Chapter 67: Key?

  The banquet finally came to an end... Yasser fell asleep quietly leaning on my shoulder after taking the medicine, Kunyue Xiao accompanied us and sat in this quiet backyard, watching the water in the pool float into the air like flying stars, and then slowly disappear into twinkling starlight.

  "Hey, Xiao... what if we sit like this until dawn tomorrow? What will be the first thing we see?"

  "The white ceiling."

  Why?

  "Because we have already entered the hospital."

  “……”?

  It was already past 1 o'clock in the middle of the night when I returned to the student union dormitory building. After sending Yasser back to his room, I went back to my own dormitory to sleep... Perhaps because I was too tired, as soon as I lay down, I fell fast asleep... Although I never used to dream before, that night... I had many, many dreams... I dreamed of the story my father used to tell me when I was very young, and I dreamed of the strange pigeon tree in our courtyard... Actually, the pigeon tree is not really called a pigeon tree, it's called a Yulan magnolia...

  In the depths of dreams, Dad stands under a pure white paulownia tree... Warm smile, kind face, flying leaves and pigeons in the white paulownia...

  "A long, long time ago, it was said that there was a monarch who had only one daughter, named "Princess White Dove", whom he loved as much as his own life. This princess had an unusual temperament, she did not love gold, silver, pearls or jade, nor would she marry into royalty or nobility, but instead she loved horseback riding and archery, pursuing a manly spirit."

  One day, the princess was hunting in the forest when she was entwined by a venomous python. At the critical moment, a young hunter named Tong Gong cut off the snake with his knife and saved the princess's life. The princess admired the young hunter's wit and bravery. They fell in love at first sight, made a vow to each other, and the princess took off her jade hairpin, broke it into two halves, and they each kept one half as a token of their promise.

  The princess returned to the palace and told her father about what had happened, asking him to marry her off to Tongtong. However, this was met with her father's firm opposition, and he sent guards to kill Tongtong in the deep mountains that very night. When the white pigeon princess found out, she cried until she almost died. On a stormy night, she removed her luxurious palace makeup, put on a simple white dress, and escaped from the tightly closed palace walls, coming to the place where Tongtong had met his demise, and began wailing loudly. She cried until her tears turned to blood, staining her white clothes red. Suddenly, a loud clap of thunder boomed, heavy rain poured down, and a small tree burst out of the ground, resembling a jade hairpin standing upright. In an instant, it grew into a towering tree. The princess, overcome with emotion, stretched out her arms and flung herself at the tree. In a flash, the rain stopped, the thunder ceased, and the crying was no longer heard. All that could be seen were countless white flowers covering the branches of the tree, their shape resembling lively and lovely little white pigeons, amidst the dazzling splendor of the sky... blooming one after another...

  He told me this beautiful story over and over again, and when he got to the part about the white flowers dancing in the sky, his originally dull eyes suddenly lit up, as if the sun was shining on the top of the paulownia tree...

  The south end of the cloud...... The south end of the cloud......?

  "Qiong Tong!!!!!!" I suddenly woke up and sat up in bed, my mind still filled with the dream I just had, a beautiful dream...

  The sunshine outside has already come in, the beauty of dawn is like a princess's gauze skirt, filled with the fragrance of an early morning...

  It's the tung tree! Yes, it's the tung tree! In our yard, on the south side, that's where the tung trees are planted! Like white clouds, piece by piece, like white clouds! It's the southern end of the sky! Daddy is at the southern end of the sky, Daddy is on the tung tree side!

  Uh... wait, wasn't I seeing Tongtong every day before? But I haven't seen Father's shadow at all! Could it be... could he be on that tree... with a rope... and then... thud?!

  After a thousand strange thoughts flashed through my mind, I immediately shook my head and muttered to myself: "Don't think about it, don't think about it!" The more I thought, the more exaggerated it became.

  But it was what Mom said last... The key is the key, the key, what exactly is the key? If the south end of the cloud is really the backyard's Tongtong tree, then what is the key used for? Unlocking? Is there a treasure chest under the Tongtong tree? Then following the old script, it would be opening the treasure chest to find a treasure map inside, but unfortunately this time the treasure is my dad... (Author: You're thinking too much!)

  After finishing my hair and changing into new clothes, I opened the door and came downstairs to see Min Ye standing in the large hall on the first floor. I walked up to him and greeted him. He smiled at me and asked, "Did you rest well yesterday?"

  "It's okay, it's okay," I replied, suddenly remembering something my mother had told me and said to him: "Yesterday, when I saw Mom, she told me where Dad was... It seemed to be the south end of some cloud... Ah, I really can't remember what Mom meant. The only thing I can think of is the Paulownia tree in our backyard... When it blooms, it's all white and looks like a cloud, but how could Dad be there? When I'm at home, I see that tree every time, but I never found anything."

  Min Ye listened to what I said, still smiling warmly, and didn't draw any conclusions from my words. He just slightly reminded me: "Maybe there's a chance there, finding the key thing might let you see your father, who knows."

  "Key! Mom said the key is the key......" For Min Ye, after what happened last time, my vigilance had almost been worn out: "I just don't know what to do with the key, and... there are so many keys in the world, which one did mom mean?!"

  "Don't think too much, just take a good rest today and go to class." Min Ye raised his head and rubbed my head, his tone still exceptionally gentle.

  I had no choice but to suppress the depression in my heart and obediently open the door to go to class.

  The timid teacher on the podium was talking non-stop, but the students below were still sleeping, reading books (extracurricular books), playing cards, and playing video games, completely ignoring him. Hmm...but as a teacher at Lan Luo Si's First Men's Aristocratic Academy, his self-directed performance skills are indeed not ordinary. Look at him, he would point to a student's name and ask them to answer questions, then before the student could react, he would say "good analysis" and continue teaching...he really has his own way of doing things...

  I stared at the blackboard, thinking about what my mom had said about the key, when I was suddenly called upon by the teacher to analyze a string of English on the board... My eyes widened as I shifted my gaze to the teacher, just about to stand up. The teacher smiled and nodded at me, saying: "I completely understand what this student means, she explained that sentence of English extremely well! (The author thought to herself: It seems like she didn't say anything at all...) 'There is a row of black and white keys on the piano.' Here, the word 'key' is used as a noun, originally meaning 'key', but in this context it refers to piano keys, which are plural, so an 's' needs to be added... And then here...

  Key, originally meant key?!

  I didn't hear anything the teacher said after that (Author: I guess you didn't listen to much of what he said before either—＿—!), all I could think about were the three letters k, e, and y! Key, key!!! Isn't Key the stage name of that kid Misono?!