Chapter 31
Xiaoming went to the bathroom to remove his makeup, take a shower and wash his hair after returning to the hotel. Jiang Lan packed her things, filled out a form and called the front desk to say that their clothes needed to be sent to the dry cleaners.
The next morning, the two packed their luggage and drove to the ancient desert city.
The distance was a bit far, so Xiaoming took over driving for the second half so Jiang Lan could rest.
Xiao Ming drove very steadily, and Jiang Lan dozed off for a short while before actually falling asleep. When she woke up, they had already arrived at their destination hotel.
Today is the second day of the holiday. The two of them plan to stay here for the next two days and save the last day for their return trip.
It's getting late, so they plan to rest in their room before going out for dinner.
Xiao Ming fell asleep shortly after lying in bed, while Jiang Lan, who had just woken up, wasn't sleepy and lay in bed looking through the photos that had appeared on her phone in the past few days.
Jiang Lan has a decent number of followers on a certain platform, which he usually uses to learn and share his professional skills. He plans to change the profile picture of this account to a photo of him and Xiao Ming at their wedding, and then edit and splice together a love video to upload, of course, the kind where their faces are not shown.
True love can't resist showing it off, but showing it on platforms that are too intertwined with real life can cause a lot of doubts and troubles. However, showing it on platforms that are completely detached from real life is fine.
After editing the video, I uploaded it.
Jiang Lan, reflecting on his dating history, couldn't help but wonder how he managed to date a girl like Xiao Ming.
She is a very gentlemanly girl, tolerant and humble in her dealings with people and things, and self-disciplined and respectful. However, if others cross her bottom line, she will retaliate without hesitation.
In contrast, she lacks the delicate charm of other women. She is very stable, has a high sense of self-identity, doesn't care much about other people's opinions, and has a low dependence on relationships. Her attitude towards relationships subtly reveals that being together is fine, but breaking up is also fine, which makes Jiang Lan feel insecure.
As darkness fell, the two went out to find something to eat. The mutton here was famous—tender, juicy, and not gamey at all. Xiaoming and Jiang Lan ate as they strolled around, and also bought some local specialties to give as gifts back home.
Back at the hotel, after preparing for their trip the next day, the two turned off the lights and went to bed early.
Jiang Lan hid behind a large tree. The dark blue sky on the horizon was divided by the silhouette of the tree canopy, and he couldn't tell whether it was dawn or dusk.
He pulled out an energy gun that he hadn't used in a long time and fired an energy blast at the strange creature that was staggering toward him. The strange creature dissipated.
Apart from the occasional croak of an owl, there were no insects chirping or the rustling of wind through the leaves and grass in the woods. It was exactly the kind of scene straight out of a horror movie.
Therefore, those who can become Dream Mercenaries must at least have outstanding courage and mental fortitude. If they can become veteran mercenaries, it means that their strategy and resourcefulness are also exceptional.
As for whether mercenaries who have experienced such extreme horror scenarios for a long time will develop psychological problems and carry them back to the real world, sorry, the Dream Cube has a cleansing function. It not only cleanses memories, but also emotions. After all, it's just a dream. It's just a matter of forgetting it as soon as you open your eyes or forgetting it after a while.
After dealing with two more strange occurrences, Jiang Lan was about to move on when she noticed that these strange creatures emerged from their hiding places and slowly walked in the same direction.
Jiang Lan's expression was cold and stern as she trailed behind the strange group, following them forward.
Xiao Ming felt that the forest was pitch black and he couldn't see anything. The tree canopy blocked out the sun, making him feel inexplicably depressed.
So he grabbed a dangling strip of paper and, like a martial arts master with light-footed skills, used it to float up to the treetop.
Standing atop the tree, the view improved considerably. The sky was a deep, dark blue, with a hazy edge. She randomly chose a direction and leaped across the canopy.
Jiang Lan was under the tree when suddenly dappled yellow light shone down on him. He looked up and, lo and behold, the Dream Weaver was standing on the treetop.
The endless black forest was truly eerie, and with no reliable cover in sight, Jiang Lan decided to follow the Dream Weaver.
The eerie creatures gradually disappeared into the distance. Jiang Lan followed the Dream Weaver until they reached a low slope, where the continuous forest was cut off by the valley in front of them.
Looking down, the valley resembled a ravine carved out by a flood, with a flat bottom and jagged rocks on both sides. At that moment, a few groups of people were taking pictures of something with their phones at the bottom of the valley.
On the hillside beside the valley, some people were waving and shouting, "Come up quickly! This is a flash flood channel, it's very dangerous!"
Some of the people at the bottom of the valley circled around a few times, then, heeding others' advice, started walking up the hillside.
Others grumbled, "Where did all this danger come from? It hasn't rained for days, and the sky is blue right now. What's all this talk about flash floods if there's no rain?"
Regardless of what the stick figures below were doing, Xiaoming stood on the treetop, shading her eyes with her hand, and looked towards the opposite bank. As far as she could see, the circle of light began to extend outwards.
Jiang Lan hurriedly descended to the bottom of the valley and climbed up the hillside on the opposite bank, urging those still lingering at the bottom to quickly follow him up, keeping pace with the circle of light. For now, the light was sufficient; however, once the Dream Weaver left, these people would encounter the menacing, lurking monster in the shadows, and their fate would be nothing short of being torn to pieces.
Several more people followed and climbed up. Jiang Lan turned to look at the Dream Maker.
Xiaoming saw a large tree with only fruit and no leaves growing on the edge of a boulder cliff on the opposite bank. The fruit was bright red, and many of the fruit had fallen onto the boulder and smashed into a red pulp. Several small birds were pecking at the pulp.
She also wanted to taste the red berries, and on a whim, she drifted towards the opposite bank. The wide valley passed in an instant, and she stepped onto the treetops on the other side, drifting towards the giant rock. The circle of light swept across the valley, following the dreamer into the distance.
The eerie creatures formed from the black mist surged out of the darkness in an instant, transforming into human form and rushing towards the people who remained in the valley.
After a series of mournful howls, the valley returned to silence.
Those following the light were given a speed boost and had long since moved far away from the valley; no one heard the cries for help behind them.
Jiang Lan followed for a while and then saw a gray figure land on a bare tree with a few scattered red fruits.
She picked a red fruit and started eating it. She threw the pit, still full of pulp, onto the boulder. The birds, completely unfazed, continued pecking at the pulp on the ground.
Xiao Ming looked at the fruit, then at the stick figures not far away, scratched his head, picked them all and threw them to the figures to see if they would eat them, otherwise they would all fall to the ground and rot, which would be a bit of a waste.
Jiang Lan caught the fruit thrown by the gray figure. He thought he would see the fruit turn into a cloud of black mist, but he didn't expect that what he got was still fruit. To put it more poetically, Jiang Lan's shock was like "pupils shaking".
He held the fruit, examining it from left to right, top to bottom. [The fruit was plump, with a glossy, reddish color—a very standard fruit. However, he didn't recognize it; he'd never seen it before.]
Driven by a need to learn about this unfamiliar information and trust in the dream maker, Jiang Lan took a small bite of the fruit.
This one bite brought him to the brink of agony; the flesh was dry, sour, bitter, and astringent, completely at odds with the fruit's appearance.
He crunched a few times, then tossed the remaining pit, still full of pulp, onto the boulder, just like the Dream Weaver had done. He noticed several intact fruits on it, except for one with a small chip, suggesting that only he and one other person had taken a small bite of this peculiar fruit.
Jiang Lan watched the gray figure leap and jump in the tree for a while, then lay down on the boulder, closed her eyes, and fell asleep in her dream.
Jiang Lan, who thought she would wake up, found herself still standing on the giant rock platform. This time, however, one side of the rock was no longer a cliff, but a bend in the river, the water shimmering with a dreamlike blue. The fruit on the trees had turned into red flowers, their petals fluttering and falling onto the river. A few white clouds hung in the light blue sky, and a rainbow arched across the horizon—this was the embodiment of an anime scene.
This is clearly a dream within a dream.
Jiang Lan turned to look for the Dream Weaver's trail and saw an identical tree and the same boulder on the opposite bank. The scene on both sides was copied and pasted, with the river as the boundary. The Dream Weaver stood motionless atop the tree on the opposite bank. After a while, several creatures resembling monkeys or apes appeared on the branches. He didn't know what they were, because these creatures were probably randomly pieced together by the Dream Weaver from memory.
The monkey scratched its ears and cheeks in the tree, jumped up and down, and swung back and forth on vines that seemed to have grown out of nowhere.
Where are the people from my dream? Am I the only one who entered this dream within a dream?
Just as Jiang Lan was looking around to see if anyone else was there, a panicked scream came from the opposite bank. Jiang Lan and the "monkey" in the tree both turned their heads to look. A "monkey" was hanging from a vine in the sky and was swinging rapidly towards them. The scream came from its mouth.
The screams grew closer, and finally, the content of the screams became clear: "Holy shit! Ah! Holy shit! I want to go home!"
Jiang Lan was immediately startled and raised her hand.
Sure enough, black, furry paws. Looking down, he realized that he had been squatting on the ground. Although his body was covered in black fur, his sensitive areas, now exposed to all clothing, still felt chilly.
In the blink of an eye, the monkey that had swung over was right in front of it. It let go of the boulder, rolled around a few times, and then stood up, rubbing its knees and buttocks.
It asked the monkey next to it, "Hey buddy? Sister? Where is this place?"
The monkey next to it scratched its head, looking at it blankly: "I don't know."
They had no doubt about being monkeys, nor did they question that monkeys could talk.
Ordinary people who enter the Dream Cube typically only ask themselves the three fundamental questions: "Who am I?", "Where am I?", and "What am I doing?"
They cannot access memories in their minds, such as "Who am I?" or "What is my name?" These memories are unavailable.
Accepting things in the subconscious, for example, non-verbal people accept that they can speak, and nearsighted people have blurry images in their dreams.
It doesn't overturn or doubt things that already exist when you enter the dream, such as being a monkey and moving nimbly in the trees like a monkey.
Jiang Lan ignored it because he saw another figure swinging across the horizon, clinging to vines—a gray figure, not a Dream Weaver with a halo.
The monkey that had swung over earlier followed the gaze of the other monkeys and saw something terrifying. He screamed in despair, "Run! The monster is coming!"
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