Bionic Wonder House: Are you still there?

The memory had taken quite a while to recall. Yu Ning unconsciously toyed with the stray hairs by her ear and licked her dry lips.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I’m here. I was just lost in thought for a moment, sorry.

Bionic Wonder House: It’s fine. You said your boyfriend couldn’t sleep and wanted to watch you, what happened after that?

After that, huh…

Yu Ning touched her own face. Her cheeks felt hot. Her fingers tapped rapidly on the screen before she deleted everything she had typed.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I had a nightmare, and he came to comfort me.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

A warm palm pressed against her, gently cupping her face.

She had just woken up from the nightmare, shivering instinctively.

“Did I scare you?”

Accompanied by a rustling sound, Yu Ning felt the side of the bed sink and vibrate; he had sat down.

A kiss followed, landing on her cheek. The fuzzy blanket was tugged, and she fell to one side, following the gentle pull, sinking into a warm embrace.

Yu Ning lay on her side, searching for the most comfortable position in his arms. Finally, she leaned against his chest and looked up at him. “Why were you sitting at the head of the bed?”

“I couldn’t sleep, so I wanted to watch you.”

Yu Ning: “It’s terrifying to watch someone like that in the middle of the night.”

“My apologies.” He seemed to be smiling; Yu Ning could feel the slight vibration in his chest. “I wasn’t careful and got carried away watching you.”

Yu Ning’s cheeks burned at his words, and the lingering anxiety began to dissipate.

“Don’t do that again in the future.”

“My apologies,” he said softly.

With her vision blocked by the darkness, her other senses became more acute. She felt his breath fanning against the back of her neck.

“Can you tell me about your dream?”

Bionic Wonder House: Did you tell him the content of your dream?

Hand-Cut Lemon: No.

Actually, at the time, Yu Ning had only hesitated for a moment, wondering how to bring it up, as the dream was simply too bizarre.

But he didn’t continue to press the matter; instead, he interrupted in a timely manner.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, then forget it.”

Hand-Cut Lemon: He never forces or compels me, at least not in reality.

Bionic Wonder House: How long has it been since you started having that dream?

The topic shifted quickly, but it struck right at the heart of her concern.

Hand-Cut Lemon: A month.

Bionic Wonder House: Do you dream every day?

Hand-Cut Lemon: No. At first, it was basically every day, but later it wasn’t as frequent.

Over time, Yu Ning had discovered the connection between the dreams and reality.

Bionic Wonder House: Why are you only now seeking a way to solve the problem? And doing it over the internet, looking for strangers?

This Wonder House was sharper than she could have imagined. While Yu Ning was glad she had found the right person to talk to, she also felt a growing sense of worry.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I’ve been struggling with this for a month, too.

“Are you still afraid?”

Yu Ning closed her eyes; his voice seemed to echo in her ears.

Whenever she jolted awake from a nightmare, there was always that warm, dry body smelling of lemon scent accompanying her by her side.

“Don’t think about it anymore.”

A soft kiss landed on her face, then on her neck.

Bringing with it a spark that spread like a prairie fire, igniting her.

“Are you still afraid now?”

And so, the unease and fear brought out from the dream were quickly wrapped up by his embrace and kisses.

Yu Ning was immersed in this gentle trap, lingering and unable to leave.

Hand-Cut Lemon: He really is so different from how he is in the dream, sob sob. If it weren’t for the fact that some events lined up with reality, I wouldn’t believe it was the same person. Will he turn into that in the future? Why!

Bionic Wonder House: Perhaps you could seek help from a professional. If things are as they are in your dream…

Hand-Cut Lemon: You mean see a psychiatrist? But he runs a private psychological counseling hospital himself, and he even does brain-related research. He’s already a professional himself.

Yu Ning watched the “typing…” indicator at the top of the chat box flash and disappear repeatedly. After a few minutes, the other person sent only six dots.

Bionic Wonder House: Has he ever hurt you in reality?

Hand-Cut Lemon: No. On the contrary, he’s incredibly kind. No matter how late it is when I wake up in a fright, or how busy he is the next day, he always comforts me in a soft, gentle voice. He never loses his temper or argues with me.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I even suspect he doesn’t have any negative emotions at all, yet those negative emotions manifest in the dreams, sob.

Bionic Wonder House: Has he ever hurt you in the dream?

Yu Ning fell into thought. The question of “harm”… it was difficult to describe.

Hand-Cut Lemon: That question is very complicated. I don’t know how to explain it to you.

Bionic Wonder House: Then just tell me about the dreams you’ve had. For example, that tracker and the stalking you mentioned—how does he treat you in the dream? Can you tell me in more detail?

Wonder House is so professional, Yu Ning thought. The questions asked were all so sharp.

Hand-Cut Lemon: About the tracker, I saw that from his first-person perspective in the dream. But if I think about it carefully, it seems like from my own perspective, I don’t know what he was doing.

Bionic Wonder House: Describe it specifically.

Hand-Cut Lemon: It’s just that in the dream, his attitude toward me is also very gentle. When I was working before, I was often working overtime and under huge pressure, and I would go a bit crazy from time to time. In the dream, he was also very patient in guiding me through it.

Moreover, from that first-person perspective, Yu Ning had seen his entire daily routine in full.

That was back when she hadn’t resigned yet.

And so, in the dream, Ling Wangjin would wake up at six-thirty in the morning, wash up, and start making breakfast. Occasionally, he would order takeout or go out to eat.

Yu Ning didn’t have a strong obsession with whether or not to eat breakfast at home, but he seemed to really like cooking?

Regarding his cooking, Yu Ning sighed with sincere admiration. The meat he made was incredibly delicious; it was tender when it needed to be, and firm when it should be. Even the chunks, slices, and shreds of meat were cut to uniform sizes.

Around seven-ten, she would wake up, and after breakfast, he would drive her to the company first.

Then, Ling Wangjin would head to his own hospital.

Ling Wangjin wasn’t a doctor at the hospital; he didn’t participate in clinical treatment.

But he would walk around the hospital grounds first, then enter his office to work.

The magical part of the dream was that it would skip over certain sections.

This resulted in her dream feeling like watching a movie; she knew the general plot, but the specific details remained unclear.

Ling Wangjin would work until five-thirty, and during that time, there was no shortage of chatting with her.

Yu Ning had always thought his work was very relaxed, as whenever she was free to send him a message, he could always reply within seconds.

It wasn’t until she dreamt it that she saw the scenes of him making phone calls and listening to subordinates’ reports while simultaneously replying to her at lightning speed.

Hand-Cut Lemon: When he gets off work at five-thirty, he takes his laptop with him, drives to pick me up, and we go home. I get off work at six-thirty, and I don’t know how he manages it, but he basically never makes me wait for long.

Bionic Wonder House: …And then?

Hand-Cut Lemon: Then it’s dinner. After dinner, if there’s a movie, we watch a movie; if not, we take a walk. We go home together, and then it’s our nighttime life.

Bionic Wonder House: You two live together?

Hand-Cut Lemon: Yeah, his place is closer to where I work.

Bionic Wonder House: Listening to you, I feel like his work seems quite leisurely.

Hand-Cut Lemon: It shouldn’t be. I’ve seen him working overtime with his laptop when I got up to use the bathroom at night. Later, I told him that if he’s too busy, he doesn’t have to make breakfast or pick me up, and he doesn’t have to accompany me after I get off work either.

Hand-Cut Lemon: He said okay. Since then, I’ve never seen him working overtime with his laptop at night again, until I had that dream and realized he seemed to have figured out my pattern for using the bathroom at night.

Bionic Wonder House: …He’s really pushing himself.

In the dream, Yu Ning watched him work from six-thirty in the morning until twelve at night, sometimes even until one or two in the morning.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I’m worried he might drop dead from overwork.

Bionic Wonder House: He is really obsessed with you.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Yes, I can feel it.

Bionic Wonder House: I just reread the chat logs. Based on what you’ve said, don’t you think… his attention toward you is a bit excessive?

Hand-Cut Lemon: It is a little, but as far as attention goes, he’s still considered okay.

When it came to “attention,” Yu Ning would think of her parents.

They were great in every way, except they managed her life too meticulously.

She didn’t know if other families were like this, but Yu Ning felt that her mom and dad were like people terrified of her being led astray. In college, they wouldn’t let her apply to schools in other cities, nor would they let her live in the dorms.

Later, when she started working and earning money, her mom and dad would still run to pick her up after work. At noon, they would ask what she was eating and what she was doing. There was a curfew at night; if she wasn’t home by nine, they would call to ask what she was doing.

Even if it was a company dinner, if there were activities that kept her out a bit late, they would call incessantly to ask, and at their worst, they would even make her send them photos.

Yu Ning found this very annoying.

Hand-Cut Lemon: That’s why, after I confirmed my relationship with my boyfriend, I moved out immediately.

Strangely enough, her mom and dad didn’t say much about it.

Bionic Wonder House: Does your boyfriend control you like that too?

Hand-Cut Lemon: Not really.

Yu Ning lay on the bed holding her phone, kicking off her slippers.

Hand-Cut Lemon: He doesn’t control me. Before doing certain things that involve me, he always asks me first.

Bionic Wonder House: But that’s in reality.

Yu Ning stared at the phone screen and sighed.

Bionic Wonder House: Can you tell me about the dynamic between you and him in reality?

Yu Ning felt that Wonder House was already asking quite deep questions, which made her hesitate. But then she thought, she was the one who had taken the initiative to look for someone online.

Choosing this seemingly unreliable method, she had originally thought that since everyone online was a stranger, she could talk about things she couldn’t tell people she knew. Anyway, no one knew who was on the other side of the screen.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Let me think.

The dynamic between her and Ling Wangjin in reality was about the same as any normal couple.

Yu Ning scrolled through her chat history with Ling Wangjin.

She hadn’t noticed it before, but now that she looked, she found they talked quite a lot.

At noon, they would share what they were having for lunch.

Bionic Wonder House: Every day?

Hand-Cut Lemon: Yeah, it was quite busy back when I was working. Our company didn’t have a cafeteria, and sometimes I would forget to order takeout in advance.

Yu Ning scrolled through the chat logs. The nickname she had for Ling Wangjin was “My Little Darling.”

My Little Darling: Did you order takeout?

Hand-Cut Lemon: Ah! I forgot.

My Little Darling: I ordered it. It should arrive in about fifteen minutes.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Love you! How did you know I hadn’t ordered?

My Little Darling: You didn’t reply to my messages all morning. I figured you were very busy today and would likely forget. Sure enough.

Whenever Yu Ning saw this chat log, she would remember the joy and emotion she felt when she saw the takeout box at the front desk after a dizzying, hungry afternoon.

As long as she thought of it, she couldn’t help but smile.

Bionic Wonder House: Does he control you staying out late?

Hand-Cut Lemon: No, I basically don’t stay out very late anymore. Even for dinners, I go home right after eating.

Bionic Wonder House: Why? Don’t you want to hang out with your friends more?

Hand-Cut Lemon: I don’t have any friends right now.

Yu Ning didn’t like dealing with people, and eating with colleagues meant having to say polite, superficial things to the leaders—how boring.

The only person she could count as a friend was her college roommate, but they had lost touch lately.

Thinking of this friend, Yu Ning felt a tinge of sadness.

“Meow~”

The soft, sweet meow made Yu Ning pull her gaze away from the phone screen. She turned her head and stroked the cat lying on her waist.

“Xiao Mi, how did you jump onto the bed?”

It lifted its round face, its blue-green eyes watery and bright.

Yu Ning thought of the scenes from before when she had to go out for dinner at night.

He would be holding the cat, and she would be putting on her shoes. When she looked back, she could see two pairs of eyes watching her in unison.

Even though they weren’t as round as the cat’s eyes, under the light, they looked just as shiny.

He would gently pinch the cat’s paw and give her a light, playful tap on the arm.

“Come back early. That’s what Xiao Mi is saying.”

Then, a kiss would land on her face.

Hand-Cut Lemon: To be honest, I really do yearn to return home every single day.

Bionic Wonder House: …

Bionic Wonder House: Sharing lunch, picking you up and dropping you off, not staying out late, and going home as quickly as possible even if you’re out… in a way, your routine is about the same as when you were at your parents’ house.

Bionic Wonder House: …And you’re the one who is voluntarily following it.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Yeah…

Yu Ning hugged the cat.

So it was only after dreaming for a month that she realized something was wrong.