A dream is a multi-dimensional space created by consciousness. The dimensions it presents depend on the memories that construct the dream and the spiritual energy possessed by the consciousness itself. Therefore, human dreams appear to be three-dimensional, but in essence, they are a multi-dimensional space where space and time are superimposed. Qingmu's powerful Mental Power allows him to dismantle and change the rules of dreams from the perspective of his spiritual essence.
The place where Qingmu and the Crow are now is a zero-dimensional space without dimensions. There is no exchange of matter and energy, and time does not exist. No matter how much time they feel they have spent here, it is just a feeling; time has no meaning here.
Zhao Pengcheng might be secretly pleased with himself in his dream at this moment, or he might be slowly recovering his Mental Power. Once his Mental Power has recovered to a certain level, he will be able to leave the dream.
At that time, he will wake up, while Qingmu's consciousness, sitting across the table in the meeting room, will still be trapped in the Zero Space, looking like a vegetable who has suffered a sudden cerebral hemorrhage—alive, but never to wake up again.
"Then we can never go back?" the Crow asked.
Qingmu said, " Zhao Pengcheng is in a different time and space from us now. He and we will not have any influence on each other, either spatially or temporally. Perhaps what feels like a hundred years to us is only a day to him, or he may have served thirty or forty years in prison while we have only exchanged a few words."
"Holy shit!" the Crow cried, jumping up and down. "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit... This is terrifying! We only exchanged a few words, and he's been in prison for decades? My braised pork knuckle would be moldy by now! Oh no, a braised pork knuckle that's been there for decades, quack... And... and Ruhua, wouldn't she be an old woman by now? Oh and... and you and me, where are we? Guagua, I mean, where are our bodies now?"
"That's hard to say," Qingmu chuckled. "Perhaps I'll already be cremated, while you... I wonder if you'll be made into a specimen or boiled into soup..."
The Crow shook its head Guagua, cawing mournfully, "I don't want to be made into soup... Guagua... I'm still young... I'm still a virgin..."
As it croaked, it suddenly seemed to remember something, looked down at Qingmu, and said, "What did you call me here for? You didn't just want to find someone to take your place and keep me here for centuries until Ruhua gets the vet to give me a shot, did you... Guagua!"
Qingmu said, "I asked you to come here because I want to go out."
The Crow said, "How do you get out? If you can get out, why don't you go out yourself? Why are you looking for me?"
Qingmu said, "Dreams can't be completely closed off; they're always connected by zero-dimensional spaces. Otherwise, we couldn't enter other people's dreams so easily. This corridor, I don't know what method they used, is essentially making this zero-dimensional space visible, or perhaps it's a naturally occurring trap-like zero-dimensional space. So when Zhao Pengcheng severed the connection between the dream and this Zero-Dimensional Corridor, he thought I'd be trapped here, but he didn't expect I'd have such a capable bird like you..."
"Caw! Yes, you're right. That's the most accurate thing you've ever said in your life. I am very capable, Guagua!" the Crow cawed happily. "But... what can I do?"
Qingmu said, "Have you forgotten your own abilities?"
The Crow thought for a moment and said, "Besides the fact that I can find this trivial matter no matter where your consciousness is, what else is there?"
Qingmu said, "That's it. It shows that you can ignore spatial distance."
The Crow still didn't understand. "What's the use of that?"
Qingmu said, "My Mental Power cannot leave an independent zero-dimensional space unless that zero-dimensional space happens to drift near someone's dream space, but the probability of that is lower than winning every lottery in the world. But you can, because you don't care about distance. Although you may not be able to accurately find another space without conscious coordinates, you can travel through nearby zero-dimensional spaces."
The Crow said, "You don't want me to fly around like a headless fly, bumping into things until we end up in a zero-dimensional space connected to the dream of that guy named Zhao Pengcheng, do you?"
Qingmu said, "Yeah, that's pretty much the idea."
"I think it's better to wait for the landlady to take me to get my shot, even though it might—" The Crow twitched its tail and its tail feathers trembled twice, "Ouch!"
Qingmu said, "If you were in a normal dream, that would certainly wake you up. But you're in a zero-dimensional space where time doesn't exist, and the distortion of time and space might render this connection ineffective. Besides, you can't directly bring my consciousness into the real world; we're not in the same place. I have to return to myself from some dream."
The Crow said, "But if we search through each zero-dimensional space one by one, how long would it take to find it?"
Qingmu said, "Theoretically speaking, it might take an infinite amount of time, because you could fly farther and farther away. But that's okay, we have plenty of time. Here, we live as long as the universe."
"Caw! Mad! Mad!" the Crow cawed.
Qingmu smiled and said, "Actually, it won't take that long, because Zhao Pengcheng's dream was once connected to this place, so it must have left some clues. As long as you pay attention, you will definitely be able to find it. You might feel like you've been waiting for hundreds of years, but you'll find it then."
"Caw... several hundred years..." The Crow still thought Qingmu had gone mad. "By then, Zhao Pengcheng's tombstone would have turned to ash. Are we supposed to crawl out of his grave? What good would it do? Our own bodies would be reduced to ashes by then!"
Qingmu said, "No, it won't happen. As long as we go back, the two timelines will overlap again, and the moment they overlap will affect each other. His time will return to the instant I left. Therefore, we must find the location in his dream where I left."
"Oh, alright, alright, I hope you're right." The Crow stopped talking nonsense, cawed, gripped Qingmu's hair tightly with its claws, and flew up, speeding away to the end of the corridor.
The Qingmu hung from the giant bird's claws, like a thin, black paper cutout of a human figure, drifting and swaying in the endless void.
Zhao Pengcheng laughed loudly at himself in the mirror for a while, then relaxed and sat down on a bench in the locker room to rest. The scalpel lay beside the bench, looking dull and dull-looking, having lost its sharpness.
He bent down, picked up the knife, placed it in his palm, and gently rubbed it with the fingers of his other hand. The blade gradually became shiny, and the thin edge regained its sharpness. After a while, the blade slowly turned red, as if it were absorbing all the light and warmth around it.
The entire dream space is darkening, while the knife grows brighter and brighter.
As the blade turned a deep, wine-red hue, the red began to flow into Zhao Pengcheng's palm, along the visible, bulging veins, and back towards his heart.
The room grew increasingly dim, and the light from the blade, after reaching its peak, gradually dimmed, as all the light returned to Zhao Pengcheng. His spirits returned to their initial state, and confidence filled his entire face.
As the dream space collapsed, Zhao Pengcheng's figure disappeared into the darkness.
Then, light returned, and he awoke.
He saw sunlight streaming into the prison visiting room through the skylight. Aoki, sitting across the table from him, had a Qingmu stare and remained motionless, as if he had lost his soul.
The prison guard next to them was looking at them with a strange expression...