Chapter 2 2 Charlie's Castle Frozen in Summer Dusk 2
2097 Words
Zoe Miller woke up in her own bed again at seven o'clock on Monday morning.
How come she hadn't slept very well the last few days, she muttered, rubbing her shoulders and getting out of bed.
Zoe Miller had an early class on Monday morning, so she simply packed her bag and headed downstairs.
Zoe Miller lives in Chinatown in an ordinary small three-storey building, the ground floor is a small noodle shop that she has a part-time job as a receptionist, called Yang Family Noodle Shop. Inside it was always run by an older man named Yang.
She skilfully descended the stairs and then turned into the noodle shop. At this time there were already quite a few people sitting in the small noodle shop, and Uncle Yang was placing noodles in front of the stove with his back to her.
She took the lead in greeting, "Good morning Uncle Yang, so busy at this hour?"
Uncle Yang turned around when he heard her voice, and immediately smiled when he saw her, "It's always the same at this hour. You still want a bowl of skinny noodles?"
"Well yes, Uncle Yang, just put the noodles in the bowl when you're done, I'll add the ingredients myself."
"Okay."
Uncle Yang always took care of her because she was all alone, and the room upstairs was also rented to her by Uncle Yang. Plus, when she came to eat noodles, Uncle Yang always gave her an employee discount, which was cheaper than eating at school, so she usually came to Uncle Yang's place for breakfast in the morning.
After breakfast, Zoe Miller walked to class. The morning class was the main class, and the professor who taught it was unusually strict. When she thought of the last time the professor stressed to her that she needed to go to him alone to discuss her homework, her scalp went numb.
Ugh, let's just make an appointment with the professor after class. She sighed and rolled up her sleeves, intending to listen and take notes this class.
Both of her white arms were exposed, the bruise on her left arm still visible as it hadn't gone away. The right arm, on the other hand, was clean and unmarked.
--
On Monday night, Zoe Miller opened her eyes again to the sight of cascading drapes.
She froze for a second before reacting to the fact that she was in the night world again.
Her first reaction was to raise her hand to look at her arm, the word Charlie was still there. Except she was sure she hadn't seen those two words during the day.
Writing can't be brought into the daytime, but injuries can be brought into reality, is this really forcing me to mutilate myself to send a message. She sighed inwardly.
She got up and lifted the curtain to get out of bed, only to see the bright yellow sunrise pouring in through the window, illuminating the cowhide book on the table.
Zoe Miller's eyes swept over the light filtering through the window, and suddenly her eyes glazed over as she thought of something she hadn't noticed yesterday.
Crap. She cursed internally.
Time in this world flowed. Obviously, for the first three days she explored everywhere, the sky was a frozen scarlet colour. But last night, before she went to bed, it was clear that it had transitioned to night outside. She had been so tired yesterday that she hadn't actually realised it.
When she thought about it, everything changed after she met Charlie, the ruins turned back into a palace, time began to flow, and the empty and uninhabited turned into people coming and going.
With such a materialistic feeling, it really did feel like a dream.
Only it didn't feel like a dream, Zoe Miller said, subconsciously biting her thumb, a habit she had when she was analysing and thinking. Isn't that what they all say about you being able to do whatever you want in your own dreams, but at the moment this dream is not shifting by your own will at all, instead it's more like Charlie's dream.
So the question is, why am I in Charlie's dream?
And, did Charlie know, that he was dreaming?
--
In the morning Zoe Miller had just cleared her mind and had no time to continue looking through her cowbook when she heard the maid knocking on the door and was immediately taken to the dining room for breakfast.
At this point in time at the long dining table, Zoe Miller was led to the first seat on the left, which happened to be opposite her to Charlie.
Charlie greeted her with a smile, "Did you sleep well last night Miss Emily?"
"Not too bad."
Zoe Miller replied as she scanned the area. The seat directly in front of the table was empty and unoccupied. And to Charlie's right sat a little girl in a white dress.
The little girl looked to be in her late teens or so, and had a similar outlook to Charlie, with long blonde curls that were so exquisitely tousled that at first glance she looked like a pretty little doll.
She was oblivious to Zoe Miller's gaze, but just looked down and concentrated on eating with her knife and fork.
Charlie introduced himself, "This is my sister, Elizabeth. We have a few other siblings, but as adults they each left and none of them live with me anymore. Elizabeth is still young and we siblings spend the most time in this castle instead." With that he reminded his sister, "Elizabeth, you should say hello to your guest."
Elizabeth then stopped her knife and fork and looked up at Zoe Miller, expressionless, her eyes cold, as if she were looking at a dead man.
Zoe Miller frowned lightly. How could a young girl in her teens have that look in her eyes.
She gave a tentative greeting, "Hello."
Elizabeth didn't reply and buried her head in her food again. It was as if a glance up just now counted as a greeting.
Zoe Miller : .......
Charlie relieved himself, "Don't worry about it, Elizabeth is just a bit skittish."
What do you call that cold stare?
Zoe Miller didn't know how to respond, so she changed the subject, "Say, I see that you didn't seem very surprised by my arrival yesterday. May I ask if there were other visitors like me besides me?"
Charlie inclined his head and sighed, "Miss Emily is so perceptive and cautious. I thought Miss Emily would have asked me directly about Tang Wuqing as a person after reading that diary. I thought it was very likely that you guys came from the same place. And most people care very much about their fellow countrymen, don't they?"
What Charlie said was perfectly fine, it's just that Zoe Miller didn't read the whole diary, although at the beginning Charlie and Tang Wuqing's relationship seemed to be pretty good, but who knows where it went later on, maybe the two of them had a grudge against each other later on?Zoe Miller not having read the whole diary could only assume the worst, and with the fact that she had just realised this morning that the world seemed to revolve around Charlie, she just had to be a little more careful when confronting him so that she didn't accidentally hit the BE ending.
Zoe Miller follows his lead and says, "Indeed, I'm concerned about this one as well. Can you tell me about it?"
As if he was waiting for her to ask that, Charlie leaned back at that, "It's a long story."
"I met him when I was seventeen. I used to come to Castle Rossi every year on holiday during the hot summer months. In seventeen, he appeared, without warning, out of nowhere, in my garden. His thoughts, the way he saw things, his ideas about people, were out of step with the whole world. For example, he never felt that nobles were nobler than commoners, or that the Church was helping and redeeming commoners."
"Since we first met, he has been a frequent visitor. I speak to him about poetry and literature, and he is always able to tell me some astounding thought or something that has never appeared in a book. We had a great time communicating with each other. It was probably the summer I miss the most in this life. It's just a shame," he paused and his voice became low, "that he was only here for two months and then left, never to be seen again."
Zoe Miller immediately followed up with, "Only two months? And were there any signs before he left? Do you know where he left or how he left?"
From the information available now, that Tang Wuqing was obviously a modern man who had mistakenly entered the dream world of an ancient man just like himself ah, since he was able to leave, then he himself could leave this place in the same way.
Charlie looked at her somewhat eager appearance and narrowed his eyes, seeming to be very unhappy with this topic, and only continued to say to himself, ''Don't be anxious, this story is not yet finished. Since he left many years ago, during these years I became the king and lived a normal life, only his existence still had a huge impact on me. I couldn't get him out of my mind, so I just had to go back to Rosie's Castle again. And here I met some other strange guests."
Zoe Miller Pupils quake. I thought I was the first, then I found out I was the second, and now I'm being told that I don't even know how many people have been here?
"Have you met many strange guests?"
Charlie said, "Sort of. I've met a lot of people who all dress differently and have different personalities and ages. They've all shared a lot of new, knowledge with me that I never knew before. It's been an eye-opening experience for me every time."
Zoe Miller returned, "So where are they now? Have they all left?"
Charlie sighs, "Ugh, basically all left. It's so disappointing and sad. I thought every time we had been close, dear friends, but none of them wanted to stay with me."
He paused, looked into Zoe Miller's eyes, and continued, "So Miss Emily, would you like to stay and keep me company?"
Zoe Miller felt a wave of n***d, icy malice wash over her at that moment.
She glanced at Elizabeth, who had been unresponsive next to her, and said, "Hasn't your sister always been with you?"
"That's different," Charlie said with another impeccable smile on his face, "You're not the same as her."
Zoe Miller did not answer again, nor did she eat the breakfast on the table.
--
After breakfast Zoe Miller returned to her room. Charlie hadn't restricted her freedom, he hadn't acted strangely after the creepy remark, everything seemed normal, this was just a castle where the owner was very busy and occasionally came out to meet guests.
Zoe Miller slapped her own head and spat to herself, wondering where Charlie had learnt so many dark thoughts at such a young age, it was really bad.
For the moment, Charlie would not tell her the way out, and Zoe Miller did not want to stay in this seemingly calm but extremely fearful castle, she could only find her own way out.
She picked up the cowhide book on the table and read through it at a glance.
Most of the content was the owner of the diary describing the exchanges between the two of him and Tang Wuqing, and indeed the two teenagers talked about everything, chatting and talking very happily. From the diary, it seemed that Charlie hadn't lied on this point.
In the last few pages of this diary, separation was finally mentioned.
"Wuqing is leaving, I don't want him to leave, but I have to see him off. This separation is different from his usual brief disappearance and reappearance, this time he is really leaving me. Will we meet again? Will there be any more of him at Rosie's Castle in the coming year?"
"Farewell, my dear friend."
Zoe Miller paused and turned the last page.
The handwriting on the last page was different from all the previous ones, it was fresher ink, and the writing was no longer in Old English, but in two lines of Chinese characters.
"Don't trust Charlie."
"Run away."
- Writer
