52: Chapter 38 Dreaming Together 52: Chapter 38 Dreaming Together “There’s a bathroom here.” Xu Yang pointed to a compartment in the corner of the small room, “The block has electricity, the water heater should work, but I don’t know about the rest.”
“You have to help me.” Farosa observed for a moment, “I don’t know what a ‘water heater’ is; it seems that your way of bathing is different from ours.”
“First, we heat up water in a copper pot with firewood.
Once the water boils, we pour it into the bathtub, adding it in batches.
We keep some charcoal lit underneath the tub to keep it warm, and then we get in and wash.”
“It’s practically like boiling a person.”
“We’ve progressed, progressed a thousand years,” Farosa said, “Show me the new tricks you’ve learned.”
Xu Yang went into the apartment’s bathroom, where gray ceramic tiles covered the walls and the floor sloped southwest for drainage.
On the wall was a square smart waterproof panel for controlling water temperature, volume, and pressure, with showers at every angle.
He pressed a few buttons, turned the water temperature up, and showed Farosa how to use the showerhead.
She was fascinated by the miraculous device that produced hot water evenly at the touch of a button.
Farosa leaned against the bathroom wall as the water flowed and steam rose, filling the bathroom and fogging up the mirror.
“Only lovers are so open with each other,” Xu Yang said, “But our relationship is far from that.”
“Do you want me to confess to something?”
“No, but I appreciate you,” Xu Yang carefully chose his words, “You have magic power, memories of ancient times, and a dangerous character.”
“My character is dangerous?”
“It’s a positive danger, a kind of terror that’s just right and that I actually find appealing.”
“To be honest, in an age where beauty sculpting machines are everywhere, faces and figures have seriously depreciated in value.
So, what do you appreciate about me?”
Farosa’s expression became more nuanced.
“Turn it off,” Farosa commanded.
Xu Yang turned off the water, and Farosa pushed him out, gazing at him.
“If you want to know why I like you, you have to know some secrets of my past,” Farosa whispered, “Do you want to hear them?”
“I was born in a conservative village in the Aquilia Region,” Farosa began slowly, “My mother was very beautiful until, on a stormy night, she sheltered a homeless wanderer who so coveted my mother that he acted against her will.”
“I see…” Xu Yang looked into her eyes, unable to discern any joy, anger, sorrow, or pleasure in her expression.
“The horrifying part was still to come.
The wanderer kept coming back until one day, my mother lost all reason, cracked his head with a broom, and drove him away.
After that, she endured an extremely difficult ten months and gave birth to me.”
“Then I was identified as a Witch.
I displayed my abilities quite early,” Farosa caressed Xu Yang’s face, “You know how terrifying that can be.”
“Murder and resurrection.”
Xu Yang didn’t dare move, while Farosa had endless feelings about her past.
“I took pleasure in it, more and more animals died unnatural deaths and were brought back by me.
Utterly unaware of the impact this would have on my mother.
No one wanted to marry my mother, to raise a trouble child capable of threatening life and death.
My mother feared being stolen by the Council or slaughtered by the Hunters, so she found the wanderer, hoping he would help raise me, and they got married.
Kiss me now, Xu Yang.”
Xu Yang kissed her lips, and she closed her eyes, speaking softly after a long while.
“The wanderer’s nature was immutable; he made my mother’s days miserable and her nights a torment, every evening she taught me how to lie and escape.
After five years of beating and torture from my father, my mother finally went mad.
She had become a dominated tool in this marriage, her long hair cut, her fingers stiff, her body hunched, her face wrinkled.
Oh, perhaps she endured for five years, only allowing herself to collapse after she saw me master lying and escaping.
She was in agony, rolling on the ground.
I watched her daze, scream, get beaten, and abused, none of it surprising.
One night, she had me take action; I ended my father’s tyranny and my mother’s pain.”
“Blew their heads off, then applied the two skills I had learned—I said it wasn’t me who did it, and while the others were not paying attention, I fled the village.
That night I ran very fast, so very fast.”
Xu Yang remained silent for a moment.
Farosa lay on him, listening to the beating of his heart, then kissed his cheek.
“So…” Farosa whispered, “I’m good at lying and escaping.
I fear men who are as brutishly violent as my father, and I fear that I will go mad like my mother.
I want to ask you something, do you think I’m normal?”
Her heart was also beating fast.
Xu Yang held Farosa in his arms.
If anyone thinks you’re mad, that’s their own problem,” Xu Yang murmured.
“You have needs,” Farosa tried with her hand, “How does it feel now?
Am I doing it right?”
Xu Yang closed his eyes.
Time seemed to slow down when he was with Farosa.
From the time he left the company until now, Xu Yang experienced for the first time a strong sense of being needed.
He could think of a hundred ways to deny his own value, but there was no question that Farosa needed his presence.
And now, he couldn’t possibly leave her easily.
After being deeply comforted by Farosa, they both fell asleep.
He didn’t know how long they had rested when he opened his eyes and saw Farosa resting beside him.
Although Farosa had been in complete control earlier, the memory of it felt extremely precious.
Xu Yang looked at her delicate face, recalling how she had looked when he first saw her; she was like an ancient princess from a painting, lying in a coffin dressed in lavish burial attire.
Mysterious and strange, sometimes malicious and cunning, other times naive and gentle.
Xu Yang couldn’t quite grasp Farosa’s temperament, undoubtedly her past had shaped her complex character, a great event happened 1,000 years ago, burying Farosa in that gloomy tomb, undecomposed and undead, until now.
Their current pattern of interaction was comfortable for him, with both maintaining a distance, and occasional intimacy being completely spontaneous, without worrying about consequences.
Farosa opened her eyes and saw Xu Yang.
“Is it still night?” Farosa noted the pitch darkness outside the window.
“There is no sun underground.”
“Ah yes, I’d forgotten.”
“I rested very well,” Farosa sat up, “I always slept alone in the past, it’s the first time I’ve shared a bed with a man.”
“And after that?” Xu Yang felt somewhat distracted, perhaps due to growing closeness; he couldn’t resist wanting to know more about Farosa.
Farosa showed an adorable expression.
“I became a servant of God,” she smiled, “I spent a long time in the Church, where witches congregated under the protection of God, at that time the Church monopolized most of the books and knowledge, and to seek help and grow, one needed to find the support of the bishops.
Secular lords often opposed the presence of witches in their territories to avoid their rule being destabilized, while the churches, by comparison, became our sanctuaries.”
well, I was envied and loathed for various reasons, most of the time on the run, encountered quite a few Witch Hunters, at times I was very close to God, at others, I was distanced…
later, I also did a number of big things.”
“You must have been quite famous then.”
“People couldn’t understand what I was doing,” Farosa gently caressed Xu Yang, “I was very adept at causing fright.”
It was far more than causing fright.
Xu Yang inwardly sighed.
Her first ability was to reverse all things back to their original state, the second, to slaughter without bounds.
If Farosa ever fell into mania, not just one or two people or cities, but the entire planet and civilization might face catastrophic destruction.
“You were sealed into that tomb very young.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“The world events you’ve experienced must be limited.” Xu Yang looked at Farosa’s youthful face and received an extremely scornful response.
“Limited?” Farosa scoffed, “The events I’ve experienced are far more exciting than the monotonous lives of humans, especially in this era you live in now, empty, fragile, vulgar, with people harming each other, witches living deformed lives.
How could one possibly encounter truly exciting events in such an era, when everyone is so superficial.”
“You’re right,” Xu Yang said.
“I thought you would argue with me.”
“I don’t know, I’ve always been indifferent, I don’t like to change other people’s thoughts.”
“You’re always changing other people’s thoughts.”
“Is it that I force them to do so, or do they get inspired and then voluntarily change?”
“Look at you, starting this again, and what you’re doing right now is trying to change my thoughts…
So, do you like that?”
Farosa scraped her fingernails hard across Xu Yang’s chest, almost drawing blood.
“You still know this trick.” Xu Yang’s hair stood on end.
“To teach you a lesson.” Farosa then leaned in to lick at the spot where she had scratched Xu Yang, “How does it feel, does it hurt?”
“You’re like a kitten.”
“I enjoy being with you,” Farosa kissed Xu Yang’s cheek, “I’ve never had the chance to lay myself bare to someone, and this is the first time I’ve talked about my parents with anyone else.”
“I feel we’ve become closer.”
“Oh, Xu Yang, it seems that no matter what I do, you wouldn’t hate me; no matter what I do, you would forgive me, wouldn’t you?
Would you submit to me unconditionally?
Would you tolerate me unconditionally?
You must love me without limits, only then will I love you without limits.”
Xu Yang felt burning hot all over and could hear his own heartbeat.