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 cloud of bloody mist that seeped into the roasted meat.

The meat looked no different. This time, the little girl, who had not touched it before, reached out and picked it up. As if expecting something, she gently touched it with one finger and waited nearly half a minute. Only after she was sure nothing had changed did she give a faint... Oh, no!

Zheng Yichen's eyes widened. The little girl before him had suddenly turned into a glutton. Her earlier elegance vanished, and somehow, with that tiny mouth, she bit off a tenth of the meat in one go!!

Did... did she have a grudge against that wild boar?

After devouring half the meat in a few bites, the little girl slowed down. She picked up a handkerchief, gently wiped the corners of her mouth, and began savoring it in small bites as though it were some rare delicacy. Zheng Yichen almost wondered whether he had evolved into a master chef.

Well, compared with the terrifying way she had just eaten, this was how a little girl being fed ought to behave, right?

He curled his dragon claws slightly, skewering a piece of roasted meat on each one with ease. As for the taste, it was nothing special—hardly different from his cooking two months ago.

After Zheng Yichen had finished most of the roast wild boar, the little girl finally finished her remaining piece. Seeing that she had no intention of eating more, he nodded slightly. No matter how formidable she was, she was still a tiny little thing. How much could she eat?

"I'm going to sleep... Mm, 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..." What the hell? Where had this mysterious trust come from? Stunned by what the little girl had done, Zheng Yichen had no idea what to do next. She already looked fast asleep, and the slightest 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. This dragon body had an innate advantage when it came to sleep: it 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 in a dragon's body but his original one. He was no longer in that deserted town that resembled a ghost town, either. He was in his familiar little home. Everything inside was arranged exactly as he remembered it, and for a moment, he almost thought he had finally made it back!

People said crossing into another world was wonderful, but he had yet to experience anything wonderful about it. He had spent more than half a year living in the wild, and humans in this world had nearly caught him to do who knew what. The language barrier was another huge problem. 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 a deep, boundless blackness. Merely looking at it filled him with an inexplicable fear of being swallowed whole.

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

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

"It took me 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 pretty but served no real purpose. The material seemed to be ordinary cotton, though it was exquisitely made.

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

"So it really is a dream... Huh? Wait! I can understand you?" Zheng Yichen stared in surprise at the little girl, who was sniffing his blanket. Since this was a dream, did smells... exist?

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

"I don't know what language you're speaking, but in a dream, we can communicate. It's similar to communicating with our minds. It looks as though we're talking, but what we mean is being conveyed mentally and converted into words."

"In fact, I still don't know what language you're speaking, and you don't know what language I'm speaking, either." The little girl gazed steadily at Zheng Yichen. "Also, this is your truest form, isn't it?"

"I don't get it, but it sounds impressive."

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

She had not entered Zheng Yichen's dream by forcing her way in. She had used another means of deception, entering as a "guest" rather than an intruder. That meant the dream accepted her, and the information it presented according to Zheng Yichen's understanding worked for her as well.

For instance, Zheng Yichen saw the numbers on the clock in a form he recognized, 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 scattered on the table beside Zheng Yichen's bed. With words and sentences missing, its contents were a jumble. That was hardly strange. The books were merely things Zheng Yichen had conjured in his dream. Unless he had memorized one in its entirety, its contents could never 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 opened it. Though its contents were not quite complete, about eighty percent was there, which showed that the dreamer remembered this book particularly well.

After turning a couple of pages, she was drawn to the thing Zheng Yichen had been staring at all along. "What's that?"

"Uh, my dear old computer!?" Zheng Yichen rubbed the tip of his nose. After hesitating a moment, he pressed the power button. To his delight, the thing actually booted up. At the sight of the familiar startup screen, he nearly burst into tears!