Chapter 1252: Sweet Life After Marriage
Even though Bohemia knew entering a pocket dimension might be necessary to fetch water, she couldn't help being disappointed, and her shoulders slumped.
"I haven't even set foot in the house. How did this damn place get activated?" she grumbled, ascending the steps and entering the building. With her image already captured in the photographs, avoiding the house or circumventing it seemed futile. She might as well go inside and see what was causing this.
Yuan Xiangxi trailed her, eyeing the photographs. Brushing his hair aside to reveal a delicate jawline and deer-like eyes, he said, "Look, this was my hairstyle at our wedding."
"Nobody in their right mind would marry you," Bohemia said.
As she entered the corridor, Yuan Xiangxi paused at the entrance, meticulously examining each photograph. "Seems our marital life was quite delightful," he said, a hint of satisfaction in his tone. "I always said I'd make a fine husband if I survived. Oh, and here's our firstborn."
Bohemia's expression darkened. She strode back to his side, incredulous. "Who the hell would... Do you have a few screws loose?"
A floorboard made a long and convoluted noise in the distance. Glancing at the photograph, Bohemia indeed saw herself cradling a newborn. Her irritation mounting, she couldn't help but say, "How did I end up with a child? And how do you know this is the first?"
"The dates and labels are a giveaway," her husband pointed out with patience.
"I can see that myself," Bohemia said, rifling through the photographs. She stumbled upon a caption: "December 15, 1974, Birth of Baby Bao."
Married in 1973 and parents by 1974. Bohemia scanned the photos, revealing that the couple, seemingly idle, had produced two more children. In one snapshot, they each cradled a child with Baby Bao standing before them, clutching a toy car, her gaze fixed on the camera.
"Why bother having children when you can't even do what you want and are stuck in one place?" she grumbled.
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To her, marrying and bearing children was an unfathomable concept. What was the purpose of raising them if, once grown, they'd leave? They weren't like Puppeteer's puppets, to be assigned tasks at will. What joy was there in being anchored to one place, unable to do what you wanted?
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Yuan Xiangxi, engrossed in the photographs strewn across the round table and adorning the walls, discovered more photos of Baby Bao. After putting the photos back, he lingered on the stairs, deep in thought, before softly saying, "I want to find our photo album."
"You mean their photo album," Bohemia said, too hungry to argue properly. "Are you fixated on this now?"
"Our faces are in the photos, narrating this family's story," he said. "This lore could be key to solving this pocket dimension."
For once, he wasn't lost in his thoughts, which was unusual enough to catch Bohemia off guard. Moreover, Yuan Xiangxi's slight frown, giving him the appearance of a lost little animal, made it difficult for her to deny his requests. "Fine, go look for it. Meanwhile, I'll try to find a way out."
The likelihood of easily finding her way back to the main road was slim, but wasn't it worth a shot?
"You're too optimistic," he said.
"Mind your own business."
Outside, it remained a sunny afternoon, the sunlight as intense as ever. Tree shadows lay still on the ground, with only the clouds above moving slowly, their forms shifting like ink dispersing in water under the bright sun. Amid such pleasant weather, she was stuck pretending to be part of a couple with this ghost, enduring hunger to get through the pocket dimension when there might be fish in the pond.
As she neared the pond, she peered into the water, searching for any signs of fish in its murky depths. Perhaps too engrossed in her search, she looked up only to find herself back at the house, unaware of how she had returned.
"Back already?" Yuan Xiangxi called out from the living room as she entered.
"Ghost Wall," Bohemia said in frustration. "The pond's as far as we can go; we're trapped." This likely meant they were indeed in a pocket dimension, one not yet fully evolved into a doomsday. Yuan Xiangxi, being somewhat of an apparition himself, might have a chance to escape, but she wasn't about to remind him. If she was stuck, he'd have to stay and assist in breaking free from this dimension.
The old house groaned, and Yuan Xiangxi peeked out from the living room door, scanning the area as if searching for something before turning to her. "Should we search for the photo album together?"
"Why would I want to sift through pictures of your so-called married life?" Bohemia said, dragging herself up upstairs. "I'm going to check the second floor for any clues."
This pocket dimension was lazy, just like the afternoon itself. It seemed content with just capturing their images in photos, not really doing much else. Walking by the window, with the sunlight pouring in, Bohemia didn't feel any pressure. Instead, she relaxed, letting the sun's warmth soak into her.
The master bedroom was tidy, albeit dusty. It was clear of personal clutter like combs on tables or shirts on chairs, as if it had been cleaned up for visitors. Bohemia didn't care. She started rummaging through drawers and cabinets, and in the midst of flying clothes, quickly made a mess of the bedroom.
In a dresser drawer, she found a thick diary that looked important.
'Great, more digging through stuff.'
Bohemia sat down with the diary, leaning against the bed in the sunlight. The reddish diary's cover was faded, and the light breeze felt nice. She began to read, recognizing the handwriting as similar to her own, which was weirdly captivating.
"I'm so happy," the diary read. "Waking up next to the person I love the most... Nothing beats it. Marriage is surprisingly blissful."
Bohemia couldn't help but snort. 'As if anything tops my love for roasted chicken.'
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"I'm too shy; this morning he suddenly hugged me in the bathroom, which scared me. We're already married, but my heart still flutters when I see his face in the mirror... I really can't express how much I love him. If I were to say it out loud, I'd be too embarrassed!"
'Yuan Xiangxi is quite good-looking,' Bohemia reluctantly thought.
The next few pages were filled with the same infatuating confessions. The lady of the house wrote only a little each time, at most a few lines, but she wrote every few days. The rosy sweetness almost permeated the air.
She flipped through more of these love notes, stopping at a brief entry: "I'm pregnant." Just that, plain and simple. She checked the dates and realized these were all written in early 1974, just nine months before Baby Bao was born.
The idea of being pregnant with the child of someone you deeply cared about struck a chord with Bohemia. Was this what happiness looked like before doomsday, even better than finding Special Items or supplies?
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She was about to keep reading when Yuan Xiangxi's voice called out, "Are you in the bedroom?"
Bohemia's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly hid the diary under the sheets.
"What's up?" she said, smoothing her hair down. Realizing the mess she'd made, she rushed out, closing the door behind her, and nearly ran into Yuan Xiangxi on the stairs.
The sunlight streaming through the window seemed to turn his almost translucent skin into a prism, scattering light. Bright, cheerful dust motes floated in the air, reminiscent of tiny, singing elves.
No wonder Gardenia had held onto his memory until her final days.
"You look... off," Yuan Xiangxi said, silencing the imaginary chorus. "As if you've been caught red-handed."
"Quit the gibberish. What's up?"
"I found the photo albums," he said, looking quite proud. "Loads of them. Were these folks obsessed with photography, or what?... I've got to admit, I do look sharp in them."
"Get to the point!"
Yuan Xiangxi tucked his hair back, inadvertently drawing attention to his delicate pink earlobe, which made a person want to gently bite it. "It's just that there aren't many photos of Baby Bao."
"And?"
"I counted over twenty albums—can you believe it? This family filled up more than twenty albums in under a decade!" He paused, noticing Bohemia's expression, and quickly waved his hand. "But here's the thing... The oldest photo of Baby Bao out there only shows her at four or five. It's a bit strange. Their third kid came seven years into the marriage, a sign things were going well. So why..."
"Spit it out already," Bohemia said, feeling an unexplained twinge of guilt as she descended the stairs.
"Well, I thought maybe there wasn't enough room for Baby Bao's photos on display, that they'd be in the albums. But after flipping through so many, memorizing even the mole on your neck..."
"Keep your eyes on the ball!" A flush crept up Bohemia's cheeks. "What's this got to do with Baby Bao?"
"It's odd. Your face pops up on nearly every page, but snapshots of Baby Bao past the age of five are rare... And past six, they vanish altogether." Yuan Xiangxi pondered aloud, "Could it be that she died at the age of six?"
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