Chapter 18: A Sinister Dream

Qi Yan sat frozen in his chair, plunged into despair for a long time, unable to utter a single word. Or perhaps, even now, he could not find a fitting adjective to describe his current state of mind.

He remained in this stupor until Li Lan had finished showering, changed into clean clothes, and emerged from the bathroom. Then, staring blankly, he rasped to Li Ruoke, “Could you… lend me your phone or tablet so I can log into WeChat?”

Li Ruoke, unsurprisingly, didn’t mind, and fetched an iPad from her room for him.

Qi Yan’s phone was no longer at hand; whatever the circumstances, he needed to contact his family and friends—he hadn’t managed to report his safe return home since coming back to the country. All his contacts were stored in his phonebook, which he couldn’t recall from memory, so he had to use WeChat.

First, he messaged his father, informing his family that he had returned safely. Then he sent a message to Dong Ye, who replied instantly, clearly worried.

“I told you to message me once you got home! Why are you only just replying now?”

“How did things go after that? Did anything else happen?”

Of course, whether it was to his father or his friend, he responded with written messages, crafting lies about his recent circumstances, omitting any mention of the ordeal with the criminal gang.

He avoided voice messages, afraid his extreme despondency and sorrow would be detected.

After quickly fabricating a few excuses and placating his loved ones, he made his way to the bathroom for a shower.

The water from the shower head sprayed directly onto his face, running down his neck and body, easily washing away the grime, but unable to rinse away the fear and confusion clouding his heart and his uncertainty about the future.

What should I do? What am I supposed to do…

The black temple, the sinister amulet, the malevolent spirit… Qi Yan stood in the tub, eyes tightly shut, wishing desperately that all this was a real nightmare, and that after bathing and sleeping, everything would evaporate, leaving him the same ordinary person who lived by the day, playing at life under the pretense of youth.

No trip to Thailand, no visit to that temple which should never have existed, no receipt of a talisman from a mysterious old monk, no encounter with Li Lan at the airport, no involvement in calamity that befell them both…

Only in this quiet moment did he realize a truth—misfortune never reaches its worst; it only gets worse.

Young people always feel their lives are too mundane, bored by routine, fantasizing about one day being swept into an epic adventure by some trivial event, just to satisfy their craving for excitement.

But reality? Nonsense!

Anyone with such thoughts has simply enjoyed good days for too long and is restless.

He washed for a full hour, not because he was dirty, but because he simply couldn’t pull himself together after such an incredible upheaval.

Only when the water heater ran out of hot water did Qi Yan finally change into Li Lan’s spare clothes, staggering out of the bathroom and collapsing onto a bed in one of the empty rooms of the studio.

He didn’t dare to sleep, but his body had other ideas; it wasn’t so much sleep as utter exhaustion. He fell into a deep, senseless slumber.

Fatigue induced a string of bizarre dreams—fantastical, surreal, and incoherent. He flew through skies, became someone else living in a foreign world, or looked down from a god’s perspective upon scenes with no connection to his life.

He wandered in these chaotic dreams for an unknown length of time, until at last… he found himself in a dark, black world.

There was nothing here except himself—no sky, no ground.

Compared to the previous odd dreams, this one was much more tangible, like a real scene.

Soon, from the surrounding darkness, faces of infants began to appear—like thousands of blossoms blooming, they quickly crowded every inch of the black curtain.

These babies’ eyes were shut, sleeping peacefully, and each face looked identical, like little balls of flesh—but there were so many! Thousands upon thousands, encircling him at the center.

Were this reality, Qi Yan would surely have been terrified out of his wits, but as it was a dream, his mood was different. Though unsettled, he wasn’t truly afraid.

He spun around, surveying the space, his gaze passing over rows of infant faces, his unease and dread mounting.

Individually, the faces were cute and innocent, but context is everything.

Is one squirrel cute? But what if you gathered a hundred, or a thousand, or ten thousand in one heap? Would they still be cute?

After a full turn, his eyes settled on a distant spot at the end of the wall of infants—a “woman” stood there, wrapped in strips of cloth, long hair flowing.

It was the same figure as before, standing motionless, cradling a child, her face obscured by black hair.

Then, the “woman” moved. She did not walk, but instantaneously shifted positions, three flickers bringing her right in front of Qi Yan.

Had this not been a dream, Qi Yan would have screamed, but here, instead of fleeing, he found courage from nowhere and shouted at her, “Go… go away, get away from me!”

“What do you want? Why are you haunting me?”

“Leave—!” His last shout was raw and piercing, echoing through the space, fading into the distance.

A startled gasp escaped him as he snapped upright from the bed, breathing heavily, his face and body drenched in sweat.

Was it a dream?… Looking around the room, he calmed himself, slapping his own face to force composure.

It was already eleven at night. Qi Yan, dark circles beneath his eyes, emerged from the room to find Li Lan awake, sitting with Li Ruoke on the sofa, eating boxed meals.

“You’re awake? Come eat breakfast—oh, no, supper.”

Though the sleep hadn’t restored much of his spirit, he really needed to eat; if he didn’t, he might starve himself straight into the next world, saving everyone the trouble.

“Nightmare?” Li Ruoke asked as he gobbled a few bites of takeout.

Qi Yan nodded silently, eating without a word.

“What did you dream of… did it come looking for you?”

“It did…”

“It did? Then… did it ask for anything?”

“No, nothing.”

“No request? That’s… odd, isn’t it? Maybe you didn’t catch its meaning?” Li Ruoke asked, perplexed.

Qi Yan himself couldn’t say what it meant; he felt no vague hints, so merely shook his head.

At this moment, Li Lan put down his meal, gazing at Qi Yan for a long while with a look impossible to interpret, his expression distinctly off.

Finally, in a grave tone, he said, “I fear… it didn’t ask because there’s no need. It’s already taken its ‘payment’.”

Qi Yan, famished, his mouth stuffed with tasteless food, nearly choked on hearing this. “What?! Don’t scare me. What did it take?”

Instinctively, he checked himself over for anything missing.

Li Ruoke was equally confused. The siblings exchanged glances, and Li Lan tried to explain calmly, lest Qi Yan become too agitated.

“Qi Yan, when I saw you on the plane, I was immediately certain that the evil aura wasn’t from you, but from something you carried. That’s because your own presence is powerful, the opposite of someone like me. You’ve never encountered anything ‘strange’ in your life.

To put it simply, your yang energy is strong, your birth chart weighty; ordinary spirits would never dare approach you. But now… I can clearly feel your aura weakening!”