Seizing Dreams [B1]

Ch 118.1 - Reporting for Duty

Outside the high-speed rail station, Chen Yekai quickly got out of the car and glanced down at his watch. Zhou Sheng had just left the station. The two of them looked at each other. Zhou Sheng's forehead was covered in sweat.

Chen Yekai asked, "Already left?"

Zhou Sheng shrugged helplessly. Chen Yekai said, "I was about to tell you that I'll be going to Beijing in awhile. It's okay, I'll see him again then."

"What?!" Zhou Sheng was stunned at once and started vigilantly scrutinizing Chen Yekai.

Chen Yekai said, "Your college established academic exchange programs with one of the colleges in Beijing. They're sending a young lecturer here, so I'll be the one going over there."

Zhou Sheng wore an astonished expression as he saw Chen Yekai get in the car and watched him leave.

Yu Hao was tormented by Zhou Sheng all night yesterday, so his lower back would ache if he lay on his back, and he now had to lie on his stomach to sleep. He dreamt intermittently, and he could sense that Zhou Sheng was trying to enter his dream. But his dreamscape kept shaking; he was being influenced by the environment around him when he fell asleep, and the distance seemed to be an obstacle to some extent.

"Have a good sleep ba." In the end, Yu Hao said to Zhou Sheng, "Otherwise you'll be really tired again when you get up tomorrow."

"Then......good night." Zhou Sheng said a lot of things, but Yu Hao was the first to laugh, "Good night."

He pressed his hand against Zhou Sheng's forehead and woke up on the high-speed rail. He turned over, then fell asleep a moment later.

4am, arrived at Beijing.

This was Yu Hao's first time leaving Ying City alone. Although he would occasionally leave for a vacation with Zhou Sheng during the winter and summer holidays, he had never drifted about alone in unfamiliar places before. Passengers on the high-speed rail flocked out in a throng, and Yu Hao, who was dragging along his luggage, had turned into one of the members of this Northern Drift (ppl going to Beijing) army.

Everything around him was within his scope of imagination — it wasn't strange, but it seemed unfamiliar. There were people outside the station introducing accommodations and intermediaries who were flagging unlicensed vehicles for passengers. Yu Hao hailed a cab on his phone and looked for the rideshare parking lot. In the past, he would have definitely taken a bus or the subway, but after being with Zhou Sheng for so long, he began to understand that the money, cards, camera, and laptop he was carrying, and the fact that he was new here wasn't worth him scrimping on this bit of money.

Hailing a cab cost him about 120 yuan. Using the address that Lin Ze gave him as a guide, Yu Hao arrived at the road outside the newspaper office in Xicheng District at 6:30, then he sent a message to Zhou Sheng to tell him that he was safe. He looked for a nearby budget hotel to stay at for the time being and was prepared to report to the office before renting another place.

September mornings in Beijing were gradually getting colder. Quite a lot of old men and women outside the park were performing Taichi. Ever since he got off the high-speed rail until now when he had arrived at his lodgings, Yu Hao felt like this city had been quite friendly to him. Everyone was very enthusiastic when he asked for directions, and the aunts would even take the initiative to guide him.

In the beginning, Zhou Sheng would ask him a question every ten minutes, so Yu Hao would take a photo on his phone to report on his progress. By the time it hit 7 o'clock, Zhou Sheng didn't reply anymore since he probably fell asleep again. After Yu Hao checked in, he took a bath, washed his hair, changed into a shirt and dressed a little more simply, then slung his camera bag over his shoulder and went to report to the newspaper office.