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

"Go!" Qi Sanjiu roared, his entire body beginning to disintegrate, flesh and metal evaporating together. "Only... ninety seconds left!"

Su Ting grabbed Meng Li and Qi Ming and leaped into the portal.

Inside the clock tower, it was as silent as a tomb.

Frozen dreams flow through countless transparent pipes, within which human faces scream silently. On the central platform, a gigantic crystal floats and rotates—the Law Core, radiating a cold blue light.

“That is the ‘Core of Fate’ that controls everything,” Su Ting said in a low voice. “Destroying it will liberate all dreams… but it may also cause reality to collapse.”

Mengli gripped the stardust pen tightly: "But if reality is built on the dreams of countless people that have been deleted... then it shouldn't exist at all."

She walked step by step toward the core of the law.

Suddenly, the Law Core flashed, and a figure emerged from it.

It was a woman, dressed in white as snow, with long hair reaching her waist. Her face bore a seven-tenths resemblance to Meng Li, but was even more gentle.

"Xiaoyue?!" Mengli trembled.

The woman smiled and said, "Sister, I've been waiting for you for so long."

"You...are you still alive?"

“I’ve always been here.” Xiaoyue gently stroked the Law Core. “I wasn’t imprisoned… I stayed willingly. Because only I can restrain the ‘Source Law.’ As long as I don’t escape, it won’t fully awaken.”

"But why are you carrying this burden alone?" Mengli asked, tears streaming down her face. "I can help you...we can all help!"

“It’s too late.” Xiaoyue shook her head. “The cleansing order has been activated, and the clock tower will self-destruct in sixty seconds. As for the Law Core… it must be shut down by the ‘Dream Chaser’ himself, otherwise, all the released dreams will become unclaimed chaos that devours reality.”

"Then...what should we do?"

Xiaoyue looked at Mengli, her eyes gentle yet resolute: "There's only one way—you will replace me and become the new vessel for the Law Core. The 'Source Law' will be sealed, but… you will lose all freedom and be trapped here forever."

Chapter 1252 The Qualification to Pursue Dreams

Mengli shuddered.

Su Ting rushed forward: "No! I won't let you sacrifice yourself for someone else again!"

"But this is the only way," Mengli said softly, already taking a step forward.

"No!" Su Ting grabbed her. "Let's think of something together! There must be another option!"

Mengli turned to look at him, tears streaming down her face, but she smiled: "Do you remember? You said that dreams are the starting point of freedom. But sometimes... freedom is giving others the right to pursue their dreams."

She gently pushed him away and walked towards Xiaoyue.

Xiaoyue closed her eyes, her body transformed into specks of light, and merged into Mengli's body.

Mengli roared to the sky, the star sand pen shattered, and countless dreams flooded into her heart like a tide.

Her body began to become transparent, gradually merging with the Law Core.

The clock tower shook violently.

Su Ting rushed forward and embraced her fading body: "Don't go...please, don't go..."

Mengli reached out and stroked his face one last time: "Remember this for me... I once thought about living for myself."

Her voice gradually faded into the distance:

"Now...it's your turn."

Su Ting knelt in the collapsed clock tower, clutching the broken star-studded pen, and looked up at the fading starry sky.

Qiming asked in a low voice, "What...do we do next?"

Su Ting slowly stood up, a fire of unprecedented intensity burning in his eyes.

He raised the half-finished star-studded pen and pointed it to the sky:

“We will go and return her dreams... one by one.”

In the distance, a faint point of light flickered, as if in response.

A tender, childlike voice softly rang out:

"Brother, am I next...?"

Su Ting turned his head sharply, his gaze piercing like a knife towards the source of the sound. It was a very faint shadow, huddled at the edge of the remaining pillar of light after the clock tower collapsed, like a forgotten wisp of wind.

She was a little girl, about six or seven years old, wearing a faded old dress and barefoot. She was holding a tattered rag doll in her arms, and her eyes were big and dark, as if they held the whole still-unawakened night.

Qiming instinctively took a step forward: "Who... are you?"

The girl didn't answer, but simply raised her hand and gently pointed to the half-finished stardust pen in Su Ting's hand.

“It’s crying,” she said.

Su Ting was startled and looked down at the tip of the pen—a faint blue light seeped from the broken part, slowly sliding down like a teardrop, condensing into a fleeting image in the air: Meng Li stood in the center of the starry sea, opening her mouth to shout something, but no sound could be heard.

"She's begging you," the little girl whispered. "Not out of sadness for her, but to get you moving."

Qiming frowned: "How did you know? Who exactly are you? This isn't a place for the living!"

The girl smiled, a smile of innocent joy: "I am neither alive nor dead. I am 'Unregistered Dream,' number 001."

Su Ting's pupils shrank sharply: "Impossible... 'Dream Entity Zero' was determined to be nonexistent by 'Source Law' seven years ago and was completely deactivated!"

“I cancelled the dream,” the little girl tilted her head, “but I didn’t cancel the desire to dream.”

She slowly stood up, her skirt fluttering, yet she left no shadow. With each step she took, a small flower of light appeared in the void beneath her feet, only to shatter.

“I was the first wisp of dream that Sister Mengli released from the crystal box that night.” She looked up, her eyes clear. “She said, ‘I want everyone to be able to dream while they sleep, instead of being slept by dreams’—and I believed her.”

Qiming's voice tightened: "Then what are you doing here now? Mengli is already..."

Chapter 1253 I picked them all up and ate them

"The 'Source Law' has been sealed, right?" the little girl interjected, her tone suddenly turning cold. "But do you know what? The 'Source Law' didn't die at all. It just changed its vessel—now, it's hiding at the very bottom of the 'Clock Tower Ruins,' regenerating little by little by devouring those unreleased remnants of dreams."

Su Ting's eyes narrowed: "How do you know all this?"

“Because I’ve been eating ‘forgetting’.” The little girl grinned, her mouth splitting open to her ears, revealing a deep darkness within. “The memories others have lost, the wishes they’ve deleted, the dreams they dare not speak of… I’ve picked them all up and eaten them. So I know better than you—this world isn’t over yet; it’s preparing for a second ‘dream cleansing’.”

Qi Ming took a half step back: "You are not a dream...you are the 'Dream Eater'! A forbidden being from the legends of the Heavenly Fate Bureau!"

“A name is just a label.” The little girl shrugged, her face returning to normal. “I eat dreams, but I protect one dream—Meng Li’s dream. So, I came to you not to destroy, but to…reboot.”

"Restart?" Su Ting sneered. "What can we use to restart? Meng Li has already sacrificed herself! The Law Core is sealed, and the Clock Tower is collapsing!"

The little girl stretched out her hand, and a faint, flickering point of light appeared in her palm: "You've all forgotten what Mengli said at the end—'It's your turn.'"

With a gentle breath, the specks of light rose up, hovering in the center of the three, slowly unfolding into a scroll of light and shadow:

In the scene, countless cities are asleep, people have their eyes closed, and their faces bear eerie smiles. The "people" walking on the streets have empty eyes and mutter the same sentence: "Fate is on the right track, dreams should be clear."

Above, a new clock tower is taking shape in the clouds. The clock face is no longer engraved with musical inscriptions, but rather with mouths whose faces have been erased.

“They’re laughing,” the little girl said. “You can’t hear it, but I can—it’s the fetal movement of ‘Source Law’ before its rebirth.”

Qiming's voice trembled: "It... has already built a new clock tower in reality?"

“It’s not just building.” The little girl’s eyes suddenly turned cold. “It has begun to replicate the ‘Dream Purification Program.’ This time, it no longer secretly deletes dreams, but makes people voluntarily give up their dreams—in the name of ‘happiness.’”

Su Ting gripped the star-shaped pen tightly: "So all those ads, all those news articles, all those slogans like 'You don't need to worry, just leave it to the system'... are they all being sown by it?"

“Clever.” The little girl clapped her hands. “It learned to disguise itself. It stopped being the executioner and became the savior. It said, ‘I will help you forget your pain, I will help you decide your happiness.’ So people gladly handed over their dreams, like handing over an old key.”

She suddenly stared at Su Ting: "And now, you hold the only key in your hand—that broken pen, the token of the 'Dream Chaser.' As long as there is one person who believes that dreams should be free, it can be rekindled."

Su Ting looked down at the pen in his hand; the blue light at the broken end flickered, like a heart that refused to be extinguished.

“But… what should I do?” His voice was hoarse. “I’m not Mengli, I don’t have her power.”

“You don’t need her power.” The little girl took a step closer, a hint of tenderness in her eyes. “You just need her choices.”

She suddenly raised her hand, pointing to the lowest level of the clock tower ruins: "There, three hundred and twenty-seven 'deleted dreams' are still imprisoned. They should have disappeared, but because of Meng Li's seal, they are stuck between life and death—like butterflies trapped in a glass bottle."

Chapter 1254 Going down there is suicide

"All you have to do is... open the bottle."

Qiming exclaimed urgently, "But that's the nest of 'Source Law' down there! Going down there would be suicide!"

"Going to your deaths?" The little girl laughed. "Didn't you already die once just now? Mengli died, Qi Sanjiu turned to ashes, Xiaoyue disappeared... But you're still standing here, isn't it because—someone won't let the dream end completely?"

She turned her head and looked directly into Su Ting's eyes: "Now, it's your turn to choose. Will you hold this pen and cry until the end of the world, or... use it to write a new beginning?"

Su Ting remained silent for a long time.

The wind blew through the cracks in the clock tower, stirring up fragments of stardust, like a silent snowfall.

After a long while, he slowly raised his hand and used the broken pen tip to draw blood across his palm. The blood dripped down and condensed into a faint rune in the air.

“I can’t write dreams,” he said softly, “but I can draw roads.”

Qiming was taken aback: "You... want to use blood as ink?"

“Mengli opened the door with her life.” Su Ting wiped away his tears, his eyes burning. “At least, I can pave a path she didn’t finish walking.”

The little girl smiled, and this time, her figure began to become transparent.