Chapter 68 Dream
Song Qingluo was angry as he snatched the pen from Lin Banxia’s hand, and said angrily: “What are you doing??” The bright red blood continued to flow from Lin Banxia’s arm, coating Song Qingluo’s palm.
Lin Banxia seemed unaware. He looked at Song Qingluo in front of him with a complicated expression, raised his arm that was still in pain, and gently touched Song Qingluo’s cheek. It feels so real, soft and warm, with the unique texture of skin. Is this really a dream? Lin Banxia thought, or rather, did he actually wake up and what he saw previously was just an illusion?
This thought flashed through Lin Banxia’s mind. Fortunately, he quickly suppressed this thought, looked around, and walked outside in silence.
Song Qingluo naturally wanted to stop Lin Banxia, but Lin Banxia whispered to him: “Go away.”
Song Qingluo’s expression was frozen: “Your hand is still bleeding.”
“Then let it bleed.” Lin Banxia said, “It’s a small injury, but it won’t kill me.”
Song Qingluo: “…”
Perhaps because he was stung by the cold look in Lin Banxia’s eyes, Song Qingluo did not stop him anymore and allowed Lin Banxia to leave.
Lin Banxia did not go to the classroom, but went directly back to the dormitory. He remembered that the dormitory was where he fell asleep on the first floor of the dream, so he didn’t know if the situation there would be any different from the surroundings.
Returning to the dormitory, Lin Banxia checked every corner of the room and found that the furnishings inside were exactly the same as in his memory, but thinking about it, this was normal because where he was now was his dream, and dreams were composed of memories, so all the furnishings inside should naturally match his memory.
Lin Banxia sat in the dormitory and thought for a while, then reached out and rummaged around on the desk, and quickly found what he wanted – a pencil sharpener.
One cut, two cuts… Soon there were many more wounds on Lin Banxia’s arm. The pain was really scary. In the end, Lin Banxia was covered in cold sweat from the pain, but it was not enough, not enough at all. The more it hurt, the clearer his mind became. Countless thoughts were echoing in his mind regarding how to get out of there. Song Qingluo once said that in the deepest part of his memory, he saw people who should not exist, and even had conversations with them. Did this mean that there are flaws in the so-called dreams?
When Lin Banxia stopped, his arm was already a bloody mess, but he didn’t care. He picked up a tissue, wiped the blood from the table, pulled out a towel, and bandaged his hand haphazardly. He got up and planned to leave, but when he walked to the door, he heard a few soft noises from the cabinet. The sound was very soft, but it was still very harsh in the silent bedroom. Lin Banxia stopped and looked back.
The cabinet door was closed, and the space inside was very small. He didn’t know what was making the sound. Lin Banxia hesitated for a moment, but chose to turn back. He walked to the cabinet, raised his hand and gently opened the cabinet door.
As soon as the cabinet door opened, Lin Banxia saw a familiar little girl. She still had the same cute face and the same twisted posture, but at this time, she did not scare Lin Banxia at all. On the contrary, she gave rise to a sense of intimacy.
“Brother…” the little girl cried out in a milky voice, which reminded Lin Banxia of soft and sweet toffee. He inexplicably felt that he should know her and even call her by her name, but the call wouldn’t come to his mouth. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t call out.
“Brother.” The little girl called again.
Lin Banxia said: “Did you recognise the wrong person? I don’t seem to know you?”
“Brother knows Xiaohua.” The little girl lowered her voice, “Brother, be careful, it is nearby.”
Lin Banxia said: “What?” It turned out that the girl’s name was Xiaohua.
The little girl said, “The thing.” She said softly, “The thing that will make you forget about Xiaohua.”
Lin Banxia felt something and said, “How do I leave from here?”
The little girl said: “Either kill it or kill yourself.” After she said this, her body began to twist, and then turned into hazy nothingness in front of Lin Banxia’s eyes.
Lin Banxia lowered his head and saw his arm covered with scars. According to the little girl, the thing that pulled them into the dream most likely existed in human form. In other words, it may be around you. While thinking, there was a noise outside the door. It turned out that several roommates had returned. However, when he saw them, Lin Banxia was slightly stunned because he actually saw Jiang Xin in the crowd. The roommate who should have died long ago.
Jiang Xin didn’t notice anything wrong with him, nor did he notice that Lin Banxia was looking at him strangely. He greeted Lin Banxia with a smile and sat on his bed. Lin Banxia stared at him, lost in thought… Lin Banxia had done this countless times before, but the girl who called herself Xiaohua gave Lin Banxia some other inspirations.
Lin Banxia’s eyes fell on the faces of his roommates. He knew very well that he was dreaming, but looking at their vivid expressions and words, he still felt a little hesitant. Nevertheless, Lin Banxia only hesitated for a moment. He thought of something, and his shaken heart suddenly became firm. He returned to his desk, picked up a small knife and slowly walked towards Jiang Xin.
He had no extra time to waste. Lin Banxia knew very well that if Song Qingluo’s statement was true, then in a while, over thirty or so people would be slaughtered. By then, everything was irreversible, Lin Banxia thought, he couldn’t bear the continued wounds on the Song Qingluo he knew, and dreaded him choosing to commit suicide like the other victims.
Facing a person who was as real as reality, even though he knew he was already dead, Lin Banxia still struggled a little in his heart. He tried hard to suppress the discomfort, took a deep breath, leaned down, and sliced with the blade.
The next moment, there was a wound on Jiang Xin’s fragile neck. The wound did not shed blood like a human would, but instead overflowed with a shadow and pinpricks of starlight. The shadow kept pouring out like a tide, but in an instant, it flooded the entire dormitory.
Lin Banxia stood among them, and was naturally covered by the shadows. Everything around him began to twist and turn again. Lin Banxia’s feet were in the air, as if he had fallen from a high place. Before he fell, he saw a figure emerging from the depths of the shadows. A thing as big as a mountain. Before he could see what it looked like clearly, a powerful sense of weightlessness and rich darkness had already swept across Lin Banxia’s consciousness.
Lin Banxia’s body trembled violently, and then he took a long breath, as if a person who had been underwater for a long time finally took his first breath of oxygen. He coughed violently, his thin body shaking like a leaf in the wind, and his lungs were about to be coughed out together.
Lin Banxia’s coughing woke up his roommate, and someone asked him in a daze what was wrong and if he felt uncomfortable.
He responded vaguely: “It’s okay, I just had a nightmare.”
“Oh.” My roommate said, “Be careful not to hurt your throat.”
“Okay.” Lin Banxia said.
After speaking, Lin Banxia glanced to his side. Jiang Xin’s former bed was just to his lower right. It was empty and there was nothing there.
Lin Banxia rolled up his sleeves again, and sure enough he didn’t see the wounds. He lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, then suddenly turned over and got out of bed, turned on the lamp and searched on the table, and soon found what he was looking for. It was the same sharp blade.
Staring at the blade, Lin Banxia understood exactly why so many people committed suicide. Because of the pain, they could not judge the boundaries between reality and illusion. It seemed that only death could verify the so-called conjecture…whether it was his own or another’s.
After a moment of hesitation, Lin Banxia put down the blade. He had realized that he could no longer use pain as a criterion, so how could he know where he was? Lin Banxia became a little anxious. He looked around, and finally his eyes rested on the wardrobe in the dormitory.
Somehow, Lin Banxia slowly walked to the closet and stretched out his hand to pull open the closet door.
The moment he pulled away; he was not surprised to see the little girl curled up in the closet. Although the little girl had a twisted figure, her face was very cute. After making eye contact with Lin Banxia, she muttered. He said: “How did brother know I’m in here?”
Of course Lin Banxia didn’t know she was inside. He just wanted to give it a try, but he didn’t expect her to actually be there. The moment he saw the little girl, his inner anxiety calmed down. If he had to describe it, it was as if a missing part of his body had been perfectly filled.
Lin Banxia said: “Are we still dreaming?”
“Of course.” Xiaohua said, “Of course you are still dreaming.”
Song Qingluo in the dream was indeed not lying. Lin Banxia pondered for a moment: “Is this the first level of dreamland?”
Xiao Hua said: “I don’t know about this.” She took a deep breath, as if she was smelling something, “But it is far away from you now, so Xiaohua dares to come out to find you.”
“It?” Lin Banxia asked, “What exactly is it?”
“It is the dream and the creator.” Xiaohua said, “It is also the fulcrum of the whole world.”
Lin Banxia wanted to ask again, but the confused voice of his roommate sounded behind him. The roommate asked: “Lin Banxia, are you okay? Who are you talking to?”
Lin Banxia turned to look at his roommate and said, “No one, I was just talking to myself.”
The roommate was a little scared by Lin Banxia’s actions, and muttered: “Are you really okay? Jiang Xin looked just like you before the accident…” After he finished speaking, he regretted a little, probably because he was afraid that Lin Banxia would treat him how Jiang Xin treated Lin Banxia. He said with a dry smile, “I was just kidding, please don’t take it to heart.”
Lin Banxia said: “It’s okay.”
When he looked back, the girl Xiaohua in the cabinet had disappeared.
Lin Banxia closed the cabinet door, turned around and climbed onto the bed. He couldn’t fall asleep either, so he just stared at the ceiling in a daze. In fact, to a certain extent, what the roommate said did make sense. He didn’t know if other people could see Xiaohua. If Xiaohua was actually an illusion that only he could see, wouldn’t it mean that his mental state was seriously deteriorating? Lin Banxia thought, but he didn’t want to be a person who doubted everything. If a person no longer believed everything he saw and heard, then this person was not far from going crazy.
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