My older sister is a villainous rich girl

Ashville responded with a hint of disdain, "I really don't understand why so many people like horse racing! The smell on the racetrack is too strong; no amount of perfume can cover it up."

Wayne glanced at Chris with amusement.

Mrs. Ashville, who has always been obsessed with the "ladylike image," refused any activity that might damage her appearance. Under her influence, Chris seemed to be greatly affected as well.

To put it simply, they live too exquisitely.

Even when she's causing trouble and making a mess, Chris never forgets her elegance.

“Yes, yes,” Chris echoed, deeply agreeing.

“Personal preferences differ! Some people like activity, some like quiet, and there’s no right or wrong,” Elliott said. “It’s normal that you don’t experience that exciting feeling.”

Chapter 573 The Strange Dream Reappears

Back in his room, Wayne took out the invitation Richard had given him and placed it on the table.

"Horse racing... could it be related to what I heard today?" His gaze sharpened slightly.

From their brief conversation, it was clear they were planning to tamper with the sink. It was a pity I hadn't paid closer attention; otherwise, I could have at least identified them.

However, since even the king would attend with his two princes, would anyone really be bold enough to make a fuss in such a setting?

Or perhaps they weren't actually talking about this particular horse farm?

With a hint of doubt, Wayne slumped back onto the bed.

……

For many people, life is just a boring game.

At a certain age, one should be urged to do certain things, just as at a certain level, one should challenge certain monsters.

Moreover... it's one of those with particularly poorly designed positive incentives, making one constantly doubt whether their past efforts were meaningful.

Sometimes, while playing, I really can't figure out whether I'm playing the game or being played by the game.

"—Do you have a girl you like outside? If you have a girlfriend, bring her back to meet us!"

From a certain point onwards, I would always hear this kind of concern whenever I came home.

Unlike the cautious probing of the past, and no longer the condemnation of puppy love as a monstrous threat.

For those who have entered the workforce, getting married and having children seems to everyone to be just a pre-set program.

But sadly, that wasn't the case for him.

How can you marry someone you don't love? Just thinking about spending every day with such a person makes me feel like I'm torturing both of them and myself.

"Don't be so demanding!" someone around me said. "Maybe you'll like him after spending more time with him?"

Occasionally, people would advise him, "Just marry someone to appease your family, and that'll be the end of it. Once you have a child, who will care about you anymore?"

How pitiful!

That new life continued merely for the sake of continuing.

A vague sense of powerlessness enveloped him once again.

I've been trying so hard to meet other people's expectations, even though I can't find any meaning in my own existence. Do I have to drag other innocent people into this mess too?

...I have to find someone I truly like.

As this thought crossed his mind, a fork in the road suddenly appeared before him.

"Everything you want is just ahead, go after it with all your might." A vague voice echoed in this empty world.

He could sense familiar presences emanating from the two forks in the road. On one side was Chris, and on the other, Geli.

And just as he finally recognized it—

Wayne remembered his identity.

The joy that had just appeared on his face hadn't even had time to solidify before it turned serious in an instant.

"who are you?"

As my thoughts returned to normal, doubt clung to me like a persistent, insidious infection.

There was no reply from the voice.

Behind me was a vast, empty abyss; there was no way to retreat, only to move forward.

But the two clearly marked forks in the road ahead undoubtedly told him that he could only choose one of them at the moment.

'I must be dreaming.'

Wayne had this realization.

Once I believed it was just a strange dream, the urgency of being pressured to make a choice dissipated considerably.

This kind of experience was not unfamiliar to him. Although he was still not very skilled at manipulating dreams, he had indeed succeeded many times.

Thinking of this, Wayne suddenly stopped being in a hurry to see the girl he liked and instead stopped in his tracks, looking up to observe his surroundings.

Anyway, I can see them as soon as I wake up, so there's no rush.

As he surveyed this utterly perfunctory and empty world, he called out with a hint of disdain, "Hey! Whoever you are, talk to me."

Although he said it that way, he had already come to regard that voice as another side of himself.

Perhaps, as Tasia said, it's the unconscious self deep within?

I must say, this kind of experience, which feels like a split personality, is quite novel.

"Once I wake up, even if you want to talk to me, I probably won't have time to talk to you."

Wayne strolled around leisurely, looking for a place to sit down.

However, the place where he was standing was just a narrow open space, while the areas on both sides were shrouded in thick darkness.

Just as he was thinking that he should have a chair, a series of strange explosions suddenly erupted from the bottomless abyss behind him, as if some indescribable disaster was rapidly sweeping in.

"Run, you ignorant and fearless fool," the voice said emotionlessly. "This space will collapse soon. You can still save the person you most want to save now."

Wayne was indeed taken aback by the sudden change.

But he immediately realized: This is my own dream!

So he forcibly suppressed his body's instinctive stress response to danger, desperately focused his attention on the surrounding environment, and kept filling his mind with another background to replace the current situation.

'It's nothing...nothing...The most outrageous dream I've ever had was far more sophisticated than this; I could blow up a planet with a single punch!'

When Wayne showed extreme resistance, the surging [Calamity] from the Abyss seemed to be affected by his strong will, and the world suddenly calmed down.

Time seemed to have been paused.

—If time really exists here.

The darkness suddenly dissipated, revealing a scene completely different from what had just unfolded.

The presence of Ge Li and Chris had vanished without a trace, as if everything that had just happened was merely an illusion. He found himself standing in the center of an extremely empty, flat area, with countless half-person-high wooden crates piled irregularly in front of him.

The endless stacks of wooden crates seemed to connect heaven and earth. Standing beneath these crates, Wayne felt smaller than an ant, and even breathing was difficult.

Wayne was stunned; the scene was surprisingly familiar to him.

"You're so annoying."

A familiar voice came from one of the wooden crates.

However... the person speaking was not the subconscious self he thought he was, but Chris.

“No, you’re not Chris!” Wayne declared abruptly.

He shook his head violently, trying to snap himself out of his daze.

"Aren't you being a little too arrogant? Do you think that whatever you say is true or not is true?" Chris's smile was equally beautiful, but there was always an indescribable meaning hidden in it.

“I know you’re not.” Wayne decided to stop arguing with her pointlessly.

Tell me, who are you?

Chapter 574 The Most Crucial Element for Maintaining a Dream

Chris didn't answer but asked a question instead.

Do you know what the most crucial element for maintaining a dream is?

As if she found the conversation boring, she rested her chin on one hand and looked down.

Standing directly below, Wayne looked up into her eyes and felt that her silver-blue pupils seemed to hold a myriad of stars, making them exceptionally mysterious.

"What is it?"

Wayne didn’t mind chatting with her a little longer.

Whether this image arose from a suggestion deep within his own heart or simply from the influence of the external world, after Tasia's prompting, he could no longer ignore this phenomenon.

“—It’s about believing,” she said.

"Only by genuinely believing in everything that is happening right now can an absurd dream be sustained."

In the center of the pale, boundless open space, Wayne stood there pondering for a while.

"Are you implying something to me?" he asked suspiciously.

Whether it's this dream or the real world I'm experiencing, it seems like it can all be applied to this statement.

"A hint? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't." Chris just smiled.

Wayne frowned unconsciously. "Perhaps you don't understand my personality, but I really hate riddle people. If you have anything you want me to do, you can just say so. Of course, I might not agree."

He tried his best to control the pace of the conversation and avoid falling into the other person's verbal traps.

"You don't need to be so wary of me~"

Perhaps sensing the wariness in Wayne's expression, she squinted and reassured him, "You know, I've been helping you all along."

"For example?" Wayne thought about it and couldn't figure out if he had received any help from such a being.

“It would be too boring to tell you everything. Since you’re so smart, why don’t you guess?” She jumped off the box and walked closer to Wayne.

Apart from a strange glint in her eyes, everything about her was exactly the same as Chris, who was with her every day.

Even someone as knowledgeable as Wayne couldn't find any flaws in her that could be seen as a "disguise."

“I think even if I were right, you would deny it,” Wayne said.

“You got it right!” She didn’t mind Wayne’s sarcasm at all. “It’s so much more interesting talking to smart people.”

Wayne twitched the corners of his mouth and gave a perfunctory smile.

"So, besides someone as clever as me, who else have you spoken to like this?" he asked, seemingly casually.

Chris was about to answer, but then realized the trap he had set in his words, and pretended to be angry, saying, "Hmph, I'm not telling you!"

"Even the most handsome boy isn't cute if he's too clever to the point of being cunning, okay?"

She shook her head meaningfully. "To maintain your cuteness, it's better to be a little less clever."

"So, what exactly are you trying to say?" Wayne asked impatiently.

"What I wanted to say? I already said it~"

For some reason, Chris's smile looked wicked at that moment.

It's like having already planned a prank and is just waiting for it to succeed.

He suddenly stepped forward, trying to grab her hand.

But the dream seemed unable to last any longer, vanishing abruptly the moment he was about to touch the girl's body—

Wayne abruptly threw off the covers and sat up.

He remained safely in his room, with nothing unusual around him.

What does this dream mean to me?

The heart in my chest was beating very irregularly, as if it were telling a story or giving some kind of hint.

As dawn broke, Wayne sat up and opened the window. The fresh morning air was mixed with a chill, which swept over him and dispelled the last vestiges of his sleepiness.

Unable to fall asleep any longer, he lay on the windowsill, gazing at the sky gradually turning colorful in the distance for a long time.