Sleep

"I'm sleeping, and I'm awake."

"Remember to breathe, remember your heart beating—"

"Digestion, endocrine, lymphatic, urinary... working slowly and orderly..."

In the shallow paddling pool, barely over half a meter deep, Yang Chu leaned against the edge and slowly closed his eyes. His mind sank into the circulation of the systems within his body, no longer sensing anything outside.

At the same time, his thoughts slowed, letting his consciousness seem to blend with the pool water around him—calm, with the occasional ripple, yet not completely lost.

He had learned this method while reading during the day, from a book about how to fall asleep.

It was a method that could let someone immediately enter sleep under any circumstances, relax their body, and still wake up quickly.

The time spent resting and sleeping was very short, but being able to enter this nap-like state anytime and anywhere made it especially suitable for people whose work and lives were extremely busy, who often could not guarantee enough sleep.

This kind of short sleep, or intermittent sleep, could usually allow a person to quickly enter light sleep. Occasionally, it could even bring them into a stage of deep sleep, rapidly restoring their energy.

However, Yang Chu's use of this method was not exactly the same.

Besides emptying his mind, he also needed to retain a moderate degree of awareness and keep the major systems within his body circulating.

This state—

In Yang Chu's view, was actually somewhat like self-hypnosis and meditation.

Or, more vividly put, it was like sitting in meditation to cultivate inner power in the wuxia novels that had once swept Hong Kong Island.

Perhaps because Yang Chu was mentally exhausted, or perhaps because he was in the water—

This attempt lasted only a few seconds. He lost all awareness of the outside world, his mind sank into his body, and his consciousness entered a state somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.

It seemed that only a faint fragment of his awareness remained after the self-hypnosis, still controlling the operation of the major systems in his body.

Time seemed to stretch bit by bit. His breathing slowed, the intervals between his heartbeats grew longer and longer, and the other major systems only operated sluggishly under the stimulation of that faint awareness.

All was silent.

Yang Chu's consciousness could sense that he was in a state of recovery. Blood circulated through his body, while his lymphatic and endocrine systems seemed to react and interact with his brain in some way.

The awareness he still retained seemed to return to the state from a day ago, when he had first awakened in this body. His consciousness seemed to be submerged in darkness.

The difference was that back then, he could feel the dark space swallowing him bit by bit, and he could only desperately try to break free.

But now, he also seemed to be in darkness. Only, this darkness was like curtains he had drawn shut.

The darkness did not swallow him. It merged with him, and his conscious thoughts spread through it. As long as he wished it, with a single thought, the darkness could immediately disperse and everything would blaze with light. His consciousness seemed to have become the dream of his brain.

Outside, Yang Chu's body in the paddling pool slowly slipped away from the tiled wall it had been leaning against and into the water, floating face-up.

"Come on, come on! We're closing!"

At the Sham Shui Po Park swimming pool, Uncle Kin, a pool attendant already over fifty, made his way around the main pool, secondary pool, diving pool, training pool, and the other pools, urging the people who had yet to leave.

He was an employee of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, commonly known locally as the LCSD. From July to October, the pools opened at six every morning and closed at ten every night, all under his watch.

"Uncle Kin, let us play a little longer!"

In the main pool, fifty meters long, twenty-one meters wide, and 1.4 to 1.9 meters deep, two boys who looked thirteen or fourteen poked their heads out of the water.

"You little brats, get up here. I need to close up. And listen, there aren't any lifeguards at night, so you'd better swim in the secondary pool. Don't go into the deep end."

Uncle Kin looked at the two twelve- or thirteen-year-old boys, urged them a few more times, then carefully reminded them.

Swimming pools were safe most of the time, but accidents were unavoidable now and then.

Beginners were actually not much of a problem. They had swim rings and knew their own limits, so they would not fool around. As long as they were careful, drowning was rare.

What people feared most were half-grown boys like these. They knew a little about swimming—if you said they could not swim, they could still flail around a bit—but in truth, they were far from capable, while their guts were huge.

These boys even dared to enter the 1.9-meter deep end of the main pool and the diving pool, which was more than four meters deep. With no lifeguards or safety officers at night, that was truly dangerous.

"Got it, Uncle Kin. We're leaving."

The two boys splashed around a few more times, still not satisfied, before reluctantly swimming toward the shore.

The attendant, Uncle Kin, standing by the poolside, lightly shook his head and headed toward the other pools.

As he passed the paddling pool, Uncle Kin was slightly startled.

"That's a pretty big young man. What's he doing here?"

Uncle Kin muttered to himself. In the paddling pool, someone was floating face-up on the water. Judging from his build, he appeared to be an adult.

The water in the paddling pool was only knee-deep. Even older children did not want to play there, and aside from accompanying children, adults—women included—almost never appeared in such an area.

"Hey, we're closing!"

Standing beside the paddling pool, Uncle Kin called out to the figure floating on the water.

But the floating figure seemed not to have heard him.

"Did you hear me? We're closing! Get up, now!"

Uncle Kin frowned, stepped a little closer, and shouted loudly again.

The person in the paddling pool still did not move at all.

"What the hell?"

A little anger rose in Uncle Kin's heart, but then he suddenly seemed to think of something and hurriedly jumped into the paddling pool.

"Damn it, don't tell me I've run into something like this!"

The closer he got to the floating figure, the further Uncle Kin's heart sank.

A person drowning in knee-deep water, barely forty centimeters deep, sounded unbelievable to outsiders, but Uncle Kin had managed this swimming pool for decades. He knew it was not impossible.

Someone who had never been in the water before could choke even in the shallowest water.

Just like some people could drown in a washbasin, many things simply made no sense.

His legs churned up splashing water in the paddling pool, sending spray everywhere.

Uncle Kin grabbed the person floating on the water and held him. Sure enough, the man was completely unconscious.

Without caring about anything else, Uncle Kin hurriedly wrapped his arms under the man's armpits from behind and dragged him out of the paddling pool.

"Uncle Kin, what happened?"

The two teenage boys had already climbed out of the pool. Seeing Uncle Kin dragging someone, they ran over together.

"Move aside first!"

Uncle Kin dragged the man onto the shore, pushed the two boys aside, and reached out to press on the chest of the person he had pulled ashore.

He was an attendant here. Though his work only involved opening and closing the gates, checking and selling tickets, and occasionally helping clean up trash, the LCSD had provided training. He had also watched lifeguards save people many times, so naturally, he knew some first aid.

But just then—

The person lying on the ground suddenly opened his eyes.