Dream within a Dream

Dream Within a Dream

Lin Wen could no longer remember what happened afterward. When he woke, that overflowing sense of happiness had not yet fully faded, and the intense longing kept his spirit lingering in that world.

He opened his eyes to a dim tent. A thread of sunlight shone through a gap, and motes of dust in the air glittered within that beam, like his crystallized dreams.

A figure gently lifted the tent flap, letting more sunlight pour in. She approached softly and carefully set what she carried on the crude low table before Lin Wen.

"Commandery Governor, you're awake."

Her head was lowered, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.

"Mm."

Lin Wen answered blankly. Everything before his eyes had returned to the beginning of the dream. This person was the disciple who had come to deliver the news.

Next, she would weep and cry out that an unprecedentedly powerful demon beast had charged into the mountain gate.

"I'll help you get dressed."

Something was wrong. Lin Wen frowned slightly as the dream world trembled.

Lin Wen sat up. He did not have the habit of sleeping without clothes, so his garments were still intact.

The woman before him crouched down and gently helped him put on his socks.

No!

Why hadn't his clothes flown over by themselves?

Lin Wen suddenly woke up to it.

Who was this woman? His disciple was clearly a man!

Where was his cloak? Where was his cloak?

And his divine sword!

Where had they gone?

Reason was returning.

The dream world was collapsing.

The beautiful illusion was fading away.

His mind fought with all its strength, but reality's pull was too heavy. His soul still crashed to the ground.

The world turned over, and everything returned.

He was still in his tent, surrounded by the refugees who had only settled down yesterday.

He had not been reincarnated. He had not cultivated immortality. He was still the Commandery Governor of Long Mountain Commandery.

A vast sense of loss and emptiness replaced the happiness and yearning from before.

For one fleeting instant, Lin Wen wanted to draw his blade and be done with it.

But it was only an instant. Lin Wen immediately buried the thought deep in his heart, because he knew that as long as he kept working hard, his dream would surely come true.

The woman before him still wanted to help him put on the other sock, but Lin Wen stopped her at once.

"I'll do it myself."

In the physical world, he was only one person, no different from anyone else.

The woman lowered her hand in disappointment. Lin Wen noticed a glimmer of tears in her eyes, and this woman looked rather familiar.

Lin Wen examined her closely and asked uncertainly, "Are you Bai Xiuyu?"

The woman's cheeks reddened slightly. She did not dare raise her head. "It's me, Great Immortal."

"Oh."

Lin Wen remembered. She was the woman who had lost her three children. Only, that day she had been covered in mud, dust, and tear streaks, utterly different from her clean appearance today.

Looking more closely, there were indeed still bruises on her face. Those should have been left by the scum who had beaten her.

Fortunately, they had already paid the price for their bestial acts.

"How are the children?"

He remembered that the three children had been anesthetized by the agents. That could potentially have caused harm; after all, the anesthetist had not been working in a proper hospital environment. He had specifically instructed them afterward to take the children to the hospital for examinations.

At the mention of her children, a smile appeared on the woman's face.

"Thanks to Great Immortal's blessing, the children are all well. They've recovered already. The doctor said they were only a little malnourished."

"Mm, that's good."

Lin Wen quickly put on his socks and shoes. Seeing a bowl of steaming white congee on the table, and feeling somewhat hungry himself, he immediately picked it up and blew on it twice.

It was unexpectedly fragrant, and there was even some minced meat in it.

"Not bad," Lin Wen praised. A little radiance returned to Xiuyu's face. She wanted to say something, but Lin Wen interrupted her.

"Why are you kneeling here? Sit. There's a stool over there."

"Great Immortal, but..."

"Sit when I tell you to sit. And call me by my name."

Xiuyu hesitated for a moment, then rose and carefully perched on the edge of the stool.

Lin Wen set the porridge on the table and asked, "Have you eaten?"

Xiuyu said softly, "Lin... Wen, I—we've already eaten."

"What did you eat? The same as mine?"

"Mhm."

"Was there meat?"

"A little."

"How have things been these past two days? Are there enough supplies?"

"There's enough. Director Huang gave us a great deal—far more than before. Everyone has food now, clothes to wear, somewhere to live, and clean water to drink. Medicine is still somewhat scarce, but it's so, so much better than before."

As she spoke of the present, Xiuyu's eyes sparkled, reflecting the seven o'clock sunlight like morning dew.

"We only had all this after the Great Immortal came. Before, we were like worms in the dirt. The flood washed everything away, and bad people took our dignity from us. We had nothing left. They trampled over our heads again and again, and we could only swallow our anger and endure it, unable to resist."

"It was the Great Immortal—the Great Immortal saved us. I never would have dared imagine that those high and mighty masters would die because of people like us. No one ever imagined it."

"You were the one who punished them."

She smiled, bright as a flower, but then lowered her head again.

"Before you came, we ate grass roots, tree bark, and porridge for more than twenty days. I'll never forget that bitter, choking taste for as long as I live."

"But even that wasn't something we could eat often. The guards in charge were always skimming off our supplies. They used that as an excuse to beat and humiliate us however they pleased. If we showed even the slightest resistance, they would withhold all the food until everyone was at death's door, too weak to fight back."

"Uncle Li couldn't stand it and argued with them several times. Later, they beat him to death."

"They left his body outside the settlement. No one took care of it for days, and they wouldn't let us take care of it either."

"Not until one day, when another official was passing by, did they drag the body into a mountain gully and throw it away."

"After that, they began taking pleasure in beating people. Every day, they would find someone to use as a punching bag. If they weren't satisfied with the beating, they wouldn't give us food."

"After beating people during the day, they would drag women away at night to sleep with them."

Xiuyu lowered her head, tears falling like pearls from a snapped string.

"If not for my child, I would have died long ago in those hellish days."

"We thought that if everyone gritted their teeth, perhaps we could somehow endure it. But one morning, I took my child to the mountainside to dig up some fish grass. Those bea—those beasts saw me and forcibly dragged me away... I—I begged them desperately. I even begged only to let me send my child back first, but they wouldn't listen."

"Uncle Cheng happened to pass by and saw it. He came over to stop them, and they beat him with iron rods until his head was split and bloodied. Several others were knocked to the ground too. I had made up my mind not to submit, so they beat me right there on the road and tore my clothes."

"Later, quite a few more people came. At first, they were extremely arrogant, but as more and more people gathered, they became afraid and ran back."

"Everyone thought it was over. They comforted me and helped me look for my child. But not long after, those beasts came back, bringing more than a dozen people with them. They used iron rods to knock everyone down. An old man from a nearby village fell right in front of me. I saw blood constantly spurting from the back of his head, his whole face soaked in blood and muddy water, like a ghost."

"At that moment, I was truly desperate. Crying, I begged them to stop hitting people—someone was going to die. I shouted, 'Take me with you. I'll listen to whatever you say.'"

"Only then did they stop and drag me to the sentry post."

Xiuyu's tears would not stop falling. It was an absolute nightmare, too painful to look back on.

"Later, the furious crowd stormed into the sentry post. Those people who had lorded it over us fled at the first whiff of danger."

"But everyone knew that this was rebellion. We were afraid there would be no way for us to survive afterward."

"Until... until, until..."

A trace of radiance appeared on Xiuyu's face, as though all the gloom and darkness had been swept away.

She said softly.

"We met you."

The tent's entrance faced the direction of the rising sun. Her fair, delicate face, though still marked by wounds, was submerged in sunlight, forming a breathtaking silhouette.

"You saved us."

"You led us back to the human world."

"You gave us hope as precious as gold."

"We revere you beyond measure, and we hope with all our hearts that you will protect us for a long, long time."

"Therefore, they chose me to come forward. And I was very willing to come, as their representative, to serve you."

She bowed gracefully.

"Please accept this token of our hearts."