Hu Xing didn't know how long she had been falling; it felt like several days had passed. But she knew this feeling was unreliable. According to Qingmu, there was no time in dreams; time was just an illusion.
But she couldn't forget the concept of time; anxiety and the fear of falling tormented her. Several times she almost gave up, but thankfully Qingmu was there for her.
Finally, a soft light pierced through the darkness, then the light became dazzling and blinding.
Then a red sun appeared in the sky, hanging quietly overhead, so close, its scorching heat was unbearable.
The outline of the mountains gradually came into view, and beautiful terraced fields appeared one after another, with many people working in the fields.
Xia Wenyuan, barefoot, led an ox from the edge of the field. He called out "Ooh ooh ooh" as he drove the ox into the field.
"Is this my grandfather's dream? It's so beautiful! I'm also thinking about going to farm!" Hu Xing recalled that when her grandfather was young, he went to Longji, Guangxi to participate in the construction of a farm, and she heard that there were terraced fields everywhere there.
Qingmu shook his head and said, "Don't disturb other people's dreams unless your Mental Power is strong enough to understand the rules of their dream space and change it. Your grandfather's Mental Power is very strong, much stronger than yours."
Hu Xing then realized that Xia Wenyuan's dream space was much larger than her own.
"So what do we do now?" Hu Xing asked.
"Just watch," Qingmu said. "No matter what happens in a little while, just remember, this is a dream. You don't need to do anything, understand?"
Hu Xing nodded obediently.
After the ox was put into the field, Xia Wenyuan followed behind it, holding the plow and driving the ox forward. The plow turned up the mud in the paddy field, making a splashing sound.
" Wenyuan, why are you only arriving now? If you don't finish the team's task today, you'll get scolded again when you get back!" said a young man from the nearby field.
Xia Wenyuan pushed the oxen and plow, saying, "We'll make it, we'll make it."
" Wenyuan, your back pain has flared up again, hasn't it? If you ask me, you should go tell the Party Secretary and ask for a day off," another young man said.
"It's nothing," Xia Wenyuan said, rubbing his lower back.
The sun grew increasingly intense, and Xia Wenyuan's clothes were soaked through, with sweat dripping from his head like heavy rain.
"Time to eat!" someone shouted, and everyone, including the Tushu staff, put down their farm tools and went down the terraced fields along the path.
Xia Wenyuan put down the plow and led the ox back home.
"What are you doing? You're not allowed to eat until you finish your task today!" A middle-aged man walked over with a pipe in his hand.
"I can skip meals, but the ox needs rest too!" Xia Wenyuan said.
"Then let the ox rest, and you plow the field yourself!" The man tapped his pipe and said, "The ox belongs to the proletariat, and you are the descendant of the capitalists. The bourgeoisie still want to eat? If we don't reform you, who will we reform!" With that, he walked away with his hands behind his back.
Xia Wenyuan had no choice but to pull the ox to a shady spot and tie it up, then carried the plow into the field alone.
He laboriously plowed the muddy field with the plow, wiping the sweat from his brow every now and then.
Hu Xing felt a pang of sadness.
In her mind, terraced fields were a symbol of beauty, but she never thought about how much sweat and suffering had been shed on these layers of land that were as beautiful as a painting.
Xia Wenyuan was still working in the fields; no one else had returned, and he was all alone in the empty mountains and fields. The sun gradually moved westward, casting a very long shadow over him.
"They're here," Qingmu suddenly said.
Just as Hu Xing was about to ask something, she saw the shadow behind Xia Wenyuan move.
The long shadow rapidly shortened, sliding across the terraced fields until it was only the height of a person. Then, the shadow slowly stood up, stretched out its two hands, and reached out to grab Xia Wenyuan's neck.
Xia Wenyuan seemed to sense something and suddenly turned around, coming face to face with his own shadow. The shadow grabbed his neck, and he reached out and grabbed the shadow's neck in return. A man was now wrestling with his own shadow.
Hu Xing covered her mouth, almost crying out. If Qingmu hadn't told her not to disturb her grandfather's dream, she would have rushed over to see what was going on.
"What do we do?" she asked Qingmu.
Qingmu frowned, indicating that the situation was more serious than he had imagined.
With a deafening roar, the massive terraced mountain suddenly collapsed, shattering into countless fragments that crashed down on them like giant waves from a tsunami. Through the gaps in the fragments, Hu Xing saw her grandfather and that shadow still entangled together, like two inseparable lumps of dough.
Then, the scene changed, Hu Xing found that they were on a city street. Her grandfather and his shadow were rolling on the road, and vehicles were swerving to avoid them, with a chorus of horns blaring.
As they fought, Xia Wenyuan and Shadow rolled into a dark corner by the roadside. Shadow dimmed and slowly disappeared. Xia Wenyuan wiped the sweat from his forehead and sat there panting heavily.
But then, for some reason, a searchlight from a construction site not far away suddenly shone on us, and the shadow reappeared.
The light was so bright that Xia Wenyuan couldn't open his eyes. His long shadow was cast on the wall behind him, making him appear exceptionally tall.
The shadow loomed overhead, like a giant. It raised its foot and stomped down on Xia Wenyuan's head.
Xia Wenyuan reached out to block, but he was already at his limit, and the shadow was too tall for him to block. He was stomped into the ground by the shadow.
Hu Xing screamed and, ignoring Qingmu's warning, rushed to save her grandfather.
But her vision blurred for a moment, and the scene suddenly changed to a dark sewer. Xia Wenyuan stood in the murky water and looked around.
A wall lamp nearby suddenly lit up, casting his shadow onto the water's surface. The shadow rippled in the water, then twisted and crawled up.
Xia Wenyuan saw the shadow and ran forward, and the shadow chased after him. When they reached a place without lights, the shadow disappeared, but after a while, a light would turn on nearby, and the shadow would reappear.
They soon reached the end of the sewer, where there was an exit sealed off by an iron fence. No more wall lamps were needed; the natural light streaming in from the opening cast a long, long shadow behind Xia Wenyuan.
The shadow was probably too long to stand up from the sewer, so it twisted and crawled along the cave wall little by little.
"Let's see how long you can hold out," the shadow said.
"I won't let you succeed," Xia Wenyuan said.
The shadow laughed loudly, "You can't get rid of me! Every time you move to a new place, you deplete your energy, you'll grow weaker and weaker, you won't last long. I am your shadow, you can't get rid of your own shadow unless you imprison yourself in darkness forever."