Seeing the white-clothed girl staring at him, Xiao Cheng instantly felt his scalp tingle.

He couldn’t help but take a step backward, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his arm.

Gritting his teeth, he turned to look and discovered that a potted pothos on the windowsill had cut his arm.

Since he had no way to affect anything in this world, when his arm passed by the pothos leaves, it was like passing by an extremely sharp blade.

His blood fell like beans, finally pattering to the ground.

Since the blood had no way to stain the floor, all the blood on the ground turned into red spherical beads that were now rolling around in all directions.

He didn’t have time to deal with all this. He hurriedly turned his head to look at the white-clothed girl, only to discover that she had already looked away and was focused on examining the crack on the window with Qi Xia.

It was as if being suddenly watched by her just now had been an illusion.

Since the white-clothed girl didn’t glance at him again, even Xiao Cheng himself didn’t dare confirm whether he had truly been discovered.

Theoretically, the only person who could discover him was the master of the dream. That girl, being a product of this dream, must have only accidentally glanced his way.

Just at this moment, a muffled sound came from the sky above, as if someone was speaking at the ends of heaven.

“This kid is injured!”

“How did he get this gash? Quickly bandage him up.”

Those voices from beyond sounded exactly like Chen Junnan and Tiantian.

Xiao Cheng also felt at this moment that things weren’t good. This dream seemed both solid and unstable—in a situation where everything felt very real, he could even hear sounds from the outside world.

But what should he do next? If he wasn’t awakened by the outside world, how could he escape from this illusory, terrifying dream?

“I think it might have been someone throwing a small stone,” the white-clothed girl said. “Don’t worry about it, Xia. I’ll have someone come replace the glass tomorrow.”

“Oh… okay.” Qi Xia nodded slightly.

After the white-clothed girl finished speaking, she walked to the kitchen. From the sound of it, she turned on the gas stove, then poured oil. After heating the wok, she threw in a large pile of wet things, and the hot oil splattered loudly with sizzling sounds.

Those were the “bean sprouts.”

Qi Xia didn’t continue standing by the window either. Instead, he came to the dining table to wait.

Xiao Cheng really couldn’t think of any solution. He walked forward a few steps and came to stand opposite Qi Xia.

Then, gritting his teeth, while Qi Xia was staring blankly at the tabletop, he suddenly extended his finger and poked toward his eyes.

A person’s eyes are the most vulnerable part of the entire body. Although Xiao Cheng had difficulty affecting things in the dream, attacking Qi Xia’s eyes might make him notice his presence.

“Bang!”

The sound didn’t come from Qi Xia’s eyes, but rather from Xiao Cheng’s finger.

It was like poking extremely hard fiberglass. Qi Xia didn’t even move his eyelashes, yet Xiao Cheng felt his finger throbbing with pain.

He clutched his finger and furrowed his brow fiercely.

“Oh no… his mental defense is even stronger than I imagined.”

This dream was truly completely immovable.

Xiao Cheng tried many more methods, but no matter what, he couldn’t get Qi Xia’s attention. This couldn’t help but make him feel somewhat confused.

Was Qi Xia different from other people?

In previous dreams, most people couldn’t notice his existence, but as long as he found ways to touch them—not to mention touching their eyes, even if he just tugged at a corner of their clothes—they would immediately discover his presence.

But Qi Xia’s dream seemed to completely violate this concept. Everything here was abnormal.

“Xia, I’ve finished stir-frying the bean sprouts.”

The white-clothed girl walked out from the kitchen carrying a steaming plate. Inside were pitch-black strands, yet the girl looked like she had truly put her heart into cooking this dish.

Not only had the “bean sprouts” been garnished with bright green chopped scallions, but they were even sprinkled with fresh chili peppers cut into small segments. The red and green embellishments made the color of this plate of “bean sprouts” look less monotonous.

“You eat first.” The white-clothed girl placed the “bean sprouts” on the table in front of Qi Xia. “The eggplant doesn’t cook easily. It’ll take a while longer.”

Qi Xia nodded blankly, then grabbed the white-clothed girl’s hand. “An, don’t work so hard… one dish is enough…”

“That won’t do!” The white-clothed girl smiled. “The vegetables are all cut up. All that’s left is cooking them. You eat first.”

After saying this, she handed a pair of chopsticks to Qi Xia and turned to walk back into the kitchen.

Qi Xia took the chopsticks. His eyes remained vacant. He placed the chopsticks on the table to align them, then picked up a dark, blackish clump.

“Brother Qi!!” Xiao Cheng shouted. “You can’t eat this! Can’t you tell what it is?!”

Xiao Cheng looked at Qi Xia’s chopsticks in panic. He had never noticed before that the two ends of earthworms were actually pointed. After being heated, their bodies displayed a rigid, curved quality. He didn’t know whether it was the chopsticks clamping them or they were coiling around the chopsticks.

Qi Xia slowly moved this clump of “bean sprouts” toward his mouth. Xiao Cheng quickly reached out to stop him, but Qi Xia’s hand, like the door earlier, similarly weighed a thousand pounds and couldn’t be held back at all.

He ultimately still sent that clump of black threads hanging with chili peppers and scallions into his mouth, then chewed expressionlessly.

Xiao Cheng quickly covered his eyes. He too seemed about to be driven mad by this strange dream.

What on earth was going on?

How could someone lose their cognitive system in their own dream?

At this moment, the most normal development… should also be Qi Xia suddenly discovering that the things on the plate were earthworms, then waking from the dream with a start, afterward feeling waves of lingering fear, and finally telling himself with relief, “So it was a dream.”

But the Qi Xia before his eyes seemed to be working hard to transform nightmares into ordinary dreams.

Even though the dream in his heart had become so terrifying, he still acted as if nothing had happened.

“Wait a moment…”

Xiao Cheng froze slightly, feeling as if he had discovered something else.

Qi Xia’s cognition had encountered an obstacle… assuming this was truly the case, his own cognition hadn’t encountered any obstacles. He could clearly see that this world had already changed.

If that was the case… only Qi Xia himself should have changed. He had used some kind of method to prevent himself from discovering all this.

The more Xiao Cheng analyzed, the more he felt this made some sense. This way, every “nightmare” could be regarded as a “good dream,” which barely counted as a motive.

But thinking this way…

Xiao Cheng’s heart, which had just settled down, was suddenly lifted up again. His hands and feet, which had just warmed up, once again turned ice-cold.

That white-clothed girl… the world in her eyes should be the same as his.

She could see it all!