Chapter 4: Dream Realm

  I saw Wu Feng crouching in the place where the two people disappeared, carefully examining the ground, probably trying to find some new clues. I don't have any idea about this aspect, but I just feel that those two people's disappearance is a bit too strange. Except for the location and a sound that sounds similar, there are almost no other clues, and when I think back carefully, I can't come up with any method that would allow someone to disappear quickly, my brain is simply not good enough.

  The sky gradually darkened, and Wu Feng saw that there was nothing more worth paying attention to, so he announced the end of the expedition. Everyone returned to the campsite via the shaky soft ladder once again. After dinner, I was assigned to Wu Feng's tent. Originally, this tent was shared by Old Master, Wu Feng, Wen Long, and Fat Three together, but now only the three of us were left. As for bedding and other things, they were all spare equipment that they had brought along on their trip. Fortunately, there was hot water inside, so I soaked my feet properly to relieve the fatigue of the day.

  After soaking my feet, I saw that Wu Feng and Pang San hadn't gone to sleep yet, so we chatted for a bit. Pang San is a very talkative person, and he basically told me everything about the camp. I quickly organized and tried to remember as much as possible, in case it would be useful later. It turned out that their research institute had been studying something too obscure, and as a result, not many people paid attention to them. Their research results were also extremely minor, so they didn't have any famous academic papers, and only a few people in the academic circle knew about them. As we chatted, we eventually got to talking about this time's missing person incident.

  "This time's incident is too big and has a great impact. We've been to many places before, but nothing happened. This time it's really unlucky."

  Wu Feng said, "Yes, and this time's matter is too strange. If we tell others, they won't believe us. Maybe some people will even think that we did something to the two of them. I reckon when the time comes, relevant units will also intervene to investigate, what a hassle."

  Pang San immediately retorted, "What can we do to them? Good guys, let's not mention the old master, who is highly respected and no one would dare to touch him. Let's just talk about Wen Long, what kind of background does he have? He alone can take down everyone in our camp, if you add Wu Wen and Wu Bin, it's normal that they could flatten our entire camp."

  Wu Feng said: "But outsiders won't think that way, you have to know, many times what we see is not as simple as it seems on the surface. Just like this disappearance incident, there's no trace to be found. The old man went down with equipment, so he must have brought a communication device, but still no news came back. Looking at it this way... sigh..."

  Although he didn't say it, I could sense his next sentence would be ominous. I hastily interrupted and said: "Really, not even a single clue was left behind, not even a piece of paper where they disappeared."

  Pang San seemed to have thought of something and quickly said: "There really is paper left in that place."

  I thought I had discovered something important and hastily said: "What paper? Where?"

  Pang San rummaged through the discarded pants pocket on the folding bed for half a day, pulled out a band-aid packaging paper and handed it to me saying: "It's this one."

  The packaging paper has been opened and the Creatine tablets inside have also been taken out. I held it for a long time and said, "It's just this, there's nothing else?"

  Fat San nodded and said, "No, the band-aid was indeed bought from outside. It's not something extra that appeared out of nowhere, I don't think it has anything to do with the disappearance. The old man wouldn't just disappear because he put on a band-aid, would he? Besides, Wen Long didn't have any band-aids when he disappeared. That guy does such intense activities, I reckon even if he wanted to get hurt, it'd be hard."

  "Wu Feng said: 'Thinking so much is useless, go to sleep.' He then turned off the light."

  I lay in bed, holding the Creatine package that Pang San gave me, and I always felt like I was missing something. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't think of it. My head was a mess, and on top of that, I had changed to an unfamiliar environment, so I couldn't sleep at all. The roof leaked just in time for the continuous rain at night, and Pang San's snoring started up again. My god, if you put this guy in the jungle, I reckon he could survive with just his snoring alone - even tigers would be startled by it.

  I couldn't sleep, so I sat up and Wu Feng should have been used to Fat Three's snores by now, but he was already asleep. There were two empty beds, yesterday there was an old man and a robust special soldier lying here, but now they were just two cold beds. I walked out of the tent, the camp was quiet, everyone had gone to sleep, occasionally some tents still had one or two snores, but compared to Fat Three, it felt like a small witch seeing a big witch. In the middle of the camp, there was a bonfire, and next to it sat a person. Su Yi. I quietly walked over, she seemed to be thinking about something and didn't notice me at all.

  "Can't sleep?" I walked up behind her and asked softly, "What are you thinking about?"

  Su Yi turned around and saw me, saying: "Thinking of Dad, I don't know what his situation is like now."

  I sat beside her and comforted her, saying: "Don't worry, think about it, Old Master has a lot of experience. If he joins forces with that Wen Long, that guy should be quite capable. What could possibly stump the two of them?"

  She nodded and then shook her head, saying: "I'm afraid they've encountered an inexplicable situation, and whether they can meet up is still a problem. You know, Wen Long went missing four days ago, and Dad went missing today. With Wen Long's personality, he might go ahead and explore first, and it's not certain if he'll come back."

  This is also true, I thought to myself, but still couldn't help comforting Su Yi by saying: "If he found the exit, that would be even better. You think a special forces background, he must have left some marks to tell everyone he's been here, how to walk, and Grandpa might not even need to exert himself to follow him over."

  Su Yi sighed and said: "I hope so! Why aren't you sleeping?"

  I couldn't help but sigh and say: "Now I truly admire your old man, Wu Feng, and that guy named Wen Long."

  "Why?"

  I said, "Good guy, just that fat three, the humming to be beaten, if there's a bit more rhythm, I reckon it can rival Pavarotti's tenor. In this environment, even an old man like him can fall asleep."

  Su Wei let out a snort of laughter. "No way, at first they didn't adapt either, but later on they slowly got used to it." She said, digging into her clothes pocket and handing me something.

  I took it and found it was a pair of earplugs. I couldn't help but sigh again, saying: "I thought I would never use this kind of thing in my life. Hopefully the sound insulation is good."

  Su Wei stood up and said to me, "Alright, go to sleep quickly. We still need you to find them. If your brain is all muddled, we'll be in trouble." Then he walked towards his own tent.

  I also stood up, patted the dirt off my butt, and returned to my own tent. The high-pitched hum was still going strong, but I put in earplugs, and surprisingly, they actually worked a bit. The humming noise had become just a normal decibel level. Sleep, I comforted myself, lay down, and fell asleep.

  A day's exhaustion led me to enter a dreamy state. In the dream, I seemed to have returned to my childhood, and Wu Feng and Su Ai were with me. We were all little kids playing in the dirt outside our house, making mud pies and playing with sand. Suddenly, I felt like I had grown up and was participating in some kind of work, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. Then, I found myself back in childhood again, sitting at Su Ai's house eating dinner. A kind but somewhat stern old man sat across from us, watching as we wolfed down the not-so-tasty home-cooked dishes. The old man held a bowl with his left hand and chopsticks with his right, and on his left hand was a cut he had gotten while chopping vegetables, which seemed to still be bleeding. I reached into my pocket to grab the band-aid that Sanpang had given me, but found an empty bag instead. When I looked back at the old man, he had already put a band-aid on his injured left hand.

  Damn, a wonderful idea suddenly flashed through my mind. Although I was asleep, it seemed like I had grasped the key to something. I felt as if I had been struck by lightning, half awake and half asleep. I really wanted to wake up immediately. But when I woke up, I always felt like I was in a dream. So, I tried biting my finger, no pain, indeed it was a dream. I thought so in my heart, and then woke up again, bit, still dreaming, woke up again, bit again.

  Then, a violent shaking, I opened my eyes and saw Wu Feng's sleepy face. I knew that this time I had really woken up. I saw Wu Feng opening his mouth, he should be speaking, but I couldn't hear any sound. Had I gone deaf? After a moment of clarity, I remembered that I still had earplugs in my ears, and quickly dug them out. Only then did I hear Wu Feng quietly asking me if I had been having a nightmare.

  I looked up at the sky, and through the darkness, I saw some light shining through. It should be around 5 o'clock in the morning. I waved my hand to Wu Feng and said: "I think I felt something, but I'm not quite sure yet. Don't mind me, let me think for a while."

  Wu Feng nodded and returned to his bed, continuing to sleep. I carefully recalled the dream from earlier, although it had become somewhat fuzzy, but most of the scenes could still be remembered. I thought carefully about it, especially the scene that made me feel like I was struck by lightning. An old man held a bowl in his left hand and chopsticks in his right, with a band-aid on his forehead. As I mimicked this action, I thought to myself. It was just a little bit off, and my heart knew it, but when I tried to think carefully about it, I couldn't quite put my finger on it. This feeling was very subtle, like when you're doing a math problem and you know the method to solve it, but somehow can't get the right answer.

  When I came to my senses, it was already time for breakfast. Since we were living in a camp, no one would bring breakfast to our doorstep. I took the rice bowl given by Wu Feng and went to one of the houses that should be the kitchen, scooped a bowl of porridge, added some salted vegetables, and grabbed a pancake. Then I found Wu Feng and Su Yi over there and sat down on the ground to eat. Pang San, Xiao Jia, Xiao Du, Wu Wen, and Wu Bin were all here.

  I was chewing on a pancake, still thinking about the feeling of holding a bowl with one hand and chopsticks with the other. This time it's perfect, there just happens to be a rice bucket and chopsticks, allowing me to more easily simulate this action.

  "Hey, hey." Su Ai's chopsticks knocked against my rice bowl, making a "dang dang" sound. "Rice is for eating, not for posing, OK."

  I looked up and found that everyone was looking over here, I smiled awkwardly and continued eating. When my eyes met his, I saw a band-aid on Xiaodu's hand, I'm quite sensitive to this kind of thing, so I casually asked what happened.

  Xiao Du said: "It's nothing, yesterday when I came back, I found that my pants were a bit torn, so I sewed them up, and as a result, I pricked my hand."

  I couldn't help but chuckle as I thought of Xiao Du, a young guy, holding a needle and thread, staring intently at his pants. It was quite amusing to think about him sewing with one hand...

  Right, the vague thoughts in my mind suddenly connected into a line. I took a big bite of the cookie and drank a large mouthful of porridge, as if trying to use this method to connect two events that were originally completely unrelated in my brain. One mouthful wasn't enough, so I had another. My eating seemed to have piqued Su Yi's interest.

  She knocked on my rice bowl again and said, "Hey, pancakes and porridge don't have any grudges against you, why do you eat them with such a deep hatred?"

  I could still clearly hear Xiao Jia burst out laughing, but I didn't pay any attention to it. I just wanted to extend this continuous feeling a bit further, until I could find the final result.

  Su Yi saw that I didn't respond to her and got a bit angry, forcefully knocking on my rice bowl. At the same time saying: "What are you thinking about?"

  "With a 'ding', the sound was exceptionally crisp. The fragments in my mind merged together with this sound. Although it can't be confirmed as true, at least it's much better than being completely stumped now."

  I looked up at Su Yi, who was clearly startled by my current stupid expression and hurriedly said: "Just kidding, don't be angry."

  I said: "Maybe this possibility really exists."

  Su Wei's hand waved in front of me a few times and said: "Maybe you've had a mental breakdown, do you want to see a doctor?"

  I threw away the rice bowl, grabbed Su Yi's hand and said: "Hurry up and pack your things, let's take people down."

  Su Yu suddenly flung open my hand, it seemed I had pinched her sore spot. She said with a hint of anger: "You're crazy, what's wrong with you?"

  I stood up and Wu Feng also got up saying: "Have you thought of a way to find them?"

  I nodded and said: "There's just an idea, we need to go down and experiment."

  Su Yu also reacted at this time, stood up and said: "What idea, is it feasible?"

  "I said: 'I don't know, let's talk about it later.'"

  Wu Feng immediately said to Pang San: "Immediately gather people and go down. You and Xiao Jia will stay on guard upstairs."

  No one spoke again, and everyone immediately dispersed to prepare. The equipment was all ready, so it didn't take long at all. Once again, I went down to the third room of the guest house, came to the place where Lao Yezi and Wen Long disappeared, lay on the ground, took out a magnifying glass and carefully checked the ground, but found nothing. Was my idea wrong?