Courtyard House: My Long and Hard Body Makes Me Play with All the Women in the Courtyard

Su Ting stood there, stunned.

He had never heard his mother mention this place.

But every stone, every gust of wind, made his chest burn.

"Let's go." Lin Xing gently tugged at his sleeve. "If we stay any later, it will really be dawn."

The two walked into the town side by side.

On the street corner, an elderly woman with white hair was washing clothes in a wooden basin. She looked up at them and suddenly smiled: "Oh, isn't this A-Ting? You've lost weight."

Su Ting was startled.

"You... know me?"

“Silly child,” the old lady shook the soap in her hand, “your mother waited for your grandfather to come home at the door every day when she was a child, just like you.”

Su Ting opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Lin Xing whispered in his ear, "Here, you can live another way. As long as you're willing to believe."

“What if I say… I do?” he asked in a low voice.

“Then I’ll tell you—” She suddenly stopped and looked at the primary school hidden in the morning mist at the end of the town, “The last time your mother was lucid, she said, ‘Su Ting, Mom loves you.’”

Su Ting's breath hitched.

"She remembers me?"

"Of course I remember," Lin Xing smiled. "The Dream Tower can devour memories, but it can't devour love. Because love is the most stubborn obsession."

In the distance, the clock tower struck seven times.

The morning mist gradually dissipated.

A little girl with a schoolbag on her back skipped and hopped past them.

Su Ting suddenly reached out, but only managed to grab a wisp of wind.

Chapter 1301 The Rising Sun

He stared at the girl's retreating figure and suddenly asked, "Is she... Xiaoyin?"

Lin Xing didn't answer, but just looked up at the sky.

The sunlight is gradually falling.

"Do you think Lin Wan can see sunrise right now?" Su Ting asked.

Lin Xing gently took his hand.

"Do you think he'll answer if I call his name now?"

She looked up at the rising sun and softly called out:

"Lin Wan—"

The wind chimes rang in unison the moment the sound faded.

The wind chimes along the street tinkled and jingled without any wind, like someone gently tapping on glass stars. The bluestone pavement rippled with light, and the outline of the elementary school in the distance began to blur, like a wax figure melting in the sunlight.

"You..." Su Ting suddenly turned to look at Lin Xing, "What did you do?"

She was still looking up at the sky, a sly smile playing on her lips: "I called him. Do you think he'll answer?"

Before he finished speaking——

"meeting."

A lazy voice came from behind them.

Su Ting froze, his blood seemingly freezing instantly, then suddenly igniting. He dared not turn around, as if everything before him would collapse if he did.

The voice drew closer step by step, the soles of shoes treading on the bluestone slabs, unhurried and leisurely, carrying the ease of a young boy returning home in the sunset.

"Didn't we agree that you weren't allowed to come looking for me?" Lin Wan's voice was tinged with laughter and a hint of helplessness. "We agreed that you would be your night watchman, and I would be my... 'Dead Man's Paradise' administrator."

Su Ting slowly turned around.

Lin Wan stood three steps away, wearing that faded blue shirt with the cuffs rolled up to her elbows, her hair sticking up in a messy mess, and holding a half-empty bottle of orange soda—exactly the same one she drank on the rooftop when she was thirteen.

“You…” Su Ting’s throat tightened, and his voice sounded like it had been sanded through, “You’ve gained weight.”

Lin Wan was taken aback, then burst out laughing: "You're fucking skinny, like a ghost."

"I've been looking for you for seven years!" Su Ting suddenly stepped forward and grabbed his collar. "Do you know how many layers of the dream realm I've broken through? How much black mist I've consumed? How many memories have gnawed at me until I was barely clinging to life? And you think you can just lock yourself away with a simple 'Don't come looking for me'?!"

Lin Wan didn't dodge or fight back; she simply raised her hand and gently patted his shoulder.

“I know,” he said softly, “that’s why I’ve been waiting.”

"Waiting for what? Waiting for me to die in some layer of a dream, and become a name on your wall?"

“When you dare to admit—you didn’t come to save me.” Lin Wan looked him straight in the eye. “You came to keep me company.”

Su Ting slowly loosened his grip.

The wind stopped, and the wind chimes stopped ringing.

The whole street was so quiet that you could hear the dew sliding off the osmanthus leaves.

“…You planned this all along, didn’t you?” Su Ting said in a low voice. “From the day you said you wanted to ‘anchor,’ you knew I would come.”

Lin Wan nodded: "The rule of the Dream Tower is 'the deeper the obsession, the harder it is to escape.' But conversely—the deeper the obsession, the easier it is to enter. I didn't die; I turned myself into a door. And you…"

He raised his hand, his fingertips gently touching Su Ting's heart. "It was the hand that pushed you away."

"Where's Xiaoyin?" Su Ting suddenly asked.

Lin Wan laughed: "She's cooking glutinous rice balls and said if you dare to be late, she'll add ten peppercorns to your bowl."

"She...is she really alive?"

“Living,” Lin Wan said. “Here, we are all alive. As long as you remember, we are alive.”

Su Ting looked down at his trembling hands.

"But what about outside? What about reality? Should I... go back?"

Chapter 1302 Who are you?

Lin Wan didn't answer, but turned to look at Lin Xing: "What do you think?"

Lin Xing stood a few steps away, her skirt swaying gently, her gaze distant.

“Go back, and you can become the Lord of the Night’s Watch, protecting all those who dream,” she said. “Stay… and you can become the dream itself.”

Su Ting looked at her: "And you? Who exactly are you?"

Lin Xing smiled slightly, and his figure began to become transparent.

“I am the first watchman who did not wake up,” she said. “And the one Lin Wan wrote down… ‘Guide.’ Now that you have found each other, my mission is over.”

"Wait!" Su Ting suddenly reached out. "You can't leave! You haven't told me yet—my mother..."

“She loved you,” Lin Xing whispered, “from the day you were born until her last breath. The Dream Tower can steal memories, but it can't steal the sound of a heartbeat. Listen—”

She raised her hand and pointed to Su Ting's heart.

Su Ting was stunned.

Suddenly, a faint yet clear "thump, thump, thump" sound came from beside my ear.

It was his own heartbeat, yet it didn't seem like it.

The rhythm was gentle yet firm, carrying a long-lost cadence.

Just like when he was a child, his mother would gently pat him to sleep.

"I..." his voice trembled, "Can I stay?"

Lin Wan laughed: "What do you think? This place was originally painted in your dream."

"I drew it?"

"Hmm." Lin Wan turned around, raised her hand and pointed to the end of the town. "Under that old osmanthus tree, didn't you say you wanted to open a small bookstore with Xiaoyin and me? To bask in the sun every day, sell some worthless poetry collections that nobody reads, occasionally curse Mengta a few times, and take in a few lost children?"

Su Ting was stunned.

That was a sketch he drew in the corner of his diary when he was fifteen.

no one knows.

"You even remember this?" His voice was hoarse.

"I even remember the doorknob you drew crookedly," Lin Wan grinned. "So, are you still coming?"

Su Ting stood still, looking up at the sky.

Sunlight bathed the town, and children's laughter echoed from the depths of the alleys. In the distance, the elementary school's clock tower rang again, marking 7:15.

The last time my mother was lucid, the clock outside the window rang exactly the same.

He slowly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the blood vessels in his eyes were still there, but he no longer struggled.