Hand-Cut Lemon: To be honest, living with him is truly very comfortable. If it weren’t for the dreams…

Bionic Wonder House: You wouldn’t have noticed a thing.

Yu Ning recalled everything that had happened over the past month. Frustrated and restless, she tugged hard at her hair and gave the cat in her arms several kisses.

The cat was purring and kneading dough against her chest; the bed was soft and smelled of sunshine.

Next to the pillow at the head of the bed lay a puppy toy, and a bouquet of white gardenias was tucked into a Pikachu mug.

A floor-to-ceiling window was embedded in the wall, allowing golden sunlight to spill in and warm her body.

That window had been a later renovation, because Yu Ning had wanted a house with floor-to-ceiling windows and a small cat.

Yu Ning buried her face in the cat’s belly and let out a long sigh.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I know he has a problem now, but I can’t let go either.

Bionic Wonder House: I can understand that. Based on your description, he is an excellent boyfriend.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Right? If only he could be more normal in the dreams.

Hand-Cut Lemon: It would be great if people were like televisions—just give them a whack and they’d be fixed.

Bionic Wonder House: …You should probably change your television.

Bionic Wonder House: Let’s continue. You haven’t mentioned the tracker and the stalking yet.

Her thoughts had wandered off again, missing the main point. Yu Ning began to organize her mind, focusing on recalling the relevant memories.

If she hadn’t dreamed of him installing a tracker and stalking her, Yu Ning might have just continued living on in this hazy, happy state.

Come to think of it, the tracker incident happened half a month ago.

Hand-Cut Lemon: That day was rather unlucky. I had been too impulsive the night before and stayed up way too late, so I couldn’t get up the next morning. I was supposed to have a farewell dinner with my colleagues at 12:30, but I slept until 12:00.

Hand-Cut Lemon: …I sort of suspect he didn’t want me to go, so he didn’t wake me up.

Bionic Wonder House: That’s possible. And then?

Hand-Cut Lemon: It was raining quite hard when I came back that day. I had thought about how busy he looked in the dreams during that time—working overtime until four in the morning after I fell asleep—and yet he still insisted on leaving work on time to come home and keep me company.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I was genuinely afraid that if he kept going like that, he’d run himself into the ground, so I didn’t tell him I had finished eating. Otherwise, he definitely would have rushed over to pick me up.

Bionic Wonder House: Why is he so obsessed with accompanying you? From your description, your boyfriend must be quite wealthy. Shouldn’t that kind of thing be left to a driver?

Hand-Cut Lemon: …That seems to be the case. Why on earth is he like that?

Bionic Wonder House: Keep talking. I’ll help you analyze it.

The more they chatted, the more Yu Ning felt that Bionic Wonder House was both enthusiastic and capable. She suddenly became curious about the other person’s profession.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Are you a psychology major?

Bionic Wonder House, who had been replying instantly, fell silent. Yu Ning watched the “typing…” indicator flicker in the chat bar.

Bionic Wonder House: …I’m not a psychology major. I’ve just encountered people of your boyfriend’s type before, so I understand them reasonably well.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Okay, okay! Please, keep helping me analyze this!

Meeting an experienced professional made Yu Ning quite excited.

She thought carefully about her dynamic with Ling Wangjin and realized that, indeed, he handled almost everything related to her personally. For example, even though her clothes would normally be taken away by housekeeping to be washed, in her dreams, he would always pick out Yu Ning’s clothes to wash by hand.

Bionic Wonder House: That sounds a bit perverted. And then?

In the first-person perspective of the dream, Yu Ning saw him hang up the clothes she had changed out of.

Then, he took out his phone, tapped on her profile, and scrolled the chat history back to yesterday.

My Little Darling: What do you want to eat for lunch today?

Hand-Cut Lemon: The office has a power outage, sigh…

My Little Darling: I’ll come pick you up.

Hand-Cut Lemon: No, no, you have to work in the afternoon. I’ll just eat somewhere nearby.

My Little Darling: Alright. If you decide you want me to pick you up, call me.

He was always so gentle and considerate; he never forced her or went against her wishes.

That was exactly how Yu Ning had always perceived him.

Immediately after, she saw him look up in the dream, his gaze shifting toward the hung-up clothes.

She saw his hand.

That hand rose, pinching the cuff of the garment, and then the perspective shifted downward.

At the same time, the phone screen appeared in her field of vision.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I knew the barbecue place that opens at noon wouldn’t be any good!

Yu Ning heard a very faint intake of breath, then the perspective rose as he lifted his head.

His hand brushed the cuff lightly, flicking off a few tiny specks of cumin powder.

Bionic Wonder House: He was likely verifying what you said, judging whether or not you had gone to eat barbecue.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I never imagined that he washed my clothes for this reason, even when I dreamed it.

Bionic Wonder House: Did he do this in previous dreams too?

Hand-Cut Lemon: No, I don’t do this when I’m working normally. It only happens during certain unexpected situations…

Bionic Wonder House: For example, a power outage, or you not coming home on time?

Hand-Cut Lemon: …That must be it.

Yu Ning recalled the dream that exposed his installation of the tracker.

Hand-Cut Lemon: As I said before, I was having a farewell dinner with colleagues. Based on what you’re saying, I was indeed out quite late that time.

Bionic Wonder House: You hadn’t told him you’d finished eating, nor where you were going afterward.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Correct, and it happened to be raining very hard that day.

Bionic Wonder House: Did you seek help from your boyfriend in the dream?

Hand-Cut Lemon: No.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Because it was his perspective, I couldn’t see my own specific situation in the dream. It was only after he found me that I realized my phone had run out of battery. It must have been because things were too hectic the night before and I forgot to charge it.

Bionic Wonder House: And in reality?

Having dreamed of such a thing, Yu Ning naturally wouldn’t sit idly by and do nothing.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Actually, after having that dream, I sensed that something was abnormal about him, so I wanted to confirm whether what happened in the dream would actually occur in reality.

That was Yu Ning’s first probe, so she still went out at the time her colleagues had arranged.

This time, she made sure her phone was fully charged. She stared at the time on her screen, and after the dinner ended, she turned the phone off and stepped into the curtain of rain.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I wasn’t sure if he had installed a tracker in reality, so I wanted to test it first.

Bionic Wonder House: In the dream, even though your phone was dead, he still found you.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Actually…

Yu Ning paused; her fingers hovered over the keyboard before pressing down.

Hand-Cut Lemon: He seems to have always known my whereabouts like the back of his hand, but I never thought much of it before…

Bionic Wonder House sent a head-patting sticker.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Originally, to control the variables, I really wanted to let my phone die, but it was raining heavily that day. Just to be safe, I only turned it off so I wouldn’t end up stranded.

Bionic Wonder House: Where were you having dinner?

Hand-Cut Lemon: Yanghu East Road.

Bionic Wonder House: I remember that stretch of Yanghu East Road flooded during the rain a while back.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Yes… information in dreams isn’t always that accurate. I thought it was just raining a bit hard that day.

She had originally booked a car in advance to give herself a backup plan. If reality differed from the dream and Ling Wangjin didn’t find her, she would still be able to get home on her own.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I never expected that the heavens would cut off my retreat. Yanghu East Road was flooded, and the driver couldn’t get the car in.

Bionic Wonder House: …

Bionic Wonder House: Where did your boyfriend find you in the dream?

Hand-Cut Lemon: I don’t know exactly where, but it was a milk tea shop on Yanghu East Road where I was borrowing a power bank to charge my phone.

Bionic Wonder House: You didn’t want to trouble your boyfriend?

Hand-Cut Lemon: He asked that same question in the dream.

Yu Ning still remembered how, in the dream, she had looked at herself through Ling Wangjin’s perspective.

That ‘Yu Ning’ was sneezing while wiping her wet hair with a towel.

“The rain is so heavy; I saw the road was flooded. I couldn’t even hail a cab on the road myself. Even if I called you over from so far away, you’d have to cross that stretch of road. The car can’t get in, so you’d definitely have to wade through the water to find me. That’s so unsafe. Besides, I’ve already walked a good distance, and the milk tea shop isn’t far.”

Bionic Wonder House: You really do love your boyfriend.

Hand-Cut Lemon: That’s such a strange question. We’re boyfriend and girlfriend; how could I not love him?

In reality, Yu Ning followed the trajectory of the dream.

Leaving the restaurant where they had dined, she saw many people on the roadside trying to hail cabs. This was likely why the ‘Yu Ning’ in the dream kept walking further and further away.

With so many people trying to get a car, how long would that take?

Then, as expected, she walked to the flooded section of the road.

At this point, Yu Ning should have turned back to find the nearest milk tea shop to borrow a power bank.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I hesitated.

Bionic Wonder House: Hesitated about what?

Unlike dreaming—where the dream felt like watching a movie, with senses and emotions separated by a thin screen—she hadn’t felt much, and thus had overlooked a great deal.

But in reality, soaked to the bone by the rain, Yu Ning could feel her wet clothes clinging to her skin. Her fingers and toes were cold and damp, and she was shivering uncontrollably.

The surface of the water reflected a blurry glow under the streetlights; it was murky and bottomless, and the water had already submerged the roadside greenery.

Hand-Cut Lemon: The water was a bit deep, and I couldn’t see the end of the flooded section.

Yu Ning stared at that stretch of road and suddenly began to regret it.

She remembered how, in the dream, Ling Wangjin had waded through that section in silence, his gaze constantly sweeping across both sides of the road.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Why did I have to test him in such terrible, dangerous weather?