A Knock at the Door

"What?" Gu Yunting listened to the three of them recount their story, her face full of disbelief. She couldn't stop herself from raising her voice, drawing the attention of people around them in the enormous tiered lecture hall.

Fortunately, the four of them had chosen seats in the back row today, and they didn't seem to have caught the teacher's attention.

"This is... this is way too ridiculous!" Gu Yunting tried to keep her voice down, carefully propping her book upright as she looked from side to side at the people beside her.

And what was this about a village of living dead, being chased by mushrooms, and being roasted over a fire by insects...

What kind of nonsensical, illogical dreams were these?!

Had the three of them gone out yesterday and secretly eaten mushrooms?

Then bought three watches on the sly to fool her...

This morning, the three of them had started telling her everything in perfect unison, beginning with how each of them had woken up wearing a watch, then describing how they'd entered the dream, what had happened to them, and finally how they'd escaped.

They'd gone into so much detail that they'd been talking from the dorm all the way to their eight o'clock class. Gu Yunting had been wavering between belief and doubt the entire time.

But... this was just too ridiculous. They'd even drafted a text message.

Worried she'd get worked up and raise her voice again in a moment, Yuan Ling picked up her phone and pointed to the group chat.

She was suggesting they talk in the group.

Little Zheng: "Yunting, it's not that we didn't want to tell you. But even with all this evidence, you still think our story is ridiculous. If we'd explained it to you back then, you would've thought we were crazy."

Little Zheng: "Besides, the three of us didn't know we'd all entered the same kind of dream."

Old Yuan: "[animated emoji] Thinking"

Old Yuan: "For Old Gu, it really is hard to understand. It's just like the Infinite Flow stories I'm always reading. Maybe... we can try to find other people who've been in those dreams."

Wushen, sitting beside them, paused when she saw the message. She seemed to have thought of something unpleasant, and her nails clicked against the phone as she typed: "But... not many people made it out of my dream alive."

Her message brought a sudden silence. The other two stared at the white chat bubble, knowing what she meant.

They'd both watched their companions fall, one after another.

Zheng Wuyou especially remembered Sun Wu being sent to the sacrificial platform, and Xiao Xia losing her mind.

Gu Yunting saw right through their silence. She knew this was her one chance to be useful, standing outside her friends' absurd dreams.

"I know you think I don't really believe your story, but you have no reason to make up something this elaborate just to fool me."

"After all, we're sworn rivals. If I don't believe you, who will? Now that you've escaped that dream, don't go bothering other people. Back in the real world, not everyone wants to relive what they went through. And from your descriptions, people from all walks of life were in the dream. We can't exactly go looking for them openly, so it'd be like searching for a needle in a haystack."

"You'll be going back into that dream in seven days. You'd be better off thinking about how to deal with it—and how to break this curse."

Gu Yunting earnestly typed away on her phone, trying to help them sort things out and find a way to take part in this whole affair. She didn't notice that the random roll-call system the teacher was using at the front of the room had already called her student number.

Zheng Wuyou, sitting on her left, tried to get her attention by bumping the arm she was typing with. She coughed awkwardly.

When Gu Yunting still didn't react, completely immersed in her own world, Yuan Ling gave Zheng Wuyou a look. The two of them bumped Gu Yunting's elbow at the same time.

She lost her grip, and her phone hit the floor with a heavy thud.

The dull bang rang out.

Gu Yunting was about to snap at the two of them when she finally realized that every gaze in the quiet classroom had turned toward them—including the intense stare behind the glasses of the teacher standing at the blackboard.

"I know some students think I'm too young, so they don't respect my authority. But there's no need to keep provoking me in my class, time and time again."

Through the teacher's glasses, Zheng Wuyou and the others couldn't make out his expression. They could only think that they were done for.

This teacher was famous for making students cry at the end of term!

But then, as if the heavens had taken pity on them, the bell rang right on time.

"..." Hearing the bell, the tall figure at the front of the room sighed helplessly. He raised one hand to adjust the silver frames resting on his nose and gathered up his lesson notes.

"Class dismissed."

Gu Yunting felt like crying—and then crying some more. Not only had she dropped her phone, she'd also been called on by the teacher famous for making students cry and embarrassed herself!

Zheng Wuyou had no idea what was going through Yuan Ling's unusually lively mind. She only saw Yuan Ling grab Gu Yunting and charge against the stream of students leaving class, straight toward the teacher who was still gathering his notes.

She and Wushen exchanged a glance. To keep the socially fearless Yuan Ling from causing any more misunderstandings, they hurried after her.

"Teacher Xing! I'm sorry! Something urgent came up at her home, so she wasn't deliberately causing trouble in class!" Yuan Ling dragged Gu Yunting in front of Teacher Xing, who was about to leave the lecture hall, then shoved Gu Yunting forward to block his way.

She even pressed Gu Yunting's head down.

If you were going to apologize, you had to look the part!

Who wanted to fail a major course at the end of term?

Gu Yunting was quick on the uptake, too. She lowered her head and shouted, "I'm sorry, Teacher Xing!"

Her shout was deafening, with all the force of a military training drill. Zheng Wuyou and Wushen skidded to a stop as they came running over, turned around, and started counting the lights on the ceiling.

Those lights sure were... lights.

"If something urgent came up at home, you could've just asked to leave. There's no need to be so nervous in class." Xing Ying had probably heard too many student excuses to believe them. He saw straight through what they'd been doing in class. He didn't react much, and after speaking, he walked out of the lecture hall without looking back.

With Teacher Xing's refined voice still ringing in their ears, Gu Yunting and Yuan Ling stood there, close to tears. They'd just gotten themselves into one mess after another.

"We're doomed..."

And just like that, a story that had been worrying three people had somehow become a problem for all four.

To cheer themselves up, they decided to go out and have a nice dinner that evening as a treat.

Especially since one of them had been eating coarse grains in her dreams every day—the texture and taste were simply indescribable; another had been chewing grass taller than she was, and it was harder to swallow than grass-fed meat; and the last had to mix in some poisonous mushrooms, the feeling of being poisoned was simply deadly.

The psychological torment of these dreams had really gone straight for their stomachs.

As for what had happened yesterday, the police contacted the three of them again today.

The police first offered the three young women some words of comfort, then solemnly told them not to post about the incident online and let it spread.

They were worried it might cause unnecessary panic and social unrest.

When things were quiet, there wasn't a single damn thing to worry about. But once even the tiniest problem came knocking, it always brought a whole string of troubles behind it.

Just as a butterfly flapping its wings could set off a storm, a small matter could trigger a whole chain reaction.