"Barley: I've been having a strange dream for the past few days …"
The dark night enveloped Eastern State City. In this bustling city, the citizens were busy with their own business.
After a day of work, Chen Wenwei returned to the apartment he shared with his friends. It was a small room of five square meters.
He was the kind of person who would not stand out even if he was thrown into a sea of people. He went to university at Eastern State, majoring in accounting. After graduation, he found a job at a private company. The salary was not high, but he was as busy as a dog.
His girlfriend from university had broken up not long after graduation two years ago. Now, he would occasionally initiate awkward conversations with one of the girls at work, but she would ignore him.
Chen Wenwei knew that his appearance was mediocre, he had no money, and he did not know how to make a girl happy. This situation was normal.
The room was small. After placing a bed and a study table, there was nothing else. Thankfully, the rent was not expensive, and it was a twenty-fifth floor apartment with a bay window.
Every day after work, Chen Wenwei would sit on the windowsill and play with his phone. He would look at the night sky outside to relieve the stress of the day.
At this time, he would sit on the windowsill and chat with a friend. The friend was his university classmate, an old friend who also worked at Eastern State. They would chat occasionally.
Chen Wenwei looked at the message and casually replied with a sentence on his phone.
"Wenwei: What dream?"
After replying to the other messages, he went to make himself a bowl of instant noodles. It had been a long time since he last went out for a meal. Living alone in the big city was not easy. Everything was expensive. He only earned six thousand a month. After deducting the rent, utilities, and living expenses, he only had two to three thousand left.
And this was under the condition that he was living a frugal life. At this rate, it would take him another ten years to save enough for a down payment for a small apartment in a small town.
Chen Wenwei had already decided to quit and return to his hometown in town. The cost of living here was too high.
Actually, he should have returned to his hometown after graduation, but if he did not stay in this big city for a few more years, he would not be satisfied.
After making the instant noodles in the public kitchen, Chen Wenwei carried it back to his room. He ate it on the windowsill while looking at his phone. Barley had already sent him a lot of messages.
[Barley: I dreamt that I was on a deserted island. There were strange noises. I walked forward, and the feeling was strange. It felt like I was awake but in a daze. As I walked, I saw a big house in front of me. There was a strange old man outside the house, and then I woke up.
Barley: I had this dream a few days ago. Ever since the first time, I've been having this dream every night, and every time I wake up, it's always at three in the morning …
Barley: "I haven't watched any horror movies recently. I just read a post online about having this weird dream, and I felt like I was infected."
Barley: "Oh, right. After I woke up, I heard someone knocking on the window. It's really creepy."
Chen Wenwei gulped down a mouthful of noodles and typed, "You're bullshitting," into WeChat. Just as he was about to send the message, he suddenly had a strange feeling. Big Mai was not the type of person who liked to crack jokes like this … He deleted the sentence and retyped, "Really? You've been under a lot of pressure lately. You're probably suffering from internal heat. "
His phone vibrated, and there was a new message on WeChat.
[Barley: Really. Sigh, I've been feeling a lot less energetic these days. I think I need to go to the hospital to get some sleeping pills.]
If this was serious, Chen Wenwei had no idea what to do. He typed, "I heard that people who are under a lot of pressure will have nightmares. You should go to the hospital and get it checked out."
[Barley: I'm a little scared. Maybe it's some kind of illness. My head has been hurting for the past two days, and I can't drink enough water.]
"I think it's just pressure. It's okay. Don't scare yourself," Chen Wenwei replied again.
After eating the instant noodles, he found some clothes and went to take a shower. He was not too worried about this matter. Mai Lei must be under a lot of pressure and nervous. The worse he slept, the more nervous he would be. It was a vicious cycle. But then again, who wouldn't be under a lot of pressure now?
After the shower, Chen Wenwei lay on the bed and played with his phone. He chatted with his family for a while. His mother sent him some pictures of the rape they planted at home.
After that, he watched some videos. Time passed in the blink of an eye. It was already past eleven at night.
Chen Wenwei got up and went to the public bathroom to brush his teeth. When he came back, he lay down and slept.
After a day of work, he was physically and mentally exhausted. Not long after he closed his eyes, he drifted into a dream.
Silence, nothingness. His surroundings were floating, and light and shadows were tumbling.
In a hazy state, Chen Wenwei felt that he had arrived at a strange place.
Seawater. He was surrounded by endless seawater, abandoned land, unkempt weeds, and twisted trees. There seemed to be a mountain in the distance.
He could not see it clearly. Everything was covered with a layer of gray like a black and white photo. There was a strange low voice that seemed to be calling him …
There was an indescribable smell in the air. The soil under his feet was heavy. Chen Wenwei walked forward in a hazy state. He seemed to see a building in front of him. Was it an old and dilapidated house? Why could he not see it clearly? It seemed like there was a black figure standing there …
Chen Wenwei walked forward step by step. His footsteps did not seem to belong to him anymore. They gradually became floating, and the energy in his body dissipated like smoke.
The calling was getting closer and closer. Chen Wenwei saw the figure looking at him. It was the face of an old man. It was so old that it was like the bark of a tree, like the cracked earth …
But he could not see the old man's eyes. They were like a mass of indescribable chaos.
"74 …" The old man slowly said the number to him.
Suddenly, Chen Wenwei woke up with a start. His muscles were twitching. Before he opened his eyes, there was only darkness before him.
But he had already realized that it was a dream, a dream …
But wasn't this dream the strange island dream that Mai Lei said he had every night?
This thought made Chen Wenwei's hair stand on end. He also felt his mouth go dry like he had been deprived of water for several days.
How could this be … Chen Wenwei opened his eyes in shock and saw the alarm clock on the table beside his bed. It was 3: 02 am.
He was instantly confused. It was already 3 am? He had just fallen asleep, how could it be 3 am already?
Then he remembered that Mai Lei said every time he woke up from a nightmare, it was 3 am …
Chen Wenwei frowned and looked around. There was only dead silence in the cramped room. In the darkness, everything that was familiar to him was shrouded in shadows.
He then looked at the curtained window less than two meters away. The window was closed, so no wind could blow in.
But for some reason, Chen Wenwei seemed to see the curtains shaking slightly, and there seemed to be something outside the window …
His heart was already in his throat. Looking at the window that was almost right next to him, he unconsciously held his breath and did not dare to move.
Tap tap, tap tap.
The sound of knocking on the window suddenly came faintly. This was the 25th floor, and there was no balcony or any other place to stand outside the window.
"…" Chen Wenwei's heart throbbed with pain. His whole body was numb and sore like he had fallen into a frozen lake. Gradually, he found it hard to breathe.
What, what is going on? Why is this happening to me … Am I still in another nightmare?
Mai Lei said that after the first time he had that strange dream, he would have it every night …
Would it be the same for him?
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