The Monster in My Dream Has Grown Up - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My name is Wen Mian, and I am the owner of a medicine shop in Chang’an’s West Market.

I treat those who sleep poorly.

Which sounds a bit ironic.

Because I myself haven’t slept in seven days.

At first, it was just someone talking by my ear when I closed my eyes.

The voice was very soft, as if coming through a layer of damp paper.

“Wen Mian.”

“Don’t light that incense burner.”

I thought I was just too tired, so I added some calming incense for myself.

But the next night, the voice was even closer.

“There’s Dream Agarwood in the incense.”

“Your senior brother mixed it in.”

I sat up in bed and went to dump the incense ash in the dark.

Sure enough, there was an unburned speck of dark red incense in the ash.

My senior brother Lu Jibai is from the Imperial Academy of Medicine. Just a few days ago, he sent me a packet of calming incense, saying I was overworked.

He is gentle, meticulous, and never makes mistakes.

Yet the incense he sent nearly sent me into a dream I couldn’t wake from.

On the third night, I simply didn’t sleep.

On the fourth night, I didn’t sleep either.

By the fifth night, my vision started to go dark.

I braced myself against the medicine cabinet and vomited; my stomach was empty, only acid water left.

On the sixth night, I shut myself in the medicine room, leaning against the cabinet, reciting the Materia Medica from memory.

By the seventh time through, the characters began to blur and double in front of my eyes.

On the seventh night, I saw the bronze weighing scale on the counter move.

There was an extra Black Scale in the pan.

Small, cold, like it had just been peeled off something.

On the eighth night, I couldn’t hold on any longer.

I spread a blanket in the medicine room and checked the door bolt, window latch, and all the hidden compartments.

Then I tucked a boning knife into my sleeve.

Before going to sleep, I placed the Black Scale into a porcelain dish.

The moment it touched the bottom, it made a faint sound.

Like a fingernail tapping on a window.

I stared at it for a while.

“What exactly are you?”

No one answered.

I closed my eyes.

The next moment, I was standing inside a very old room.

Rain was falling outside, and the roof beam was leaking.

A dark Little Shadow sat beside the bed.

Not a child.

It had no face, no features, just barely resembling a human shape.

It rested its chin on its hand and looked at me.

“You’ve come.”

I took a step back.

It stood up as well.

I realized it only came up to my waist.

But on its wrist was tied a faded Red String.

At the end of the Red String was a very ugly knot.

My heart gave a sudden jolt.

I recognized that string.

Ten years ago, after my mother died, I threw the Red String she left me into a dry well outside the city.

Because everyone said my mother was eaten by a Nightmare while she slept.

“Who are you?”

Little Shadow tilted its head.

“You raised me.”

My fingers found the knife in my sleeve.

“I’ve never raised such a thing.”

“You cried when you were asleep.”

It said seriously, “Tears fell into the well, and I woke up.”

My scalp tightened.

That year, I was nine, taken in by the Lu Family.

Lu Jibai’s mother said the Red String was unlucky and told me to throw it away.

I held the string and cried for a long time by the dry well.

In the end, I still threw it away.

Little Shadow raised its hand and showed me the Red String.

“What you discarded, I picked up.”

“If you picked it up, then return it to me.”

It hid its hands behind its back.

“No.”

I drew my knife.

It looked at the knife, not flinching at all.

“You can’t kill me now.”

“Why?”

“You’re too sleepy.”

As it finished speaking, the rain outside suddenly grew heavier.

The floor beneath my feet turned into black water.

Countless hands reached out from the water, grabbing my ankles and dragging me down.

Little Shadow stood by the bed, its voice suddenly cold.

“But they can kill you.”