Halfling

Faced with a price that amounted to gambling away his future, Xia Chong didn’t hesitate for long.

“Shopkeeper, I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

His decisiveness earned Chen Miemie’s praise. “It seems the torment of your mind hasn’t completely exhausted your reason. In that case, the contract is sealed.”

With the price agreed upon, the next step was to begin the treatment.

“Xia Chong, I’ll deal with your nightmare first. Now, recount it again, in as much detail as possible.”

“All right.

“In the dream, there’s a half-bodied man who’s always chasing me. He has only one eye, one hand, and one leg, as if someone had cleaved him in half down the middle.

“No matter where I go, he can always find me. He appears around me without any rhyme or reason, but he doesn’t move quickly. How should I put it… It’s like being pursued by a snail that will never stop chasing me. Breaking free from him isn’t difficult, but I can’t stop for even a moment.”

“Describe how he makes you feel.”

“He only has half a body. He should be strange, terrifying, or bloody, but what I actually feel from him is mostly pressure—a kind of pressure that makes me exhausted and leaves me struggling to breathe.”

“Let me confirm this. You aren’t actually afraid of him. You’re simply worn down by the pressure his pursuit brings?”

“Let me think… Yes, that’s right.”

“Excellent, Xia Chong. I’m relieved that, even after being tormented by this dream for so long, you can still describe it with reasonable accuracy. I saw everything you’ve mentioned in your dream.”

“What? Shopkeeper, you can really enter my dreams? Then why didn’t I see you in there?”

“When I say I ‘saw’ it, I mean from a third-person perspective. I can’t interfere with you in the dream, and you can’t see me either.” Chen Miemie told him a well-intentioned lie.

He hadn’t seen anything at all, nor did he possess the ability to enter dreams. [Dream Residue] had simply provided him with a description, which he then repeated.

Chen “Dream Master” Mie Mie had processed the information further and turned it into his own “observations.”

“Then how am I supposed to resolve this nightmare? Can you help me get rid of the half-bodied man chasing me?”

Chen Miemie pointed at the teacup.

“Have some tea first. Calm yourself down.”

Xia Chong took two sips, then drew several deep breaths, doing his best to compose himself.

Only after waiting for Xia Chong’s heartbeat to slow did Chen Miemie speak in an unhurried voice.

“Your description is reasonably accurate. In other words, it isn’t entirely accurate. There are three points where you’re mistaken.

“First, this isn’t a nightmare. Even if it can’t be called a pleasant dream, at most, it’s a dream about searching for something you’ve lost.

“Second, the half-bodied man is chasing you, but he isn’t trying to kill you.

“Third, there are times when he isn’t chasing you at all. Sometimes he can’t catch up, and you deliberately stop to wait for him. And sometimes, you’re the one running toward him.”

This was the first time Xia Chong had heard such an explanation. It presented the entire matter from a completely new perspective.

“That’s what you saw, Shopkeeper? But I really was running away the whole time, and I felt exhausted and under tremendous pressure.

“Besides, you aren’t me, so you can’t experience what I was feeling. How can you determine whether a dream is a nightmare or an ordinary dream? And how can you tell whether the half-bodied man was chasing me or hunting me down?”

“Hoho.”

Chen “Dream Master” Mie Mie adopted the air of an expert and let out two deliberately profound chuckles.

“Xia Chong, in a dream, anything can be fake—or, rather, pieced together. But there is one thing that’s always real: your own feelings.

“You already said that you weren’t actually afraid of that half-bodied man. That feeling is crucial.

“A person with only half a body, whom you keep referring to as ‘he,’ should be a horrifying sight. Yet you aren’t afraid of him in the slightest. Don’t you find that strange?

“He wasn’t even carrying a weapon. If he were truly trying to kill you, why weren’t you afraid?”

Xia Chong hesitated. “Shopkeeper, I know you wouldn’t lie to me, but dreams often don’t follow logic. Fear can manifest in many ways. Wanting to run away and keep my distance from the half-bodied man is itself a sign that I rejected him.”

Chen Miemie didn’t continue arguing over the point. Instead, he abruptly changed the subject.

“What were you doing before you fell ill this time?”

“I joined a small society. I patrolled the streets every day, took on the occasional assignment, and earned some time.”

“Were you satisfied with your life back then? Be honest.”

“I’m not sure. After graduating from school, I joined the society. I was a newcomer there. Unlike school, there were no teachers forcing me to study what I didn’t understand. I became rather lazy, and as a result, I often made minor mistakes.”

“Answer my question directly. Were you satisfied with life in the society?”

Xia Chong fell silent. A full two minutes passed before he finally answered.

“No.”

Chen Miemie pressed him relentlessly. “What were you most dissatisfied with?”

“I… I wasn’t dissatisfied with any one thing.”

“You’re lying! You grew up in an orphanage, graduated successfully, became a mystic, and joined a society. That’s something countless ordinary people would envy. If you’re dissatisfied, there has to be a reason. Say it!”

“I wasn’t that dissatisfied…”

“If you want me to help you, you have to tell me the truth. Say it!”

“I wasn’t…”

“You’re already this sick, and you’re still hiding things? No one else can hear what you say in my shop. This is your only chance. What are you still hesitating over? Say it!”

“I’m not.”

“Say it!”

“I—I’ll tell you!”

Under the pressure of [The King in Yellow]’s manifested aura, Xia Chong shrank back against the sofa. When he could retreat no farther, he finally broke down.

“I’ll tell you! I’m afraid! I’m terrified!

“Ever since I was a child, I was the genius in my teachers’ eyes. I only needed half an hour each day to surpass everyone else in class.

“But after joining the society, I discovered that I had no exceptional talent for the [Mysteries] at all. My intelligence only applied to books and academic theory. In actual combat, I was nothing more than a lazy, stupid piece of trash!

“The society once organized a group hunt to surround and kill a highly dangerous anomaly.

“I watched from a distance. Those high-ranking mystics were far stronger, more diligent, and more experienced than me. Yet even after making thorough preparations, three of them still died on the spot!

“If people that strong could die, then I’d die ten times faster if I went up there!

“I’m afraid! I’m afraid of dying, afraid of getting my teammates killed, and afraid of losing my aura as a genius!”

Having achieved his goal—forcing Xia Chong to shout out what was buried in his heart—Chen Miemie withdrew the pressure from his aura.

“Xia Chong, this is your real nightmare. Your mental illness was probably an excuse you used to avoid participating in society activities from the very beginning.”

Xia Chong slumped weakly into the sofa, drenched in sweat.

“I’m sorry you had to see that. Yes, it’s true. At first, I was looking for an excuse to reduce the time I spent going to the society. If the society hadn’t forbidden members from leaving, I would have wanted to quit completely—even if it meant giving up being a mystic and going back to being an ordinary person.”

“All right, there’s nothing shameful about this. Everyone has things they’re afraid of, and things they’re not good at. Even in the [mystical] realm, you’re not stupid—you’re simply no longer a genius, but an ordinary person among mystics. Here, have another sip of tea.”

Once Xia Chong had calmed down again, one sentence from Chen Miemie made his heart race twice as fast.

“Xia Chong, prepare yourself for what I’m about to say.

“In your dreams, do you know what you look like?

“Perhaps next time, you should find a mirror or a body of water and take a look.

“Actually, I’m not sure which one is ‘you.’

“What I saw were two people from the waist up, chasing one another.”