"Where did Daddy go?"
The conversation continued, joined by a somewhat childish reply.
Su Gao remained motionless up ahead. Fu Qian trusted that she was listening, too.
"He went to church. He'll be back at daybreak."
The first voice answered naturally.
"But when exactly will it be daybreak?"
The little one didn't sound very happy.
"Very soon. You just have to sleep quietly for a little while, and then it'll be light... But the other children definitely won't be able to hold out as long as you, so you'll be the one who gets the prize...
"Mommy will sing you a song..."
The brief but suggestive conversation soon ended. Right after it, a tune rang out—the same one as the humming they'd been hearing all along—accompanied by gentle patting.
"We've reached the end."
After listening for a moment, Su Gao reported their current situation.
"I can tell."
Fu Qian didn't need to see anything. Just from the sound, he knew they'd reached a dead end.
"Facing us, there's a door that's been drawn on."
But the information Su Gao brought him next was clearly beyond what he'd anticipated.
"Can you try opening it?"
Picturing the scene, Fu Qian asked naturally.
"I think so. It feels unusual... But in that case, it seems very likely that what we've seen all along really has been a dream."
Not bound by habitual thinking, Su Gao's judgment was fairly positive.
"That makes sense. It could also explain why even the vision of high-ranking transcendents is restricted: the dream's owner believes what's inside the coffin shouldn't be discovered.
"Also, the voices we just heard probably mean that what we've been doing has already reached some kind of limit in this dream. If we take one more step, we might wake up."
Fu Qian agreed with