Although Tang Ye said so, Dairya kept pouting, as if she wouldn’t stop until Tang Ye accepted her offering.
Tang Ye was a bit stunned, but at this mont, Dairya suddenly took a step forward and placed everything in her hand onto Tang Ye’s, and after doing so, she turned and ran outside. Tang Ye hastily called out, "Wait a minute!"
The mont his voice rang out, Dairya stopped in her tracks, turned around, but before Tang Ye could say anything, she spoke first.
"Mr. Pillay..."
"You should keep the money for yourself, the book you like..." Tang Ye started to say, but he noticed the expression on Dairya’s face and had to pause. Despite being tired, he sensed that Dairya seed to have sothing on her mind she wanted to tell him. After a mont’s silence, he changed his approach, "Well... is there sothing you want to tell ?"
She didn’t speak imdiately, but Tang Ye saw the tears welling in her eyes.
"Mr. Pillay... will you... suddenly disappear one day?"
"Huh? How could that be? Who told you that? Don’t worry, Mr. Pillay won’t disappear... right... right... haha..." Hearing Dairya’s words, Tang Ye was montarily dazed but quickly denied it. However, when he spoke, he didn’t sound very confident.
Dairya looked him in the eyes but said nothing more. After a while, she turned again to walk onto the street. From her appearance, she seed to not entirely believe Tang Ye, likely thinking that Tang Ye was deceiving her!
Watching her back, Tang Ye frowned. He couldn’t figure out why, but he felt as if sothing was missing; he promptly called out to her, "Wait."
Dairya stopped again, but at this mont Tang Ye didn’t know what to say, hesitated for a while, and could only point to the things in her pocket.
"You can put these in your backpack, no need to carry them in that."
"I’m afraid of dirtying the backpack."
"Huh? Er... okay." Seeing Dairya’s backpack still neat and tidy after several days, Tang Ye had an awkward look on his face, but he quickly asked, "Are you really not going to read today? Don’t worry, I won’t make you leave."
"No need, Mr. Pillay, you should rest well, I shouldn’t disturb you."
"It’s not that! You..." Without giving Tang Ye a chance to speak further, Dairya turned again, heading toward the street. But Tang Ye still felt like sothing was missing in his heart, he could only follow her out of the small garden, and under everyone’s gaze, call out to her again!
"Dairya!"
As the other slowly ca to a stop, Tang Ye approached her directly, crouching down in front of her. This ti, he finally knew what to say, forcing a smile onto his face.
"Dairya, I promise here, the next ti we et, I will definitely take you to the Dream Forest, okay?"
As he said this, Tang Ye’s expression was very confident, he wasn’t lying. The next ti he entered the "dream," he would have more ti there. The last five giant painted animals, unless sothing unexpected happened, he could solve them all, so he honestly told her this good disappearance, and her eyes lit up slightly at his words. But it seed this wasn’t enough to fully uplift her low spirits. The light in her eyes faded again, and she asked, "Then tomorrow, will I see you?"
"This..." Tang Ye’s smile froze for a mont but he still nodded.
"I should be able to."
"Can you promise not to suddenly disappear?"
"Of... of course..." Seeing her almost pleading expression, Tang Ye could only nod again. She seed to sense sothing, but she couldn’t make it clear herself.
"Then it’s settled, see you tomorrow?"
"Okay..." His reply finally brought a proper smile to Dairya’s face, and Tang Ye could only smile along with her.
"Alright, Mr. Pillay, I should head ho, or else, mom... will be worried."
"Alright then."
"Bye-bye, Mr. Pillay."
"Goodbye."
Tang Ye waved to her as she walked away, watching her fade into the distance, the smile on his face slowly disappeared, leaving only deep fatigue.
"Try your best..." Shaking his head, he turned towards his shop. Tang Ye undoubtedly would break his promise to Dairya because he really had no choice, just hoping that when the ti ca, her sadness would be a bit less.
Yet Tang Ye also worried if, next ti, he wouldn’t wake up again?
As he entered the small garden, Tang Ye noticed that all the flowers and grass around had turned yellow and withered, not just his, but his neighbors’, and the street trees too. These withered plants added more desolation to this once thriving foreign city.
It seems that as the "dream" world’s life force increases, the life in the "real" world decreases correspondingly. He didn’t know what the place would beco when he finally killed off all the giant creatures in the paintings?
He walked into the shop, but he wasn’t aware that before he entered the garden, Dairya had suddenly stopped as she walked away, turned to look back at him, watching his figure disappear into the garden before holding back her tears to hastily leave...
Back inside the shop, Tang Ye locked the door behind him, staggered up to his bedroom on the second floor, and lay down. Holding the bottle of dicine, he looked at it for a while, whispering to himself, "One last ti, it’s almost over."
After his silent murmur, he unscrewed the bottle, dabbed a little powder on his finger, but didn’t imdiately put it in his mouth. He relaxed himself a bit first, then put it in his mouth. At that mont, he couldn’t even screw the cap back on before sleep completely overtook him. His hand loosened, the entire bottle dropped on the floor, scattering the powdered pills everywhere.
anwhile, Dairya kept her head down and moved briskly, surpassing person after person walking on the street. As her silhouette grew distant, yellowed leaves fell from the branches, floating down even though there wasn’t any wind. The street she knew so well was unusually quiet, people moved in silence, like zombies, wandering to unknown destinations.
Quickly, her figure threaded through narrow alleys, past low houses, until from far away she saw her own front door. Bick’s wife, Ariana, stood by the door holding their child, watching the clump of dead flowers underfoot with a face full of sorrow. Sohow, the city seed dead, filling her with discomfort.
The child in her arms suddenly burst into tears. She felt a wave of irritation and hadn’t even started to soothe the child when a small figure dashed into the house.
"Dairya!" She called to the one entering, but the person didn’t look back, pattering toward the little door by the stairs. She stopped and glanced at Ariana outside, saying nothing, and looked at the woman in the kitchen at the far end, seated on a rocking chair with her hair flowing loose in a daze. That was her mother, and she couldn’t rember how long it had been since this woman last spoke to her.
It seed like a long ti ago, or perhaps just yesterday,
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