Section 9
Taking the glass of water Luna Wu handed him, Leo Lee expressed a quiet thanks. Once inside, he gazed up at the living room ceiling light. "The bulb is wearing out."
"It's still working fine," Luna replied, settling herself on the other end of the sofa.
Leo regarded her over his glass for a long moment, then smiled slightly, as if he had made a discovery. "If you're uncomfortable with me staying here, I won't move in—no need to worry."
"I'm not uncomfortable; I just… Right, why were you following me?" Luna asked, unmoved by his striking appearance, addressing her primary concern head-on.
"Rather than 'following,' I'd call it wanting to get to know you," Leo set his glass back on the coffee table. Suddenly, the ceiling light flickered, validating his observation.
"You have my WeChat; you could have reached out first and arranged to meet. Following someone without notice is… strange," Luna remarked, ignoring the light, accustomed as she was to handling such issues herself.
"When did you first realize I was following you?"
"When I changed course to head to the seaside," she recalled. "Did you start tracking me from my workplace?"
"What if I said I wanted to test your abilities? Would that sound too abrupt?" he asked.
"What abilities?"
"To handle danger and crises."
"And why would you want to see that?"
Leo's gaze shifted, his expression losing its warmth, taking on an air of cold intensity. At that moment, the ceiling light died completely, plunging the room into darkness. Yet, thanks to the city lights filtering in, the two could still see each other.
Luna instinctively tightened her grip on her phone.
"In the two weeks you've lived here, Miss Wu, have you encountered any… strange occurrences?" Leo inquired.
"Yes."
"Like what?"
"Before today, I saw you in a dream. You look exactly the same as in my dream."
"What do you think explains that?"
"The jade pillow you asked me to examine—it's peculiar."
"What's unusual about it?" Leo pressed.
Luna hesitated before asking, "Mr. Lee, have you read *The Tale Within the Pillow*?"
Leo chuckled, a lengthy silence following. "Miss Wu, you're quite brave."
"Well, what did you expect? How else would I dare stay here?" she muttered quietly.
Leo stayed silent, studying her intently. Luna met his gaze without hesitation, fully aware that, if her suspicions proved accurate, she might be experiencing something extraordinary.
And she didn't want to miss it.
The room was utterly silent, every sound from outside audible, including the occasional nightjar's call piercing through the city's ambient noise.
Leaning back into the sofa, Leo's body relaxed. "It seems you have certain ideas about what's happening here. Care to share them?"
"I believe in parallel worlds."
Leo gave a quiet nod, showing he was listening.
At this, Luna's anxiety ebbed, and she released her phone, her palm damp with sweat. "On the night of the 27th, after you asked me to examine the jade pillow, I dreamed of something so vivid it felt real. In the past, I'd have dismissed it as mere fantasy, but considering your question, I wonder if it wasn't a dream but a parallel world."
"What changed your mind?"
"You."
"Oh?"
"You appeared in my dream before I ever met you in real life."
"Dreams contain memories from the subconscious. Perhaps we'd met before," he suggested.
"Impossible," Luna said firmly. "You're memorable. I wouldn't have forgotten."
Leo fell silent.
"I was injured in the dream, and it was the same wound in reality. You might say dreams mirror real events, but there was nothing sharp in my room to cause that kind of injury. And what's even stranger—the wound on my arm didn't tear my sleeve. It doesn't add up," Luna continued. "In the dream, you told me there was a first aid kit under the coffee table. The production dates on the medicines were recent, yet you said this place has been vacant for three years."
"And you think the first aid kit is?"
"Something you—or someone you know—placed there before I moved in."
Once more, Leo grew quiet, his face shadowed by the dim light, his expression indecipherable.
Luna's anxiety returned, not out of fear of harm, but of a different kind of unease. She worried he might be testing her and that she might fail.
"Miss Wu, since you examined the first aid kit, you should know the types of medication inside."
"I do—emergency supplies."
"Can you guess why someone would prepare those?"
"If parallel worlds exist, venturing there could involve risks requiring first aid."
Leo paused. "May I ask a personal question, Miss Wu?"
"Go ahead."
"What brought you to Shenzhen alone?"
Luna thought for a moment before replying, "To avoid a marriage."
There was some exaggeration in her answer.
Luna had been raised by her single mother, who worked tirelessly at the fish market to support her. Growing up, Luna rarely defied her mother's wishes. But after she was accepted into graduate school, her mother Mia Wu began arranging dates for her.
"We're not like other families. You're free to date, but when it comes to marriage and children, the choice must be mine," Mia often said.
Luna knew that if she stayed, she would eventually have to comply. So, rather than running from marriage, she was evading a preordained future.
After listening, Leo straightened, leaning forward slightly. "May I ask you one more question, and please answer honestly?"
"Yes, go ahead."
"After the night of the 27th—did you ever touch the jade pillow again?"
Luna's heart pounded as anxiety spread through her. The cry of a nightjar startled her, and finally, she nodded. "I thought about opening the box, but I didn't actually open it. I'm sorry."
"Even if you had opened it, there's no need to apologize." Leo didn't seem concerned. After a pause, he said, "It's clear you're someone with a strong sense of integrity and self-restraint. May I ask what made you want to open the box?"
"…Curiosity."
"Just curiosity?"
His question was probing, and Luna, meeting his gaze in the darkness, wondered if it might be a trap. Her guard eased, and she answered honestly, "I wanted to go back to that world."
Leo chuckled softly, then leaned back against the sofa. "Would you bring out the jade pillow, Miss Wu?"
"Right now?"
"Right now."
Section 10
Before entering the room, Luna Wu's heart swelled with anticipation—could this be another encounter with the world of *The Pillow Book*? She had, without exaggeration, been waiting her whole life for an invitation like this—an invitation from a world beyond the ordinary.
But as she carefully removed the jade pillow from its box, retracing each step from last time—examining the pillow's opening, watching it grow, feeling her legs begin to move, and finally emerging with Leo Lee through the exit—goosebumps rose along her skin.
Unlike last time, daylight greeted Luna on the other side, bright and clear. A briny sea breeze lingered in the air, and as she looked over at Leo, she found him clad in a long blue tunic, its sleeves cinched, a belt fastened at his waist, and a sword strapped to his side—like a swordsman out of legend.
"That sword—isn't it the same one I saw in the wardrobe?" Luna asked.
"Sharp eyes."
The scent of the sea grew stronger as they crossed through the city gate, stepping into the fish market. The hustle of familiar fishmongers and patrons surrounded them, filling Luna with an unexpected warmth.
"Is this the same place we came to last time?" she asked.
"Yes."
Seeing the peaceful market scene, Luna's curiosity got the best of her. "So, the threat from the venomous wasps has passed?"
"Not quite," Leo replied. "That night, three brothers from the village entered the ancestral temple. The second brother, a skilled fisherman, was the main line of defense against the wasps. The others had a water pouch to combat sudden fires, and one carried a lantern to light the way. They were well-prepared—but it wasn't enough."
A thought struck Luna. "The night you disappeared—was it to go inside the temple?"
Leo's gaze swept over the fish stalls as if searching for something, and he nodded briefly in reply.
"So, did you see these wasps?"
"Unfortunately, I didn't have time," he said. "The brothers stirred the swarm, and with the temple doors locked, I had only moments."
By now, Luna was certain this was no dream. She wanted to know more. "What exactly is the story behind the venomous wasps?"
"This past winter, on the twenty-eighth of December, villagers from the Lu clan were cleaning the ancestral temple when they discovered a hive nestled in a crack along the west wall. Every attempt to remove it was met with strange happenings—the ancestral tablets and offerings would tumble down as if touched by an unseen hand. Fearing a malevolent spirit, the villagers sought monks and shamans, but no rituals worked."
Luna nodded in understanding, but a new question surfaced as she looked over the bustling fish market. "So, the villagers just gave up?"
Leo shook his head. "The southern coast is often plagued by these wasps; when the swarms grow too large, it's beyond human control. The locals in one region found a solution—they introduced another fierce predator from the natural food chain."
"What kind of predator?"
"Seabirds."
Luna had assumed that Leo had brought her here to aid the villagers with the wasps. Seeing him eyeing the fish stalls, she ventured, "Are you planning to buy fish?"
"Yes."
"What kind of—" She didn't get a chance to finish. Suddenly, a woman in a red silk dress swept through the crowd straight toward them. Startled and without time to call out, Luna reached for Leo's arm, attempting to pull him back. But Leo's face shifted instantly; in a reflexive motion, he shook her hand off.
Leo couldn't see the woman in red—her striking features were shrouded in mystery as she glided through him like a mirage. This jarring sight upended Luna's understanding, and her embarrassment at being shrugged off vanished as she tracked the woman's path through the crowd.
No one else saw her. Red silk rustled as she moved through the bustling market, a small bamboo basket swinging from her hand. She walked without avoiding anyone, yet no one crossed her path.
Just then, a shout broke through the market's clamor. "Someone's stealing fish! They've taken my grouper! Thief!"
The call diverted Luna's attention, and when she looked back, the woman in red was gone.