Chapter 2: The Dream of Mid-Autumn First Month

  Deng Gong Sun Ce woke up on the second day, and it was already high noon.

  Ma Cheng left, and the suitcase that had been put away was also taken out, filled with some of Ma Cheng's clothes, as well as various small trinkets he had collected. Gong Sun Ce searched the kitchen twice before confirming that Ma Cheng hadn't eaten when he left, because he couldn't find any leftover rice...

  Good friends have made up their minds to leave, and Gong Sun Ce must also arrange a grand farewell banquet. So he took out all the ingredients from the refrigerator and started processing them. These were originally planned to be eaten today.

  In the afternoon, when the meat in the pot was tender and fragrant, Ma Cheng returned home, complaining: "The train tickets are too tight, and the ticket scalpers are too black-hearted. Twice the ticket price!"

  "Nonsense, many people go there to pick cotton...". Gong Sun Ce brought a pot of braised beef and a bottle of beer. Both were meat-eaters and wouldn't be happy without meat. The so-called farewell dinner was just a generous serving of braised beef!

  "Not bad, your cooking skills haven't declined." Ma Cheng grabbed a piece of beef and wolfed it down, scalding his tongue. "Hurry up and eat, I'll leave after we finish eating. The bus leaves this afternoon, and we can go home the day after tomorrow!"

  Ma Cheng only drank a bottle of wine and left with his luggage after eating his fill. Gong Sun Ce stood on the balcony, waving goodbye to him without sending him off. Where would he send him to anyway? It's not like they won't meet again, it's not a farewell for life or death.

  After Ma Cheng left, Gong Sun Ce felt that the house was suddenly empty and cold. He quietly finished eating the remaining meat in the bowl, drank the remaining five bottles of beer, and lay down on the sofa bed with a dizzy head and fell asleep.

  On the night of August 15th, people like him who are far away from their hometown and relatives also gather with friends to eat, drink and have fun, driving away the nostalgia in their hearts. Some, like Gong Sun Ce, get drunk and can't wake up. Others toss and turn, gazing at the moon and unable to fall asleep.

  In Xianyang University, Xuelin sat at the window of her dormitory after parting with her classmates. With the lights turned off, the silver moonlight shone on her smooth and delicate oval face. A pair of dark eyes, each pupil seemed to be nurturing a full moon, shining brightly, with a hint of magic. In this unfamiliar city, she had lived for three years, yet it still felt unfamiliar.

  She thought of Gong Sun Ce, a classmate who had grown up with her. She took out her phone to dial his number, but then thought of Ma Cheng by his side and put the phone down again. Ma Cheng was also a classmate who grew up together, only Snow Ling couldn't get along with him. Because she looked very much like Pang Fei Yan in the TV series "The Young Detective", Ma Cheng always called her Fei Yan or Qiu Chun.

  This is not the point, what's annoying is that Gong Sun Ce's name makes people speechless and head-aching. Former classmates who watched these two TV series all teased her about it. Time can always dilute everything, but this year when they met for the first time, Ma Cheng opened his big mouth and shouted "Fei Yan" at her...

  In the end, she didn't make the call and only sent a text message. Then she sent a few more messages to her family members before covering her head and falling asleep. She didn't dare to make the call because she was afraid of crying, and if she cried, her family would also feel uncomfortable.

  Tonight, the sky is beautiful, the night sky is clear and the breeze is gentle. Although the stars are shining brightly, they can't compare to a full moon. The silver moonlight, like frost, envelops this Xianyang.

  Inside Gong Sun Ce's bedroom, a one-foot-tall bronze maid statue was placed, with an unusual shape but rusty and mottled. The maid statue held a round mirror in her hands and protected it on her chest, and there was also a sword hanging from her waist, wasn't the shape strange? But when Gong Sun Ce got his hands on it, the price was very cheap. Because at the bottom of this bronze maid statue, a line of simplified Chinese characters was engraved...

  At this time, the moonlight in the house was like a silver-white mist, gathering into the copper mirror in the maid's hand. The rust on the copper mirror fell off layer by layer, turning into a silver-white color, extremely smooth. Then the ability to absorb moonlight grew at dozens of times the speed, and the silver round mirror began to overflow with mercury-like **, flowing slowly along the maid's arm.

  In an instant, the entire bronze statue turned silver-white, and the originally blurry facial features of the maid began to clear up. Even the sword at her waist, which was as small as a toothpick, took on the appearance of a real sword. Then, the bronze maid suddenly opened her eyes, with pupils that seemed like black holes, swallowing all the flowing silver light on the statue. The entire maid statue returned to its original bronze color, and even the round mirror in her hand became bronze. However, its ability to absorb moonlight did not weaken at all.

  The bronze maid twisted her head, gazing towards the bedroom where Gong Sun Ce was, and curled up the corner of her mouth. Then she narrowed her eyes, motionless, a pair of silver-white pupils emitting a puff of purple smoke, drifting towards the bedroom, then remained still.

  Gongsun Ce's dream, he seemed to be inspecting the irrigation facilities in a cotton field, saw a snake, a very big snake. He ran, desperately ran. The big snake was chasing behind him, and he couldn't shake it off.

  He ran to the snowy mountain, and the big snake was still chasing him, blocking him at the cliff. He had no choice but to jump off the cliff, as if he had returned home again, where snakes all over the mountain were chasing him. He ran again, with only one thought in his mind, that is, to run away from here.

  "Why don't you turn around and kill these snakes?" A woman in a white long gown suddenly appeared before him. He stopped in his tracks, and in an instant, he and the woman in white were surrounded by a circle of snakes.

  "Kill! What to kill? I also want to kill!" Gong Sun Ce retreated without any possibility of retreat, already in a desperate situation. However, his consciousness was half awake, knowing that this was just a dream. Knowing it was a dream, but he didn't want to die in the snake's belly.

  "What do you want? As long as you ask me, I can satisfy you." The woman in white said with a smile, ignoring the snakes around her. Her voice was clear and cold like a deep mountain spring, which also calmed down Gong Sun Ce.

  "Who are you? How did you appear in my dream!" Gong Sun Ce couldn't see the woman's face no matter how hard he tried, and involuntarily asked. As soon as he asked this question, some of the snakes around him turned into wisps of green smoke and merged into the dream, while others fled. Even the giant snake as thick as a water bucket deflated like a balloon, shrinking to a foot long, pure white jade-like small snake.

  Watching the snakes disappear, the woman in white asked in shock: "How did you know you were dreaming?" Su Shou made a gesture, and the small snake coiled on the spot, suddenly popped up, flew to the front of the woman, transformed into a two-foot-long fine sword, and returned to the woman's waist scabbard.

  "It seems like you're the one who's been playing tricks on me! How could I not know this is my dream? Because it is my dream!" Gong Sun Ce was only half awake, and his words made the woman stare at him with wide eyes.

  "Little guy, you're not bad at this. Want to know who your sister is?" The white-robed woman played with a strand of green silk, her face close to Gong Sun Ce's as she asked, her breath like orchids. Gong Sun Ce opened his eyes wide, but still couldn't see the woman's features clearly, and his great disappointment showed on his face.

  "Do you want to know what your sister looks like? Your sister will let you see, but you can't see it anyway. Because your strength is too weak. This is the difference between humans and gods, do you understand?" The woman in white pushed Gong Sun Ce's head with her finger and continued: "Sister is a goddess! Do you have any wishes to make?"

  Gongsun Ce furrowed his brow and thought for a moment before saying, "This doesn't feel right. Why are you being so good to me for no reason? What do you want me to do for you? It's not like manna will fall from the sky, and even if it did, everyone would get a share, but I wouldn't get mine. From what I remember, I've always been quite unlucky."

  "The reason is simple, it's just that you can remember all these unlucky things. This is a gift from heaven. With the good comes the bad. If you have benefits, naturally there will be more hardships." The woman didn't think twice and directly gave Gong Sun Ce an explanation, and Gong Sun Ce also nodded in agreement.

  "You haven't even said who you are? Don't keep calling me 'sister', it sounds awkward." Gong Sun Ce was very wary of this woman, the snakes up ahead were obviously her doing.

  "Alright, let me introduce myself formally." The woman clapped her hands and said: "Sister is a deity, a deity who has just been revived. When I was human, people called me Dai Ji, because I had no father, and after death, I became a god with the surname 'Dai' as a substitute for my family name. Originally, I was the earth god of Dai Prefecture, in charge of the mountains and rivers of Dai Prefecture, and governing the lives of the people of Dai Prefecture."

  "Are you Dai Tai? This name has a nice ring to it." Gong Sun Ce said suddenly after repeating the name Dai Tai several times.

  "What's the big deal, it's just a figure of speech. Do you know why your sister is looking for you?" Dai Su's hand waved, and the colors around Meng Jing seemed to be washed away by a flood, becoming transparent. With another wave of her hand, she and Gong Sun Ce appeared on the sea, standing on a stone pillar that pierced the seabed, surrounded by endless waves crashing against them, the sound of the waves overlapping.

  "I don't know, can you tell me why I can realize that I'm dreaming? And in the dream, I can recall any past events. What's more, I found out that the self in the dream and the real self are completely two different people." Gong Sun Ce had been puzzled about this for a long time, and added: "The real self is always so foolish."

  Dai Dai stretched out her arms to enjoy the feeling of the sea breeze, and after a long time, she said: "Nowadays, isn't there a computer in the world? A complete person can be regarded as a complete computer. The current you is the complete you, it's the system of the computer, and here you don't have the limitations from the physical body, that is, the hardware, so you can always maintain your best state at any time."

  "The you in the outside world is always subject to physical limitations and various interferences. It's an incomplete you, how can an incomplete you compare to a complete you?" Dai said, Gong Sun Ce began to ponder. With a wave of her hand, a stone table and stools appeared before them, along with refreshments and a set of tea utensils. She poured a cup of clear tea for herself and Gong Sun Ce, the fragrance wafting through the air.

  After drinking a small bowl of tea, Daji continued: "Sister was already dead when the name change occurred in Dai Prefecture. Later, all the gods died for various reasons. Because sister's god image fell into your hands, and you lit incense day and night, and the original temple where she was located was renovated and rebuilt, with faith, sister was able to come back to life. However, her divine position was gone, which is also why sister found you."

  "It's not just my sister who will be revived, but all kinds of spirits. My sister is a divine spirit, and there are also evil spirits, ghostly spirits, holy spirits, and even yin spirits that will gradually revive or be born. The world you live in will soon become chaotic. This is roughly what the doomsday legend is like. In the future, the world will be dominated by various spirits, not just a single living being, which is you humans." Gong Sun Ce sipped the tea brewed by Dai Ji and fell into deep thought.

  "Most of the spirits were actually humans when they were alive. This world is still dominated by our human lineage. My sister came to find you, wanting to join forces with my brother. Taking advantage of the current revival of all spirits, while they are weak, kill them and strengthen us." Daji's words left Gong Sun Ce perplexed, he didn't know why he was chosen? Was it just because he could be conscious in his dreams?

  "You're right about half of it, being able to have consciousness in a dream means your soul is strong and pure, with few distractions. The other half of the reason is because of your blood, which contains the intent of martial killing. This is a power that can intimidate all spirits, although this power is very small and insignificant." Daji sighed in relief that she was lucky to be among the first batch to awaken, and also encountered a talented and promising disciple.

  "Descendant of a military family? My grandfather's grandfather was a general, and except for my old man, the generations in between were all bandits. Does that mean I have the bloodline of a military family?" Gong Sun Ce asked.

  "It's not that simple, the bloodline has been passed down for a long time. Everyone can find an ancestor who was once a general, so wouldn't everyone have a military bloodline? Because your soul is pure and hasn't been influenced by all sorts of external opinions, it allows this weak military bloodline to not be dispersed. It's better to say that it's the lingering spirit of a warrior or a war god, rather than a military bloodline." Da Di continued to explain, and Gong Sun Ce somewhat understood.