The Person in My Dream

night.

Although the flowers bloomed at night, Lu Ban still slept soundly with plenty of energy. This time, the Big Orange Cat didn't dare to approach Lu Ban rashly. Instead, it curled up at Xiya's feet, but was always woken up by the girl's snoring and slept very restlessly.

Trist closed his eyes and drifted into a light sleep.

This time, he didn't go directly into the dream state. Instead, he had several vague and discontinuous dreams, all of which were about events that had happened in the last few days.

In his dream, he was sitting in his office, fast asleep on his desk. He heard someone Door Opening and come in. The person's footsteps were light, yet unfamiliar.

In his dream, Trist knew perfectly well that this was the murderer of this series of cases, and that he had come to kill him. He didn't know why he knew, but he just knew.

"Oh no, I'm going to die!"

Trist thought this, he tried to struggle to get up, but he couldn't move his body at all. Even lifting his head and opening his eyes seemed extremely difficult.

As the footsteps drew closer, Trist's fear deepened.

He didn't have time to think about how he, unable to open his eyes, could see the scenes in the office; Trist just tried to wake himself up.

He felt as if he had opened his eyes, but in reality, his eyes were still tightly closed.

The detective tried to move his body to fall off the table and regain his senses, but no matter how many times he tried, it seemed as if he was falling off the table again and again, but his consciousness was as if it were sealed with glue, and he didn't move at all.

Finally, the murderer was behind him. He grinned, and Trist felt a sharp pain in his body, as if his internal organs were blooming like flowers.

Then Trist woke up.

"It was just a dream."

As Trist pondered this, he realized that he was not in Detective Agency, but in a clean and tidy apartment room, though it was old and run-down.

It's that apartment where the incident happened!

Trist tried to move his head, only to find that his field of vision remained completely still, like a movie camera lens, beyond his control.

"This is also a dream?"

Trist felt a chill run down his spine, fearing that another murderer might walk in through the doorway in a moment.

However, this time Trist Fate was a little more conscious, and he realized that he couldn't see his surroundings at all in the dream he had just had, so he must have been dreaming.

"Wait, was that just a dream within a dream?"

Before Trist could figure out what was going on, he heard a commotion outside the door.

"How many times have I told you, don't touch my box!"

It was a sharp male voice, with a hint of ruthlessness.

"I just wanted to help you tidy up."

A somewhat high-pitched female voice rang out.

The two argued for a while, and Trist could roughly tell that the noise came from next door.

"Tack? That guy from the Sharp Blade Gang?"

Trist recalled the information from her previous investigation.

"Get out of here! Get out of here!"

The man's voice grew increasingly violent, and with a loud crash, Trist looked towards the next room, where the sounds of beatings were coming from.

"Please, stop hitting me, stop hitting me, please stop hitting me!"

The woman's voice trembled, filled with humility.

As a proper gentleman, Trist could not stand idly by while women were being beaten at will.

But the view Motionless, and only after hearing a series of footsteps did the person look towards the door.

The door opened, and there stood the girl.

Liz, Trist remembered her name.

Through Liz's back, Trist saw a tall man and a woman who had been slapped and was sobbing.

"This woman?"

"Liz, take this money and buy something to eat. If any customers treat you badly, tell me."

When Tack of the Sharp Blade Gang spoke to Liz, he seemed to have a completely different demeanor, devoid of the ferocity and violence he had shown moments before.

He gave Liz some banknotes and then left.

Only Liz and that woman remained.

"Your injury."

Liz was about to help the woman treat her wounds when she was pushed away.

"It's all your fault, it's all your fault. He wasn't like this before."

The woman immediately slapped Liz, making one side of her youthful yet mature face turn bright red.

The woman left immediately without giving Liz time to react.

Liz stood there stunned for a long time before she came to her senses. Clutching the banknotes tightly in her hand, she went back to her room and closed the door.

"I think I really did something bad."

Liz looked at Trist, her smile strained.

"By the way, your illness should be almost cured, right? We can go out for walks in a couple of days. I've also bought you the medicine for the next few days. Dr. House is such a kind person."

She took out a medicine bottle, poured out the medicine, and fed it to Trist.

A sense of calm spread through him, Trist was unaware that he could feel it in his dream.

He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but in this dream, he was unable to speak.

"I've saved enough money. We can move to a nicer house, one with its own bathroom. Once you're better, we can sunbathe on the lawn and take walks on the road."

She expressed many dreams, but only Trist knew that they were all illusions, and that the girl would die soon, her body never to be found.

Listening to the girl's words, Trist fell into a deep sleep in his dream.

In that moment of blurred consciousness, Trist suddenly recalled the face of the woman he had just seen next to Tack of the Sharp Blade Gang, the woman he had beaten and scolded.

Although she had some scars from the violence, Trist recognized her immediately.

Flora.

The call girl who blossomed Glass Flower in the dark room downstairs from Dr. House!

The moment he realized this, Trist felt that face suddenly twist and become incredibly grotesque, and then it stuck to his face like a human skin mask, trying to replace him.

He tore his cheek open, the excruciating pain jolting Trist awake.

The chirping of insects and the mournful cries of wild cats in heat came from outside the window.

Trist was covered in a cold sweat. He had always thought that his perspective was Flora's, with Flora and Liz depending on each other for survival. But now, one of his perceptions might be about to change.

Flora is not the master of Trist's dream, and she has a bad relationship with Liz. In fact, it could be said that Flora harbors resentment towards Liz.

Flora was Tack's lover in the Sharp Blade Gang. She survived the gang war unscathed. After losing the Sharp Blade Gang, Flora went back to her old ways, working as a prostitute in the Red Dance Hall until her death.

"Then, perhaps the master of my dream really is the murderer!"

Trist went to the window and looked out at the empty street.

He saw on the street: homeless people huddled in newspapers, drunkards staggering after drinking their own counterfeit liquor, furtive fellows who didn't know what they were up to, and stray dogs rummaging through garbage cans for food.

There was another woman.

A woman dressed in clothes that fit her figure like a cheongsam held a paper fan in her hand, covering the lower half of her face.

Trist's gaze was drawn to the other person.

Even just looking at her eyebrows and eyes, she is an absolutely beautiful woman.

He wanted to see more clearly.

Trist leaned out of the window.

*

Bonus chapter for first monthly pass in November (3/3)