Forty Years in a Dream, Seven Days in the World

Everyone was somewhat dazed.

They looked at the bright sky, and some recalled that before they had obtained their "karmic opportunity," it had been evening. They asked instinctively.

"What time is it now?"

"How long has it been?"

Jiang She did not answer.

He turned his head and said gently, "Trouble the Mountain God to have some food sent over."

At the mention of food, for some reason, everyone suddenly felt their stomachs hollow, their bellies nearly sticking to their spines, sour fluid rising in their guts as a sharp pang of hunger struck.

They wished they could devour twenty steamed cakes in one breath.

At this moment, they did not know.

The local county magistrate had been worrying for seven days.

"These people went to the Lu Family to offer birthday congratulations, and still no sign of them today?"

"Reporting to Your Honor, Squire Bai and the others haven't returned yet, and the Bai and Wang families have come looking again."

The bailiff captain clasped his hands and reported: "We also went to the Lu residence to investigate, but they had no idea which courtyard they were talking about. We went three times and never saw it. In my humble opinion, the Lu Family doesn't have such a courtyard at all—they're all delusional!"

"Oh?"

The magistrate of Xiangyang County, named Cheng Zhi, courtesy name Yuanze, pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Nonsense! One person being delusional is possible, but could it be that all those servants, the Lu Family's young mistress, and their eldest daughter are delusional too?"

He asked.

"What does the Lu Family say?"

The captain's brow was tightly furrowed: "The Lu side is strange. They say Lu the Eldest left with an immortal master to seek the Dao and pursue immortality. They also say these nineteen people might have all gone to learn the Dao."

Speaking of the Lu Family, the bailiff was full of resentment. After days of hard work, he couldn't help grumbling.

"County Magistrate, no matter how we ask, that's all they answer. What kind of business is this?"

County Magistrate Cheng naturally wouldn't believe that Lu the Eldest had truly gone to seek immortality. He found it utterly absurd—only rustic farmers and village lads would believe such things. He kept pinching his brow, trying to smooth over the fiery worry in his heart.

As he smoothed it down, he proposed a possibility.

"Could it be that these people encountered bandits while offering birthday congratulations?"

The captain still clasped his hands in salute: "Why would bandits rob the Lu Family's money? If they were after wealth, they'd pick another wealthy household. Everyone in the county knows the Lu Family doesn't have much left."

As he spoke.

The captain's voice dropped lower.

"Yesterday, I heard that the County Defender sent people to ask around the nearby stockades. These days they've been very quiet, no word of anyone entering."

"It's spring plowing season now, so those fellows are probably out tilling the fields."

The captain spoke softly, cautiously.

Their County Defender had a somewhat questionable background. Word was he'd come from the wilds in his early years. He hadn't passed the imperial examinations or gained office through hereditary favor—he'd just somehow become an official.

Now it seemed he'd washed his hands of that life.

He'd even hired a tutor for scholarly studies. With the current trend revering the Dao, the County Defender often went to Taoist temples to burn incense, chat with the priests, and study Taoist scriptures.

He had a strong inclination toward the Dao.

The magistrate nodded.

This matter was difficult. Today was the seventh day, and they still didn't know where these nineteen people had gone. If it were just servants and Lu the Eldest missing, it would be easier to handle.

But among the guests were several local wealthy gentry, connected by marriage, and a great poet—Meng Haoran, who reportedly had frequent dealings and private friendships with their Xiang Prefecture governor.

That made things hard.

Just as he sat worrying, unsure how to face the matriarchs at home or his superiors, hurried footsteps came from outside the door.

"Your Honor! News has come—"

Cheng Zhi lifted his head sharply.

The attendants cleared away the soup bowls and cups, and dishes of food flowed in like a stream. These people, who hadn't eaten in who knew how long, fell upon the food like starving ghosts, wolfing it down with gusto.

They emptied eight jars of wine alone.

Even the elderly Grand Matriarch, leaning on her cane, tottered to the table and ate three steamed cakes in a row, along with plenty of meat and fruit, before coming back to her senses.

By the time the magistrate arrived with his men.

This was what he saw.

The tables were covered with many plates, most of the dishes already emptied, leaving only a few dregs of soup and sauce in the bowls. Some people had even sat directly on the ground, their cups and plates all cleaned out. If not for the small number of people in the courtyard and the familiar clothing, he might have thought the Lu Family had a hundred sturdy men.

They were all astonished to see the county magistrate rushing over.

"Your Excellency?"

"Why has the prefect come?"

Some remembered to bow, just propping themselves up against the wall and clasping their hands in salute, when the attendants and runners behind Xiangyang's county magistrate burst into a hubbub of chatter.

"They're back!"

"Who saw when they returned? Qian San, isn't your elder brother guarding the Lu residence? Did he see when these people came back?"

"Excellent!"

"Finally we can give the Wang Family an explanation. My mother does needlework for the Wangs—these past days they've been worried to death, not even bothering to buy embroidery."

"Seven days. What have these nineteen been doing all this time?"

"Could they have been taken by a nearby stockade?"

Voices clamored, a jumbled din like boiling broth.

The dozen or so people in the courtyard listened blankly to the attendants' and runners' words.

Wang Anlan was the Wang Family member they spoke of, the second son of the Wangs. He had gone to the Lu residence to offer birthday congratulations, witnessed the "Immortal Master's" Breath-to-Flame skill, met the Mountain Lord of Lumen Mountain, and even seen a true immortal.

He had spent forty years in a dream, yet when he woke, not a crease had changed on his clothes.

He listened, stunned.

"Seven... seven days...?"

County Magistrate Cheng Zhi's cousin was Wang Anlan's wife. Wang the Second was his relative by marriage, his cousin's husband, and the two had always been familiar.

"Wang the Second, where have you been all these days you've been missing?"

Wang Anlan snapped awake as if from a dream.

He opened his mouth, then after a long moment said, "We... had a dream."

Cheng Zhi frowned, not quite understanding what Wang Anlan meant.

"What?"

So Wang Anlan, as if recounting a wandering soul's dream, somewhat dazedly explained the things in the dream to them in detail—omitting the part where he was hacked to death by a blade.

"Truly?"

Cheng Zhi grew more and more alarmed as he listened.

At first, he thought his cousin's husband was bluffing, perhaps having gone carousing and not daring to tell his wife's family. But then he heard others chiming in with their own accounts.

Their words corroborated each other, interlocking without flaw.

As if...

there really was an Ancient Locust Kingdom in the world.

"A dream of forty years, yet only seven days have passed in the world."

"Is this the means of immortals?"

The county magistrate murmured to himself.

As Wang Anlan recalled these events, they were as vivid as if they had truly happened. After finishing recounting the forty years' experience, bathed in the morning light, cooled by the breeze, hearing the noisy discussions all around, and having eaten a full meal in the mortal world, he finally regained some sense of reality.

Thinking back on the dream's events, a layer now separated them.

Hazy and indistinct, truly like a dream.

As he spoke, Wang Anlan mentioned that Lu Pei had sought immortal fortune, encountered a false immortal master's deception, and fortunately received a "karmic opportunity" from a certain expert.

County Magistrate Cheng Zhi was listening intently.

Then he saw Wang the Second suddenly startle.

"Ah, that immortal—"