Chapter 15          Inviting You to a Dream

“I was lying on my bed. Then, I felt someone watching me, and I could even feel someone blowing on my neck….”Xiao Ma reached to touch the side of his neck, “But when I opened my eyes, I didn’t see anything.”

Ye Shaoyang rolled his eyes and answered, “I think you’re just hypersensitive because you saw so many ghosts today.”

“No, no, the feeling I had felt was real. If you don’t believe me, go to my room to sleep then,” after Xiao Ma asked him to do this, he proceeded to drag Ye Shaoyang to his room.

Then, Ye Shaoyang reluctantly checked the room, but he found nothing out of the ordinary. As such, he told Xiao Ma to go to bed and not disturb him. However, Xiao Ma was rather persistent, and he still asked Ye Shaoyang to sleep over.

“It's a big bed anyways, come on, come on.”

Ye Shaoyang was unwillingly dragged and finally got onto Xiao Ma’s bed. 

“Hey, did you lie to get me to sleep with you?”

“Ugh, I’m not that kind of person okay. Hmph, I think you’d be willing to help Zhou Jingru even if there was a corpse lying beside you!”

“Can you cut your c.r.a.p?” Suddenly, a thought came to Ye Shaoyang’s mind. What if Zhou Jingru went to his room and could not find him there and discovered that he was with Xiao Ma. Would she think that he is .... No!!

They slept at opposite ends of the bed. Soon, Xiao Ma began to snore and was already fast asleep. Ye Shaoyang felt tricked, “How can there be a ghost if you’re sleeping so well ….”

After he waited in bed for quite some time, Ye Shaoyang found it really hard to keep his eye’s open. He used the bed sheet to cover his head, and it also slightly blocked Xiao Ma’s snores. A short while later, he also fell asleep. 

The room was pitch black and dead silent. 

On the wall was an oil painting that depicted mountains and lakes. It was quite exquisite. Suddenly, the painting emitted a flash of light. Magically, the painting now had one more person. A teenager wearing white robes had materialized. He appeared to be walking on the road beside the lake. He was looking left and right, pondering where to go. “What the f*ck is this place!” Ye Shaoyang looked left and right. On his left was a patch of endless viridescent gra.s.s, and on his right was a picturesque lake. The water of the lake was very clear; lively fish and prawns filled it. He had never seen this kind of beautiful scenery in his life. 

However, Ye Shaoyang knew that something did not add up. 

A short distance ahead of Ye Shoayang was the unclear outline of a person. That person was also looking left and right, pondering where to go. When Ye Shaoyang caught up to that person, he saw that it was Xiao Ma. Moreover, he was also wearing a white sleeping robe. When Xiao Ma saw him, he greeted him with excitement and said, “Hey Little Ye, you’re here too. The water looks really nice; why don’t we go for a swim?”

Ye Shaoyang laughed sarcastically and said, “Swim? Do you even know where we are? This is a dream world!”

“A dream?” This statement shocked Xiao Ma, so he looked around and said, “Isn’t this too real for it to be a dream?”

“Of course, dreams are realistic. If you don’t believe me, answer me this. Number one, what is this place? And number two, how did we get here?”

Usually, a person dreaming would never think about these things, as they would always think that they were in the real world. Despite this, even the most realistic dreams would have some shortcomings. After pondering for a while, Xiao Ma’s eyes grew wide open, “You’re right … what is this place? I don’t think I’ve ever been to this place before. And I can’t really remember how I got here ….”

“Try harder, try remembering what you did recently.”

Suddenly, Xiao Ma remembered and said, “Ah, we just had an awesome shower in a bathhouse! And we were sleeping together on a bed!” Xiao Ma began to panic, as he looked around anxiously, “How did we get here? Is this really a dream? Are you even real … are you just a figment of my imagination?”

“What? How can your imagination ask you this kind of question?” Then, Ye Shaoyang let out a long sigh and said, “I think we’re in the same dream.”

Xiao Ma stared blankly at Ye Shaoyang. Then, he said, “How is that possible!”

“It’s my first time too. Maybe it was because we were sleeping on the same bed. You were right; something is wrong with the room.”

Xiao Ma furrowed his brows, “Wait, how do you know we’re dreaming?”

Ye Shaoyang rolled his eyes and said, “Can you not ask such a stupid question? I’m a Daoist Master. If I can’t even detect that I’m in a dream so many small ghosts would have killed me long ago.” 

“Then … what do you think my body is doing right now?”

“Sleeping of course.”

Xiao Ma felt very confused and strange. How could someone be separated from their body and be somewhere else? Xiao Ma was scratching his head in confusion. Out of the blue, he swung a hard right and struck Ye Shaoyang’s jaw. 

Ye Shaoyang rubbed his jaw and yelled at Xiao Ma, “What the f*ck do you think you’re doing?!”

“I heard people say that you don’t feel any pain while you’re dreaming, so … I gave it a try.”

This stupid reason left Ye Shaoyang dumbfounded.  

“Little Ye, what do we do now?”

“I don’t know. Normally, a person would wake up right away when they realize that they are dreaming. But yet, we haven’t woken up, and we’re in the same dream.”

“Well, let’s just wait then, someone is bound to wake us up.”

Xiao Ma walked to the side of the lake and sat down. He looked left and right and happily said, “Well, I’ll just take this as a trip to Maldives then, even though there aren’t any pretty girls around.” 

Suddenly, Xiao Ma’s eyes released a beam of pervy light, “Hey, Little Ye, if there were pretty ladies here and I did something to them, there wouldn’t be any consequence, right? But it would still feel so real. F*ck! Why aren’t there any woman here!”

Then, Xiao Ma stripped naked and jumped into the lake to play. As he entertained himself, dark clouds began to form, and the wind started to pick up. Big waves filled the previously peaceful and still lake. Xiao Ma was terrified and yelled, “Hey Shaoyang, this is a dream right? I can’t die in my dream, right? I might just wake up?”

“You think this is inception? Come up now!” 

Then, Xiao Ma started to swim back. However, as he was about to reach the land, a huge wave came behind him and pulled him back into the water. 

Ye Shaoyang began to panic, as he could not see Xiao Ma. He was not sure what to do. Suddenly, he thought of something, “Some sorcery must be trapping Xiao Ma and I. If that’s the case ….” He reached down his waist to grab a magic weapon, but nothing was on him. In desperation, he had no choice but to bite his tongue and use his blood to break this sorcery. As soon as his blood flowed out, the scenery around him began to distort and darken. After a few seconds, he was able to somewhat feel his body; then, he was able to open his eyes! He was back and awake. After he woke up, he looked to the still asleep Xiao Ma. Xiao Ma’s body was trembling, while his face was green and sweaty. It was as though he was being choked. 

“Xiao Ma! Xiao Ma!” Ye Shoayang shouted, as he gave him a few good slaps. Despite this, Xiao Ma remained unresponsive. Ye Shaoyang had no other choice, so he used his right thumb to cut his middle finger. Then, he proceeded to press the blood onto Xiao Ma’s forehead. At the same time, Ye Shaoyang chanted an incantation to bring back souls. Xiao Ma finally woke up; he yelled, as he sprung up. He took a few deep breaths and yelled, “F*ck! I thought I was going to drown!”

He took a few more breathes and said, “What did I tell you? After a person dies in a dream, he’ll wake up.”

Ye Shaoyang laughed sarcastically, “You don’t even know what happened. If I didn’t save your life, you would have really drowned and died.” Then, he proceeded to explain what had just happened to Xiao Ma. 

“So, that means that people do die when they die in dreams?” 

“Not sure, but something is certain; we were in someone's spell,” Ye Shaoyang turned on the lights and began to search for clues of the sorcerer. He believed that this person must have been pretty nearby to cast a spell on him, maybe even in the room itself.  

“Little Ye, look!” Xiao Ma shouted, as he pointed at something. 

Ye Shaoyang looked in the direction Xiao Ma pointed to and noticed a painting that hung on the wall. The painting had a clear lake and an endless field of gra.s.s. Could it be?