(1)
In the intangible air, a furious rage spread like crashing waves, the passage of time slowing to an agonizing crawl.
In the real world, pure anger and hatred are useless. They cannot change the situation in a short amount of time, nor can they overturn a desperate predicament.
But in a dream.
Here, many things can be influenced by thought.
As long as you believe you can do it, then you can.
Because this is just a dream—especially a child’s dream, unburdened by the weight of reality, able to roam more freely through the realm of imagination.
And so, that anger transformed into true gale-force winds and towering waves. The gloomy sky almost seemed to merge with the surging tide. From within the angry billows came a faint, indistinct roar.
It was the roar of a giant monster.
And the sound was getting clearer…
All the soldiers searching the gravel beach turned back in terror. There, deep within the mist, two colossal monsters smashed through the waves, dragging their bulky bodies toward the warship that looked insignificant before them.
They were two strangely shaped creatures, completely yellow with red triangular patterns:
One was broad and low-slung, with a single enormous, powerful arm. The other was over a dozen stories tall, its slender arm reaching out from afar toward the battleship.
Then, everyone watched as these two giant monsters snapped the warship in half, tore it into piles of rubble, and sent it sinking into the sea amidst the terrified shouts of the officers on board.
Immediately after, they rode the giant waves ashore, dragging what little wreckage remained, and slammed heavily into the stone mountain surrounding the gravel beach.
The entire earth began to tremble.
The two monsters used their arms to sweep up the fleeing soldiers, crushing them into indistinct bloody pulp in their fists. The officer was the last to be caught.
He screamed in terror in Japanese, lifted higher and higher, then was thrown into the monster’s mouth, making a faint crunching sound.
Yet his piercing screams seemed to still echo from within its belly.
“Xiao Jing! What’s wrong?”
“I’m a little… dizzy…” An Jing slumped into Zhu Ying’s arms, holding her head. “I can’t stand…”
“What’s the matter with you? You haven’t even used your superpower, have you? That monster was clearly… summoned by him.” Zhu Ying couldn’t help but glance at Yu Tongshen. He was lying on the ground, his eyes unfocused, staring blankly at the sky. Even as the earth trembled as if it might crack open, he showed no reaction at all.
All the enemies had been torn apart, but the two monsters showed no sign of stopping. One slithered on the ground like a snake; the other, with legs like steel spikes, stepped over the low stone mountain.
The giant monsters seemed to be losing control, destroying everything in their sight indiscriminately.
And besides the monsters, a tornado was sweeping toward the island. An Jing struggled to stand steady again, reaching out to shake Yu Tongshen.
But the next second, everything before her eyes suddenly changed…
—
(2)
The sky, which had been clear moments ago, was now thick with heavy clouds. The waves grew higher with each surge, washing over the ankles of the people on the shore.
“That was the last time I saw the Anhai Deity. She saved me. The wreckage of those big ships is proof—but it’s a pity, my other two friends never made it back alive.” An Jing’s grandfather was reeling in his fishing rod quickly. “Ah… looks like we can’t keep fishing.”
“A big wind is coming.”
“It’s not just a big wind, might be a typhoon.”
“The weather forecast didn’t say anything about it.”
“That thing isn’t always accurate! Big winds and waves at the seaside come and go without warning!” He raised his voice against the wind. “We need to head back. The tide is coming in!”
Another old man put away his bamboo pole. “So, this so-called god of yours, why didn’t it save the other two?”
“Because… even a god can’t do everything!”
“Then what kind of god is that?”
“Haha, maybe gods and people aren’t so different!”
“Hey, I can see it now. You old bastard aren’t all that devout either!” He put away his fishing pole and patted Wang Xinru on the shoulder. “Girl, hurry up and wake the other two up. It’s this windy and they’re still sound asleep. They sure can sleep!”
Wang Xinru was a bit exasperated. “I’ve already shaken them, but they’re still in a dead sleep…”
“Hey—wake up! A big tornado is coming!” the old man shouted jokingly, bending down to shake An Jing hard. But even when he shook her head like a rattle, she still wouldn’t wake up—and neither would Zhu Ying beside her.
“What’s going on? It’s like they’ve taken sleeping pills! They won’t wake up!”
“What’s the matter? My grandson and my future granddaughter-in-law aren’t awake yet?”
“You see for yourself. They just won’t wake up. What do we do? Why don’t you pray to that Anhai Deity of yours and ask it to stop this wind and waves?”
An Jing’s grandfather glared at him. “Don’t always think about relying on others!”
“If there’s someone who can help, why not use them? It’s not like they’re a stranger. They’re a god. They’re just sitting around free, probably bored…”
“You can’t pray to the gods for everything.” The old man bristled. “We’ll take one each. Carry them.”
“How about… I carry one?” Wang Ruo said quietly.
“Haha, little girl, you can’t possibly carry one!”
“But can you two grandpas… manage?”
“Hey, don’t underestimate me.”
“That’s right. This old man is still spry.”
Both old men handed their fishing gear to Wang Xinru, then, one each, they picked up An Jing and Zhu Ying in a cradle carry. The wind was getting stronger, and the waves were closing in, step by step, on the three of them.
The other students on the other side were gathering their things and heading back, preparing to retreat to the edge of the beach.
Since they’d come all this way, they didn’t seem ready to leave just because of an approaching storm—at least they’d wait and see. Otherwise, if the sky cleared up again by the time they got back to the old lumberyard, it would be a waste of time to come all the way back.
An Jing’s grandfather gently laid her down on the soft sand. He looked at the waves crashing in one after another in the distance, then gazed further out. “The wind on the island must be blowing even harder now…”
The short old man beside him set Zhu Ying down as well and sidled up. “Hey, old man, you really can’t go back to your hometown anymore, can you?”
“How could I go back up there? That land isn’t ours anymore. Even if we destroyed what they built up there, we still couldn’t go back.”
“Girl, this old man is talking in his dialect again. Give us a translation, quick. Your southern dialect sounds like a foreign language to us. We can’t understand a word of it.”
Wang Xinru, who was just laying An Jing’s and Zhu Ying’s heads back on her lap, quickly looked up. “Oh, oh. What Grandpa meant just now was…”
—
(3)
In just a blink of an eye, everything before Zhu Ying and An Jing was completely different from before.
On the island stood tall buildings with a somewhat outdated style. Many structures were built directly into the mountains, which just seemed to defy common sense—at least that soft slope shouldn’t have been able to support such tall buildings…
A salty, briny wind blew in their faces. The two monsters from before hadn’t left; instead, they had followed them here.
Their yellow eyes were now a furious, bloodshot red, crouching on the high mountain and howling.
Then, they carefully skirted the shrine, whose architecture was completely different from everything else on the mountaintop, and slowly made their way down.
“Are we still on the island?” Zhu Ying nervously gripped An Jing’s shoulder.
“We are on the island, and…” An Jing’s eyes landed on a construction sign not far away, which read “Fifth Construction Team.” In front of the main pit was a red sign with the words “Meteorological Observatory Foundation. Keep Out.” printed in large red letters.
“And what?”
“And… it seems like the time is now.”
“Now?”
“The houses on the island have been torn down, and new buildings have gone up in their place. Our island has completely changed.”
“You mean—this is what the island looks like right now?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe this is just how it’s imagined.”
BOOM—!!A thunderclap ripped across the sky. Then, the two monsters simultaneously raised their heads and let out a deafening roar.
“This island was protected by the Lord Deity! On what grounds do you occupy it! This is where our ancestors lived for generations!!”
An aged voice rang out in the sky. An Jing blinked, then turned her head to look at Zhu Ying. “That sounds like… my grandfather’s voice.”
“It sounds like it’s coming from the monsters’ mouths?”
“Yeah… the monsters are speaking.”
“Even the Japanese couldn’t occupy this place! But you’re here to change everything! Everything! The shrine is going to be demolished, and when that happens… even the mountain will change!”
The aged voice trembled with a hint of rage.
An Jing glanced at Yu Tongshen, who was lying on the ground with his eyes open in a ‘coma,’ as if his soul had left his body. She looked up and shouted at the sky: “Grandfather—!! We have a new home now. It’s much more convenient there! It’s good there too. After you’ve lived there a while, everyone will get used to it!”
“No—No! This is land protected by the gods, and now you want us to leave, to make us leave—! This is our roots! And we can never come back!”
“Grandfather…” An Jing bit her lip. For the first time, she realized that her grandfather harbored such anger and resentment. Even among the older generation, he was the first to agree to relocate away from their homeland.
Zhu Ying, crouching beside Yu Tongshen, gently touched his cheek. Her soft voice carried a faint smile. “But nothing will ever come back. Old things… are always replaced by new things.”
“No, No! It will come back! It will come back! As long as I destroy these things! Make them get off this island, then we can move back—move back to live!”
The two monsters went berserk again.
Together with the roaring tornado, they charged at the towering buildings.
“Grandfather—!!” An Jing let the drops, whether rain or seawater, soak her face. She looked up at the sky and raised her right hand high—on the back of her hand, a symbol radiating a faint blue light flickered. “What the gods want to protect isn’t this piece of ancestral land, but every living life!!”
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