This Is a Dream

"Is she... using her own blood as seasoning?" Zheng Yichen watched as she controlled the blood in the cup by some unknown means, dispersing it into a mist that seeped into the roast meat.

The meat looked no different. The little girl, who had not touched it before, now picked it up herself. As though expecting something, she lightly touched it with one finger and waited nearly half a minute. Only after confirming that it had not changed did she begin to—oh, no!

Zheng Yichen stared wide-eyed as the little girl suddenly turned into a ravenous eater. Her earlier elegance vanished completely. Somehow, her tiny mouth took a bite that swallowed a tenth of the meat!

Did she have a grudge against this wild boar or something?

After devouring half the meat in a few bites, the little girl finally slowed down. She picked up the handkerchief beside her, gently wiped the corners of her mouth, and began savoring small bites as though she were eating a rare delicacy. Watching her, Zheng Yichen almost wondered whether he had somehow become a master chef.

Compared with that terrifying display of eating, this was how a little girl being fed was supposed to act, right?

He flexed his dragon claws slightly, spearing a piece of meat on each one. As for the taste, it was all right. At least, his cooking had not changed much from two months ago.

Zheng Yichen finished most of the roast wild boar before the little girl finally ate the rest. Seeing that she wanted no more, he nodded slightly. No matter how formidable she was, she was still tiny. How much could she eat?

"I'm going to sleep... Right, you can't understand me." The little girl looked up at Zheng Yichen, pulled over the wing he had laid to one side, and covered herself with it like a blanket. Zheng Yichen became her bed.

"What the..." What was this? Where had that mysterious trust come from? Her actions left Zheng Yichen at a loss. She already looked fast asleep, and even a slight movement would probably wake her. He had eaten and drunk his fill too, so he might as well sleep.

Lying on the ground, Zheng Yichen slowly closed his eyes. A dragon's body had an innate advantage when it came to sleep: he could go a long time without it, yet fall asleep whenever he wanted.

Since arriving in this world, Zheng Yichen had hardly dreamed at all. Tonight, unusually, he did.

In the dream, he was no longer a dragon but had his original body. He was no longer in that deserted town that resembled a ghost town, either. He was in his familiar little apartment. Everything inside was arranged exactly as he remembered, giving him the fleeting impression that he had finally made it home!

People said being transported to another world was great, but he had experienced none of the good parts. He had spent more than half a year living in the wilderness and had nearly been caught by this world's humans for who knew what purpose. Even communicating was a huge obstacle. No matter how he looked at it, his life here could not compare with the one he had before!

What made him realize he had not returned was the view outside the window. Instead of the familiar street, there was boundless, deep darkness. Merely looking at it filled him with an inexplicable fear of being swallowed.

"Hm? You're afraid of your own dream?"

"Who... Huh!? You're...?" Zheng Yichen stared in confusion at the little girl who had appeared in his room. He was certain she had not been there when he looked around earlier!

"It took a little time to enter your dream." Sitting on the bed, the little girl picked up the blanket and tilted her head to study its pattern. It was purely decorative, with no practical purpose. The material seemed to be ordinary cotton, but the workmanship was exceptionally fine.

Many things in dreams were not real. They had form because of the dreamer's impressions of them. The deeper the impression, the more real an object appeared in a dream. A bed was probably one of the things a dreamer could recreate most perfectly...

"So it really is a dream... Wait! I can understand you?" Zheng Yichen looked in surprise at the little girl, who was sniffing his blanket. Since this was a dream, could things even have smells?

He picked up the half-finished glass of juice beside his computer desk and sniffed it. Oh! It really did have a smell!

"I don't know what language you speak, but we can communicate in dreams. It's similar to communicating directly through our minds. It looks as though we're talking, but our meanings are actually being converted into language through that connection."

"I still don't know what language you're speaking, and you don't know mine, either." The little girl regarded Zheng Yichen with an unusually calm expression. "And this is what you really look like, isn't it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but it sounds impressive."

"That's all right. We have plenty of time to talk." The little girl glanced at the clock on the wall. It was very different from a timekeeping device like an hourglass, but with a little thought, she could tell it was something Zheng Yichen recognized as a clock.

She had not entered Zheng Yichen's dream by forcing her way in. She had used another kind of deception, entering as a "guest" rather than an intruder. Because the dream accepted her, information generated from Zheng Yichen's understanding of things applied to her as well.

The numbers on the clock, for example, appeared to Zheng Yichen in a form he knew, while she saw them in another. Of course, if she chose not to accept that information, the numbers would revert to the form Zheng Yichen knew.

She casually picked up one of several books lying on the table beside Zheng Yichen's bed. Its contents were disjointed, with words and sentences missing. That was hardly strange. The book was merely something Zheng Yichen had conjured in his dream. Unless he had memorized the entire thing, its contents could not possibly be complete.

She pulled out the book at the bottom of the pile and glanced at its cover—The Complete Collection of Bedtime Stories. She flipped through it. Although the text was not entirely complete, about eighty percent of it was there. The dreamer clearly remembered this book well.

After turning a couple of pages, she noticed what Zheng Yichen had been staring at all along. "What's that?"

"Uh, my beloved computer!?" Zheng Yichen rubbed the tip of his nose. After a moment's hesitation, he pressed the power button. To his delight, it actually started up. At the sight of the familiar boot screen, he nearly burst into tears!