The fresh scent of the wilderness, mixed with a faint aroma of decaying wood, drifted into the nostrils.
A faint sound of flowing water could be heard nearby.
Three irregularly shaped stones were stacked on a pile of soft, brown, withered leaves.
A pair of black Chelsea boots stepped on them, with a scratch on the shoe surface and dust-yellow mud clinging to the soles.
A black trench coat billowed beside the legs of blue jeans.
Looking up, golden beams of light streamed through the dense gaps between leaves.
The warm radiance spilled onto the face.
A hand slowly rose to shield squinting eyes as vision gradually cleared.
A maple leaf detached from its branch, floating down, slicing through a section of rough hemp rope hanging from a tree trunk.
Hemp rope?
Uncontrollably, both hands reached forward, feeling a rough texture against the palms.
Then, as the elbows retracted, the rope came closer.
A sharp, abrasive pain wrapped around the neck.
What is this?
In the next moment, the lower legs kicked forcefully, and the sound of heavy stones hitting the ground echoed below.
The coarse hemp rope tightened around the neck, embedding itself into the flesh.
The throat was strangled, and a suffocating sensation surged.
The heartbeat pounded violently, face burning hot.
Both hands desperately clawed at the rope constricting the neck, while both feet struggled frantically!
“Cough! Cough! Cough!”
S University, Psychology Department, Class 1 of Level 30, Room 404.
In the last row, a slender girl, who had been sleeping by the window, suddenly jolted upright from her seat before she even fully opened her eyes.
Her pale face instantly flushed red, brows furrowing tightly.
She clutched her neck with both hands, coughing violently, gasping desperately for breath as if she had suffocated to the brink of death and suddenly regained the ability to breathe.
Her abrupt movement caused the chair to flip over with a loud “bang,” mixing with the violent coughing sounds.
The commotion startled the entire classroom, and everyone turned their heads toward the last row.
Even the teacher, who had been lecturing on the podium, was startled.
Adjusting his glasses, he stared at the girl bending over and coughing uncontrollably at the back of the room, frowning as he asked, “Student, what’s wrong with you?”
A fine layer of cold sweat covered Zhou Huaixia’s forehead.
Her dark pupils glistened with a physiological tear sheen.
She glanced at her classmates, then looked up at the familiar teacher on the podium.
Finally, she managed to pull herself out of the suffocating sensation.
She swallowed hard.
The pain of the rope strangling her neck in the dream still lingered.
The illusion of her throat breaking remained.
But soon, she understood what had happened and quickly forced herself to calm down.
Stiffly, she made up an excuse, “Teacher, I… I’m fine.
My leg cramped a little.”
The teacher hesitated, staring at her for a moment before asking, “Are you sure you’re okay?
If you feel unwell, you can take leave.”
Her face had turned so red it was unsettling.
Zhou Huaixia insisted, “Teacher, I’m fine.”
The redness on her face faded quickly, returning to its original pale complexion, making it seem like nothing had happened.
Seeing this, the teacher on the podium could only say, “Sit down first.
If you feel uncomfortable, be sure to speak up.”
Zhou Huaixia repositioned her chair, suppressing her breathing as she sat down.
Leaning against the backrest, she subconsciously touched her neck, glanced at her watch, then surveyed her classmates before frowning and looking out the window.
It was 4:20 PM, the prime time for classes across all departments.
Who would be sleeping at this hour?
And having such a nightmare?
Zhou Huaixia had a secret she had kept for many years.
She never dreamt.
She only entered other people’s dreams.
After years of experimentation and analysis, she concluded that there were generally two conditions for her to enter a dream.
First, the dreamer must be experiencing intense emotions.
Second, she had to be physically close to the dreamer at night.
There was also a common trait: she always saw dreams from a third-person perspective.
But this time, she had experienced it from the first-person point of view.
Could this have been her own dream?
Impossible.
She never dreamed.
Dreams always had some connection to reality.
Zhou Huaixia considered herself to be in a good mental state and had no thoughts of ending her life.
The only possibility was that someone in the school was under too much psychological pressure, which led them to have such a nightmare in broad daylight.
The teacher continued lecturing at the podium.
By now, Zhou Huaixia had fully recovered from the near-death illusion.
She reached into her pocket, pulled out a piece of candy, and silently popped it into her mouth to ease her dizziness.
Only then did she lift her eyes to look out the window, thinking to herself:
S University truly lived up to its reputation as a top institution.
Even the dreams of its students were in high definition.
Every detail from the brittle fallen leaves underfoot to the scratch on the black Chelsea boots—was vividly clear.
She could even feel the warmth of sunlight on her fingers.
“Ding”
After a long while, the bell rang.
The teacher on the podium turned off the projector.
“Class dismissed.”
The classroom instantly filled with the sounds of folding chairs snapping shut, and students began to leave.
Zhou Huaixia got up slowly.
With class ending at 5:30, it was just the right time for dinner.
She exited the teaching building and headed toward the nearest cafeteria.
The golden glow of the autumn sunset fell on her face, tinting her originally pale complexion with a warm yellow hue.
A long, slanted shadow trailed behind her.
“Swish”
As she stepped onto the cafeteria steps, she inadvertently glanced back and saw a police car drive past.
After leaving the cafeteria, Zhou Huaixia walked slowly towards Dormitory 23, Room 407.
Building 23 was the girls’ dormitory for the Medical School, though she had been assigned there from another department.
S University’s Psychology Department had its own separate building, and Zhou Huaixia should have been placed in that dormitory.
However, due to an increase in admissions that year, there weren’t enough rooms.
So, she was allocated to Medical School’s Dormitory 23 instead.
Currently, Room 407 housed only two people.
She and a medical student majoring in clinical medicine.
Her roommate’s name was Lü Jin, a typical model student with short naturally curly hair and thin gold-rimmed glasses.
Their class schedules were different, so they only saw each other at noon and in the evening.
Additionally, Lü Jin spent her weekends entirely in the library.
Since the beginning of the school year, they weren’t particularly close but exchanged polite conversations occasionally.
When Zhou Huaixia reached the door of Room 407, she noticed it was half open.
She was momentarily surprised normally, Lü Jin would go to the library after class and wouldn’t return until the library closed at 11 PM.
She pushed the door open and, sure enough, saw Lü Jin sitting at her desk.
Strangely, Lü Jin wasn’t flipping through her usual blue-covered medical books.
Instead, she was staring at her phone.
“Something happened in the Medical School?”
Zhou Huaixia closed the door and walked to the right side of the room, putting down her backpack.
Lü Jin turned to look at her with a peculiar expression.
“The news has already spread?”
Something really happened?
Zhou Huaixia was stunned.
“I just saw a police car…”
The direction the police car came from led only to the Medical School, so she made a casual guess.
“Yes, something happened to someone.”
Lü Jin didn’t continue explaining what had happened.
Zhou Huaixia completed the thought in her mind.
Went crazy?
The Medical School was S University’s top department.
It was rumored that every year, there were students with concerning mental states.
On the first day of school, someone had already gone mad, smashing up a lab before being taken away.
Seeing that Lü Jin didn’t want to say more, Zhou Huaixia didn’t ask further.
She reached for her pajamas from the bed, preparing to wash up.
At this time of night, most people weren’t asleep yet, so she could get some peace and sleep earlier.
Turning her back to Lü Jin, Zhou Huaixia walked straight into the bathroom.
Lü Jin flipped her phone face down, covering an unblurred photo on the screen.
The long night was pitch-black, and the surroundings were eerily silent.
A cold breeze swept through, rustling the weeds.
“Ahhhhh!”
A sudden scream tore through the night sky.
A girl with her hair tied in a bun sprinted out of the darkness, running barefoot along a narrow dirt path between towering cornfields.
The rustling corn leaves sounded as if something unknown might leap out at any moment.
She kept looking back.
Suddenly, a pair of blood-red eyes floated in the darkness like ghostly flames, chasing after her.
“Ahhh!”
The girl’s expression collapsed into sheer terror, her face twisted and contorted.
Looking at the identical paths around her, she screamed.
“Why can’t I get out?”
“Because you’ve been running in place.”
Zhou Huaixia stood nearby, hands tucked into the pockets of her yellow duck pajamas.
She had been observing for a while.
Glancing at the girl’s legs, she softly added her comment.
The girl’s legs seemed to be moving at lightning speed, yet she never left the spot.
“Ahhhhhhh”
The girl in the bun screamed even louder, completely ignoring Zhou Huaixia’s words.
She turned her head and saw that the blood-red eyes in the darkness had disappeared.
Her frantic running slowed, and just as she felt a hint of relief, a heavy, sticky, inhuman breathing suddenly sounded near her ear.
The breath carried a sickly, humid heat.
“Huff… Huff…”
The girl stiffly turned her neck to the right.
Her eyes widened in horror as she stared in Zhou Huaixia’s direction.
Zhou Huaixia was puzzled at first, then turned to look behind her.
Sure enough, a massive white pig, the size of a small mountain, appeared out of nowhere.
Its two long, curved tusks gleamed menacingly.
It stared at them with huge, blood-red eyes, drool dripping from its gaping mouth.
Before Zhou Huaixia could step aside, the monstrous pig charged forward with loud thuds.
It ran straight through her body, heading directly for the girl.
“Ah!”
The girl only had time for a short scream before the enormous pig slammed into her, sending her flying.
The moment she hit the ground, a loud “crack” echoed as her neck twisted into an impossible angle.
The pig didn’t stop.
It followed her, stepping onto her now-rigid limbs.
First, it nudged her arm with its snout.
Then, it opened its mouth and bit down hard.
“Crunch! Crack!”
In the darkness, the sound of flesh being chewed was disturbingly clear.
Zhou Huaixia watched the girl, who twitched slightly as she was being eaten.
She had no intention of helping.
Instead, she yawned, looking tired.
She waited for a while, but nothing changed in the surroundings.
So, she walked closer and squatted down.
Looking into the girl’s lifeless eyes, she murmured to herself.
“She’s being eaten like this and still won’t wake up?”
The girl didn’t react.
Her vacant pupils didn’t even reflect Zhou Huaixia’s figure.
She couldn’t see Zhou Huaixia at all.
It wasn’t until nearly half of her arm was gone that the girl suddenly opened her eyes wide.
Her twisted neck snapped back to normal.
Her half-eaten arm regenerated out of nowhere.
She immediately pushed herself up, panicked.
“Oh no, oh no, I entered the wrong data this afternoon!”
The moment she spoke, the giant white pig, still chewing, froze in place.
All surrounding noises vanished in an instant.
It was as if everything had been sucked into a vacuum.
Then, the cornfields on both sides of the path began to dissolve into nothingness.
The effect quickly spread to the white pig.
Finally, the girl herself started to disintegrate.
Zhou Huaixia’s body also faded along with them.
3:58 AM.
Zhou Huaixia’s eyes snapped open.
She stared at the ceiling in the darkness for a long time before exhaling silently.
It had only been a little over two weeks since school started, but these chaotic dreams were happening more and more often.
It was probably related to dormitory life.
Thin walls surrounded her on all sides, with people sleeping above, below, left, right, front, and back.
She forced herself to close her eyes again.
Any extra sleep was precious.
6:30 AM.
The alarm in Room 407 rang on time.
Lü Jin swiftly flipped off her blanket and got out of bed.
Zhou Huaixia rolled over twice, hugging her blanket, her messy hair sticking up as she sat up sluggishly.
She spaced out for a moment before slowly sliding down from the top bunk.
Lü Jin had just finished washing up and stepped aside to let her in.
After two weeks of school, excluding the ten days of military training, they hadn’t known each other long.
But it was enough to get used to each other’s routines.
Lü Jin filled her thermos and even took a moment to practice Tai Chi clearly someone who prioritized health.
Zhou Huaixia, on the other hand, had nothing extra to do.
Still half-asleep, she finished washing up, grabbed her backpack, and headed out.
7:00 AM.
Both girls left the dorm, one in front, one behind.
Lü Jin rushed to grab a seat in the front row.
Zhou Huaixia went to claim her spot in the last row.
As Lü Jin locked the door, she noticed Zhou Huaixia hadn’t walked far.
Her roommate moved at a tortoise’s pace.
“Going to the second cafeteria again?”
Lü Jin quickly caught up and asked casually.
“Yeah.”
Zhou Huaixia found the second cafeteria most convenient.
After eating, she could walk straight to the Psychology Department.
Lü Jin said, “The first cafeteria has the most breakfast options.
You should try it sometime.”
Zhou Huaixia was surprised.
“You know a lot about the school cafeterias?”
Lü Jin was the model student type.
Even though school had only been in session for a few weeks, Zhou Huaixia already knew she spent most of her time in the library.
She didn’t seem like someone who would explore all the cafeterias in such a short time.
As they walked downstairs, Lü Jin explained, “My mom is a clinical medicine professor here.
I basically grew up on this campus.
I know not just the cafeterias, but the whole of S University.”
Zhou Huaixia nodded in understanding.
“A family of doctors.”
Just then, a girl rushed down from the second floor.
The stairwell wasn’t very wide, and she couldn’t stop in time.
Lü Jin didn’t move aside fast enough and was bumped into.
“Sorry, excuse me!
Apologies, thank you!”
The girl was holding a stack of books with a folder on top.
She kept apologizing but didn’t even look at them before running ahead.
Lü Jin frowned.
“What’s the rush so early in the morning?”
Zhou Huaixia glanced at the girl’s face, then at her bun.
She murmured, “She’s hurrying to fix her data.”
Lü Jin looked at her.
“You know her?”
“Nope.”
Zhou Huaixia answered slowly.
“Saw her in a dream.”
Lü Jin was silent for a moment.
Then, she adjusted her glasses and laughed.
“You’re pretty funny.”