Courtyard House: My Long and Hard Body Makes Me Play with All the Women in the Courtyard

Mengli breathed a sigh of relief and leaned on Su Ting's shoulder: "We...did it?"

Su Ting has not yet answered—

"Ding."

A soft sound, like a wind chime.

A small figure emerged from the light—it was the girl in the cloth skirt, the **first person to dream**.

She laughed: "No, you've just... begun."

She raised her hand and pointed into the distance.

There, beyond the boundaries of the new world, in an endless void, a new portal of light is slowly taking shape.

Three words appeared on the door:

**Next stop**.

The girl blinked: "The new era isn't the end. It's just... the first stop."

Su Ting and Meng Li exchanged a glance and smiled.

"Leaving again?" Mengli raised an eyebrow.

“It seems,” Su Ting said, squeezing her hand, “that dreams are always waiting for the next stop.”

The girl's figure faded, leaving behind her last words:

"What kind of story do you want to tell this time?"

Su Ting looked up at the unknown door and whispered:

"A story where **anyone can be the protagonist**."

As soon as the words were spoken, the light gate with "Next Stop" written on it slowly opened. There was no sound of hinges, only the flow of light, like a whole galaxy being rolled up into a scroll and slowly unfolded.

The wind blew out from inside the door.

It carried the scent of earth, the fragrance of grass after the rain, and a hint of... the rusty smell of blood.

"Hmm?" Mengli frowned, her fingertips gently brushing the air, causing a mirror-like screen of light to condense, reflecting fragments of the world behind the door—

A colossal steel city floats above crimson clouds, its towering towers and meshing gears sending steam roaring and billowing like dragons. The beings walking the streets are not flesh and blood, but hybrids of **cybernetics and humans**. Code flashes in their pupils, and numbers are etched on their arms.

In the heart of the city, a towering clock tower stands, and with each swing of its pendulum, time is forcibly turned back a moment in time for the entire world.

"Time...is being manipulated?" Su Ting narrowed his eyes. "Is someone harvesting the flow of 'dreams,' using dreams as an energy source?"

"And look." Mengli tapped her fingertip, and the image zoomed in—at the top of the clock tower, a huge crystal floated, sealing countless distorted human figures inside, screaming silently with pain on their faces.

“That is… the remnant soul after the dream core was stripped away.” Su Ting’s voice turned cold. “They used dreams as fuel to burn for the pleasure of the world’s powerful and wealthy.”

Mengli's eyes narrowed: "This kind of world dares to call itself a 'New Era'?"

“But it does exist,” Su Ting said, looking at the door. “And it’s calling us.”

"Ding--"

The clear, ringing bell sounded again, and the girl in the cloth skirt's voice came from the void: "This stop, they call it 'Eternal Night Bell City.' The rule is—**the more you dream, the faster you die.**"

Chapter 1235 Who Set the Rules?

Mengli sneered: "Ha, then I'd like to see who made these rules!"

She took a step forward, her figure rushing towards the portal like the wind.

Su Ting followed closely behind.

The moment you step into the Bell Tower, a chilling metallic aura hits you. The sky is leaden gray, the sun is obscured by a layer of swirling gear-shaped clouds, and only the crystal at the top of the bell tower emits a pale light, like a prisoner star.

On the street, pedestrians hurried along with their heads down, each with a black chip embedded in the back of their neck, flashing red. If anyone's eyes lost focus or their steps slowed, they would immediately be tackled by the patrolling **dream-detecting machines**, a probe piercing their head to extract a wisp of pale blue mist—a remnant of a dream.

"Tsk, this place is more strictly controlled than a prison." Meng Li looked around coldly, then suddenly raised her chin and beckoned to a piece of machinery. "Hey, you metal lump, do I look like I'm dreaming?"

The machine rotated its head, scanning her with red light.

"Warning: High brainwave activity detected, suspected illegal dream generation. Initiating the cleanup procedure."

"Clear?" Mengli laughed. "I haven't even started yet."

She closed her eyes and softly murmured, "I want... this machine to turn into a pink pig."

The air twisted slightly.

The next second, the two-meter-tall steel machine "poof" shrunk into a round, pink pig, grunted, rolled on the ground, and held its tail high.

The surrounding crowd froze instantly.

Some people stared wide-eyed, some instinctively stepped back, and a little girl even squatted down, carefully reaching out to touch the pig's ears, a long-lost smile finally appearing on her lips.

"Dream...dream came true?" she murmured.

“Of course.” Mengli bent down and picked up the little pig, smiling as she looked around. “You can do it too—as long as you dare to dream it.”

The crowd was in commotion.

Just then, a loud bang came from the direction of the clock tower.

The pendulum suddenly stopped.

Time seemed to have been paused throughout the city, except for Su Ting and Meng Li, who were still able to move freely.

"Oh?" Su Ting looked up, squinting at the top of the clock tower. "Someone has noticed."

"And she's not very happy either." Mengli hugged the piglet and smiled with her head tilted to the side.

Suddenly, space distorted, and a figure appeared out of thin air in front of them.

The man wore a long silver robe, his face so handsome it was almost unreal; his left eye was an icy blue crystal, while his right eye was a pitch-black void. In his hand he held a pendulum-shaped scepter, which, with a gentle shake, caused time to flow again.

“Outsiders.” His voice echoed like a bell. “You have disrupted the balance of the ‘Dream of Order’.”

"A Dream of Order?" Meng Li scoffed. "You call this a dream? This is a **mental prison**!"

"If dreams get out of control, they become disasters." The man in silver robes slowly raised his scepter. "Therefore, they must be regulated, measured, and **handed over**."

"To whom should we hand it over?" Su Ting stepped forward. "To you? Or to that soul-devouring crystal?"

"For the stability of the world," the silver-robed man said calmly, "it's worth it to exchange the dreams of a few for the 'peace' of the many."

"Calm?" Mengli sneered. "That's called numbness! You're not protecting Meng, you're **killing Meng**!"

She suddenly tossed the little pig in her hand into the air: "I said—return to your original form!"

The pig exploded in a burst of light, transforming back into a machine, but the markings on its head had been rewritten; the original "Clear" command had been replaced with three large characters:

If you want to win, you will.

Chapter 1236 will all be purified

The machine landed, turned around, and punched another Dream Inspector.

An uproar ensued.

The crowd began to stir; some covered their mouths and gasped, some trembled and backed away, and some had a faint light in their eyes.

"You... will all be purified," the silver-robed man said coldly, "including your dream cores."

He waved his scepter, and the pendulum swung violently.

Rewind three seconds.

—Su Ting found himself back at the moment he had just stepped onto the street.

"Time reset?" he murmured, quickly glancing around and finding that only his and Mengli's memories had not been erased.

Mengli blinked, then leaned closer in tacit understanding: "Three times?"

“Three times.” Su Ting nodded. “Each time he could only reverse the flow for three seconds… not enough to wipe us out.”

"That's enough for us to cause some trouble." Meng Li smirked, then suddenly shouted, "Hey! Listen up—he can only rewind three seconds! As long as you make your choices within those three seconds, he'll never be able to hold back your dreams again!"

The crowd fell silent.

The man in silver robes roared, "Shut up!"

He waved the scepter again.

Turn back time.

—Su Ting stood still.

Mengli grinned: "Two seconds!"

She suddenly raised her hand and pointed to the sky: "I said—I want to see the clock tower collapse!"

This time, she wasn't the only one thinking about it.

The boy, terrified by the machinery and cowering in the corner, dreamed that he could fly.

The little girl clutching her tattered rag doll thought her mother would come back.

The worker, his hands calloused, dreamed that his novel would be published.