Love Apartment: Yifei is my junior aunt

Chapter 530 Covering one's ears while stealing a bell

Everyone stared blankly at Xiao Nanfeng in front of them, and it took them a while to connect him with the term "fantasy partner".

Is this Nanfeng's fantasy companion? His childhood self?

Although it sounds unexpected at first glance, upon closer inspection... it seems quite reasonable.

Even Zeng Xiaoxian can have an imaginary partner who is exactly the same as himself, so why can't Nanfeng use his childhood self as an imaginary partner?

Now, the fantasy partners of the five boys in the apartment have all come to light.

Mario embodies Guan Gu's innocence and naivety, Xiao Ze You Mu Feng is Zi Qiao's haven when he's lonely, Xiao Xian in a suit is Zeng Xiao Xian's twin, Zhang Wei's imaginary parents represent his longing for family and kinship, and Xiao Nan Feng... is still uncertain.

But if that's the case, Zhanbo is probably the most mentally healthy guy in the apartment.

As Xiao Nanfeng silently nodded, acknowledging his identity as a fantasy partner, a new question arose in everyone's minds.

Zeng Xiaoxian poked his imaginary partner: "Wait, when did you realize he was Nanfeng's imaginary partner?"

Xiao Xian in the suit smiled slightly: "Why do you think I could rule out the possibility that the murderer isn't Nanfeng's fantasy partner?"

Detective Guan Gu was completely bewildered: "Teacher Na Xian, how did you figure out that Xiao Nanfeng is a fantasy partner?"

"Um...it's obvious from many aspects."

He paused, then continued, "Compared to Zhang Wei's pretense of imagining his parents, Xiao Nanfeng's behavior these past two days isn't full of loopholes at all. It's practically a deliberate reminder that there's something wrong with him. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't possibly not guess it."

In fact, Xiao Nanfeng's reminder was quite obvious. For example, he stopped the three of them, the fantasy partners, which allowed everyone to wait for Zeng Xiaoxian, who was being chased.

Similarly, it was Xiao Nanfeng who ran up Wudang Mountain and accurately called out the real Youyou from among all the "Youyou".

For example, when the three imaginary companions knew nothing about this world, Xiao Nanfeng called out Zhang Yifei (Zhang Zhenren) and Tang Youyou (Tang Youyou, one of the Seven Heroes of Wudang), giving them direction on what to do next.

Xiao Nanfeng was also the first to warn them that things were not peaceful in Wudang Mountain these days, subtly warning them to be careful of the lurking murderer.

And then there's Little Red Riding Hood, the "twin" of Xiao Nanfeng's characters, whom he's been complaining about for ages. She hasn't been seen at all, probably just some excuse Xiao Nanfeng came up with to chat with the three of them.

Of course, the most obvious thing is his overly entrenched and bizarre worldview.

You should know that Xiao Nanfeng witnessed Guan Gu waking up from his dream, and even Zhang Yifei, Zeng Wuji and Tang Youyou, who had interacted with him before, all became completely different people overnight. Under such circumstances, a normal person would have some special reaction.

Even just asking them what happened, or whether they've been brainwashed, would be helpful.

As a result, Xiao Nanfeng didn't ask a single question. He simply pretended not to have seen what he had witnessed and then acted as if he didn't know anything. Throughout the whole process, he was even more of an NPC than an NPC.

For Xiaoxian in a suit, once these doubts were raised, the remaining verification process became quite simple.

For example, he said he was going to the deep dream realm to see Xiao Nanfeng's parents. Given Xiao Nanfeng's mischievous nature, he actually cooperated obediently even after being teased by Yifei for a long time.

Or perhaps, ever since arriving in the deeper layers of the dream, he's been constantly urging everyone that it's getting late. And the black lanyard that Nanfeng always wears around her neck is now on Xiao Nanfeng's father's neck in the dream…

If Xiao Xian in a suit still can't confirm that Xiao Nanfeng is actually his fantasy partner, then he's just as stupid as Zeng Xiaoxian.

"Is he deliberately trying to remind us that he has a problem?"

Mario, who was with Xiaoxian in a suit when they encountered Xiaonanfeng, scratched his head in confusion: "What did he remind me of? What's the problem? How come I don't know?"

Xiao Xian in the suit was silent for a moment, then he patted Mario on the shoulder and sighed, "Mario, I know you are Guan Gu's fantasy partner, so it's normal that you're not good at reasoning."

"Don't worry, if you ask such a stupid question again in the future, I will definitely not blame you."

"Because...it's all Guan Gu's fault!"

"What?!?!"

Guan Gu looked indignant. He desperately wanted to prove he also possessed the potential of a master detective with a brilliant deduction, but unfortunately, he couldn't.

After all, Guan Gu was the last one to wake up among the group, and he only heard about what had happened from Mario.

If even Mario didn't notice the problem, then he obviously couldn't glean any noteworthy clues from Mario's description either.

Frustrated, Guan Gu made up his mind to improve his reasoning skills and prove to everyone that he was the last great detective of the 21st century!

The others looked at Xiao Xian in the suit with puzzled expressions, seemingly also very interested in how he had guessed Xiao Nanfeng's identity.

After thinking for a moment, Xiao Xian in the suit decided to skip his tedious reasoning process.

He urged calmly, "Xiao Hei said that the deeper the dream, the greater the energy and computing power required for the Dream Device to amplify and strengthen the dream."

"With so many of us now entering the deep dream realm, it's a considerable test for both the Dream Machine's computing power and Xiao Hei's electricity bill for this month."

"I estimate that the Dream Machine will soon be overloaded. We need to hurry and solve the south wind problem first."

"Oh……"

Everyone suddenly realized why Xiao Nanfeng had been saying it was getting late.

Little South Wind nodded cutely: "That's right, so let's keep it short."

"I am Nanfeng's imaginary companion, and the father you just saw jumping off the building was the real Nanfeng..."

"Wait!" Zeng Xiaoxian suddenly interrupted Xiao Nanfeng's narration.

He rubbed his hands together mischievously, squinting his eyes and smiling ingratiatingly, "Little Nanfeng, although we need to hurry, since Nanfeng isn't here now..."

"Could we go upstairs first, sit comfortably on the sofa, and enjoy some ice-cold drinks while you explain what's going on?"

Xiao Nanfeng bit her finger and thoughtfully agreed, "That makes sense. Let's go upstairs and talk about it then."

He stood on tiptoe and pointed to the building in front of him: "Look carefully, my home is on the sixteenth floor."

"The elevator in the building is broken today, so please hurry up and climb the stairs. I'll be waiting for you at home."

"what?"

Wan Yu's eyes widened in surprise. She immediately wondered if she'd misheard: "You're waiting for us at home? How are you going to wait?"

Xiao Nanfeng is such a small person, does he really think he can climb stairs faster than everyone else?

Xiao Nanfeng's eyes narrowed slightly upon hearing this, and she smiled brightly: "Of course I will... wait like this."

He snapped his fingers as he spoke, and instantly vanished.

Before anyone could react to what was happening, they heard Xiao Nanfeng urging from above: "Hurry up and get up here! Quickly, hurry up!"

They looked up blankly and saw a small figure waving at them from the balcony on the sixteenth floor.

Yifei put her hands on her hips and cursed, "Damn it, he just snapped his fingers and went upstairs like that?"

"That brat didn't even include us!"

The group exchanged glances, and, not believing in such superstitions, they snapped their fingers repeatedly.

Everyone snapped their fingers until their hands hurt, but the result was the same as before with Xiaoxian and Wanyu: everything remained the same, and nothing happened.

"What's going on?"

Xiaoxian shouted in frustration, "Why can he teleport, but we can't?!"

Wan Yu pouted and said dejectedly, "This is Nanfeng's dream. Little Nanfeng is practically half the master of the dream, so of course he's different from us."

"So what should we do now?"

"What else can we do?" Yifei sighed, pointing helplessly at the building. "It's only the sixteenth floor, let's go!"

"Aaaaaah!!!"

Everyone looked up at the sky in anguish.

……

The scene shifts, and everyone is now sprawled out on Nanfeng's sofa.

Xiao Nanfeng, holding a can of cola and sucking on the straw, asked, "What would you like to drink?"

The crowd weakly called out, "Cola."

"Sprite."

Iced tea.

……

Xiao Nanfeng blinked and pouted, "They're all in the fridge, go get them yourselves."

"No way!"

Everyone complained bitterly; they had climbed sixteen floors to get here, and they were all exhausted.

Now, apart from Yifei and Mario, the rest of the group really have no strength left.

Especially the two Zeng Xiaoxians, with their pitifully short stamina bars, it took them half their lives just to climb up.

Youyou protested, "We're guests, after all. Aren't you going to offer us any hospitality?"

Xiao Nanfeng replied matter-of-factly, "But I'm just a child. How can I let a child serve you tea and water?"

"what!"

Everyone lay helplessly on the sofa, groaning.

"Tch, a bunch of lazybones."

Xiao Nanfeng put down her cola, made a funny face at everyone, but still ran to get drinks for everyone.

"Cool!"

The group, who were drinking their beverages, finally let out a blissful groan.

Seeing that everyone had finally gone from being half-dead to barely clinging to life, Xiao Nanfeng clapped his hands and said, "Alright, now we should hurry up and get down to business."

Everyone turned to look at Xiao Nanfeng.

"First of all, I am Nanfeng's imaginary partner, and the father you just saw who jumped off the building is the real Nanfeng. As for my mother..."

He paused for a moment before saying somewhat embarrassedly, "She is Yu Mo."

Everyone nodded in agreement, unsurprised; they had already guessed this.

There's nothing we can do about it; Yu Mo's personal style is just so distinctive.

Moreover, the fact that Yu Mo becomes Nan Feng's wife in her dream is not entirely unexpected, since everyone already knows about their affair.

On the other hand, everyone had been puzzled as to why the two of them maintained such a distant yet ambiguous relationship. Now, it seems that it was probably because of Nanfeng's illness.

They said that Nanfeng didn't seem like the indecisive person that Teacher Zeng was.

The group exchanged glances, their eyes sparkling.

It seems they can bring up their previous bet on Nanfeng and Yumo again and raise the stakes. This time, they're determined to win big!

"Feed".

Seeing everyone's winks and smirks, Xiao Nanfeng asked helplessly, "Have you guys gone off-topic again?"

"Yes, yes, yes."

Everyone quickly came to their senses, and Youyou asked curiously, "We don't see anything wrong with Yu Mo's situation, but why is Nanfeng acting like he's his own father?"

"Yeah, we thought Nanfeng's dream was..."

Yifei could only get half of her sentence out before she couldn't bring herself to say the other half.

Xiao Nanfeng, however, crossed her legs and said quite frankly, "You all just think that our dream is to go back to our childhood, to have a happy and fulfilling family, and to have a childhood without regrets or pain."

Everyone remained silent.

He paused, and seeing that no one responded, he continued nonchalantly, "Actually, your ideas are not wrong, but you have overlooked one thing."

"That means Nanfeng can never go back to the past... or rather, that past never belonged to him in the first place."

"Even if he went back to his childhood, he wouldn't be the same unruly, sarcastic, and lawless brat he used to be."

"The premise for someone to be immersed in a beautiful dream is that they will fantasize about 'what ifs,' just like your beautiful dreams, 'What if' I could be better than everyone else, 'What if' I could be the center of attention..."

"But my existence will tell Nanfeng that what was going to happen has happened, and what was going to change has changed."

"He can't imagine 'what if' because he himself is a product of 'what if'."

Xiao Xian in the suit asked, "So you mean Nanfeng never indulges in sweet dreams?"

Xiao Nanfeng nodded: "Never."

"Then why doesn't he want to wake up from his dream?"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Nanfeng instantly fell silent, becoming like a silent reef standing amidst raging waves.

After a long while, Xiao Nanfeng cupped her face in her hands and muttered a complaint.

"Because he is the most outrageous, arrogant, and unreasonable megalomaniac in the world!"

"He was so arrogant that he wanted to give me a happy and fulfilling childhood, and wanted to take on the role of parents all by himself and accompany me as I grew up."

"He doesn't want to wake up not because he's lost in a beautiful dream, but because he wants me to be lost in a beautiful dream."

Xiao Nanfeng became more and more agitated and angry as he spoke: "He himself knows that the past cannot be changed, but he still hopes that I will not be affected by the past."

"He's simply, simply, simply the biggest idiot in the world!"

Upon hearing this, everyone fell even more silent, never expecting that this was the truth behind Nanfeng's unwillingness to wake up.

It's certainly heartbreaking to see someone who can only make up for regrets and seek the past in their dreams, but it's even more speechless to see someone who places themselves in the position of a victim even in their dreams.

For some reason, they suddenly remembered the beautiful dreams they had in the dream world.

When you're immersed in a beautiful dream, it's because someone is secretly weaving that dream for you.

Suddenly, Yifei raised an eyebrow and asked with a strange expression.

"So, Nanfeng has been in a state of wakefulness the whole time?"

"Um."

"So..." Yifei said through gritted teeth, "he just deliberately took advantage of us, making us call him 'brother'?"

"Hmm?" Everyone's expressions turned serious, and they all sat up straight.

It should be noted that apart from Wanyu being a little younger than Nanfeng, everyone else here is at least one or two years older than Nanfeng.

Not to mention that everyone was already feeling like they were getting a great deal by not having to call Nanfeng "uncle" and was calling him "brother".

So, they've been tricked by Nanfeng again?

Xiao Nanfeng blinked, then covered his mouth and chuckled mischievously, "I think that's how it is."

They exchanged glances, rubbed their hands together, and growled through gritted teeth.

"south wind!!!"

In the supermarket, Nanfeng, who was accompanying Yumo to buy groceries, suddenly sneezed.

"What's wrong?" Yu Mo asked from the side.

Nanfeng rubbed her nose: "It's nothing, someone must be thinking about me."

"oh."

Yu Mo nodded and continued to clumsily select ingredients from the supermarket.

"Honey, there's something I want to ask you."

"What is it?"

"Does either of us know how to cook?"

"Oh dear, I forgot about that."

Yu Mo slapped her forehead in annoyance, then looked at Nan Feng with dissatisfaction: "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"Because I forgot too."

Nanfeng, whose memory was equally poor, said it as a matter of course.

Here it comes!

I originally wanted to stop at Dreamweaver, but that would have made me feel a bit down.

The two chapters of the Dream Chapter were actually intended to use absurd, bizarre, and humorous plots to tone down the rather depressing atmosphere in the later stages, as well as the final transformation, but perhaps the writing skills were still lacking.

(End of this chapter)