The landlord has multiple personalities and wants everyone to pay him.

How long has it been since you last slept?

It doesn't refer to the kind of necessary sleep where you close your eyes every night and open them again the next morning.

Rather, it refers to a state of complete physical and mental relaxation, a state of complete mental emptiness, where anxiety does not seep into dreams, pressure does not weigh on the chest, and there are no tangled and complicated matters replaying themselves behind your closed eyelids.

It's a quiet, deep, and carefree sleep.

In today's society, it seems that everyone is dragging an invisible chain called pressure.

The students lay down, their minds churning with tomorrow's lessons, endless knowledge points to memorize, and the exam just around the corner.

When office workers close their eyes, all they see are endless revisions to plans, the stern faces of their bosses, and the need to maintain a balance in interpersonal relationships.

The workers were wondering if they would receive their wages on time, while the farmers were worried about the weather and the harvest.

Stress is everywhere, and the resulting anxiety is slowly encroaching on sleep, which should be used for rest.

Therefore, I am reluctant to sleep before bed, because closing my eyes means the end of today, and I will have to face everything again tomorrow.

I don't want to get out of bed after waking up, because once I do, I have to immediately throw myself into everything.

Even when sleeping, I became light-sleeping and had many dreams, with all sorts of dreams appearing one after another. After a night of chaotic dreams, I didn't feel relaxed when I woke up; instead, I felt even more tired.

Ye Shu actually belongs to this type of person.

He couldn't remember the last time he had such a pure sleep, undisturbed by any dreams.

It seems that ever since I graduated from elementary school and entered junior high school, I've had a nerve called anxiety in my head.

Anxiety about learning, new subjects, complicated formulas, and constant exam rankings.

Anxiety about classmate relationships, the naive thoughts of teenagers, subtle cliques, who is close to whom, and who is isolated.

I finally made it through junior high, thinking that high school would be a new beginning, but I found that high school would only get more difficult.

With the division between arts and sciences, monthly exams, midterms, finals, mock exams, and in-class quizzes... came one after another.

However, it seemed that God felt his pressure wasn't enough, so He gave him another blow—his mother.

The objects of anxiety were no longer just report cards, but also lab reports, medical bills, cigarette butts left by her father standing in the yard late at night, and her mother's increasingly haggard face.

People always say that once you get to college, things will be much easier, you can play as much as you want, and no one will bother you.

But once Ye Shu entered university, he discovered that anxiety had also bought a train ticket and followed him from the north to the south.

A semester filled with exams for twenty or thirty courses, credits, papers, club activities, group assignments...

Time seems to be even more scarce. Even at night, the snoring, teeth grinding, farting, and lip-smacking in the dormitory make a full night's sleep a luxury.

As graduation approaches, new anxieties arise: what should I do next, and how will I find a job?

Love suddenly fell into her lap at this moment, and along with the sweetness came another layer of anxiety: how to manage the relationship, how to balance work and life, and how to protect that initial flutter of the heart under the pressure of reality.

Now that her job seems stable and her love life is sweeter, Ye Shu thought she could finally catch her breath, but when she turned around, she found that anxiety was always following her and had never left.

As Ye Shu matures, her current anxiety has taken on a more sophisticated form.

He began to worry about how to do his job better, how to truly understand them, how to love them better, and how not to betray this precious relationship.

He was anxious about whether his growth rate could keep up with the rate at which his father was aging, and whether he could keep up with the rate at which life would throw out the next challenge.

Perhaps anxiety is a person's most loyal friend; only anxiety will never abandon you.

Even in your dreams, he will torment you relentlessly.

Being chased by a dog, falling down the stairs, not wearing pants in public, and the loss of a loved one...

I woke up feeling exhausted; it would have been better not to have slept at all.

That's why this deep sleep, which feels like being knocked unconscious by a blow, seems so precious, yet so unfamiliar.

Ye Shu didn't think about anything. All the thoughts that had been swirling around him over the years—his studies, work, family, future, love—disappeared without a trace.

No dreams, no fragments, no anxiety, just pure sleep.

He lay on the sofa, completely unaware.

The sun outside the window has been on duty all day and is ready to go home.

The clock in the living room kept ticking around and around.

Potato Chips had already woken up, climbed out of its nest, stretched, wandered around the living room a couple of times, and happily played with its hamburger toy.

Xiao Nuan sat next to Ye Shu the whole time, not reading, not spacing out as usual, but just quietly watching Ye Shu's sleeping face, occasionally pulling the blanket up for Ye Shu.

It wasn't until it was completely dark outside that Ye Shu frowned slightly and let out a "humph" in his throat.

He woke up.

But he wasn't fully awake.

He slept so soundly that he felt a little dazed; it was as if a day had passed in the blink of an eye.

He felt as if he hadn't just taken a nap, but rather had been deleted from the world for a period of time and then pasted back in, his whole body radiating a refreshed comfort.

I lay on the sofa, staring at the ceiling for several minutes, my mind blank, without any thoughts, just feeling comfortable.

He raised his arm, stretched out a big yawn, and listened to the cracking sound of his spine—it felt so good.

Potato Chips, who was playing with his toys in the doghouse, heard the noise, put down his toys, and trotted over. He put his two front paws on the sofa, tilted his head back, wagged his tail, and looked at Ye Shu expectantly.

Hearing a noise beside him, Ye Shu reached out and patted the dog's head, then slowly sat up, glanced at the blanket on his body, and turned his head to see the person who had been quietly standing beside him.

Ye Shu smiled at Xiao Nuan, rubbing his eyes as he wondered how he had fallen asleep.

I watched "Bright Sword," then drank orange juice, ate tangerines, and ate gummy bears. Then my eyelids started drooping, and soon I knew nothing more.

He was about to speak when he felt his mouth was so dry it was like he'd eaten a mouthful of dirt, and he couldn't open it.

He turned his head and saw a glass on the coffee table, with hot water still steaming inside.

Without even a second thought, it's clear that Xiao Nuan poured this glass of water at the perfect time.

Having spent a lot of time with Xiaonuan, he's become used to this kind of thing.

I reached out and picked up the water glass; it wasn't hot, the temperature was just right.

Without hesitation, he took several large gulps, which made him feel much better.

He put down his water glass, burped, and then turned to Xiao Nuan beside him, asking:

"Xiao Nuan, how did I fall asleep?"

He glanced at the box of gummy bears that Xiao Nuan had placed beside her:

"Was there something wrong with the candy you gave me?"