Chapter 352

“Aaaaaaaaah!!!”

With a hysterical scream, Leonard, who had been lying face down on the table, suddenly woke up. His pale face, almost devoid of blood color, was drenched in large beads of sweat. His luxurious silk shirt was soaked and stuck tightly to his back as if he’d just been pulled out of water.

Ah… it was… just a dream…

After struggling free from the nightmare, Leonard looked out the window at the already bright sky. Still shaken and nearly exhausted, Leonard couldn’t help but slump against the leather chair’s backrest, gasping for breath like someone who had almost drowned.

It seems I’ve been too tired lately, working too hard. And then there was that woman mentioned earlier, which stirred up the fear inside me, causing such dreams.

Moreover, that person from the Clearing Bureau also said before that both she and I have Word Spirits. We can’t get too close to each other, nor can she use those strange things against me. So there’s no need to worry about her taking revenge…

Hmm… that’s right! After reassuring himself with these words, Leonard turned around, weakly calling out:

“Mark…”

“Mark… where are you?”

“I’m here, I’m here!”

Hearing his call, the secretary outside the door walked in holding a towel, smiling ingratiatingly:

“Lord Leonard, after I returned from handling matters at the manor and saw you resting, I didn’t dare disturb you. Here’s a hot towel prepared by the maid; please clean your face.”

“Hmm… you’re thoughtful…”

Seeing the secretary’s perfectly normal behavior, Leonard’s last shred of doubt disappeared. He lifted his trembling hand, took the steaming towel, and wiped the sweat off his face.

Upon seeing his ghastly white complexion, Secretary Mark couldn’t help but ask: “Lord Leonard, did you… have a nightmare?”

“Hmm…”

Leonard gave a weak response, recalling the extremely realistic nightmare he just had. His soul was shaken, and he needed someone to help him alleviate his fear. Unable to resist, he said uneasily: “I dreamed… after we finished our work and were walking on the corridor, you talked to me for a bit, then suddenly turned into that monster child from the Baohua family, asking where her corpse was thrown… Then…”

“And then what?”

And then I wet my pants… But how could I say that?

“Then I started running, and that monster child chased after me.”

Skipping over his embarrassing moment, Leonard said fearfully: “The long corridor outside our door seemed to stretch endlessly, and her footsteps grew closer and closer. I almost ran myself to death before barely escaping through the other end.

But when I left the corridor and fell down the stairs, the place outside the door wasn’t our manor… it was… the family’s estate! Moreover, under that big red cedar tree outside the door, there was an execution going on!”

“An execution?!”

Seemingly captivated by Leonard’s bizarre dream, Secretary Mark’s eyes flickered slightly. His face remained expressionless, but his voice was full of shock as he asked: “Was it… the one six years ago involving the Baohua… that family?”

“That one… but something wasn’t quite right…”

Leonard hesitated and said: “The place was that place, but… the ones being executed were… me…”

“Who?”

“It’s me…”

Recalling the horrifying scene he witnessed, Leonard’s lips trembled involuntarily: “More than nine hundred versions of me were blindfolded and pressed down there… then one after another… one after another…

At first, I was just watching from below, but then… then I was pushed down and also… ah no! Executed repeatedly! Aaaah!!!”

Watching Leonard scream involuntarily, the secretary quickly handed him another towel and consoled him: “They’re just dreams, don’t take them seriously… What happened next?”

“Next…”

Still shaken, Leonard took the new towel and vigorously wiped his sweating face again. Perhaps because he had waited too long, the new towel was not warm but instead faintly cold and damp.

But Leonard, whose hands and feet were ice-cold due to the nightmare, no longer cared whether the towel was cold or hot. Urged by the seemingly magical voice of the secretary, he recounted with eyes full of terror: “After the execution ended, the monster child appeared on the street and started smiling at me, so I… I ran back.

This time, it wasn’t the Baohua Manor that showed up, but our Cuiyu Manor. The monster child slowly chased me while telling me that if I jumped in and retrieved her corpse, she would leave me alone…”

“Did you jump?”

“I… I jumped…”

Recalling the bone-chilling lake water, Leonard shrank back in his chair, trembling and saying:

“I clearly remembered the location from before, so as soon as I jumped in, I found it. But… when I tried to come up, the aquatic plants at the bottom of the lake suddenly wrapped around me.

Those wet and cold plants seemed alive, coiling around my ankles, binding my hands, choking my neck, and even brushing past my face… I… I…”

“Didn’t you surface, and drowned in the lake like that child did back then?”

“Yes…”

“I see…”

Secretary Mark paused for a moment, then cautiously asked:

“Could it be that you’re having these dreams because the Baohua Family treated you well, and you feel guilty about what happened back then?”

Do… do I feel guilty?

Leonard froze upon hearing this, then violently shook his head: “No! No! I did nothing wrong!

Their alliance with the Jinjuan family was purely for support; it was all about interests. I didn’t even meet that woman many times! And that child wasn’t… Damn it, Mark! What are you talking about?”

“I apologize, I was merely trying to analyze the reason behind your strange dreams since you were genuinely terrified.”

After politely apologizing, the secretary gently reminded him:

“Judging by your sweaty forehead, maybe you should wipe yourself again?”

“Hmm…”

Hearing Mark’s reminder, Leonard wiped his sweat with the towel in his hand, but strangely, the more he wiped, the more sweat came out. The originally slightly warm towel gradually became cold and sticky, as if…

it had just strangled his limbs and face, drowning him in the lake!

“Sorry, we didn’t prepare enough hot towels earlier. Hope you don’t mind.”

Apologizing to Leonard, whose face had turned ghostly white and whose lips started trembling again, Secretary “Mark” stood up and moved aside to reveal the doorway leading to the corridor, then pointed at the little girl standing behind Leonard and smiled, reminding him: “Just make do with this for now, after all… you’re about to run again.”

“Aaaaaaaaah!!!”

(End of Chapter)