Starting with dissecting ghost stories

Wu Xiaoting's home is not far from the audio-visual store; it's just across the street, only 600 meters away with a turn.

Shen Yuan and Wu Xiaoting walked furtively toward Wu Xiaoting's house.

As she reached the entrance of the apartment building, Shen Yuan asked in a low voice, "Is your dad home?"

"My dad died a long time ago," Wu Xiaoting replied in a low voice.

Wu Xiaoting's answer made Shen Yuan pause for a moment.

Now she felt that Wu Xiaoting wasn't as hateful as she had seemed before; perhaps she felt a sense of shared misfortune.

But Shen Yuan still felt a little doubtful.

"Is there no one at your home?" Shen Yuan asked.

"Nobody's here." Wu Xiaoting nodded.

"Then why are we sneaking around like this?"

"Aren't we on a covert operation?"

Wu Xiaoting's apartment wasn't on a tall building, only on the third floor. Soon, they stopped at the door.

After Wu Xiaoting took out her key and opened the door, Shen Yuan and Wu Xiaoting went inside together.

Shen Yuan glanced at the living room and dining room.

Wu Xiaoting's home was decorated very warmly, with many more green plants than Shen Xing's home. Even the security bars on the balcony were covered with vines, creating a lush and verdant atmosphere. "My room is here..." Wu Xiaoting said, pointing to a room inside.

Even after she got home, the tension didn't seem to subside; in fact, it intensified.

Aren't you going in?

Having already changed into slippers, Shen Yuan turned to look at Wu Xiaoting, who was still standing at the door. She looked very reserved, as if this was her own home and Wu Xiaoting was the guest.

"Do I have to go in too?" Wu Xiaoting's face fell.

"Of course! Otherwise you wouldn't even know I stole something." Shen Yuan pulled her in and said, "Hurry up, we have to go back to school later." Wu Xiaoting slowly changed her shoes, then hid behind Shen Yuan and walked towards the room.

Sensing that Wu Xiaoting's mood was off, Shen Yuan stopped at the doorway and turned back to ask, "Are you very scared?"

"A little." Wu Xiaoting nodded.

"So how do you usually sleep in your room?" Shen Yuan blinked.

"They were herded inside by the clothes hanger."

Wu Xiaoting's nervousness seemed to infect Shen Yuan as well. She looked at the white door in front of her, took a deep breath, raised her hand, and turned the doorknob. "Click."

Shen Yuan pushed open the door and smelled a faint fragrance wafting in. She slowly peeked out and glanced around the room. Unlike Shen Yuan's room, which was filled with dolls and DVDs, Wu Xiaoting's room looked empty. There were no bookshelves, only a bed, two bedside tables, a wardrobe, and a desk.

There weren't any paintings on the wall, just a dark brown clock that looked a bit old-fashioned, like a small wooden house, with a small door on the clock face.

Shen Yuan had seen this before; a small wooden bird would pop out when the time was announced precisely.

However, the clock looks broken; the hour and minute hands on the dial are not moving at all.

...Aside from these, Shen Yuan didn't see anything strange.

"Have you tried sleeping in the living room?" Shen Yuan walked into the room and turned to ask Wu Xiaoting.

"I slept in the hallway." Wu Xiaoting tilted her head slightly, seemingly proud, but quickly deflated. "However, my mom carried me to my room after I fell asleep."

"Can you tell me more about your dream?" Shen Yuan sat down at the desk and pointed to the drawer. "Can I open it and take a look?" "Sure, go ahead." Wu Xiaoting nodded.

Shen Yuan opened several drawers. Apart from some books and loose change, there was basically nothing there. The book on the top shelf caught Shen Yuan's attention. The title of the book was "Qingming Dream".

Shen Yuan picked it up casually and flipped through it. The contents seemed to be about how to control the direction of dreams, wake up in a dream, and then do whatever you want in the dream.

Below was a notebook, which Shen Yuan opened and looked at. It seemed to be a dream notebook, just like in the book, where one would record the things in their dreams each time they woke up.

Shen Yuan put down her notebook and continued flipping through the book "Qingming Dream". She turned the pages quickly, skimming the contents.

At this moment, Wu Xiaoting also began to describe her dream in detail.

"Hmm... When I dream, the beginning of the dream is always chaotic, just like a normal dream, all jumbled up, and I don't remember what it was when I wake up." "But sometimes, in my dream, I see a door... After opening the door, I realize, 'Oh, this is a door,' and at that moment, I know I was dreaming."

Shen Yuan pointed to a passage in the book, looked up at Wu Xiaoting, and asked, "The contents of the book? To give yourself psychological suggestions?"

"Yes." Wu Xiaoting nodded.

Shen Yuan carefully read that passage in the book.

That was a tutorial I was sharing on lucid dreaming. I asked readers to meditate on one thing each day—it could be a common bowl, a lamp, a door, or something else. And every time you see or think of this thing, you should immediately repeat to yourself, "This is a dream, this is a dream." What you think about during the day, you dream about at night. If you persist in this for a period of time, doing this kind of self-hypnotic activity, there's a chance you'll see what you've been meditating on in a dream, and then realize in the dream, "This is a dream."

This knowledge was completely new to Shen Yuan. Before seeing this book, she hadn't even realized that dreams could be controlled. "Are you meditating on a door?" Shen Yuan asked.

"No, it's my hands," Wu Xiaoting shook her head. "I want to wake up when I see my own hands, and not open the door."

"Has it ever succeeded?"

"no."

"What will happen after the door is opened?"

Wu Xiaoting lowered her head, pursed her lips, and said, "It's hard to understand... Every time I open the door, the scene inside is different. Just like Martin's Morning, every time I open the door, it's a completely different world, and I become a different person. Then I have more memories in my mind, and I live there like a native..."

"Then, after a long, long time in my dream, I will remember the 'door' again, and then I will go to find the door to go back to."

"If I don't find it... then it's like what I told you before, I'll open a new door, and this time, it will be even harder to figure out how to get back through the 'door'."

Hearing this, Shen Yuan was somewhat puzzled.

"Didn't you just say that after entering the door, you would realize you were dreaming?" Shen Yuan asked curiously, "Wouldn't you realize you needed to leave then?"

"No, it's not that I realize it's a dream, it's that in the dream I feel like I'm dreaming during this time in reality... I have to 'wake up' again before I realize that the dream is the dream, and reality is not a dream."

Shen Yuan tilted her head.

She was a little confused, feeling a throbbing sensation in her head, as if she were going through puberty.

After carefully reviewing the events, she finally understood what Wu Xiaoting was trying to express.

"You mean that after opening the door, you'll realize the dream is real, and reality is the dream, and you have to 'wake up' again to find the door back?"

"If you don't wake up and another door opens, you'll feel that the dream is a dream, but the dream within a dream is real... and then you have to 'wake up' twice more to come back?"

"Yes." Wu Xiaoting nodded.

Shen Yuan opened her mouth, unsure of what to say.

This is too big, too difficult!

Just listening to it made Shen Yuan feel a bit overwhelmed... In her dream, she felt that reality was the dream... And there were dreams within dreams, and she had to work hard to "wake up" again and again each time.

If it were Shen Yuan herself, she would definitely start to doubt whether reality was a dream... She felt like she was going crazy. Now, Shen Yuan finally understood why Wu Xiaoting seemed so neurotic.

Having dreams like this every night would drive anyone crazy. She was even starting to admire Wu Xiaoting; she didn't know how she managed to keep going. "This is just too hard..."

"Yes, so after I started junior high school, I kept sleeping during class and staying in my room at night to do homework or read."