Chapter 6
Lin Sheng stood motionless in front of the passage and saw that the kitchen was occasionally distorted like a shifting phantom . He had no idea how long he had been standing there—probably ten or twenty seconds . He had no perception of time in his dreams .
“This crack must have something to do with my previous nightmare,” Lin Sheng speculated . “The air here is the same as the air in my nightmare before this; I can definitely feel it!” As Lin Sheng slowly inched closer to the passage, he could already feel a chill and stiffness spreading across the part of his skin that faced the fissure . It felt just like the previous nightmare .
“I have to go in and check it out . ” Lin Sheng paused before he made up his mind . Since it was just a dream, he knew that he would not die for real . Hence, curiosity finally took over his fear . He calmed down for a while, then slowly stepped into the crack .
Lin Sheng felt as though he had jumped into a pool of icy water the moment he poked his head in . It was pitch dark, and he heard the whining of the wind . Not even three seconds in the crack, a light suddenly flashed before Lin Sheng’s eyes, and the chill in his body slowly subsided . It was still cold but more bearable .
When his eyes finally adapted, a European-style living room comprised of grayish-black stones appeared before him . He found himself standing directly on one end of the rectangular living room . On his left were a fireplace and an old brownish-red stove with the bust of a solemn curly-haired man . Lin Sheng could not help but reach for the sculpture, which felt solid, cold, and smooth to the touch . He was stunned and quickly pulled back his fingers .
“The feeling is much, much stronger this time… Just like the real thing . ” With that in mind, Lin Sheng quickly looked back over his shoulder . The crack in the wall, from which he had passed through, was now shrinking and disappearing rapidly .
There was still a faint light leaking through the cracks from the kitchen . Before Lin Sheng knew what was happening, the crack suddenly decreased in size at an even faster rate and was completely gone in the blink of an eye . Seeing what was happening, Lin Sheng was rooted to the spot . He knew that he was in a dream, but…
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He looked down and noticed that a dark gaseous substance in his surroundings had begun to permeate his skin and seep into his body . It was as if the place was accepting and infecting him . There was an unexplainable sense of security, which made him feel that he could stay a little longer .
Snapping out of his thoughts, Lin Sheng started to look around the place .
There was a large dining table covered with an eye-catching white cloth that had turned grayish, old, and tattered with dark red stains at the center of the hall .
The floor, which was black with yellow patterns, was made of unknown cold hard stones .
Overhead, a black petal-shaped candle holder hung from the yellow ceiling, and on it were sixteen unlit white candles of different lengths also arranged in a petal pattern .
There was a large rectangular window on one side of the hall, while various oil paintings were on the opposite pale-yellow wall .
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Lin Sheng paused for a while before he headed toward the big window first .
At the window, he slowly drew the grayish-black curtains aside and looked out through the square window pane . The scene outside was gray and gloomy with a few shadows of bare trees swaying in the wind . Other than that, there was nothing but darkness beyond the wall .
Lin Sheng closed the curtains . He quietly turned to walk toward the other wall where there were many oil paintings, but all Lin Sheng saw were fuzzy images . He could barely distinguish portrait from landscape paintings .
“It’s not much different from the previous dream… All details appear blurry . ” Lin Sheng was calm as the sense of familiarity in the dream made him less nervous . He reached out to touch the oil paintings . Like before, he could not feel them as if his hand was wrapped in thick cotton cloth . Lin Sheng was very patient, though . He examined each and every oil painting . Only then did he step back and look in the direction of the exit . There was a wooden door in the corner of the hall, and it opened to other rooms .
Lin Sheng continued to walk, increasing his pace . Once he was at the wooden door, he put his hand on the doorknob, which was in the shape of a horse head, and gently turned it . As the door softly creaked open, he slowly stepped into the adjacent room .
A dark curtain with printed patterns hung from above the doorway . Lin Sheng drew the curtain to both sides and finally saw the interior . He was greeted by two dark red bookshelves that faced the door, and they were filled with neatly arranged books .
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“It’s a study room,” Lin Sheng inferred . He paused, stopping short of going in farther . His past experience told him that the text in the books would be illegible . Thus, he thought that he had better explore other places .
Lin Sheng turned and went back to the hall, where he wandered around and quickly found another door . He stepped through it and came upon a bedroom . He hung around for a while and went back out when he found nothing .
In the corner of the hall, he soon discovered a basement under the floor where a massive amount of wine bottles and a large dark red wine barrel were stored . The cellar was filled with the fragrance of wine . Lin Sheng mooched around in the basement and began to figure out what kind of place it was . “This is an old European manor . ”
Lin Sheng resurfaced to the hall when he felt that he was about to wake up . People in dreams could always tell when they were about to wake up . “I better make use of this last moment to check out the study room . ”
He wasted no time and ran straight toward the study room . Once in the room, Lin Sheng first saw a low mahogany table at the center and a stack of gray-covered books on it . Next to the pile of books was a silvery-gray candlestick, and next to that was an opened book . He curiously went up to check it out . The texts in the books were written in a small font, but they were clear enough . In spite of that, he had no idea what the words meant .
“Why is it that the writings are so clear?” Lin Sheng wondered . He ignored the books and set his eyes on the other bookshelves, which were filled with various books . Picking up a book and opening it, Lin Sheng saw that it was also written in the same kind of language in a small font .
“This doesn’t look like Xilin but more like ancient Rehn . ” Lin Sheng frowned . He remembered seeing ancient books with such writing on TV . Ancient Rehn, hieroglyphics, cuneiform, and ancient Xiguang were the four oldest writing systems . Lin Sheng had read about the origin of these writing systems in the many extracurricular books in his junior high school . Among the four ancient writing systems, hieroglyphics and ancient Rehn were the most readily identifiable and distinct . That was why he recognized it immediately .
“This is funny . Now I’m even dreaming of ancient Rehn,” Lin Sheng said to himself as he carefully browsed through the book in his hand . What was even more surprising was that he found a new sense of unfamiliarity in the book’s content, graphics, and text .
“Supposedly, what I see in dreams, however strange they are, should be familiar . But this unfamiliarity…” Lin Sheng felt that something was wrong . Just as he decided to copy a paragraph of the text and study it after he woke up, sudden vertigo struck him .
“It’s time . ” He knew it .