(1)
The city streets shattered like bubbles, and the city began collapsing in silence.
An Jing awkwardly wiped the tears from her face, then gently smoothed Zhu Ying’s messy hair. “Xiao Ying, listen to me first. We’re not in reality right now—we’re in a dream. But this dream is a bit special. I can’t take you directly out. It seems to have multiple layers. We have to go up layer by layer. We might run into a lot of trouble, but… don’t be afraid.”
“Huh…” Zhu Ying shook her head dazedly, seeming to grow sleepy from the collapse of the dream street. “Dream… now… we… are… in a dream…?”
“That’s right, we’re in a dream.” An Jing lowered her head, raised her left wrist, pressed it a few times, then took off the special material bracelet inlaid with meteorite fragments.
She carefully put this meteorite bracelet on Zhu Ying’s right wrist, then gently shook it to make sure it wouldn’t fall off before letting out a small sigh of relief.
“Xiao Jing, what is this…?”
“This is my meteorite bracelet. With it, you won’t get lost in the dream anymore. The moment you see it, you’ll remember that this is a dream, and you’ll never fall into the state of being unable to tell reality from dreams.”
“But if you’re away from the meteorite, won’t your body be in a dangerous condition?”
“It’s fine, because this is a dream. Giving you the bracelet in the dream is like giving you a part of my power. Anyway, don’t worry, it’s different from reality.” An Jing looked at the sky that had lost all color and become a chaotic void. “We’re about to enter the upper layer of the dream. Remember what I said… Even if I’m not by your side, don’t be afraid. I’ll do my best to get to you!”
“Xiao Jing…”
Zhu Ying’s vision began to blur, and everything became as unclear as if it were pixelated.
She had been kneeling on the ground just moments ago, but now she felt as if she were falling backward. The road behind her disappeared, turning into a bottomless abyss.
A cold, lonely feeling enveloped her whole body again. An Jing in her sight popped like a bubble in the sunlight and vanished in an instant.
(2)
Whoosh!! Zhu Ying’s eyes snapped open. The sweat on her back had soaked her clothes. She was as drenched as if she had been pulled out of water, with beads of sweat slowly sliding down her cheeks from her forehead.
This is the classroom…
A familiar classroom.
But there was no one in the classroom. Test papers and homework were piled into small mountains on the desks. From the playground outside came the sound of students playing—everything seemed normal. She recalled that she had come back to the classroom during a P.E. class taught by the homeroom teacher, and had somehow fallen asleep while sitting at a desk.
“I feel like I had a really long dream…” She covered her mouth with her left hand, squinted, and stretched a little. “Where did Xiao Jing go? Did she go back to the playground to play badminton?” She murmured as she stood up unsteadily and walked to the windowsill at the back of the classroom.
Sunlight shone on the plastic track outside the window, and the noise naturally reached her ears.
If she listened carefully, she could make out the voices of some classmates:
“Damn, if you don’t want to play, then don’t. How the hell is a human supposed to catch that ball?”
“Stop spiking all the time, it’s not fun!”
“Huff, huff, one more lap and we’re done. If this were last semester, I wouldn’t even be tired from running this much…”
“Zhou Chao, pass the ball!!”
Clang-dong!! That was the sound of a basketball hitting the hoop.
But no matter how wide Zhu Ying opened her eyes, there was no one on the playground.
Even though those sounds were so clear, and there should have been a couple hugging right below the teaching building…
The empty, cold playground made her hair stand on end in that instant.
She turned her head sharply and looked at her seat.
There was no one there, but her own voice was sounding.
“Xiao Jing, where are you looking? Why do you always look at Xiao Ru in summer? Can’t you look at me more?”
“Ah, ah? I didn’t…”
“Your eyes are clearly glancing over there!”
“I’m just messing around with Awei…”
“What messing around? I’m telling you to look. How big is that, damn.”
“See, you are looking at Xiao Ru!”
“I didn’t even get that meaning from him, hey!!”
“An Jing, don’t be so shy. Men like big ones…”
“Don’t lump me in with you!!”
“Where… is Xiao Jing?” Zhu Ying took two steps back in a daze, accidentally bumping into the large trash can at the back of the classroom. Then, as if remembering something, she instinctively raised her right wrist.
There, a bracelet with silver-white and gold threads, inlaid with a meteorite fragment, was faintly emitting a blue glow.
“It’s a dream… That’s right! Xiao Jing! She… will come find me?”
(3)
Knock knock, knock knock knock— It was an extremely forceful knocking.
A petite figure with green eyes stood outside the door.
At first it might have been knocking, but now it was probably more like pounding on the door.
“Coming, coming…” An Jing held her head, looking annoyed as she walked to the door. But when she pulled the door open, the petite figure had already disappeared, replaced by a tall, sturdy male—Fang Qiang.
“Hey, An Jing, why the hell didn’t you come to class today?”
“Huh? I didn’t go to class? Damn, did I sleep until afternoon? I completely overslept…”
“Did you watch the videotape I gave you yesterday?” Fang Qiang pressed his rough hand firmly on An Jing’s shoulder and rubbed hard with a faint smile.
“Ah—don’t squeeze so hard. Yesterday’s videotape… I should have watched it…? Oh, right, that’s why I woke up so late.” An Jing said, covering her mouth with a yawn. “Why is there still more…”
“Don’t you look forward to the rest of the story?”
“But every time I wake up, I’ve almost forgotten the content of the videotape. Also, it takes up a lot of time…”
“Aren’t you even a little fucking curious?”
“Uh… I am a little curious. What’s today’s content?”
“Here, take it. Watch it yourself. Anyway, it’s still early. You’ll definitely finish it today!”
“Alright, alright. Since I’m home all day anyway, I’ll just watch it all in one go. By the way, there won’t be more after this, right?”
“No more. Even if you wanted to watch more, I couldn’t conjure any more for you.”
“Okay… Want to watch together?”
“No, I have to go back to sleep.”
“Sleep? I thought you were busy delivering water…”
“Deliver water then sleep, it’s about the same! I’m off!” Fang Qiang waved his hand forcefully, shut the door firmly for An Jing, and then the sound of hurried footsteps gradually faded away.
An Jing looked at the thick videotape in her hand. It had no packaging, not even a label, and looked like a private recording—not official at all.
“I’ll drink some water, then watch it. I can finish early today and get a good night’s sleep…” She muttered, swaying her hips as she walked into the kitchen, followed by the sound of pouring cool boiled water into a cup.
Outside the window, the sunset gradually sank, and the sunlight entering the room grew narrower until it became a long, thin line.
At that moment, An Jing plopped down onto the sofa. The VCR was reading the tape, and soon some blurry images appeared on the TV screen.
(4)
Bang!!
The half-closed classroom door was suddenly pushed open, and a familiar figure rushed in urgently, bringing a gust of hot, stuffy air.
Zhu Ying looked toward the door with delight, but it quickly turned into slight disappointment.
Because the person who burst through the door wasn’t An Jing, but Wang Xinru.
“Yingying! Why are you still standing here? Hurry and run!”
“What’s wrong…?”
“A giant monster is heading this way! Get out of here!”
“No need… This is just a dream. Even if it’s a monster… there’s nothing to be afraid of.” Zhu Ying smiled with relief. “It’s just a dream after all. How could there be a monster in reality?”
“I know this is a dream, but this dream is different! We have to run! Otherwise, we’ll never wake up!”
“Huh? Why?”
“I don’t know either. A girl with green eyes on the way told me!”
“Green eyes…” Zhu Ying suddenly remembered the contents of the previous layer and the one before that—the green-eyed girl seemed to have appeared in both. Although she had a bad temper, she had been helping her all along.
“If that’s the case, then w-what do we do? Where should we run to?”
“Let’s get outside first! Anyway, we can’t stay in the teaching building and wait. Otherwise, there’ll be nowhere to go!”
“Mm…! Xiao Ru, are you… are you the Xiao Ru in my dream?” Zhu Ying suddenly asked a somewhat strange question.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m real! I thought this was my own dream… but now it seems like it’s yours?”
“I see… Could it be because of one-sided telepathy, so your dream is connected to mine?”
“I don’t know!” The ground had already begun to shake violently. Wang Xinru’s face was full of anxiety and unease. “Hurry, Yingying, we need to get out of here—”
Boom!!!
A roar like thunder pierced the sky above the city. The noisy sounds from the playground just moments ago vanished without a trace, as if they had never existed.
At that moment, time seemed to freeze, and she felt as if she were stuck in a swamp. Every movement became unbearably slow.
She could only watch helplessly as the heat wave blew toward her. Then she saw the windows begin to distort, and a ball of fire grew enormous in her vision.
And then—
Time resumed its flow.
Bang!!
All that remained in her ears was a deafening roar. When she looked up in that deafening ‘buzzing’ sound, she found that she could see the sky above her at a glance.
The fifth floor of the teaching building, along with the roof, was as fragile as a piece of paper—the whole thing was blown away by the scorching ‘gale.’