Chapter 68: The Lingering Nightmare

“Alright, alright, let’s get down to business! How many people haven’t woken up yet? Report quickly!”

Wutong coughed lightly again, her demeanor seemingly turning more serious.

“Reporting! Only the last carriage at the tail end! Mission will be completed soon!”

Soapwort even raised a hand to her forehead, giving a rather unstandard military salute.

Wutong glanced at her, the corner of her mouth twitching, as if she smiled again.

Su Xinxin watched this scene, finding comfort in their ability to still engage in such playful banter. After all, there was a third-tier magical girl here; perhaps everything truly would be fine.

Wutong asked no further questions. She withdrew her gaze, turning instead to the end of the carriage. Looking out through the metal, she observed that the evil spirit there remained completely motionless.

Su Xinxin looked at Soapwort, then, after a moment of hesitation, suddenly spoke to Wutong.

“Um… Senior Wutong, may we ask, where are those ‘Corroders’? We still can’t sense any aura from them.”

Wutong looked at the two of them, giving only a vague answer.

“There’s one at the front of the train. One at the back. And a small one underneath, in the middle. Not many, but you still need to remain vigilant at all times.”

“Three? Are there only three ‘Corroders’?”

Su Xinxin’s heart tightened. She recalled there had also been three ‘Corroders’ when she was at the graveyard. It must be a coincidence, she thought, as even those three ‘Aggregates,’ combined, lacked the ability to distort reality.

She wasn’t complaining about the small number; she was afraid of it. The fear and sorrow on the faces of those who had awakened from the nightmare hadn’t yet faded, and those negative emotions were enough to breed dozens, even hundreds, of motes.

Yet Wutong said there were only three. Could it be that those motes hadn’t had time to fully form? It was strange.

“Yes, but it’s always better to be careful.”

Wutong turned around, her amber eyes surveying the two of them. Her gaze held hesitation, a weighing of options, as if she were contemplating whether to say more. But she parted her lips, only to finally say:

“Just do your part. As for the rest, I will handle it.”

She didn’t mention the ‘Corroders” ranks or their strength, nor the extent of their reality-distorting power. These were not matters for the juniors to worry about.

Besides, that calamity hadn’t truly made a move yet. Perhaps all of this was merely a fleeting amusement for it.

She turned, transforming into a streak of golden light, and vanished towards the end of the carriage.

Soapwort watched the direction where the streak of light disappeared, letting out a soft sigh.

“Sister Wutong is always like this, shouldering everything herself. She could have told us, too.”

Su Xinxin remained silent, lost in thought. She was once again pondering their current predicament and how it would ultimately conclude.

“Alright, alright, let’s continue saving people. There’s only this last batch left.”

Soapwort reminded Su Xinxin to keep helping.

Inside the carriage, more and more people were waking up.

Most of them sat blankly, eyes fixed on a particular spot, not yet fully emerged from their dreams. Some, upon waking, immediately fell back asleep, as if unable to believe that their current reality was the true one.

At the end of the carriage, the last few individuals were still trapped in their dreams.

Su Xinxin and Soapwort walked over. For some reason, the passengers in this particular carriage seemed to be more deeply entrenched than those in the previous ones. Perhaps they had been left for longer, their dreams stretching on.

The porcelain bottle in Soapwort’s hand tilted, and clear dew transformed into bubbles, one after another, enveloping the faces of the sleeping passengers. Su Xinxin hovered her hand over their foreheads, and a goose-yellow light slowly seeped in.

There was danger, but no actual harm. They could still be pulled back.

However, the expressions on the faces of those who were pulled back were unsettling.

Some began to cry the moment their eyes opened, silently, tears streaming down their cheeks. Others trembled uncontrollably, shrinking into their seats, as if utterly terrified by something. Still others clenched their fists, nails digging into their flesh, drawing blood.

That final layer of dreams, those nightmares, must have been unimaginably cruel.

Tears were already welling in Soapwort’s eyes. Su Xinxin’s eyes were also red.

It was due to guilt. If they had been faster, if they had arrived earlier, would these people not have had to suffer so much?

“It’s good enough that they’re alive.”

Wutong’s voice came from the front carriage, sounding like comfort. But quickly, she shifted back to a leader’s solemnity and seriousness.

“If you continue to waste time like this, your guilt will only deepen later. Once you’re done, quickly recheck the passengers’ status. Don’t waste any more time.”

“Yes! Checking immediately!”

Soapwort vigorously wiped her eyes, clearing away both tears and sweat from her forehead.

She then turned to glance at Su Xinxin.

“Let’s go check the front carriages one by one! We can’t waste time! An inch of time is an inch of gold, but an inch of gold cannot buy an inch of time!”

“Mm!”

Su Xinxin nodded, following her.

She always felt that this magical girl named Soapwort must be a very young child in reality. There was clearly so much hardship she wanted to express in her eyes, yet she stubbornly swallowed it all down.

She was so much like… one of her own granddaughters.

Sigh, forget it. Saying everyone resembled someone made the comparison lose its value. Su Xinxin secretly chided herself. She knew that if her Hua Ling, Xiao Ming, were still here, she would likely make a similar sarcastic remark.

“Oh, right,” Su Xinxin collected her thoughts and asked, “If both of us go to check the front, what about these carriages behind us? Someone needs to watch them, right?”

“There’s a guard!” Soapwort pulled her along, pointing into the air. “Only, it’s not a ‘person.’ Look over there! That’s my Zaozao!”

“Zao… Zaozao? Your Hua Ling?” Su Xinxin followed her pointing finger, searching for a long time. “Where are they?”

She had forgotten that Soapwort wasn’t from the Hua Ying Division; her spirit wouldn’t be a lop-eared rabbit like Xiao Ming.

“I’m right here!” A small, light blue firefly drifted down from the air, its tail light flickering, like a tiny flying soap bubble. Its voice was thin, carrying a hint of dissatisfaction. “In our Fragrant Grass Division, spirits are usually called Grass Sprites, not Hua Lings.”

“Oh, I know that.” Su Xinxin responded reflexively, like a student called upon to recite a text. “The Grass Sprites of the Fragrant Grass Division often take the form of insects…”

Soapwort chuckled at her recitation, then pulled her along, continuing forward.

“Let’s go quickly. With Zaozao watching the back, there won’t be any problems.”

As Soapwort pulled her, another question popped into Su Xinxin’s mind.

“So, now that almost everyone is awake, how many magical girls do we have here? Just the three of us? There are also three ‘Corroders,’ so later on, will it be… three against three?”

“There’s also Mother Daylily, and Sister Epiphyllum,” Soapwort said as they walked. “You’ll meet them soon.”

“Mother Daylily?”

Su Xinxin was a little curious.

“Because the flower language of the daylily includes motherly love, and she really is like a mother.”

As Soapwort said this, her tone carried a natural intimacy, as if speaking of a very close elder.

Su Xinxin nodded, then suddenly remembered something else.

“Epiphyllum, isn’t there another name for it… something like ‘Beauty under the Moon’?”

“Beauty under the Moon,” Soapwort finished quickly. “Why do you suddenly ask that?”

“No, it just suddenly came to mind,” Su Xinxin shook her head.

Beauty under the Moon. She suddenly recalled her first dream. The one who had been kidnapped… But that was just a strange dream, wasn’t it? Absurd, chaotic, and it shouldn’t have any connection to reality. Otherwise, wouldn’t she be a princess? Oh, no, she’d be an empress of a fallen kingdom… In any case, it didn’t feel right.

The sky outside the window was still that twilight, the setting sun like blood, lingering on the horizon. The subway sped along the elevated tracks, the rails beneath the wheels emitting a monotonous, rumbling sound.

She didn’t know how much longer this train would run, or when she would finally arrive home. She simply followed Soapwort, moving carriage by carriage, checking on the awakened passengers to see if they were injured or needed any help.

A few hundred meters ahead of the train, that mass of ice-blue light still hovered, gazing at their location.

Wutong stood at the front of the carriage, the wind blowing from ahead, making her ponytail flutter. She gently plucked a string on her zither; the note resonated, long and melodious, like a question.

But there was no answer.

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