Chapter 8 It's so hot here, take me outside (Part 1) Factory Diary...
Xia Zhu followed Feng Feng and Feng Mian into the car to go home.
It was also a bus. She had assumed that extraordinary people like the brother and sister would use some kind of magical method to travel home.
Brick walls in alleyways, toilets in abandoned restrooms.
Feng Feng chuckled and said that they did have money, but they didn't have any to spend.
Xia Zhu thought it was too good to be true. Even if she entered an unknown other world, it seemed that money was the key to everything, and she was still a poor person.
I wanted to cry but couldn't.
She simply couldn't answer Feng Mian's question.
Who is she? All she knows is that, past, present, and future, she will always be Xia Zhu. But this matter may involve her grandfather and her parents, so she also wants to know the reason.
However, Feng Feng and Feng Mian seemed even more troubled than she was, and they hadn't been able to explain many of her questions to her. Xia Zhu agreed to go home with Feng Feng because Feng Feng confidently told her, "Although my brother and I can't tell you the secret of your background, Mom is very knowledgeable and knows everything! She knows everything. If you come back with us, Mom will tell you everything! Including things we haven't told you yet~"
So she followed along.
Before leaving, Xia Zhu went home. She couldn't be with her grandfather for the New Year this year, so she needed to visit him first and tell him not to worry about her anymore, as she seemed to have made a friend. Although the road ahead was still shrouded in mist, she remained confident that she could rely on herself. Even if carrying a torch against the wind risked burning her hands, she would still move forward with all her might, towards a clear and bright future.
The bus swayed and rattled. Feng Feng said that they would have to change buses several times to reach Shushan Town, the easternmost part of Dongshan. The journey was long, and they would pass through several tunnels, where the light was sometimes bright and sometimes dark. Xia Zhu was drowsy.
She seemed to have taken a nap. When she opened her eyes, she found herself surrounded by darkness. At first, she thought the bus had entered another tunnel, but her body felt steady without the swaying sensation she had experienced in the bus, and the surroundings were unusually quiet.
Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she could vaguely make out the outlines of things around her, she realized she was no longer in the car, but lying on a bed.
A bed that looks a lot like a school dormitory bed, also a lower bunk, with the upper bunk's wooden planks directly above it, supported by a welded bed frame.
Xia Zhu felt a headache coming on when she realized she had entered a dream again.
Lying in bed, I dared not make any sudden movements, and tried to breathe softly while observing my surroundings.
Waking up in an unfamiliar environment, Xia Zhu felt a little panicked. This dream was different from the hazy dreams she had before; it was extremely real, so real that she suspected that dangerous individuals had kidnapped her while she was sleeping and were planning to call her family to extort money, threatening to kill her if they didn't pay. In that case, being killed would definitely be Xia Zhu's final fate.
She had no relatives and, of course, no money.
The hard sensation on my back and the faint, strange smell in the air made it feel like the real world, not a dream.
Xia Zhu was eager to know if Feng Feng and Feng Mian had entered the dream together; this feeling of being alone was truly unsettling. She pondered why she had suddenly entered a dream again; in the months leading up to this, Xia Zhu hadn't dreamt at all, perhaps due to the long journey and her physical exhaustion.
While I was still analyzing why I was in the dream, a crying sound suddenly came from the darkness.
The crying was abrupt and sounded overly mournful and plaintive. In the darkness, accompanied by a slight tinnitus, it penetrated her ears and reached the cerebral cortex, causing the hairs on her arms to stand on end.
She gently shifted her body, which was lying stiffly on the bed, and turned her head slightly outward. She noticed that the crying seemed to be coming from the bed diagonally above her. Xia Zhu observed that this seemed to be a place similar to a student dormitory. The room was not very big, and within her field of vision, there were only two bunk beds squeezed together at a 90-degree angle in a corner of the room.
Therefore, although she couldn't confirm whether there was anyone on the upper bunk diagonally opposite where the crying was coming from, she could see the person sleeping on the other lower bunk, just like her.
The person was wrapped in a blanket with their back to Xia Zhu, revealing what appeared to be a pink top and long hair. They were not awakened by the crying, and their rhythmic undulations suggested they were fast asleep.
So, is this room a girls' dormitory? Is it part of the school? She wondered to herself.
A faint sound came from the bed above. The person on the upper bunk seemed to be awake, or perhaps turning over in their sleep. Xia Zhu stretched her head out, keeping her lying on her back, and noticed a faint light coming from the upper bunk.
"She cried again."
She heard the person in the upper bunk mutter something softly, and the lingering sobbing stopped immediately after they finished speaking.
By the dim light from the upper bunk, Xia Zhu saw that the other bed from which the crying was coming was flat and smooth, without any bedding or creases, seemingly just a hard, dry bed board.
She was very familiar with this perspective, because she could see the empty bed board on the opposite side from where she was lying in her dormitory at school.
Xia Zhu silently turned her head back and straightened her body. The other side of the room seemed to be a window, and faint moonlight leaked in through the cracks, revealing some eerie blue light.
Before dawn, she decided to just lie there and wait for the sun to rise before making any decisions, if there would be daytime in this dream.
I originally intended to stay awake, but for some reason my eyelids felt very heavy and my consciousness was in a daze. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.
Before falling asleep, Xia Zhu was still wondering if she would have another dream within a dream.
The dream within a dream didn't happen, and she slept exceptionally well until she was awakened by the sound of the two talking.
Hearing continuous conversations around him, Xia Zhu suddenly opened her eyes, feeling a little uneasy about having fallen asleep so carelessly.
"Xia!" A head suddenly appeared above her.
"What's wrong with you today? You're usually the first one up."
It was a girl wearing a blue cotton jacket, speaking with a southern accent. A pink shirt was peeking out from under the jacket, which looked like work clothes. She was probably the girl sleeping opposite Xia Zhu.
Xia Zhu noticed a name tag pinned above the area of her breast pocket, which read He Yujiao, 0353, Assembly 302.
"Get up now." She tried to speak as little as possible.
"Okay, we'll be going now."
A girl named He Yujiao took a yellow basin from the sink shelf under the window. Inside, there was a toothbrush, a cup, and a towel. Xia Zhu then noticed that the door to the room was right next to her bed. There stood another girl in a blue work uniform, who was tall and thin, with a pale face, large eyes, and heavy dark circles under her eyes.
After the two left, she sat up in bed and looked down to see that she was no longer wearing the same clothes she had on the bus. Her white cotton t-shirt had a lace trim at the hem and a vintage print with sequins on the chest. Looking around the room, she realized that not only her clothes, but also the furniture and decor were all in the style of the 80s and 90s.
She searched everywhere on the bed, under the pillow, but couldn't find her phone. Perhaps to fit the era's setting, the phone hadn't entered the dream with her this time. She remembered what Feng Feng had said: the goal of entering the dream was to find the dream master, the Liang, kill it, and take the Natural Stone to exit the dream.
How to find them, how to kill them—these are all problems.
She drew back the curtains and stood by the window, looking down through the sealed iron bars. People in blue work clothes were coming and going in the courtyard.
It took me a few minutes to come to terms with the fact that I had to fight this battle alone.
The room wasn't big, probably only about 20 square meters. Besides two bunk beds, there was a table for about four people and four chairs. Xia Zhu suddenly remembered the crying from last night. She went to He Yujiao's bedside. Sure enough, the upper bunk was empty, without sheets or blankets. But the crying she heard last night did come from this direction, and the pale-faced girl sleeping on the upper bunk had also heard it, which was why she said, "Crying again."
Again? This empty bed seems to frequently emit crying sounds, but the other roommates are long used to it, not only unafraid but even complaining. This is completely illogical. But isn't that what dreams are like? Indistinguishable from reality, surreal and bizarre.
Xia Zhu felt that the owner of this empty bed might be the key to exiting the dream, and this place was obviously not a school. He Yujiao's name tag said Assembly 302, so it might be a factory.
A set of blue work clothes was draped on the chair in front of the desk. She walked over, picked up the clothes from the back of the chair, and turned it over. The part of the name on the name tag seemed to be blurred by some yellowish-brown water stains. She could only barely make out the character "Xia" and the following text: 0359, Assembly 302.
This should be her work uniform. Fortunately, it seems she works in the same workshop as He Yujiao, which makes it easier to gather more information.
She sat down at the desk corresponding to the chair and noticed that only the drawer of this desk was unlocked.
The desk, along with the mottled walls of the room, exuded an old and even decaying aura. Xia Zhu sniffed; there was an indescribable sweetness in the air from beginning to end.
Opening the drawer, I found only some hair ties, hair clips, and brand-new toiletries, as if they had been prepared especially for her.
In addition, there was a beautiful jewelry box that seemed out of place. Xia Zhu took out the box, which had "Made in Hong Kong" written on the bottom.
She couldn't know the exact era, but it didn't seem too recent. Based on the various items in the room, she roughly estimated that it was probably around the 1990s.
This jewelry box is exquisite and beautiful, with a very good texture. It would be considered valuable even to Xia Zhu, although she has never seen anything of great quality before.
But inside the valuable jewelry box was only a key. Taking the key out, she found a tag with "Mr. Wang" written on it in pen. She put the key in her pocket, noticing the increasing number of hurried footsteps in the corridor. She decided to hurry up and get to work, following the rules of the dream world.
After changing into blue work clothes, Xia Zhu took away the remaining red basin from the shelf and the only toothbrush cup on the windowsill, both of which had the word "Xia" on them. She then took out a toothbrush and toothpaste from the cabinet, took a deep breath, and pushed open the door to the room.
There was a staircase leading downstairs right outside the door. Many girls wearing the same clothes were coming and going in the corridor. She was thinking about whether to go right or left when the door next door was opened and a girl carrying a washbasin and a kettle came out. Xia Zhu immediately followed her and walked to the left side of the corridor.
There was a long queue at the public wash area. She stood in the queue with her washbasin in her arms. The washroom was packed with people. Some people were even squatting on the floor brushing their teeth. The whole corridor was filled with the smell of mint. She glanced around and saw that they were all young girls in their late teens and early twenties, who were all around the same age.
“My mom wrote again, asking me to come home and farm. I told her I’m getting paid this month, how could I go back now? I was the model worker in our workshop last month!”
Ahead of Xia Zhu in line was a girl with braids, chatting idly with her companion standing to the side.
“My family also wants me to go back. Staying here is really tiring. The food is bad, it’s so hot, and they won’t let me get a fan.”
The two huddled together, complaining.
"But I get paid, so what if I'm tired? I still have to send money back to my brother. My mom says he's planning to get married next year."
Xia Zhu noticed the girl's delicate, fluffy hair on the back of her neck and the braid that had been tossed to one side, and couldn't help but step forward to confirm the girl's face.
Okay, it really wasn't Feng Feng. She retreated again, ignoring the girl's questioning gaze.
It seems that I am indeed the only one who entered this dream.
Finally, it was Xia Zhu's turn. She put the basin on the sink, turned on the tap, and splashed a handful of water on her face. She felt a little strange. When she reached out to touch it, she realized that she wasn't wearing her glasses at all, yet she could still see clearly. Perhaps it was because she was dreaming. She wanted to look in the mirror, but when she looked up, she found that the wall, which should have a mirror, was bare. She turned to look at the wall behind her. Large patches of plaster had peeled off the upper part of the wall, and the base of the wall was covered with yellowish-green stains.
There wasn't a single mirror in the entire room.
Something just feels off.
With someone urging her on from behind, Xia Zhu quickened her pace.
A note from the author:
----------------------
The first dungeon might be a bit slow and boring, but it's necessary for the female lead to adapt to entering the dream world and breaking through the illusion. [heart emoji]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
