Tong Haojing's Dream

Late at night, in the west room of the Tong family's small house, several crickets sang loudly. A pure black house cat stared fixedly at the corner behind the door. Inside, Tong Haojing lay on his side and turned over, suddenly letting out a cry. The crickets fell silent, and the cat sprang up and darted out through the crack in the door. Moonlight streamed through the gap, bleaching the room white and making it seem even quieter. Tong Haojing's lips moved slightly as he made a smacking sound, then he drifted back to sleep with a snore.

At the eastern end of the Big House Clan, gongs and drums thundered as all the neighborhood men and women came to congratulate Tong Haojing on becoming a police officer. Uncle Mumu had come, and so had Mei Tingyu. His mother, Wang Xiyue, wore a face full of smiles and bustled about happily. Tong Haojing stood on the slope before the house, looking toward home, when he heard his mother shout, "Tongtong, where have you gone?"

The voice reached Tong Haojing's ears. He froze, his brows knitting as he let out a startled sound.

"What was going on?" The lively scene at the eastern end of the house made Tong Haojing suspect that something must have happened.

Tong Haojing instinctively stretched out his long legs and tried to run home, but his feet seemed stuck to something, leaving him unable to move. When he finally broke free, he floated as though flying and reached home in an instant. The neighbors had already dispersed, leaving behind only dismissive, mocking laughter. The laughter drifted far away, echoing through the valley for a long time without fading.

As Tong Haojing stood there in confusion, he saw, in the distance toward Uncle Mumu's home, a masked man holding a young girl hostage at gunpoint and shouting, "Bring me a hundred thousand!"

The girl's heart-rending cries for help alarmed the men and women of the Big House Clan. Desperate to save his daughter, Uncle Mumu roared at the masked man, "Let my daughter go!" He panted heavily, his eyes bulging wide. One veined hand gripped a hoe tightly as he cried helplessly in rage, "Where am I supposed to get that much money?"

Standing in the distance, Tong Haojing gritted his teeth. One hand clenched into a fist so tightly that his knuckles cracked, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead as he stamped his feet in anxiety. Then it hit him—he was a police officer! Punishing evil and upholding justice was his duty. How could he not step in and save her?

"Let her go!" Emboldened by his role as a police officer, Tong Haojing raised his voice and barked the command.

Tong Haojing advanced step by step, his eyes widening as he recognized the hostage: Mei Tingyu, his classmate. His heart pounded furiously in his chest as his furious gaze locked onto the masked man's eyes. The instant their gazes met, the man was cowed by Tong Haojing's imposing presence. His legs trembled, and he was clearly beginning to panic.

Yet Uncle Mumu seemed completely oblivious to Tong Haojing's sudden appearance, as though he did not know him at all. Tong Haojing found it baffling. Had something else happened? His thoughts became muddled and numb, and he even began to doubt his own actions.

At that critical moment, Tong Haojing still reminded himself to stay clear-headed. Saving her came first. He opened his holster with his right hand, drew his pistol, steadied the grip with his left, and shouted, "Let Mei Tingyu go!" The gunshots rang out almost at once—one shot, two shots, three shots... The masked man fell and vanished. Mei Tingyu threw herself into his arms. Tong Haojing smiled, and the two were overwhelmed by mingled grief and joy...

Suddenly, Tong Haojing collapsed onto the ground, his face deathly pale. Dark red blood dripped from his chest, yet his face showed no sign of pain. Mei Tingyu cried out, "Tongtong's been shot! Save him, quick!"

At that moment, the surroundings were empty, without a soul in sight. Uncle Mumu had vanished as well. Everything around him was black as a curtain, unfathomably deep and terrifying. A moment later, Mei Tingyu had somehow disappeared too.

"How could this happen?" Tong Haojing's mind was in complete chaos. He went over everything from beginning to end. How had he become a police officer? Could he have only been pretending? Uncle Mumu was gone, and Mei Tingyu had left too. They must have been laughing at him because he was not a police officer at all. Yes, that had to be it!

A voice came from nowhere: "The masked man was Liu Yangchun, the villain in the village who had used drugs!" Then there was deathly silence again. Not a single person stood beneath the vast sky.

Nothing remained in Tong Haojing's mind but death and fear, followed by blankness...

Tong Haojing woke up. Sweat soaked the creases in his forehead, ran down both sides of his face, and dampened the pillowcase. He felt himself all over. He was bare, with nothing on him. Tong Haojing turned over, then suddenly realized that he had failed the college entrance exam and was staying at home. How had he become a police officer? How had Mei Tingyu been taken hostage? Tong Haojing opened his eyes and suddenly understood. He touched his chest, and it felt sticky. It was only drool that had run from the corner of his mouth.

"Could it have been a dream? Yes, it was just a dream!" Tong Haojing asked himself groggily.

In the quiet bedroom late at night, rats scurried overhead with soft rustling sounds. Tong Haojing reached out and switched on the desk lamp. In the dim light, a large stack of neatly arranged high school textbooks looked especially clean. On the wall, covered with old newspapers, were four stirring characters: "Strive to grow strong."

Tong Haojing could not fall asleep again. He sat up, got out of bed, and paced back and forth through the room. His mind churned with the vow he and Mei Tingyu had made at graduation: to study desperately for their dreams, regardless of day or night, rest or class. In other people's eyes, he had become nothing more than a bookworm. Throughout three years of high school, Tong Haojing had stubbornly set his heart on taking the entrance exam for a police academy after graduation. Yet who could have expected that all his hard work would fail to bring him what he wanted? He had failed the college entrance exam. Failure in that exam was a cruel blow to every young student. That feeling, that bewilderment—only those who had truly experienced life's most important test and choice could understand it. Tong Haojing was no exception. He too was immersed in sorrow, depression, and loss.

At last, dawn broke. Autumn mornings already carried a chill. Tong Haojing put on a cool, airy linen jacket and went outside, climbing to the highest point on Yandou Mountain before the house. It was also where his father had often stood. Tong Haojing gazed into the distance. A great mountain blocked his view, while a winding mountain road led straight beyond the mountains to Tangdu City.

The morning breeze lifted Tong Haojing's clothes, and he shivered. By his ear, he seemed to hear his father's old words.

"If you want to see far, you must stand high. If you want to live well, you must go out. The shortcut through the mountains is always made by people's feet!"

Though his father's words were plain and unadorned, they were full of wisdom. They left Tong Haojing deep in thought, as if he had grasped something. It was as though his mind suddenly opened up. He straightened his back, raised his head to the sky, and shouted, "Heaven never seals off every road! Getting out is the only real answer!"

The Big House Clan lay shrouded in morning mist. Uncle Mumu puffed on leaf tobacco whose smell could carry for miles, wandering to Wang Xiyue's door early in the morning. Hearing movement inside, he knocked on the door with his pipe stem.

"Xiyue, is Tongtong home?" Uncle Mumu had always been close to the Tong family and spoke without restraint. He came to the Tong family's door, pushed it open a crack, stuck half his head inside, and secretly glanced around the room.

Wang Xiyue had just gotten up. Wearing a sheer white slip dress, she was washing up in the bathroom when she heard someone push open the door. "Who is it?" she called.

"Me, Uncle Mumu!" Uncle Mumu's voice was forceful and explosive. Wang Xiyue knew it was him the moment she heard it. After all, he was the person she trusted most, and he was also the village chief. She could not have known him better.