When she was all done, it was already the middle of the night.
Lin Xi was very tired already and fell into a deep sleep after she crawled into bed.
She had no idea how much time had passed when more bits and pieces of images made their way into her mind again.
In her dream, she seemed to be inside of a dark alley. She was running as fast as she could and there were a lot of noises coming from behind her.
Suddenly, she saw darkness in front of her eyes. She was caught.
Falling onto the ground, Lin Xi pushed herself backward as much as she could but she was finally surrounded by the men in front of her against a wall.
Lin Xi couldn’t see their faces but she could feel that they all had a vicious look on them.
They got close to her and grabbed her by her limbs. One of them kicked her a few times on her stomach, hard. Another one grabbed her by her hair and banged her head against the wall. She couldn’t even begin to describe the pain that she was feeling.
-- No! Someone, please help!
Lin Xi wanted to scream but nothing was coming out of her.
She could see many hands reaching toward to her.
***
The dream stopped abruptly at this point.
“NO---!”
Lin Xi shouted and woke up from her nightmare.
Lin Xi curled up under the blanket, her entire body was still shaking from the dream. She grabbed onto the blanket and pulled it around herself as tight as possible with her hands that were now numb.
Lin Xi was pale and she was covered in cold sweat. The thick fear took over her for a long, long time – the final mortifying image replayed in her head over and over again. It was so real. So real that it did not seem like a dream at all.
BANG BANG BANG. Came knocking noises from Lin Xi’s room door.
“Are you awake, Miss? It is almost time to go. Madam said to have you go downstairs as soon as you are ready.” It was Aunty Li’s voice.
“Alright.”
***
20 minutes, Lin Xi finished packing and went downstairs with her luggage.
Seeing the huge suitcase behind Lin Xi, Zhang Cui asked in surprise. “Why are you bringing so much stuff with you? How much have you packed?”
“Didn’t you say I will be staying there for a while?” Lin Xi answered her question with a question.
Zhang Cui recollected herself immediately and nodded. “Alright, alright. Bring as much as you want. We don’t want you missing anything after you get there.”
Per their plans, they didn’t just want Lin Xi to stay in the village for a few days, they planned to have her stayed there for years. So what if she wanted to bring additional stuff with her?
Looking at Lin Xi’s backpack, Song Kexin was anxious for some odd reasons. She said to the maid next to her, “Aunty Li, why don’t you take a look through her stuff and see if she had missed anything.”
Aunty Li acknowledged her request, walked up, took Lin Xi’s backpack from her and inspected it.
Most of the items inside of the backpack were clothing and textbooks along with some snacks. The remainders were a few bottles of travel size skincare products and the battery pack. There was nothing out of the ordinary. It was everything that one would pack when going on a trip.
“Madam, I think Miss has everything she will need.”
Song Kexin nodded and looked through it herself as well before she tried to put aside her bad feelings.
“Okay. You should head out now that you are all set.”
Zhang Cui was about to take off with Lin Xi when Lin Yize came downstairs.
The minute that Lin Xi saw him, she turned pale immediately, stumbled backward a few steps, and finally collapsed onto the couch.
“What’s the matter, Xiao Xi?” Everybody looked over at Lin Xi. Evening Lin Yize gave her a cold look.
“I, I felt a little dizzy from hunger. Probably just low blood sugar,” said Lin Xi, still pale.
“Oh, dizziness from hunger is no big deal. I have some snacks with me that you can eat on our way.” Having said that, Zhang Cui took a look at the time. “We shouldn’t dilly dally any longer. We might run into traffic. Let’s go.”
Lin Xi nodded and followed behind Zhang Cui into Uncle Li’s car.
After Lin Xi had gotten into the car, Zhang Cui took the opportunity to pat Song Kexin on her hand. “What is it? Do you not want to part with her?”
Song Kexin shook her head and shared her concerns. “Mom, what if she escapes from the village after noticing that something was off?”
Zhang Cui wasn’t worried. “Don’t worry. She had no money on her, nor does she know the ways. How could she run? Besides, you know what our village is like. The closet bus stop was still over 10 km away. There is no running for her. The most she could do is to fuss over it for a little while once she realized it. I have already told Zhang Qiang to keep an eye out on her. She’ll calm down over time.”
See that her words had calmed Song Kexin down, Zhang Cui, too, got inside of the car.
“Bye, Mom. Bye, Xiao Xi.” Song Kexin waved at the both of them in the car.
Lin Xi turned her head stiffly and tried her best to maintain her usual look. She, too, waved at the few others outside of the car but she dared not look at Lin Yize for too long.
Lin Xi finally let out a sigh of relief after the car had pulled away.
-- The dream from the night before appeared in Lin Xi’s mind again.
Immediately before the end of the dream, through all of the other shadows standing in front of her, she saw clearly the face of the man standing behind the others not too far from her.
It was Lin Yize!