XG 88 - It's just a nightmare

As it was her first time doing field training, she returned to her room without spending any time playing with her phone and went straight to sleep. Predictably, she had a nightmare where her exhaustion could not even chase it away.

Unlike reality, when facing that pervert Man Jeong in her dream, there was no sword in her hand or gun in her bag. She was chased by Man Jeong around the room, dodging his dirty fork like a scared mouse from the big, drooling wolf wanting to eat her. She was about to be caught when she finally broke away from the dream and woke up.

She had not made any noise after waking up, but the dark figure looming over her had her cry out in fright. Automatically raising her hand, she directed her fist to punch that figure but it was easily caught.

"Baby, don't be afraid. It's just a nightmare," the familiar voice of her mother stopped her panic mode.

Her tight fist relaxed and was released from Suzie Yap's hold as soon as she noticed the change in her daughter.

"I'm sorry. Did I disturb mother's sleep?" Wong Xue Guo's voice sounded calm, and thanks to the dark, the residue of the nightmare on her expression could be hidden.

"Nothing to be sorry about. I should have known you will have a nightmare on your first trip out," Suzie Yap blamed herself.

Suzie Yap rubbed Wong Xue Guo's cheek, which was colder than her hand. Her heart ached and her mind was already halfway making a U-turn in wanting to hide her daughter inside the laboratory instead of letting her go out for training.

"It's normal to have a nightmare," Wong Xue Guo assured, only to feel the gentle rubbing on her cheek paused. "It's just my first experience. Later, I will not have nightmares anymore."

Wong Xue Guo was telling a white lie, but she thinks that with more exposure, her tendency to have nightmares might really reduce. From experience, her nightmare had indeed stopped after she calmed down from the kidnapped incident when she was twelve. Although it took a little more than a year to get over it, which resulted in her spending a whole year acting like a delinquent, it does result in eliminating the nightmare. The result was achieved mostly thanks to the school counsellor, but she could heal herself mostly because she wants to get better.

Fighting zombies and being kidnapped were two different things but in a sense, they were categorized as something she fears, thus they should work the same way.

This was the earnest thought of Wong Xue Guo, who refuses to let past experiences mess with her mind.

"Then until the nightmares are gone, let mommy sleep with baby, okay?"

"Pardon?"

"Baby will feel safer if someone is with you. Let mommy help you, okay?"

Towards her mother's plea, Wong Xue Guo had almost zero defences.

It took Hercules's effort to decline her mother's offer the first time and continue to decline when asked the second time. It was only until the third time did Wong Xue Guo 'helplessly' accept it. She rightfully believed that she had done her best to decline for her parent's bonding time's sake, but since her mother had insisted three times, it would be 'ungracious' of her to decline her mother's caring offer again.

The mother and daughter were happy to spend time together, but Charles Wong was not happy that his wife was stolen. Even if he was unhappy, he could not go against his wife's wishes and spent the rest of the night alone in his bed.

The next morning, Wong Xue Guo heard that her father had gone out with Vihaan and his gang members, with the reason to help Vihaan train his ability even further. She thought nothing of it until she could feel the ground shaking slightly at a point in time.

"Earthquake?!" Someone shouted and some hurriedly grabbed the fragile items before they would fall off.

But after that, there was no more shaking and the group in charge of lookout also say there was nothing around them, except for a collapsed building far away from their land. They tacitly agreed it was the work of Vihaan's dangerous hands with how the building was crumbling downward and no longer paid much attention to it.

The group only returned after the sun had long set, with no signs of injury but coated with dust. Many did wonder if the dust was a building's remains or a human's, courtesy of Vihaan's ability. Facing everyone's judging stare, Vihaan finally cleared their suspicious that the dust was from a building. The big boss, Charles Wong, wanted him to unleash his ability on a building and destroy it as much as he could. He only succeeds in turning three entire floors into dust before succumbing to exhaustion.

Wong Xue Guo was preparing to sleep when Charles Wong knocked on her door and passed her a soft, squeezable item before she could say 'welcome back'. The gift was both unexpected and also suspicious at the same time.

As she expected, there was a reason behind the gift.

"Hug it to sleep. Use it as comfort when you have nightmares." In other words, she does not need her mother to accompany her to sleep now that she has this item with her.

Barely controlling her mixed emotions, she accepted it with a neutral expression. "Thank you, father. I will use it well."

Her obedient reply relaxed the frown on his face. With a nod, he walked away back to his room, impatient to reunite with his wife again. She silently closed her door, staring unfocused at the door before raising the gift in her hand in order to look at it properly.

It was a white rabbit, with long limbs and long ears pointing upward. It was wearing a black tuxedo vest, and she labelled it as a male rabbit. She testingly squeezed its cotton-filled body, feeling its soft fur and fluffy fillings.

When she was much younger, at the age of ten, she had also received a similar plushie from her father. Aunty Cheung firmly believes that a kid hugging a teddy bear to sleep will not have nightmares and also help them to feel safe so she had suggested it to Charles Wong as the young miss's birthday present.

Upon receiving the present, Wong Xue Guo had never put down the bear and brought it with her everywhere. She also had it with her when she got kidnapped, but it was also on that day she has never seen it again. Along with the unpleasant memories of being kidnapped, she chooses to forget it all. But occasionally, when she woke up from a nightmare, her arms would feel the aching emptiness and would then remember she used to have a teddy bear.

No one brought another teddy bear for her and she never asked for one.

Her gaze was indifferent as she groped the rabbit in her hand, treating it like a stress ball. Her fingers tangled onto a price tag, which she removed with relief that it was an ownerless, clean plushie. After having her fill in assaulting it, she tossed the rabbit onto her bed, watching it bounce once before lying on the bed in a sacrificial offering posture.

"From today on, your name will be Mr. Rabbit," Wong Xue Guo said towards the unmoving rabbit toy, resembling an unreasonable master dictating her slave's life.

Later that night, Mr. Rabbit did his job well in making her feel a little better after a nightmare.

After two days, the result of Song Jeong-Hyeok's testing was out and he was confirmed to have his gene activated. Wong Xue Guo wonder why they did not ask Miu to use her ability to check the result earlier but was not overly curious to ask about it.

"His ability is good luck? Then why isn't he rich or anything?" Wong Xue Guo asked doubtfully after knowing Grandpa Song's brief history as a middle-income car repair shop owner. She had also seen the shabby shop that would not be worthy of someone who claimed to be lucky.

Not only should he be winning lotteries but there should also be a miracle lottery that came out of nowhere to give him a bungalow or something! Unless he was a lowkey rich grandpa?

Chen Yibo laughed. "Lee Su-Hwa said he is the type to be safer with little money than lots of money on hand. He will always encounter scams when he gets more money and will never fail to be tricked by how simple-minded he is. Funny thing is, those people that tricked Uncle Song will always end up being caught by the police."

"So his money will be returned back to him, right?" Wong Xue Guo asked.

"Yes, but after learning from his past accidents, his money was kept in the bank and only to be retrieved if he needed it for living expenses or medical treatment. He has no family, so it's mostly the neighbours that look out for him."

With no family, his entire savings was left for Song Jeong-Hyeok to spend alone. With no burden, he happily lives his life, fixing cars and earning a small sum to get by.

Ash said dryly, "Perhaps he is really considered lucky to be able to hide inside the boot, still alive, and stay asleep throughout the entire spectacle."

Chen Yibo also thinks so. "Perhaps his luck is centered in another way."

Wong Xue Guo shrugged. "Anyway, it's also good for us. We need a mechanic to fix cars or any machine needed. He does not need to do the work himself and could pass his knowledge to others."

Her words were familiar to Chen Yibo because that was also said by Charles Wong earlier today.