Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Staring at the empty shell, Zhang Zian’s mind once again fell into an endless spiral of thoughts.
Was this another dream?
Zhuang Xiaodie’s final words were planted in his heart like seeds sprouting and growing frantically.
Everything around him was so real. Whether it was his staff that he interacts with daily to the empty shell of this swallowtail butterfly. Excluding the three days when he was in a deep sleep, everything else matched with what happened before that.
The elves were there, too.
Was he truly back in reality?
Not necessarily.
Last time, Zhuang Xiaodie chose to start the dream when his parents were alive and fine-tuned the timing of some things. It was a dream without elves.
However, after learning from the previous experience and lessons, she felt that making a dream too beautiful raised suspicion. Thus, she created this dream to be no different from reality and even simulated a game that can capture elves…
There was no doubt that she was capable of this.
It was like the man dressed in black leather in “The Matrix”. He stretched out two hands to the protagonist, one with a red pill and the other with a blue pill. He asked the protagonist to choose between waking up to face the real world or continuing to live in the programmed dream. At the same time, it was also a reality that many people thought was real.
The protagonist chose to face the truth, but this choice did not apply to Zhang Zian. Although he also chose the real world, he didn’t know if it might’ve been a blue pill wrapped in red sugar coating.
Some people suspected that the so-called human world was just a program written by a higher-level civilization. This was hard to prove or falsify because everyone lived in this program. They were all people in their own dreams. They had no man in black leather clothes to present them with a pill as he did with the protagonist.
Zhang Zian sighed, shook his head, and stopped thinking about such a nerve-racking question that he couldn’t answer. It was crazy to continue thinking about it. He had better leave it to scientists and philosophers to think about since they weren’t afraid of balding from thinking too much.
As for him, he could only tell himself that regardless of whether he was in reality, another dream, or an alien program, he needed to make life more exciting and strive to make himself and his partners happy. That way, he could make the most of his life.
“Good morning, Mr. Store Manager!”
Zhang Zian heard the voice and looked back. He saw Little Celery standing behind him in short-sleeved shorts, looking up at the empty shell. If it weren’t for her two little braids, he would have mistaken her to be a lively boy.
“Good morning, Little Celery. Aren’t you on holiday?” He moved his head up and down to look behind her. She wasn’t carrying a school bag.
“It’s my turn to go to school to take care of the hamster,” she answered crisply.
“Oh… wait, has Xu Zhuangzhuang been misbehaving recently?” he asked.
Little Celery thought about it and said, “I don’t seem to see him misbehaving!”
Well, it seemed that the naughty child was stung quite badly by the caterpillar and took the opportunity to get a note of absence from his parents.
“Oh, Mr. Store Manager, what have you be doing these days? They said you went looking for a fair, rich and beautiful lady in your dreams. What does that mean?” Little Celery asked out of curiosity.
Zhang Zian said nothing. He couldn’t spare whoever was corrupting his image behind his back!
“Good morning, Mr. Store Manager.”
“Morning, Mr. Store Manager.”
Fortunately, he was saved by Lu Yiyun and Jiang Feifei’s arrival. Otherwise, he didn’t know how to explain to elementary school students what a fair, rich and beautiful lady is…
“Morning, why did you two come together?” He quickly changed the subject.
“I asked Little Yun to take me to her neighborhood to see the house. I liked the house and am now moving in. I lived there yesterday. It’s also more convenient to get to work from there now,” Jiang Feifei explained.
“Oh.” Zhang Zian nodded, “How’s your job search going?”
Jiang Feifei sighed, and her whole posture similar to that of a soulless salty fish. “The job you want and the job that are available are completely different…”
Zhang Zian felt the same. This was the plight of almost every college graduate, but he couldn’t do anything to help her. After all, he was just a pet shop owner.
After Lu Yiyun greeted him, she kept staring at Zhang Zian until he noticed and asked out of curiosity, “What’s wrong? Don’t you recognize me? Or rather… did you have nightmares last night?”
She froze slightly before snapping back into reality. “Oh, it seemed like I had a dream last night, but I woke up and forgot about it… Well, I wanted to say that when I came over just now, I might’ve seen a beautiful butterfly falling behind your neck … ”
Butterfly?
Being extremely sensitive to the word, Zhang Zian immediately turned his head. “Where?”
He then remembered that if it fell behind his neck, he wouldn’t be able to see it even if he turned his head!
Even so, his movements should startle the butterfly if Lu Yiyun was right about a butterfly landing on him.
Lu Yiyun tilted her head to check his neck and said, “That’s weird… I thought I saw it clearly, why is it gone…?”
Zhang Zian simply turned around and asked, “Is it on the back of my shirt?”
“No, not there either …” Lu Yiyun pushed her thick and heavy-rimmed glasses. “Maybe I saw it wrong…”
“I saw it too!” Little Celery raised her hand.
“Oh? Did you see it too?” Zhang Zian had let his guard down only for it to be raised again.
Little Celery nodded, “Yeah, but it seems to be gone again!”
Zhang Zian looked at Jiang Feifei. Amongst the three of them, one was an elementary schoolgirl and another an otaku girl. Despite being the only so-called normal adult here, she shook her head. “I didn’t notice it. I’m tired of moving yesterday and my whole body hurts.”
His heart was beating fast, but there was no other way. He said, “Never mind, go into the store. It may have been a reflection or something.”
At that moment, Wang Qian and Li Kun returned with a foam insulation box. They kept complaining that it was unnecessary to use it during the summer.
They all met at the door and were about to enter the shop together. Wang Qian suddenly screamed, “Master, did you go for a blind date or did you go to catch bees and butterflies? Why…?”
The utterances ended halfway.
“What’s the matter? Don’t just leave your words hanging halfway and finish your sentence!” Zhang Zian wanted to scold him and say that no one would shit halfway. However, he decided against it since Little Celery was there. He could only patiently await his response.
Wang Qian also had a forced look on his face. “Just now, I think I saw a weird and beautiful butterfly behind you, but it was within my peripheral vision… No, I caught it with the corner of my eye, but it was gone after a closer look. How spooky!”
Zhang Zian sucked in a breath of cold air. He had heard of spirits sitting on people’s backs, but no one had a butterfly on their backs before. What was so special about this… was the butterfly not real?
