Sharing Dreams with My Bestie's Cousin-Chapter 23 - Once again into the dream

Chapter 23: Once again into the dream

Chapter 23: Once again into the dream

Shang Jing believed that Liang Yin’s favor was mostly owing to his family’s influence, with little to do with Wen Zhi.

However, his mother insisted on crediting Wen Zhi for it, suggesting he pay more attention to her. He didn’t bother to argue and simply thanked her, considering the matter resolved.

But what was this about enduring humiliation?

Why would Liang Yin make things difficult for Wen Zhi?

“I’ve looked into it, and Liang Yin and Wen Zhi were close friends in the past, one could even say childhood sweethearts,” Chong Wanyin narrated, “But something happened later on, their relationship soured, and after Liang Yin joined the military, they stopped contacting each other.”

Shang Jing remained silent, listening quietly.

Chong Wanyin continued, “Today, I took Wen Zhi to meet with Liang Yin, and he was cold to her throughout. He publicly shamed her father, causing her embarrassment. That wasn’t all; he even had Wen Zhi fetch balls for him. Think about it, the kind of people who frequent the Red River Bank—ordering Wen Zhi to pick up balls, what does he think she is?”

Shang Jing’s expression darkened gradually, “So what about you? What were you doing while Wen Zhi was being humiliated by Liang Yin?”

Chong Wanyin pulled a face, “I was there to ask for favors, naturally I had to show some humility.”

Shang Jing asked, “And what does that have to do with Wen Zhi?”

Chong Wanyin’s tone grew colder, “Is that the tone you use to speak with me?”

Shang Jing tried to remain calm and collected; of course, he wasn’t exactly defending Wen Zhi—they weren’t even close. But considering the situation from a normal person’s perspective, he thought his mother’s actions were somewhat excessive.

He reminded her, “Our family’s business had nothing to do with Wen Zhi to begin with, it was you who took advantage of her.”

“I did it all for you!” Chong Wanyin’s intention was to reveal the truth to her son so he would treat Wen Zhi better.

But instead, he was accusing her.

Chong Wanyin, irate and unable to get her thoughts across, stood up, “Fine, in any case, be nicer to Wen Zhi in the future, don’t keep giving her the cold shoulder; she’s already pitiable enough.”

In the circles of noble families, anyone who knew of the Wen Family’s affairs would feel sorry for Wen Zhi.

Her mother had died less than a month ago, and her father immediately married his new love, who was none other than Wen Zhi’s own aunt.

Such disregard for the mourning period, remarrying in haste right after his wife’s death, clearly indicated an affair that had started long before, a deeply entrenched infidelity.

Although nobody discussed it openly, they all knew what was going on.

That’s why Wen Zhi was considered so pitiable.

While Shang Jing was dissatisfied with his mother’s way of using Wen Zhi to curry favor with Liang Yin, he also empathized with her efforts on his behalf and decided not to argue any further, turning to leave.

Chong Wanyin called out to him, “Wen Zhi is going to pay respects to her mother tomorrow. I’m not comfortable with her going alone; you should accompany her.”

Shang Jing turned back, “I should go with her?”

Chong Wanyin said, “I saw you were quite protective of Wen Zhi just now.”

Shang Jing didn’t know whether to be angry or to laugh, “Mother, I was merely discussing the matter with you. Even if it weren’t Wen Zhi, I would’ve said the same thing for anyone else; you shouldn’t involve someone who is completely unrelated.”

Chong Wanyin’s expression fell, “Fine, fine, you’re noble and I’m the sinful villain.”

“…”

Shang Jing sighed, “Alright, I’ll take her tomorrow.”

Chong Wanyin’s expression immediately improved, “That’s more like it.”

Then Shang Jing suddenly asked, “What happened to Wen Zhi’s leg?”

Chong Wanyin teased him, “You care about that too?”

Shang Jing immediately looked away, “Just asking.”

“Oh, don’t even mention it.”

Chong Wanyin’s face filled with sympathy as she spoke, “Wen Zhi accidentally knocked her knee yesterday when she left the house. She came back without saying a word about it, and today she endured the pain to accompany me to the Red River Bank. She stood the whole time, bearing the pain, and only after everything was settled did she leave quietly because she couldn’t stand any longer.”

Shang Jing furrowed his brows.

Chong Wanyin hadn’t mentioned that she was really angry when Wen Zhi left without saying a word, although Liang Yin’s promised words wouldn’t be easily broken, but if Liang Yin got upset and something went wrong, all their efforts would come to naught.

Upon her return, she immediately had Zhao Qin come to ask what had happened.

Learning that Wen Zhi’s leg was injured, she personally came over to take a look. The knee was a dreadful sight, swollen terribly, oozing with quite a lot of blood—quite a shocking sight…

At that moment, the anger in Chong Wanyin’s heart instantly turned into concern.

“Little Jing,” feeling guilty, Chong Wanyin cautioned Shang Jing, “Tomorrow is different from any other day for Wen Zhi; it’s the anniversary of her mother’s death. She might be very down. Be considerate and take good care of her.”

Shang Jing noncommittally responded with a hmm.

…

It was getting late.

After washing up, Wen Zhi limped out of the washroom.

She rummaged through the drawer and found a tube of erythromycin ointment, sat down at the bedside, bent her knee and squeezed a bit of the ointment, preparing to apply it to the wound. But upon seeing that the wound was oozing pus, she had to smear the ointment on the back of her hand, and then limped to search for iodine and cotton swabs to disinfect and clean it.

The process was incredibly torturous. Wen Zhi took several deep breaths, clenched her teeth, and cleaned the pus from the wound in one go, finally applying the iodine.

It hurt too much.

Wen Zhi raised her hand to wipe away the moisture in the corners of her eyes. Today, the first thing she did when she got home was knock her knee against the corner of the table, aggravating the injury.

When Chong Wanyin came back and saw her ‘severely injured’ knee, she was shocked, and her prepared reproaches all turned into concern.

That issue was now in the past.

It was just her poor knee that suffered, with old injuries not yet healed and new ones added.

Once the piercing pain subsided, she put away the ointment and iodine and lay down in bed, ready to rest.

She tried a few positions, but none were comfortable, and in the end, she simply couldn’t sleep. Sighing, she got up and took out a box from the cabinet.

Opening the box, a string of Buddha Beads with a ghost face pattern came into view.

It was nearly identical to the string of beads she had given Chong Wanyin a while back.

Wen Zhi carefully took out the Buddha Beads and held them in her palm, the coolness seeping into her skin. Holding them for just a moment made her heart feel calm.

“I wonder when I’ll be able to enter Chong Wanyin’s dreams…” Wen Zhi muttered to herself, lifting the beads to the light.

So beautiful.

She couldn’t help putting the Buddha Beads on her wrist.

She lay down, placed her wrist with the beads near her heart, curled up, and thought of putting them back after wearing them for a while.

But as soon as she put them on, she quickly fell asleep.

…

Time passed, she didn’t know how long.

Wen Zhi vaguely felt her neck was somewhat damp, a very strange sensation spread throughout her body.

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She suddenly opened her eyes.

Her vision was pitch-black, she couldn’t see anything.

She was somewhat bewildered, unable to tell if she was awake or had already entered a dream.

When she tried to move, she realized she was pinned down tightly by a body.

She felt it was a man’s body.

Every inch of his skin was hot, scorching, and with him enveloping her beneath him, it was as if she was going to melt…

“So hot…” she murmured involuntarily.