NOVPUBLiu Yi, in smart casual, walked out of the room. Her hair was tousled. She hugged Gao Ming, enveloping him with warmth.
“Why didn’t you answer your phone? I thought something happened to you!” There was blame in her tone, but that was overshadowed by concern. She was mad, but her anger disappeared when she saw Gao Ming.
“I found a new job today. I will find a way to pay the house loan.” Gao Ming sent the money Immortal Pharma gave him to Liu Yi.
After Liu Yi received the notification, Liu Yi was startled. “How did you earn two thousand in one day? Gao Ming, we can’t do anything illegal! You are a hero. You can’t ruin yourself for money!”
“What are you talking about?” Gao Ming wanted to tell Liu Yi about the brain realm game, but considering the contract he had unwittingly signed and the danger he might face in the game, he decided to hide the truth.
Gao Ming put down Liu Yi. He entered the room and saw Fa Cai playing with his slippers. The cat didn’t mind if the family was rich or poor.
After washing his hands, Gao Ming started to change. Liu Yi wanted to know more about Gao Ming’s days. Fa Cai bounced behind Liu Yi. The family of three bounced around the small house like a train.
Gao Ming didn’t know how to answer Liu Yi. For most of them, he could only smile. Strangely enough, the negative emotions he felt started to fade away. The brain realm game exhausted one’s mind greatly. Gao Ming didn’t even change into his pyjamas and fell asleep.
Liu Yi, who was watching a movie on her phone, heard Fa Cai meowing. She turned and realised the kitten was burrowing beside Gao Ming’s head, looking for a comfortable position to fall asleep.
“Asleep already?” Seeing this scene, Liu Yi switched off her phone and smiled lightly.
After Gao Ming came back, the place felt like home. It was normal but sweet.
Liu Yi put away her phone and sidled to the bed. She leaned down and looked at the sleeping Gao Ming.
“Good night.”
In the dream, Gao Ming’s consciousness kept sinking. He could hear a voice deep underground calling him. He knew he was dreaming, but he couldn’t wake up. Strangely enough, he was still holding the two bloody seeds in his hands.
“What is happening?”
Gao Ming twitched his nostrils, and he smelled the fragrance of meat. As he followed the fragrance, the land morphed into the sea. The sea turned into the night sky. Gao Ming saw a city made of flesh and meat. There was a giant tree that connected all the nightmares in the middle of this city. No one knew what the giant tree was called. However, once Gao Ming arrived, the giant tree roots started to absorb the blood and dirt. The leaves turned red. The tree turned from green to red. The tree became more like a blood and flesh monster!
The giant tree became more distorted and scary. Every leaf became a despairing human face. They were all people killed by Gao Ming. They growled at Gao Ming.
“Fate has arranged everything! Everyone died because of you! You destroyed the whole city for the sake of ‘freedom’. You are the killer!”
The shrill voices came from all sides. The tree rapidly wilted. The roots collapsed and smashed the nearby buildings.
“Gao Ming! Gao Ming!”
In the middle of the hollow tree, Gao Ming saw a broken altar. It was the home of a God with four faces and eight arms. When he approached, the Demon God opened his eyes. The four faces took on Gao Ming’s appearance. Their heartbeats aligned. In other words, they shared the same heart.
“The memory is hidden in the flesh! Remember it! You don’t have much time left!”
God’s voice overwhelmed all the screams. The four faces kept approaching until they drilled into Gao Ming’s body.
Gao Ming jumped up from his sleep. He was covered in cold sweat. He breathed loudly. He woke up Liu Yi.
“Did you have a nightmare?” Liu Yi patted him lightly.
“It was not a nightmare. It was someone trying to tell me something through the dream.” Gao Ming entered the bathroom to wash his face. He saw his reflection and remembered the thing that happened when he showered a few days ago. In the blurry mist, his reflection was covered in scars and incantations.
“Can I not tell the real world anymore, or are the two worlds connected?”
When he returned to the bed, it was already late midnight. He tossed and turned but couldn’t sleep. He took out the phone he brought back from the hospital. This phone was on him before he encountered the car accident. The model was old, but the quality was good. It could still be used. Gao Ming wanted to go onto the internet to search for information about the nightmare. However, he somehow entered a video platform and saw someone livestreaming a ghost encounter.
The stream had around ten viewers but the livestreamer was really into it. His reaction was as good as that of the great actor Bai Xian.
However, he didn’t communicate with chat. He didn’t dare to be distracted.
The old chatters didn’t harass him. They patiently explained to the new chatters what was happening. The livestreamer was inside an abandoned hotel where a murder had once occurred. He was trying ten methods to encounter the ghost.
The livestreamer was well-prepared. His first four methods didn’t work. When he tried the fifth method, the man placed willow leaves over his eyes. The bowls with white rice suddenly cracked. The livestreamer turned to look at the open door and stared at the dark corridor.
Sweat slid down his cheeks. The livestreamer saw something beyond the camera. His expression was coloured with fear as if he really saw something.
Gao Ming heard a strange sound too. It was like a giant spider crawling in the dark.
“It is coming…” This was the first time the man spoke. He turned to stare at the camera. “If I didn’t live until dawn, the next person to enter the dark night will be chosen from one of you.”
Then, the man was pulled into the darkness and disappeared from the screen.
The intense footsteps sounded. The livestream was cut off. The strangest thing was that even after Gao Ming was kicked out of the livestream, the footsteps still echoed in his ears.
He turned to look behind him. The wall was adjacent to the neighbour’s home. That house had been abandoned for years already.
“Is that real or fake?”
