Chapter 11: Dreamscape

Hong Xiaoduo had never said as much, but she knew that was exactly what the seven children were thinking.

Even though she had told them when she rescued them that she would find a safe place to settle them down.

She felt she should have a more formal talk with them about this issue, even if it sounded cruel and heartless. But, she couldn't possibly keep them with her forever.

Because she didn't even know when she herself would have to leave this place. However, looking at their excited expressions at this moment, Hong Xiaoduo sighed inwardly. Forget it, tonight wasn't the right time to talk about it; she would find a better opportunity later!

"Mother, can't we take your surname?" little Yaoguang asked timidly.

"Wouldn't it be strange for all of you to take my surname? Shouldn't a surname follow the father?" At this point, Hong Xiaoduo patted her own forehead. A group of children calling a young girl like her "Mother" was already a very strange thing to begin with.

Besides, they didn't even know where their homes were, who their families were, or if they even had parents. Why was she even saying such things to them?

"If you like my surname, then go ahead and take it. But this is only temporary, okay? If, if..." She wanted to say that if someone were willing to adopt them in the future, they could change their surnames again.

But when she met the children's clear, innocent eyes, she truly couldn't bring herself to say it.

"I'm sleepy, I'm going to sleep now." She couldn't keep dragging this on; even if she couldn't fall asleep, she had to pretend.

"I'll be called Hong Tianquan from now on." As soon as Tianquan loudly added the surname, the slightly older ones beside him all shushed him, signaling him to keep his voice down so as not to disturb Mother's sleep.

Hong Xiaoduo couldn't fall asleep anymore. After all, she had been through a lot over the past two days; she was exhausted and tired, yet she drifted into a deep sleep amidst the children's suppressed, whispering voices.

In her dream, she arrived at a place—it was that technology experience center. Hong Xiaoduo's heart felt like it was about to jump out of her throat. She stepped forward, very excited, but the main door had a "Temporarily Closed" sign hanging on it. Unwilling to give up, she went to push the door, but her hand passed right through it. Hesitantly, she walked through the heavy glass door.

There was no one in the lobby, so she walked up the stairs and saw lights on near the experience pods, along with silhouettes.

Passing through the glass door, she saw two people inside: the receptionist from that day and the old curator.

The old curator was wearing glasses, sitting in front of a computer console, studying something, while the receptionist brewed coffee and brought it to him.

*Drinking coffee?* Hong Xiaoduo angrily waved her hand at the coffee cup, but her hand passed through it without feeling a thing. The steaming coffee sat perfectly on the table beside the old man.

"Teacher, drink some coffee to refresh yourself. If you can't go on, just take a break. You haven't rested for two days and two nights," the receptionist urged.

Hong Xiaoduo reached out toward the back of the old man's collar. *You old geezer, you're really something. I'm not going to respect my elders today.*

Her hand grabbed at empty air again. Unwilling to give up, she grabbed at the old man's hair, grabbing and grabbing, as if grasping at thin air.

The old man suddenly raised his hand, rubbed his neck, scratched the back of his head, and muttered, "Can't deny it, I'm getting old."

After saying this, he picked up the coffee cup and took a few small sips.

Hong Xiaoduo looked at the content on the computer screen; it was all code and symbols that she couldn't understand at all.

"Teacher, don't blame yourself. It's just that her timing was wrong. Our program wasn't perfected yet when she appeared. If she had waited until you solved this cross-dimensional connection problem before coming here, wouldn't it have been better?" the receptionist comforted the old man.

*What the hell?* Hong Xiaoduo was furious. She had roughly understood what was going on—was this actually her fault?

Unfortunately, she could only vent her anger at the air; otherwise, she would have smashed the place to pieces.

Hearing this, the old man sighed, "Alas, this is all fate."

"Fate your sister," Hong Xiaoduo cursed. She thought she had been very loud, but the people there couldn't hear her at all.

"So, Teacher, hurry and get some rest. Your health is important. It was hard enough to find a 'Chosen One' who was such a perfect fit, and you managed to send her off successfully. Isn't what you have to do in the future even more important? You can't let yourself collapse, or wouldn't all this work be for nothing?" Hong Xiaoduo understood now—the so-called technology center receptionist was actually this old man's student.

And she, Hong Xiaoduo, was that unlucky, "perfectly fitting" Chosen One!

Watching the old man nod and stand up to go rest, Hong Xiaoduo anxiously reached out to grab him. *You old geezer, don't go! Hurry up and fix this and send me back! Otherwise, I'll follow you wherever you go.*

Hong Xiaoduo made up her mind to keep her eyes on the old man. Even if she couldn't hit him, she could at least learn more about his purpose in dumping her into ancient times. However, something behind her seemed to be pulling her, preventing her from moving forward. She watched as she drifted further and further away from the old man, and a blinding light filled her vision.

"Mother, are you awake?" A childish voice sounded in her ear. As Hong Xiaoduo's vision focused, she recognized the messy little head in front of her—it was Yaoguang.

Hong Xiaoduo didn't have time to respond to the little one; she quickly closed her eyes again, wanting to return to that technology center, to the old man's side.

But even after lying there for a full hour, she couldn't go back. In her ears, she heard the children whispering to each other to keep their voices down so as not to disturb Mother.

Helplessly, she opened her eyes. It was already broad daylight. She sat up, and all seven children were sitting obediently by her side, watching her.

"Mother, why don't you lie down a bit longer?" Tianshu said cautiously, seeing that her complexion wasn't very good.

Hong Xiaoduo sighed, shook her head, and stood up to walk outside. Looking at the sun overhead, it was almost noon.

"Mother, look, we dug up two rat holes this morning and found a lot of beans and corn kernels. They're already stewing in the pot; we can eat in a little while," the second child, Tianxuan, said, stepping forward as if to please her.

"There's food?" Hong Xiaoduo asked. That meant she didn't have to rush to hunt birds. The guilt she felt for waking up late and letting the children go hungry faded slightly.

Seven little heads nodded in unison. If they hadn't been waiting for Mother to eat with them, they wouldn't have waited for it to stew for so long.

*Hmm.* Hong Xiaoduo nodded as well. The children were good; they could manage to get food for themselves.

The next moment, she suddenly froze. Thinking of something, she looked at the children and asked, "The beans and corn kernels you're boiling... were they dug up from rat holes?"

"Yes! It was Big Brother's idea. He said there were good things in the rat holes by the edge of the field, and when we dug, we really found some. There's a lot—so much that we put the rest in a bag. We can eat for several meals," Yuheng said, pointing at his big brother.

Hong Xiaoduo raised a hand to pinch her forehead and said, "Don't eat that. Pour it out. If you're hungry, just endure it for a while, and I'll go hunt some birds for you."

"Mother, why?" Tianxuan asked, very confused. The other children wore the same puzzled expressions.

The beans and corn kernels they dug up were very good. Rats were very smart; they always stole the plumpest grains to take back to their holes.

"Because rats are very dirty. They crawl through sewers, latrines, and all sorts of places, even graveyards with rotting corpses. They carry a huge amount of viruses and bacteria and are hosts for many kinds of disease pathogens. Their droppings and the food they've gnawed on can transmit viruses to humans.

So, if we know for sure that the grain was dug out of a rat hole, it definitely cannot be eaten," Hong Xiaoduo explained to the children.

The children seemed to understand, yet they also seemed not to.

"Mother? When we're starving, we sometimes catch rats, skin them, and eat the meat. We've always been fine; we've never gotten sick," Tianshu said in a low voice.

As soon as he finished speaking, the other children nodded along.

*My god.* Hong Xiaoduo didn't know how to describe her feelings anymore.

She didn't feel disgusted; she only felt heartache. A group of poor children, in order to survive and fill their stomachs, had even resorted to eating rat meat. Her heart burned with even more hatred for the wicked people who had abused them.

"You didn't get sick because you were lucky. I'm not trying to scare you, but diseases transmitted by rats are very serious. Not only will the person who eats them get sick and die, but it can also cause a major plague, which will spread to many people and cause many to lose their lives.

I don't care what you did before, but now that you are with me, you are not allowed to eat anything dug out of a rat hole ever again.

Of course, if you don't believe me and want to eat what's in that pot, I won't stop you." Hong Xiaoduo patiently explained the severity of eating things from rat holes, but fearing they wouldn't believe her, she had to add a hint of a threat.

*If you don't listen and still want to eat it? Fine, then I won't care about you anymore.*

Although the children were young, they all understood the subtext of her words and looked at Tianshu with some trepidation...

(End of chapter)