Chapter 55.1 Dream
After coming out of the hospital, the two went back to the hotel to get their luggage and planned to leave.
The girl at the front desk was reluctant to see the two of them leave and joked: “Don’t you want to take advantage of the 40% discount for three days? You only stayed for two days.”
Lin Banxia thought about it and thought it made sense, so he turned to discuss with Song Qingluo: “Maybe, let’s make use of this discount, otherwise we will suffer a huge loss.”
Song Qingluo was silent for a moment then actually agreed. So, the two put their luggage back in the room and took a walk around the town. It had to be said that looking at the town in a different mood, the scenery seemed to be a little different. Lin Banxia’s memory came back after everything he experienced last night. He remembered most of the things that happened when he was young and felt a little emotional for a while.
Song Qingluo asked Lin Banxia if he was bullied when he was in school.
Lin Banxia thought for a while and shook his head with a smile: “It seems that except for the few relatives at home, I have always been very lucky. When I was in school, my teachers and classmates took good care of me…helped me apply for scholarships. Some classmates, would even take old clothes from home and give them to me privately, so that I wouldn’t be bullied again.”
Song Qingluo felt a little more comfortable after hearing this.
“After I entered junior high school, I didn’t remember much about my family.” Lin Banxia said, “So I lived a very contented life. I just always wanted to make money, and then go back and take my sister out… Later I went to university, and Ji Leshui and I were in the same dormitory. He was also very good to me. After graduation, he went out to work, and then… we met you.” When he said the last sentence, he was a little embarrassed and felt a bit hypocritical, but no matter how he thought about it, he still wanted to express his inner gratitude to Song Qingluo.
“Thank you, Song Qingluo.” Lin Banxia said, “Without you, I don’t know what it would have been like in the end.”
Song Qingluo said softly: “It’s not just lucky to meet so many people who care about you, but that also like you, just like Xiaohua.”
Lin Banxia’s face turned red again. He felt that Song Qingluo’s words seemed to hide some other meaning, but he was too embarrassed to continue asking.
Song Qingluo was about to say something when his phone rang. He picked it up and took a look. His expression suddenly changed, he paused, and gave Lin Banxia a look to signal him to wait.
Lin Banxia rarely saw such an expression on Song Qingluo’s face, but it reminded him of the rainy night before they set off. Song Qingluo seemed to have spoken to that person with the same expression.
He didn’t know what was said on the other end of the phone. Song Qingluo’s expression became more and more solemn, and finally he said solemnly: “I’ll be back soon. You try to… delay it for a while.”
Then the call was hung up, and Lin Banxia said: “What happened?”
Song Qingluo said: “47777 is completely out of control.”
Lin Banxia remembered this number: “Out of control? 47777 is that heresy you called a dream?”
“That’s right.” Song Qingluo said, “It’s a…contagious dream.” He looked at his phone and said decisively, “I have to go back.”
Lin Banxia nodded quickly: “Okay, then I’ll book the train ticket.”
The earliest train ticket was that evening. Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo returned to the hotel and checked out under the surprised eyes of the younger sister. The younger sister seemed reluctant to see them leave and asked them in a low voice if they would come back.
“I think so.” Lin Banxia said with a smile, “My parents are buried here. I will still come back to see them after a few years.”
“Okay.” The little girl said, “You must be… happy.” She wiped the corners of her eyes, not knowing what strange plot had come up with in her mind.
Lin Banxia originally wanted to explain, but Song Qingluo was in a hurry and had already dragged his luggage out. He didn’t want to waste any more time, so he waved to the little girl and hurriedly followed.
The two took the bus to the train station. Song Qingluo was communicating with people on his mobile phone all the way. It seemed that the situation was very bad, otherwise Song Qingluo would not behave like this.
Lin Banxia sat next to him holding a box with small flowers and did not dare to disturb him. It was not until the two of them got on the train that Song Qingluo put down his phone and let out a long sigh.
Lin Banxia asked: “Is it serious?”
“It’s very serious.” Song Qingluo pinched the corners of his eyes and seemed to be in a bad mood, “Li Su and the others are also involved. This is the second wave of monitors who have been involved…”
Lin Banxia asked doubtfully: “Where is the first wave?”
Song Qingluo said: “Dead.”
Lin Banxia: “…”
Song Qingluo said: “Three monitors, six recorders, the whole group was wiped out.” He raised his head and looked at the sky outside the window. The sky was still bright at this time, and the crimson sunset covered the blue sky. He liked sunny days and hated rain, but there were some things that could be avoided without hating it.
The atmosphere that followed was a bit solemn. Song Qingluo was on the phone constantly, but his mood was relatively calm most of the time. Lin Banxia was leaning next to him with nothing to do. After simply eating a lunch which he bought at the station a little further back, he leaned against the window and began to doze off. Unknowingly, he fell asleep…until a crash of thunder suddenly sounded above his head. The rumbling thunder woke Lin Banxia. He opened his eyes and found that it had started raining heavily outside the window at some point. The overwhelming rain curtain almost covered everything he could see. It shrouded the whole world in darkness that made it difficult to see the horizon.
Song Qingluo had disappeared from next to him. Lin Banxia thought that he might have gone to the toilet, so he didn’t question it. He raised his hand and looked at the time. It was six o’clock in the morning. It seemed that the sun should be dawning, but there were only dark clouds. Living in Chaoyang, the rain was really heavy, and he didn’t know when it would stop. Lin Banxia took out his phone and looked at the weather forecast for the past few days. He was surprised to find that from the day he and Song Qingluo returned to their hometown, the rain in the city never stopped. In total, it had been raining for three full days. Ji Leshui even sent several messages complaining about this in his WeChat Moments, but Lin Banxia didn’t pay attention at the time, thinking that Ji Leshui was exaggerating.
Most rains in summer were violent and short-lived. Only in rare cases would there be continuous heavy rains. Heavy rains usually brought a huge burden to the entire city. Lin Banxia had never seen this kind of extreme weather since he had moved to the city, and he didn’t know what the city was like now. He reckoned that many underground garages must have been damaged.
Lin Banxia was thinking this when Song Qingluo came back. He said smoothly: “It seems to have been raining at home. It has been raining for several days. I don’t know when it will stop.”
Song Qingluo glanced at Lin Banxia and said in a hoarse voice, “It can’t stop.”
Lin Banxia asked “Huh?” in confusion. Song Qingluo’s tone was a little too sure, but he remembered that Song Qingluo also said it was going to rain when they had barbecue previously, and the rain… It fell almost immediately. Did this rain have something to do with Song Qingluo and the others?
Lin Banxia was full of doubts but seeing that Song Qingluo had no intention of explaining, he didn’t ask further. After all, there were some things that Song Qingluo didn’t say because it was inconvenient.
After several long hours in the heavy rain, the slow train finally entered the station. There was already someone waiting for Song Qingluo outside the station. He did not recognize the driver, but Lin Banxia had an impression of the person next to the driver. It was the young man who was talking to Song Qingluo downstairs on that rainy night.
He was not wearing a raincoat, and his slender body was huddled on the passenger seat. There was almost no trace of blood on his young face, which was different from Song Qingluo’s healthy white porcelain color. His lips were pale, and they were vaguely… Lin Banxia thought of the dead people he had seen.
“How much time is left?” Song Qingluo asked immediately after getting into the car.
The man said, “Seven days.”
Song Qingluo said: “The limit?”
The man said: “The limit.”
Song Qingluo exhaled and said, “Do you have the information? I didn’t bring these things with me when I went out.”
The man threw a bag of things from the passenger seat. After Song Qingluo opened it for inspection, he handed it to Lin Banxia and said, “You take a look first.”
Lin Banxia hummed, took it, and looked at it carefully.
Although Song Qingluo mentioned a few words about 47777 before, Lin Banxia didn’t understand it. To be precise, he only knew that it was a dream. Could dreams be heretical? Lin Banxia was very confused.
He opened the information and soon saw the information about 47777. The more he looked at it, the more frightened he became, and he even gasped involuntarily.
The heresy 47777 was indeed just a dream, but it was a dream that could be contagious.
When it was first discovered, a family suddenly fell into a deep sleep, and then it spread from one floor to another. At first, officials thought it was some kind of infectious disease or gas leak, but after investigation, they quickly realized that something was wrong. At the same time, the unsuspecting investigators also fell asleep.
This slumber lasted for three days, and after three days, other changes occurred.
Of the three hundred people who fell asleep, 299 died suddenly, and only one person woke up. It was a watcher. When he woke up, he began to claim that he had sealed this heretical object and explained that this heretical object was just a dream.
However, the monitor did not remember the content of the dream, and his mental state became extremely chaotic. Along with the behavior of self-mutilation, he ended his life with a chopstick on the 21st day after waking up. He inserted the chopsticks through his nose and directly into his brain.
After that, this dream appeared several times, and monitors continued to try to capture it, but most of them failed. Until last summer, a powerful monitor came out and actually brought out a black box from the dream that was exactly the same as in reality. The black box showed that the dream had indeed been sealed. At this point, this heretical thing also received its own number, 47777. It was a very special number.
After a long period of observation, the data showed that the dreams had a certain length and pattern, and the pattern of length actually came from the weather. As long as you were at a certain distance from the dreamer, you would also feel extremely sleepy. As long as you fell asleep, you would be brought into the dream. When the dream first appears, it would be a rainy day. As soon as the rain stopped, the people who fell into the dream would either wake up or die.
Data showed that most people who entered died and there were only a handful of survivors. The biggest clue about the dream was the monitor who sealed the dream away. Lin Banxia thought he should know something, but after looking through the information, he found that there was very little information about the monitor.
He was a little surprised and asked, “Why is there so little information about this monitor?”
Song Qingluo was silent for a moment: “Because he was removed from the list.”
Lin Banxia was stunned: “Removed? Why?”
“He killed someone.” The young man’s voice came from the passenger seat. It was a little hoarse, so it was incompatible with his immature face. He turned his head, “I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I? My name is Bai Luze. I know your name is Lin Banxia, you are very famous here.”
Shen Junyan had said this before, so after hearing it again, Lin Banxia was not very surprised, but felt a little embarrassed, and said: “Hello.”
“Yes.” Bai Luze said, “That monitor used to be my partner. There are not many clues with him, so there is no need to spend too much time on him.”
When Lin Banxia heard this, he was a little surprised: “Have you… gone in?”
“No.” Bai Luze said, “He went in alone, and as soon as he came out, he immediately forgot all about the dream and couldn’t remember anything.” His tone sounded quite understated, but Lin Banxia could clearly feel that his eyes were dimming.
“He later quit his job as a monitor,” said Bai Luze, “so there are very few clues about him.”
Lin Banxia said: “Why did the sealed heresy come out again?”
Bai Luze said: “It failed during the stress release.”
Lin Banxia: “How did they relieve its stress?”
Bai Luze smiled: “They always have a way, but this time there were some accidents, so the situation went out of control. Fortunately, the environment chosen at that time was quite special, so it is still within control… It’s just that time is not enough. There’s not much time left, and it can’t last that long.”
Lin Banxia was stunned: “Can’t hold on…?” He suddenly felt something, thinking of the warning Song Qingluo gave him that day, and then thinking of the continuous rain in the past few days, he showed an amazed look, “You can control it with the rain?”
“Yeah.” Bai Luze hummed.
Lin Banxia exclaimed in surprise: “Isn’t this too awesome?”
Bai Luze smiled and did not respond.
Song Qingluo had been silent, staring at the heavy rain outside the window with half-lidded eyes.
The car drove forward, not in the direction of going home. It passed through the bustling urban area and then drove onto the highway. Under the pouring rain, they drove as fast as possible.
After about another four or five hours, the car finally slowed down. The surrounding area was a wasteland with no trace of human activity. In the middle of the wasteland, there stood a black building, almost blending in with the dim sky in the distance.
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