Dong Zheng waited in the car for a long time. The other students who had taken the TOEFL with Dong Linhai had all left intermittently, but Dong Linhai never appeared.
He didn’t answer his phone or his text messages. Finally, Dong Zheng gave the teacher a call, only to find out that Dong Linhai never showed up.
It was strange, because although Dong Linhai loved to play, in order to go abroad, he had attended every TOEFL class. Dong Zheng called Su Daijun again. When she heard that Dong Linhai had disappeared, she was taken aback and became anxious.
“Mom, don’t worry. I’ll look for him. Linhai is no longer a child, it’s impossible to lose him.””
After he hung up, Dong Zheng restarted the Audi, ready to search the places Dong Linhai recently frequented, such as internet cafes and bars.
Cui Zuojing called at this moment.
“Did you get Linhai?”
“No, he’s gone.”
“He’s gone…” Cui Zuojing murmured. “You come home first. I have something to show you.”
Dong Zheng agreed and drove home. He already had a vague guess about Dong Linhai’s disappearance. This guess came from the conversation he had with Cui Zuojing this morning, as well as the miniscule but weird anomalies that had happened for a long time.
It wasn’t only Cui Zuojing who gradually realized a terrible possibility.
Two minutes later, Dong Zheng entered the house. Cui Zuojing was already waiting in the living room. He was sitting on the sofa, holding a pillow, and quietly looking at the television. On the TV screen was an image he had casted with his mobile phone. The image was a painting of a terrifying demon roaring as it crawled out of the ground. It’s massive bat wings full of bone spurs were spread open.
Dong Zheng was stunned. Everything in the painting was so familiar, as if he’d seen it with his own eyes. Something stirred within the depths of his memory, clamoring frantically.
“What is this?” Dong Zheng asked as he sat next to Cui Zuojing.
“I found this in the Municipal Art Museum. The author of this painting was an art student named Wang Que. She’d just finished the college entrance examination and was doing an internship there. I asked a staff member and he said that Wang Que didn’t go to work today and that they were unable to contact her.”
Dong Zheng said, “There is a painting with the same exact style in Linhai’s bedroom. It was something he brought back when he participated in a charity exhibition there. If I guess correctly, this same girl must have created that painting as well.”
“What was that painting about?”
“It was of a red and black train leaving a platform built on the canopy of a tree.” Dong Zheng took out his cell phone and said, “I’ll let the auntie at home take a picture and send it over.”
“If Linhai got the painting from Wang Que, the two of them might know each other. Now that they’re both missing, there should be a reason.”
Dong Zheng was silent. He seemed to have finally decided on a matter, because he whispered, “Ah’Zuo, there is actually one thing I haven’t told you.”
Cui Zuojing looked at him quizzically.
“About three months ago, I discovered that I can consciously interfere with other people’s behavior.”
“We were discussing a big deal that day, and the other party had already firmly decided on cancelling their order. When I met with their representative, I was full of thoughts about changing his mind and he really did change his mind.”
“Every day on the way to work, whenever the street light turned red, as long as I thought about it turning green, it would instantly turn green.”
Cui Zuojing let out a sound of surprise. Whenever he sat in Dong Zheng’s car, he was either sleeping, chatting with Dong Zheng, or playing on his mobile phone, so he didn’t notice it at all.
“Later, I can even control some objects.” The tea cup flew from the table and landed steadily in Dong Zheng’s hand. He held the warm cup tightly and said, “And, even more terrifying–”
Dong Zheng stared at the floor. Three seconds later, a snow-white teacup dog appeared out of thin air. It barked, wanting to jump on the sofa. “Just like this, I can even decide whether the things around me exist or disappear.”
Cui Zuojing whispered, “You haven’t told me this before.”
“Yes, because I’m afraid.” Dong Zheng raised his hand to touch Cui Zuojing’s face. “I’m afraid that you’re just following my heart, afraid that you are merely something I dreamed up. I’m afraid that you’ll disappear suddenly. So, even if this is just a dream, I want it to last longer. My worst fear is that, outside of this dream, I won’t have you anymore, like how I have you now.”
“No.” Cui Zuojing grabbed Dong Zheng’s hand. He stared at the bouncing teacup dog, held his breath, and tried hard to imagine dreaming.
The minute hand turned silently, and thin beads of sweat appeared on the tip of Cui Zuojing’s nose. Dong Zheng didn’t disturb him. The teacup dog was still making trouble, but just as it was about to jump on Cui Zuojing’s knee, it disappeared just as suddenly as it appeared.
Cui Zuojing let out a weary breath. He grinned at Dong Zheng. He didn’t say anything, but that smile was better than a thousand words–He wasn’t a figment of Dong Zheng’s fantasy. He was real, and he and Dong Zheng were the dreamer.
“Let’s wake up together.”
“Okay.” Dong Zheng smiled. With a thought, two cups appeared on the table. He gave Cui Zuojing one cup. “Chlorine. This is the drug that will have the quickest result with the least amount of pain.”
Cui Zuojing took the cup, held Dong Zheng’s hand tightly, and said, “When I wake you, you will be there by my side, right?”
“Yes, even if I’m not there, I will try my hardest to find you.”
There was nothing better than those words when death was a mere step away.
Cui Zuojing took a deep breath. He looked at Dong Zheng’s face and brought the cup to his lips–
Boom!
The living room glass shattered into pieces, revealing the countless strange flying creatures that covered the entire sky. The world dimmed for a moment as a mecha army invaded the city. The laser beam of particle cannons intertwined in the air, attacking the menacing Zerg. Cultivators flew on their swords and chanted a spell to send out sword slashes of golden light. Magicians held their wands high, reciting incomprehensible spells. The brilliance of magic and arcane glowed into an unprecedented event. In front of them, chaos was staged.
The dream had gotten out of control!
The living room floor was full of glass shards, and the wall had a scorched black hole in it. Dong Zheng protected Cui Zuojing behind him and looked up from the corner, watching all of this in horror. They were still holding the cups. They glanced at each other, and without speaking, drank the chlorine solution.
But the expected death did not come.
Someone had trapped them, preventing them from escaping this dream!
“Leave here first!” Dong Zheng got up. A hole appeared automatically on the wall beside him, exposing the seven-story high sky outside. A technologically-advanced spaceship was docked next to it–exactly like the spaceship they’d seen in the Hollywood movie they’d watched together last night.
They boarded the spaceship and immediately fled this strange scene. Trees were sprouting wildly up from the ground, swallowing this city of steel. The terrain in the north bulged violently into volcanoes. Hot lava surged out and ancient dragons hatched from the heated magma. They flapped their fiery wings and roared out flames. Purple light shot down from the sky, looking like radiant light pillars propping up the blue dome sky, and the violent energy it emitted instantly wiped out the surrounding Zergs and mechas!
Relying on Dong Zheng’s mind control, the spacecraft travelled in a thrilling manner. In the blink of an eye, there was suddenly no safe place in their world. What happened to the heavens, and what invaded their dream?
——
On the endless train, Dong Linhai, Wang Que, Victor, Lin Hangzhi, and Xia Qiongyun, who had just awakened, surrounded Cui Zuojing and Dong Zheng. Wang Que put one hand on Cui Zuojing’s forehead. Deep blue dream power condensed at her fingertips, but was repelled by the power of time.
“No, I have to enter from Brother Dong’s side.” Wang Que immediately changed her target. After Victor took the initiative to wake up, they waited for Cui Zuojong and Dong Zheng to wake up by themselves. But they soon realized that something wasn’t right.
A certain force that carried the same origin as the power of dream was interfering with their dreams, so that Wang Que decisively decided to go in and retrieve them.
Five people once again entered a dream state and automatically appeared together. But a sense of weightless immediately enveloped them. With a panicked scream, they all fell from a height of more than 1,000 meters.
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What on earth, this passage is too bizarre 😂