Dream Walker: Feng Shui Master Bai Ya

Late at night.

Bored out of his mind, Shang Muchen stood by the radio station, looking up at the ordinary-looking exterior wall of the detention center not far away, lost in thought.

There was no sound from the radio, and no one knew how far Professor Eileen had progressed in her expedition with Liu Qingyang and Xu Lele into what they called "the unfolding higher-dimensional space" to rescue the two workers.

Li Weiqiang would come over every now and then to ask a question, but Shang Muchen couldn't answer. After all, there wasn't even white noise in the radio, and no one would respond when he shouted into it.

"Feed—feed~~ Hey! Please respond if you hear me!"

"..."

There was no response at all.

Shang Muchen checked the wiring and switches. The radio should be fine, but he didn't dare to mess with it and could only wait.

A crow flew across the night sky, cawing mockingly.

Suddenly, Liu Qingyang's voice came through the radio: "...Lele, don't eat that! Put it down!"

Then the sound stopped again.

"Lightly? Respond if you hear me! What's the situation?"

"..."

The radio station was silent for a moment, then suddenly blared again, this time with a man's voice: "...Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Run..."

The sound stopped again.

Now both Shang Muchen and Li Weiqiang started to get nervous.

The two exchanged a glance, and Li Weiqiang said, "I'll go in."

Please watch over this place for me while I go in and check on the three of them.

If a serious problem arises, immediately seek assistance from the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.

I'll give you the phone number...

"No, I'll go in!" Shang Muchen said excitedly, worried about Liu Qingyang.

"Uncle Li, I won't go in. I'll just observe from the doorway and come out immediately."

If I don't come out in ten minutes, please go and ask for help, okay?

You'll have to stay here and oversee things, because I don't know how to operate the lift platform, and I don't know who to contact to help us.

"Okay, I'll help you put on the protective suit."

After putting on protective clothing, Shang Muchen rode the elevator platform to a high point on the outer wall. He looked at the wall, reached out and touched it, feeling a soft texture.

Although the wall surface looked like an ordinary brick wall, Shang Muchen could clearly feel a strange radiation, like the steam rising from a freshly steamed bun.

The area of ​​radiation was not large, only about one square meter. Shang Muchen guessed that this should be the place, so he turned around, waved to Li Weiqiang on the ground, and then stepped into the wall.

The moment he stretched out his leg, Shang Muchen felt a strange magnetic force, as if it was attracting his body.

It was much easier than I had imagined; I simply lifted my leg and entered the wall.

The moment he squeezed through the wall, Shang Muchen was still imagining that the space inside was probably similar to the back room, with many houses or small cubicles, arranged in a regular pattern, like a maze.

After all, according to Eileen, it was "the low-dimensional unfolding of a high-dimensional being." Given Shang Muchen's limited mathematical knowledge, the state after this "unfolding" should feel like a regular, recurring regression.

However, the moment Shang Muchen entered the wall, he was dumbfounded—

I entered a garden.

This is a garden built in a very traditional Chinese-style family compound, surrounded by six-story Khrushchev buildings.

In the distance, there are two slightly taller buildings with blue glass curtain walls, and the rest of the walls are decorated with stark white tiles.

The sky was overcast, with no sun or clouds, but it wasn't dark, so it was clearly daytime.

You can hear faint birdsong, but you can't see any birds at all, except for the occasional small white butterfly flying by.

The garden is not large, only a few hundred square meters, and is divided into three parts by a dry, slag-covered cement walkway.

The outermost area of ​​the garden is a children's play area, where a cement elephant slide sits peacefully. The painted elephant's eyes are deep and dreamy, as if it is staring at Shang Muchen.

The core area of ​​the garden consists of two circular flower beds, one large and one small, made of concrete, nested together to form a figure-eight shape resembling an ouroboros.

The larger flower bed was filled with colorful roses, lilies, and chrysanthemums, while the smaller one was completely withered; all the plants had died, even the weeds had turned yellow and died.

Surrounding the flower bed is a simple cement corridor, the kind that you find in every old-style residential area and every primary school from my childhood.

Ivy and grapevines covered the veranda, and ripe grapes hung down from above.

Huh? Was that Liu Qingyang stopping Xu Lele from eating those grapes from the radio?

Thinking about this, Shang Muchen suddenly realized an extremely important issue—

Where are the protective suits?

Raising my hand, I could clearly see my palm, the center of my hand, and my watch—no, the digital watch I wear every day, which had suddenly stopped working and gone black.

Shang Muchen quickly reached into his pocket and took out his phone, but sure enough, it was switched off and he couldn't turn it on.

When I looked around again, I couldn't find the way I came in, and I had no idea how I got in.

Protective suit?

Protecting your head? It's completely useless!

At this moment, Shang Muchen was completely bewildered.

Where exactly have I traveled to?

Where are Liu Qingyang and the others?

They just briefly connected to the radio station, how did they manage that?

Calm down, you must calm down first.

Without the burden of protective clothing, everything felt so realistic that Shang Muchen couldn't tell whether he was in some kind of illusion or had traveled into reality.

The wind blowing on my face was slightly cool and damp, and I could even faintly smell the aroma of stir-fried dishes and rice.

The texture of cement is incredibly realistic: rough, dry, and indestructible.

The rustling of leaves in the wind, the soft chirping of birds, and even the sound of cars driving by, coming from who-knows-where, all rushed into my ears.

The dim, withered sunlight pierced through the branches and shone on the ground, casting dappled shadows that swayed meaninglessly, as dull as the rhythmic gears of a machine tool.

This place was clearly a very ordinary old-style residential area, and an overwhelming sense of familiarity slowly rose in Shang Muchen's heart.

This feeling is clearly like a dream.

Right!

Shang Muchen suddenly realized that if he treated the current situation as a dream, wouldn't it make perfect sense?

Regardless of the reason, I am clearly in a dreamlike state.

Once he understood this, Shang Muchen instantly remembered what his brother had once taught him—to make good use of his wonderful human imagination.

Shang Muchen tried to use his brain to imagine the scene when Liu Qingyang excitedly and happily rushed towards him when he saw her.

Unbeknownst to Shang Muchen, he had already quietly forgotten about Li Weiqiang.

At this moment, in the courtyard of the detention center outside the walls, Li Weiqiang unscrewed the lid of his thermos and took a sip of tea.

A man emerged from the shadows of the night and calmly asked, "Did you go in?"

"He's inside." Li Weiqiang sighed slightly and said, "Shang Muming, you've caused such a huge mess. If you hadn't reported it to the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau, I would have been in deep trouble!"

"Who said I didn't report it? Here are the documents." Shang Muming handed Li Weiqiang a brown paper bag and said.

"If I hadn't informed Ning Yinxiao's wife, Eileen, to play this game with the kids, wouldn't that doting husband Ning have killed me?"

Li Weiqiang pulled out the document, squinted at it under the light, and chuckled, "Shang Muming, what are you trying to achieve by putting so much effort into training your brother?"

Instead of answering directly, Shang Muming asked, "Captain Li, why are you going to all this trouble to deal with 'Sakaki Lotus'?"

"Of course I'm doing this to protect my country," Li Weiqiang said righteously. "A real man should protect the peace of his region."

"Am I the same?" Shang Muming laughed. "My target and yours are different, but our motives are exactly the same."

"By the way, Captain Li, I've found the clues you asked for about the whereabouts of those criminals. They're right here as a thank you for your help."

As he spoke, Shang Muming handed Li Weiqiang another file folder.