“To you...has he always been just a pawn like me?”
“The world is a chessboard, and only those with sufficient qualifications can become chess players. There are very few people in this world who can play chess with me, very few.”
“He was trained by you, will he have the chance to sit across from you...?”
"It's possible...! But it's only possible... He's still weak now and doesn't know his future or return date."
...What about me? Can I also have the opportunity to sit across from you?'
This sentence just appeared in her mind for a moment and was not spoken out.
But when she suddenly raised her head, she found that the person opposite was staring at her and smiling...I don't know whether it was sarcasm or tolerance.
—
Click, the clock swings.
Mandy Gonzalez woke up from her bed.
She almost jumped up in fright. The thick quilt was thrown to the ground, and the quilt under her body was stained with sweat.
There was silence in the dark bedroom, and the blurry shadows in the vision gradually overlapped with reality.
Through the moonlight outside the window, you can vaguely see that the black underwear on Mandy Gonzalez is stuck to her curvy body, and the stretched lines of her lower abdomen without a trace of fat are like the outline of a beauty in the hands of a painter.
Lines, highlights on stone sculptures.
But now in the middle of the night, this beautiful and alluring scene is unfortunately only Mandy Gonzalez can appreciate it. She stared blankly at the floor-length mirror in front of the wall beside the bed.
Looking at herself on the bed in the reflection, her face, which is extremely beautiful even without makeup, is full of exhaustion and confusion.
It’s like waking up from a big dream after a thousand years of dreaming.
Suddenly there was the sound of dogs barking on the street outside the window, and there was the sound of water and wind in the distance.
Mandy turned to look out the bedroom window at the small town of Carmel where several street lamps were burning. The rippling lake water occasionally cast a few shadows of the moon, which were scattered on the shore, leaving little glows of the moonlight.
On the stone steps.
The whole town of Carmel seemed to be asleep, as quiet as death.
“Tsk.” Mandy smacked her tongue lightly and made a small tut sound. She slowly lowered her head and rubbed her red eyes.
She actually had a nightmare...
—
Carmel town, Lakeview area, Gonzalez home.
In the bedroom where the lamp was lit, the shower door was opened. Mandy, wrapped in a bathrobe, wiped her hair and walked out. She had warm cotton slippers on her feet and steam was rising all over her body.
.
The warm yellow light of the desk lamp shone on her body, making her feel like a freshly cooked lobster or crab... It was a strange association, but probably every boy at Carmel University was shocked when he saw her like this.
I wouldn't mind unwrapping the hot towel wrapped in lobster to have a taste.
But they can only think about it, there are so many people in school who have this kind of idea about Mandy, no less, no more than one.
Mandy walked in her bedroom, with colorful posters posted everywhere on the walls around her. They were all out-of-print posters and photos, A Nightmare on Elm Street premiere posters, Marlon Brando stills, and James Dean's signature.
Pictures... Singers, movie stars, movie posters, and rare and valuable things are almost covered like puzzle pieces on the bed and even the walls along the side.
There is a silver radio on the bedside table, a black sticker with the word "freedom" on the desk lamp, and an expensive mountain bike hanging upside down beside the bed. The disc, flywheel, and chain are all spotless and thoroughly maintained.
The whole room is filled with the atmosphere of young people in the United States in the 1980s.
…Eh? Why do you suddenly think like this? Isn’t it 1984 now?
Mandy was stunned for a moment when she walked to the bed. She couldn't think of a reason. She tilted her head and rubbed her hair and walked to the bed. She stood on tiptoe with the heels of her cotton slippers and turned around. She closed her eyes and let gravity pull her away.
He pulled himself onto the bed, and his slippers flew high and fell to the ground, overlapping each other.
The new sheets on the bed were dented by the girl. The smell of sunlight that had been used on the quilt during the day was all around her, and a sense of comfort immediately enveloped her.
Mandy breathed out, opened her eyes, and felt that she was still living in reality.
The wall clock in the bedroom showed that it was 3:00 in the middle of the night. It was a completely silent time. Every household was asleep in their dreams. Mandy should be the same, but she woke up early because of a nightmare.
After lying down for a while, she suddenly stood up again, and turned on the TV on the table in the corner. The TV showed a picture behind the noise, and there was an aerobics instruction video on it. The background music was very dynamic, and the fitness instructor inside was waving.
While sweating, he bounced and showed off his biceps.
Mandy walked to the desk in front of the bed and pulled up a chair and sat down. On it was the homework she had written before going to bed last night. The handwriting was neat and correct.
As the top star honors student at Carmel University, her grades in high school before college were always number one, and only the word 'A+' would always appear on her transcript. After entering Carmel University, she did her best.
She has always maintained this excellence. No matter what she does, she does her best without reservation.
So in the eyes of everyone, Mandy Gonzalez is a perfect girl, smart, hard-working, sexy and beautiful, and always up to date with trends. In the eyes of normal neighbors, she is a perfect girl.
The child of the family, the champion of the intercontinental chess competition, the winner of a full high school scholarship, the mayor's niece...
And in school, as a freshman, she was almost the prom queen-level leader of the Carmel University girls' group, almost like the member of the devil-shaped group in "Mean Girls"...
...mean girl?
What's that?
Mandy was about to open the diary when her head tilted again and she frowned. In the end, she could only sniffle and ignore the sudden thought.
Open the black diary, which records the trivial things in Mandy's life. There is not much new news in the town of Carmel, so most of the diary contains her narration and complaints about daily life.
For example, there aren't many handsome guys among the freshmen who can fight, and the girls are all brainless people who only want to shorten their school uniforms to attract boys. Even the few sisters she gets along with seem so vulgar, thinking about it every day.
Driving a convertible sports car owned by a junior in college, or attending a party of a certain private group.
But recently, these daily complaints rarely appear in the diary. Instead, there are more inexplicable things... such as Mandy's nightmare last night.
Mixed race...Mountaintop Academy...Yan Ling...what else is there?
Mandy bit her pen and stared at the notebook silently, trying to recall the fragmented scenes in the nightmare. She seemed to remember that she was studying in an aristocratic school in the dream?
She has been immersed in this bizarre dream recently. In the past few days, these dreams have been playing in her head like a TV series. In the dream, she seems to be experiencing another ordinary life, becoming another person different from reality.
The man in it...is a terrible man!
She remembered that in the dream, the environment of the university she attended seemed much better than Carmel University in reality. There were sycamore trees and maple leaves everywhere... Oh, yes! The season in the dream was
Autumn! She was still wearing the autumn uniform of that college.
What's the name of that college... What's stuck? It seems to be Casa... Casale Academy?
At Casar College, I seem to be a junior or senior. I am doing very poorly. I am at the bottom of my class in my homework. I don't pay attention in class and I am often picked up and punished by professors.
In the dream, she seemed to have given up on herself, living every day willingly, overeating and paying no attention to weight management. No boy in the school liked her. She was basically a transparent person...and the most terrifying thing was that she had given up on herself.
She actually had a belly in her dream!
small! belly! child!
Mandy took a long breath and looked down at her curves, which she couldn't fault, and angrily complained about this unrealistic dream in her diary. How could someone like her who cherishes her figure to the extreme have a small belly? Moreover,
Studying for her is as easy as eating and drinking. She can easily write papers and get an 'A+' without reviewing or answering questions. In her dream, she is actually a scumbag! A scumbag!
It’s so outrageous...
Mandy vented in her diary and recorded all the things she thought were unreasonable. She felt that the self in her dream was a negative version of her true self. She couldn't believe what she was about to encounter.
What could have caused her to degenerate to the point where she was like a little loser like herself in the dream... There couldn't really be a loser version of Mandy Gonzalez in some parallel world, right?
Mandy thought about that scene for a while and felt it was quite nonsense. She couldn't help laughing and shaking her head while lying on the chair. That kind of life was really far away from her. How could a truly talented and capable person be left in the dust?
She has fallen to that point. She, Mandy Gonzalez, is a beautiful girl in the true sense of the word. No matter where she goes, she is the focus of the spotlight... This is the most real her!
She kept writing and complaining. Finally, she was tired of writing and turned her pen. The warm yellow light of the desk lamp cast her shadow diagonally on the ceiling of the bedroom.
She stared blankly at the pile of frenzied vents scrawled on the notebook, turning the pages at random to push away these negative emotions. On a brand new page, she was ready to continue writing something, but when she started writing, she still
paused.
Even though it was an unimaginable nightmare, she somehow still remembered some other details in the dream, some... interesting details that were beyond her acceptance?
Mandy squeezed the pen, and the movement of writing became a little gentler, no longer so arrogant.
For example, in the dream she was also a chess master, and just like her in reality, she basically would not lose to anyone... But in fact, she still lost to one person in the dream, but she already remembered who it was.
I’m not sure. They say dreams are reflections of reality. Maybe in reality, she was always afraid of losing to others, so she dreamed that she lost, right?
For example, in the dream, she seemed to have a good best friend, a foreign girl with black hair, who was also very beautiful and as smart as her. During the conversation, she was even guided by her topic.
Go, take care of her like an older sister... It's great, but it's a pity that in reality, everyone is surrounding her, and she doesn't have any 'sister' to rely on.
For example, in her dream, she had a shady boss who kept asking her to run here and there. Although she couldn’t remember exactly what she was doing, the salary she received was quite high. She kept everything in the bank and just wanted to
I want to buy a nice house by the sea one day and invite the people I like to live with me.
Mandy couldn't help laughing while writing, as if she was watching a ridiculous movie, and the director of this movie was actually herself.
If it is a movie, in which she is the heroine... Although it is a bit weak, she must be the heroine (she is very confident), but who is the hero? If I want to save money to buy a movie in my dream
A big house, so who does she want to invite to live in the house?
The tip of the pen poked gently on the notebook, Mandy tilted her head and looked out the window at the quiet and deserted street, thinking about some questions.
In the dream, the handsome principal with white hair looks like a young man chewing young grass?... No, I have never been good at this, and there is no way I am a young man!
That blond-haired rich fellow in the sophomore year?...Tsk, even though the blond-haired guy in the dream is very handsome and is the president of the student union and so on, she doesn't like this. What bothers her the most is that she thinks too highly of herself.
A man, even though he is indeed very tall... He seems to be close to 1.8 meters and 1.9 meters?
My best friend in the dream? The Chinese girl we went to drink coffee and milk tea with?...No, no, I am not a lesbian, nor can I be a closeted girl.
…
Thinking about it, Mandy bit her pen and couldn't help but frowning again.
She always felt as if she had forgotten something, something important.
There should be a male protagonist in the dream. This male protagonist must be beside her in the dream, and he has many roles...Why can't she remember it?
It shouldn’t be...
Mandy scratched her hair, always feeling strange. Staring at the long list of records in her notebook, she always felt that she had forgotten something.
I felt empty in my heart, as if a song suddenly sounded in my mind, but I couldn't remember what the song was called.
She wanted to hum the song and traced the melody lightly on the paper.
The male protagonist should be a man...Yes, there is no problem with this! I only like men!
The male protagonist should be younger than himself... Yes! He has no resistance to little puppies! She is an upright young girl!
The male protagonist is not blond, but has hair of another color... She herself is blond, and two blonds walking together always make her feel like they are two golden retrievers out for a walk!
The male protagonist's personality should be very compatible with hers. They often chat together and talk about their favorite topics, so that she can put down her arrogance and hurt each other!
The male protagonist may...maybe...this...or that?
Mandy was lying on the table, drawing with the pen in her hand. In the warm yellow lamp, she lowered her eyelids and tried her best to outline the non-existent things in her mind, like Cinderella in the mud.
There is a picture of his own prince in the middle.
Gradually, the sleepiness that came over her after taking a bath defeated her. She lay down on the table and fell asleep, and the pen in her hand was gently pressed on the table.
The last thing left in the notebook was a portrait, with black hair and an outline that looked young and immature, but it was a pity that she did not draw the other person's face.
If there is a male protagonist, what is his name...?
Even in her dream, Mandy kept muttering:...What is your name...Junior brother...?
In the dead of night, on the TV set in the corner of the bedroom, the white noise that the channel was interrupted after the program ended continued to emit white noise. There was a faint repetitive human voice in the white noise, which was covered by the rain-like noise, as if it was calling for something.