Chinese Superman

Chapter 180 Bizarre Nightmare

"I only hit one side this morning, so it was asymmetrical. It's fine now," Qiao Chunxia said coldly as she released her grip.

That's Qiao Chunxia's personality.

She only chose to be tolerant because her mother was in a coma in the hospital; she was not actually cowardly.

Qiao Chunxia is actually very strong inside.

If you treat me with respect, I will treat you with even greater respect.

If you offend me, I will repay you tenfold!

"Damn! You dare to lay a hand on me?!"

Seeing this, Brother Biao cursed and punched Qiao Chunxia in the back of the head!

The other three boys also pounced on him at the same time!

Qiao Chunxia's eyes narrowed, and she instantly unleashed the Bagua Swimming Dragon Step.

After the life-and-death battles in the underground city and Xia Xinghan's training, her combat awareness and footwork skills are now completely different from before!

She glided like a fish, narrowly avoiding the blond-haired man's fist. At the same time, she ducked and slammed her elbow backward, hitting another boy who was lunging at her from the side right in the stomach!

A powerful elbow strike!

"Ugh!"

The boy screamed and crouched down, clutching his stomach.

Qiao Chunxia didn't stop. Using the recoil from the impact, she spun around to avoid another person's kick. She swung her schoolbag and slammed it into the third person's shoulder with a whoosh, making him stagger.

The movements were executed in one smooth motion. Although there was still some awkwardness, the connection between the moves and the exertion of force were already quite impressive!

Brother Biao was taken aback by the girl's agility and fighting skills. He paused for a moment, then flew into a rage, pulling a switchblade from his waist and snapping the blade open. He snarled, "Damn it, a top student from the martial arts program? I'll smear your face!"

Upon seeing the knife, Qiao Chunxia's heart tightened, but Xia Xinghan's voice immediately rang out: "Don't panic. Short weapons require more footwork and distance control. Remember what I taught you: get close and disarm!"

"brush"

A flash of cold light, and the blond-haired man thrust his knife forward.

Qiao Chunxia focused her mind and seized the opportunity. She changed her footwork, advancing instead of retreating. As she sidestepped the blade, her left hand shot out like a snake, precisely grabbing the wrist of the blond-haired man holding the knife and twisting it forcefully!

At the same time, he cleaved his right palm into a knife shape and slashed hard at the inside of his elbow joint!

"Click"

A slight misaligned sound.

"ah"

The blond-haired man screamed in pain as the switchblade slipped from his hand and fell to the ground.

Qiao Chunxia kicked him in the side of the knee, and the blond-haired man immediately screamed and fell to his knees, clutching his arms and knees and wailing.

The remaining boy, who had been hit on the shoulder by the backpack, was terrified when he saw two or three of his companions fall down in the blink of an eye, and when he saw Qiao Chunxia's cold gaze sweep over him. He turned and ran away.

Liu Qian covered her face, looking at the blond-haired men lying on the ground groaning, then at Qiao Chunxia walking towards her step by step. All the fierceness on her face vanished, replaced by boundless fear. Her legs went weak, and she retreated repeatedly, crying out, "You—you stay away! I was wrong! Qiao Chunxia! I was wrong! I'll never do it again!"

"Sister Qiao, Sister Qiao! I was really wrong!"

Qiao Chunxia stopped in front of her, looked down at her, and slowly said, "Liu Qian, I have no grudge against you. But you have provoked me time and time again. This morning at school, I gave you some face, albeit only half. Now, you've brought this upon yourself."

She raised her hand.

Liu Qian was so frightened that she closed her eyes and trembled all over.

However, the expected slap did not fall.

Qiao Chunxia simply tapped her still-swollen cheek with her finger, her voice icy: "This is the last warning."

If I hear even half a rumor about me again, or if you dare to send someone to ambush me again —

She paused, her tone chilling: "I wouldn't mind if you actually went to keep Li Yaozong company. I heard his death was—quite creative."

Liu Qian suddenly opened her eyes, her pupils contracted sharply, and she instantly remembered the rumors about Li Yaozong's tragic death that had been circulating at school today. Combined with Qiao Chunxia's ruthless skills and cold eyes at that moment, a chill ran from the soles of her feet straight to the top of her head!

The eyes of someone who has killed are different.

She had no doubt that Qiao Chunxia really dared to do it!

"No—I won't dare again! I'll never dare again! I swear!" Liu Qian cried, her words incoherent.

Qiao Chunxia stopped looking at her, picked up her schoolbag, dusted it off, put it on, and calmly left.

The setting sun cast a long shadow of her.

Not far from the school gate, several students who witnessed the whole thing were stunned, and then excitedly began to discuss it. It was foreseeable that the news of Qiao Chunxia's "instant fame" would soon spread throughout the school.

However, Qiao Chunxia herself was unaware that she had taken a long leave of absence from school as instructed by Xia Xinghan.

Walking home, Qiao Chunxia felt her heart pounding and her blood boiling.

In fact, Qiao Chunxia's talent was not bad. No. 2 Middle School was a key high school in Ancheng. It was only because her father died unexpectedly in the underground city three years ago that she became depressed and her martial arts progress plummeted.

When faced with a problem, remember one word: Endure!

However, martial arts are not the way of ninjutsu, and the invincible benevolent are not the invincible ninja. Once the spirit of striving for progress is broken, the practice of martial arts will be twice as difficult and half as effective.

That's why Xia Xinghan intervened, using Liu Qian to temper Qiao Chunxia's sharpness.

Otherwise, Xia Xinghan wouldn't even give a second glance to a delinquent woman who only knows how to spread rumors and have children behind people's backs.

"How do you feel?" Xia Xinghan asked with a smile.

"It's a great relief, like all the pent-up emotions in my heart have been released. I have an urge to unleash my full power," Qiao Chunxia answered honestly, a genuine, radiant smile spreading across her face. "Thank you, Grandpa."

"The road ahead is long, keep up the good work."

"Since you've taken leave, let's use the next 100 days wisely and go all out to prepare for the college entrance examination!" Xia Xinghan's voice became serious.

At this point, he changed the subject: "Before that, there is one more thing to do."

"What's wrong?" Qiao Chunxia asked curiously.

"Save your mother."

Qiao Chunxia stopped abruptly, her heart pounding: "You—how did you know—no, that's not important, can you really save my mother?"

Xia Xinghan smiled and said, "Of course."

"If I can't save them, then I'm afraid there's no one else in the world who can."

"You can be saved! You can be saved! You're the most amazing person I know! I—I'll go to the hospital right now!"

Qiao Chunxia didn't know how to describe her feelings at this moment. It was like winning the lottery when she was at her poorest and most destitute. Her heart was so excited that it felt like it was going to jump out of her chest.

All she wants now is to grow wings and fly to the hospital.

Without hesitation, the girl ran as fast as she could to the ward.

"Hey, running is prohibited in the hospital!"

A nurse saw a blurry figure rush down the stairs into the corridor and quickly called out to stop it, but the person had already passed by and came to an abrupt stop at the door of a ward.

She leaned against the door frame to catch her breath, then opened the window as usual to let in some fresh air and dispel the smell of disinfectant in the ward before sitting down on the edge of the bed and holding her mother's hands in her own.

The mother lay quietly, her face pale.

All the tests conducted by the instruments beside the hospital bed showed that the vital signs were all normal.

But—the person just won't wake up!

"Grandpa Ring, what should I do?" Qiao Chunxia took a deep breath, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart, and asked nervously.

"Relax, just lie on the bed and sleep. I'll guide you into a dream," Xia Xinghan said.

"call----"

"Mom, I've come to see you."

Qiao Chunxia exhaled a breath of stale air, lay down on the hospital bedding, and tried to fall asleep.

Actually, it doesn't matter if she can't sleep.

Xia Xinghan directly used the Dream Butterfly technique to create the Pillow Moon, weaving a dream of wealth and glory, and Qiao Chunxia unknowingly fell into a dream.

A blue butterfly, accompanied by another butterfly, fluttered and danced, emerging from between Qiao Chunxia's eyebrows and then disappearing into the forehead of Qiao Chunxia's mother.

Qiao Chunxia quickly regained consciousness.

She felt herself falling, passing through a chaotic darkness.

In the darkness, countless fragments of memory fluttered by—

My mother's smiling face, the steam from the hot soup, my father's departing figure—

Finally, at the end of the darkness, a blinding light engulfed everything.

When her vision cleared, Qiao Chunxia was standing in the stairwell of the old residential building.

A little girl, about six or seven years old, with pigtails, was skipping downstairs.

"Spring and summer, slow down."

Another man followed behind the girl with pigtails, carrying a red cartoon backpack, and brushed past Qiao Chunxia.

"!?!"

He is a 32-year-old father.

She looked much younger than she did in the portrait.

Qiao Chunxia's throat tightened, and before she could call out, her father and her childhood self disappeared around the corner of the stairs.

"This is my home from ten years ago —"

Qiao Chunxia hesitated for a moment and did not chase after them. She wanted to try to find the sword by marking the boat, but it was too late.

The important thing is to get down to business.

Following her somewhat hazy memory, she searched for the location of her home and then stopped in front of that familiar green iron gate.

She raised her hand, trembling slightly, but ultimately kowtowed.

The door opened.

"Qiao Feng, did you forget something?"

A young woman wearing an apron appeared behind the door, holding a bunch of vegetables still wet with water droplets.

She thought it was the father and daughter who had just left, but when she looked up and saw Qiao Chunxia, ​​she froze, her eyes widened, and the vegetables in her hand slipped to the ground.

"—Spring——Spring and Summer?" The woman's voice was very soft, trembling with disbelief.

Qiao Chunxia was also stunned.

She never expected that her mother would recognize her ten years later at first glance.

A surge of bittersweet emotion welled up in her throat: "Mom—"

"This is truly my spring and summer!"

Lin Xiuyun's eyes instantly reddened. She suddenly reached out, as if to touch Qiao Chunxia's face, but stopped in mid-air, as if afraid of shattering this dream.

"You've grown so much—"

"So this is what you've become. I couldn't have imagined it, but seeing you makes it clear."

"You've lost weight."

"Quick, come in, don't stand at the door."

"7

Qiao Chunxia was pulled into the room by her incoherent mother.

The room was exactly as I remembered it: a sofa cover with small floral prints, a wine cabinet with slightly chipped paint, and pots of garlic and chives on the windowsill.

Lin Xiuyun hurriedly pressed her into a chair, then turned and walked towards the kitchen: "Are you hungry? Mom will cook for you, your favorite sweet and sour pork ribs, and also—"

"Mom," Qiao Chunxia called out after looking around the room.

Lin Xiuyun paused for a moment.

"This isn't true," Qiao Chunxia said bluntly.

Her voice was exceptionally clear in the quiet room.

"This is your dream. Mom, ten years ago you were attacked by the [Dream Demon] and dragged into the depths of the dream. In reality—you've been lying in the hospital ever since."

Lin Xiuyun slowly turned around.

Her face did not show the shock or confusion that Qiao Chunxia had expected, but rather a deep, almost sorrowful calm.

"I know," she said softly. "I've always known."

This time, it was Qiao Chunxia's turn to be stunned.

knowledge?

What's going on?

"I can always hear it."

"While I'm sleeping."

"It's really unbelievable, but I can sleep in my dreams, and when I sleep, I can hear a familiar yet unfamiliar voice talking and talking."

Lin Xiuyun walked back to the table and sat down, her gaze falling on Qiao Chunxia's face, gentle yet complex.

"I know, that's your voice, it's my daughter speaking."

"Every time you come to the hospital, you sit next to me and talk, read your report card, complain about how hard cultivation is, and secretly shed tears—I hear it all. But I can't wake up and I can't answer you."

"Upon waking, I was still in a dream."

"As time went on, I really couldn't distinguish between dreams and reality anymore. If it weren't for you, if you hadn't come to visit me every day and talked to me, I would have been lost in the dream long ago."

Qiao Chunxia's breathing caught in her throat.

Those days and nights she spent talking to her hospital bedside, those self-talks she thought would never get a response—her mother knew it all!

We heard it all!

"So everything here," she looked around the lifelike "home," "was constructed by you based on fragments you overheard—?"

"I need a place to store" all the things you told me. Lin Xiuyun smiled bitterly. "You've grown up, you're in high school, your martial arts have improved—I have to create a world of growth for you in my mind so that I can feel that I haven't completely missed out. But—I haven't seen it with my own eyes, so I can't imagine it. Therefore, in my dreams, it's still you from ten years ago, and the home from ten years ago."

Her fingers unconsciously traced the edge of the old tablecloth: "But I didn't expect—you would come in."

Qiao Chunxia held her mother's hand: "I've come to take you back."

Lin Xiuyun, however, grabbed her daughter's wrist tightly with surprising force.

A sudden surge of intense fear welled up in her eyes: "You shouldn't have come, Chunxia. I want to see you, every single day, but I'm even more afraid that you'll come in because if you do, he won't let you leave."

"Him?" Qiao Chunxia felt a chill run down her spine.

"He's here!"

Just then, extremely faint, wet footsteps came from the doorway.

Qiao Chunxia turned around abruptly.

A man stood silently outside the open door, unnoticed by anyone.

His whole body looked as if he had been soaking in water for a long time; his skin was an unnaturally pale and swollen, constantly dripping sticky, dark water droplets that accumulated in a small puddle on the ground at the doorway.

His face was blurry, as if shrouded in a constantly flowing black mist, with only a pair of empty eyes staring straight at the two people inside the room.

A cold, damp, and eerie atmosphere instantly filled the air.

Lin Xiuyun suddenly stood up, shielding Qiao Chunxia behind her, her voice shrill with fear: "Go! Chunxia, ​​close your eyes, think about waking up!"