Ten Years in Daocheng

: "You still have the heart to say this. His dream is nothing but gambling. If he can't get out, we won't even count the stars."

Bai Xincha said, "I have another way."

"What way?" Xu Liujun suddenly raised his head.

Bai Xincha winked at him, exhausted himself, and shouted behind Xiao Ba: "Xiao Ba, the pawn shop is on fire!"

Xiao Ba, who was in the middle of gambling, jumped up as if being pricked by a needle: "What? The pawnshop is on fire!" Then he turned around and pushed them away to run outside.

Unexpectedly, the originally extremely real casino, together with the people in the casino, became blurred and distorted.Bai Xincha opened his eyes in the brief but familiar darkness—Xiao Ba, Xu Liujun and him—the three were lying on the brick floor of the pawn shop, staring at each other.

Part49

Xiao Ba first broke the embarrassment: "Where is the fire?"

"Eh..." Bai Xincha pointed upstairs.

Xiao Ba rushed out of the pawnshop's door in a scrambling manner, and rushed back with a bucket of water after a while, and went up to the second floor in three steps at a time.Bai Xincha and Xu Liujun sat on the ground with a guilty conscience, listening to the sound of splashing water from upstairs, and the dull thud of buckets being thrown on the ground, and then Xiao Ba went downstairs cursing.

"Damn it, I didn't see any sparks! You two are playing with me, aren't you? Deliberately disturbing my sweet dreams!"

Xu Liujun said: "Xiao Ba, you also know that it is a dream. We didn't deliberately lie to you, we wanted you to wake up from the dream."

"Fuck off!" Xiao Ba yelled angrily, "So what if it's a dream? I was so happy in the dream, not much better than now?" He pointed at the two men threateningly: "Don't wake me up again, do you hear me? Or blow your dog's head off, his grandma's."

As he spoke, he walked around behind the pawnshop counter, bent down and disappeared.Bai Xincha and Xu Liujun didn't have time to stop it, and when they went to see him again, Xiaoba's snoring was already loud.Bai Xincha frowned and said, "Okay, I fell asleep again, all previous efforts have been wasted."

"Not exactly." Xu Liujun said calmly, "The balance of the enchantment has been broken by us."

Bai Xincha looked at him suspiciously.Xu Liujun took him to the street, and Bai Xincha found that the sun that had been hanging on the horizon had set at some point.Xilin Town was plunged into darkness, with only a few windows showing weak candlelight.

"But the maker of the enchantment still hasn't come out."

"Let's try a few more times." Xu Liujun said.

They discussed it and walked towards the direction of the bright window.Not far away, Bai Xincha seemed to hear a strange sound.

"Wait a minute." He stopped Xu Liujun.

The two held their breath.The sound of footsteps came from the alley on the right, getting closer and closer to them.In addition, accompanied by faint weeping, echoing in the long alley.Darkness is the best breeding ground for terror. Bai Xincha's hairs stood on end, but she pretended to be a hero and stood in front of Xu Liujun.Xu Liujun leaned close to him, holding a spell in his hand.

The sound of footsteps and sobbing gradually became clearer.In the dim light, Bai Xincha finally saw clearly—a girl ran out from the alley, she was about twelve or thirteen years old, crying and shouting at them: "Brother, brother, please help!" My parents!"

Seeing that it wasn't a ghost, Bai Xincha relaxed a bit, turned his head slightly and asked Xu Liujun, "Is there any problem?"

"Very likely." Xu Liujun answered him in a low voice, "Let's have a look first."

Bai Xincha nodded, bent down and asked the girl, "Little sister, don't cry, what's your name? What's wrong with your parents?"

"I, my name is Wanwan." The little girl sobbed, and said, "My parents and everyone in the town are asleep. No matter how I tell them, they ignore me." She grabbed Bai Xincha's sleeve: "Brother, you are the only two awake people I see, please help me!"

Neither of them answered right away.Seeing this, the little girl cried even harder: "Father... Mother... what should I do?"

Xu Liujun seemed very unbearable, and comforted: "Wanwan, we will help you. Do you have a fire bag on you? We can't see the way clearly, so we can't go to your house."

Wanwan said she didn't either.So the three of them went back to the pawn shop and dug out two candles from the counter.Xiao Ba was still sleeping there in the dark.

"Why don't you use spell lighting?" Bai Xincha whispered to Xu Liujun.

"There are not enough talisman papers." Xu Liujun also replied in an inaudible voice.

After lighting the candle, Bai Xincha saw the girl clearly and was really taken aback.One half of her face was covered with purple-red birthmarks, the corner of her mouth was strangely crooked to the other half of her face, and her hair was messy and knotted.Rather than wearing clothes, it is more like wearing a few rags.Under the flickering candlelight, Wanwan's expression gives people an indescribably strange feeling.Bai Xincha forced himself to calm down, and said to the little girl, "Wanwan, let's go."

Wanwan led them around in the alley.The vague wind blows the flame of the candle, and the shadows cast by the three of them on the wall are short and long.After a while she pointed to a door and said, "Here we are."

Part50

They went into the back room.Wanwan's parents lay side by side on the kang, with a serene smile on their faces.Wanwan was still crying: "Brother, my parents have been like this for several months. I'm so scared..."

Bai Xincha discussed with Xu Liujun in a low voice: "What should I do? Should I still use the trick of 'on fire'?"

Xu Liujun thought for a while: "It's hard to say. Everyone's dreams are different, so this trick may not work."

"Then try it with Wanwan. Parents are always afraid of their children's mistakes." Bai Xincha said, turning her head to look at Wanwan, "But she is all in tatters, do her parents really love her? In the cold weather, she is not afraid of freezing. Let's think of a way, and we can't try it rashly."

"I'm not afraid that she will freeze..." Xu Liujun repeated in a murmur, his expression changed from bewildered to vigilant.Just as Bai Xincha was about to ask him, he grabbed Bai Xincha's arm with astonishing strength.Bai Xincha noticed the stiffness in his fingertips, and became vigilant.

"Wanwan," Xu Liujun said, "What is your mother holding?"

Wanwan tilted her head strangely, and ran over to take a look: "There's nothing there. Brother, didn't you say you wanted to save my parents? Why didn't you start?"

"Your mother seems to have a ring on her hand."

"My father gave it to my mother."

"Go and help us take off the ring on her hand. She has something on her hand, and we can't help her out of her dream."

Bai Xincha understood instantly - Xu Liujun was testing Wanwan.He began to doubt her.

Wanwan stared at them suspiciously, without moving.

"Hurry up. Don't you want to save your parents?" Xu Liujun ordered her coldly.

Wanwan didn't respond, she lowered her head silently.When he raised his head again, the expression of helplessness, anxiety and sadness had been swept away, replaced by a sinister smile.Startled, Bai Xincha quickly stood in front of Xu Liujun.

"It was discovered by you." Wanwan's voice also changed from childish to charming, "It's really not easy."

Xu Liujun still held Bai Xincha's arm tightly, and said: "You are really powerful, you can even simulate pain. I almost fell for your tricks. But you can't create a 'cold' feeling. Thanks to Brother Xincha who mentioned it, I just realized that it doesn't feel cold here at all."

"You underestimated me." Wanwan giggled, making Bai Xincha's scalp tingle. "How difficult is it to create a feeling of coldness in a dream? It's just that your 'coldness' is different from ordinary people." She sighed faintly again: "Actually, I've almost deceived you. It's all because of this body, wearing It's so tattered, you—" She pointed to Bai Xincha: "I saw the flaw. It's really unlucky."

Bai Xincha didn't keep up with the rhythm of the conversation: "Wait, you mean we are still in a dream? Also, you are not Wanwan, but attached to Wanwan's body?"

Wanwan, or the woman who occupied Wanwan's body, said: "This is not accurate. Everything you saw in Xilin Town is real, but you are still in a dream. Or, I am the dream itself .”

"You are a nightmare." Xu Liujun said.

"Yes."

"Where's Wanwan? What did you do to her?" Bai Xincha asked anxiously.

Part51

"Wanwan is about to die." Nightmare said emotionlessly, "But I didn't cause it. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be able to become so powerful."

Bai Xincha suddenly remembered that it was mentioned in "Strange Tales of the Devil" that nightmares would attach themselves to dying people with deep obsessions and absorb the essence of those who entered their dreams, so he asked, "Wanwan, a little girl?" Child, what are your obsessions?"

Nightmare said: "This child Wanwan was ugly from the womb. Her parents, of course I am not talking about the two lying down, her real parents, who are as ugly as her. They died two years ago."

Bai Xincha and Xu Liujun listened quietly.

"After Wanwan's parents died, the people in the town laughed at her and bullied her even more brazenly. She couldn't eat well or dress well, so she was about to die, it's as simple as that." Nightmare sneered, "If I If so, curse them all to die. This idiot only hopes that everyone in the town will fall asleep. When everyone falls asleep, she can come out to pick up food and no one will laugh at her. Oh, it’s really stupid .But since this is her last wish, I will weave such a dream for her."

"But you are too greedy." After listening to Nightmare's words, Xu Liujun said calmly: "The whole town is shrouded in a dream, and the balance of the barrier will be easily broken. Although the barrier energy is powerful, you are very Vulnerable."

"Of course I know, you have the ability to defeat me." Nightmare's voice became even more charming, like extremely delicate silk.