The Dream of the Poppy

"Right, Li Xuan, you also live in the city, right? It's hard to get a taxi here. Why don't you come with us?" Ji Chen asked Li Xuan.

"You really are a compassionate Kuan Yin sending the Buddha to the West!" Tian Yimeng cast a glance at Ji Chen.

"Isn't that so!"

"Alright." Li Xuan agreed.

After the three of them got in the car, Li Xuan leaned against the backrest. In fact, he had secretly come down to the human world many times because there were so many things here that didn't exist in the demon realm, so he was not unfamiliar with everything before him.

Take this car, for example; he had seen it so many times that it was nothing new to him, even to the point where he could skillfully drive it. Although he never needed to do that in the demon realm, most beings there relied on flying, never having to think about transportation. Moreover, families of high status like his generally possessed things akin to Doraemon's Anywhere Door, allowing them to go wherever they desired.

"Where do you live? We have no idea where to take you!" Ji Chen suddenly remembered.

"Demon…"

He reflexively wanted to say the demon realm but thought better of it. Who knows if they would even believe him? Even if they did, was that distant and unreachable demon realm still his home?

The vast wolf clan didn't offer him a single place to hide. The Kui Yue Mirror could observe every nook and cranny of the demon realm, and the ridiculous thing was that the Kui Yue Mirror only had one side that belonged to the royal family. Li Mo was the one taking his place as king. To think that he, a royal, had reached a point where he couldn't even secure a place in the demon realm—if it weren't for the loud commotion that brought him to the human world back then, he might have already perished at Li Mo's hands. He could only consider it a divine opportunity to live again.

Tons of emotions surged in his heart. "Let's just talk about it in the city!"

"Sounds good! Anyway, we're too lazy to take you home. Let's find a subway station that's closer to our house to drop you off!" Tian Yimeng responded.

"Sure!"

As the car journey continued, Ji Chen fell into a deep sleep again. With a small crack in the window, the gentle breeze brushed against Ji Chen's hair as he quietly stared outside, somewhat lost in thought.

He was pondering: if he could continue like this with peaceful days, it wouldn't be a bad strategy. In truth, he had no interest in power; that supreme throne had a deadly attraction akin to poppy flowers.

But only he knew that to wear the crown, one must bear its weight. His father had spent his life laboring for that throne. On the surface, it seemed he commanded the wind and rain, but behind the scenes, the growing strands of white hair told a different story. It was as if with that throne, his father never smiled again.

He had long planned that when the day came for him to be crowned, the first thing he would do was to pass the throne to his elder brother. But Li Mo, ah, Li Mo, in the end, you couldn't hold back!

But what of it? The result was ultimately as he wished, even if the process was far from satisfactory. He should have hated it, but he didn't know why, every time he thought of those past moments, all the overwhelming hatred in his heart flowed away. Li Mo, the brother who had saved him time and again, even if he took his life, so what? Let it be that he was returning the favor; it was just a pity for Bai Li.

"Bai Li, are you okay?" he murmured softly.

He turned his head and also closed his eyes lightly, drifting into a shallow sleep...

He didn't know how long it had been when the car suddenly stopped. Li Xuan immediately opened his eyes; it was his habit to immediately sense when the equilibrium of the outside world was disrupted. Outside, the bustling night of Shanghai was no longer as desolate as before.

"We've arrived, wake up, Chen Chen!"

Tian Yimeng turned her head and tugged at Ji Chen's sleeve. Ji Chen, still in a daze, opened his eyes reluctantly and said, "Is it already here? I haven't slept enough yet!"

"Lazy pig, you can sleep at home!"

"Oh!" Ji Chen pretended to get out of the car but suddenly realized, "Why is he still here?"

"Ah! I forgot! I'm going straight home!" Tian Yimeng slapped her forehead and sighed. "But it's almost midnight now; it'll be too late to drop him off at the station! What should we do?" Tian Yimeng pointed at Li Xuan and said to Ji Chen.

"What should we do? We can't just let him sleep at our house!" Ji Chen frowned.