Dragon Raja 4; Chapter 94: I Need You to Save my Distant Dreams (3)

Dragon Raja 4

Lu Mingfei exchanged a glance with Nono. She pulled out a master key, fiddled with the lock for a moment, and the door swung open. High-end houses like this usually had alarm systems, but theirs didn’t activate, likely because the realtor had unplugged it to save on electricity. The furniture and valuables were long gone, even the curtains had been removed, leaving little to tempt thieves.

Lu Mingfei and Nono stood in the cavernous living room, their feet sinking into the mildewed carpet. Lu Mingfei’s expression was even more desolate than the house itself.

“This is what you call Chu Zihang’s house?” Nono glanced out at the overgrown garden.

Lu Mingfei had no response. Everything seemed like a dream, things he had believed in so strongly now just illusions.

They explored the villa’s every corner but found no valuable clues. The original owner had good taste and spared no expense. The garage could fit five cars, the wine cellar held thousands of bottles, the master bathroom’s marble bathtub was inlaid with expensive malachite, and the crystal chandelier had flecks of gold. It was hard to imagine a boy who practiced kendo and played basketball living here. There wasn’t even a basketball hoop in the garden, though there was a mirrored dance studio in the basement.

After seeing the dance studio, something seemed to click for Lu Mingfei. He led Nono back to the living room. One wall was covered by a sheet, and they had previously assumed it was just hiding some damage. This time, Lu Mingfei tore it down, revealing a massive photograph beneath the dust. At that moment, even Nono felt as if a radiant light was bursting forth.

The photo was of a girl, about eighteen or nineteen, dressed in a Dunhuang-style dance costume, striking a pose reminiscent of a figure playing a pipa. A glow seemed to flow across her skin, stars sparkled in her eyes, and her bare feet appeared to float in midair, full of grace and allure.

Lu Mingfei gazed up at the girl in the photograph, his expression a mix of faint excitement and nostalgia.

“Staring so openly at a beautiful woman, that’s not like you,” Nono said, standing beside him, admiring the photo.

“I know her. Her name is Su Xiaoyan,” Lu Mingfei whispered. “She’s Chu Zihang’s mother.”

Nono took out her phone, snapped a picture of the floating dancer, and opened a search engine to compare the image. She hadn’t brought her phone with her when she left Golden Iris Island, and to avoid being tracked by EVA, they couldn’t use phones registered under their names. But in this city, where Nono could even borrow a Ferrari, getting a phone under someone else’s name was a trivial matter.

Moments later, information about the photo appeared. Twenty-six years ago, the city had held a grand cultural performance, and one of the most memorable acts was a dance drama titled Silk Road Blossoms. A young girl, only 18 and still in school, was selected by the director for the lead role. Her performance, as graceful as a soaring swan or a swimming dragon, earned universal praise from critics and the audience alike, who declared that she was the embodiment of the flying celestial herself. From then on, this dancer appeared frequently in performances and was even admitted to the Central Dance college under special consideration.

“This is interesting. You might be a big name at Shilan Middle School, but there’s no way you should know Su Xiaoyan,” Nono said.

Lu Mingfei nodded. In truth, the Su Xiaoyan he had met didn’t look like the young woman in the photo. The Su Xiaoyan he encountered was a middle-aged beauty, the kind that “aged gracefully” would undersell—she was youthful and charming like a young girl but with the dignified aura of a dancer. After delivering the literary collection that day, the director of education had told Lu Mingfei it was time for him to leave. Lu Mingfei understood he wasn’t invited to the gathering; Chen Wenwen had only asked him to run an errand. But then, a beautiful woman came out and stopped him. Lu Mingfei didn’t dare look directly at her—she was too dazzling, dressed in a sleek black gown and fuzzy high-heeled slippers that made her skin look like snow.

The beautiful woman casually said, “The kid came all this way, how can he leave without eating? Invitation? Who cares about invitations—if a classmate’s at your house for dinner, why do you need one?”

She was the most adorable middle-aged woman Lu Mingfei had ever met, and her name was Su Xiaoyan, Chu Zihang’s mother.

Lu Mingfei understood Nono’s point. If there was no Chu Zihang in this world, then he shouldn’t have had the chance to meet Su Xiaoyan. By then, Su Xiaoyan was already a well-known dance artist, the kind of person even city officials would request to meet. How could Lu Mingfei have come to know such a renowned artist? And how could he have known where she lived?

In the tangle of mysteries, a loose thread had appeared. But with Su Xiaoyan gone, how could they contact her?

Nono thought for a moment and walked into the bathroom, turning on the faucet to check the water flow before shutting it off again. “The house hasn’t been empty long; there’s no rust in the water pipes.”

Lu Mingfei nodded. “Su Xiaoyan’s photo is still hanging here, so the house hasn’t been sold yet. There must be some information left inside.”

“Let’s see if they emptied the trash. There should be a private bin somewhere in the villa,” Nono suggested.

A short while later, the two of them found half a letter in the villa’s basement trash bin, addressed to Su Xiaoyan. The letter had been shredded, but fortunately, the old shredder hadn’t done a thorough job. The letter mentioned that a room had been arranged for Su Xiaoyan at Sacred Heart Charity Hospital, welcoming her stay and listing various precautions. The letter was dated a few months earlier. It seemed Su Xiaoyan hadn’t moved out but had been hospitalized for sudden illness. As for why the house was being sold, that remained unclear. Nono searched online for Sacred Heart Charity Hospital but found nothing. Luckily, the shredded envelope had the hospital’s address, located on the outskirts of the city.

“Should we go check it out?” Lu Mingfei glanced at his watch. “Isn’t it a bit late?”

“You decide,” Nono shrugged. “If you can’t sleep, we could either grab that grilled flatbread or head to the hospital.”

On the deserted highway late at night, the Ferrari was so fast it seemed ready to take off, with the windbreak trees on either side blurring past.

The hospital was located in a scenic area on the outskirts, more than ten kilometers from both the old city and the CBD. The roads around it were all newly built, so much so that the navigation system hadn’t been updated yet.

They spotted a cluster of white buildings nestled in a valley, which seemed to be the hospital. But as they neared, they realized the saying “as far as the eye can see” held true—the closer they got, the farther the hospital seemed. They exited the highway and wound through a mountain road. The road was smooth and wide, but the surrounding land was barren, and there weren’t even streetlights installed yet.

As they approached the hospital, Nono slowed down, closed the exhaust valve, and coasted quietly toward the facility.

The place didn’t look much like a hospital. It was made up of dozens of white, three- or four-story buildings, the lawns neatly trimmed and lush. In the center of the lawn stood a large glass greenhouse, filled with flowers in bloom. A cool, refreshing scent lingered in the rainy air, giving the place the feel of another villa district. There was no sign of a red cross or a hospital plaque, though a few ambulances were parked at the entrance.

The perimeter wall was about one and a half times a person’s height, topped with barbed metal spikes. The security was tight, but that wasn’t a problem for anyone from Cassell College. Lu Mingfei stood at the base of the wall as Nono ran a few steps, leaped onto his shoulders, and threw a brick she’d picked up from the roadside onto the barbed wire. She used the brick as a handhold to push herself over. Their teamwork was so seamless they didn’t even need to speak.

Moments later, Nono emerged from the security booth with a key and opened the gate to let Lu Mingfei in.

Nono handed him a list, and Lu Mingfei scanned it as they walked. He quickly found Su Xiaoyan’s name, along with a building number. This seemed to be a very expensive private hospital, where each patient had their own independent villa, much like a resort hotel. Nono handed him a paper bag, which contained a security guard uniform and a pair of heavy-duty boots.

“What do I need this for?” Lu Mingfei asked.

“You’re going to see Su Xiaoyan. If anyone asks, just say you’re a new security guard,” Nono replied. “I’m going to check out her medical records at the nurses’ station.”

Lu Mingfei ducked into the bushes and emerged wearing the loose-fitting security uniform. As the saying goes, “clothes make the man,” and the transformation was remarkable—he went from looking like a young noble elite to a run-of-the-mill working-class guy from a third-tier city.

“Come here, let me fix you up,” Nono waved him over.

Lu Mingfei walked up and spread his arms, standing straight.

Nono frowned. “You’ve gotten used to being waited on, haven’t you? Is that something the Student Union taught you?”

Lu Mingfei snapped back to reality, realizing that it wasn’t Isabelle pampering him this time but Miss Chen, who wasn’t about to indulge his bad habits.

The Student Union didn’t actually provide the president with an assistant; Isabelle’s official role was as general affairs assistant. But Isabelle was so considerate that she always took care of everything for Lu Mingfei—carrying his bags, straightening his tie—which led to endless rumors about them. While Lu Mingfei wasn’t romantically interested in Isabelle, her attentiveness could spoil anyone. Without her around these days, even his ties were crooked.

Lu Mingfei could only mutter a few awkward noises.