Drip..drip…
Blood dropped on the book as Ruan Wen wrote equations on her notepad. She was reviewing for her final exams, cramming a semester's worth of knowledge in a short amount of time.
Pinching her nose and stuffing some tissues, Ruan Wen felt her head aching and stomach growling reminding her the last food she ate was only a slice of toasted bread and coffee throughout the day.
Tired, she took off her eye glasses and rubbed her eyes.
Seeing the coffee cup empty, she went to the kitchen to make a new cup and look for something to eat in the refrigerator but as she stand up she felt faint and dizzy almost falling back to her seat.
Thinking nothing of it after all she has tendency to be hypoglycemic and just need to get some sugar and food in her system.
She manage to find some instant noodles, eggs, and bread.
'Should I just order food?', Ruan Wen contemplated as she cook the noodles.
"Miao Miao do you want noodles?", Ruan Wen shouted to her roommate Xia Miaomiao.
Going out of her room, Xia Miaomiao skipped her way to the kitchen calling out to her.
"Can I have eggs on mine?", She cheerfully asked.
"Oh my! What happened? You got a nose bleed again!", Xia Miaomiao exclaimed as she noticed the bloodied tissue stuck up on her nose.
"You're not going back studying again are you? You need to take a break you know!", she told Ruan Wen, "You haven't been outside your room since this morning it's not healthy to study like that!"
"This is why I did not went for science line!" Xia Miaomiao commented.
To change the subject Ruan Wen asked how her debut novel going, Xia Miaomiao just finished her new novel and signed to a publishing company for her new novel as a debut.
Since signing with the publishing company Xia Miaomiao have not stopped talking about her new book, she wrote a different genre since she usually write office romance novels online, she was particularly excited about it since its an apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy genre.
"My editor said she said that it looks very optimistic and she also said that it could be a hit!", Xia Miaomiao gushed excitedly.
Ruan Wen agrees with her editor since she knows how talented Xia Miaomiao is in writing and she was one of the first people to read her new novel. She particularly liked the female protagonist's manipulative character, the only thing that annoyed her about it was that a zombie king was named after her.
She and Xia Miaomiao had a bet and she lost, and ending up having her name used for her novel.
"If you think that THAT is good, wait for me to finish its second volume!" Xia Miaomiao boldly announced to her excitedly.
*******
After eating their food, she went back to her room and tidied her books deciding she needs to rest first and continue her studies when she wake up since its already late at night already.
Laying on her bed she felt a sharp pain in her head as she close her eyes. Ruan Wen wanted to stand up and get some medicine for her headache but she felt really tired and just wanted to sleep. There is only one day left until her final exams she needs sleep more than ever, Ruan Wen figured her headache will disappear when she wakes up or just deal with it later and so she continued with her sleep instead.
In her sleep, she vaguely felt her chest like it being pressed with something heavy, her heart constricting. Ruan Wen fighting to stay somewhat conscious as though something is tugging her and keeping her from waking.
'Am I having a heart attack?! I'm scared!'
Suddenly everything went blank, the pain she was struggling was gone like it was never there. Ruan Wen felt at relaxed as if she was relieved of a heavy burden, continuing to peaceful sleep.
Contrary to her expectation, she did not have a good sleep. She had a restless night, her dreams felt like someone's memory playing like a very detailed tv series following a person's life.
It was quiet sad.
Her dreams were played with her in a first person perspective, in it she was a lonely but brilliant child. Her parents had a divorce and went on to have their own new family, while she was left on the country side with only her maternal grandparents on her side growing up.
Her father went on the city and became a successful small business man, she married a lady from the city and had a twin son and daughter. Her mother went on and married a widowed rich businessman and became a stepmother to his spoiled daughter that she attaches more importance than her own biological daughter. Both did not want a dragged oil bottle with them screwing their new life and so she was left to be raised by her grandparents in the countryside. Fortunately her grandparents were both educated and not poor, had her parents regularly send her money for financial support.
Although she grew up without her parents around, her grandparents more than compensated her in terms of love and support. The girl in her dreams was a brilliant student, always winning competitions and scholarships, she was her grandparents pride and joy especially when she managed to get the first place in the college entrance exam and enter the top university in the country.
She did not have much friends, the girl in her dreams was always by herself. She was shy and find it hard to communicate to other people, the only person she can call her best friend was her childhood neighbor but he left with his family years ago and has long lost contact with each other.
Her life was monotonous to say the least, the only excitement for her was her love to learn and read. She was content and happy, never bothered that her parents barely look for her.
It wasn't until the first year of university did her life turn to a mess, her grandparents was killed in an accident while going up the mountain on their annual hiking trip. There was an unexpected landslide and they did not managed to survive.
Her parents were barely in her life and since her grandparents died she did not know where to go, her father's wife did not want her around and so she ended up living with her mother, who rather belittle her than make her stepdaughter angry. Fortunately she was already in college and did not need to stay there, she lived most of the time in her dormitory. But ever since her grandparent's death, she had spiraled into depression making her already introverted personality more withdrawn, her roommates were indifferent with her and her bunkmate mostly ignored her existance.
Without support plus her depression and the fact that she herself don't know how to reach out to her peers, her grandparent's death hit her very hard making her often contemplate death.
Ruan Wen felt sad and a bit sympathetic with the girl in her dreams, she felt grateful that this was not her life.