mtl008 Chapter 138 [The Asylum] The Swimming Pool in My Dream
Chapter 138 [The Asylum] The Swimming Pool in My Dream
wow——
wow——
Water splashed everywhere.
The afterglow of the setting sun shone on the water, making it sparkle.
The girl's graceful, slender arms moved across the pool, creating ripples of azure blue.
Her head would occasionally dip into the water, her two powerful legs bobbing up and down as she swam to the end of the 50-meter pool, only to turn back again.
After three or four laps like this...
Xiao Guo felt her way along the pool wall tiles, used them to sit on the platform, and shook her still dripping hair.
She felt a little cold, so she picked up a towel from the side and wiped her head haphazardly.
The entire swimming pool was silent, except for her feet, which were moving aimlessly in the water.
There was a smell of disinfectant in the air.
"It's getting dark."
Xiao Guo murmured softly.
She glanced at the setting sun outside; its orange light streamed through the swimming pool's glass windows, giving her hair a golden edge.
Suddenly, I heard a few footsteps behind me.
A dark-haired boy, wearing only a pair of oddly striped pants that were loose and baggy, had entered the room at some unknown time.
He looked about the same age as me.
Xiao Guo wondered, "Is it a swimming team from another school?"
The boy squatted down beside her, poked the water in the pool with his hand, and then smelled it near his nose.
Xiao Guo looked at him curiously, then suddenly smiled and reached out her hand to the black-haired boy, saying:
"My name is Xiaoguo."
"The No. 4 Middle School swimming team."
Her eyes blinked playfully, and a few golden water droplets fell:
"Would you like to get to know each other?"
The black-haired boy was stunned.
After a long pause, he didn't know what he was thinking, but he cautiously shook Xiao Guo's hand.
"Chen Ji".
"I understand," Xiao Guo nodded.
Before Chen Ji could speak, she turned her head and stared directly at the swimming pool in front of her.
"The water here is disinfected every day, so it's very clean."
She was laughing at Chen Ji's action of touching the water before he did so.
"Which school are you from?" Xiao Guo then looked at Chen Ji: "Are you here for training too?"
Chen Ji shook his head.
"Find someone."
"I was from Experimental Middle School...before..."
"Before?" Xiao Guo keenly caught this key word.
"You transferred schools? Wasn't that school good?"
She frowned in confusion. Experimental Middle School was one of the top high schools in Tianhai City.
Chen Ji said softly, "I dropped out of school."
He did not offer much explanation.
"Oh."
Xiao Guo looked at his pants and suddenly realized that they looked like a hospital gown.
Chen Ji must be sick.
She immediately understood, stopped the topic, and waved her hand.
"lets change a topic."
Who are you looking for at the swimming pool?
"I've been swimming here for so long and haven't seen anyone else. Are you sure you've come to the right place?"
Chen Ji smiled and said, "Perhaps."
"Have you been swimming here all this time?"
Xiao Guo nodded: "There's a competition next month, so I need to make the most of my time to practice. I'm just taking a short break now."
After saying that, she suddenly threw the towel on the ground, jumped into the pool, and began to swim forward.
Chen Ji was stunned for a moment.
Ripples spread across the water's surface, and the setting sun outside the window seemed frozen on the horizon, as if it would never fall.
He didn't speak, staring at the agile figure in the pool, lost in thought.
His eyes reflected not the afterglow of the setting sun, but a cold white light.
The lights in the swimming pool were off.
I don't know how much time passed...
After swimming several laps, Xiao Guo returned to the table.
She picked up the towel she had thrown away earlier and dried her hair. The towel was dry, as if it had never been wet.
When she looked at Chen Ji, her body suddenly trembled, and a hint of doubt appeared in her eyes.
Xiao Guo seemed unaware that anyone was there.
"I am..." She was interrupted as soon as she opened her mouth.
Chen Ji suddenly said, "I am Chen Ji, a student at Experimental Middle School."
"Oh, my name is Xiaoguo."
"The No. 4 Middle School swimming team." Xiao Guo nodded and shook hands with Chen Ji in a friendly manner.
Chen Ji smiled.
He took a package out of his pocket, peeled off the outer paper, revealing several colorful candy pills inside.
"Do you eat candy?"
Xiao Guo touched the round sugar pills that looked like Mentos, and before she even ate them, she could taste the sweetness of the icing.
"Sure, it just so happens that my mouth feels bitter."
She picked up the few sugar pills and tossed them into her mouth like a juggling act.
"Break time is over, I'll talk to you later."
Xiao Guo shook her wet hair and jumped into the pool again.
Chen Ji nodded.
wow-
wow-
In the quiet swimming pool, the girl swam gracefully in the water like a dolphin, repeatedly circling until she had swum three rounds.
Just as they were about to reach the shore...
Her head, which had been submerged in the water, suddenly shot out, and her body stopped moving.
Little Fruit floated blankly on the water.
A few seconds later, she slowly turned her head to look at the black-haired boy on the shore:
"Chen Ji".
"It's me," Chen Ji said softly.
Xiao Guo suddenly shivered.
She silently climbed out of the pool and sat down next to Chen Ji, feeling the tranquil atmosphere around her slowly dissipate. The golden light of the setting sun gradually changed until it turned into the cold white light on the ceiling.
The sky-blue countertop beneath her body also transformed into pieces of chipped white tiles.
This is no longer a swimming pool.
This is the basement of a hospital.
Only the swimming pool in front of us remains unchanged; the non-existent sunset still shines on the water's surface.
"The medicine hasn't fully taken effect yet..."
Chen Ji said softly.
Xiao Guo looked around, not asking why she was there, but asked somewhat absentmindedly:
"Were those candies... the last time you gave me them?"
“The fourth time.” Chen Ji nodded. “I’ve tried different medications before, but none of them worked.”
“Since I came in, you’ve gone through the cycle of swimming and then resting many times.”
"I want to know, why are you here?"
Chen Ji thought for a moment and said, "You are different from other patients."
"What do you mean?"
Xiao Guo looked up at the boy in front of her. In her vague memory, she seemed to have seen him in a bookstore.
Chen Ji said, "The three of them had a dream."
"The location and time are fixed only for you."
"Why are you confined here?"
Xiao Guo remained silent for a long time.
After a long while, she raised her head, her eyes filled with complex emotions, which startled Chen Ji.
"I still prefer the way you spoke before."
"Huh?" Chen Ji was stunned.
"You're acting like an old pedant, always asking why, why."
Xiao Guo complained.
"???"
Chen Ji was speechless for a moment, and he couldn't understand what Xiao Guo was thinking.
“I…” He coughed lightly, just about to change the way he asked the question, when he suddenly paused.
Xiao Guo extended her hand to him, a slight smile on her face:
"Of course there's a reason I'm here."
"Come, follow me!"
Before Chen Ji could react, he was pulled into the pool, and instantly, liquid filled his nasal cavity.
"Take a breath."
Xiao Guo mouthed something, producing a string of bubbles, and then gently lifted Chen Ji with her hand.
After he caught his breath, Xiao Guo pulled Chen Ji down again.
The azure pool in front of her shimmered with golden light, while behind her, a murky formalin solution slowly seeped into her.
Xiao Guo's legs swung, pulling Chen Ji along as they sank downwards!
The pool was deeper than anyone imagined. Xiaoguo felt her consciousness slowly being pulled away from this world, and reality was about to completely replace her delusions, just like the formaldehyde solution behind her was about to cover the golden pool in her hallucination.
But she's on the swimming team!
Xiao Guo moved very fast and maintained her speed, with the pool water still reflecting the setting sun in front of her.
Until they lost count of how deep they had dived...
Xiao Guo touched the edge of the bottom of the pool.
She took Chen Ji's hand and stroked the groove on the tile, which was shaped like a mask.
Chen Ji was startled!
"This is the 'key'."
Xiao Guo opened her mouth and spoke silently.
Her legs, too, transformed into starlight at that moment, like a mermaid in a fairy tale, disappearing into the last meter of golden pool water.
All descriptions of the swimming pool in this chapter are illusions in Xiao Guo's mind.