“Are you really okay? You don't look so good. Why don't you take a few more days off?” Ye Qinghe asked, a little worried, as soon as they met.
“I'm fine. I probably haven't been resting well these past few days. I'll be better in a few days.”
“Then you should rest well. The classes are over, yet you still insisted on coming.”
“I came to see you, not to attend class.” Changqing took Ye Qinghe's school bag, slung it over his shoulder, and said, “I have something I want to ask you. Shall we find a place to sit for a while?”
“Okay.” Ye Qinghe smiled sweetly. “Then I'll take you to eat something delicious.”
...
After a simple lunch, the two sat in the restaurant without leaving.
Actually, his illness left him with no appetite at all, but Ye Qinghe kept putting food on his plate, and to keep her from worrying, he could only force himself to eat it all.
“Are you hiding something from me?” Ye Qinghe suddenly asked, looking at the silent Changqing.
“Yes, I am.” Changqing did not hide it.
“You've been looking down the whole way here, and during dinner too, without saying a word. It seems you have a lot on your mind.” Ye Qinghe rested her chin on her hand, looking into Changqing's eyes.
“You're such a smart person; there have been very few things that have troubled you since you were little. I'm very curious what it is. Can you tell me?”
Changqing nodded, carefully considering how to begin.
He certainly couldn't tell Ye Qinghe about his brain cancer. In his eyes, this was the real world, the world he most needed to manage and would continue to live in. If he really wanted to talk to Ye Qinghe about Transmigration, he would just tell her his Rebirth experience as if it were a dream.
“Recently, I've been having a recurring dream.”
“Oh? What kind of dream? Tell me quickly.” Ye Qinghe asked with interest.
“In the dream, I entered another world. It was a dark cave, winding and twisting, without sun or light, boundless...”
“Sounds like a nightmare.”
As Changqing recounted, he carefully observed Ye Qinghe's expression, hoping to find some hint of abnormality.
But Ye Qinghe just blinked her cute big eyes, listening intently to Changqing's words.
“It was dark and damp, and the air was filled with a strange fragrance and the smell of blood. And there were many bizarre monsters inside.”
“Monsters? What kind of monsters?”
“Some snakes, insects, rats, and ants, transformed into human form, and they were all women. These people called themselves the Hehuan Sect. They were insatiably hungry, wanting to drain my essence and blood.”
Ye Qinghe's pretty face flushed slightly. “You pervert, wasn't that just a wet dream? And you're telling it? Aren't you ashamed?”
Changqing, however, shook his head very seriously.
“Qinghe, do I look like I'm joking?”
Seeing his seriousness, Ye Qinghe realized it and asked, “Then is there anything strange about this dream? That makes you so troubled?”
“The dream itself isn't much, it's just terrifyingly real, but I think I've said enough.”
Changqing's gaze sharpened, looking directly into her eyes.
“Qinghe, have you really not had the same dream?”
“No, I really haven't. Why would you think I've had the same dream?”
Changqing closed his eyes, feeling a mix of helplessness and disappointment, yet also a deep sense of relief.
This feeling was complex. On one hand, he hoped that if Ye Qinghe had also Transmigrated with him, she would be his only ray of hope in the darkness of the other world.
But on the other hand, he didn't want Ye Qinghe to suffer the same endless Rebirths and torments as him in that cruel world.
“Changqing, what's wrong? You haven't finished yet. Why would you think I'd have the same dream as you?”
Seeing Changqing close his eyes and not respond, Ye Qinghe leaned closer to Changqing, asking with concern.
This was also what Changqing admired most about Ye Qinghe.
Her personality seemed to have achieved the most perfect balance between rationality and sensibility.
Ye Qinghe had excellent grades, a quick mind, and was very intelligent, but no matter what wild ideas Changqing shared with her, even if it was just a joke, Ye Qinghe would seriously consider his questions.
For such a Ye Qinghe, now that he had started, Changqing didn't plan to brush her off or keep her completely in the dark.
“Because I dreamed of you in my dream.”
“I had this dream a total of 5 times. Each time it started from the beginning, but in the first four dreams, you weren't there. Only in the last one did I dream of you.”
“In the first four dreams, I tried very hard to escape that cave, but I failed every time.”
“But in the last dream, you came to my side and helped me escape from there. That was the closest I came to success.”
He tried his best to choose his words carefully, to both convey the full picture of the situation and not sound too outlandish.
“So, you think that in the last dream, I came into your dream?”
Changqing nodded.
Ye Qinghe thought for a moment, then took his hand.
“Although I truly haven't had such a dream, if you really encounter danger, I will definitely come to save you.”
Feeling the warm, soft palm of the girl in front of him, Changqing squeezed a little harder, holding her hand more tightly.
He was now completely certain that Luo Hongyan and Ye Qinghe were not the same person.
There was no particular reason, except that Ye Qinghe would never lie to him, about anything.
Even a dream that most people might not pay attention to, if he mentioned it, and if she had any impression of it, Ye Qinghe would definitely tell him.
Since she didn't say anything, it proved that Luo Hongyan was not Ye Qinghe.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a little regretful. If he had known this, he shouldn't have saved her, thus missing a great opportunity to escape the Hundred Flowers Cave.
But could he really just watch a girl who looked exactly like Ye Qinghe die in front of him? He found it difficult to do.
Also, even if Ye Qinghe was not Luo Hongyan, was there no connection between the two? Why did they look so similar? If it was merely a coincidence, he didn't believe it.
“Do you think parallel Universes exist in this world?”
“Parallel Universes? Are you talking about the kind of plot we used to see in movies, where in another Universe, there's someone exactly like you?”
Ye Qinghe pondered for a moment, then suddenly realized.
“Oh, I understand. You mean the Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly, and you're combining the Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly with the hypothesis of parallel Universes. That's what you meant, right?”
Her words made Changqing pause, and he couldn't help but marvel at how clever Ye Qinghe was; what she said was very similar to his own conjecture.
“Are you suggesting that the world you dreamed of is actually a parallel Universe? And the dream is the passage connecting the two worlds, and the 'me' you saw in your dream is actually another 'me' from a parallel Universe?”
Ye Qinghe's explanation was almost entirely consistent with his own recent thoughts, which surprised him a little.
“Qinghe, you don't think my idea is too outlandish, like I'm talking nonsense, do you?”
“Of course not.” Ye Qinghe shook her head, her expression very serious.
“You're the smartest person I've ever met. Since we were little, things you've said have rarely been wrong. I believe you wouldn't have such a conjecture for no reason. Either your dream was too real, or there's something else you haven't told me.”
Ye Qinghe was absolutely right.
Even Changqing himself had once wondered if everything that happened in the other world was just a dying fantasy of a brain cancer patient.
But two undeniable facts convinced him that all of it was real, that he had indeed Transmigrated.