There's a big problem with dreams in this world.

"This isn't the place I need to rest!"

With a roar in her heart, Lu Qing seemed to use all her strength to pull her arm out of the sphere. Then her knees buckled and she collapsed to the ground.

An endless chill and emptiness enveloped her. Lu Qing curled up into a ball and slowly closed her eyes...

........

"call!"

Suddenly opening her eyes, Lu Qing found herself back in front of the doctor's house. Following her gaze, she saw twenty or thirty villagers standing at her door.

"Is it happening again?" Lu Qing thought to herself.

However, just as she was about to do something, the door behind her was suddenly opened.

"Um?!"

Hearing the sound behind her, Lu Qing was stunned for a moment, and then her expression changed drastically.

Who else could be in the doctor's house besides her? At this time, the only person who would open the door is probably Diana, but the question is, why?

Lu Qing quickly turned around, only to see an unexpected figure.

It was a middle-aged man wearing a blood-red white coat. After coming out of the house, he walked right through Lu Qing as if he hadn't seen her at all.

"What... what's going on here?"

Lu Qing looked down at her palm, then grabbed at the doctor who had passed through her body.

As expected, the hand passed right through the doctor's body, and Lu Qing couldn't touch anything.

"Have I turned into a ghost?"

She looked at her body in astonishment, completely bewildered as to why it had become like this.

"Could it be that the doctor has taken control of his consciousness at this moment?"

Lu Qing realized this, and if the doctor was in control of her consciousness at this moment, then it would make sense.

However, she was supposed to lose consciousness after the doctor's consciousness took over, but for some reason she didn't fall asleep. Instead, she became like a ghost.

"What are you all here for today?" the doctor asked, looking wearily at the crowd.

For some reason, these people didn't immediately start cursing at him after they arrived today, which made him feel somewhat strange.

Right after he finished speaking, a man stepped out from the crowd.

The other person was wearing a jet-black robe and had some inexplicable mud decorations on their head.

"A priest of the Tree God Cult?" Lu Qing was somewhat surprised when she saw the other person.

But upon closer examination, it makes perfect sense. After all, the Tree God Cult was behind the doctor's expulsion, so their presence here at this time is not surprising.

P.S.: Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, sob sob, you guys just know how to play with my feelings, I was actually touched...

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Chapter 368: Memories and Sweet Dreams

"Don't get agitated, Doctor. We're here today just to make a deal with you," the Tree God Cult priest said in a low voice, his face hidden beneath his cloak.

"What kind of deal?" the doctor asked, frowning.

He didn't really care about the deal. In the doctor's opinion, he had nothing to talk about with these ignorant villagers. If he could, he would have liked to just kick them out.

But this is something you can only think about in your head. If you actually did it, who knows who would be kicked out?

"We heard that you have a lot of medicine at home, so we would like to exchange our supplies for the medicine you have."

"drug?"

A sense of foreboding rose in the doctor's heart. He frowned and looked at the Tree God Cult priest in front of him, saying, "I only have a small amount of cold medicine and anti-inflammatory drugs, along with some bandages and alcohol. What would you like to exchange for?"

"Tsk..."

The Tree God Cult priest shook his head, his voice slightly displeased, and said, "Doctor, are you still trying to hide it? Now that we're here, we must already know about your situation."

"My matter?" The doctor looked at the Tree God Cult priest with a puzzled expression, not knowing what he was talking about.

"Do you really have to tell me everything before you give up?" The voice of the Tree God Cult priest suddenly rose, and he turned around to face the villagers behind him.

"Those of you who have come here probably know what the doctor did to those patients. He used those patients' bodies to conduct experiments and develop drugs that could cure infectious diseases."

"However, so many days have passed, and not a single patient who received his treatment has survived. Do you think his research has yielded no results?"

"Completely wrong! This doctor had actually already developed a drug that could stop the progression of infectious disease patients' conditions, but he kept it hidden away for his own selfish reasons!"

"Wait, wait a minute, what nonsense are you spouting? What kind of bullshit medicine is this? I've never researched anything like this!" The doctor couldn't help but retort as he listened to the words of the Tree God Cult priest.

"So that's how it is..."

Standing behind the doctor, Lu Qing thoughtfully stroked her chin, feeling that she had guessed what this Tree God Cult follower was thinking.

There's no such thing as a drug that can suppress infectious diseases; it's just a way to get the villagers to listen to him.

As for why the villagers were willing to listen to him, it's probably because many things happened in the village during those days that she was unaware of.

In addition, it is also related to the villagers' sense of complacency. After the doctors stopped taking care of those patients, the patients' families became the ones responsible for taking care of them.

The feeling of watching helplessly as patients suffer from illness can induce despair. Even with the slightest possibility, they may cling to a sliver of hope and try their luck with the Tree God Cult's priests.

The reason why the Tree God Cult priest did this is probably related to his own purpose.

Only by controlling the narrative can the village become what he envisions, and then spreading the belief in the Tree God will be a simple matter.

As for whether they can find the so-called drug that can stop the worsening of infectious disease patients' conditions after ransacking the doctor's house...

Of course it is!

All the Tree God Cult priests need to do in advance is prepare one, and according to Lu Qing's speculation, that thing is probably a prescription.

What? You're saying this prescription is fake and will be exposed sooner or later?

Wrong, completely wrong. Do you remember that strange tree with hundreds of human faces and hands? If you offered a sacrifice, it could turn a human into a monster that looked the same as before, but whose interior was entirely made of tree roots.

The prescription developed by the doctor is real. Look, the patient's condition has stopped worsening. As for why it hasn't returned to its original state?

I'm sorry, this prescription can only stop the condition from worsening, not cure it completely.

"That's quite a clever plan..."

Having figured these things out, Lu Qing suddenly became somewhat anxious.

Even if she figured it out, what good would it do? The doctor himself was on stage, and she could only stand by as a ghost who could do nothing.

"Hehehe......."

Suddenly, a familiar laugh reached her ears. Lu Qing turned her head and immediately saw a silver-haired girl who had wrapped herself up tightly.

Well, actually, it was the merchant who had taken off his helmet. As she expected, under the dusty motorcycle helmet was a face exactly like hers.

Do not look at blasphemous things!

Almost instantly, Lu Qing thought of the consequences of hearing the merchant's voice last time, and her pupils contracted subconsciously, but then she suddenly realized that she seemed to be fine.

My head doesn't hurt, and I didn't see any weird hallucinations; everything's pretty normal...

Seeing this, the merchant's smile widened even more. She covered her mouth and said, "This is just an illusion, not me. What are you afraid of?"

"Forehead......."

Looking at the businessman in front of her, who seemed somewhat different from her impression of him, Lu Qing pondered for a moment before asking, "So, why are you here?"

"That's a secret," the businessman said with a mysterious smile.

After she finished speaking, she pointed at the doctor and said, "Take a good look at the results of your efforts in this illusion."

"........"

Lu Qing opened her mouth upon hearing the merchant's words, but after thinking for a moment, she didn't know what to say. She could only follow the merchant's advice and look at what was happening at the doctor's place.

Unsurprisingly, the doctor's rebuttal had no effect. The Tree God Cult priest, along with the villagers behind him, forcibly broke into the doctor's house and ransacked it of all its medicines.

The Tree God Cult priests, unsurprisingly, found a remedy to stop the infectious disease from worsening.

When things reached this point, the entire scene before Lu Qing's eyes froze, as if the whole world had been frozen by some unknown pause button.

At that moment, the scene before Lu Qing's eyes shifted, and she found herself in the village.

"This is a dream the doctor created while he was asleep, and it will have two different endings depending on how things unfold," the merchant said, appearing beside Lu Qing unnoticed.

"The first ending is [memories], which is the doctor's nightmare, something that actually happened in reality."

"The second ending is a [beautiful dream], a fantasy in the doctor's subconscious about the cold memories of reality."

As the merchant spoke, the scene before them came to life again. Duda, holding a slip of paper, was excitedly discussing something with the hunting captain.

------------

Chapter 369: The Cruel Reality

In reality, the hunting captain should have already turned into a werewolf and escaped from the village by now. However, the doctor is unaware of this, so in his fantasy, the hunting captain is still in the village.

After talking with the hunting captain for a while, Duda took him to visit the patients who had been cared for by Lu Qing and asked each patient for their statements.

What happened next was quite simple. With the help of the hunting captain, Duda successfully reversed the villagers' opinion of the doctor, then exposed the lies of the Tree God priest to his face and revealed the fake prescription to all the villagers.

Afterwards, the village chief personally apologized to the doctor and drove the Tree God Cult priest out of the village. The doctor also finally developed a cure for the infectious disease, and Diana's condition improved day by day. It seemed that she would recover in just a few days.

Well, it's a pretty happy ending, but at the same time, it feels very fake...

It was indeed a wonderful dream, but it was just a dream.

"Do you want to know what reality is like?" the businessman's voice came from beside my ear.

Before Lu Qing could answer, the scene before her changed again, and Lu Qing was back in that dark and gloomy basement.

This time seems to be when the doctor first came to the basement to take care of the patients. The villagers had high hopes for him, hoping that this responsible and kind-hearted doctor from the big city could cure these patients with infectious diseases.

And the doctor did indeed take meticulous care of these patients, just like Lu Qing did in the illusion, working from morning till night every day, and sleeping for no more than six hours a day.

However, despite his efforts, he could not change the fact that infectious disease patients continued to die.

As more and more patients died, the villagers gradually began to distrust the doctor, and rumors about a quack doctor began to spread in the village.