Chapter 49: Lights On

Late at night, the whole neighborhood was silent, everyone fell into a peaceful sleep, and Lu Rong opened his eyes calmly when he sensed something strange.

He looked around, and by the light that came from nowhere, he recognized that he was in a clearing, with rolling black shadows in the distance, resembling hills.

He climbed up and took a few steps forward, his feet felt soft, it wasn’t like hard ground, but not like fine sand either. He curiously squatted down and touched it, and surprisingly, it felt like some kind of coarse fiber fabric. Lu Rong contemplated for a while, but his memory was blank, he couldn’t think where he had seen it.

In the past, every time he entered the illusion, except for Shen Jize’s high school campus, all the other real scenes he had seen before. Could it be that his brother also entered this time? Was this an illusion created from his memory?

Lu Rong’s spirits lifted. No matter where this was, he had to find him first.

Before leaving, he looked down to see what he was wearing.

Good, it was the bear pajamas with two buttons open.

He touched his hair, good, it wasn’t really messy.

He could meet Shen Jize at any time, so he wouldn’t become a white deer and intended to get out of this place and check outside first.

After walking for about five or six minutes, he came to the edge of the field. To his surprise, there was no way out of the edge. It ended in a high cliff, and there wasn’t even a guardrail. The cliff face went straight down and the ground below was seven or eight stories high.

Lu Rong stood at the edge of the cliff and looked down for a while, and looked around, but didn’t find any stairs down.

This cliff was very long, and the edge was very flat, it seemed to be artificially built. But if it was artificial, why was there not even a staircase? But there was a huge black shadow towering high in front of him on the left, and he decided to go there to take a look.

As he got closer, he saw that the black shadow in front of him was a cliff, as smooth as a knife cut, like a whole white boulder cut. Walking to the bottom of the cliff, he could not help but reach out and touch it. Although it was slightly rough to the touch, it was also soft and flexible, so it wasn’t stone, but rather some kind of leather.

This place was too weird, and Lu Rong really couldn’t understand, confusedly turning his head, thinking about whether to change into a deer now. His line of sight inadvertently swept over to his feet, where he saw a strange pattern on the ground. Squatting down to take a closer look, he found that there was a bear print.

The bear had a cute face, and a bow on its neck, its hands and feet open, sitting on the ground. The more Lu Rong looked, the more he felt it was familiar. The bear was exactly the same as the bear on his pajamas, but several times larger, looking almost as big as him.

Then, he found another bear on the ground a few meters away, the same bear.

Looking around, this area of the ground was imprinted with bears.

Lu Rong’s heart thumped, and a suspicion immediately surfaced. He looked around very quickly, and then got down on the ground to look closer, and then finally reached out to touch the cliff.

A few moments later, he slowly opened his mouth with a shocked face.

He got smaller! He got smaller in the illusion and was in bed at the moment! The cliff was the bedside, the wall was the leather-faced bed, and the hills in the distance were piles of quilts. The foot stepped on, was thrown on the bed of pajamas.

Lu Rong could no longer control himself, and turned into a white deer with a shocked face and a wide open mouth in place.

He had encountered all kinds of ghosts and monsters, and also experienced the intricate danger, but this was the first time his body became smaller. No, maybe he didn’t get smaller, it was the other objects inside the illusion that enlarged.

Find Brother, he had to find Brother.

The young buck hurriedly ran towards the bed and stopped at the edge of the cliff. He stretched out his head to look down, tentatively stretched out his hooves, and after a few seconds of stagnation in the air, he flew back.

The cliff was high, and he was able to leap down safely, but his heart was still a little squeamish. He landed as low as he could, so at least he wouldn’t get dizzy looking at it. Lu Rong turned around twice in place, his eyes fell on the bear pattern, his eyes suddenly lit up and came up with an idea.

He ran all the way around the huge piece of fabric, and after finding the sleeve part, he bit down and dragged it towards the bed, then pushed it down and let the sleeve hang halfway down off the bed.

Looking for the “pocket” pajamas he dropped on the bed when he turned into a deer, he skillfully rolled them up with his hooves and tied them into a small bundle to hang around his neck, before holding the sleeves outside the bed and sliding down.

The sleeve was only half hanging on the side of the bed, and when he slid to the end, he was still two or three stories above the ground. The deer let go of the four hooves clinging to the sleeve, and with a long leap in the air, he landed lightly on the ground.

He had a thick piece of shag carpet under his bed, and the moment he landed, it felt like he had fallen into a soft jungle. Lu Rong had to jump around, leaping towards the carpet outside.

If this picture was scaled back, he would see a shaggy carpet, and a grasshopper-like white deer jumping in it. He jumped out of the carpet and landed on a wooden floor as big as a soccer field, and then ran towards the door. There was a small gap under the door that he could just fit through.

Lu Rong stepped out of the doorway and stood in a wide passageway, far across from Shen Jize’s room. He tightened the bag of clothes around his neck and prepared to change back when he reached Shen Jize’s room.

Meanwhile, inside Shen Jize’s room, he was sliding down the quilt that was hanging diagonally on the side of the bed. The bottom end of the quilt fell to the floor and formed a slide-like slope above it. The slide was a bit fast, but there was a soft-soled slipper underneath, catching his entire body in it.

He just woke up and found himself in a fantasy world.

After strolling around, sitting on a pillow as if it were a mountain bag, and contemplating for a moment on the huge wicker stool deer next to him, he understood that he was shrunk. Or rather, all the objects had been magnified several times.

But anyway, he had to check on Lu Rong first, to make sure he didn’t follow him to this illusion, and then go to find the way out. Shen Jize climbed out of the slippers and stood on the floor. The moonlight fell brightly through the wide window in the center of the room, and the rest was hidden in the darkness.

The bedroom was large, and as he drew his legs up and ran toward the door, he regretted it somewhat that he hadn’t bought a model car.

Lu Rong also ran through the passage at this time, about to enter the door gap of Shen Jize’s room, thought about it, but changed back from the deer shape, and hastily put on his pajamas.

Otherwise, what if he ran into Shen Jize when he entered? What if he wanted to take Little White to find his brother again?

After taking a few steps to get dressed, and unbuttoning the top two buttons, he got into the gap under the door and crept inside. Just crawling through the door and standing up, he heard a surprised voice in front of him, “Rong Rong.”

Lu Rong saw Shen Jize and immediately ran forward in small steps, jumped into his arms, wrapped his arms around his waist and said, “Brother, you’re really here, I was so scared just now.”

His voice wasn’t actually fearful, full of pampering, but Shen Jize didn’t even notice this, only embracing the person in his arms and reassuring him, “Don’t be afraid, we’re inside an illusion. It’s okay, good boy.”

Lu Rong felt the warmth of this embrace, when a familiar feeling rose. It was as if he had become that child of seven or eight years old again, leaning reliantly in the young man’s arms, as if a tired bird had returned to its nest, an incomparable peace of mind. He closed his eyes and rubbed his nose against Shen Jize’s chest, “Brother.” 

Shen Jize chuckled and said, “Let’s find a way out first, okay?”

Lu Rong nodded, but still didn’t move, Shen Jize took his hand naturally, “We check one room after another, we can always find the passage.” He looked around, “Let’s go to the bathroom first.”

The two of them crossed the bedroom as big as the conference hall and entered the bathroom.

Shen Jize wasn’t in the habit of turning off the lights, so the bathroom was lit up, and the most central round lamp was hanging in the air like a white sun. Shen Jize turned his head to look around, Lu Rong then twitched his nose to sniff carefully.

In the air, Uncle White’s vague scent wasn’t there, there was only cold air. But now that the passageway was more and more difficult to find, he wasn’t sure if there was one in here or not.

The bathroom was also very wide, the bathtub looked like a boat, the toilet stood there like a chic tall building, the sink was set up high in mid-air, reminiscent of a floating starship in some kind of fantasy movie.

The two looked up at these giant buildings, and after a long time, Shen Jize stared at the toilet and said to himself, “Do we have to climb up and look inside?”

Lu Rong couldn’t directly say that there might not be a passage inside, but could only politely stop it, “Brother, since the passage has to be hidden, it must be something that doesn’t belong in the bathroom, unless there’s no toilet inside.”

Shen Jize came to his senses, “You’re right, I almost forgot, like the water room in the previous vision, that was a building that didn’t exist in my campus.”

“So look around, is there anything in here that doesn’t belong in a bathroom?” Lu Rong asked.

Shen Jize frowned, “I just moved in here, I don’t remember much about the bathroom. But the bathtub was definitely there, mainly some small items, such as hand soap and other things. It was inconspicuous, I don’t remember clearly.”

“I can remember clearly.” Lu Rong squeezed his hand, “These small items are what we bought together in the supermarket?”

Shen Jize didn’t make a sound, squeezed his hand back, then both of them unspokenly looked elsewhere, showing a light smile. It was a good thing that the items were resting high up, but there was a full-length mirror on the opposite wall, allowing them to see over the sink without the hassle of climbing up and down.

Lu Rong double-checked the mirror to make sure that the hand sanitizer and the towels hanging above the sink were okay and that he had put them in the supermarket cart himself.

“See? Your shaving lotion, it was on sale for 20% off, I’ve seen it, it’s mint and lime scented, just right for summer.” Lu Rong pointed his finger at the big bucket of green liquid in the mirror, sounding a bit gleeful, like he had picked up a huge bargain. He also pointed to the door curtain-sized towel with various green leaves, “Do you like this pattern? I thought it looked good when I chose it.”

Shen Jize nodded, “I’ll use this shaving lotion tomorrow morning, and the towel looks good too.”

Lu Rong pursed his lips and smiled, “If you like it, that’s good.”

Shen Jize looked sideways at the two dimples in his smile and thought, ‘I’ll put the electric razor away on the shelf in the morning’.

His eyes inadvertently slid down and suddenly stopped.

He saw that the beige pajamas buttoned open two, revealing the collarbone and a large white chest, one side of the fabric almost slid down, barely hanging on his shoulders. Under the light, Lu Rong’s skin was like the best porcelain, with a smooth and delicate texture, and he couldn’t move his eyes away.

Lu Rong noticed Shen Jize’s gaze, his gaze glanced downward, and immediately understood. His heart jumped, but he moved closer and closer to the side, and pretended not to know, and touched his chin, and asked with an innocent face, “What’s wrong? Is my chin dirty?”

He said as he wiped it seriously.

Shen Jize grabbed his hand, took it away, and rubbed the thumb of his other hand gently over his red rubbed chin, saying in a hoarse voice, “Don’t rub it, it’s not dirty.”

Both of them stood still, just staring at each other. The atmosphere suddenly became a little sticky, as if condensed into an inextricable fluid, silently flowing around.

Lu Rong wanted to take Shen Jize’s hand and give it a kiss like he did when he was a kid, but thinking that he shouldn’t allow himself to be too intimate, he just pursed his lips that were a little dry.

At the same time, he felt some panic.

The reason was that Shen Jize’s eyes were getting deeper and deeper, with a certain aggressiveness, not quite the same as the usual him.

The instinct from the small animal, let Lu Rong know if he kissed him now, it may turn into some kind of carnivore illusion. And he was a weak and fragile little white deer ah.

Lu Rong’s heart was a little weak, but he still didn’t flinch, and strengthened his resolve.

Shen Jize looked at him steadily, but slowly released his jaw and fastened the two buttons on top of him. Lu Rong was secretly relieved that his tense body was not so stiff, but at the same time a strong sense of loss rose, showing a face of frustration.

Shen Jize saw his look, his eyes narrowed and his expression suddenly became bizarre. He turned his head and hooked his lips, leading Lu Rong towards the bedroom, saying naturally, “Come on, there’s nothing unusual in the bathroom, let’s go check the bedroom.”

The two of them walked unhurriedly towards the door, Lu Rong then noticed that Shen Jize wasn’t wearing pajamas like him, but a black T-shirt and sweatpants, showing his perfect body. His hair was a little messy, a few strands hanging on his forehead, but it added a little casual sexiness.

He ruffled his hair when he woke up, just because he was afraid he would meet Shen Jize and his hair wouldn’t look good in a mess. But even so, like a lion cub just out of the den, the fluffy hair was sticking out everywhere.

Shen Jize was like a lion patrolling the ground, mane beautifully draped. Lu Rong suspected that he simply didn’t wash his hair and shower and then fall asleep, but before going to bed then he seriously tidied up.

When they reached the bathroom door, the two men plopped down on the floor and drilled through the door gap. When they stood up and stood in the bedroom, the bathroom light did not come through and darkness returned to the surroundings.

The eyes could no longer adapt well to the darkness, Shen Jize, as if worried about Lu Rong being afraid, let go of his hand, and directly pulled him into his arms.

“The bedroom is too big, we need to think about turning on the lights.” Shen Jize looked around the circle, and could only see around the distance of less than ten meters. But since this bedroom had become larger N times, and they had not turned on the lights, it had become very difficult.

“The bedroom lighting switch is touch type, you can just touch it, but it’s too high up.” Shen Jize tilted his head to look at the switch position on the wall.

Lu Rong followed his line of sight and saw a large square of dark red light in mid-air, like a red roof light on a tall building to alert low-flying objects. Both tilted their heads and stared at the location, feeling that the idea of turning on the lights was somewhat impractical.

“How to turn on the lights… Oh yeah, and the floor lamp.” Shen Jize wasn’t too familiar with the new bedroom either, but at least remembered the code, “I remember telling the person in charge of the renovation that a floor lamp should be placed on the closed viewing balcony of the bedroom, and the switch should be made low so that it’s easy to lie down and rest on the tatami.”

He retook Lu Rong’s hand in the direction of the viewing balcony. Although the floor lamp was not indoors, the two areas were connected and could also illuminate the entire bedroom. The two walked out of the darkness and crossed into the area enveloped by moonlight, the soft white light seemed more delicate than usual.

The bedroom was large, and after walking out for a while, Shen Jize asked, “Are you tired?”

“No, I’m not tired.” Lu Rong replied. He really didn’t feel tired, and he was even thinking that it would be fine if he and the person beside him could walk hand in hand until dawn.

Shen Jize, however, took him for a denial and said with some chagrin, “I should have known not to buy such a big house, a small bedroom would have been better, same with the bathroom, and we wouldn’t have walked so much tonight.”

Lu Rong said to himself, Your bathroom is bigger than a normal bedroom.

When he arrived at the viewing balcony, Lu Rong saw the floor lamp towering over the side of the balcony. The long stainless steel lamp post was caged with a round lampshade, the shape was very simple.

Usually this kind of lamp was unnoticeable, but now that he tilted his head to gaze at it, he thought it looked heavy, always worried that the lamp post wouldn’t support the head end, and would smash down, smashing them flat.

Shen Jize saw him cowering and hidIng behind a thick chair leg, guessed what he was thinking and couldn’t help but smile, “It’s okay, that’s the design, don’t worry, the lamppost looks like it’s going to break, but it’s actually strong.”

“I know, it’s just a reflex, actually I’m not afraid.” Lu Rong came out from behind the legs of the chair, his eyes drifted to explain to himself.

Shen Jize only looked at him with a smile, squeezed their hands together and didn’t say anything else.

The floor lamp’s base was like a round table, and touching the switch was like putting a plate on the table. Shen Jize asked Lu Rong to wait aside, carefully stepped on the smooth surface of the lamp base, and reached out and heaved on the plate.

The entire viewing balcony was instantly lit up like daylight, and even the adjacent bedroom was illuminated.