"People are strangers when they meet for the first time, but acquaintances the second," as the saying goes. He Zheng and his stepmother never got along and had always been trying to avoid meeting her for all these years. On this day, he saw her more times than he had done in the past 20-plus years.
Just like the previous dream, this one started from He Zheng being on a plane as well. He didn"t know whether it was because that so-called Dream Eater had been injured by the man, but noticeably, its capability of creating a dream was somewhat weak. The cabin appeared very fragile, as if made of paper. When He Zheng, for the second time, saw Qiao Peiyu raise the urn containing his mother"s cremains, he was much more composed than he had been in the last dream.
"Cooperate with it." Abruptly, the man"s voice was heard in his mind. "Otherwise the dream will collapse."
Still angry about Zu Zhichong"s knocking him out, He Zheng ignored the voice.
He was supposed to be cooperative but he deliberately acted otherwise.
"You"re now in the dream created by the Dream Eater. If the dream collapse, your soul will be stranded here." The man"s voice sounded unworried, as if he was not at all disturbed by He Zheng"s uncooperative att.i.tude.
He Zheng was speechless with anger. "You old fox!" he thought resentfully.
He Zheng clenched his teeth in an effort to make himself look angry, and then yelled at "Qiao Peiyu", "What do you want to do? Give it back to me!"
With a hideous smile, Qiao Peiyu raised her head to look at He Zheng. "I don"t want to do anything. I just want to make sure that this woman cannot rest in peace after death."
He Zheng widened his eyes as Qiao Peiyu raised the urn and heavily threw it down to the floorboard.
"No!" He Zheng affectedly roared, and his voice cracked at the end of the long roar.
"Cry." The man"s voice was still calm.
He Zheng replied through gritted teeth, "Don"t push me."
The man kept silent.
Since his life was at the mercy of the man, He Zheng didn"t dare to act arrogantly. Fortunately, there were still some residual tears on his face. With no other choice, He Zheng forced a couple of tears, knelt down, gathered the cremains on the floorboard and started wailing.
"Do you hate her?"
The tempting voice was heard in his mind again.
At the very moment that the voice came, He Zheng heard the man chuckle, "I"ve got you."
The chuckle tinged with faint pleasure tugged at He Zheng"s heartstrings. Remarkably, it gave He Zheng a feeling that... that the man was attractive.
With that, He Zheng heard an anguished, explosive and utterly unhuman screech. For an instant, He Zheng felt as if his skull was about to be cleaved in two. Everything around him began to twist and blur. Finally, the whole seemingly fragile cabin turned into a cloud of black fog and disappeared from view...
He Zheng opened his eyes and observed that the man was holding something in his hand.
It was shadow-like black fog, which was gradually taking shape, struggling constantly. That thing had a giant body, but its neck was long and thin, with a beast head on the top of it.
Numerous thin offshoots sprouting from the gigantic body had penetrated the foreheads of sleeping pa.s.sengers like tubes. Except for the three people who were on their feet, all people on board were under the control of the Dream Eater, which was a horrifying and disgusting sight.
Surprisingly, with its neck grabbed by the man, the Dream Eater was not afraid. Instead, it kept struggling and roaring in the man"s hands.
"Was there a nauseating tube of this kind in my head as well?" Staring disgustedly at the Dream Eater in the man"s hands, He Zheng involuntarily stroked his smooth forehead.
Seeing this, the man unnoticeably curved the corners of his mouth and answered in a tone of voice as calm as usual, "There was no tube in your head."
He Zheng gave a long gasp of relief.
"He just opened its mouth and swallowed your head."
Speechless, He Zheng blushed scarlet with rage, which delighted the man further. "It turns out to be so interesting to play tricks on others," he thought amusedly.
"Eek? Chief, this Dream Eater is a little weird," said Zu Zhichong, who had previously blindsided He Zheng and had been scrutinizing the Dream Eater all along, a yellow Fu (1. Fu is a piece of rectangular paper on which magic figures are drawn by Taoist priests to invoke or expel spirits and bring good or ill fortune, something similar to a talisman) in his hand.
The man squinted his eyes with a look of total calmness, flicked a glance at He Zheng who seemed to be suffering from nausea, and then replied, "Yeah. It"s infected with demonic Qi."
"It"s so strange. A mere Dream Eater got infected with demonic Qi." Though somewhat confused, Zu Zhichong quickly made a series of mudras, uttering an incantation at an extremely fast speed.
"Four enlightened realms, the infinite heaven and earth, all G.o.ds bow before you, thunder is at your service. Ghosts and demons recoil, monsters and bogeys cower. Lend me your power. Bring the evil to its end!" Zu Zhichong seemed a man of mediocrity, but unexpectedly, when he finished the incantation, the struggling Dream Eater abruptly started trembling. A glare burst forth from his palm, amid which lightning could be faintly seen. The light was so dazzling that He Zheng was unable to keep his eyes open. Involuntarily, he twisted his head aside.
The Dream Eater suddenly let out an unreconciled long screech of despair. With that, it was struck by a flash of lightning emanating from the palm of Zu Zhichong, turned into a puff of smoke and soon dispersed.
When He Zheng felt that the glare had disappeared, he opened his eyes and found that everything had returned to normal. Though he didn"t know when, but the man had sat back in his seat, and Zu Zhichong was also sitting by his side listening to music with headphones in his ears. He Zheng was the only one standing on the spot, the lacquered wooden casket in his arms.
"Sir, is there anything I can do for you? The plane is about to descend. It"s very unsafe to stand." A stewardess walked over with a sweet smile on her face.
Stunned, He Zheng observed that all pa.s.sengers had already awoken. The plastic-faced woman sitting in front of him was complaining about the b.u.mpy flight.
He subconsciously turned his head aside to look at the man who was reading a magazine, then moved his eyes onto Zu Zhichong who was playing mobile games. Both of them looked normal and there was no trace whatsoever of the fact that they had just joined hands to kill a Dream Eater a moment ago.
"Sir, please sit back to your seat and buckle up."
He Zheng felt as if he was dreaming, but when he started walking, a sharp pain shot up the back of his neck. He Zheng was instantly on the alert, turned his head aside and darted a stare at Zu Zhichong.
As if having sensed his gaze, Zu Zhichong briefly lifted his eyes from his cellphone and then twisted his head aside to look at He Zheng. "What"s up, handsome? Is there a problem?"
He Zheng gazed at his smooth neck, the squeeze mark on the white neck of Zu Zhichong was nowhere to be seen.
The lips of He Zheng tightened into a thin line, suspicion rising in him.
"Did anything happen just now?"
"I just had a sleep. Did anything happen?" Zu Zhichong made a response in an earnest tone of voice, then looked at his Chief out of the corner of his eye.
He Zheng frowned deeply as anger welled up inside him. He was just about to take it out on Zu Zhichong when it suddenly occurred to him that Zu Zhichong addressed the man beside him as "Chief". He Zheng turned his head to the other side to look at the man.
"Hey," he called. Was that a dream? He Zheng"s mind was filled with suspicions.
The man slowly put down his magazine and tilted his head to look at him, seeming to be asking him why he called him.
On the sight of the man"s face, He Zheng recalled that a moment ago, the man told him the G.o.dd.a.m.n Dream Eater had once swallowed his whole head. A wave of nausea swept over him. After quite a while, he managed to fight down his urge and turned his head aside.
What he didn"t know was that a bland smile appeared on the man"s well-featured face when he turned his head aside.
Zu Zhichong saw that smile and he got gooseb.u.mps all over his body. "Goodness me. What a sick hobby Chief has."
Such was the semblance of normality in the cabin that it seemed as if nothing unusual had ever happened.
The translator has something to say:
Gosh!!!! Why is there so much dog food in these early chapters?!!!! I’m dying.