Transtor: der Transtions

  --------

  "Doctor, don't scare me," the fatty said with a trembling voice, his face full of distress. "I may look sturdy, but it's just fb. I'm not good with fear."

  Jiang g g him, perhaps recalling how delicious the food the fatty had cooked was, and decided to let him off the hook, not tinuing the versation.

  Sieaming up with Jiang g, the fatty had beuch less nervous. After a short while, he was back to his lively self. "Doctor," he asked in a low voice, lig his lips, "do you think we'll enter a nightmare again after we fall asleep tonight?"

  Nightmares were filled with peril at every turn. The eerie yet intensely realistic feeling they evoked sent chills down one's spine.

  Jiang g, who was busy hanging up his wet clothes, paused for a few seds before replying, "Probably not. While our physical strength fully recovers after esg the st nightmare, our mental energy doesn't."

  The fatty uood what Jiang g meant. The energy expended in the nightmares couldn’t be restored as easily as their physical strength. If this went on, they would grow increasingly exhausted, eventually being draio death by the nightmares.

  From Fan Li and Sister Nuan, they had learhat though nightmares were terrifying, there was often a slim ce of survival, which didn't align with the usual rules of nightmares.

  "That's good," the fatty let out a long breath, then added, "I was even thinking about staying awake tonight."

  "Pointless," Jiang g shook his head. "How many nights you stay awake? When you finally doze off from exhaustioering the nightmare will be a death sentence."

  The mention of "death" sent a shiver dowty's spine. He quickly crified that he was just venting and had no iion of doing that.

  As night deepened, neon lights flickered on in the distahrough a half-open window, the bustling world outside could be seen. The fatty, resting his on his hand, stared out the window, lost in thought.

  Refleg os and pieces of the nightmares made him appreciate the beauty of the real world even more.

  Jiang g lounged in an office chair, watg a horror movie and mung on fries dipped ichup. He ihe fatty to join, but the tter stubbornly refused.

  After finishing the movie A Wicked Ghost, Jiang g nearly drifted off to sleep.

  When he opened his eyes, he saw the fatty curled up on the sofa, plugging his ears with an unfortable expression.

  Notig that Jiang g was awake, the fatty, as if seeing his savior, released his ears and called out, "Doctor, what kind of movie were you watg? That ghost was way too scary."

  Listening to his expnation, Jiang g realized that the fatty had overheard a particurly eerie se of the soundtrack. He had tried to turn the movie off, but just happeo withe ghost, Chu Renmei, appear on s.

  "The ghost you're talking about is Chu Renmei," Jiang g expined. "She was a tragian from feudal society, and also the inspiration for the character in Lu Xun’s The Lady of the Camellias."

  The fatty automatically tuned out what Jiang g said.

  After shutting down the puter, the two went upstairs to sleep.

  The fatty pihat it had been a bit cold st night, so Jiang g found him a new quilt. Taking advantage of the st ce before Jiang g ehe bedroom, the fatty told him that if he was scared after watg the horror movie, he could stay in his room for pany.

  Before he could finish speaking, the bedroom door smmed shut with a "bang," followed by the sound of the lock clig.

  Pouting with dissatisfa, the fatty y down, recalling how Jiang g had advised him to wear clothes and shoes to bed just in case.

  Seizing the sunher earlier in the day, the fatty had ed his shoes. While out shopping froceries, he had bought himself a new pair of sneakers, which he was now wearing.

  The studio was in a retively remote location, and the night was very quiet.

  Jiang g habitually pulled the b up to his , breathing steady and even.

  His body was different from that of ordinary people. He wasn’t particurly sensitive to hot or cold, rarely got sick, and had a higher tolerance for pain.

  Sometimes, he eve like he was aioool.

  He drifted into a deep sleep.

  A strange melody echoed in his ears.

  It wasn't cssical, pop, or jazz. The tune didn’t belong to any genre he reized.

  The sound seemed born from darkness.

  Born from darkness, auro darkness.

  Jiang g felt as if everything was moving away from him. It was as though he had sunk into the depths of the o or entered an eunnel.

  Despair. Only despair. Nothing else.

  The crisp sound of something breaking rang out, like a bck cloth being torn apart with brute force. Jiang g suddenly woke up.

  He found himself standing in the er of the first floor of the studio, with a bck iron door looming in front of him.

  His body moved before his mind could react. He reached out and pushed the door open.

  After a moment of dizziness, his feet found solid ground again, stepping on firm earth.

  In front of him stood a building that resembled a school, though it wasn’t rge and its boundaries were visible at a gnce.

  Several buildings stood quietly uhe afterglow of the setting sun, casting long gray shadows. The se had a somewhat romantic quality.

  Squinting at the su, Jiang g estimated that it was around 4 or 5 iernoon in this world.

  For the moment, there was no one else in sight, and the school gates were already closed.

  Shielding his eyes from the harsh sunlight, he g the school a few more times, then decisively turned and walked in the opposite dire.

  (End of the Chapter)

  ---What happened ?

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