“Okay, Lauren dear, on with the dream!”
“How long will it take in total?”
The moment he lay down, Lauren suddenly asked.
He still had tasks to do today and hoped to finish the dream as quickly as possible.
“Hmm? Don’t worry, time flows differently in dreams compared to reality. She can jump ten years in one night—you’re not going to stay in there with her for a decade, are you?”
Li An teased him with interest at first, then reassured him.
“Relax, take it easy, Lauren dear. It’ll be over in a flash.”
As Li An’s words fell, her fair little hands covered their foreheads.
The air seemed to shimmer with specks of iridescent color, rippling gently through the space.
Lauren didn’t realize when he lost consciousness.
He remembered never closing his eyes, never feeling his mind drift.
It felt as though he had always been staying in boundless darkness, sinking into the deep sea, with only the sound of his own heartbeat surrounding him.
Then, a point of light appeared in the distance.
The light moved toward him like a living thing, gradually expanding in Lauren’s vision.
It wasn’t harsh light, but light as warm as gentle sunshine, golden like tender silk, carrying the scent of sunflowers.
It wasn’t a star, but a scene—a warm vista of a sunflower garden.
In it lay Anne’s happiness, wrapping him like sweet honey, pulling Lauren downward.
It was gravity, an unstoppable gravity!
Well, no embarrassing entrance like he imagined, no hard crash into the ground.
The laws of physics in dreams don’t follow reality—they go wherever they please.
Lauren opened his eyes.
He was already standing in a sunflower garden.
He looked around.
The sea of flowers stretched endlessly, and beyond it, he could see no other buildings or objects.
It was as if the computer was saving processing power, only loading what was necessary.
‘So this is a dream—vast yet cramped.’
The sunlight here was just right, neither scorching nor harsh, perfectly sprinkled on every sunflower, dyeing the petals gold.
The sky was an unreal blue, with a few lazy clouds drifting by, like cotton wool stuck on.
An interweaving of illusion and beauty, frighteningly real.
Fortunately, he wasn’t unfamiliar with this place. In fact, he felt an underlying sense of total safety.
The reason was simple—this was his own home garden!
The only structure besides the flowers was a white pavilion not far from Lauren, which seemed to be the center of the dream.
Lauren looked over and, unsurprisingly, saw two figures.
One was gazing at him from a distance, a smile on her face, waving in greeting as if welcoming his arrival.
Anne.
It was the Anne from the dream.
She looked a few years older than in reality, with the youthful shyness faded from her features, replaced by a calm, love-nurtured gentleness.
She wore a simple white sundress, her long hair casually draped over her shoulders.
One hand rested on the arm of a rocking chair, while the other gently patted a little girl in a maid outfit lying on her lap.
The little girl fidgeted nervously, looking at him.
She was basically a color-swapped version of a little Anne—blonde hair, black eyes, cat ears, and a cat tail.
Lauren knew her name was Anjie Skomet.
He noticed that the dream version of himself was gone.
Here, only he was the real person.
He walked toward the pavilion and returned the greeting.
“Anne, good morning!”
Anne replied gently.
“Good morning, meow, boss.”
Before Lauren could say the words that would be cruel to her, Anne spoke first.
“Boss, come see our daughter, meow.”
She handed the little cat-girl to Lauren with a delicate motion.
Lauren instinctively reached out and took the fragrant, soft little cake.
Anjie was lighter than he expected, like holding a marshmallow, with a milky scent.
The moment the little cat-girl was stuffed into his arms, her whole body visibly stiffened.
Her little paws didn’t know where to rest, and finally, she timidly grabbed his collar.
‘What’s going on now?’
Lauren wondered.
Anjie looked up, her black, shiny eyes carefully studying him.
“Daddy?”
Her voice was tiny, as if afraid to disturb something.
“Hmm…”
Lauren had no experience with children, but at least he should answer.
“Daddy.”
Her voice held a hint of tentative hope.
‘Is this the influence of Anne’s dream?’
“Can you stay and play with me forever?”
Lauren paused for a second.
Hard to say.
No, he couldn’t.
Sometimes, silence is the best answer to the heart.
He didn’t answer the question.
Instead, he looked up at Anne.
Anne stood before him, her expression calm and gentle.
‘Actually, no matter how happy the dream version of you is, it’s all fake. The moment the real Lauren entered, Anne immediately became lucid.’
Sometimes, she wished she wasn’t so sensitive to Lauren’s presence, so she could enjoy the happy times a little longer.
But unfortunately, she couldn’t.
‘I love you more than you imagine. No matter the circumstances, I can recognize you instantly.’
Yet she didn’t question, didn’t cry, didn’t resent with “Why did you come to ruin my dream?”
The Anne in the dream was a mature, rational self after weathering storms.
She just looked at him, like she was waiting for a reminder she already knew.
“Boss, just say what you want to say, meow.”
With Anjie in his arms, Lauren met Anne’s gaze.
“Anne, it’s time for you to wake up!”
Anne didn’t directly answer his question; instead, she started a new topic.
“What a beautiful dream, meow. It must be Li An’s doing. Sigh, I guess I still lost to her.”
“How cruel! Giving me a taste of a wonderful future, then taking it away in this moment.”
“Li An, where is your saintly image? You’re a disgusting witch, meow!”
She grumbled to herself about her dissatisfaction with Li An.
Those were her true feelings in the dream.
Her speech quirk returned.
‘This is the real lucid Anne,’ Lauren confirmed.
Finally, Anne sighed and looked at the Lauren before her.
The cat in her dream wasn’t her real form, but the boss was real.
“The moment you entered, I knew, meow. My dream won’t contain anything I don’t know about!”
“Then why didn’t you just wake up?”
‘So attached to the dream?’
Even knowing it might be tactless, Lauren asked directly.
“Because…”
Anne glanced at Anjie, reached out, and smoothed her daughter’s hair.
“Because I wanted you to see her too, meow.”
“Boss, she’s my dream, meow. My most genuine wish.”
‘Everything I’m shy about has been shown to you in the dream.’
So Anne looked at Lauren.
“Boss, so what do you think of Anjie, meow?”