At dawn, the sky gradually brightened.
The children were still sleeping greedily, while the girls and wives who had risen early busied themselves preparing breakfast.
Feng Ying's mind was full of last night's dream, and for the moment she could make neither head nor tail of it. With a dried fish clenched between her teeth, she went outside the wall to check on the ducks and white geese in their fenced enclosure. When she reached the gap in the collapsed wall, she stopped and swept her gaze across the lakeshore. Everything was as usual, no different from before—and there was no short, fat old man either.
Suddenly, her eyes seemed to see something unbelievable.
The dried fish fell from her mouth, and she did not even notice.
Her eyes locked onto an emerald-green bamboo spear by the shore. It had been driven deep into the mud and sand at an angle, forming a straight line with where she stood atop the gap...
Why did something from her dream truly exist?
Feng Ying's whole body stiffened. After hesitating for a while, she decided to go take a look, reassuring herself that it was only a bamboo pole.
She kicked off with both legs, leaping down from the gap in the stone wall and landing precisely in front of the bamboo spear.
"..."
It had clearly been a dream.
Yet the things from that dream still existed after she woke. Her mind, which only knew how to fish, farm, and raise poultry, could not understand it.
Slowly, she raised her hand and gripped the emerald-green bamboo spear. Then, the bamboo pole slanting into the mud and sand grew fainter and fainter until it vanished. It disappeared right before her eyes while she held it. Was she still not awake?
She bit her