"Thou must prove to me that thy master is worthy."
The divine oracle rippled through the cramped room like a wave, lingering for a long time yet precisely confined within those four walls.
"My Great Beast God?"
Zhizhi spoke with a tremor, only to find that the shivering sensation of being watched by a deity had vanished instantly.
She had left, or rather, She had retracted the silken thread that tethered his soul.
"Master... she will definitely recognize me." He gripped the stained suit jacket, his eyes shifting from confusion into a desperate, all-or-nothing resolve.
Meanwhile, a thousand miles away at a deserted pier.
The sea breeze was salty and pungent, making the rusted cranes creak and groan.
Tian Shuangxin gripped the man's sleeve so hard her knuckles turned purple, tears mixing with sea salt to form a thick crust on her face.
"Mr. Luo, please... help me just for this once. I have to find a way to get to Green PheasantCountry. I have to bring him back..."
"Miss Tian, it's not that I'm being heartless, there's truly no way." The man known as Luo shook her off with an irritated wave of his hand.
"Look at the state of the world. The sailors under me are all acting like they've been hexed; they can't close their eyes for a second. The moment they do, they see those red words and those images. There isn't a single person at the pier with a sound mind left. What can I do?"
He paused, his tone softening slightly but tinged with the relief of a survivor.
"If it weren't for my old yellow dog—who hasn't suffered a day under my roof—guarding my soul right now, I'd be like Bang next door, kneeling in the street slapping my own face."
Luo didn't look back at her, disappearing into the darkness of the shipping containers.
Tian Shuangxin collapsed into the mud, her strength spent. The waves crashed against the rocks—a sound like countless creatures sobbing in the dark, infiltrating her ears and the hearts of every human currently paralyzed by anxiety.
That night, the whole world was frantically "performing" kindness.
Billionaires fed stray cats expensive caviar in front of cameras; politicians wept while hugging retired police dogs. In the face of terror, human greed was quickly stitched into a tattered cloak of hypocrisy.
From the void, She looked down coldly at this theater of the absurd.
"A feigned tenderness is but a blade in disguise."
In that moment, She raised Her hand.
A vast, boundless power, like ink dropping into clear water, silently covered the entire planet. From ten thousand meters high to the deepest ocean trenches, time seemed to freeze for a single second.
The lights of the world went out simultaneously.
Whether in the bustling cities or the silent wilderness, the consciousness of every living being fell into a bottomless abyss.
"Nightmare Beast, come."
The void behind Her splintered open, and a chaotic vortex three meters wide slowly formed. Deep within the vortex, one could see a forest where fantasy and decay coexisted.
A stag-like silhouette emerged from the mist.
It possessed a pair of bizarre antlers: the left flowed with iridescent aurora—green, blue, and pink intertwined—scattering particles that healed the soul.
The right was criss-crossed with cracks like withered blood vessels—black, red, and dark purple surging—exuding the stench of calamity and rot.
Its long, wing-like ears twitched slightly, and on Its brown wings, two mysterious pearls rotated slowly, capturing the fears of all sentient beings.
The Yǎnshòu(Nightmare Beast) made no sound. It simply lowered Its head and sniffed the deathly silent world.
The next instant—
Its multicolored pupils shattered into countless tiny streams of light, surging into every sleeping brain like a tide.
The Dreamscape officially unfolded.
This was the final chance She had prepared for humanity to "prove themselves".
—
Tian Shuangxin opened her eyes to find herself standing on a long-forgotten street.
The lights were bright, and the warmth of passersby brushing past her felt terrifyingly real. In the current state of Blue Planet, this "normalcy" felt spine-chillingly eerie.
She instinctively rubbed her fingers; they were clean. The cracks and grime from her "busy" days had vanished.
"Squeak—"
A tiny sound, nearly swallowed by the wind, made her spine stiffen instantly.
She spun around. In the shadow of a trash can, a filthy fancy rat was huddled in terror.
"Zhizhi?"
Her voice was painfully hoarse.
The tiny creature reacted as if pricked by a needle, retreating frantically. Its back heaved with fear, and its bead-like black eyes reflected no longer reliance, but total estrangement and defense.
"It's me... Zhizhi, it's me..."
Tian Shuangxin's heart felt as if it were being sliced. Just as she moved to take a step, the asphalt road beneath her feet collapsed like melting tar.
Light and shadow twisted; the tenderness was torn into fragments.
In the next second, she found herself standing beneath a glaring crystal chandelier. The cool, white light, as sterile as a surgical lamp, exposed every pore in the living room, leaving nowhere to hide.
Her eyes widened to the size of copper bells. Two women sat in the room: one was herself; the other was a woman she would never forget as long as she lived.
The woman across from her was plump and radiant with an air of overbearing wealth. But the words that spilled from her mouth made Tian Shuangxin's heart tremble violently.
"Have you made up your mind, Miss Tian? I've already spoken with your mother's primary physician. As long as you nod your head, tomorrow morning's surgery can be scheduled," the woman said with an undeniable tone of condescending charity.
The air felt as if it had been vacuumed out.
The Tian Shuangxin in the dream lowered her head. Those shoulders, bowed by the weight of poverty and despair, shook violently in the play of light and shadow.
She did not say "no", and in that moment, the silence was more deafening than any scream.
The woman slowly turned an emerald ring on her finger, her tone light but heavy with contempt: "I thought you were a smart girl."
She curled her lips into a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "This little creature happens to look like my late 'Maomao'. It is its destiny, and your luck. Otherwise, someone like you would never have the chance to sit here and talk to me."
"Mrs... Mrs. Zhu." Her voice was unsteady. She pressed her lips together and released them, opening her mouth several times but failing to speak.
Finally, the "her" in the dream closed her eyes. After a few seconds of struggle, she opened them again.
"...How much?"
The "her" in the dream spoke. The voice was as faint as the buzzing of a fly, yet it struck like a thunderclap in the ears of the real Tian Shuangxin.
"No!! Don't say it!"
The real Tian Shuangxin rushed forward like a madwoman, trying to cover her own mouth. But her hands passed through the scene like a phantom mist. She could only watch helplessly as the transaction from three months ago replayed before her eyes.
"No... it wasn't like that..." She backed away, her breathing erratic. "I didn't... I didn't really want to sell you..."
But the dream does not respond to explanations. It only replicates—the moment closest to the truth.
Mrs. Zhu laughed—a contemptuous, triumphant laugh of absolute certainty. She tore a page from her checkbook, her long, well-manicured nails scraping across the paper with a sound that set one's teeth on edge.
"Name your price. As long as it can live in 'Maomao's' place."
The real Tian Shuangxin collapsed to her knees. She watched her past self look up. In those bloodshot eyes, besides agony, there was actually a glimmer of lowly relief born from being "saved".
"I agree... as long as... the money arrives as soon as possible."
"IT WASN'T LIKE THAT!!!"
Tian Shuangxin finally broke down. She lunged forward, wanting to interrupt the scene, wanting to tear the dream to shreds. But her hands passed directly between the two women as if moving through thin air.
"It wasn't like that! I did it to save my mother! I had no choice!" She roared at the void, the scent of blood rising in her throat.
At that moment, the "her" in the dream suddenly turned her head. Her hollow pupils pierced through time and space, locking precisely onto the gaze of the real Tian Shuangxin. It was a silent interrogation.
"I..."
She opened her mouth, but the voice was stuck in her throat.
In that heartbeat—the image shattered like a broken mirror. Every shard reflected her most secret hesitation between money and companionship.
She found herself before a rusted iron cage.
Tian Shuangxin sat slumped on the freezing concrete floor. The scent of soil beneath her fingernails clashed with the pungent smell of disinfectant from the hospital corridors in her mind.
Inside the cage, the tiny living being was as quiet as a cloud. It didn't beg for food as it usually did; it simply pressed its pink nose against the wire mesh, its black-bean eyes filled with pure, untainted trust.
It was looking at her.
Not at the wavering shadow in the dream, but at the "real her" trembling in the depths of her soul across time.
"Master."
There was no sound, but the consciousness was like a red-hot needle piercing directly through her skull.
"Don't look at me... Zhizhi, please close your eyes..." A sob like a trapped animal escaped her throat.
High above.
The Nightmare Beast stood silently, dutifully weaving the "dreams" hidden in the deepest recesses of the human heart.
This dream of Tian Shuangxin—this quagmire—was not testing how much love she had; it was measuring the cost.
When one end of the scale held the life of a parent and the other held this faint spark of spirit, how many rounds could her prideful "tenderness" actually endure?
The beast's split antlers flickered between light and shadow, like aurora borealis and ash. In its kaleidoscopic pupils, countless shattered dreams were reflected: greed, madness, carnage.
And—hesitation.
Her voice descended slowly, not addressed to any individual below, nor to the NightmareBeast, but sounding more like a soliloquy:
"Desire is never born of nothingness; it is merely granted silent leave, until it breaks through the soil."
The dreamscape distorted like a melting candle.
The surrounding figures dissolved, leaving only her and the cage. A hospital billing notice drifted down, landing before her; the numbers on it were a red so deep they bordered on black, resembling a gaping maw ready to devour her whole.
Tian Shuangxin knelt on the ground, her fingertips clawing desperately into the cracks of the concrete. The sound of her fingernails snapping echoed in the silence.
"Choose."
The voice rang out again. It carried no overt pressure, yet it felt like an unalterable law of physics.
"I don't want to... I really don't want to..." She sobbed until she was on the verge of retching, her stomach cramping into a knot.
On one side was the life-saving money; on the other was the companionship that had cost a life. The tearing sensation made her feel as if her very soul was being ripped in two.
Inside the cage, the fancy rat moved. It showed no terror; instead, it was unnervingly calm. It reached out a tiny paw, gently hooking it through the wire mesh, its eyes clear and bright with a clarity that drove her to despair.
Its posture seemed to say: "If it is your choice, I will accept it."
In the reality of the dream, Tian Shuangxin was completely shattered.
"No... no..." She shook her head frantically, her tears spiraling out of control.
"...Don't be so understanding! Hate me! Bite me!" she shrieked, hammering her fists against the ground in a fit of madness.
The dream froze for a heartbeat. It was as if it were waiting for an answer.
High above, She watched the scene without intervention.
Because—
This was not a punishment.
This was a Proof.