The Witch (Lisrene)

Chapter 3

Even though he had not confirmed Irene's identity, Lisa already believed her to a certain extent. After all, if she was trying to set him up, she would not be using such an easily discovered lie as an excuse. However, after they went upstairs, he still gave a call to his parents, who he had not contacted for quite some time.

"Lisa?" The tone of Lisa's mother was full of surprise when she picked up the call.

"It's me." Because of his dreamwalking ability, Lisa was not close to his parents during his childhood. When he became independent after growing up, he hardly returned home. Even phone calls were just customary greetings during New Year's or other festivities. He was unsure of how to communicate with his parents. As such, when the call went through, besides a dry greeting, he did not know how to continue the conversation for a moment.

"Did... something happen?" Nevertheless, Lisa's mother understood her son's personality and knew that something must have happened. He would not have otherwise called outside of festivities.

"I have something to ask you." Lisa's expression became more natural after his mother took the initiative to ask after him. He took a glance at Irene who was docilely standing at the entrance hall. "Do you know someone called Wu Irene?"

"Wu Irene?"

"She is a young girl from a ethnic minority group, who just reached 18 years old...."

"Fiancée." Irene couldn't help but be reminded when she noticed Lisa going round and round with the introduction.

Lisa's mouth twitched, "...she said she's my appointed child bride arranged by you guys?"

"Ethnic minority, child bride. Ah, I remembered!" His mother replied in a fluster. "She actually came down to find you?"

"What exactly is going on?" Lisa raised his eyebrow.

"That was something that occurred more than 10 years ago. It was about 15 to 16 years ago, that year your father and I brought you to Diannan for a holiday. However, you got sick suddenly... No, it was not an illness, it was—" his mother started panicking.

"It's alright, just continue," Lisa's expression remained unchanged.

Since young, he knew that in the eyes of his parents, they would rather believe that their own son was sick instead of the fact that they gave birth to a monster.

"It's just... during that time you were always crying at night, sometimes even wailing out loud. One day when we were resting in one of the local stockage villages, you suddenly fell si—, started dreaming and began crying badly in the middle of the night. I was afraid that you would disturb the other travellers and brought you out of the guesthouse. After that, I bumped into a local witch at the entrance."

"Witch?" He exclaimed.

Irene nodded happily upon seeing Lisa look over—thinking he was asking her for confirmation.

"That was what the local villagers addressed her as. She took one look at you and said that you were having a nightmare. You stopped crying the moment she stretched out her hand and patted your head," Lisa's mother recalled, "so the next morning, your father and I decided to leave the tour group and continued staying in the stockade village. We thought to let the witch cure-... as in take away your nightmares. But the witch suddenly proclaimed that she liked you a lot and wanted to arrange a betrothal between you and her disciple before she was willing to help you."

"And you agreed?"

"We had no other choice at the time," his mother explained, "and since she never contacted us since, your father and I thought the witch was just joking."