My love game is too abstract

"Yarrow,"

"Hmm?"

"Do you know what 'The Way that can be told is not the eternal Way' means?"

"What's that?"

"It's what we heard at the Taoist temple before, that Taoist priest kept talking about the Tao, names, inaction, and stuff. I never understood it, and no one has been able to explain it to me all these years."

In the quiet bamboo forest, Peach Fox walked ahead while turning her head to look at him.

"Yarrow, do you know?"

"This is a statement from the Tao Te Ching, which speaks of the natural laws between man, heaven, and earth, emphasizing the unity of inner cultivation and external behavior. It also contains views that reveal the eternal laws of dialectical thinking and the transformation of opposites."

"Eh? Still don't understand."

"In short, it's just finding a high-sounding excuse for not wanting to work."

"Oh, I thought it was something profound," Peach Fox said casually.

After walking with her in the bamboo forest for a while, Yarrow said:

"Speaking of which, you invited me to be your Dao Companion with so much trust the first time we met?"

"Oh, when it comes to this, actually, when I saw you just now, I felt a strange sense of intimacy. That's why I wanted to chat with you. But once we started chatting, I didn't expect that we would really have a connection," Peach Fox said with a smile.

She turned her head to look at Yarrow: "So, maybe this is destiny?"

Yarrow forced a smile at her.

This also meant that Peach Fox still had an impression of him now. Indeed, this was just a dream after all. In a dream, one might lose the cognition of something, but it doesn't mean complete forgetting.

They walked for a long time until they came to a hillside.

"It's here," Peach Fox said.

Yarrow was stunned when he saw it. Although this cottage had a Chinese pastoral style, its layout was exactly the same as his previous cottage in the village.

Fence, vegetable garden, chicken coop, two-story small bamboo building,

The dream in Peach Fox's subconscious still had connections with reality.

"It's here. I sometimes come here to stay for a few days," Peach Fox said.

Peach Fox jumped over the fence and pushed the fence door open with her head.

"Come in."

Yarrow walked in. It was also obvious that there were traces of human life here. Gourd vines covered the area like a canopy, with a table underneath. A teapot was placed on the table, and the teacups were placed upside down. There was a pile of unchopped firewood in a corner of the yard, the vegetables in the vegetable garden were growing well, and there was a pool of water behind the vegetable garden.

"The environment is not bad, right?" Peach Fox said smugly.

She came to the door of the house, jumped up, and wanted to pull down the door bolt, but she couldn't do it after trying several times.

Yarrow stepped forward to help her pull down the door bolt and opened the door.

"Thank you," Peach Fox said, "It's really convenient to have someone's help. When I'm alone, I have to try several times before I can get in."

There were very few furnishings in the house, only a few tables and chairs.

"Although it's very old, it's okay for now. If I weren't accompanying you, I would be sleeping in the mountains and forests."

Peach Fox jumped onto the table, sat upright, and looked at Yarrow.

"Then, we've agreed, become Dao Companions, and then cultivate together to become immortals!"

Yarrow nodded lightly.

Peach Fox looked very happy, but his heart was extremely complicated.

What Peach Fox was encountering now should be what was said before, not recognizing her own existence in the dream, leading to getting lost in the dream. But even if he explained it to her now, there was no way to make her remember everything. The usual methods of escaping the dream were also useless.

All he could do was to catch the Nightmare lurking behind the scenes that caused all of this to happen.

But now his control over the dream was not mature enough, and the odds of encountering the Nightmare head-on were not necessarily great.

He had to think of a way.

"Yarrow? What's wrong?" Peach Fox asked, looking at him suspiciously.

"Oh, I was thinking about cultivation," Yarrow said.

"So serious? Actually, there's no need to be so anxious. Cultivation should be done slowly, and it can't be achieved overnight. Panic will only lead to a loss of Dao," Peach Fox said.

"Let's rest today and talk about cultivation tomorrow," Peach Fox said.

Yarrow didn't expect that he would actually live in the dream. At night, in the courtyard, sitting at the table under the gourd vines, looking at the starry sky, his mind was full of thoughts.

"Can you still sleep in a dream?"

"Should I just skip the night?"

He tried to change the laws of the world like Peach Fox did before, but he couldn't do it after trying for a long time.

However, he could still materialize things within the dream.

What he was thinking about now was how to make Peach Fox realize that this was a dream.

He thought for a moment, spread out his hand, and materialized a photo in his hand.

"Peach Fox."

He called out to the house, and after a while, the pink-haired little fox jumped out of the door and onto the table.

"What's wrong?"

"Look at this." He handed her the photo to look at.

It was a group photo of their whole family, taken in the city a long time ago, with her image as a human on it.

If he took this out, he wondered if it could make her remember something.

"This is—"

Peach Fox looked at the photo, tilted her head, and showed a surprised expression.

"What a realistic portrait! The painter's skill is very high to be able to paint such a picture," she said.

"Don't you have any impression of this?" He pointed to Peach Fox's human image in the photo.

"Eh? This girl is good-looking, and she's a fox demon," Peach Fox suddenly remembered something.

"Could it be that she is the Peach Fox you are looking for?"

Yarrow frowned slightly and sighed.

"Yes."

"Then I know what she looks like. I'll pay attention when I see her in the future."

"Hmm."

Seeing Yarrow looking unhappy, Peach Fox asked suspiciously; "What's wrong? Yarrow?"

"It's nothing, you go to rest first," Yarrow said.

Peach Fox tilted her head and looked at him a few times, then turned and entered the house.

Sitting in the night, Yarrow let out a long breath.

"Still can't remember?" He murmured to himself, looking at the starry sky.

"Damn Nightmare, actually took away Peach Fox's memory."

"No, I didn't take away her memory."

Someone suddenly spoke from behind, and Yarrow suddenly stood up and turned his head.

A girl with long straight gray hair, a long black dress, and bare feet stood behind him, a pair of gray eyes staring at him calmly.

The most noticeable thing was the pair of antennae sprouting from her head, like a snail's antennae, but the top was flashing with colorful light.

The moment Yarrow saw her, he confirmed her identity.

"Nightmare?"

"I prefer others to call me by my real name: Master of the Dream Realm, Evemina," she said calmly.

"I don't give a damn what master you are! Let Peach Fox wake up!"

Yarrow rushed forward angrily, wanting to grab the other person's body, but his hand passed directly through her body.

"You can't touch me. Here, I'm just a concept," Evemina said.

Yarrow was silent for a moment, his heart quickly calmed down, took two steps back, and stared coldly at the black-haired girl in front of him.

"You don't need to harbor such great malice towards me. Actually, I still want to help you," Evemina said slowly.

"What do you mean?"

"Literal meaning," she said calmly.

Yarrow took a deep breath, feeling that he had to stay awake now. This guy claimed to be the Master of the Dream Realm or something. It seemed that she was no longer a simple Nightmare, and she must have a big background. Moreover, she took the initiative to show up, and it was not clear if she had any tricks.

But her appearance also indicated that there was room for negotiation,

as well as giving himself a chance to gather intelligence.

He thought for a moment and said: "You just said that you didn't take away Peach Fox's memory?"

"Yes,"

"Then why can't she remember anything now?"

"Because this is not a dream, but her past memories, her memories in this world."