Seizing Dreams

Chapter 40 - Protection

Translated by: DMlations/Zryuu

Edited by: Amelea, FistFullOfDollars, AutumnBreeze and DarlingV

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When Yu Hao left the conference room, the quarrel between Zhou Sheng and his father had ended. Zhou Laichun kept apologising to the Vice Principal, while Xue Long and the Vice Principal left with ghastly pale faces.

“You son of a bitch……” In the middle of the corridor, Zhou Laichun even hit Zhou Sheng on the head.

Zhou Sheng was giving Yu Hao a meaningful glance when he was unexpectedly hit on the head; exploding again, he roared, “Stop it!”

Seeing how the father and son pair were about to argue again, Yu Hao hurriedly ran up and pulled Zhou Sheng away. As soon as Zhou Laichun saw the Dean, he quickly approached her to apologise, while Zhou Sheng went to the back of the college building to smoke, looking agitated.

“I was disqualified from the semi-finals.” Zhou Sheng said, “Sorry, I can’t take you to Australia anymore.”

“What? Australia?” When Yu Hao suddenly heard this irrelevant piece of information, his mind clouded with confusion for a moment.

Zhou Sheng said, “Never mind.” As he spoke, he gazed at the woods behind the college; the furrow between his brows deepened, as if he was considering possible countermeasures. When he noticed Yu Hao leaving, he frowned. “Where are you going?”

“I have to look for Chen Laoshi……”

“Don’t go!” Zhou Sheng shouted harshly at Yu Hao to stop.

Yu Hao retorted, “He resigned! He’s leaving! I can’t let him leave like this!”

Zhou Sheng pointed at the path behind the college, “Go, just go. Will you choose him or me?”

Yu Hao, “Zhou Sheng! This is different, it doesn’t mean anything else. I just want to persuade him!”

Zhou Sheng merely stared at Yu Hao. Yu Hao frowned as he gazed back at Zhou Sheng. Zhou Sheng answered, “If you want to go, then go.” As he spoke, he sat down to one side and didn’t look at Yu Hao anymore.

Yu Hao could only sit beside him. Zhou Sheng glanced at him.

Yu Hao, “Satisfied?”

Zhou Sheng put out his cigarette and got up, “From now on, don’t look for Kaikai. Leave the rest to me.”

Yu Hao suddenly came to a realization, and surprise flooded his eyes.

Zhou Sheng, “Are you satisfied?”

Yu Hao immediately felt a bit embarrassed. Zhou Sheng said, “Did you forget something? Aren’t you going to care about me at all? Ah?!”

Yu Hao quickly got up, “Your dad he……Zhou Sheng! Don’t be like that! It’s not like you don’t know how I feel!”

“Okay okay.” Zhou Sheng said, “Stop, don’t be so corny. At least that Xue Long had tact and didn’t slander you in front of my Dad. What did they ask you in the conference room?”

Yu Hao gave him a brief overview of what had happened in a soft voice. In the middle of his recount, Zhou Laichun’s infuriated voice carried over from the college, “Zhou Sheng! Get over here you son of a bitch!”

Zhou Sheng immediately cut Yu Hao off, “I need to do something, I’ll come back and look for you later. Send me a message regarding whatever you haven’t finished talking about, but do it through text, not voice. Pay attention to your phone and ignore Kaikai, don’t reply to him no matter what he says to you.”

Yu Hao was extremely worried about Zhou Sheng, but Zhou Sheng just forcefully rubbed Yu Hao’s head and left without saying another word. In the evening, Yu Hao sat in the dormitory and waited apprehensively for news from Zhou Sheng. Fu Liqun hadn’t returned yet either.

Thus, Yu Hao began to type out his message and sent Zhou Sheng several messages regarding the events in the afternoon. But Zhou Sheng didn’t reply. At 7.30pm, Zhou Sheng finally sent him one message:

【Got it. Fu Liqun’s with me.】

After Yu Hao received Zhou Sheng’s message, his nerves finally abated. He climbed onto his bed to lie down and read the message Zhou Sheng had sent him.

Zhou Sheng had taken a photo — they were in a restaurant’s private room. There were two tables. Zhou Laichun took Zhou Sheng to the guys he had beaten up from the other dormitory to apologise to them, and even gifted them a box of cigarettes. Afterwards, he even invited the students who had participated in the fight out for a meal.

Zhou Sheng:【I’ll bring some food back for you later.】

Yu Hao:【Eat your food first, you don’t need to mind me. I’ll just cook some instant noodles, I’m not hungry tonight anyway.】

Yu Hao’s brows were set in a deep frown. After he typed out a few sentences, he deleted them, but the general idea was that Chen Yekai could have been forced to resign by Lin Xun, and the conversation between them was also secretly recorded by Lin Xun. But as he typed, he suddenly managed to sort out his fuzzy thoughts. It was just like what Zhou Sheng had said — there was something fishy about this!

Zhou Sheng:【The matter of Lei Hongbo being beat up has been settled, but Lin Xun really dislikes me now. It was him who got that fucker Xue Long to revoke my eligibility for the cycling race. Xue Long called the organising committee of the competition a week ago, the college wants to put up a Notice of Criticism, make me apologise to Lin Xun at the General Assembly and prohibited me from participating in any more competitions. We’ve just settled the bill, I’ll tell you in more detail once I’m back. Only you can get this done, wait for me.” 】

Yu Hao,【Actually, there’s no need for you to explain yourself so much. I know that you just want to help him, that you’re not doing it for us, and it’s not because you want to repay him either. You just need to tell me what you want to do.】

Zhou Sheng didn’t reply to his message. Yu Hao turned over to lay on his side, his mind a chaotic mess. That recording was made covertly by Lin Xun, which meant that Chen Yekai was unaware that he had been exposed. He never mentioned anything about resigning before, so why did he resign now of all times? Lin Xun’s purpose for presenting that audio now was very obvious: he wanted to drive Chen Yekai out!

Suddenly, the scene of Chen Yekai shedding tears in front of a comatose Liang Jinmin flashed through Yu Hao’s mind. Last night, Chen Yekai took a scalpel and planned to stab Lin Xun with it… was it to avenge Liang Jinmin?

Revenge……when he thought of this word, a slight chill immediately ran down Yu Hao’s spine. It was unlikely he would go that far ba. Did Chen Yekai want to kill him because of Lin Xun’s domestic violence towards Liang Jinmin? Why didn’t he call the police and persuade Liang Jinmin to get a divorce instead?

Maybe he had already tried to persuade her! Yu Hao still remembered the scene where Chen Yekai and Liang Jinmin had met in private at the flower cafe. When he recalled the recording that Lin Xun played……he suddenly remembered that there were still a lot of things he hadn’t mentioned to Zhou Sheng. So he immediately wanted to send a few messages to Zhou Sheng again. Glancing at his phone, he saw that Zhou Sheng had finally replied to the message he sent him half an hour ago.

【Okay then, you understand me.】

Zhou Sheng hadn’t returned yet. Yu Hao only felt like today had been very, very tiring. He closed his eyes, and kept feeling like he had missed some vital clues.

A light flickered, and he heard Zhou Sheng’s voice whisper next to his ear, “Yu Hao?”

Yu Hao opened his eyes and found himself standing on a platform outside the palaces. Zhou Sheng was still clad in the same armour as he suspiciously gave Yu Hao an assessing look.

The guards in his dreamscape lined up on both sides of the platform; all of them appeared to be combat-ready in full battle array. Yu Hao’s attire was still the same slim, black butler uniform.

“You’re back?” Yu Hao said.

“Why does your complexion look so bad?” Zhou Sheng said, “Hungry? It’s already 11pm, so when I saw you sleeping, I didn’t wake you up. Fu Liqun is back too, we brought some food back for you. Want to get up to fill your stomach first?”

“No no.” Yu Hao immediately refused, “I always feel that……”

“I’ve finished reading through your WeChat messages.” Zhou Sheng answered, “But the information we have is still incomplete. Follow me.”

Zhou Sheng jumped down from the palaces and landed on another eave, and Yu Hao jumped down with him.

Zhou Sheng pinched his fingers between his lips and whistled. A jindouyun flew over from the horizon.

“How can you still summon the jindouyun in my dream?” Yu Hao asked in disbelief.

Zhou Sheng said, “If you believe that I can, then I’ll be able to. Get on.”

Yu Hao stepped onto the jindouyun. Zhou Sheng rose up, and took him along as they smoothly soared into the skies. Yu Hao said, “Where are we going?”

Zhou Sheng, “To find the most crucial clue.”

Yu Hao, “But we’re flying so high! What’s going to happen?”

Zhou Sheng flew towards the sun, and as they drew closer and closer to the sun, Yu Hao was surprised to discover an intriguing difference between the conscious world and reality. In here, they could actually get close to the sun that was suspended in the air! And it wasn’t very far from the ground! As Zhou Sheng and Yu Hao approached it, the sun grew bigger and bigger as well!

Yu Hao was barely able to keep his eyes open during Zhou Sheng’s constant ascent as they faced the scorching sun wheel in the sky. But, to his surprise, the sun was actually in the form of the Golden Crow Wheel!

“This……”

“We’ll be arriving at the station ahead.” Zhou Sheng said, “At General’s Dreamscape. Please remain seated and hold onto the handrails……”

Suddenly, Zhou Sheng was stepping on his jindouyun with Yu Hao on it and rushed towards the sun wheel!

The two rushed through the Golden Crow Wheel and before they could even register it, the shield behind Zhou Sheng and the totem hovering above the palaces in the distance both emitted a glaringly bright light that seemed to resonate with each other!

Then, with a flash of light, Yu Hao and Zhou Sheng crossed through the Golden Crow Wheel together.

Yu Hao had no time to carefully observe anything before realising that he had entered another dreamscape. Zhou Sheng then steered the jindouyun to land onto solid ground.

A magnificent and vast stone bridge emerged before them. An enormous golden wheel — that seemed like a heavenly moat — effused a circle of fire just like a solar prominence as it extended horizontally across the entirety of the bridge. They were surrounded by a boundless sea of clouds.

“Welcome to the world in my dreamscape.” Zhou Sheng’s voice said.

Zhou Sheng’s dream!

Yu Hao never imagined that he would bring him in here so easily, and that this day would come so suddenly!

After Zhou Sheng crossed through the Golden Crow Wheel, his attire had transformed into a strange leather suit, just like the armour of an ancient Roman gladiator. His muscular chest was bare, and the leather strap that hung obliquely across his chest was strapped through a breastplate. His lower body was clothed in a pair of tight trousers that wrapped around his legs, and he was wearing a pair of pitch-black riding boots.

Yu Hao asked, “What is this place?”

“Are you a pig?!” Zhou Sheng said, “You can’t understand human language? How many times do you want me to explain myself? This is my dream!”

Yu Hao said, “I meant……”

“What did you mean? Un?” Zhou Sheng turned around and faced the Golden Crow Wheel. He looked up to study the center of the Golden Crow Wheel, which looked completely different from the sun in Yu Hao’s world. In Zhou Sheng’s conscious world, the Golden Crow Wheel’s light was much gentler, yet it didn’t seem dull.

In the midst of the golden wheel, a screen unfurled like ripples in water, and Yu Hao’s conscious world appeared within the screen — the Great Wall and palaces from his dreamscape.

This reminded Yu Hao of the portals in the major cities in World of Warcraft.

Yu Hao, “This……”

Zhou Sheng looked up at the portal that had formed within the Golden Crow Wheel, seeming as if he was anticipating something. He said, “Can you stop asking so many questions? You’re still useful today, so I don’t want to kick you out so soon, little fox.”

“No!” Yu Hao shouted angrily, “You must let me know! Otherwise I won’t——die——in——peace!”

“Also, I’m not a fox.” Yu Hao added, “Don’t call me a fox.”

“Ask ba, ask ba.” Zhou Sheng helplessly acceded, then he muttered to himself, “That guy isn’t asleep yet, don’t tell me he’ll suffer from insomnia all night……what do you want to ask? You’re so damn cunning, always putting on the disguise of a pig as you gobble tigers up, don’t think that I don’t know.”

Yu Hao struggled to compose his thoughts. He raised a finger and unconsciously drew a circle in the air.

“Ask ah.” Zhou Sheng walked over to one side and jumped up, then sat on the railing of the stone bridge.

Yu Hao, “I’m thinking about how I should ask.”

Unconcerned, Zhou Sheng said, “Didn’t I already tell you everything? This thing gave me the power to travel through dreams, you see it now? Has your curiosity been satisfied?”

Yu Hao, “But……isn’t it yours? Why would it appear in my conscious world? And even become the sun?”

Zhou Sheng replied, “Because of your totem ba? You gave me your totem and I brought it back to my dream, and it became a part of my conscious world. So the Golden Crow Wheel considers you as one of us, which is why our dreamscapes became interconnected.”

Yu Hao, “How do you know that?”

Zhou Sheng motioned for Yu Hao to look at the Golden Crow Wheel, “A scene of your world appeared on this side of the ‘gate’. Then one day, I inadvertently realised that the sun in your world had turned into the Golden Crow Wheel, and there was also a scene of my world in it.”

“Is it the same in Shi Ni’s dreamscape?”

“Nope.” Zhou Sheng said, “What are you thinking? Logic! Have you fed your logic to the dogs? The difference between you and Shi Ni lies within the fact that she didn’t pass her totem to me, but you had given me a part of your totem. That’s why your world is connected to mine!”

Yu Hao asked, “Second question, where is this place?”

Zhou Sheng blew up. “This is my dream! How many times do you want me to say that?!”

Yu Hao, “Your dream can’t be this small ba!”

Zhou Sheng, “There’s more below!”

Yu Hao looked down and Zhou Sheng said, “Don’t look! You might fall!”

An earth-shattering clamour resonated from beneath the stone bridge. Yu Hao looked down, and through the sea of clouds, he could discern a huge, ring-shaped building on the ground. Zhou Sheng immediately grabbed Yu Hao’s collar and dragged him back.

“I want to go down and take a look.”

“No!”

“Why?”

“There’s no ‘why’! I said no, so no!” Zhou Sheng said.

Both of them stared at each other. Yu Hao had a persistent impression that Zhou Sheng was hiding something from him. “Aren’t you going to invite me to your dream to play?”

“No, I’m not inviting you.” Zhou Sheng said, “I’m not familiar with you, so I don’t want you to roam about in my heart.”

“Oh, ok then.” Yu Hao could only answer with this.

Zhou Sheng immediately changed his tune, “There’s nothing much to see, young master, please spare me.”

Yu Hao abruptly turned around and jumped onto the railing of the stone bridge. Zhou Sheng immediately shouted. He flipped over into the air and summoned his jindouyun, but he was too late — Yu Hao had already fluttered his wings open with a swish, adhered closely to the sea of clouds and flew away.

Zhou Sheng shouted angrily, “Yu Hao! You bastard! I’m gonna beat you to death!!”

“Come and catch me then——” Yu Hao taunted triumphantly.

Yu Hao’s conjecture was indeed correct. He had flown before in Shi Ni’s conscious world, and Zhou Sheng had a very deep impression of that, so now that he was in Zhou Sheng’s dream, he still retained his wings and was able to fly freely. Although he had flown away, he didn’t pass through the clouds and rush to the ground to see what was down below; still keeping the propriety that a guest should have.

“Get back here!” Zhou Sheng returned to the stone bridge and shouted, “Don’t be so mischievous! I’m going to get angry!”

Yu Hao flew around the sea of clouds and shouted from afar, “You’ve already seen everything in my inner world, so what’s wrong with me taking a look at yours!”

Zhou Sheng shouted, “I’ll give you three seconds! Three!”

The sea of clouds that surrounded Yu Hao began to change. The white clouds darkened as they converged, and within the mass, thunder and lightning surged as if a roaring monster was about to emerge.

“Two!” Zhou Sheng pointed his left index and ring finger at the horizon. A bolt of lightning erupted and shot rapidly through the sky!

Yu Hao jumped in fright. The colossal monster within the clouds seemed to react to this, and a thundering Western dragon leapt out and roared as it charged towards him! It unfurled its wings with one beat and outstretched both claws towards Yu Hao as it tried to firmly capture him within its grasp!

“One!” Zhou Sheng shouted.

The Western dragon rushed towards Yu Hao within an instant, but a white light suddenly burst out from Yu Hao with a buzz. It served as a protective shield, and with a loud bang, it actually managed to deflect the colossal dragon, whose size was comparable to that of a mountain!

Yu Hao, “What’s going on?”

Zhou Sheng, who was floating above the sea of clouds, was just as dumbstruck as a realisation appeared to dawn on him. Before the two of them broke out of their trance, the Western dragon roared again and rushed towards Yu Hao, intending to take Yu Hao back to the stone bridge. But another white light emitted from Yu Hao’s body, and with a buzz, the Western dragon rebounded and was sent flying once again.

The Western dragon wailed in anguish, then flapped its wings and escaped.

Yu Hao, “……”

Yu Hao turned around to look at Zhou Sheng and seemed to have comprehended something as he shouted, “Your……Zhou Sheng! Your monster can’t catch me!”

Zhou Sheng stood silently on the stone bridge.

Yu Hao flew around as he said, “Yay! You can’t do anything to me!”

Zhou Sheng, “……”

Yu Hao flew around for awhile as he wanted to tease Zhou Sheng, but seeing as how he remained silent, he flew back because he was afraid that Zhou Sheng would become angry.

“I’m not bringing you into my dream anymore.” Zhou Sheng said coldly.

“I was wrong.” Yu Hao quickly apologised, “I still have more questions.”

“I’m angry!”

Zhou Sheng had been driven completely mad.

Yu Hao merely smiled as he looked at Zhou Sheng. Zhou Sheng rebuked, “Smiling? You’re still smiling?!”

Yu Hao suddenly said, “I’m so happy. Zhou Sheng, you can get me to do anything you want in the future.”

Zhou Sheng, “……”

Zhou Sheng held his forehead with one hand as if he had just been struck a heavy blow. He walked to one side and Yu Hao said, “You told me before that you had a halo that protected you in your dad’s dreamscape, right? I have a protective halo in your dream too, so what does that mean?”

“That means that you’re my son!” Zhou Sheng said angrily, “Yu Hao! I can get you to do whatever I want right? Then I want you to get lost right now!”

Zhou Sheng raised his hand and the Golden Crow Wheel behind him seemed to instantaneously react. It released countless streams of golden flames that cannoned towards Zhou Sheng’s hand. With a wave of his hand, they burst towards Yu Hao.

“Don’t!” Yu Hao immediately blurted. He subconsciously raised his hands to block it. The moment the Golden Crow Wheel’s bright fire blazed towards Yu Hao, a loud bang sounded, and it was once again deflected by his protective barrier, dispersing in all directions before evanescing.

Zhou Sheng, “……”

Yu Hao, “……”

Even Zhou Sheng’s last move had failed. Yu Hao immediately understood one thing — perhaps in Zhou Sheng’s consciousness, a firm belief had taken root: no matter what, he could never harm Yu Hao.

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