novelraw Chapter 742: The Inevitable Farewell
Chapter 742: The Inevitable Farewell
Lu Li remembered that Oliver usually wore that ingratiating expression when he wanted something—an advance on his pay or a favor.
“What is it?” Lu Li’s gaze lingered on Oliver’s gaunt, almost simian face. Back in the real world, Oliver really had come to see him that day. Did that mean his purpose here, in the Emerald Dream, was the same?
“Mrs. Slav wanted to apologize for her... insistence the other day...” Oliver watched Lu Li’s expression cautiously, but he could read nothing on his calm, handsome features.
Lu Li watched Oliver in turn. He wasn't holding a love letter from Mrs. Slav. It seemed events were unfolding a little differently this time.
“It’s nothing,” Lu Li replied, indicating he didn't mind. He wondered if he should keep Oliver around, though there was little point. The man was dead, after all. Keeping him here was as pointless as trying to sate one's hunger on the sea breeze. Unless, of course, it was all for show—a performance for the Emerald Dream.
"Let it be a performance for the Emerald Dream, to pique its interest," Lu Li thought, and decided to keep Oliver.
“And... here,” Oliver stammered, pulling a letter that reeked of cloying perfume from under his shirt. “It’s... a love letter. From Mrs. Slav. For you.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a menacing glare fell on him from the bedroom.
Oliver froze, his teeth starting to chatter uncontrollably.
“Close the door.”“Huh?” A bewildered Oliver shrank back and closed the door to the detective agency.
“From the outside,” came Lu Li’s voice from behind the desk.
“Oh...”
Oliver shuffled toward the exit, dragging his feet in stark contrast to his cheerful entrance.
Lu Li’s voice followed him out. “Find JoJo. She misses you. And... stay away from the Shadow Swamp. It’s not safe there anymore.”
“Right, boss!” Oliver straightened his shoulders slightly before disappearing out the door.
Though the process was different, the result was the same.
“A love letter?” Anna feigned indifference, but her eyes kept darting furtively toward the letter on the desk.
“Who is Mrs. Slav?” she asked.
“Oliver's landlady.”
“Hmm.”
Anna waited for Lu Li to continue, but he fell silent again.
Displeased, Anna continued to stare at Lu Li. Finally, after two minutes, he reacted—by tossing the letter into the wastebasket.
“Not even going to look?” Anna asked pointedly.
“No.”
Satisfied with his answer, Anna left Lu Li alone and went about her usual routine. Humming a pleasant tune, she started cleaning the detective agency like a little housemaid. The stone statue by the coat rack behind the door had to be kept dry, and the humidity before the rainy season kept the dust from settling, so Anna only gave it a light sweep with a duster. After mopping the floor, she asked Lu Li not to walk on it and get it dirty, then she settled onto the sofa as lightly as a feather and began tending to the flowerpot on the windowsill, where not a single sprout had appeared. Then she gazed thoughtfully out at the bustling street.
Watching Anna’s back, Lu Li suddenly felt an unfamiliar, utterly illogical urge.
After a moment of silence, he asked, “Do you want to go out?”
Anna, still gazing out the window, turned in surprise. “What?”
Lu Li’s gaze dropped. “Let’s go to the sea.”
...
Nothing short of total destruction could erase the mark of the sea from the coastal district. In a way, the sailors living there and the fish drying on clotheslines gave the place a scent even more intensely maritime than the coast itself.
Because of this, the coastal district had only a single, sad little clothing store that sold nothing but linen garments for common folk.
Lu Li bought a black robe from a clothing store two streets over and led Anna, who was concealing her aura, into a deserted alley. “Put this on,” he said. “You won’t have to hide in the In-Between.”
A minute later, Lu Li and Anna, now wrapped in the black robe, emerged from the alley. The robe concealed her appearance, making her look like some cultist radiating cold and ill omens. She walked slowly onward, paying no mind to the pedestrians and carriages.
“I can't... I can't see where I'm going.”
In reality, the hood was blocking her view, and she kept stepping on the hem.
“Float,” Lu Li said, taking her hand beneath the robe.
...
They stood by the railing. A thick blanket of clouds obscured the midday sun, and flocks of gulls wheeled over Port Roadster as the horns of arriving and departing steamships echoed in the distance.
The wind tore the hood from Anna's head. She fumbled with it, startled, trying to pull it back on, but when she saw that no one was paying them any mind, she let it fall and simply took in the boundless view.
“I think... I can smell the sea...” Lost in her contemplation of the lead-gray ocean, Anna suddenly turned to Lu Li, a hint of melancholy in her eyes. He let go of her hand, crouched to take off his shoes and roll up his pant legs, then took her hand again, carrying his shoes in the other as he walked onto the sand.
Anna and Lu Li walked side by side along the beach, leaving a trail of footprints in their wake.
“Why did you suddenly decide... to bring me to the sea?” she asked as the wind caught her robe, making it billow like a curtain.
“I don't know.”
“Is it because of the nightmare?” Anna tilted her head.
“Yes.”
“Will you tell me about it? Your dream.”
“It was a long dream.”
“We have plenty of time, don't we...”
“Yes.”
The "dream" was indeed long. Even without Lu Li deliberately stretching it out, his telling of it lasted until evening, when the lights of Belfast began to flicker on.
Back in the warmth of the detective agency, away from the chilly beach, Lu Li finally concluded his tale.
“I woke up in the Emerald Dream, and I saw you.”
Anna could only offer him comfort, urging him to forget it all. “Dreams are always the opposite of reality,” she said softly. “And no matter what... I would never hurt you.”
Lu Li said nothing.
Midnight was approaching. As she always did, Anna wished him good night. “Good night.”
“Good night,” Lu Li replied.
The night was quiet and still.
For the entire following week, Lu Li seemed to stop worrying about what was real and what was not—or at least, he never showed it to Anna.
Lu Li couldn't allow the Emerald Dream to see him as a miserable man, trapped in an illusion and unable to break free.
It was like a silent agreement between him and the Emerald Dream.
Lu Li kept the Emerald Dream's interest, and the Emerald Dream wouldn't let Lu Li leave.
Unfortunately, as time passed, the Emerald Dream seemed to grow bored and began to send Lu Li warnings: Anna had tried to kill him twice.
Once, when Anna found a to-do list in his desk drawer with the entry, “Find a way to escape this place,” and a second time, when she discovered the love letter from Mrs. Slav.
Lu Li waited patiently.
He waited for the Eternal Night to end.
At noon on the fourteenth day, Lu Li pulled out the dagger he had found under his bed three days prior and said farewell to Anna, who was cleaning the room, wearing an apron.
“It's time for me to go back.”
“None of this is real. It was just a nightmare,” Anna pleaded, trying in vain to stop him. “Why leave the dream...? What’s so bad about it here? Everyone is alive. We could live here forever...”
Lu Li replied quietly, "She's waiting for me."