught Mu Sijue, “Mu Sijue, something happened to my grandma. I saw...” Her eyes felt a warm flow and tears came out first before her words.

“You’ve slept all day. How could you see your grandma?” Mu Sijue frowned. “You just had a nightmare.”

“No, it was not a nightmare...” In Xu Youning’s mind, it was real. She shook her head and said, “I want to go home! I have to see my grandma!” Then, she tried to rush out.

Mu Sijue caught Xu Youning just in time. “We’re not in City G!”

“...We’re not in City G?” Xu Youning looked around and realized she was on an island with Mu Sijue, which was more than a thousand miles away from City G.

Therefore, what Mu Sijue said was correct. She couldn’t have seen her grandma.

“So, the things that just happened were really just a nightmare?”

Xu Youning scratched her head and tried to clear her mind. “We’re on the island. This morning... didn’t you tell me that you would take me to some place? Why am I still on the island?”

Mu Sijue frowned even more. “Something wrong happened to the boat on our way. You ate some wild fruit in the jungle. Did you forget?”

Xu Youning tried hard to think about it and the feeling of how her stomach ached finally came up to her mind.

Later, Mu Sijue had carried her to the boat on his back...

But then, did Mu Sijue take her back to the island?

Xu Youning’s memories became fragments which couldn’t be stitched back together at the moment. She didn’t know the reason why her stomach suddenly ached and looked at Mu Sijue while in a blank. “Was that kind of wild fruit poisonous? Can it induce nightmares? But I’ve eaten it before and I never felt anything wrong.”

Mu Sijue avoided Xu Youning’s frenzied eyes and replied quite unnaturally, “They shouldn’t be eaten during your period.”

“...” Xu Youning stopped and felt quite awkward about it. She nervously reached her hand to Mu Sijue. “Give me your cellphone. I want to call my grandma.” The nightmare seemed too real to her so she still felt worried about it.

“It’s half past eleven in the evening. Your grandma must have gone to sleep.” Mu Sijue asked calmly, “Are you sure you want to bother her just because of a nightmare?”

Xu Youning: “...” He was right. She couldn’t make the phone call right then. If there was nothing wrong with her grandma, the call would only worry her.

She touched her belly as if nothing had ever happened. “I slept for so long? No wonder I’m so hungry!”

Then, she put on her shoes and walked directly to the diner.

The waiter at the diner saw Xu Youning and smiled, “Miss Xu, you’re awake?”

“...You’re still working?” Xu Youning stared at her eyes. “I wanted to find some random food for myself.”

“Mr. Mu asked us to.” The waiter passed the menu to Xu Youning. “He was afraid that you might feel hungry by the time you woke up. Take a look and tell me what you want to eat. You can order food not listed on the menu. The cook can make it for you.”

Xu Youning held the menu and was confused—Mu Sijue specially ordered the staff in the diner to work overtime for her?

Didn’t it sound like a fairytale?

At last, Xu Youning asked for a bowl of porridge and chose a seat beside the window.

The lights on the island were lit overnight. She looked out through the window and had a great view of the wonderful night scenery of the island.

However, with time going by, her mind subconsciously went back to the nightmare which had worried her all night long.

She seldom dreamed at night, not to mention a dream which seemed so real. Could it be only a nightmare like Mu Sijue said?

Before Xu Youning could think about an answer, Mu Sijue showed up at the diner.

He sat across her gave the cellphone back to her. “You can call Auntie Sun.”

Xu Youning’s eyes brightened. How did she forget about it? If she called Auntie Sun, it wouldn’t affect her granny’s rest!

She instantly turned on the phone and dialed Auntie Sun’s number, but the only message she got was that her Auntie’s phone was powered off.

She felt down. That bad feeling came back to her mind again.

“Miss Xu, this is the porridge you wanted.” The waiter served Xu Youning with the fresh and delicious porridge. “Enjoy.”

“Thanks.” Xu Youning mechanically stirred the porridge in the bowl; all kinds of different reasons why Auntie Sun’s phone was off flashed in her brain. Her face turned even darker.

Mu Sijue felt somewhat guilty after giving her that advice. He took a look at his watch and said, “We’ll be back in City G by morning. There are only six hours left.”

Six hours...

Xu Youning thought about it and realized six hours were not too long to wait. Reassured, she nodded and started to eat the porridge.

In the end, they went back to the cabin together.

Xu Youning quickly took a shower and lay in bed. But she just couldn’t fall asleep. Maybe it was because she had overslept during the daytime or she was simply still worried.

She moved for a while and then Mu Sijue also walked out from the bathroom. She looked at him with her mind a blank, not knowing what to say. The atmosphere in the room was a bit embarrassing.

Finally Mu Sijue broke the silence. “Turn off the light. Don’t speak. I want to sleep.

Xu Youning answered him with an “oh,” then reached out her hand to turn off the lamp on the bedstand. The entire room was swallowed by darkness. She could feel Mu Sijue lying down on the other side of the bed.

When really thinking about it, they... they hadn’t slept in a bed peacefully like that.

At the moment, the air in the room seemed to be frozen. Xu Youning caught an end of the quilt and was careful even with her breath.

“Cover yourself with the quilt.” Mu Sijue’s cold voice cut through the darkness and went into Xu Youning’s ears.

Xu Youning became stiff and then replied. She pulled over the quilt and covered herself. She couldn’t help wondering, “Since when did Mu Sijue become so careful and garrulous? He even worries about whether I had a quilt?”

“Maybe it’s because he’s sleeping by the seaside?”

Mu Sijue saw Xu Youning covered in the quilt, then closed his eyes and fell asleep.

In just a moment, Xu Youning heard his breath become shallow and stable in silence.

From what she knew about Mu Sijue, she could tell that he was indeed asleep.

She was relieved. She bravely changed into a more comfortable sleeping position and saw Mu Sijue’s face with the dim light coming from outside of the window.

While looking at his face, Xu Youning suddenly wanted to punch him.

If it weren’t for his face, she wouldn’t have tasted the real feeling of love, and her life and plans wouldn’t have been bothered like that.

After being unhappy for a while, a wild idea came up to Xu Youning’s mind.

No matter how she was encouraged, she didn’t dare to punch him.

But she dared to give him a hug.

When thinking about it, Xu Youning quietly got close to him, staring at him for a while. Then she carefully got into his arms like a worm.

Her face lightly leaned against Mu Sijue’s chest and then she listened to his heartbeat. Suddenly, she felt secure and her breath synchronized with his heartbeat.

“Your breath controls my heartbeat. Could it be seen as the true intimacy?”

Xu Youning closed her eyes and didn’t move a bit, as if afraid to disturb this intimacy.

After quite a while, Mu Sijue still remained unmoving. Then she reached out her hand and lightly hugged Mu Sijue.

A short while would be enough. She knew she couldn’t stay too long with Mu Sijue. So just a while would be great...

But the fact was that Xu Youning overestimated herself.

Before she could let go of him, she fell asleep. Almost at the same time, Mu Sijue opened his eyes.

Mu Sijue didn’t sleep deeply all the time. By the time Xu Youning got close to him sneakily, he had felt it and he knew Xu Youning’s purpose.

At the moment, he felt bewitched. He not only didn’t open his eyes, but looked forward to it. Then, he felt his heart being pricked when he felt how careful Xu Youning was.

She was courageous and reckless all the time. What made her so careful and prudent?

Mu Sijue reached out his hand and held her in his arms like Xu Youning dreamt about.

“This one time.” He told himself to go with his heart just this once.

That night, Mu Sijue didn’t fall asleep again and Xu Youning just lay still in his arms.

Just like what Mu Sijue said, six hours was just a short period of time and it soon became bright.

Xu Youning opened her eyes on time and tried to move but felt something on her waist. When she carefully looked at it, she thought she might be having a hallucination—

On her waist were Mu Sijue’s hands, as he was surrounding her with his arms. She didn’t evade Mu Sijue. Instead, she leaned on his chest and half of her weight was over him. They looked extremely intimate.

Her mind told Xu Youning that she should leave right away. But, she was strangely obsessed with that feeling. She subconsciously reached out her hand and traced Mu Sijue’s figure in the morning light.

It might be the only chance in her life.

So she forgot all the other things, even if she were to be despised by him!

At last, Xu Youning closed her eyes and kissed Mu Sijue’s lips.

“Okay, the dream is over.”

However, right at the moment when she wanted to separate from Mu Sijue, he suddenly caught her hand tightly and opened his eyes.

In the morning, Mu Sijue’s eyes were sharp like an eagle’s, as if he had seen Xu Youning through. “What are you doing?”

“...You actually felt it, right?” Xu Youning shrugged. “I’m harassing you. So what? You can’t harass me!”

Mu Sijue bit his teeth, giving Xu Youning a chance to get away. She rolled down from the bed and quickly hid herself in the bathroom.

Then Mu Sijue got up.

“Naive. How could the door of the bathroom stop me?”

Coincidentally, Ah Guang’s call arrived at that moment.

Mu Sijue picked it up and said in an extremely cold tone, “You’d better have something important to say.”

Ah Guang’s voice sounded particularly heavy. “Seventh Brother, bad news...”