The Self in the Dream

"Are you just planning to deal with Wang Yizhi and the others? That's impossible. Could something have happened in the other rooms? I can't rule that out. If that's the case, things will get complicated. Schemes to sow discord among classmates… it's impossible to guard against."

Zhang Chen started to get agitated. If that were the case, if they wanted to leave here tomorrow, everything would be in someone else's control.

"Jia Xin is healing. I don't know if he's made any preparations for the dorms of the students from First High. When I wake up tomorrow, I'll first test Er Wa and Tan Fei. I'll put the people from First High aside for now. So many things have happened on the very first day. I should go to sleep and recharge."

Zhang Chen closed his eyes and fell asleep.

In his dream

Zhang Chen was driving an old-fashioned European sedan, with a beautiful foreign young woman sitting beside him. She looked very similar to the middle-aged woman in the ballet dress he had seen in the hall that evening. An old man, over fifty years old, sat in the back.

The car was driving through the fields, and the fertile farmland and dense forests around them clearly captivated him and the beautiful woman next to him. Thus, the car drove into a rural farmhouse.

He walked into a farmyard. A stout middle-aged man in the yard seemed to be negotiating something with him. After a while, many people rushed out of his yard, their faces angry, pointing at him with great dissatisfaction.

But he seemed indifferent to their words and actions, calling the stout man into a private room. He then took out stacks of silver notes from his bag and handed them to the middle-aged man.

The stout man first checked if the door was closed. After some polite refusal, he still put away the silver notes. After the man left, he said something to the people outside, and then the crowd that had surrounded them gradually dispersed.

He then drove the car, taking the woman, the old man, and the stout man to the front of a forest. At this moment, Zhang Chen immediately recognized that this forest was the place where they had gotten off the bus.

After a few words with the stout man, many workers holding axes arrived behind him and entered the forest. Of course, the stout man received more silver notes from him.

A few days passed. He took the old man and the woman into the forest, and the road they walked was the same road he and Er Wa had taken at noon.

Soon, everyone reached a clearing. Behind the clearing was a vast lake. The beautiful woman behind him seemed to like it very much, and she kissed his cheek. The old man behind him also nodded, greatly appreciating the natural scenery here. If he guessed correctly, this old man should be his or the woman's father.

To his left, many workers were chopping trees with felling axes. He walked over and said a few words to one of the people in charge, and also placed a lot of silver notes in his hand. The man looked at the silver notes with shining eyes, patted his chest with his right hand, and seemed to agree to something.

Within a few days, the person in charge, along with a large group of people, arrived at the clearing and began to build houses. They worked continuously regardless of the wind or rain. Before long, the villa where Zhang Chen was currently living was built.

Zhang Chen nodded with satisfaction as he looked at the completed villa. He took his wife and the old man inside. The internal structure was exactly the same as it was now.

That afternoon, many people stood neatly in front of his villa. The first was the black man Zhang Chen had seen on the wall when he first entered the villa. He remembered his name seemed to be 'Fichtek Salo'.

The second was a middle-aged foreign man wearing a tall hat and a curled mustache. He looked like an artist, and Zhang Chen seemed to have seen him in the hall, but his impression was not very deep.

The third was an old man with white hair and a bulging belly, wearing a chef's uniform. He was clearly his private chef, and Zhang Chen had also seen a portrait of this person in the hall.

The rest were foreign women in maid outfits, who should all be servants.

Their daily life was very warm. He lived on the third floor. It seemed that he had deliberately asked the workers to adjust the overall height of the third floor to be lower than the first and second floors. The entire third floor was their love nest, and their marital relationship was already confirmed.

On the first day after waking up, he went to the oil painting room on the first floor. The artist with the tall hat spent the morning painting a huge portrait for him. After framing it, it was hung in the center of the first-floor hall. This confirmed that he was 'Auguste Rodin', the owner of Rodin Villa.

Meanwhile, lunch was held in that dining room. The chef with the white beard served luxurious and delicious dishes one by one onto the long dining table. Zhang Chen noticed that the dishes in front of him were exactly the same as the ones he had eaten when he arrived that afternoon.

After lunch, he would go to the forest to hunt with the black man and plant some vegetation around the courtyard. He would also accompany the old man to fish by the lake behind the villa. As for his young wife, she would dance the ballet she loved in the dance studio.

His daily life was very fulfilling and happy.

Gradually, his wife's belly began to swell slightly. The whole family, including himself, was very happy. They even held a party, inviting some farmers from the nearby village to their villa for a banquet.

The entire life seemed incredibly perfect.

"This kind of dream again?" The morning sunlight shone into Zhang Chen's bedroom, causing him to open his eyes from his deep sleep.

"But this time, I'm not an observer, but recreating the past as the owner of this villa. However, it seems I haven't gained any useful information. But I need to pay close attention to those few people in the dream."

Zhang Chen thought of the oil painter with the tall hat and the old chef with the white beard.

He checked the time; it was almost 9 o'clock. He changed into a casual T-shirt and shorts, washed up briefly, and then opened his bedroom door and walked out.

He knocked on the door of his classmates' bedroom. It seemed they were already awake.

"Oh no, it would be bad if Tan Fei and Er Wa had an accident." Zhang Chen was in a hurry and rushed down the spiral staircase from the second floor. As a result, he collided with a dark figure coming up.

With a "bang," Zhang Chen, who had a strong physique, was hit, and the dark figure bounced off the glass by the stairs.

"Brother Chen, what are you rushing for? It's only been one night, your sister-in-law isn't going anywhere. Besides, your sister-in-law made you noodles and asked me to call you up. Look how fortunate you are. We single guys only have ourselves to cook for."

Tan Fei, who was knocked to the ground, complained powerlessly. Zhang Chen just smiled slightly, it seemed Tan Fei was fine.

"Where's Er Wa?"

"Second Brother went jungle exploring with his precious saber after breakfast."

"Alone?"

"And that skinny guy from First High. It seems the two of them hit it off well while drinking yesterday."

Zhang Chen frowned and went downstairs to the first floor with Tan Fei. In the dining room, Jia Xin was already sitting there. His injuries had not even left scars, as if nothing had happened last night. And Shen Qiutian, the long-haired woman, was sitting beside him.

"This kid had such severe injuries, yet he's completely unharmed overnight. Acupuncture is truly amazing."

Zhang Chen entered the kitchen. Wang Yizhi was standing alone inside, scooping the noodles from the pot into a bowl. As she turned around, she found Zhang Chen right behind her.

"You lazy pig, you really can sleep. You went to bed so early last night, and you're still sleeping now."

"I knew Yizhi would cook noodles for me, so I slept in. Thanks."

Zhang Chen looked around the kitchen, saw no one, mustered his courage, and lightly kissed Wang Yizhi's left cheek before taking the noodles from her hand. He turned and walked towards the hall.

As soon as he turned, a heavy punch landed on his back. If he hadn't had a good physique, the noodles he was holding might have flown out.

Turning his head, he saw Wang Yizhi looking at him with a flushed red face, and he heard her utter two words, "B*stard."

Zhang Chen, whose nerves had been on edge, slowly relaxed with these actions.

Holding his bowl of noodles, Zhang Chen specifically chose a seat directly facing Jia Xin. Since everyone else had already finished breakfast, the only ones left in the dining hall were Zhang Chen, Jia Xin, Wang Yizhi, and Shen Qiutian.

Wang Yizhi didn't stay by Zhang Chen's side; she went out alone to find Dai Xu. Meanwhile, Shen Qiutian, who was beside Jia Xin, left the dining hall after Jia Xin gave him a look.

With a thought, Zhang Chen slowly closed the dining hall door.

"Jia Xin, what method did you use to recover so quickly?" Zhang Chen asked as he ate his noodles.

"Traditional Chinese acupuncture therapy."

"Pfft!" Zhang Chen almost spat out the noodles in his mouth, but he didn't want to complain anymore.

"Did anything happen in your dorm last night?" Zhang Chen asked seriously.

"No."

"We had a bit of a problem on our end," Zhang Chen told Jia Xin about what happened in Wang Yizhi's bedroom the previous night, but he omitted the details about the Blood Beetles.

"Oh, blood? Could it be a Blood Demon?"

Before Jia Xin could frown, a fleeting look of knowing flashed in his eyes, which Zhang Chen caught.

"What is a Blood Demon?" Zhang Chen asked naturally.

"A Blood Demon is a type of mutated ghost, not comparable to those fierce specters or corpse ghosts at all. In life, a Blood Demon was a complete **. As humans, they didn't like any food, subsisting entirely on human flesh and blood, and using human blood as water. They were particularly fond of children and young girls. In their lifetime, they consumed over a hundred, even a thousand people, their sins were monstrous."

"After death, their souls are nourished by human flesh and blood for a long time, coupled with their inherently evil nature, making them far more powerful than other ghosts."

Zhang Chen was incredibly shocked after hearing this. The previous person, Yang Zi, was a ** murderer, and his methods were appalling. However, compared to the Blood Demon Jia Xin described, Yang Zi was like a child's play.

"Your guess is correct. If you hadn't stopped it in time last night, your girlfriend would have become a walking corpse. A single drop of a Blood Demon's blood can alter someone's nature. That's the terrifying aspect of Blood Demons. Furthermore, powerful Blood Demons are essentially immortal; in other words, they can regenerate from a drop of blood."

Zhang Chen had heard the phrase 'regenerate from a drop of blood' in novels before. Those who possessed this ability were usually either the protagonist or the protagonist's arch-nemesis.

"Then, should we consider leaving here today?" Zhang Chen got straight to the point.

"No," Jia Xin immediately denied.

"You know yourself that your girlfriend wasn't controlled because of you, but others might not be so lucky. I was healing last night and couldn't extend my attention beyond the room."

"Also, we cannot leave. Setting aside whether we can even get out, the villagers outside are definitely problematic, as you know. More importantly, if this matter is left unchecked, once this Blood Demon reappears in the world, the death toll won't be hundreds, but tens of thousands."

Zhang Chen didn't see himself as a hero, nor did he want to be one, but the previous points were very logical, and Zhang Chen couldn't refute them. So, he said, "How about this, we'll stay for a while longer. If the situation escalates to a point where neither of us can control it, we must leave."

Jia Xin nodded and then left the room alone.

Zhang Chen sat alone in the dining hall and muttered, "This Jia Xin, I wonder what he's hiding."

ps: Today, this book is on the recommended list. I hope everyone who reads it finds it enjoyable and can collect, recommend, and support Ah Fei!

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