Ch14 - A Child’s Dream (1/2)
“It’s Christmas Eve today.” General continued.
Yu Hao was sprawled on General’s back as he said, “It’s already cold enough in the day, I didn’t expect it to still be this cold at night in my dream.”
General casually asked, “What did you do during the day?”
Please visit chrysanthemumgarden.com
Yu Hao answered, “Working part-time.”
He didn’t know why — maybe it was intuition — but Yu Hao always feels like he knows General in reality, and General was deliberately trying to hide his identity.
“What kind of work was it?”
“Distributing leaflets.”
“O, then that is quite cold.” General said, “Fortunately I have a lot of fur, so I’m not afraid of the cold.”
Yu Hao began to laugh. He hugged General’s neck and his whole body leaned forward onto his back.
“Be a bit more serious, keep your furry hands to yourself1.” General scratched his neck and said, “Reproductive isolation exists between monkeys and humans.”
Read more BL at chrysanthemumgarden.com
Yu Hao couldn’t help himself from breaking out into laughter after he heard a monkey use the phrase “keep your furry hands to yourself”. General asked again, “Did you find a boyfriend in the real world?”
“It’s only been a few days!” Yu Hao said, “My problems haven’t been resolved yet, how could I spare time for a relationship?”
As they were approaching the village, General suddenly stopped. Yu Hao said, “What’s wrong?”
The huge monkey looked to his left and right as if he had sensed some kind of danger. He whispered, “Shh.”
The seaside village was clearly more visible now: most of the wooden houses were covered with a thick layer of frost; the surface of the sea was frozen solid, and frozen Viking boats were spread out in a disorderly mess along the harbour. It was as if a chilly, piercingly cold wind had swept across the harbour and froze all the living things it touched within an instant.
At the end of the harbour stood a towering lighthouse; a black mass of air levitated above it.
“Is that a ‘totem’?” Yu Hao whispered as he asked.
General motioned for Yu Hao to come down, then whispered, “Maybe, but we haven’t found the owner of the dreamscape, what should we do?”
It was impossible for anyone to survive on this snowfield sealed in ice for thousands of miles — this was a true Land of the Dead. General had already scanned their surroundings when they were on the mountain; after he turned into Sun Wukong, it seemed like he had inherited the skills of the monkey’s fiery golden eyes2, so he could be absolutely certain that the banished owner was not on the snowfield or within the mountain ranges.
Yu Hao said, “Could the owner have been banished to the subconscious?”
He knew little about dreamscapes, and most of his deductions were based on what General had told him and the knowledge he had gleaned from books.
“Shouldn’t be?” General rubbed his head as he muttered to himself.
“Then what about the safe haven?” Yu Hao said uneasily, “Let’s look for that?”
General said, “There isn’t a place that looks like a safe haven here.”
Please visit chrysanthemumgarden.com
Yu Hao thought for awhile before he said, “There isn’t any aboveground, but what about underground? You said that this is a little girl’s dream. Kids all love to build their own secret base, it could be analogous to a sort of ‘underground work’2.”
“You’re pretty good at Psychology.” General suddenly said, “You might have guessed right, let’s go in and take a look ba.”
In front of the frozen dwellings, General used his sword to forcefully prise a door open. Yu Hao’s staff emitted a bright light that illuminated its interior.
“It’s a shop that sells sweets.” General and Yu Hao looked at each other; the inside of the shop was covered with a layer of frost and its NPCs had been frozen into ice sculptures. Yu Hao suddenly noticed something in the corner, and it was retreating rapidly.
It was a tentacle-like shadow.
“General?” Yu Hao lit up the corner with his staff’s light.
“Un?” General was biting on a piece of frozen chocolate, but he couldn’t bite off a piece no matter how hard he tried.
Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.
“Don’t stray too far away from me.” The huge monkey said vaguely.
Yu Hao wasn’t too sure if he was hallucinating or not; General hid a whole plate of liqueur chocolate in his clothes to try and melt it, then continued, “Let’s go somewhere else to take a look.”
The other dwelling across the street was a fondant cake shop. Yu Hao could almost imagine the original appearance of this place — it should have been a beautiful and prosperous commercial street in the past. Along the street, there were even shops that sold children’s clothes and toys. But just as General held up a huge cake that was seven-layers tall, Yu Hao sensed something strange again.
This time, he discovered another tentacle!
“General!” Yu Hao warned, “There are enemies!”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
General suddenly turned around and pulled Yu Hao behind him; the two of them quickly retreated from the dwelling. On the village’s commercial street, both the winds and snow flurries had suddenly stopped.
Ktflg reggbecvlcur ofii rlifca.
Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.
“P atlcx rbwfatlcu’r kgbcu klat atlr qijmf……” Te Ljb ktlrqfgfv, “Vtbeiv kf ifjnf olgra?”
Xfcfgji ibbxfv jgbecv nlulijcais. Qtfc tf kjr jybea ab rtlfiv Te Ljb ab ifjnf atf nliijuf klat tlw, atf ugbecv yfibk atflg offa revvfcis dejxfv! Ktf rcbk atja tjv jmmeweijafv bc atf ragffa rtbbx jcv lar ijsfgr yfujc ab mgert bcf jcbatfg, yglmxr jcv rabcfr ygbxf jqjga, jcv rtbgais joafgkjgvr afcajmifr yfujc ab glrf ogbw jii rlvfr!
Immediately afterwards, they were surrounded by a burst of bright light — the glaring indigo light had illuminated the entire village. Yu Hao quickly raised his arm to shield his eyes, and the only thing he could see was a giant demonic eye that floated above the lighthouse at the end of the harbour! That demonic eye let out an ear-piercing guffaw, and he felt like he had heard that voice somewhere before:
“Just watch as I kill you guys this time—”
Mr. Shi’s voice!
Yu Hao didn’t even have time to be shocked before General roared, “Run!”
However, the dwellings on both sides had collapsed in an instant, and the giant lamprey-like sea monster from before had risen from the ground! All of its tentacles wrapped around Yu Hao and General at the same time. General was about to rush towards Yu Hao when the tentacles entwined themselves around him; he ruthlessly flung them away and crashed into one of the houses with a loud bang, which caused the walls of the fondant cake store to collapse!
Yu Hao was being strangled around his neck and could barely gasp for breath at the moment. Both his eyes were fixated on General; General jumped up from the debris and unsheathed his sword, then roared as he pounced towards the huge sea monster!
The sea monster swung its tentacles out. Yu Hao spinned the staff in his left hand and pressed it against a tentacle — a thunderbolt penetrated that tentacle and it instantly turned rigid before it loosened its grip, then Yu Hao began to fall. He almost fell into the lamprey’s mouth filled with spiralling sharp teeth! But right at the most critical juncture, he managed to hug onto another tentacle tightly. General rushed over from a side and brutally slashed the tentacles with his sword, but his attempts to chop them up were to no avail.
“Don’t be eaten by it!”
“What will happen if I fall down you can tell me now right!?”
“You’ll die! You’ll die!! You’ll sleep forever and never wake up again——!”
Yu Hao’s back was immediately drenched with sweat; he vigorously drove his leg into the edge of the sea monster’s huge mouth. General was currently wrestling with multiple tentacles, Yu Hao turned around with his staff in his hand, but a tentacle whipped him horizontally across until his viscera were throbbing with pain. His staff slipped out of his hand and dropped onto the snowfield!
General roared angrily, “To deal with this fellow! Our combined strength isn’t enough! Return to reality to find a way——”
If you're reading this, this translation is stolen. Please support our translators at chrysanthemumgarden.com
Yu Hao, “How do I find a way?!”
“Wake Shi Ni up!”
Immediately afterwards, the tentacles blotted out the sky and covered the earth as they swept toward General and Yu Hao; General somersaulted into the air and stepped on the tentacles as he flew towards Yu Hao.
Yu Hao turned around. General’s slender body rushed straight towards him, then he whipped one hand out as quick as lightning and placed it on Yu Hao’s forehead.
“Good night——!” General roared angrily.
Yu Hao’s eyes turned blank. The next moment, General’s hand released a golden light that he firmly pressed onto Yu Hao’s forehead.
It struck into his consciousness with a bang like a streak of lightning. Yu Hao let out a cry, then he sat up in his bed.
Read more BL at chrysanthemumgarden.com
The last scene in his memory was the instance when innumerable tentacles had wrapped themselves around General before dragging him into the giant mouth full of sharp teeth!
Yu Hao immediately searched for his phone, he couldn’t stop gasping for breath. He dialed the number left to him by Xiaoxiao yesterday afternoon.
At the other end of the line, a ringback tone rang out. Yu Hao kept praying, pick up, pick up! Pick up the call!!! Countless scenes flashed through his mind: the demonic eye above the lighthouse, the snakes in the snowfield, the sea monster with its tentacles and sharp teeth, Mr. Shi’s crazy laughter……Yu Hao vaguely understood who the owner of the dreamscape was, and what all the symbols in the dreamscape represented.
A sudden sense of fear and fury surged through his heart; if his guess was true, then how despondent must Shi Ni be right now?!
The call went through.
“Hello?” Xiaoxiao’s sleepy voice answered.
“Wake Shi Ni up! Hurry and wake her up!” Yu Hao was practically shouting in desperation.
Please visit chrysanthemumgarden.com
The Xiaoxiao at the other end of the call was frightened, “What’s wrong? What’s wrong??”
“Hurry! Do you have her number?” Yu Hao knew that as long as Shi Ni woke up, the dream would end immediately. Just like before when he and General were facing the cavalry in his own dream, all outsiders would be forcefully kicked out of the dreamscape, then the dream would continue the next time they entered.
“I’m here.” Shi Ni’s voice rang out at the other end of the line, “What do you want?”
Yu Hao finally heaved a sigh of relief, “Are you staying overnight at Xiaoxiao’s place?”
Shi Ni said, “What does that have to do with you?”