Entering the Dream

"Alright, now that the puzzle has been solved, since we've all met here, let's introduce ourselves. I'm a student at Donghua Normal College."

Toothless Pajama Man, Wen Dian, spoke as he accepted the bowl of Corn Porridge Guo Mu had filled for him beside him.

He swallowed the saliva brought on by hunger, but the grime around the bowl's rim made him unable to take a bite.

He sheepishly set it back on the table.

His gaze deliberately—or perhaps inadvertently—swept over the remaining people who had yet to give their names.

"Miao Laisheng."

A cold reply came from beside him.

Zheng Wuyou looked at the Navy Blue Pajamas in surprise. He was actually pretty proactive about some things.

Sen... Sheng?

Miao Laisheng?

Everyone tacitly chose not to mention the fact that Miao Laisheng had not introduced his identity.

After all, no one dared provoke someone who had kept his distance from the beginning.

"Zheng Wuyou, Wuyou as in carefree. I'm a student at Qingbei University Medical College."

Zheng Wuyou stopped dwelling on his name. Seeing everyone's eyes turn to her, she answered without hesitation.

"Looks like there are quite a few students." Sun Wu muttered as he straightened his tracksuit, then turned his gaze toward the Little Girl.

Following the counterclockwise order, everyone's gaze landed on the Little Girl.

"...Wansi. Um... Wan as in ten thousand, Si as in Dickens."

The Little Girl seemed to have made a huge decision.

Her tone gradually rose.

"I'm still in elementary school..."

"Wansi... that's such a lovely name." Zheng Wuyou scooped half a bowl of Corn Porridge for her from the large bowl that was already half empty.

With a gentle smile, she handed it to the Little Girl.

She felt an indescribable fondness for this little girl named Wansi.

"I didn't mean to interrogate you earlier. In a place like this, we all have to stay alert. I hope you understand. My name is Hu Yu, and I own a clothing store."

The girl with Bangs seemed like someone who knew when to bend and when to stand firm.

Seeing Zheng Wuyou explain everything clearly, she apologized for her earlier hostile words.

"..."

Now only the short woman had yet to introduce herself.

Everyone's eyes fell on her, but they all tactfully looked away at the same time.

She looked so nervous and frightened that no one had the heart to ask.

Though the conditions were crude, everyone ate quickly in their hunger.

A large bowl of Corn Porridge was soon scraped clean by the nine of them.

Wen Dian looked at the bowl in his hands and reluctantly wiped it with his sleeve before he could bring himself to eat from it.

Seeing that the short woman beside her showed no reaction to the Corn Porridge on the table, Hu Yu worried that she would not have the strength to endure if she did not eat.

So, in front of everyone, she filled a bowl for her and gently placed it in her hands.

"Eat. If you don't eat, you won't have the strength to get out alive."

"Don't look at me like that. I'm not being kind. I just don't want us to lose another person." When she looked up and found everyone staring at her, Hu Yu hurriedly avoided their gazes and explained herself.

"Do you remember how you got here?" Having eaten his fill, Guo Mu rubbed his stomach contentedly and stared blankly at the Kerosene Lamp on the table.

His casual question plunged everyone into thought.

Right!

How had they gotten here?

They had not considered that question all day.

Zheng Wuyou lowered her head and looked at the familiar pajamas she wore. The fabric and style were still the same.

She had clearly been sleeping in her dorm room.

When she first arrived, she had thought it was one of Old Yuan's pranks.

"I was at the police station. My wife... she died in an accident. I fell asleep while waiting for the results at the station, and when I opened my eyes again, I was here." Uncle Cai clearly remembered that before he fell asleep, his daughter's heartbroken sobs had still echoed in his ears.

As he sat at the police station, the photograph he kept replaying on his phone still showed her face and smile as vividly as ever.

"Hiss, that's a good question. I think I went to an internet café to pull an all-nighter. It was the first time I'd ever fallen asleep at one." Guo Mu froze, stumped by his own question.

Only after blurting it out did he realize he did not remember much about it himself.

One had been at a police station, while another had been up all night gaming.

Was staying up late their only common point?

Could they have died suddenly from staying up too late?

Was this place actually their struggle before death?

Staying up late...

Chi Ao Chi Yin...

Could that name really not be a coincidence?

"As for me, I was lying in my dorm room playing on my phone. I hadn't even finished watching a video when I ended up here."

The words of Toothless Pajamas—Wen Dian—dismissed Zheng Wuyou's theory that they had died from staying up late.

"Was there really nothing unusual?" Hu Yu brushed aside her Bangs and looked curiously at Wen Dian. What he had provided was far too little to serve as a reference.

Wen Dian looked up at the ceiling made of packed earth and wooden beams, thought carefully for a moment, then shook his head with certainty.

"I was in my dorm room looking through related cases. Your wife... was she at Shancheng Police Headquarters?" Miao Laisheng, who had eaten only enough to be thirty percent full before closing his eyes to rest, suddenly opened them and looked sharply at Uncle Cai. He seemed to have found a connection.

"Yes, yes! Young man, do you know me?"

Uncle Cai had not expected the young man in Navy Blue Pajamas to state such precise information. He stared at him in astonishment.

"No."

Those three cold words made Zheng Wuyou want to slap him twice.

He was never proactive when it mattered.

His golden mouth probably needed to be pried open with iron pincers.

"I was also in my dorm room. I wasn't doing anything. I was just sleeping normally."

Zheng Wuyou suppressed the urge to backhand the person beside her across the face, her hand unconsciously curling into a fist.

What a waste of that handsome face—on a mute.

Disappointment visibly flickered in Uncle Cai's eyes.

"I'd just finished an extracurricular class... then went home to sleep." The Little Girl, Wansi, lowered her head, too afraid to look anyone in the eye.

Her voice gradually grew softer again.

"Then there was nothing unusual about mine either. A friend asked me to keep her company while she cleared her head, so I closed my shop early. When I returned to the shop to rest, I fell asleep right away."

There was simply too little useful information. Hu Yu slumped in her chair and helplessly waited for the next person to speak.

For now, their only common point was that they had all come here after falling asleep.

Were they all in a dream?

Was that where the name Countdown Nightmare came from?

"I was night running by the river. I have a habit of night running, and I think I fell asleep while resting on a bench by the river. I don't know whether this counts as a coincidence, but I saw several police cars pass by during my run, as well as an ambulance."

When Sun Wu heard the words police station, he vaguely felt they were connected to the police cars he had seen.

Wife's accident...

Shopping...

Ambulance...

Police station...

The connection between those words suddenly reminded Zheng Wuyou of what had happened that afternoon before she arrived.

She had gone to the police station too, though only to give a statement.

Because she and her dear friends had witnessed a horrifying death in the supermarket on the basement level of a shopping mall.

It had been a scene of screams and utter chaos.

As a firsthand witness.

She could not describe how it had felt.

Even after Zheng Wuyou returned to her dorm room, the crying of an eight-year-old girl at the scene still echoed endlessly in her ears.

"Has anyone been to 83 Shopping Mall?"