Chapter 13

"Damn it!"

Lin Sheng rolled off the bed and sat on the edge, running his hands through his hair, only to find them slick with sweat.

"It's not like I haven't died in nightmares before, but that feeling... it was nothing like anything I've experienced!"

Lin Sheng gasped for air, trying to wash away the lingering shock of the death he had just endured in his dream.

He sat on the edge of the bed for a while to rest, and once his emotions had stabilized, he got up and sat at his desk. He turned on the desk lamp and began flipping through the book he had translated earlier.

"The most essential part of this swordsmanship manual is these five diagrams. The rest is mostly just accounts of experiences and stories; these few pages are the only ones that actually explain the sword techniques," he muttered, his eyes fixed on the translated materials.

"What on earth... what was that figure!? And are these materials actually usable?"

"If the information and the swordsmanship from the dream are just products of my own brain, practicing them wrong could cause irreversible damage to my body."

Lin Sheng had heard of people who practiced acrobatics or martial arts and ended up disabled because their foundations were wrong or their posture was incorrect.

He was worried—worried that this so-called swordsmanship manual from his dream was actually just distorted knowledge conjured up by his own subconscious.

Sitting silently on the edge of the bed, Lin Sheng's thoughts churned, unable to settle for a long time.

After a while, he lay back down and closed his eyes, but this time, no matter what he did, he couldn't fall asleep.

Every time he closed his eyes, the pain of being killed came rushing back in waves.

This state lasted until dawn.

As soon as the sky began to brighten, he had no choice but to get up. He cooked some noodles with the leftovers from the day before, ate them quickly, then changed into his school uniform, grabbed his bag, and headed straight for school.

Lin Sheng had originally thought that being killed was just a dream.

But throughout the entire day, he felt a dull ache in his heart, and it felt as if a faint, stinging pain still lingered at his neck.

He drifted through his classes in a daze. After school, he declined Shen Yan's invitation to go to the cassette shop and walked home alone, stumbling slightly.

He didn't even eat dinner; Lin Sheng collapsed onto his bed and fell into a deep sleep.

This state continued for two days before his spirit slowly began to recover.

During those two days, he didn't have a single dream. It was as if the previous nightmare had been nothing more than an illusion.

During this time, his father, Lin Zhounian, thought he was sick and brought him a thermometer to check his temperature, but everything was normal.

In the end, he could only tell him to rest more and not to overwork himself. He reminded him that while the college entrance exam was important, if his health collapsed, everything else would be for nothing.

Having gone two days without dreaming, Lin Sheng felt much better.

After dinner, he lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling without saying a word.

If it weren't for the notebook he had translated sitting in his desk drawer, he really would have thought it had all been just a dream.

Ring-ring.

Suddenly, the phone rang.

In the living room, his mother, Gu Wanqiu, walked over to answer it.

"Sheng-sheng, your sister is looking for you."

Lin Sheng was slightly taken aback. He rolled off the bed, hurried out of the room, walked into the living room, and took the receiver from his mother.

"You didn't even put on a jacket when you got out of bed." Gu Wanqiu touched Lin Sheng's hand with concern, feeling that it was a bit cold, and hurried to the bedroom to get him a coat to drape over his shoulders.

Lin Sheng smiled at her, put on the coat, and sat on the sofa with the receiver.

His sister didn't say anything on the other end, just listened to the movement on his side, with the faint sound of breathing coming through.

Lin Sheng paused and switched the receiver to his other hand.

"Sis, what's up?"

"Nothing much, I just heard from Mom and Dad that you haven't been doing well lately. Don't work too hard, and don't push yourself too much. A good university is important, but your health is more important," his sister, Lin Xiao, said with concern.

"I'm fine, I know, don't worry, Sis." Lin Sheng did a quick mental calculation of the time. "There are still over four months until the college entrance exam; I'm not at the point of panicking yet. I've just been having nightmares lately, so I've been a bit out of it."

"Have you been reading too many weird books?"

"I don't know, I haven't been doing anything other than studying," Lin Sheng feigned ignorance.

"Are you short on money?" Lin Xiao suddenly lowered her voice.

"No."

"Really?"

"Really, no," Lin Sheng affirmed.

"Don't try to tough it out. I'll send you some money. Remember to go pick it up later. You're getting older, and there are some expenses you can't avoid," Lin Xiao said earnestly.

"I don't need it, really. You have plenty of expenses on your end, too."

"I have enough here, don't you worry. Alright, that's all. Just remember to go get the money." Lin Xiao didn't say anything more.

A woman's voice could be heard faintly in the background on her end, seemingly calling for her to help move something.

"I have things to do here, I'm hanging up now." Lin Xiao responded in a rush and quickly hung up the phone.

Lin Sheng put the receiver down, speechless, and looked at the wall clock: 9:00 PM.

He was still working part-time, and he truly didn't want to use this hard-earned money from Lin Xiao.

But that girl was stubborn; if she said she would send money, she would definitely send it.

"Forget it, I won't worry about it for now. I'll get some good rest tonight and focus on studying for the college entrance exam tomorrow."

The college entrance exam in this life was not much different from his previous one.

It was the critical gateway for students to leap over the dragon's gate.

If one failed the exam and couldn't get into a good university, they would only be able to enter various vocational schools to learn to be a technician.

There were many vocational schools in Celine, but their status was relatively low. Compared to Lin Sheng's previous life, the quality of these vocational schools here was even worse.

If a student only went to a vocational school because they couldn't get into university, it basically meant their life was ruined.

The class divide here was vast, and it was rare for technicians to rise again. In many industries, the wages for simple technical jobs were very low.

Lin Sheng returned to his bedroom and collapsed onto the bed. He had made up his mind to rest well, put the nightmare aside for the moment, and deal with the college entrance exam first.

He pulled up the quilt, whispered goodnight to himself, closed his eyes, and slowly drifted into a dream.

Hoo.

Lin Sheng heard his own breathing echoing slowly through the empty room.

He opened his eyes to find himself in the familiar manor hall.

A long, worn-out table covered in a tattered white cloth still held some scattered silver tableware.

"I... I'm back in again??"

Lin Sheng's heart sank as he quickly looked left and right.

To his left was a wall covered in blurred oil paintings; to his right were large paneled windows. Through the hazy curtains, he could see a thin mist permeating the outside.

He quickly lifted his feet and walked forward, soon reaching the study door and stepping through the open entrance.

He immediately saw the scene inside the study.

The large tome placed on the low table was open, its pages filled with large, clearly visible handwriting.

"As expected, I'm back."

Lin Sheng calmed himself down.

He didn't bother flipping through the swordsmanship manual; instead, he exited the study and returned to the living room.

At the window on the side of the living room, he reached out to gently lift the curtain and looked out.

Under the hazy mist, beyond the manor's crude perimeter wall, lay a forest of clawing, black trees.

In the courtyard within the walls, there was a small swing and a few broken wooden benches.

Leaning against the corner of the wall was something that looked like a hoe.

Lin Sheng let go of the curtain and went to check the other windows.

None of the windows offered a view of the direction facing the front door.

And that direction was exactly where the black shadow had charged from before.

He paused, standing in the living room to think for a moment. Then, he turned and began searching everywhere in the room.

"I need a weapon for self-defense. Something long and wide would be best, to make blocking easier!"

Lin Sheng's goal was clear in his mind.

He didn't intend to stay in this house forever. This dream was inexplicably bizarre, and dying here actually had an impact on his body in reality.

This caused a deep sense of crisis to rise in his heart.

He had an inexplicable premonition that if he were killed by that black shadow repeatedly, he might suffer some extremely troublesome consequences.

This feeling seemed to be his body's instinctual warning to him.