(Had 3 dreams last night) (The first one) There were two tall buildings, and between them was a skybridge with its stairs completely collapsed. But in the middle of the skybridge, there were a few rop
This dream was originally written in Simplified Chinese.
Translations are AI-generated and may not capture every nuance.
(Had 3 dreams last night) (The first one)
There were two tall buildings, and between them was a skybridge with its stairs completely collapsed. But in the middle of the skybridge, there were a few ropes originally meant only for humans to climb up and sleep on, which the zombies had also discovered, and they were trying with all their might to climb up too. So we had no choice but to block these few entry points where they were coming up.
But the zombies kept squirming up in an endless stream, so we had to abandon the skybridge. We ran to the edge of the skybridge and had a teammate open a cover on the outside of the wall, then jumped straight in. This passage led directly to the basement. I don't remember what the basement was for either, seems like some kind of dispute happened?
Then I only remember running on top of a wall, a black, endless wall. I was stepping on individual bricks on top of it, running incredibly fast. (The sky was very dark then, it was almost nightfall. The sky didn't seem to have many clouds but was a hazy grey, as if it was about to rain.)
(The second one)
I dreamt I was a corporate drone. Everyone in our company had forgotten the deadline for a project, and by the time we all remembered, there was only one day left. But at this time, for some reason, I caused some other issues (the rather urgent kind, and this also concerned the whole company). I begged everyone in the company to come and help, and everyone did come. Then by the time my issue was resolved it was already night, and we had to submit the project the next day.
Then the boss bought boxed meals and coffee for every one of us, and informed us that no one was to even think about sleeping today, everyone had to get the project done for him before sleeping, especially me, finish the work before sleeping. I sheepishly agreed.
(The third dream)
I dreamt I was in a high school. Originally I was just wandering around with nothing to do, and walked to a room to watch a teacher dancing a dance I really like. I was just watching him dance, but as he danced he suddenly pulled me in to dance together, saying this was the dance club and I was already a member, which left me utterly baffled.
Then he suddenly said no playing on phones. I was already dancing and wasn't playing on my phone, which left me even more baffled. Then he confiscated my phone, and the phones of all the students nearby, and continued dancing. After a while a teacher appeared at the door, he checked that we weren't playing on our phones and then left, and then the dance teacher gave our phones back to us. Then most of the students left, a few were just playing on their phones, leaving only me dancing. I thought this dance club teacher was really quite pitiful, how come it was just me left, so I stayed a bit longer, and then left.
Then I went out and saw it was raining outside, and the people from the school next door were preparing for exams (our school was two high schools sharing one school's grounds). Because I was wearing my own clothes, and passed by many people from the other school (their school strictly required wearing uniforms, our school wasn't that strict), I attracted a lot of attention. Then I suddenly got a message on my phone. I opened it to look, and it was sent by a principal. The principal messaged me to say:
I saw the provocative post you made last week. Let's settle this once and for all with this exam! Go collect all the exam papers and put them on my desk, I will go look at them.
I was very baffled, really, because I had never written a provocative post, much less would I go provoke our principal. We all called that teacher "Zhang Bo". His surname wasn't Zhang, and his name had nothing to do with Bo, it was just because he looked like a classmate surnamed Zhang, and he himself had a doctoral degree (boshi), so we called him "Zhang Bo".
Who in their right mind would go provoke a teacher with a doctoral degree? Looking for death?
Then I replied to him saying I had never provoked him, and I had asked around, our school didn't have any exams recently, where would I get exam papers for him to write?
The teacher only replied with one word: Oh.
Then he told me to find exam papers and put them on his desk. I really felt it was baffling, but still went to look. I took exam papers from the school next door and went to find the teacher's desk. Halfway there I walked into a tower, and in that tower I saw two teachers arguing. One was our music teacher, she was our student council teacher, and the other was a Crow Teacher. He wore an elegant black suit and spoke very politely, many students liked him. (Not meaning that the music teacher was unlikable, the music teacher was also very nice, she was also very liked by everyone.)
Then I heard the conversation between the two teachers.
Music Teacher: Why on earth did you come to our school? Because of you someone in our school even died!
Crow Teacher: This matter itself has nothing to do with me, you know that.
Music Teacher: Why on earth did you come to our school, because of you our whole school has been infected with bad luck!
(Because Crow Teacher was our school's mascot, and other schools' mascots were all white, only our school was a black crow)
Crow Teacher: You'll have to ask your principal about this matter, he's the one who hired me, I only came by invitation.
Then I remembered, a short time ago it seemed a student had committed suicide by jumping off a building, but it didn't cause too much of a commotion, the school seemed to have suppressed it, not many people noticed. With the music teacher saying this I remembered, why did that student jump off the building again? I forgot.
But this wasn't important either, my current task was to go deliver the exam papers. Then I seemed to have found our principal's office, but I ran into the principal on the way. Just as I was about to give him the exam papers, he asked me, do you know why I'm called "Zhang Bo"?
I said I didn't know (actually I was just answering along with the teacher's question, I said it earlier. I knew the answer, I was just curious why the teacher would ask this question).
Then the teacher gave an answer I never expected. He said his name's English name is actually spelled "Li pai". I was so baffled, I really had never heard this name, and no matter how you spell this "Li pai" it wouldn't be "Zhang Bo", right?
Before I could interrupt, he just kept talking to himself: "Actually 11 years ago I was in a car accident. I luckily survived that car accident. At that time I was originally about to die, but at the very end I struck a 'Dog Faction (pai)' pose, and then I survived.
Then I was truly speechless, so your "pai" really just means faction (pai)? And here I thought the meaning was so profound? (Translating for foreigners, pai is the pinyin for faction)
And what's with this dog, he drew the original movement for me, it was just a normal body stretching forward, it had absolutely nothing to do with a dog, okay? And if we're talking about a dog, how did it become "Li" in the English name? ("Li" and "dog" have absolutely nothing to do with each other, okay?)
It left me utterly baffled, and then I bafflingly woke up.
(Third-person perspective throughout) (I was female in the dream) I dreamed I was a half-mouse person wearing a school uniform. I was in a room, inexplicably holding a report card. Then a sexy, somewhat scantily clad female teacher told me to sit down. I sat down for no reason, and the teacher started asking me questions, but I couldn't understand what she was saying, so I just stared at her blankly. Then she seemed to say I was an idiot or something and needed to be punished. I didn't resist. She tied me to a table, then brought out life-sized scissors and knives covered in dirty bloodstains. The scene inexplicably became very eerie, and the female teacher's face turned into a big bad wolf, revealing sinister teeth and dripping drool onto me. Then I watched her dismember me and sew me back together. Throughout the whole process, I was screaming and trying to resist, but she held me down and messed with me. Once I was sewn up, she let me go, and I was kicked out, looking completely bewildered. I went out and saw a very winding corridor. Many corridors were connected together like a honeycomb, linking to various rooms. Now, many people were coming out of the rooms one after another. I ran into a middle-aged man. Seeing me, he smiled and came over to talk. 'Unfamiliar face, you must be new here?' I didn't answer, just nodded. 'I can tell at a glance you're new. Do you know where this is?' I still didn't answer and shook my head. 'This is XXX (I forgot). Everyone here has to strive to become miserable, whether mentally or physically. Only by becoming the most miserable person three times in a row can you leave this place and return to the world.' I nodded, seeming to understand. The man told me that time loops back here every so often. It was still early, and if I wanted to, I could go experience other rooms, so I went. I walked into the nearest room and found myself turned into a gorilla person, tall and burly. I couldn't even recognize myself. Then I saw many gorilla people surrounding a small monkey. The little monkey seemed to be the boss, and everyone was extremely respectful to him. Seeing me at the door, the little monkey waved me over, gesturing that he wanted to whisper something to me. He made me bend down, and then this little monkey bit off my ear. I suddenly covered my ear in disbelief. Then I found my body was out of control. I saw tentacles wrapping around me one by one. I slowly lost my breath, watching the tentacles tear open my skin and drill into my muscles. Finally, my vision was completely filled with tentacles, and then, covered in blood, I was thrown out. At this time, the man appeared again. He asked me what this room was for and why I went to suffer, what was the point? I asked him when the loop would happen, and he said it was still early. He said we were actually all pitiful people with no hope of getting out. He was among the first batch to arrive and had never seen anyone leave. I didn't believe it and argued with him. I felt that someone absolutely must have gotten out, that it must be possible to leave. The two of us started bickering until the loop was about to begin. Alarms sounded in the rooms, and everyone obediently went outside. Only then did I see that the outside was actually a void, a pure white nothingness. Beneath our feet was a cliff, and then the places we could step on suddenly started shrinking. We all fell down. Except for a few, I didn't even hear anyone scream. Then my vision went black, and I woke up as if from a nightmare (not really waking up). I saw myself turn into a mouse person again: dismembered, sewn up. Then I didn't want to go out, so that sexy female teacher just kicked me out (actually, thinking back, it felt pretty good). I saw the man again. This time he was soaking wet. He asked me why I was still in this room. I said I didn't know. He then taught me that there was a box at the door, and before jumping off the cliff, I should grab the tag for the room I wanted to enter, otherwise it would be random. I said I understood, and then I experienced two more rooms (I forgot the contents). Before jumping down again, the man and I had another argument. This time the topic was still whether anyone had ever gotten out. No one paid attention to us. Then, when I jumped down this time, I felt like I was glitched and stuck at the very bottom. I seemed to see a part of the world. I saw someone get out, and the system asked him if he wanted to return to the world. The person said yes. The system began to explain that he now had two choices: 1. Choose to be a spectator, where you can watch how others suffer, and return to the world when you've stayed long enough; 2. Return to the world directly, but the current world is full of instances everywhere and is very unsafe. That person chose to be a spectator. Then a door appeared. I saw many people inside sitting on beanbag chairs, holding popcorn and watching a screen. Then that person walked in and grabbed some popcorn. But I seemed to see myself; if it were me, I would also choose to be a spectator first. Then I woke up again, still in the mouse person room. Then I saw that I had died, and just when I didn't know if I would resurrect, I truly woke up.
Basically Running Into a War While Traveling, Then a Terrifying Subway
I dreamed I was at the escalator of a high-speed rail station. I saw my brother, and he said he was taking me to Japan. I asked him why, and he said it was to practice speaking. Then my brother's friend was also there, and she said I could go. So I asked my brother if we could make it back before Saturday (because I had something else to do on Saturday in real life). My brother said yes, and then asked if we had any recommended places to go. Everyone marked places on the map for my brother. I thought about it and chose a city recommended in National Geographic (I recently saw that city on TikTok and really wanted to go). Then my brother said, Hanhan, you absolutely cannot be late. Then he was going to take me to the airport. We passed a stretch of road we had passed last time. Because it was the middle of the night, there was no one there, just like the last time we came. But suddenly, war broke out. Artillery shells destroyed the streets and houses, and fires were burning everywhere. My brother told me to run quickly (to this day I still don't know if the 'you' in the dream was telling me to run away or run to the airport). 'What are you spacing out for at a time like this?' I finally realized I had been stunned by the bombs. So the two of us sprinted wildly to the airport, and in the blink of an eye, we arrived in Japan. After arriving in Japan, I went to take the subway. But the subway station I walked into was inexplicably tall, massive, and empty, without a single person in sight. I didn't know where my brother went either. When I finally managed to see people, it turned out everyone was walking in the opposite direction from me. I was a little angry and scared, but I kept walking forward anyway. Then I entered the largest elevator I had ever seen. It was about the size of a classroom, and there wasn't a single light on. Inside, there were two staff members. They were holding giant, circular fluorescent stickers (about the size of five plates). When they saw me, they said, 'Congratulations! You can make a wish!' I was baffled—why would a subway do this? Plus, after the elevator doors closed, only the stickers were glowing, which looked a bit creepy. One of them even peeled the backing off the sticker and stuck it onto me, then kept pressing me for my wish. I didn't really want to answer, so I asked what people usually wished for. The lady replied: 'Usually people wish for everything to be okay and things like that.' So I just casually used two blessing words, and then the elevator doors opened, and I left. And then I woke up.
I dreamt I was an agent, male, and there was someone I liked at my police department. (In the dream's setting) the person I liked was very beautiful, with sky-blue long hair, and so gentle.
Then there was a murderer who kept targeting our department. He kept provoking us, and then he threatened me to enter a building all by myself.
This building had 6 floors and was almost completely dark inside. There were two elevators; the suspect used one of them. To catch up with him, I planned to use the other, but as soon as I got in, something felt wrong, so I came back out. I decided to head to the other elevator, and just as I went over, I saw it coming down. I immediately raised my gun, aiming at the elevator doors, waiting for them to open. Then I actually saw the suspect, and for some reason, the elevator she was in had lights—it was very bright and pretty, a sort of hotel color. The suspect immediately raised her hands in surrender, saying she wanted to take me somewhere, or else she would do something (I forgot what). I had to agree. Then the two of us took the elevator to the roof. I told her she'd better just surrender, but she said she had originally planned to commit suicide here, but I ruined it. Then the police arrived; several helicopters shone their floodlights on us, and the bottom of the building was full of police cars. She looked back at me and smiled, and then I escorted her away.
Then my colleagues and I were chatting. I said I was really unlucky, and my colleague agreed. Then the person I liked rushed over, expressing how worried she was about me, asking how I was, and then we got together. She even took me back to her place to wash up and sleep, because I didn't have a home at all; I usually just slept right at the department.
Then, while I was still at her place, another murder happened, again targeting a colleague at the department. But because I had just finished the last one, the boss let me take a day off, so I stayed at her place with her all day.
On the third day, I went to the department. As soon as I got there, I saw someone delivering packages—it was takeout, lots and lots of lunchboxes. The lunchboxes looked very nice, with a mix of meat and vegetables. Although they looked cheap, they were very appetizing. The people in our division happened to be hungry; someone opened a box and was about to start eating, then I heard a scream. The lunchbox was thrown to the ground. I immediately picked up the lunchbox closest to me and rummaged through it. Under the vegetables, there was a lot of 'gluten'. I could tell at a glance that this bloody gluten had been extracted from a human body. And there were enough of these lunchboxes for everyone in our department to have one.
I glanced at the lunchboxes and estimated there were about 50 or even more. For some reason, at that time, my girlfriend was already pregnant, and it was my child. I told her not to look, not to get involved in this case, because she was going on leave.
Then, for some reason, I suddenly saw a part of the future. I saw us looking at hundreds of bloody shoes in a box by a farm for a long time. We also saw many pigs on the farm, and we guessed that the suspect probably fed the victims' bodies to the pigs. Then I heard my girlfriend call my name. She asked me how the case was going. I couldn't answer her; even though I saw the future, we still didn't have any clues right now. I had to give her a perfunctory answer and continue pursuing the case.
Then we found a clue and chased the suspect to an abandoned building. It was a really huge building. And for some reason, I suddenly became a woman, and I didn't feel it was strange at all, as if I had always been a woman, and I was also pregnant. Everyone else wore suits and shirts to work, but I was wearing a purple plush dress. Then the suspect used some unknown threat to make everyone obey him. He made us stand on two sides by gender, line up, and face one direction. Wherever he walked, the people there had to turn their backs to him.
Then he used one person to show us how he extracted the 'gluten', and then he slashed our clothes open from the back one by one. When it was my turn, the feeling was just too real. I didn't feel pain; he only slashed the clothes, but the tip of the knife drawing a cross on my back felt incredibly real. I was really nervous. But then the suspect suddenly surrendered, and I don't know why.
Then, except for the people handling the case, the rest of us went downstairs. As I was going down, I saw my girlfriend. She was playing with water nearby downstairs; maybe she just happened to be in the area. So I went to find her. My colleague even teased me that I forget everything the moment I see my girlfriend. (At this point, I was a man again.) I rushed up and hugged her, saying I missed her so much. Then we went home, and then I woke up.
I dreamt I was in a kindergarten, looking to be about kindergarten or primary school age. The teacher told us to take brushes and draw on a large table, so I went to draw. (It was just dusk, and the sunlight shining into the kindergarten's toy room felt incredibly warm and cozy.) I claimed a good seat and a palette of paint. A photographer also wanted that palette, but I refused him. Then he (the person I like) arrived too, (much younger than in reality). He sat next to me, seeming very close to me, and then he started drawing as well. That photographer was right beside us, taking pictures of the two of us. The teacher asked us to draw something circular, so I planned to draw a round window with a landscape inside. Halfway through drawing, I saw him draw a circle next to me, and then he scribbled it out. I asked him why he scribbled it out, and he said he wanted to change it to something else. Then he took out a game, saying he wanted to beat it; when you reach a certain ending, there's a circular icon, and he wanted to draw that icon. Then I just watched him play the game for a while and woke up.
I dreamt I was riding a bicycle and got hit by a truck and died. Then I took an elevator up to heaven, but the elevator had no handrails and it was too high, so I was so scared I had to crawl on it. When I got to heaven, I found it was like a giant amusement park, with pools, markets, and all kinds of things to play with. The clouds on the ground were currency; you could just take them. I originally wanted to go swimming, but there were too many people there and it wasn't very convenient. I went anyway, but as soon as I got into the water, I felt it was disgusting, like the sweat of countless people mixed with syrup, sticky and stinky. I couldn't stand the disgust and hurried out, feeling really nauseated watching others still playing in the water. Then suddenly it was nap time. Heaven has heaven's rules; everyone here has to take a nap, and there are dedicated angels to supervise. I saw a boy holding a golden stick with three pointy ends telling us to follow him. It was a back garden with a golden patterned gate and marble floors. By the road were plants that looked like bushes, only very, very tall, about 15 meters or so. The plants blocked the view of the inside of the garden, but you could see tall branches stretching out from within, casting patches of shadow on the marble ground. The place where we slept was a series of long buildings, about 6 or 7 stories high, and there were many of them, each floor looking exactly the same. There were no walls, just a square, hole-like window every 5 meters, and staggered with the windows, a white bed every 5 meters. Between each bed was a nightstand, and on each nightstand was a vase with a single white flower. I had just lain down to sleep and was just about to talk to the person next to me when I woke up.
I dreamt that a partner and I were in an abandoned building. I was preparing to go from the first-floor lobby to the top floor, but when I went over to look, I saw that the middle of the building was hollowed out, as if it had vanished into thin air.
Then we just jumped straight up, but as soon as I got up there, two dark shadows attacked. I suddenly felt a bit powerless, so I immediately took my teammate and started running away, with the shadows in hot pursuit. After fighting for two rounds, the shadows just grabbed me. I was tied up in a van, but my vision wasn't blocked.
I saw the van drive into the mountains, passing through a giant stone gate. Behind the stone gate was a nearly 45-degree downhill slope and extremely high iron railings.
After a while, we reached the destination. Someone got me out of the van and threw me into a place.
There were many people here. I observed their expressions; they didn't look angry or sad, just like they were trying hard to figure something out.
I went up and asked, only to find out this was an escape room, and they needed to escape from here. I stepped forward to help think of a solution and opened a room. In that room, you couldn't touch anything, but you could take things that dropped automatically—they could save your life at a critical moment. I didn't know why either.
The room looked very small, but there were many iron shelves and junk boxes filled with various things, making it very hard to walk through. When we finally made it through, we looked up and saw a gigantic clown holding a baseball bat.
I took the lead, turned my head, and ran. The clown chased after us madly, sending people away with one strike of the bat each. Everyone finally realized something was wrong and started shouting loudly for help, but no one came to save us, and no one paid any attention.
Halfway through my escape, I suddenly saw that I had returned to the starting point, the very first building.
I needed to go upstairs. This time I was very cautious. As soon as I went up, I started fighting back and successfully drove away the dark shadows, but as soon as the shadows left, I returned to the starting point again.
Could it be that I had to go with the dark shadows? But suddenly, an extra piece of memory appeared in my mind, the memory of the people who attacked me: they were two young girls. I didn't know why they wanted to kidnap me. They knew I was strong, so they started collecting items before I arrived. They had two items: one could make me weak, which explained why I had no strength at the very beginning, and the other could hide them. But they felt it wasn't enough, so they found a monster in the building, killed it, and got an item that could enhance themselves. Then they hid.
They were actually hiding above the lobby. Because there were no lights, it was very dark. One of them could control water, and the other could control gravity, making the water float on the ceiling while they walked on the water's surface to observe me. After kidnapping me, one of them actually left the van because they had an argument. I couldn't even tell why they were arguing; it seemed to be because no Sichuan peppercorns were added during a meal? Or because someone didn't pass a tissue? Anyway, the reason for the argument was ridiculous. Then the other girl just threw me straight into the room.
Then I woke up from the memory. This time, I went upstairs and caught the two girls. I made them drive in front and take me to the stone gate, while my teammates and I followed in our car. This time, as soon as we entered the stone gate, the two girls suddenly sped off in their car. Just as I was about to chase them, I saw a little baby on the ground, looking like it had just come out of the belly. I couldn't bear to leave the baby alone, so I got out of the car and carried it away. (This was my first time holding a baby, and I was super incredibly careful.)
But as soon as I picked up the baby, I saw that my teammates were all gone, and the car was gone too. Then the stone gate seemed about to open. I immediately took the baby and hid. The baby didn't cry or fuss at all, just wriggled around in my arms.
Then I saw a familiar car come in; it was the two girls' car, followed by my car. The two cars came in one after the other and just drove away. I was completely stunned, and in that moment of distraction, I returned to the very beginning of the escape room. I started solving puzzles to enter the room again, but this time, a girl, for some unknown reason, relied on me heavily, treating me like the boss and following me closely, as if she would die if she didn't. Then I survived with the girl. But for some reason, the whole room suddenly collapsed. I saw that everyone was perfectly fine. Outside the room was a lawn with many chairs set up, and someone was sitting in the very front chair facing us.
It was my geography teacher, although in the dream he claimed to be a language teacher. He told us to write our recent experience into an essay, so I did. The title was 'The Balcony'. It was roughly about me looking at the scenery from a balcony, seeing mountains, water, villages, and wisps of smoke, and then connecting it to the experience just now, writing it as something I saw, and then ending it. After handing it in, I just hid, waiting until the teacher graded my essay before getting closer to everyone. It turned out the teacher was actually reading it out loud on the spot. My friend even said I had gone off-topic and might only get a passing grade. I said it was fine, I wasn't afraid of failing, and then continued listening to the teacher read my essay, while thinking to myself that if I had known, I would have gotten closer so I could hear what my ridiculous classmates had written. As soon as the teacher finished reading, I woke up.
I dreamed I was in a sealed building, exploring it with a group of people. It was very dangerous here, but there was a man in our team who could foresee the future, which gave us a lot of peace of mind. We entered a room that looked perfectly normal, just an ordinary person's room. Because it was a sealed building, there were no windows at all, but this apartment still had a balcony designed into it. This was very strange, so we decided to go take a look. I took the lead. The moment I stepped onto the balcony, the man who could foresee the future suddenly turned pale and shouted, "Watch out for the mermaid monster in the water!" I reflexively shut the door immediately, but it was too late. The mirror on the balcony flew straight through the crack up to the ceiling and sucked me in.
Then I entered the world inside the mirror. I was a mermaid, still by the sea. It seemed I couldn't leave the shore too far; the water around here was shallow, and there was hardly anyone around. I saw two mermaids sitting by the sea nearby, so I went to ask them questions, but it was a bit hard to speak up. I figured I'd sit side-by-side with them first before chatting. When I sat down, I realized one of them was holding a bloody helmet. The moment I saw the bloodstain, I understood: that was my blood. I had lost my head once before. I was trapped in a world of reincarnation. I had already died once, and I would die again, but I absolutely had to survive. I went and asked them what this thing was. They answered that it was a friend's head; this friend was already dead, and they told me to be careful too, as there were monsters in the deep sea, and they were not friends. I indicated that I understood. Then, inexplicably, I saw a packet of Buldak spicy noodles inside the helmet, but they didn't seem to think this was strange at all, so I just pretended not to see it. Then I saw a man walking over from a crowded area, holding a bucket, wearing a malicious smile on his face. I don't know when the other mermaids disappeared; I was the only one left. Then the man suddenly splashed the water from his bucket at me. I could feel it—it was highly corrosive acid. Although it was useless against mermaids, I was extremely angry. I cursed out loud. The man seemed very surprised to hear me curse; he stopped, and then walked toward me looking very angry. I was completely dumbfounded—you're the one getting angry? I immediately made up my mind: I was going to feed him to the monsters in the deep sea. I cursed even harsher, insulting his ancestors to the eighteenth generation, while I started to run. Sure enough, he chased after me. I calculated his speed; the deeper the water, the faster I got. But towards the end, I suddenly slowed down, as if I was entangled by something. He looked very happy seeing me tangled up, as if telling me I was done for. Then, the moment he grabbed me, I pulled him into the deep sea. It was already midnight by then, and he couldn't see the dividing line between the deep sea and the shallow water. He had no idea he was only a few meters away from the deep sea, and just like that, I dragged him into the deep zone. I immediately saw several dark shadows swimming over. The man was already clutching me like a lifeline, so I did a sharp S-curve and flung him away. By the time I swam back to the shallow water, I didn't even hear his screams.
Then I noticed those mermaids had returned. They said they were very grateful to me and asked why I didn't just kill him directly instead of using the monsters to kill him. I explained that I didn't want to kill someone directly; I was afraid it would leave me with psychological trauma. Then we started chatting. They even brought a small pot to boil water, and I happily cooked the Buldak noodles to eat. Then the next day, a mermaid with precognitive abilities discovered that the apocalypse was coming. I asked carefully, and they said the owner of the helmet had legs and had already saved them once; they didn't expect the mermaid apocalypse to come anyway. I told them not to be afraid. I said we could see if the owner of the helmet left any clues. They immediately said that made sense and started fumbling with the helmet (turns out they had the helmet in their hands for so long and never opened it once to look). At this time, the monsters in the water started forcing their way ashore. Mermaids who were bitten would instantly lose their minds and become violently powerful. We were all running away. Then, inexplicably, I saw another me—the me of this world. Then I suddenly realized that I could die. The one trapped in the cycle of reincarnation wasn't the me who was a mermaid, but the me who was a human in this world. The reincarnating me was saving the mermaid me, and the mermaid me was also saving the reincarnating me, because once I left, the cycle would disappear. I forgot most of what happened after that. It was roughly about me drawing a magic circle to take the mermaids who trapped the me of this world in the cycle away to my world, and I even gave them legs, but a very powerful monster was still left behind. Then I woke up.
(This dream was really long. It actually wasn't over; I went through about 4 similar instances in the building, but I forgot them all.)
Dusk on a Late Edo Street: A Ronin's Loneliness and the Transition of Eras
It was dusk in the late Edo period. The street was wet from a recent rain. The bluestone pavement reflected a cold light, and in the distance, a few paper lanterns lit up, casting a dull yellow glow.\n\nA ronin sat by the street, backed against a mottled wooden wall plastered with illegible notices. He was about forty, his hair tied back messily, with white at his temples. His kimono was dark grey, frayed at the cuffs and hem, revealing a faded lining beneath. Spread across his knees was a cloth displaying a few of his own calligraphy pieces and paintings; the ink strokes were neat, but no one looked at them.\n\nTo his left lay his sword. The black scabbard was cracked but well-maintained, and the wrapping on the hilt, though old, was clean. It was the only thing he still treated with earnest care.\n\nHe wasn't calling out to sell his wares; he just kept his head down, looking at his own hands. Those hands bore the calluses of years spent gripping a sword, but right now, they were empty.\n\nPeople walked by on the street. Young men in Western suits and top hats, their leather shoes clicking crisply against the stone slabs. They didn't spare him a single glance. In the background, the faint silhouette of a telegraph pole could be seen, along with a newly built red-brick Western-style building in the distance, gaslight spilling from its windows.\n\nThe sky was caught between day and night. The entire scene was bathed in cool tones, save for that single touch of warm yellow from the lanterns.
Doomsday Collapse and Near-Death Experience: Earth's Destruction in a Dream
The end of the world arrived. After enduring extreme cold, extreme heat, and a plague of mosquitoes, the ground began to collapse. I watched helplessly as the house caved in and crushed down on me. My vision went black, and my very last thought was that I would never read doomsday fiction ever again... Then I woke up... I originally intended to write this dream down immediately, but I fell right back asleep. When I woke up in the morning, I had completely forgotten it. Just now, it suddenly came back to me, though without that terrifying near-death sensation I felt when I was half-awake. That final scene in the dream was quite realistic. I truly believed the Earth was being destroyed and I was going to die, yet somewhere in my subconscious, it felt like it was merely a deep sleep. I feel like this dream is quite interesting, so I am recording it before I forget.
Bridge in a Dream: Hindered by Gravity and Searching for Cold Drinks
I dreamed of a dilapidated bridge spanning a river, with crushed stones and mud on both sides. Nearby, someone was renting out ancient costumes. I wanted to cross the bridge, but the gravity on it was immense. I struggled to take two or three steps before being pushed back to where I started. This repeated over and over, so I went to ask the boss of the nearby costume shop. He said you shouldn't be here, you need to go to the bridge up above. So I went to the upper bridge. While waiting in line, I saw someone selling water on the bridge, so I ran over to the side of the bridge to buy some. It was very hot, and I wanted to buy a cold drink, but I searched many shops and none of them sold cold drinks. They said people here don't like drinking cold drinks. The shops had very few types of room-temperature beverages, and they were covered in a lot of dust. I bought a bottle of nearly expired juice, and then I woke up.
Dreaming of the Three Kingdoms: Wu's Battles, Fighting Alongside My Brother, and Zhou Yu's Reluctant Fire Attack
Last night I suddenly had a dream. I dreamt I was in a time resembling antiquity, and I had an older brother. I can't remember his approximate age, I just know such a person existed. We were probably in the state of Wu, and most likely descendants of the Sun family (like Sun Quan or Sun Ce), or perhaps the children of some high-ranking official. They went off to attack another place, leaving us behind in the military camp. Then there must have been an enemy raid. This brother went out to kill the enemy, and I looked for a weapon inside and followed him out. In my impression, there were only a few people, and we took care of them. Later, Wu won. When they returned in triumph, they seemed to be debriefing. I saw a man, quite pale and delicate. Subconsciously, I felt he was Zhou Yu (it was as if I just knew upon seeing him). He said he was forced to use a fire attack as a last resort, giving off a feeling of being very conflicted and unwilling to use it. Also, I didn't know if my perspective was male or female. I just remember that later, this person who used the fire attack had a very good relationship with me, probably not a master-servant kind. And he was very beautiful, very pale and stunning, somewhat like a live-action version of Dongfang Yuechu. That's all I remember, and then I woke up.
Is it a Nightmare, a Dream within a Dream, or a Ghost?
Around 4 PM, I suddenly jolted awake. The confinement on my body abruptly released, my chest heaving violently as I greedily gasped for fresh air. Looking back at my sleeping child, I'm still here. How wonderful. The earlier events and scenes in the dream were very chaotic, so I'll just get straight to the point. I usually take a nap with my child in the afternoon. This was my first episode of sleep paralysis since last summer. Originally, my husband was sleeping with us too, but he got up to work overtime. I only heard him get up; I didn't hear him close the front door, so I assumed he was working in the living room. My dream-self thought so too. That's why I kept calling out for my husband outside. The Dream: I woke up, only to find my nightmare-bound body paralyzed on the bed, unable to move. First attempt to save myself: I tried hard to raise my hands and wave them in the air, attempting to wake my suppressed, immobilized body. The extended arm was transparent, like an ethereal soul. I felt I had exhausted all my strength, yet it was futile. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed my actual elbow still bent and resting on the pillow, knowing I was still controlled by the nightmare. Second attempt: I realized that waving vigorously to wake myself didn't work, so I started slapping my own face with that transparent hand. But it was still useless. Then I stuck my fingers into my mouth and started biting myself, trying to use pain to wake up. No matter how hard my mouth worked, my teeth couldn't clench together; they merely brushed shallowly against my fingers. No matter how hard I bit, it felt like gnawing on a piece of rubber. My cheeks ached from the exertion, but my fingers felt no pain at all. I started stacking two fingers together, trying to use the thickness to increase my bite force, but no matter what I did, it still felt like biting rubber (PS: the feeling of biting rubber also appeared in my sleep paralysis last summer). After failing to wake my nightmare-self, I started crying out for help to my husband in the living room. Third attempt (calling for help): When I found that pain couldn't break me out of the nightmare, I pinned my hopes on my husband working in the living room. I tried calling his name: Jia Ge~ Jia Ge~ I used all my strength for every shout, but the voice that came out was incredibly weak, as if only I could hear it. When I started seeking help from the outside, the power of my nightmare began to grow furious. Some characters started appearing above my head, things that looked like Bagua trigrams but with a few extra lines. My dream-self secretly told me to remember these characters and patterns to have someone look at them later. (I couldn't remember them upon waking). I started to panic, struggling to sit up, my calls growing more urgent. My husband in the living room heard some noise and was about to come open the door, but the door wouldn't open. I began calling out almost frantically to Jia Ge standing at the door. Jia Ge~ Jia Ge~ The voice I let out suddenly wasn't my own; it was incredibly eerie, like the voice of the Yinshi King. Hearing the strange voice, Jia Ge wanted to open the door, but he just couldn't. I started to struggle; I wanted to open the door myself. I struggled to get up again and again, and finally, it was no longer a transparent soul rising. I rolled off the bed, dragging the blanket with me. I wanted to crawl forward. It was clearly only a distance of one or two meters, but I just couldn't make it across. Every time I crawled forward, grabbed the edge of the wardrobe to pull myself toward the door, I was dragged back. After several attempts, I was dragged back onto the bed. That force seemed to fly into a rage out of humiliation. Unable to control me, it decided to kill me. My blanket started moving on its own to cover my nose and mouth. I struggled, suffocating, desperately screaming for help. Help~ Just as I was thinking I didn't want to die, that I still had my child, yet found myself utterly helpless, at the final moment on the verge of suffocation... I finally truly woke up from the dream. The tightly gripped heart released, and the heavy mountain on my body was moved away. My waking posture was exactly the same as the posture of my physical body lying on the bed that my transparent shell had seen when it left my body. Knowing it was sleep paralysis, I was so glad none of it was real, but that realistic sensation made my scalp tingle. I got up to see if my husband was working overtime at home, but he wasn't; he had gone to the office. There was a scene in the dream where my husband came in to check on the child and wanted to cover him with the blanket. I said there was no need, it was very hot. Then he closed the door and left. I don't know if that was real or part of the dream; I'll ask him when he gets back.
Dreaming of Failing Exams and the Fear of Floating on Water
In the dream I kept doing exam papers, and they handed me back many papers I had already finished, but with low scores—Chinese, biology, English exams and the like. Then I dreamed my husband and I fell into the water, with me at the bottom. We fell into a pool, and the duckweed in the pool held me up. But I was so afraid there were snakes under the duckweed. After getting up, the clothes on my bottom were wet, and I went into a clothing store. The clerk said the cheapest pants were 8 bucks, and together with a top, she asked me for 100. I said I'd just give her 8. Then she said to give her 20. I refused, took off the pants, and gave them back to her. My original clothes had somewhat dried because I dawdled for so long. And there were so many people. Now my head is spinning.
This afternoon, because I was very tired and felt unwell, I took a nap. I was woken up by some noise, but after waking up, I kept wondering what I had just dreamed about. Then I fell asleep again just like that, and I had a very magical dream. In the dream, I was in a very dark, boundless world. There was a huge 3D rectangle, but only its frame remained, and the frame kept emitting a faint white light. Then I saw many little, adorable versions of myself. They were wearing maid outfits, holding brooms and little lamps emitting a faint white light, cleaning up inside the 3D rectangle. Some were sweeping the floor, some were mopping with rags, some were using feather dusters to dust the 3D frame, and there was one holding a large magnifying glass, wearing a Sherlock Holmes version of a maid outfit, observing everywhere. Then the sweeping me asked the Sherlock Holmes maid me: Did you find the dream? The Sherlock Holmes maid me: Not at all, there is only a tiny trace left, barely visible. Our dream has been scared away by them, it is all their fault. Then I continued searching, and then I woke up.