Chapter 26: A Dream Too Real (´ᯅ`)

When she woke up groggily, the spot beside her was already empty.

Recovering some of her strength, the girl pushed herself up with some difficulty, and after sitting up steadily, she observed her surroundings.

The infirmary was eerily quiet.

But it was precisely this stillness that allowed Situ Ling to feel at ease.

“…”

Gently touching her own lips, she could still feel the lingering sensation of the water glass’s rim pressing against them.

She inhaled lightly, the faint jasmine fragrance unique to Yin Xiaomeng still lingering in the air.

“Just left recently… huh?”

Struggling to maintain her composure, she tried her best to keep her surging emotions within a relatively controllable range.

She curled her legs, hugging her body that had already cooled down, but the restlessness pressing against her chest burned in a way that left her at a loss.

She wanted to let it out…

But this was school…

The way she found brief comfort during those nights full of fantasies seemed to clash with the current situation.

‘What if someone comes into the infirmary halfway through?’

‘…’

‘What if Xiaomeng finds out?’

“…”

Pursing her lips, she pulled the blanket tighter around herself.

…

“Good… evening?”

“…Ah.”

“You’re still sleeping?”

The infirmary door slid open from the outside, and Yin Xiaomeng, having successfully completed today’s school plans, stepped inside.

However, seeing the girl curled up on the bed, sleeping soundly, she instinctively lowered her originally somewhat raised voice.

“…”

Carrying both of their school bags, the girl carefully closed the infirmary door, tiptoed to the bedside, and sat down.

The springs in the mattress let out a faint creak.

Yin Xiaomeng looked at the girl, who was smacking her lips with a blissful expression as if dreaming of something, and ultimately couldn’t hold back her curiosity.

She raised a finger and poked at the girl’s slightly chubby cheek.

Before she could even apply much force, her fingertip sank into the soft flesh.

Smooth, tender, and bouncy, it strangely felt like poking a water balloon.

Leaning slightly closer to shorten the distance between them, the girl’s lips uncontrollably curled up as she continued poking.

Clearly, this act of ‘bothering’ someone else gave her a peculiar sense of pleasure.

Or perhaps the feeling of teasing someone completely defenseless let her vent at least a little of the grievance she’d suffered over the past few days.

“Cute.”

Changing her position, the girl half-crouched by the bedside, shifting her finger from poking the cheek.

The warm fingertip gently traced across the girl’s lips, the sensation even softer and more interesting than the cheek?

“…”

“…”

Was Yin Xiaomeng’s move a bit too bold?

The girl, still deep in her dream, fluttered her eyelashes slightly.

Her hand, hidden under the blanket, suddenly shot out and grabbed the palm that was recklessly poking around on her body.

Still half-asleep, Situ Ling didn’t realize who was sitting beside her.

She simply clung to the arm of the girl in her dream, who smelled faintly of jasmine, wearing a content expression.

‘…’

In the dream, she truly existed as Yin Xiaomeng’s sole girlfriend…

Even though she knew it was just a fantasy, the satisfaction from holding the hand of the girl beside her made her willingly sink deeper into this dream.

‘…I like it.’

In the dream, her emerald eyes narrowed with joy as she tilted her head slightly to look into those dark eyes that held only her in this moment.

The throbbing in her heart made her want to kiss those cherry-pink lips—

“…Drool! Drool’s dripping out!”

She heard something in a daze?

Situ Ling perked up her ears alertly.

Though the voice was very faint, as a dark and twisted crawler who’d been lurking for over a year, she quickly identified the owner—

“Dreaming… and it feels this real? Am I hallucinating?”

Dazedly raising her head to look at the girl holding her hand beside her, then turning her gaze toward where she thought the voice came from.

After a brief silence, suddenly realizing the voice wasn’t a hallucination, the girl let go of the hand holding her dream-Yin Xiaomeng like she’d been electrocuted.

A strange panic of being caught cheating…

And in reality, after a slight delay, the girl quickly opened her eyes.

Holding an arm that still faintly gave off a body scent, she lifted her head to look at the soft limb she’d been using as a pillow, then at the girl who must have come in at some point and was now lying by the bed, with one of her arms being ‘assaulted’ while being held.

Situ Ling’s expression shifted from shock to confusion, then from confusion to a fully blushing shyness.

Slowly releasing the arm she’d been holding for who knows how long, her still-sluggish, just-awakened brain began to race—

‘Did I say anything weird?’

‘I didn’t, right?’

‘I remember, I remember I held back my confession in the dream too, right?’

‘No, no. If I held back, how could I…’

‘No way, she didn’t hear it, did she? Why else would she look at me with such a strange expression?’

In an instant, she even wished she could die.

“Umm… um…”

“…”

Not knowing how to explain her possibly real confession, after a moment of struggle, she decisively chose another solution.

“Monitor, why are you here?”

“Aren’t there still evening self-study tonight?”

Clumsily changing the subject, the girl had never prayed so fervently for divine protection.

Fortunately, it seemed her prayer worked.

The girl who’d been looking at her with a strange expression was so easily diverted to the new topic.

“There is… but it’s already after school time now?”

“You really slept long enough…”

“…”

“And you drool when you sleep too…”

Yin Xiaomeng stretched her wrist, numbed from being pressed for so long, watching the girl slowly get up from bed, her clothes in disarray.

There was a strange sense that she’d done something shady while the other was sound asleep.

Especially when she met Situ Ling’s eyes, still moist with sleepiness, a feeling of guilt slithered up, shameless as a snake.

Shaking her head to forcefully dispel that strange sensation, the girl, utterly certain she’d never and would never do anything to a girl who’d never had a girlfriend, effortlessly resolved the subtle awkwardness in her heart in a way no one could have imagined.

Still… seriously.

Compared to the slightly spoiled, youthful beauty look with low twin-tails, the girl with flowing pale-gold hair looked surprisingly well-behaved?

Like a cute dog sitting on the bed…

It’d be nice to pet her.

‘Too bad, she likes boys.’

Remembering Situ Ling’s sexual orientation, the girl let out a long sigh.

But she was also somewhat relieved.

After all, with her constant probing over the past year, if the other had really felt that way about her, thanks to her own paranoid behavior, Situ Ling would’ve quickly given up and run far away.

Thank goodness she genuinely wanted to be friends.

Thinking like that, even if Little Ling’er really was straight, it wasn’t so regrettable.

“Dr… drool?”

The girl sitting on the bed instinctively touched the corner of her mouth but found no wetness as Yin Xiaomeng had described.

“?”

“I’m not! You big liar, you’re messing with me again!”

Situ Ling rubbed the corners of her mouth several times, and after a brief hesitation, even touched her slightly flushed cheeks.

But in every case, she found no trace of drool—

Thus confirming the alleged drool was definitely fake.

This so-called drool was definitely made up by the scheming villain in front of her to tease her!

Unbidden, scenes from the poolside surfaced in her mind, and the girl, just teased, felt her cheeks burn red again.

Sigh.

Poor Tom, toyed with again by the mean woman.

…

Outside the school gate.

Watching her cute little golden retriever get into the car and drive away, Yin Xiaomeng withdrew her gaze and pulled open the rear door of her own car to sit inside.

The air conditioning was on inside the car.

Though it wasn’t bone-chilling, the moment she stepped from the sweltering summer night into the cabin, the girl couldn’t help shivering from the cool blast.

The hairs on her arms stood on end, and she unconsciously rubbed them.

The door closed, sealing out the hot air.

Yin Xiaomeng placed her uniform bag on the seat beside her.

After a brief adjustment, she stopped rubbing her arms.

With practiced ease, she pulled her phone out of a side pocket of her bag.

Unlocking it skillfully, the first thing that greeted her eyes was still No. 4’s messages, far outnumbering the combined volume of all the other fish.

“…”

After a moment of silence, she chose to save Bai Ruoxi’s messages for last.

After all, the other was now firmly hooked, as far as she was concerned.

Even replying late, she could easily brush it off with a lie about being busy and only now checking her phone.

Of course, the main reason was a bit of PTSD acting up.

Though she’d decided to give that shameless sneak attacker an unforgettable experience, the feeling of being pinned down in the cinema, crying out to no one and nowhere to turn…

Had, to some extent, subtly affected her mindset.

“…”

“No.”

“What does this No. 3 mean by ‘my girlfriend found out I’m messing around with someone else, so she’s furious and wants to break up with me’?”

“Wait, so besides me, she has other flings?”

“?”

“There’s another player?”