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

"Lin Wan!" Chen Mo exclaimed in surprise, "Are you crazy? The door is closing!"

"I have to go in even if it's closed." Lin Wan didn't turn her head, her voice lowering slightly. "My sister is waiting for me. And..."

He paused, a cold and sharp smile appearing on his lips.

"I'd like to see who dares to impersonate my sister's last words."

The portal behind him slammed shut, as if swallowing the last spark of light.

Inside the door lies a floating sea of ​​memories.

There was no ground beneath their feet, no sky above their heads. Only countless transparent bubbles floated in the air, each containing a story of a life: a girl building a snowman in the snow, her face flushed with laughter; a couple holding their baby, humming softly by the window; a little boy hanging a wind chime above his bed, saying, "Sister, listen, doesn't it sound like the stars are talking?"

Su Ting stood in the center, his hands in the pockets of his worn-out jacket, his back to a man who stood quietly.

The man was wearing an old-fashioned white lab coat, his gray hair was neatly combed back, and he wore a pair of silver-rimmed glasses on his nose. Behind the lenses were eyes that Lin Wan knew all too well—calm, restrained, yet hiding some kind of unfathomable pain.

"Who are you?" Lin Wan's voice was not loud, but it was like a knife being drawn from its sheath.

The man slowly turned around, his gaze falling on his face, and for a moment he trembled.

“Wanwan…” he said softly, as if afraid of waking something, “You’ve grown up.”

"I'm asking you—who—are you—?" Lin Wan said slowly and deliberately, the star-shaped pen already spinning in her palm. "My father died in a laboratory explosion twelve years ago. If you are him, then you are just a dream."

The man didn't answer, but simply raised his hand and pulled a rusty wind chime from the pocket of his white coat.

Ding--

A soft sound echoed in the silence.

Lin Wan's pupils suddenly contracted.

That was the first wind chime he made for his sister. The wire was bent, and the bell was taken from an old bicycle bell; its sound was hoarse, like an old cat's meow. But his sister hung it in her hospital room for three years, saying it was the "brightest star" her brother had given her.

"How could you..."

“You made it when you were seven years old,” the man said softly. “You said, ‘My sister likes sounds, so I’ll make a singing star for her.’ That day, you cut your hand on the wire and were bleeding, but you still insisted on hanging the bell on the windowsill.”

Lin Wan's fingers tightened suddenly.

"It's a coincidence. The system can read memories and piece together these details."

"And what about your eighth birthday?" the man said again, his voice so gentle it made one's heart tremble. "That day, your mother was seriously ill, and the hospital wouldn't allow visitors. You climbed in through the back door, clutching a candle in your hand, saying, 'Sister promised to blow out the candles for me.' But you were caught by a nurse in the hallway, the candle burned your eyebrows, and you cried like a fool. But you clung to the cake box, refusing to let go, saying, 'Sister will be sad if she doesn't see a happy birthday.'"

Lin Wan's breath hitched.

No one knows these things. Not even in Dr. Cheng's file. It was a childhood he deliberately sealed away—because it was too painful to recall.

“Impossible…” He shook his head, his voice hoarse. “My father… went mad after watching my mother being connected to the ‘Dream Domain Stability System.’ He locked himself in the lab, and three days later… it exploded.”

The man closed his eyes briefly, a glint of light flashing in the corner of his eye.

Chapter 1281 The Replaced Puppet

“I caused the explosion,” he said in a low voice. “That day, I obtained the last piece of consciousness data left by your sister. She didn’t die; she was just forcibly stripped away by Cheng Yuan (Dr. Cheng) and locked in the deepest part of ‘Dream Source.’ I learned the truth—the entire system wasn’t for healing; it was for control. All the ‘recovered patients’ were just puppets who were being replaced.”

He opened his eyes and looked directly at Lin Wan.

"So I blew up the lab and escaped into the Dream Realm with your sister's data. I faked my death, changed my appearance, and became a member of the 'Edge Cleaners.' I can't wake up. If I do, Cheng Yuan will find out I'm still alive and destroy the last trace of her."

Lin Wan stood there, stunned.

"Then... all these years..."

“I’ve always stood guard at the edge of the dream realm.” The man smiled bitterly, “watching you all sink in one by one, and then be ‘corrected’ one by one. I couldn’t save your sister, but at least… I want to wait for you to grow up, to wait for the day you stand at the door with a stardust pen in your hand.”

Su Ting suddenly sneered: "How touching. But how can you prove you're not just another 'patch'? Maybe the next second you'll turn into the Silver Mask and smile at us?"

The man didn't look at him, but instead pulled an old pocket watch from his chest.

click -

The watch cover pops open.

There were no pointers inside, only a small projection: a little girl lying on a hospital bed, pale-faced, yet smiling at the camera and saying:

"Little brother, don't come looking for me. It's too cold in my dreams, you'll get cold."

"Sister..." Lin Wan's throat tightened.

“She thought she could deceive you,” the man said softly. “But she calls for you in her dreams every night. Her obsession is waiting for you to come. But the system does not allow ‘isolated’ individuals to contact the outside world, so she hid her memories in this watch and asked someone to give it to me—saying that if you awaken one day, let it bring you in.”

Lin Wan took the pocket watch with trembling hands. When her fingertips touched that small projection, she felt as if she had been electrocuted.

"She...knew I was coming?"

“She always believed in you.” The man looked at him, tears welling in his eyes. “She said, ‘My brother isn’t afraid of the dark; he was born to be light.’”

Su Ting stood silently, then suddenly kicked a floating fragment of memory at his feet.

"Hey," he said, his voice lower, "So what are you planning to do now? Take this old guy back to his ancestral home? Or keep moving forward? The lowest level of Dream Source doesn't welcome visiting groups."

Lin Wan took a deep breath and carefully put the pocket watch away from her body.

"Move forward." He raised his hand, and the nib of his stardust pen lit up again. "My sister is at the very bottom. No matter how deep Cheng Yuan has locked her up, I have to pull her back."

The man suddenly raised his hand to stop him: "Wait. The core of the Dream Source has three layers of protection—the first is the 'Memory Maze,' where one wrong step will tear your consciousness apart and reassemble it into a wandering, unclaimed soul; the second is the 'Emotional Black Hole,' which will devour all strong emotions, leaving you an empty shell; the third…"

His voice lowered.

“They are ‘clones.’ Cheng Yuan used fragments of your sister’s consciousness to create seven ‘hers.’ They have her memories, her voice, and even her pain… but they only have one mission—to persuade you to stay, to persuade you to give up, and to persuade you to ‘not wake up.’”

Lin Wan narrowed her eyes: "So... that fake mother of mine just now was just the beginning?"

“The gentlest trap is the most deadly.” The man nodded. “Your sister will use everything you know to persuade you to turn back.”

Lin Wan laughed, a laugh that was both unrestrained and resolute.

Chapter 1282 Floating Memories

“That’s perfect.” He gripped the star-shaped pen tighter. “I’ll use everything I know to tell her—”

"Sister, I'll take you home."

Su Ting suddenly reached out and patted him on the shoulder.

"It's so noisy." He grinned. "But... at least you're somewhat human."

The three walked side by side, shattering pieces of floating memories.

In the distance, a black tower, constructed from countless cries, laughter, and whispers, slowly emerged—

The core of Dream Source.

Just as they were about to step into the shadow of the tower, a very soft call suddenly came from behind them:

"Lin Wan".

He looked back.

The man stood at the boundary between light and darkness, his white coat swaying gently in the void.

"What if...she really doesn't remember you?"

Lin Wan paused for a second, then smiled.

"Then I'll make her remember again."

He turned and strode forward.

Su Ting whistled from the side: "Hey, that was pretty cool of you."

"Shut up," Lin Wan said with a laugh. "Don't let your legs go weak just because you see someone who looks like your first love later."

"I never had a first love?" Su Ting sneered. "I've lived a life of unbridled freedom and love to fight."

Before the words were even finished, the tower gate burst open with a roar.

Black mist surged forth, mixed with countless whispers:

"Wanwan...come here...it's so cold, sister..."

Lin Wan gripped the star-studded pen tightly, her steps unwavering.

"Did you hear that?" he whispered. "She's calling me."

"Nonsense." Su Ting grinned, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked. "That's why we need—"

"Go and wake her up."

"Wait a minute!" Chen Mo suddenly rushed up from behind, grabbed Lin Wan's arm, and said in a trembling voice, "Are you really going to go in alone? That tower... it's sucking things in! I just saw a memory bubble float by and be swallowed up instantly! Not even a trace left!"

Lin Wan turned to look at him, her eyes still firm, but with a touch more gentleness: "Your mother has come out, you should go."

"Bullshit!" Chen Mo roared, his eyes red-rimmed. "Who do you think I came here for? Not to save my mother, but because—because I promised her! My sister…she said 'Don't look back' at the end, but I kept looking back! I looked back every single day! Now you're telling me that just because we're at the door, I should leave?"

Lin Wan was stunned.

Su Ting clicked his tongue and scratched the back of his head: "Here comes the romance again? Can't you wait until after we defeat the boss to cry?"

"I'm not crying!" Chen Mo turned to him, her voice trembling. "I'm just not reconciled! You all have obsessions, you all have people you want to save, but what about me? I spent five years searching through thirty-seven dream layers just to confirm one thing—whether my mother really still remembers my name as 'Xiao Mo'! And now you're telling me that it might be fake, a trap, a clone... What have I been through all these years? A joke?"

The wind swirls low in the sea of ​​memories, and countless bubbles tremble gently at his shouts.