Fang Yuan shuddered and slowly opened her eyes.
Another dream!
A dream within a dream!
She had never had such a bizarre dream before. She was actually dreaming herself, and it all unfolded with such vividness. Scene after scene, it felt as if she were there, every detail seared into her mind, like a knife's etched stone.
She had bitten her finger in a dream before, and the nerves in her brain told her that it had indeed hurt and that she had woken from the dream. But now, it was confirmed that she had only been dreaming.
All sensations are generated by the brain's central nervous system, and it can even transmit false information. If she couldn't even trust her own central nervous system, what else could she trust?
For some reason, Fang Yuan thought of the madman.
The same scene always looked different to a madman than to a normal person, because their central nervous system was transmitting erroneous information.
Would she be like those madmen?
A bizarre scene flashed through Fang Yuan's mind: she was alone, in tattered clothes, stumbling through the bustling city night. The colorful neon lights illuminated her dirty, twitching face. She grabbed a handful of stinking food she had scavenged from the garbage, stuffing it into her mouth while giggling at the well-dressed crowd.
Was this the fate she would end up like?
The thought made Fang Yuan shudder, her entire body tingled with cold. A boundless wave of loneliness washed over her, engulfing her.
At that moment, she felt as if her brain had stopped functioning, empty and void.
Could this be what being dead felt like?
She hated this feeling of emptiness and pounded her head, even wanting to bang it against the wall.
It hurt, it hurt.
This was good. At least there was something else to replace the dead silence. At least it proved she was still alive, able to perceive the world.
The dream within a dream had consumed so much of her mental energy. Fang Yuan felt completely exhausted, as if she were collapsing. Every part of her body felt heavy, and she didn't want to move.
It was already dawn, a few rays of morning light filtering through the window lattice onto Fang Yuan's face, gradually brightening it. The cheerful chirping of birds in the grove celebrated the earth's awakening. Some early risers began to wash up. The sounds of water, footsteps, the clatter of washbasins, and the shouts of the girls mixed into girls' dormitory 441.
Fang Yuan had wanted to lie down a little longer, but the dream within a dream was so terrifying that she broke into a cold sweat. Her soaked underwear clung to her body, feeling heavy and uncomfortable. The pores in her skin were clogged, making her feel depressed and unable to breathe.
Fang Yuan struggled to get out of bed.
Strangely, she was the only one in girls' dormitory 441 who had gotten up. Why hadn't they woken up yet?
Xu Zhaodi's snoring was also somewhat strange. It wasn't the smooth, rhythmic sound of snoring, but rather the beating of war drums, one after another, rapid and sudden, with a high pitch before suddenly fading into silence.
Fang Yuan walked over quietly and sat down on the edge of her bed. Xu Zhaodi's face was pale, beads of sweat beading on her forehead. Her hands were clenched into fists, tightly gripping the corners of the quilt, her breathing becoming increasingly rapid. Was she also having a nightmare?
She called her several times, but no response. She shook her a few times, but still no response.
Fang Yuan felt helpless. She didn't know if she should move more violently to wake Xu Zhaodi.
Clearly, the nightmare was gripping her tightly, and she wouldn't wake naturally until it was over.
"It's no use. Just wait for her to wake up on her own," Su Ya's cold voice drifted over.
When did Su Ya wake up? How could she have been completely unaware? From her tone, she seemed to know Xu Zhaodi was having a nightmare, but how could she know Xu Zhaodi's situation?
Fang Yuan glanced at Qin Yanping and Tao Bing'er. Their situations were similar to Xu Zhaodi's, almost certainly both experiencing a nervous nightmare.
"What's wrong with them?" Fang Yuan asked, not expecting Su Ya to answer.
"Having a nightmare," Su Ya replied unexpectedly, adding, "Same as you."
"Same as me?"
This time, Su Ya didn't answer, acquiescing.
How did Su Ya know she was having a nightmare? Fang Yuan suddenly felt a tinge of fear for this enigmatic girl.
Fang Yuan opened all the doors and windows, and the cool morning breeze created air circulation in the bedroom, making it feel much fresher. In the corner outside the window, some unknown weeds struggled to emerge from the cracks in the rocks, proudly displaying their slender, delicate green hues in the golden sunlight, excited and proud.
Fifteen minutes later, the three girls in girls' dormitory 441, who had been having nightmares, woke up one after another. Each of them screamed, their voices as sharp as a soprano, threatening to pierce Fang Yuan's eardrums. The screams continued one after another. At the first scream, someone in the other dorms complained, but soon the sound died down, as if their roommates had covered their mouths. Brief periods of dead silence occasionally fell over the girls' dormitory. Perhaps those disgruntled people finally understood that the piercing screams came from girls' dormitory 441, the most sinister and terrifying dormitory in Nanjiang Medical College, where no one wanted to mess with them.
The door to girls' dormitory 441 was closed, and no one entered or left. No one knew what was happening inside. In fact, even the five girls in girls' dormitory 441 knew only that they had each had a nightmare. Besides, they didn't know why they were having nightmares at the same time. Theoretically, the probability of such a scenario occurring was extremely low, almost negligible.
After five minutes of silence, Fang Yuan asked, "Why are you screaming?"
"I had a terrible dream," Xu Zhaodi muttered.
"Me too," Qin Yanping gasped.
"I had a horrible nightmare, too," Tao Bing'er said, still apprehensive.
Sure enough, everything was just as Su Ya had predicted.
Fang Yuan recalled her own nightmares, dreams within dreams. The first dream was of Cheng Li jumping to her death in girls' dormitory 441. The second dream was of being thrown to death by her roommate as a sacrifice. Could this dream within a dream be foreshadowing something?
Fang Yuan cautiously asked again, "What did you dream about?"
No one answered. Clearly, none of them wanted to talk about their nightmares again. Fang Yuan also wanted to forget her nightmare, but there were some things she had to face. Self-deception would only bring about its own consequences.
"Did you…" Fang Yuan paused, as if seeking their opinion. "Did you dream of Cheng Li jumping to her death?"
"How do you know?" the three asked in unison.
Fang Yuan's heart sank. If they had been having other dreams, she could explain it away as coincidence. But for all four of them to simultaneously dream of Cheng Li committing suicide, mere coincidence seemed far-fetched.
"Suya, did you have a nightmare too? Did you dream of Cheng Li, too?" Fang Yuan asked, holding onto a glimmer of hope.
After a long pause, Suya replied, "I did, but I didn't dream of Cheng Li. I don't know who she is."
Fang Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps it was really a coincidence? At least, there was one person in girls' dormitory 441 who hadn't dreamed of Cheng Li, even though Suya hadn't even seen Cheng Li, so it was impossible for her to be dreaming of her.
But Su Ya's subsequent words rekindled Fang Yuan's newly relieved anxiety. She said, "If possible, I'd rather dream of Cheng Li jumping off a building."
What did Su Ya mean by this? Was she saying her nightmares were far more terrifying than Cheng Li's? She had actually known about Cheng Li's suicide in Girls Dorm 441!
If only one person experienced ghostly apparitions during the day and nightmares at night, it could be explained as a personal struggle. But why did so many people experience them?
Or was there truly a spirit from another world in Girls Dorm 441? Was it influencing the girls there? Were all these unbelievable events caused by it? If it truly existed, was it Cheng Li?
A series of questions surfaced, and Fang Yuan had no answers. But one thing was clear to her: with the exception of the mysterious and aloof Su Ya, the rest of the girls in Girls Dorm 441 were shrouded in a haze of fear and panic. Now, the only person she can trust is herself. She can only rely on herself to find out the truth of the matter, otherwise, they will not be able to sleep or eat.