Chapter 149 Return Gift

Neon lights and brilliant shadows blended in a dazzling display, streaking past like shooting stars continuously flashing by.

Li Nanke drove at a breakneck speed, the motorcycle feeling as though it lacked brakes, darting through alleys and traffic like a nimble and swift swordfish.

The thrilling and breakneck ride made Minian's heart pound wildly against her ribs; she had to press a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out in alarm.

As a physical-category transcendent, Li Nanke possessed a terrifyingly fast neural reaction speed. Such a speed had actually been deliberately slowed down to accommodate the lady in the back seat. What seemed like an extremely fast drive was in reality safe despite the thrills—operating it himself was even safer than using autopilot.

Minian quickly adapted to the velocity, yet she still felt a potent sensory thrill coursing through her.

With Head Maid Rosaline absent, all the entanglements and restraints of tedious protocols seemed to be flung far behind, vanishing entirely in the rushing wake of the speeding motorcycle.

Amidst the nocturnal drizzle, fluorescent graffiti beneath mottled streetlamps could be seen everywhere. They were bizarre, flamboyant, vivid, passionate yet restless, uneasy yet rebellious.

As the motorcycle sped past, the fluorescent graffiti transformed into a kaleidoscopic riot of colors, blurring away in a flash.

"So beautiful..."

Minian tucked a strand of golden hair, blown wild by the wind, behind her ear, her gaze dazed as she took in one picturesque and unfamiliar scene after another.

Messiness and backwardness were not the sole definitions of the development zone; there were always those who refused to bow to a life of hardship. Even in dark and filthy corners, they sought to voice the depths of their inner souls and create artwork yearning for freedom.

The boisterous wind roared past in a swirl, and tiny specks of drizzle pattered against the invisible plasma shield, making a soft pattering sound.

Suddenly, Minian was overcome by an impulse to spread her arms wide, face the wind and rain of the night, and shout out loud at the top of her lungs.

"No, no, that would be far too unladylike..."

She looked at the back of the man in front of her. Although Li Nanke had already caught glimpses of some of her less-than-lady-like moments, such an action would still be far too brazen and embarrassing.

Perhaps she could try it when no one else was around, but for now, she'd better let it go.

She just wondered when she would get the chance to visit the development zone again; being able to come here today was entirely thanks to Li Nanke's blessing...

A sudden screech of sharp brakes rang out, the motorcycle tilting and fishtailing. This interrupted her tangled train of thoughts and caused the distracted Minian to inertia-driven slam straight into the man's back, her full breasts pressing tightly against Li Nanke's spine.

"We've arrived."

"Oh, oh, alright."

A blush flashed across Minian's fair cheeks as she hastily gathered her skirt and hopped off the seat.

Before them was a small shop tucked away in an anonymous alley. The tightly shuttered rolling metal door still bore a sign that read 'Prime Shop for Transfer', though the paper was already dusty, suggesting that this prime location had failed to find a taker for quite some time.

"This is the dream shop I ran before joining the Control Bureau," Li Nanke said, pulling out a key to open the rolling door. "Later, I washed my hands of it and wanted to transfer the lease, but the location was too poor and nobody was willing to pay the transfer fee, so I just had to wait out the rest of the rent before moving out."

An electronic beckoning cat let out a mechanical meow. Minian looked around the interior of the shop; it was a very ordinary and small-scale dream retail shop.

Though the sparrow was small, it had all its vital organs. The display shelves held dreams of all types, kept in meticulous order and looking thoroughly legitimate.

"The ground floor only sells standard, proper dreams. The unsavory black dreams are all upstairs," Li Nanke inquired. "What specific type of dream does your friend like? Horror and thriller dreams also come in many varieties—supernatural, suspenseful, psychological, zombie, blood-soaked R18..."

Seeing Minian hesitate slightly, he smiled faintly. "Come upstairs with me and pick one yourself."

The second floor of the shop was a cramped, antiquated bedroom. Simple shelving units lining the walls were stacked with blocks of dream data disks, devoid of outer packaging and marked only with numbers written in marker.

"This one is *Resident Evil*, this is *Dawn of the Dead*, *28 Days Later*, *Train to Busan*... The zombie-type dreams are all piled over here, and that side has the supernatural types..." He introduced them to Minian one by one, knowing the inventory like the back of his hand. "These dreams have been modified by me personally, and their synchronization rates are basically all above 120%."

Minian shifted her gaze, stealing a glance at the dilapidated single bed in the corner of the bedroom.

As partners, she had a rough understanding of Li Nanke's background, knowing that he suffered from a severe illness and had been forced into the illegal work of modifying black dreams solely to pay for his treatments.

Compared to those gang members who forced good women into prostitution, peddled contraband drugs, or engaged in theft and robbery, modifying black dreams could almost be considered an honest livelihood.

As an ordinary person, the difficulty of modifying these terrifying dreams was astronomical.

It was not only because one had to face the terrifying monsters within those dreams, but also because dying under the ultra-high synchronization rate during dream modification carried a very high probability of causing irreversible physical and mental damage.

With the room piled high with dust-covered data disks, Li Nanke must have died in various horrific dreams goodness knows how many times just to modify all of them.

Minian was the eldest daughter of the Westahlia family, born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Aside from things that violated etiquette and decorum, she could essentially have whatever she desired.

Just imagining the despair of suffering from a terminal illness while struggling bitterly at the very bottom of society made her feel suffocated.

Although Li Nanke was now a glamorous genius researcher of the Phenomenon Branch, she knew what kind of grueling, unspeakable grit and determination he must have endured beneath that exterior to achieve the status he held today.

"Walking all this way must have been terribly hard..."

Minian murmured softly in a voice only she could hear.

Suddenly realizing something, she quickly asked, "As far as I know, when modifying black dreams, clients usually specify their conditions and goals, and then the dreamweaver modifies it according to the client's requests. Why do you still have so many modified dream disks left over here?"

Li Nanke shrugged, spreading his hands as he casually explained:

"I didn't want to have so many left over either. I'll give you an example and you'll understand—have you ever heard of 'colorful black'?"

"I don't think I understand..."

"You not understanding is precisely the point. Clients and employers have all sorts of bizarre requests, and most of the time, I don't understand them either. It's just like when you're designing graphics and a client asks you, 'Can you make the logo bigger while making it a bit smaller?' or 'This black isn't the black I want, I want a colorful black,' and other such contradictory demands."

Minian caught on instantly. "So these dream disks are all ones that didn't meet the clients' requirements..."

"Bingo." Li Nanke snapped his fingers, nodded, and continued, "Once, I modified the exact same dream for a client a full eight times, working busily for nearly two months. Every single time, the client would throw out the previous version and come up with entirely new demands. Later on, the client told me I didn't need to change it anymore because, after looking at it back and forth, he felt the very first version of the dream was the best and completely met his requirements."

"At that moment, my mental state couldn't be described in words; I just wanted to twist the client's head off and use it as a soccer ball..."

Putting herself in his shoes, Minian couldn't help but clench her delicate fists. "And then? Did you give the client a good scolding to vent your frustration?"

"How could I? There was no 'and then', because he paid way too much..."

While Minian couldn't help but be amused, she also felt a trace of heartache.

Indeed, if she were the one suffering from a terminal illness and urgently needing a massive sum of money for treatment, how could she possibly hurl abuse at a client? No matter how proud her spirit, she would still have to bow and compromise with reality.

Li Nanke packed all the dream data disks Minian needed into a cardboard box, and even a large box couldn't hold them all.

"You wouldn't happen to be trying to clean out my entire inventory, would you? It's not that I'm reluctant to part with them; dreams are just entertainment, after all—play too many and you become numb to reality."

Minian shook her head. "Of course not, I just feel like these dreams are all quite interesting."

She hesitated for a moment before speaking up, "How much do black dreams like these usually sell for?"

Li Nanke glanced at her, picked up the large cardboard box, and walked downstairs.

"Talking about money between friends ruins the relationship. I'm worry-free when it comes to food and clothing now, I don't need that much money... When the day comes that I'm truly about to starve to death, you can come play the savior, milady."

Minian stood in place, silently repeating the word 'friend'.

Suddenly, she smiled faintly and followed Li Nanke downstairs.

As if having made up her mind about something, she said to the man who was currently loading the box onto the motorcycle, "If possible... could I try riding it for a couple of rounds?"

Li Nanke paused, giving her a strange look. "Don't you need to mind your etiquette anymore?"

Minian's face flushed slightly; so this fellow had heard her earlier.

She gave a light cough and feigned nonchalance. "If you don't want to, forget it. It's not like I really wanted to ride it anyway."

Li Nanke chuckled inwardly. Such a stubborn tsundere—even if she were burned to ashes, her mouth would probably remain completely intact.

He looked at the eldest lady's black dress. "I'm just worried you'll suffer a wardrobe malfunction; that outfit of yours isn't suitable for riding a motorcycle... Climb on first, I'll take you to change your clothes."

Half an hour later, Minian—now clad in a cheap outfit bought in the development zone—sat on the front seat of the motorcycle, gripping the handlebars tightly.

Her eyes gleamed with excitement as she gritted her teeth to keep from screaming out loud.

The drizzle had temporarily ceased. With the motorcycle's plasma protective shield retracted, it sped wildly down the road, darting into congested traffic one moment and plunging headfirst into deserted alleys the next, flirting with danger at every turn.

It made Li Nanke, sitting in the back seat,'s heart leap into his throat, leaving his hands with nowhere to rest.

The other party was a complete driving novice; this was flirting with danger, not just passing through it safely. Minian was entirely relying on a transcendent's exceptional mental reflexes to drive the motorcycle, possessing practically no riding experience herself.

The reason they hadn't crashed yet was entirely thanks to Li Nanke in the back seat stepping in to override the controls at critical moments.

"Milady, slow down, slow down..."

"What did you say? The wind is too loud, I can't hear you..."

The wild wind howled, and Minian's long golden hair whipped about in the gale, tickling Li Nanke's face mercilessly from behind.

Suddenly, the motorcycle slammed on its brakes, narrowly avoiding a car from the side before violently twisting the throttle to accelerate again.

Li Nanke lurched forward and then snapped back, deciding to throw caution to the wind and wrap his arms around Minian's waist to steady himself.

Her slender waist felt boneless and possessed breathtaking curves.

Minian's body stiffened abruptly. She wriggled unnaturally and stammered, "Y-your hands..."

Li Nanke could clearly see that her neck was flushed crimson, the heat burning all the way up to her ears, turning her earlobes a translucent, glowing red.

With a straight face and steady breath, he said, "You're driving too fast, my hands have nowhere else to go."

Minian could only feel the hot breath exhaled by the man constantly brushing against her ear, leaving her mind completely blank and her driving controls somewhat erratic.

"Careful!"

The car ahead had stopped at a red light, but Minian remained oblivious and failed to slow down. Li Nanke grabbed both her hands in one go, steered the motorcycle toward the service lane, leaned into a sharp right turn, and sped into the right-turn lane without reducing speed.

Minian had no idea how she managed to drive all the way to the vicinity of the Westahlia family estate. Her spine was held stiff and straight while Li Nanke encircled her from behind, taking over the controls for her.

Such close, intimate posture was no different from being held in his arms.

The familiar scenery of the road finally came into view, and the outline of the estate could already be seen in the distance.

Snapped out of her daze as if waking from a dream, she hastily cried out in panic, "Stop here first, I'll sit in the back."

Minian mentally cursed herself; her brain had truly short-circuited today, throwing all her aristocratic lady's etiquette completely to the winds.

If Madam Rosaline were to see her current appearance, not only would she tear her a new one with a thorough lecture, but she would also definitely report it to her father, subjecting her to the head maid's constant supervision from then on.

The two swapped front and rear seating positions, and soon, the heavy black motorcycle pulled up at the gates of the estate.

From afar, Minian spotted the head maid Rosaline waiting at the main entrance.

With a cold composure, she dismounted with grace and elegance, walking up to the head maid and acting as if nothing had happened at all.

"Milady, why didn't you let me come pick you up?"

"Mr. Li insisted on seeing me back. His hospitality was too warm to refuse."

Looking at the expensive, bespoke designer dress her young miss had replaced with a cheap women's outfit, Rosaline asked with a dark, probing gaze, "Oh? Then what happened to your dress, milady?"

Minian's expression froze, but her quick wits salvaged the situation immediately.

"There were puddles on the road because of the rain, and my skirt got splashed by accident. Mr. Li is a true gentleman and took me to a clothing store to change."

Her gentle and refined reply was airtight and flawless.

Noticing that the black motorcycle was still carrying a large cardboard box, she immediately hurried forward and shot a series of urgent winks. "Mr. Li, the gift you gave is far too precious; I really can't accept it."

Then she added in a voice quieter than a mosquito's hum, "I'll text you an address later, just mail it to me tomorrow."

Catching her drift instantly, Li Nanke exchanged farewells with the two women and was about to make his retreat when he heard the elderly head maid speak up: "Milady, that would be terribly impolite."

Rosaline made a hand gesture toward a bodyguard dressed in black nearby, who promptly retrieved a black gift box.

"Mr. Li's gift is precious, which shows his sincerity is all the more valuable. We cannot refuse Mr. Li's kindness, and we must reciprocate with our own sincerity."

Extending the gift box, Rosaline smiled. "Mr. Li, a modest return gift, please accept it as a token of our appreciation."

"No, no, you're being too polite."

The black-clad bodyguard didn't say another word, unloading the gift from the motorcycle while a box full of dream data disks rattled noisily.

Li Nanke accepted the return gift, glanced at Rosaline, and then looked at Minian.

He could only silently shoot the latter a look that said 'good luck saving yourself', then rode off into the distance on his beloved little motorcycle.

Minian's lips parted slightly as she stood frozen in place.

Only a single thought echoed in her mind: Today was going to be an absolute disaster.