Ya She

Chapter 5 The Silent Shop and the Yellow Millet Pillow

The doctor has been suffering from sleep deprivation lately. Seriously, because he's become addicted to online games. More precisely, social networking games. These are the kinds of games that are all the rage online, like farming, buying and selling with friends, parking space wars… These kinds of social games have recently swept the internet, with thousands of people hooked. As a trendsetter, the doctor is naturally one of them.

But he seems to have gone a bit too far with his obsession. The doctor has always been a perfectionist, always striving to do his best in everything he does.

So, he's capable of setting an alarm to get up in the middle of the night to steal vegetables online. Lately, he doesn't even need an alarm anymore; he wakes up automatically when it's time to steal vegetables, and in severe cases, he stays awake all night.

Therefore, it is not surprising that I am always drowsy during work hours.

"Hey! Get up, the morning meeting is over." Someone was tapping the doctor's head with a stethoscope around his neck, again and again, seemingly enjoying it.

The doctor struggled to his feet from the table, letting out a lazy yawn. Standing before him was a burly man, his college friend; after graduation, they both ended up at the same hospital. This man was two days older than him, surnamed Chun, given name Ge. The doctor jokingly called him Brother Chun. Whenever he loudly called out "Brother Chun" in the hospital, it would attract a huge number of stares.

"Were you on the night shift yesterday? Why do you look so tired?" Chun Ge asked with concern. "During the meeting just now, the way the director looked at you was as if he wanted to throw you onto the operating table and perform a live dissection on you!"

The doctor rubbed his messy hair and chuckled. "That's because he woke up this morning to find I'd stolen his vegetables, right?" Their director was a stern-faced middle-aged man, and they often joked about him in private. But no one expected that even such a serious person as their director would play online games.

“You…” Chun Ge shook his head helplessly, wanting to say a few words to him, but then felt that he had already said what needed to be said these past few days, so he sighed and said, “You need to be careful. You need to stay focused at all times, instead of thinking about stealing vegetables while you are having surgery!”

Chun Ge's eyes revealed worry. Having known the doctor for almost ten years, he knew that the doctor's mental state had been very abnormal lately.

He knew the reason; it was probably related to the unexpected surgery last month. Due to the doctor's mistake, the patient suffered severe bleeding during the operation.

Although the patient recovered after emergency treatment and was discharged a week ago, the doctor's condition has not improved. He has even started playing online games that he used to disdain, which is completely unlike him!

Chun Ge wanted to say a few more words to persuade his friend, but the words turned into a sigh.

The doctor lowered his head and chuckled dryly. He knew perfectly well what others were thinking. But how could Chun Ge understand his feelings? Someone who hadn't experienced something like this had no right to lecture him. Although the head doctor had specifically spoken to him, saying that complications during surgery were unavoidable, for someone who demanded perfection in everything, this was an inescapable stain.

“She’s here again…” Chun Ge glanced at the woman standing in the corridor outside and shook his head helplessly. The doctor leaned back in his chair, scratching his messy hair, and unconsciously frowned. That young woman was the patient he had almost killed during that surgery. Although she had been discharged, she knew that the surgery had not gone smoothly, so she came to the hospital for check-ups every day.

And he was, of course, the responsible one. Examining him was just a routine procedure, nothing difficult at all. But every time he saw the way she looked at him, he was filled with self-reproach.

She must be blaming him, right? The doctor knew he was in a terrible state, but from his medical studies to his current internship, he had been under immense pressure. No one could imagine the mental strain he was under; he was like that overstretched string.

It wasn't broken, but it had lost its resilience. He exhaled deeply, stood up, forced a smile, and walked towards her.

When he finished get off work, the doctor habitually headed towards the Silent Shop. Actually, he wasn't very close to the owner; he had just casually walked in one day and become fascinated by the place.

He knew nothing about antiques, but the owner of the Silent Shop was approachable. He remembered that two years ago, when he had just graduated and started working as an intern at the hospital, he was under a lot of pressure. For some reason, he poured out all his complaints to the owner, but the owner still smiled and showed no impatience whatsoever.

From then on, the Silent Shop became a place he frequented. Sometimes, just sitting quietly in the shop without saying a word would make him feel relaxed and comfortable.

Strangely enough, he never bought a single item from the Silent Shop, yet the owner always treated him kindly. Anyone else would have been kicked out long ago.

Just then, he saw the antique signboard of the Silent Shop. As he pushed open the heavy, carved wooden door, he thought he saw a familiar white figure on the street corner, but when he looked closely, it was nowhere to be seen.

It must be his imagination. The doctor smiled and stepped into the Silent Shop without paying any attention.

After he entered the silent shop, the white figure emerged from the street corner again. It was a woman; she looked at the place the doctor had gone in with a complicated expression.

If the doctor could see this at this moment, he would realize that this person was actually the female patient he had been taking care of.

The room remained dark and gloomy, filled with a captivating scent of sandalwood.

The doctor took a deep breath. He thought his favorite smell was formaldehyde, but he didn't expect that the scent of sandalwood would also calm him down.

"Welcome." The young owner, who was sitting behind the counter, put down the book in his hand and stood up with a smile. The owner was still wearing a black Tang suit, on which a deep red dragon was embroidered on his left chest. The long dragon's body meandered around his waist twice, and the dragon's head was right on his left chest, baring its teeth and glaring fiercely.

"Looks like the boss has a lot of these clothes!" the doctor thought casually.

"You don't seem to be in very good spirits. Is something bothering you?" The young boss's smile deepened. Missy's almond-shaped eyes seemed to see through the doctor's worries, but she didn't point it out.

"Ugh, not sleeping well at night is a bit annoying." The doctor quickly went into his fussing mode, plopping down in the chair in front of the counter. He made sure to sit down quietly, remembering that the chair was made of some kind of rosewood, a piece of Ming Dynasty furniture, and quite expensive.

However, he wasn't sure if they were genuine. According to the owner, everything in the shop was historically significant and priceless. Even the shop's lighting used oil lamps, and he hadn't found any power outlets.

What era are we living in? Are there still people living in a world without electricity?

The boss hesitated for a moment before asking, "Didn't you sleep well?"

"Yes, do you have any aromatherapy products that can help with sleep?" the doctor asked, half-jokingly. As a doctor, he naturally wouldn't take sleeping pills casually, but poor sleep was already affecting his normal life.

He used to sleep very well, but since last month, he has been waking up several times every night, and has dreamed many times about the surgery that went wrong, with the woman lying under his knife covered in blood.

Of course, he didn't have high hopes for the boss; he was just asking casually. To his surprise, the boss quickly replied, "I don't have any incense, but I have a pillow that can help you fall asleep quickly."

"Really?" the doctor asked incredulously.

"Have you ever heard of the 'Yellow Millet Dream'?" The innkeeper turned and went into the inner room, but his voice continued to drift out. "During the Tang Dynasty, there was a scholar named Lu Sheng who was traveling to the capital for the imperial examinations. He stayed at an inn along the way and met a Taoist priest named Lü Weng. Lu Sheng lamented to him how poor and destitute he had been all his life. After listening, Lü Weng took out a pillow and gave it to Lu Sheng, saying, 'Use this pillow when you sleep tonight, and I guarantee you will have a wonderful dream.' By then, it was getting late, and the innkeeper began to cook millet porridge."

“I remember this,” the doctor continued, “Then Lu Sheng fell asleep with his head on the pillow. In his dream, he passed the imperial examination, married a beautiful wife, became a military governor, won battles, and finally became prime minister, enjoying all the riches and honors. In the end, he had many children and grandchildren. Later, when he was over eighty years old, he fell seriously ill and was about to die. He suddenly woke up and realized that it was all a dream.”

"And at that time, the rice the shopkeeper was cooking wasn't done yet." The shopkeeper emerged from behind the jade screen, holding a brocade box in his hand. "This is the dream of the Yellow Millet, and this is the pillow that Lu Weng gave to Lu Sheng, also known as the Yellow Millet Pillow."

The doctor almost burst out laughing. This was just a Chinese idiom; it was even unknown whether Lu Sheng had actually existed in history! How could they even have his pillow? However, the doctor still gave the shopkeeper face and didn't actually laugh out loud. Although he didn't believe it, when the shopkeeper placed the brocade box on the counter and opened it, the doctor still leaned over to take a look.

It was a porcelain pillow, with a lustrous celadon glaze and a texture like jade; it was clearly a high-quality item. The doctor knew he was an amateur and couldn't understand the pillow's origins, but he did know one thing: "A porcelain pillow? Can you sleep comfortably on something like this? I probably wouldn't be able to sleep a wink all night."

"Take it back and try it out. You can borrow this pillow for a few days; just take good care of it," the shopkeeper smiled slightly. He added, "Just one thing: if you wake up in the middle of the night, don't immediately use this pillow to go back to sleep, otherwise your beautiful dream will turn into a nightmare, and the nightmare will come true." Although the doctor was utterly skeptical, he couldn't refuse such kindness, especially since the shopkeeper had initiated it. So he could only thank him, pick up the brocade box, and prepare to leave. As he reached the door, he suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, what was Lu Sheng's final fate in 'The Yellow Millet Dream'?"

The boss laughed, his phoenix eyes narrowing slightly, and said in a profound and unfathomable way, "After this dream of wealth and power, Lu Sheng had a great awakening and never went to the capital to take the imperial examination again. Instead, he went to the deep mountains to cultivate Taoism."

The doctor's hand trembled, and he almost dropped the brocade box he was holding.

Back home, he first played with the Apache helicopter that greeted him with its tail wagging for a while, then ate a quick meal, flipped through some medical case books, and finally couldn't resist turning on the computer to play games.

Having successfully stolen eight carrots from the director's vegetable garden, the doctor smiled smugly. The director's profile picture was of an adorable little boy, which the doctor assumed was the director's five-year-old son. He had found the director using a search function, applied to add him on social media for five consecutive days, and was finally approved.

Just as he was about to leave, the webpage notified him of a new system message. The doctor opened it and found it was a friend request; the other person's profile picture was a formal passport photo—it was Chun Ge.

"Didn't expect you to start playing too!" The doctor chuckled as he approved the account, only to find it was newly registered with a pitifully low level; there weren't even any crops to steal from the other player's garden. The doctor grinned mischievously, opened the friend trading option, and bought Chun Ge at a low price. This kind of game is only fun when played with people you know. He then checked his own garden, estimating the ripening times of his radishes, corn, tomatoes, strawberries, and other vegetables, and realized he had no ripe crops for the night.

Sigh, I hope he can sleep soundly through the night. After taking a shower, I walked to the bedside and suddenly remembered the porcelain pillow my boss had given him earlier that day.

"There shouldn't be any problem trying it, right?" The doctor opened the brocade box, carefully took out the porcelain pillow, placed it on the bed, hesitated for a moment, and then lay down on it.

It was a bit cold and quite hard. However, because the grooves on the surface of the porcelain pillow perfectly conformed to the curves of the human body, the doctor was surprisingly pleased with it.

He soon fell into a deep sleep.

The doctor opened his eyes and saw that the wall clock showed it was only 11 p.m. He had only slept for a little over two hours. But the quality of his sleep was excellent, and he didn't have a headache at all when he got up. It seems that the porcelain pillow really is effective.

Apache, who was sleeping under the bed, raised its head, glanced at its owner, shook its head, changed position, and continued sleeping. The doctor rubbed his slightly hungry stomach and went to the kitchen to get the leftover hamburger from last night. When he opened the refrigerator, he was stunned.

Inside the refrigerator, there was a neatly stacked pile of carrots, still covered in damp soil, so tender and fresh they looked like they were about to drip with water.

Exactly eight carrots, no more, no less. The doctor paused for a moment, then slammed the refrigerator door shut—it must be…it must be his imagination, right? He thought in panic, he didn't remember buying carrots when he came home that evening!
There's no way he, who hates carrots, would buy them himself! The doctor took a deep breath, opened the refrigerator again, and there were still the eight carrots neatly arranged there.

What's going on? How could his refrigerator produce vegetables on its own? The doctor shuddered and quickly banished the thought from his mind.

Perhaps he had forgotten? The doctor refused to let his imagination run wild. He took the carrots out of the refrigerator, went downstairs, and put them in his neighbor's yard, where there was a cage with several rabbits. When he went back inside, he noticed that someone seemed to be inside.

"Who is it?" The doctor picked up the long umbrella that was placed next to the door.

"Master, I brought you a midnight snack." Chun Ge, wearing an apron, walked out of the kitchen carrying a plate with a beaming smile. He was a burly man with broad shoulders and a thick waist, wearing an apron of unknown origin—a pink apron with ornate ruffles and a huge sheep on his chest—that didn't fit him at all! His resolute face was adorned with an inappropriately maternal smile, which made the doctor's skin crawl.

"What...what did you call me?" The doctor was momentarily unsure whether to put down the umbrella, hold it tighter, or just knock it down on Chun Ge's head.
"Master! Didn't you buy me? I made you dinner, try some." Chun Ge snatched the umbrella from the doctor's hand, led him to the table, pressed his shoulders, and forced him into a chair without allowing him to refuse, looking at him ingratiatingly. The doctor stared blankly at the incredibly lavish dinner, smelling the tempting aroma of the food, but had absolutely no appetite. Was this a joke? But he didn't see any suspicious expression on Chun Ge's face.

So, this is for real? The doctor felt a dry throat and ice-cold hands and feet—how terrifying!

"Is Master not satisfied? Hmm... Then I'll try to please Master. What should I do? Give him a spa treatment? Massage his back? Rub his feet? Trim his nails?" Chun Ge tilted her head in a troubled manner, pouting and revealing the adorable expression of a little maid.

The game does have this option; slaves can please their masters… Stop! What is he thinking? The doctor shuddered because Chungo had decided to give him a spa treatment! He fainted! Could he please get a different female slave? The doctor struggled desperately, but Chungo seemed determined to achieve his goal. The doctor's physique was no match for him. Apache, on the other hand, didn't help his master at all; instead, he watched with great interest, occasionally letting out a shout, whether to cheer on his master or Chungo, it was unclear.

The two were struggling when Chun Ge suddenly stopped, straightened up, and took off his apron. The doctor reflexively took several steps back, looking at him warily, and almost screamed, "What do you want to do?"

Chun Ge said regretfully, "What a pity, I've already been bought. I need to hurry to my new owner's house." Without pausing for a moment, he turned and left. The doctor, his face darkening, heard the door close and rushed over to lock it, then rushed back to the bedroom and turned on the computer.

He went online, opened a webpage, and entered the website address. Sure enough, none of his slaves were there anymore; Chun Ge had just been bought by the director. A chill ran down his spine. Was Chun Ge really going to the director's house so late? The doctor couldn't fathom the thought, and his heart sank into a sigh of relief. He also wondered if anyone else he bought would actually come to serve him. And what about the stolen ginseng and lingzhi mushrooms—would they also end up in the refrigerator?

The doctor couldn't resist the temptation and sat down in front of the computer.

Just as he predicted, the slaves he bought in the game arrived at his house within ten minutes, regardless of whether he knew them or not. All the vegetables he stole in the game, from cabbages to ginseng, immediately appeared in his refrigerator. And every car he bought from the parking space contest would soon be parked downstairs at his house, from Altos to Ferraris!
The doctor was satisfied. He played this game to experience that feeling.

Stepping outside of reality, completely detached from surgery and patients, he was all alone. The doctor added many friends and thoroughly enjoyed himself, until the doorbell rang again.

He opened the door, and the female patient suddenly appeared in front of him with a bright smile.

The doctor opened his eyes and found himself still lying in bed. Through the curtains, he could vaguely see that it was already dawn outside. He had indeed been dreaming. It seemed this porcelain pillow really did induce sweet dreams.

Except for the last scene, which was a bit frightening... it was still much better than the nightmares of the past few days. In those nightmares, the female patient wasn't standing there peacefully; instead, she was disemboweled, with blood flowing everywhere... The doctor shuddered, forcing himself to stop thinking about it. He looked up at the time; it was only 4 a.m., so he simply turned over and went back to sleep.

He completely forgot his boss's advice.

Soon, the alarm clock rang shrilly, and the doctor sat up dejectedly. Apache jumped onto the bed, pacing back and forth impatiently. The first thing the doctor did was rush into the kitchen, open the refrigerator, and only after seeing no carrots, strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, or any other suspicious fruits or vegetables did he breathe a sigh of relief.

It seems it really was a dream.

After taking Apache for a morning run, and then quickly washing up and eating, the doctor went downstairs while tying his tie. At the entrance of the building, two neighboring women were arguing over a trivial matter. Without saying a word, they stopped the doctor and asked him to judge the matter.

He listened patiently, offered advice to both sides, but realized nothing he said was of any use, so he quickly made an excuse and slipped away. Just as he stepped out of the apartment complex, a sudden gust of wind arose, and large raindrops began to fall without warning. The doctor, muttering about his bad luck, jogged all the way to the hospital. But he was already soaked to the bone.

After the morning meeting, the doctors were assigned surgical schedules. To their surprise, they were assigned as assistants for a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, also known as heart bypass surgery. Chun Ge had been preparing for and looking forward to this surgery for a long time. But at such a crucial moment, Chun Ge took leave and did not appear in the meeting room.

Strangely, the female patient who always came to the hospital on time didn't show up today. The doctor didn't think much of it; he had suddenly been assigned this very important surgery and needed to prepare immediately, so he didn't have much time.

The doctor actually wanted to politely decline, but the head doctor's tone left no room for refusal. The doctor had been top of his class in medical school and was very familiar with the surgical procedure. However, he was afraid of complications during the operation, so he spent the entire morning in the hospital library, researching and simulating the surgical steps.

The surgery was scheduled for 1 p.m. The doctor stood fully prepared in front of the operating table; the chief surgeon was the head of the department, and he was the first assistant.

His hands trembled slightly as he held the scalpel. But when he was actually performing surgery, he found that standing there again wasn't as difficult as he had imagined.

General anesthesia, hypothermia, cardiopulmonary bypass, cardiac arrest, blood vessel harvesting, bypass surgery… the operation went very smoothly. In fact, everything went smoothly until the artificial heart-lung machine stopped functioning and the patient was switched to internal circulation. But during the final suturing, a sudden gush of blood from his heart spurted out, covering his face in a flurry of activity. Warm blood streamed down his cheeks, and in the doctors' panic, they heard the alarm on the cardiac monitor turn into a flat line.

"Snap!" The patient, who had been lying on the operating table, suddenly moved and then wobbled to her seat. The doctor, stunned, looked up and realized that this patient was none other than the woman whose surgery he had previously encountered complications with!

Her pale face was filled with resentment, but what chilled him even more was that her chest was still open, and he could almost clearly see her stopped heart, blood gushing out. "It was you! It was you who killed me!" the young woman roared at him through gritted teeth, tearing off the various IV tubes attached to her body, jumping off the operating table and walking towards him step by step.

"No! No! I didn't mean to!" The doctor almost reflexively took several steps back, his muscles tense, but there wasn't much room for him to retreat, and he bumped into the wall after a few steps. He had no energy left to think at that moment. It was true that he had made a mistake during the operation, but the female patient hadn't actually died.

The woman's face slowly approached, a half-smile playing on her lips, looking eerie and sinister, her open chest adding to the unsettling atmosphere.

One step, two steps, three steps... the doctor could even smell the blood emanating from her.

"It's over! He's definitely going to die!" the doctor thought desperately, closing his eyes tightly.

"Huff! Huff!" The doctor woke up from a nightmare to find Apache on top of him, washing his face with his tongue. The touch of blood in the dream felt so real—was it Apache's saliva? The doctor gasped for breath, looking at the rays of sunlight streaming into the room through the curtains, feeling confused and unable to distinguish between reality and dream.

The helplessness from the dream still lingered in his mind, filling him with a bewildered fear. Like a drowning person watching helplessly as they were swallowed by darkness, he couldn't even scream. Large drops of sweat streamed down his forehead. The doctor tried to hold Apache to keep it still, but his palm touched something cold.

It's that porcelain pillow.

The jade-like glaze shimmered eerily in the sunlight, and its icy coldness seeped through the palm of the hand, sending chills down the doctor's spine.

Why would he have such a dream? It was almost identical to the unexpected incident during the last surgery. Although the patient's massive bleeding was stopped, if the surgery in the dream had actually occurred, the patient's life would have been in grave danger. But why the sudden massive bleeding?
The doctor clutched his head in pain, deep in thought for a long time, until Apache started jumping up and down in frustration. Only then did the doctor realize he was troubled by a dream. He couldn't help but pinch his cheek; it really hurt.

This time, he should have truly woken up, right?

The doctor couldn't help but glance back at the porcelain pillow he had used all night. Although he had slept soundly, he had been very tired from dreaming all night. Every scene was vividly clear in his mind, unlike an ordinary dream, as if it had really happened.

He quickly washed up, and Apache was already squatting in front of the door wagging its tail, chewing on its leash, waiting for the doctor to take it for a morning run. Just as the doctor was about to open the door, he suddenly remembered his actions in the dream, and his hand froze.

Glancing at the resentful Apache, the doctor felt apologetic but decided to cancel his morning run. After breakfast, as he prepared to leave, the doctor inexplicably grabbed the umbrella from behind the door—even though the weather forecast hadn't predicted rain.

He went downstairs, where two middle-aged women from his neighborhood were arguing at the stairwell. The scene and the reason for their argument seemed strangely familiar, instantly giving him goosebumps. Panicked, he didn't even bother to greet them, simply lowering his head and avoiding them.

It was just a coincidence. He thought to himself, his mind uneasy. But as he reached the entrance of the residential area, a sudden gust of wind arose, and raindrops, as foreshadowed in his dream, began to fall. The doctor opened his umbrella and walked towards the hospital.

Coincidence! It's all a coincidence! I had to grit my teeth and convince myself otherwise.

The street scene was the same as usual. The doctor walked along with an umbrella, gradually realizing that he was being a bit too sensitive. The two middle-aged women next door had always disliked each other, and now that it was summer, occasional showers were common.

I took a deep breath of the fresh, humid air and felt refreshed.

The hospital's morning meeting was as boring as ever. The doctor searched the meeting room and found that Chun Ge was indeed absent. The female patient who waited for him to examine her in the corridor every day was also nowhere to be seen.

Everything felt like a dream repeating itself. Neither of these events could be considered a coincidence, leaving the doctor feeling somewhat uneasy.

“Chun Ge is on leave today, so you’ll be taking over the surgery he was in charge of.” The head doctor stopped beside the doctor and handed him a thick medical record.

The doctor was startled. Under the head doctor's questioning gaze, he took the case file, his hands even trembling. He stared at the file for a long time before finally mustering the courage to open it—coronary artery bypass grafting surgery!
The nightmare was repeating itself! A chill ran down his spine, and the doctor felt weak all over. He remembered his boss's last words of advice—"Just one thing, if you wake up, don't immediately use this pillow to go back to sleep, otherwise your beautiful dream will turn into a nightmare, and the nightmare will come true."

The doctor felt a chill run down his spine.

"Slap!" He slapped his cheeks hard with both hands.

He wouldn't give up; this was the real reality! The doctor carefully reviewed the patient's medical records. He remembered in his dream last night which area had experienced the massive bleeding, but the examination revealed nothing. He repeatedly considered various possibilities, but to no avail.

The afternoon surgery proceeded as planned. The doctor stood in the position of the first assistant, and all the scenes and figures were strikingly identical to those in last night's dream. It was like a pre-recorded movie, replaying frame by frame before my eyes.

The surgery started off smoothly, and with the dream from the previous night, the doctor essentially performed the procedure twice. However, this time, before stopping the artificial heart-lung machine and switching to internal circulation, the doctor stopped the head doctor and insisted on conducting one more thorough check.

The head surgeon standing opposite him frowned. Although it was a difficult surgery, everything was normal. The doctor almost held his breath, staring intently at the head surgeon. He knew he was just an intern; on the operating table, the surgeon in charge truly had the final say.

The head doctor felt there was no problem. Since the doctor was unwilling to suture, he would do it himself. "Stop the artificial heart and lungs and switch to internal circulation."

Everyone else in the operating room looked at the stunned doctor with sympathy. They all knew about the mistake he made in the last surgery, and naturally assumed that his insistence this time was just his obsession. The doctor didn't know how to stop it from happening. Things continued to unfold as he had imagined, except this time the person doing the stitching was the head surgeon.

The moment the needle and thread pierced the heart valve, the scene from the doctor's dream appeared—the patient's heart suddenly gushed out a large amount of blood! The electrocardiogram monitor sounded a piercing alarm! The doctor reacted extremely quickly; he clearly remembered where the bleeding point was in his dream. Just as the blood gushed out, he rushed forward and clamped the artery with hemostats!
The operating room was in chaos.

"Switch to extracorporeal circulation!" The director's forehead was drenched in sweat, which the nurses beside him kept wiping away. Venous blood was immediately drawn from the patient through artificial tubes, oxygenated extracorporeally via a continuous cardiopulmonary bypass machine, and then returned to the patient's body.

The doctor glanced up at the cardiac monitor beside him; the patient's heartbeat had flattened out, and the piercing sound overlapped with the dream... Everything was exactly the same as in the dream...

The door to the Silent Shop was pushed open, and the owner put down the book in his hand, looking at the person who came in with a slight surprise. "Why are you here so late?" The doctor couldn't hide his exhaustion and carefully placed the brocade box in his hand on the counter. "The surgery took two hours longer than planned. It was already dark when I left the hospital."

"How did the surgery go?" the boss asked with a smile.

The doctor nodded, then slumped heavily into the chair, utterly exhausted. "It was a complex surgery to begin with, and I had to take over at the last minute. You wouldn't have understood any of this during the procedure anyway... but in the end, the surgery was a success!"

"That's good." The shopkeeper seemed to have known this outcome all along, his smile unchanged. The doctor opened the brocade box in front of him, quietly looked at the porcelain pillow lying on the silk cloth, and after a long silence, said, "Here, you can have this porcelain pillow back."

"What? Still can't sleep?" The boss raised an eyebrow.

"No, I'm really grateful for it; it made my beautiful dreams feel so real." The nightmares felt just as real. The doctor didn't have the courage to say the rest. He was a doctor; he didn't believe in such superstitious and supernatural things that frightened him. Like a curse, he kept thinking after the surgery: if he hadn't clung to the beautiful dreams, would the nightmares have even happened in reality?
He didn't want to know the answer. A dream is a dream, and reality is reality; he didn't want to have to struggle to distinguish whether he was dreaming or not every time he went to sleep. Or rather, he was actually still immersed in the nightmare from a month ago, unable to extricate himself from it.

After today's surgery, the usually stern-faced head surgeon surprisingly praised him, truly waking him from his nightmare. One failed surgery doesn't mean all future surgeries will fail. There are other mistakes that haven't yet caused irreparable damage. It's no different from his school days; he never gave up on his studies because of a single failed exam.

The doctor clenched his fists secretly, feeling like he had been a complete jerk for the past month.

We should learn from our mistakes so that we can move forward in the future.

The shopkeeper didn't ask any further questions. He reached out and grasped the doctor's fist, which was resting on the counter, and said with a reassuring smile, "On a flat road, people can walk smoothly, but only on a muddy road can they leave their footprints."

The boss's hands were cold. "Nightmares may come true, but they are not necessarily unchangeable," the boss said meaningfully. The doctor looked up at the deep black of the boss's eyes and felt that his smile seemed to see right through him.

Just then, the carved door of the Silent Shop was pushed open from the outside, and a young woman in a white dress walked in. His gaze fell on the doctor and the owner's clasped hands, and he couldn't help but be taken aback. When the doctor saw him, he immediately jumped up from his chair. This pale-faced woman was the female patient he had almost failed to save during his last surgery.

When the woman saw the doctor, a blush crept across her pale face, indicating that she had recovered considerably. Her voice was gentle and soft: "Hello, I went to the hospital this afternoon and heard that you had surgery, so I really wanted to talk to you."

The doctor lowered his head awkwardly, hesitantly but firmly apologizing. "I'm sorry, I should have apologized to you formally a long time ago, but I just couldn't face it." The candlelight in the shop flickered, casting an uncertain expression on the woman's face. The owner remained behind the counter, smiling faintly.

"Pfft!" The woman looked at the doctor, then at the shop owner, and finally couldn't help but chuckle. "What! So that's how it is. No wonder a man as outstanding as the doctor doesn't have a girlfriend. No wonder... no wonder he comes to this shop every night... Goodbye, doctor! I won't bother you anymore. I'm actually fully recovered!"

The woman shook her head as she finished speaking and walked out on her own, leaving the two people in the shop staring at each other in bewilderment.

"What...what does she mean?" The doctor was completely confused.

"She's very pretty, and she likes you too, which is why she comes to you every day for a physical exam. Didn't you notice?" The boss hit the nail on the head about the problem that had been bothering the doctor for a long time, then casually sat down again and picked up his book to read.

"No... all I remember about her is her lying on the operating table, her abdomen ripped open..." the doctor thought for a moment and said seriously.

The boss raised his eyelids and smiled strangely, seemingly referring to someone: "Ah, how pitiful."

"Hey! Who are you calling pitiful? By the way, what did she mean by her last words before she left?" The doctor felt uneasy the moment he saw the boss's smile. It was as if he'd been tricked.

The shopkeeper leisurely sipped his tea and read a book, while the doctor, having had his fun, stormed off in a huff. Hearing the receding footsteps, the shopkeeper smiled, put down his book, took a porcelain pillow from the brocade box, and carefully wiped it with a deerskin cloth.

"Huang Liang, it seems this time was also a success. Not only did you save a life, but you also enlightened that guy. He will definitely become a great doctor in the future, saving countless lives," the shopkeeper said to himself. The porcelain pillow seemed to understand his words, its jade-like surface shining even brighter and more lustrous.

The door to the Silent Shop was pushed open once again.

"Welcome." The owner looked up, raised his signboard with a smile, and his voice echoed in the dimly lit shop.

The candlelight flickered dimly by the door, as if asking:

Who could this guest be?

(End of this chapter)