After swaying for a long time, Tian Rao reluctantly opened her eyes and looked at Jiang Ye dazedly.
"Take your medicine!" Jiang Ye shook the cup, sat up, and drank water and took medicine.
"I dreamed of frogs," Tian Rao said softly.
Jiang Ye didn't hear clearly. He leaned down and brought his ear closer to her. "What did you say?"
"I just dreamed of frogs," Tian Rao repeated.
Jiang Ye was amused and exasperated. He shouted, "Stop with the frogs! Sit up and take your medicine!"
"It's no fun," Tian Rao said with a mournful face, shrinking into the covers and refusing to move. "I don't want to get up."
Jiang Ye was speechless. He put down the water cup and reached into the covers, grabbed her waist, and pulled her up to sit.
Tian Rao squinted, about to lie down again.
Jiang Ye, quick as lightning, reached out, embraced her shoulders, and pulled her into his arms, letting her lean against his chest. He then brought the cup to her lips.
"Take a sip, hold it in your mouth, don't swallow. It's for the medicine."
Tian Rao, slightly more awake, extended a pale hand from under the covers, grabbed the cup, drank some water, then slowly diluted and swallowed two capsules, returning the cup to Jiang Ye.
"You've drunk all the water in the cup. You have a fever, you need to drink more hot water." Jiang Ye didn't take it. "I'll refill it for you after you finish this."
Tian Rao frowned slightly but obediently began to drink the water, taking small sips until she had finished the entire cup.
After finishing, she handed the cup back to Jiang Ye and tilted her head, falling back down.
"I feel better, I don't want any more water," Tian Rao said, looking at Jiang Ye with bright, clear eyes.
Jiang Ye didn't speak. He refilled the cup with hot water and inserted a straw.
He sat down on the edge of the bed. "Get up and drink water."
"I don't want to," Tian Rao frowned, her face full of reluctance.
"Drink this cup and then you can sleep," Jiang Ye said seriously, reaching into the covers and grabbing her slender waist.
Tian Rao had no choice but to sit up. She quietly lowered her head, held the straw in her mouth, and slurped, slurped, slurping, drinking the second cup of water.
This time, she didn't fall back onto the bed. Instead, she leaned into Jiang Ye's embrace, holding him gently.
"I dreamed of frogs just now," she said.
Jiang Ye was a little bewildered. Why was this girl so fixated on frogs?
But the patient was king. Tian Rao, with her fever, was like a child. It was good that she was willing to talk.
Jiang Ye reached over, pulled the quilt closer, and draped it over Tian Rao's bare back, embracing her through the blanket. She smelled faintly of milk.
"I dreamed I was taking a train home. We arrived late at night, and I was dragging my suitcase on a dirt road. It was twenty miles from home when I heard a vast chorus of frog croaks, echoing through the heavens. I immediately thought, 'It's over, there's a flood!' and rushed home. Tian Rao said softly.
"My house is a small wooden cabin. The roof and the area around the house were covered in frogs, hundreds, thousands of them. I went home and closed the door, but the frogs had already come in through the chimney and occupied the entire house. The kitchen, the living room, the bed, the bathtub – all filled with large frogs, croaking away.
"I grabbed the frogs and stuffed them into plastic bags. As soon as a bag was full, I threw it out. It took me the entire night to catch all the frogs in the house.
"Throughout the night, there were loud frog calls from all directions. You could clearly feel that the entire world was floating on frogs. Croak, croak, croak, ribbit, ribbit, in an endless cycle. It was impossible to sleep. That sound contained the dampness of an entire ocean.
"The next morning, as soon as it was light, I looked out the window. It was as if all the frogs in the world had come for a pilgrimage. Their backs were densely packed, rolling in like a tide, more spectacular than the Qiantang River bore tide. The distant lake was no longer visible; the entire lake was covered by frogs."
Jiang Ye silently pictured the scene. It truly sounded like a disaster.
"That's a very interesting dream. Go back to sleep," Jiang Ye said. "You need to rest."
"Actually, I have a special ability," Tian Rao said, tilting her face up and looking at him with serious eyes. "The dreams I have when I have a fever always come true in the future."
Jiang Ye froze. "Really?"
"Not directly, but indirectly, in some form," Tian Rao explained.
"How indirectly?" Jiang Ye felt she wasn't joking.
"When I was little, I had a fever and dreamed that everyone on the street was wearing white and blue glasses. Half a year later, a contagious disease broke out, and everyone in the world wore white and blue masks when they went out."
"Another time, I dreamed that my uncle and I went for a drive, and the car flipped into a ditch. A large white bubble enveloped the car. The bubble was very strong and couldn't be torn open. Later, we all starved to death inside the bubble."
"A month later, my uncle died in a car accident. His car flipped off a bridge. He didn't die instantly, but he was trapped in his seat, unconscious, and suffocled to death by the airbag."
"Once, I dreamed that it was raining banknotes from the sky, all large denominations. The ground was covered with them, reaching up to my calves, but people on the street weren't picking them up. A year later, there was a financial crisis, and the currency depreciated rapidly, becoming worthless like scrap paper."
Jiang Ye looked at her in disbelief, as if she were an alien.
"These are all true. I've had many similar dreams, and they've always come true in some indirect way," Tian Rao said worriedly. "And when I dreamed of frogs, I saw you too."
"Me?" Jiang Ye felt a chill. "What was I doing?"
"You were sitting in a small boat, floating on a lake full of frogs, sweeping with your oars, hitting those frogs away, clearing a path for yourself. You were looking left and right, as if searching for something, with a very sad expression."
After a long silence, Jiang Ye rubbed her head.
"It's not necessarily a bad thing. Dreams are very mysterious. Go to sleep, rest well."
Tian Rao obediently snuggled back into the covers and closed her eyes, falling asleep.
Jiang Ye sat by the bed, replaying her words in his mind.
For some reason, a sense of unease gripped his heart.