Tomorrow morning, Gu Mochou woke up with not much recollection of what happened after she left the party. All she knew was that she somehow arrived home and right now, she felt refreshed and full of energy, something that was quite different from usual. For the past six months, she had been regularly haunted by nightmares. Every time, even if she had a deep understanding of the psyche and the paranormal, she never managed to escape being put into sleep paralysis. The worst was she never found out who the enemy was. Heck, she did not even have a single lead.
At daytime, she would face the world and deceive everyone with a lovely smile, looking strong and beautiful. Her eye bags did not deter her from capturing people"s hearts.
At nighttime though, she was a slave to terrible dreams and would frequently wake up bathing in sweat or on the verge of crying, a normal development considering how the weird experience continued for half a year without break. It did not matter whether one was strong or not, even if she was h.e.l.l-bent on destroying the Zhao village, it did not mean she could use that as a reason to shrug off the guilt for killing the disciples of her former home. It became her weakness and it always tormented her in her dreams.
Without her noticing, this situation became the new, and of course, unwelcomed norm for her.
Only, last night had been an exception to that horrible streak.
When she tried to recall what was different about it with the previous ones, only one answer came to mind. Because of it, she could not help but think, it seemed she did the right thing yesterday?
She looked at the digital clock on her bedside table. Somehow, she became more lost in her thoughts as she watched the movements of the larger hand.
"Perhaps the reason I keep getting nightmares about those juniors of mine is also me? Hmmm… It must be. It"s my brain"s unique way of reminding me of the costs I have paid. It"s tempering me. As they have said, gold needed to be tested in fire. And that explains the nightmares…"
"It"s making me feel like I need to hurry so that no more innocent people would become victims dragged along with my revenge."
"A part of me felt a bit unburdened because I finally started doing what I should."
With this weird optimistic thought in mind, a terrible excuse to justify her malicious behaviors, her mood got uplifted.
Gu Mochou stifled her yawn then climbed out of bed and walked towards the large gla.s.s window. Her skin especially looked radiant under the rays of the sun that poured into the room after she drew the green silk curtain to the side.
Looking into the bright sky outside, she squinted her eyes to adapt to the sudden brightness, and then let a sigh of relief escaped from her lips that promptly arced into a beautiful smile.
Fast forward to an hour later where she had already dressed into a casual s.h.i.+rt and jeans. She walked into the restaurant opposite the condo building with only her phone and wallet in her person. As the place where she stayed was extremely close to the university, she spotted some familiar faces dining there.
"h.e.l.lo, Miss Gu."
"You"re here again, Mochou."
"Good morning."
"Hi, everyone. Eat well." Due to her popularity, she received some high-spirited greetings which she replied to with a gentle smile.
Until that smile was wiped away by the sight of an annoying figure cruising from table to table to deliver orders. What was his name again?
For the six months that she interacted with this teenager, she could not even remember what he was called. Well, who would commit to mind the name of a hated someone when remembering the face was already a ch.o.r.e?
"Xiao Jiang! Hi!" A girl who seemed to be a regular femininely waved a hand to the boy, obviously trying to gain his attention. Now, Gu Mochou was reminded that his last name was Jiang Li. She sneered.
Now that she thought about it, she seemed to have seen this guy yesterday at the celebration?
Gu Mochou froze for a moment. She couldn"t help the frown on her face even after she took a vacant table for herself and ordered her breakfast.
"What a guy to affect one"s mood." The girl impatiently pulled up her phone from her purse, thinking of browsing the internet for news about Zhao Ai. To erase the bad vibes, look for something nice and refres.h.i.+ng. She told herself.
What greater news would there be besides the suffering of a person she disliked so much?
She tapped her finger on one of her browsers.
However, before the pages could load up, her hated waiter slash third rate pianist approached her to deliver a tea set on her table.
Gu Mochou gave him an unfriendly look. It was hard to have a good impression on someone who never failed to make her look like a desperate stalker. "Why is this guy still in this place? Why can"t he just move elsewhere since he thinks of me as a creepy admirer?"
Heaven knows, although the other person was just a normal one, she was on the brink of using Daoist magic to teach him a good lesson. Only her scant rationality of not using supernatural means against non-Zhao-related people was keeping her in check.
"Today"s freebie," Jiang said without throwing her a glance.
There was no smile on the face of the young man which was quite odd since he usually wore an irritating grin.
Gu Mochou raised an eyebrow at the cup that was filled to the brim in no time. She looked around for a while to check the other table and only after confirming the others also got the same did she pick up the small porcelain cup. Of course, she did so not without using tissue paper to first wipe the surface touched by that guy.
Nothing strange happened in the first three minutes. She tried to kill time by checking the news and frowned when she got no updates about the people who went to the hospital.
"Are the doctors in this era so incompetent that they miss the drugs in that bug"s bloodstream?"
Gu Mochou"s frown deepened the more she looked into the forums. She found nothing so doubt and disappointment flashed in her eyes.
Three decades ago, even Chinese medicine pract.i.tioners could determine if there was a weird substance in a person"s body and they would only take a few hours to do so. Now, Western medicine was widely used in the country and there were so many advanced apparatuses available. There should be no way the medical practice of the current world regressed, right?
"In my previous life, tuberculosis was practically a death sentence, even for the rich, but now, it could be easily treated." It meant the science of healing had progressed.
If so, then there was only one possibility.
"Somebody blocked the news." She clicked her tongue, wondering if it was the Fan boy, or the son of the syndicate lord.
"How blind are they to use their influence over a shameful matter like that? It was even for a lowly girl from who-knows-where. So when in love, even boys become stupid. Or are those two just born with many loose screws in their heads?"
Her good mood instantly vanished, like a burst bubble. Anger then showed in her expression.
Her meal arrived just then and once again, Jiang Li"s unsmiling face came into view. It became another reason for her to feel gloomier.
"Enjoy your meal."
"… I will, once you leave to give me time to forget your annoying face."
"If you say so."
Gu Mochou then ignored him and waited for him to finish transferring everything on the tray onto her table.
Almost a minute after he left, her stomach rumbled, and she stopped thinking about unnecessary things. She began to take a spoonful of the wonton soup before sampling the sponge cake.
"It"s quite good."
Her expression became a lot brighter. The dissatisfaction brought to her by the lack of bad news and gossips about Zhao Ai was temporarily forgotten.
Her speed of eating was still slow, and every action looked filled with manners. However, it was noticeable that since she started eating, she did not glance on her phone anymore, an odd situation considering she was the type to take a bite every sixty seconds and glue her eyes on her phone for the rest of the time.
Gu Mochou had been dining here for six months whenever she was not on campus but this was the first time she felt like their dishes were so delightful… and, how should she put it? Addicting?
Has there been a change of chef?
Time pa.s.sed and before the villainess knew it, she had finished four-fifths of her breakfast even though before, it was not unusual for her to leave half of the dishes untouched.
Then it started.
"Hmm?" Gu Mochou was about to clamp a piece of meat when she suddenly froze, a frown appearing on her immaculate face. Her fingers began to tremble and the chopsticks in her hand slipped down. The noise it made elicited some attention from the ones close to her spot.
"Miss. Your utensils fell on the floor."
Unfortunately, Gu Mochou couldn"t turn her head to them to gesture an apology. She suddenly felt paralyzed. It lasted for more than thirty seconds before her heart began to palpitate crazily and an uncomfortable feeling a.s.saulted her all over.
Her thoughts began to accelerate.
She was a healthy person so why was she experiencing chest pain? It was getting harder to breathe as if a heavy object was pressing on her chest or something was clogging her windpipe. What the h.e.l.l was happening?
Gu Mochou rolled her eyeb.a.l.l.s around, signaling for someone to come forward to help her. Unfortunately, there was a limit to what the eyes could communicate to others. n.o.body got her message. They only looked at her with weird eyes, those that greeted her enthusiastically when she marched into the place not an exception.
Time seemed to be in a slow-mo. Yet the music, the images around her, became messy and irritating. Before she lost awareness of everything around her, she seemed to have thought of something.
Her eyes went to the plates in front of her before slowly searching for Jiang Li"s figure. Her expression distorted.
"I"ve been drugged? Or is it poison?"
Vengeful thoughts about seeing the one responsible and making him pay dearly swirled in her mind which she vowed to do even if she became a ghost.
Gu Mochou then lost consciousness.