CHAPTER 1788: CHAPTER 1782: FULFILLING MY PROMISE 2

"Uh..." Tang Ye was a bit stunned. The figure behind the curtain looked quite unfamiliar, but the strange thing was that he felt a sense of familiarity, like Lu Xiaojie, yet completely different.

Unable to make out anything, Tang Ye simply called out to the silhouette on the curtain, "Lu Xiaojie?"

The person behind the curtain seemed to be weaving something. Hearing Tang Ye’s voice, she stopped, stood up from her chair.

"A visitor has arrived."

Tang Ye sat waiting until he heard the voice of the person, and he was stunned. This was completely not Lu Xiaojie’s voice; the voice was very old, clearly the voice of a woman in her sixties or seventies!

Then, the curtain was pulled open by the person, and the true appearance was revealed — indeed, an old woman. Her weathered face smiled kindly, though not particularly benevolent, she was somewhat close, appearing not to be a bad person.

Moreover, her hair was neatly styled, but hardly any black hair remained; the rest was white, and the numerous wrinkles made Tang Ye somewhat dazed.

He tried to find traces of the woman’s youth to confirm whether she was Lu Xiaojie, but after a long observation, the change was too drastic for Tang Ye to confidently confirm his suspicion.

No one spoke, but luckily, the old woman spoke soon. She sighed, "I haven’t seen anyone in a long time; I thought I’d never see anyone again in this life, haha..."

Listening to her words, Tang Ye bit his lower lip. He glanced at the door, Lu Xiaojie still hadn’t appeared, yet there was only him and the other.

After a brief silence, realizing this wouldn’t do, Tang Ye could only ask, "Are you Lu Xiaojie?"

"What?" It was unclear if the old woman heard Tang Ye clearly, her face showed confusion, and soon she tentatively asked, "Are you looking for someone? If you’re looking for someone, they’re not here. I’ve been here for decades, and I’ve never seen anyone other than you."

As she spoke, the old woman shook her head and returned to her chair, picked up the needle and thread from the table, and continued to weave. She seemed to be making clothes, with several shelves next to her, filled with many animal plush toys. They were very finely crafted, much more exquisite than those in Dairya’s "collection."

Tang Ye noticed that the originally diagonal "V" shaped staircase of the general store had now been changed to a spiral staircase, with colorful paper flowers pasted on the handrails, and many paper or fabric toys hanging from the ceiling. It looked as if these were prepared to welcome someone.

Lost in thought, Tang Ye was considering how to speak when suddenly he thought of something.

"Uh... elder, what I want to ask is, are you Lu Xiaojie?"

"What?"

"Are you Lu Xiaojie?"

"Lu Xiaojie?"

"Yes."

"Never heard of her, and I’m not her."

"I see, then what are you doing here?"

"Child, this should be my question to you." For Tang Ye’s inquiry, the old woman replied without turning her head, but Tang Ye didn’t feel awkward, observing everything around while saying, "Originally, this doesn’t seem to be yours."

The old woman’s action paused, she turned back to look at Tang Ye, with some surprise in her eyes.

"Are you the owner here?" the old woman asked.

Her words confirmed Tang Ye’s guess, but he didn’t feel happy; instead, he felt somewhat sad. He returned his gaze to her deeply, but the following words did not affirm the answer.

"I don’t know, I’m not sure..."

"Do you know where you come from?"

"I don’t know, but I know I don’t belong here." Tang Ye shook his head, and the elder seemed to recall something, suddenly saying, "Maybe I know why you’re here, go."

"Go where?"

"Behind the stairs, there’s a door, that’s where you need to go."

"Door?" Tang Ye squinted as he walked around the stairs, and indeed saw a door, but behind it was just a pillar, seemingly not having space. But thinking again, it wouldn’t be sensible in the real world, yet here, everything unreasonable would become reasonable.

Gently twisting the doorknob, as the door opened, Tang Ye saw a twisted, wrinkled dark purple passage, and at the end of the passage, he saw the familiar general store.

Over there is the "real" world, he seemingly didn’t need to wake there, he could walk straight over, as he killed the last animal, his existence seemed to detach from the illusion, now he was entirely individual!

He didn’t immediately enter; instead, he glanced at the old woman once more. She focused on her tasks, and the words she spoke didn’t seem false.

So, where did Lu Xiaojie go?

And where is she now?

Shaking his head, Tang Ye no longer pondered these questions, shifted his gaze, and stepped into the passage. The moment his entire body entered, the opened door automatically closed, Tang Ye looked back, the door had disappeared, and the passage was stretching infinitely.

"Heh..." Tang Ye shrugged his shoulders, turned to move forward, quickly emerging from the passage, arriving at the general store staircase entrance. As he emerged, the door automatically closed again, but initially, there was no such door in the store.

He didn’t bother with it, for he sensed something, he looked outside, frowned and then relaxed, opened the store door, wryly watching the events outside unfold.

"Hey, kidnapping children in public is bad, if caught you’d be beaten to death on the spot!"

After his voice sounded, a completely zombie-like Teacher Ellie froze. She slowly lifted her head, looking at the man at the store’s entrance, she tilted her head in confusion, not long after, she opened her badly decayed mouth and let out a roar towards him, but without making any further move, after roaring she actually turned and ran away?

Tang Ye paused for a moment, but didn’t pursue her, turning his attention to Dairya. Upon hearing his voice, she first went blank, then with a look of disbelief, turned around and looked towards him. She quickly saw Tang Ye’s face, which was Mr. Pillay’s face, and at that moment, she broke into tears with laughter.

She laughed, Tang Ye laughed as well, but in the next second, Dairya suddenly ran over and tightly hugged him!

"You..." Her sudden action made Tang Ye stiffen; he hadn’t expected her feelings towards him to be so intense.

"Mr. Pillay..."

"Are you alright?"

"I... I’m fine..." Dairya released Tang Ye, wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes, looked up at Tang Ye’s face, forced her smile to brighten, and then said, "Mr. Pillay, don’t look for the Dream Forest anymore, just... just as long as you’re alright, that’s what truly matters!"

"What are you talking about, Mr. Pillay won’t have any trouble, but talking about surprises, I have one for you."