Chapter 179 - A Long Dream

The place was dark. And full of smoke. If it had not been for his keen eyes, Ah Hai would not have been able to see whatever little he could. And it smelled bad. He wanted to stop his breath at the dank and acrid smell. It reminded him of decaying dead bodies. He would rather choke than breathe in this stale air. He tried to look around to guess where he was but it looked like a road which had no signs.once again he wondered where this place was with no lights, no signs..nothing.

Just then a blinding glare lighted up the entire street and Ah Hai inhaled in shock. The air was bad because the street was lined with people he had killed. Their dead eyes stared at him making him shiver. Everyone believed he had a cold heart but he knew it was not true. He had to forcefully freeze his heart or be would only be plagued with nightmares. Ah Hai decided to escape from this place but he did not know which direction to take. He stood still as he tried to think. But in the next instant, the light around him dimmed and he saw a girl walking out from the light. His breath caught. It had been so long since he had seen her. Her eyes still twinkled the same way. She was dressed in a white flowy dress making him think of angels and fairies. He breathed out her name,"Ning Ning..." She extended her hand to him calling out to him. He walked towards her. He would go wherever Ning Ning took him, even if it was a road to perdition. But just as he was extended his hand and was about to hold hers, his other hand was caught by a little girl. He looked back and then down to see a little sprite clutching his big hand in her small one's and pouting up at him,"You cannot go with her. You promised to wait for me to grow up!" Ah Hai frowned and looked at the girl who was pouting and accusing him angrily. He thought the little girl was cute and tried to think back when he could have promised her. But his attention was once again caught by Ning Ning who whispered,"Ah Hai..I have changed. I have made many mistakes in the past and now I want to correct them. We can live together happily just as we imagined. She is a little girl. A child. What does she know of promises? She will soon forget you and move on. Why do you have to wait for her?"

Ah Hai gave it a thought and decided Ning Ning was right, children did not have long memories and with Ning Ning he could leave this disgusting place. But he did not feel right leaving the innocent little girl here. Maybe he could take her with him.. He turned back to tell her but she was gone..and his hand was empty. Frowning he looked around in wort in case something bad had happened to her but he could not find her. He walked around but she was nowhere. He heard his Ning Ning calling out to him,"Ah Hai. Come with me please. I can't stay here longer.we mist leave. With a troubled heart, Ah Hai walked towards Ning Ning but once again he stopped. A scream shot out and suddenly saw the little one surrounded by those bad people. She looked older now as she tried to fight off the people who tried to assault her but her eyes were the same. On the other end Ning Ning slowly started to fade. Rushing back, he pushed away those people who then vanished into smoke. She jumped into his arms and clung to him, smiling at him and announced,  "I knew you would never leave me. I love you and I will always love you."

Ah, Hai took the girl into his arms. Her head barely reached his shoulders as she clung to him.

The scene changed once again. He held a crystal heart in his hand. His fingers were wound tight around it as if he was trying to absorb it into his body and he feared that it might slip from his hands. He brought up his hand and staredat it. Across the road from him,  stood Shi Ai. She too held a similar crystal heart in her hand and was currently playing with it, tossing it into the air and then catching it. He wanted to call out to her but was scared that her concentration would break so he only watched. She smiled at him when she saw him and shouted out, "See this brother Ah Hai! I have your heart in my hands. Do you know how long it took me to gather these pieces and join them back? There were too many pieces to count! Look at the heart I gave you and look at what you gave me!" Ah, Hai looked at the crystal in his hand and it was indeed perfect without a single scratch. He then looked at the one in her extended hand and frowned. There were jagged edges to this heart and it had been roughly glued together by a shiny thread. His frown deepened as he said, "this is my heart? give it back to me and you keep yours. This heart is not worthy of you. You must find one that is just like yours."

Ah, Hai tried to take back the heart but the little girl skipped away, laughing at him and teasing him, his heart clutched in the palm of her hands. Smilingly, he looked at the little heart in his hand and vowed to treasure it. She took a hold of his palm and engulfed it in hers before walking down a path, leading him away from all those dark things. He looked down at their joint hands and this time knew that he had chosen to follow the right person. He would forever hold this hand.

But soon the world turned dark again and he felt the warmth slip from his fingers. Desperately he looked for his girl but she seemed to have disappeared once again. He started to feel panic and that was when suddenly he felt surrounded. There were too many people around him. Their faces a blur but he could sense their malicious intent. He needed to find her and escape. In the chaos,  he felt the crystal in his hand slip from his hands. He tried to catch it and breathed heavily when he succeeded. But suddenly a foot stomped on his hand and the crystal shattered. Ah, Hai watched in disbelief even as his bleeding hands gathered the broken fragments. Painfully, once he had gathered all the shards, he looked into the beautiful but moist eyes of his girl and presented the fragments to her shamefully.

She stared at him with accusing eyes blaming him. And then without a word, turned around and ran away leaving him behind in the darkness. Ah, Hai looked down at the heart that he had broken and then resolved his heart. He would mend it piece by piece just like she had mended h  soon Ah Hai got to war finally able able able rebuild the heart and started to find his girl. And when he finally found the little ray of light, he eagerly ran to her and presented his work.

But her eyes were not the same. They did not look at him adoringly and full of love like in the past. She took the heart, he presented giving him hope but then in the next moment, she threw another heart onto the ground. The one that she had rebuilt lay at his feet taunting him with its fragility. "I don't want your heart anymore."  She turned her back on him and Ah Hai could do nothing but collapse in his knees in the darkness.

A blinding ray of light then accosted his eyes. He opened his eyes and looked around to assess his surroundings. A hospital. He was in a hospital room. Closing his eyes, Ah Hai thought back to what had happened to him to land him here. After a few minutes, his eyes snapped open as he remembered everything. 

Usually, when a patient woke up from a medically induced sleep, he does not remember anything but he remembered his dream and he knew it was not just a dream but a premonition. His soldier's instinct told him that his Shi Ai was no longer with him...why he did not know. But what he did know was that he was not going to let her go without a fight. Ah, Hai did not realise that his dream had also left it's mark on his face as he had cried for Shi Ai. There were tears drying on his face.

The door to his room opened and Shot walked in followed by Knox and Zhang Min.

Zhang Min observed the way Ah Hai's eyes scanned the room. He knew what, or rather who, Ah Hai was looking for but he said nothing. Zhang Min had no satisfactory answer to give Ah Hai.