The shadow was faint, and the fluctuations of spiritual energy within it were very weak.
" Ruxue, can you see it?" Qingmu asked.
The white cat beside him straightened its body and gracefully swished its tail.
In dreams, consciousness can transmit information, and its expression is more accurate and direct than language. Generally speaking, what we say in dreams is not real speech, but a direct expression of consciousness. This expression transcends language and acts directly on the brain.
Therefore, if we carefully recall our dreams, we will find that dreams are more often like a pantomime. In our dreams, we have all sorts of strange behaviors and see all sorts of strange things, but we rarely speak. Not speaking does not affect the progress of the dream, nor does it affect communication within the dream, because the transmission of information in dreams does not require conversion through Tushu.
When some people recall their dreams, there may be verbal content. For example, calling someone's name, calling for help, shouting loudly, or a teacher giving a lesson. This is because our subconscious mind is processing auditory memories of sounds from specific scenarios. These sounds are part of the memory content and do not express any meaning. Therefore, we may dream of a teacher giving a lesson, but we won't remember what the teacher said.
If clear dialogues appear in a dream, it usually means that we actively reconstruct these conscious expressions into language when we recall them after waking up. This is because the conscious mind and the subconscious mind are different and need language as a medium to process information.
Language has limitations in conveying emotions and ideas; the conversion of language actually restricts the completeness of what consciousness wants to express. So sometimes we feel that what we say in our dreams is incoherent, which is actually because when we try to recreate our consciousness with language, there will always be omissions and inaccuracies.
It is very difficult to accurately express human emotions with language. We often use words like "beautiful," "pretty," and "like a flower" to describe girls, and words like "bright," "fresh," and "magnificent" to describe scenery.
However, upon closer reflection, we realize that our words are so pale that they are simply unable to express our true feelings in our subconscious. Sometimes, we can only use the silence of "silence speaks louder than words" or a "Holy crap, that's so damn good" to summarize our inner feelings.
Now it's time for the poets to step in. They describe a beautiful woman as "one glance could topple a city, a second glance could topple a nation"; if a woman possesses an ethereal quality, they say "she is like a light cloud veiling the moon, drifting like swirling snow in the wind"; when viewing a lake from a tower, they say "the sunset glows and a lone wild goose flies together, the autumn water blends with the vast sky"; and when gazing into the distance from a mountain, they say "I will climb to the summit, and all the mountains will appear small"...
These masters of language are always worthy of respect.
They possess profound linguistic skills, not only accurately describing the concrete external form of things but also perfectly interpreting human emotions. Even more remarkably, they can evoke your emotions, making you recall past feelings upon seeing objects, amplifying your emotions infinitely, and leading you into an indescribable realm.
In this respect, Chinese is clearly superior to other languages in terms of expressive power.
Unlike alphabetic writing systems that rely solely on sound to distinguish information, Chinese characters categorize and interpret information through three dimensions: graphic, auditory, and ideographic. This allows for the expression of more meaning with fewer characters. Furthermore, the location of the Chinese language center in the brain, based on Chinese characters, differs from that of other languages, resulting in significant differences in thought patterns and cultural dynamics.
Language and writing are the beginning of civilization and one of humankind's greatest inventions. Because of the vast and rich vocabulary and writing system, humankind is able to communicate through conscious thought and engage in deep thinking while awake.
This is also the fundamental difference between humans and animals.
Aside from outliers like Boss Coal, animals cannot engage in complex communication with you using conscious thought. Parrots mimicking speech are merely imitating sounds; they don't actually understand the meaning of what you're saying.
Like this cat in front of you, when she's awake and Hanran asleep, she only knows that you are her owner and that you will feed her. If someone feeds her dried fish and lobster every day, there's a high chance she'll run away with that person. Don't just talk about her; all pets are pretty much the same. Whether they run away with someone or not depends only on the amount of food and the comfort of their environment.
However, don't doubt it, any animal can "talk" in its dreams. Their subconscious is not much different from that of humans. If there is a difference, it's like the difference between today's i9 chip and the 80486 from back then. Both can be used to assemble computers, but the systems they can run are quite different.
Compared to humans, animals are less able to reconstruct their dreams because they lack language, making it impossible to reconstruct much of the conscious information expressed in their dreams. Furthermore, the simpler the brain structure of an animal, the more difficult it is to reconstruct its dreams.
Qingmu wasn't entirely sure if Hanran could recreate the dream; at least for now, she probably couldn't completely recreate it, otherwise she and Ruxue in the dream would have merged into one long ago, instead of being like two completely different cats. Crow had been trying to train her, hoping she could understand more about human language, and Qingmu had also tried to guide her in using her Mental Power in the dream.
Now, Ruxue is "speaking" in my dream:
"I can see it."
"Help me take care of him," Qingmu said.
Ruxue turned to look at Qingmu, a hint of doubt in her eyes, but the message she conveyed was only one word. "Okay."
Then, Qingmu saw Ruxue's body slowly grow larger, and a powerful Mental Power erupted, like the aura of a flood.
He quickly used his Mental Power to protect Xia Wenyuan and prevent the dream space from collapsing.
The shadow seemed to sense something and finally rose from the ground like a wisp of smoke. The shadow on the ground was still there, but it was fainter than before, as if a layer of a painting had been peeled off.
The standing shadow twisted and turned in the air, looking around as if searching for something. Qingmu sensed that the shadow's Mental Power was growing stronger, wondering how it had managed to hide itself earlier.
The white cat watched the shadow's performance silently, then slowly walked towards it. Her steps were slow, her supple waist swayed gently, and her tail was slightly upturned, making her look very elegant. This is probably what true catwalking is all about; if the Crow were here, it would be captivated by her again.
However, this elegance lasted only a moment, and what happened next caught even Qingmu off guard.
When she walked in front of the shadow, without warning, her Mental Power suddenly exploded, instantly enveloping the shadow.
This is the effect as seen through Qingmu's "eyes," but if viewed from the perspective of the dreamer, or if the dream is reconstructed upon waking, what is seen is the white cat, with the ferocity of a tiger, opening its mouth and swallowing the shadow whole.
Xia Wenyuan, who was picking fruit from a tree, also sensed the fluctuations in the spatial energy here. He turned around and happened to see this scene. Of course, he was being protected by Qingmu at this moment; otherwise, not only would his consciousness be injured, but at least his dream would definitely collapse.
This also reminded Qingmu that next time he let the white cat do something like this, he must tell her to protect the dream and the consciousness within it. Qingmu and the white cat had confronted each other in Mama Yao's dream before; at that time, she knew how to protect Mama Yao's dream and consciousness, probably because she had received the Old Madam Cuan's will. But now, she clearly didn't know that another consciousness needed protection, or perhaps she simply didn't care. She only received Qingmu's order to eliminate the shadow before her.
After "swallowing" the shadow, Ruxue became the pure white and noble cat again, walking back with elegant steps, as if the "ferocious" scene just now had nothing to do with her.
Qingmu sensed a subtle change in her Mental Power —the shadow had vanished, seemingly absorbed by her!