Chapter 4: The Dream Continues

Liu Shuoshuo dragged Xu Yang down from the rooftop. Crying, she said, “Hubby, I woke up and realized you weren't beside me. Then I found the room door open. Why did you run up to the roof?”

Xu Yang looked back. Beneath him was a building more than ten stories tall. The height alone was terrifying.

His sleepwalking had been captured on the livestream. Everyone was stunned by how eerie it was.

Only then did Xu Yang understand: the girl in white in his dream hadn't meant to take him somewhere beautiful. She had been leading him to his death.

“Lift the stone” meant lift the blanket.

“Put your hand through the waterfall” meant unlock the fingerprint lock and open the door.

“Climb the mountain” meant take the stairs upstairs.

“Cross the stream” meant jump off the building.

I heard about it, too, and my heart pounded with fear.

It seemed this great calamity truly couldn't be avoided.

Liu Shuoshuo told Xu Yang that my grandmother had been a fortune-teller with an uncanny gift. The two of them desperately searched for our whereabouts.

News of the Xu family dying one after another came in from overseas.

Just as I had predicted, the farther away they ran, the sooner they died.

As for Liu Shuoshuo, the person closest to the Xu villa, she had been the first to see a ghost—but she had remained safe until now.

I told my parents what I had observed.

They nodded. “Maybe it's a warning, telling them not to even think of running away.”

I asked, “Following that rule, does being closer to the villa mean a better chance of survival?”

My parents said nothing. They only lowered their heads and continued eating.

After thinking it over, I still asked Su Wei to tell Liu Shuoshuo and Xu Yang about the pattern.

That very night, the couple moved back into the villa.

I hadn't expected them to be so bold.

More than half a year passed. The Xu family members had died or been injured, until only Liu Shuoshuo and Xu Yang remained safe and sound.

Everyone thought they had escaped the curse.

Even Xu Yang and Liu Shuoshuo thought so.

They continued living in the villa, still covered in the bizarre talismans the master had painted there.

I don't know how long it was before news of them reached us.

Both of them had lost their minds. They could no longer control their bowels or bladders.

The villa had become a wreck. Trash covered the floor, and rats and cockroaches crawled everywhere. It was nothing but a giant garbage heap.

By then, I thought the calamity had finally ended.

Until Dad told me the truth.

Xu Yang was the child who had been trapped in the patch of thorn bamboo in Sanjia Village all those years ago.

His parents had taken him to a large hospital in another province for treatment, so he had escaped the disaster.

After his mental illness was cured, the boy chose to forget all his childhood memories. A kind man adopted him.

That kind man was Xu Yang's father.

I asked Dad how he knew.

“Your grandmother divined it. She said there might have been one person left behind that night in Sanjia Village. Now that I think about it, Xu Yang's age seems to match the child.”

I nodded.

But none of it had anything to do with me anymore.

Just when I thought life was about to return to normal, a great many netizens began dreaming the same dream.

They all dreamed of the same woman in white.

I had a bad feeling.

Those netizens all had one thing in common: they had watched Liu Shuoshuo's livestream in person.

Only then did I finally understand what Grandma had meant by an “unprecedented calamity.”

That woman had an unstable mind. Her lucidity came and went.

When the disaster struck Sanjia Village, she hadn't harmed anyone else. She must have been lucid then.

But now even the people who had watched the livestream were starting to dream of her.

I guessed that she might be unstable again.

The calamity…

It was still going on.

Afterword!!!

I had blocked every way Su Wei could contact me. But she kept switching numbers and bombarding me with messages.

[Jiatang, you know what's going on, don't you? I dreamed of that woman last night, too!]

[Am I going to die? Can you save me? If you'd told me from the beginning, I wouldn't be in this mess!]

[You bitch! You deliberately kept it from everyone, didn't you?!]

…

Reading her messages left me with a jumble of emotions.

It wasn't that I didn't want to save her. I simply had no power to do so.

If I made even the slightest mistake and put my family in danger, I would be doomed, too.

In the end, Su Wei never managed to find out where I lived.

Her messages shifted gradually, from insults to desperation.

From the scattered clues she left in her messages, I pieced together what she had been through.

Ever since she first dreamed of that woman, her life had changed completely.

She would often catch a glimpse of that white figure crouching in some corner of the house.

When Su Wei bathed, the woman crouched on the toilet, watching her squeeze out body wash.

When she ate, the woman crouched on the dining table, watching her pick up food.

When she slept, the woman crouched beside her pillow, staring at her with her eyes wide open.

Su Wei was on the verge of a breakdown. She quit her job and stayed home, invited Taoist priests to perform rituals, and begged friends to stay with her. None of it helped.

The woman kept watching her.

No matter where Su Wei went or what she was doing, the woman sat crouched not far away, eyes bloodshot, grinning at her.

Su Wei fell a month behind on her rent. At last, the landlord couldn't take it anymore and came to the door to demand payment.

But when he opened the room, a pair of legs dangled right in front of him.

They swayed gently left, then a little to the right, then back to the left again…

Su Wei had taken her own life.

My parents sighed. They felt sorry for her, but there was nothing they could do.

“There was no way to undo it. She died unjustly, and her mind wasn't right. Even if your grandmother were still alive, she couldn't have handled this.”

On the night I learned Su Wei had died, I had a dream, too.

I dreamed I was watching TV. The screen, which had been playing anime, suddenly glitched. A stream of corrupted symbols flickered across it.

I was alone on the sofa in an empty house.

My whole body went stiff. I had a premonition something was wrong.

Just as I stood up to run, a hand reached out from inside the television.

It clutched the cabinet beneath the screen, as if straining to pull the rest of its body out.

I immediately ran for the stairs.

My instincts told me it belonged to that woman.

As I ran down the stairs, I couldn't stop myself from looking back.

She lay on her side on the concrete floor, long hair covering half her face. Her eyes were blood-red, curved like two crescent moons.

In my panic, I missed a step and fell hard to the ground.

“Ha—”

When I opened my eyes again, my heart was pounding in my chest.

“Xiaotang, what's wrong?”

Mom rushed over anxiously and touched my forehead. “Oh! Did you have a nightmare? I heard you mumbling in your sleep.”

I still hadn't come back to myself. Two lines of tears spilled from my terrified eyes.

I clung to Mom's waist, my voice trembling. “Mom, I dreamed of that woman!”

I felt her body stiffen immediately. The next second, she hurried to turn the doorknob and leave.

“I'm going to find your father. Stay here and don't go anywhere!”

I got up, gathered my things, quickly tied my hair, and put on a coat.

After a while, my parents still hadn't come back. I went out to the balcony for some air and saw them standing downstairs.

Our home was on the eighth floor. No matter how fast she was, Mom couldn't have gone downstairs in the blink of an eye.

Could it be…

Click!

I immediately locked my bedroom door.

The moment I locked it, my parents began knocking from outside.

“Xiaotang! Why did you lock the door? Open up and let us in!”

“Open the door, Xiaotang!”

My thoughts were a mess. For a moment, I couldn't tell which parents were real.

I ran to the balcony and saw my parents downstairs waving at me, their faces frantic. Their mouths seemed to be shouting something, but I couldn't hear them at all.

I bit my lip. My parents outside were pounding on the door, while my parents downstairs looked desperately worried.

Suddenly, a distant memory surfaced.

Grandma once said that ghosts would imitate the people close to you to confuse you. There was a simple way to tell a person from a ghost: hold up a mirror to them.

I rummaged through the drawer and grabbed a small mirror. “Mirror, mirror…”

My parents downstairs were too far away. I could only test the people outside the door.

Luckily, there was a wide enough gap beneath it.

I took off my shoes, crept quietly to the door, and slipped the little mirror through the gap.

Then I lay flat on the floor, ready to squint at the face reflected in it.

But the next instant, I yanked the mirror back.

I clamped a hand over my mouth, afraid to make a sound.

There was only my mother outside the door!

Then why were there two voices outside?

I was so frantic I pulled at my hair, tears spilling nonstop.

What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?

Suddenly, the voices outside stopped.

It was so quiet it seemed I was the only one in the house.

I went out to the balcony. My parents had vanished from downstairs, too.

Everything had disappeared without a trace, as if it had all been an illusion.

My body felt light. My head felt light, too.

Static crackled…

The television in the bedroom began to flicker, as if something not of this world might crawl out at any moment.

Then, suddenly, I thought of something.

I stood on the balcony railing and threw myself down.

At last, I woke up.

It had only been a dream within a dream.

At last, I woke up. Over breakfast that morning, I told my parents about the dream within a dream.

Their expressions turned serious. Dad set down his chopsticks.

“This… can't be. We've clearly moved far away from them. Why would you dream about it? Have you been under too much pressure lately?”

I nodded. “Maybe. Maybe I just thought about it too much before going to bed.”

“Mom, Dad, you're really you, right?”

I asked suddenly.

“Of course we are. Silly girl. We followed your grandmother's instructions exactly. We won't bring disaster upon ourselves.”

I nodded, but I was still a little afraid.

Just as Grandma had predicted, most of the netizens who had watched the livestream began dreaming the same dream.

The same woman in white. The same dream within a dream. Many netizens even developed various symptoms of illness.

Some had fevers that wouldn't come down. Others were so frightened they suffered nervous breakdowns.

Since I had dreamed of her, too, I hadn't dared sleep alone for days. I had to squeeze into bed with my parents.

Mom brought me a glass of water. “Drink some. You've been feeling overheated these past few days.”

I nodded, but the moment I turned away, I poured the glass out while my parents weren't looking.

Ever since that dream began, I hadn't dared trust my parents completely.

“Go to sleep, Xiaotang.”

Mom stroked my head. “We're right here. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid.”

Dad patted my shoulder, too. “Sleep.”

I nodded and let myself drift off, reassured.

In the middle of the night, I drowsily opened my eyes and realized no one was beside me.

The balcony door was locked. My parents stood outside on the balcony.

Their hushed conversation reached my ears.

Mom's voice was very low. “What do we do? Xiaotang dreamed of her, too.”

Dad replied, “There's nothing we can do. My mother said we have to pull it up by the roots. If we can't protect Xiaotang, then we'll have to protect ourselves.”

Suddenly, Dad asked, “Have you put the medicine in her water?”

“I did.”

My parents no longer looked like the loving people who had always protected me.

But I wasn't afraid anymore.

I smiled. I thought I finally understood why Su Wei had taken her own life.

A dream within a dream. Anyone would be unable to bear it.

Then I took from inside my clothes the last protective item Grandma had left me: a wooden necklace carved with a peachwood sword.

I had never told my parents that Grandma had said one more thing that day.

“Don't tell your parents this. That woman may imitate them to harm you. Remember, from the moment you dream of her, the dream has already begun. Unless you kill her, the dream will never end.”

“The jade pendant was a warning. This necklace is what will save your life. You must kill her, or you will die.”

As I watched my parents' faces begin to twist on the balcony, I clenched my fist.

The peachwood sword slowly grew larger, and I gripped it tightly in my palm.

“Huh?”

Dad turned around. Half his face still looked like his own; the other half had become the red-eyed woman.

“She disappeared?”

Mom turned around. The bed was empty. There was nothing there.

The bedroom door stood open, as if inviting them inside.

My parents screamed, flung open the balcony door, and rushed out of the room, frantically searching for me.

I hid beneath the bed, smiling.

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