Is It a Dream, or a World Called Dream

After Qin Luming left, Che Yun, who had been dancing to "Mangzhong," stopped and turned off the music. She felt her friends' gazes focused on Qin Luming's retreating back, and they all seemed eager to roast him.

"That guy is so professional. I feel like if I partnered with him for a livestream, he could really pull the wool over people's eyes," Brother Paris analyzed with his keen eye for livestreams.

"This kid is a bit of a loner. Doesn't seem like the type to partner up," one of Brother Paris's viewers commented.

"Oh, come on. That guy's probably gay. If you partner with him, be careful of your backside," Yang Xiaoyan said, then covered her mouth and giggled.

"I only like people who are good-looking. It doesn't matter if they're male or female!" Brother Paris joked. "If this guy put on a dress, I'd guarantee he wouldn't be able to get down the mountain tomorrow."

Yang Xiaoyan and the two girls Qin Luming had rejected all smiled knowingly, with a hint of anticipation. It would indeed be quite interesting if that happened.

"Alright, he did help us, so let's stop talking about him behind his back," Che Yun chided her friends. "Come on, Xiaoyan, give us a dance."

"You got it!" Yang Xiaoyan cheerfully stood up. She was quite confident in her waist and hip lines. She snapped her fingers: "Music!"

Qin Luming circled the area with a flashlight, then went to turn on the surveillance system to officially start filming any activity around the dam. After checking that the recording was normal, Qin Luming walked back and got into his tent, planning to write a bit more while he still felt inspired.

What a diligent day. Qin Luming, having already written two thousand words, started typing with a sense of satisfaction, feeling he weighed at least two hundred pounds.

It was late into the night before he knew it. Qin Luming turned off his computer, ready to sleep. His tent was gently tapped a few times, and he heard a girl's voice: "Handsome, are you asleep?"

Qin Luming crawled to the tent entrance, unfastened the inner buckle, and zipped it down. He saw it was the girl named Che Yun outside the tent.

She was also the only girl who hadn't asked Qin Luming for his WeChat ID.

"No, what's up?" Qin Luming asked. It seemed she had heeded his earlier warning and hadn't triggered the tripwires he had set up.

"I was originally sharing a tent with Yang Xiaoyan, but she went to Brother Paris's tent," Che Yun said hesitantly, her eyes carefully observing his expression, looking a bit timid.

"Oh," Qin Luming nodded.

"They... they were making quite a bit of noise..." Che Yun blinked, her long eyelashes fluttering. She gently stroked her hair and shyly lowered her head. "And I don't know if Yang Xiaoyan will come back. I'll be scared if I stay here alone at night."

"Aren't there two other girls? Why don't you squeeze in with them?" Qin Luming suggested patiently, thinking they were quite foolish.

"They've also switched tents... Everyone understands the unspoken rules of these activities. They must be a perk Brother Paris prepared for two of his viewers. Brother Paris has also promised to take them along for livestreams in the future," Che Yun said, looking embarrassed and troubled. "I'm the only one left. Could you... let me stay in your tent for a while? I'll go back once Yang Xiaoyan returns to her tent."

"What if she never comes back?" Qin Luming countered.

Che Yun was taken aback. Why was this person so uncooperative?

"If she doesn't come back, you expect to stay in my tent all night? Sorry, I'm used to sleeping alone. I don't feel safe with someone next to me," Qin Luming said, then zipped up the tent.

Che Yun stared at the closed tent, dumbfounded. She incredulously ran her fingers through her scalp and long hair. This man was truly... all looks and no substance. It seemed he really was a closeted gay man!

Another shallow woman wanting his body. Qin Luming had no interest in such supposed romantic encounters.

Frankly, what kind of romantic encounter was this? His face and physique were better than hers. It was more like she was the one seeking a romantic encounter with him.

Qin Luming recalled a term often mentioned by some novel readers: "refusing women." Qin Luming found it amusing. Were men pigs? If something was on the menu, just eat it. Refusing these women was the frustrating point of the novels, wasn't it?

Qin Luming then thought of Gu Qing'an. A woman as excellent as Zhou Nan, based on the novel's description, Gu Qing'an would likely have wanted to pursue her. But what happened?

Lost in these thoughts, Qin Luming picked up his flashlight again, opened the tent, and shone it towards the dam for a few glances. The quiet dam seemed like an eternal landscape, like the mountains. In the night breeze, he could faintly hear the murmuring sound of flowing water. Qin Luming didn't perk up his ears to confirm any sounds from Brother Paris's tent. He turned, bent over, and retreated into his own tent, lying down.

"Ah!"

Qin Luming felt like a long time had passed after he lay down in the tent. He suddenly woke up, looked at the abyss before him, and let out a startled cry.

He was no longer on the mountaintop in the Huangtulian area. Before him was not the majestic dam, but a bottomless abyss.

"The starry sky of every world is an abyss."

Qin Luming remembered. The abyss before him was exactly what had appeared in his dream last night.

What was originally a galaxy flowing for billions of miles, after supporting the snow-capped mountains that held up the sky and earth, had formed an endless abyss, stretching towards the void center that seemed to devour many worlds.

Qin Luming was certain this was a dream, even a continuation of last night's dream.

He was still standing before the abyss. Last night, at this moment, a voice had tempted him, and he had taken a step into the abyss, then woken up.

Now, if he were to step into this abyss on his own, would he wake up?

Even knowing he was in a dream, Qin Luming dared not act rashly. Logically, actions in a dream were not controlled by one's reason, yet he seemed to be able to maintain his rationality?

So, was his current self the sober self, or the self within the dream who thought he was maintaining rationality?

Qin Luming couldn't figure it out, so he dared not step into the abyss even more. He even thought of that unlucky fellow Gu Qing'an again.

If he stepped into this abyss, would he, like Gu Qing'an, be transmigrated to another world? And his body in the real world would be lying in the tent on the Huangtulian mountaintop, in a coma like a vegetable?

If he was lucky, Yang Xiaoyan's group would notice something was wrong and call the police or something. If he was unlucky, they wouldn't bother to open his tent and just head down the mountain. Then, who knew when his body would be discovered there.

Without proper care, he would likely die there, and Zuozuo and Caicai would perish with him.

If he transmigrated entirely, that would be better, but he still had friends and family in the real world whom he couldn't bear to leave.

The reason for such thoughts was that the abyss before him contained countless worlds. Qin Luming could see clusters of brilliant galaxies, with their swirling arms thick with nebulae and bursting with immense energy, where countless young stars were being born. As he gazed, he could find worlds not necessarily composed of planetary environments, containing countless living beings.

He stood there, like a god scrutinizing countless worlds, casting his gaze upon the masses in those worlds. Some of these beings looked like human beings on Earth, while others were enormous, easily crossing mountains and rivers with their strides, breathing out lightning and thunder. There were even some races with seemingly magical talents who, from birth, rushed into the starry sky, scattering to various planets separated by light-years, and began to absorb the energy of those planets.

Why was he dreaming of these things? Why had he been having such dreams for two consecutive nights? Why could the dreams be so seamlessly connected?

Was this a dream, or a world called a dream?