The Monster in My Dream Has Grown Up - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I was dragged into the water.

A fishy smell flooded my nostrils, and my vision went black.

Underwater were faces everywhere.

Regular customers, neighbors, and my mother.

Her eyes were closed, her lips purple, her fingers digging into her own throat.

As a child, I didn’t understand.

Now I’m an apothecary.

I could see at a glance that she hadn’t simply died in her sleep.

She had been forced to swallow something.

I wanted to get closer to her.

Suddenly, a hand reached out from behind, grabbed my waist, and pulled me upward.

Little Shadow pressed against my back.

Even though it had no face, I could feel its anger.

“Don’t look at her.”

“That’s my mother.”

“That’s a dream someone made to trick you.”

I struggled.

Its arms suddenly elongated, like two black vines, wrapping around my entire body.

“Wen Mian.”

“If you move again, I’ll tear them all apart.”

The tone was too calm.

So calm it didn’t sound like a threat.

As if it truly would do it.

I stopped.

The next moment, I woke up.

The lamp in the medicine room was still lit.

The black scale in the porcelain dish had a fine crack.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Mianmian, it’s me.”

Lu Jibai’s voice was gentle.

“Didn’t you sleep well again last night?”

I didn’t open the door right away.

Lu Jibai stood outside, sighing through the wooden door.

“I brought you new calming pills.”

I looked down at the black scale.

The crack in the scale looked like a half-open eye.

“Senior Brother.”

I softened my voice.

“Did you come here last night?”

There was a moment of silence outside.

“No.”

“Then how do you know I didn’t sleep well?”

Lu Jibai chuckled.

“Haven’t you been like this the past few days?”

The words came out so smoothly.

So smoothly it seemed he had prepared them long ago.

I opened the door.

Lu Jibai stood in the morning light, his white robe spotless, his features gentle.

He carried a food box.

In the top layer of the box was a bottle of calming pills.

I picked it up and smelled it.

Sour jujube seed, milkwort, and caulis polygoni multiflori…

And a very faint sweet, fishy odor.

I raised my eyes.

“Who made this medicine?”

“I did.”

“Then you should know there’s an extra ingredient: Dream Agarwood.”

Lu Jibai’s smile faded a little.

“Mianmian, you’re too sensitive.”

I put the bottle back.

“Senior Brother, I am an apothecary.”

“A little sensitivity can help me live longer.”

Dream Agarwood is no ordinary incense.

It can make people fall asleep, and trap them in dreams.

Chang’an banned this substance many years ago.

Because ten years ago, a group of people died in the West Market.

They all fell asleep and never woke up.

My mother was one of them.

Lu Jibai looked at me, his eyes a bit unfamiliar.

Not angry.

But regretful.

“You’re still so clever.”

I pressed my back against the counter.

“That doesn’t sound like a compliment.”

He set the food box down.

“Mianmian, I just didn’t want you to be haunted by those things again.”

“What things?”

His eyes fell on the porcelain dish.

The black scale was there.

Lu Jibai’s expression finally changed.

“It can already bring scales out?”

My heart sank.

“You know about it.”

Lu Jibai reached for the scale.

I grabbed the dish first.

“Explain.”

He lowered his voice. “It is a Nightmare.”

“Not those folk-tale shadows used to scare children.”

“It is a monster that truly grows by feeding on dreams.”

I asked, “Did it kill my mother?”

Lu Jibai looked at me.

“Your mother was entangled to death by a Nightmare.”

I suddenly laughed.

“Senior Brother, when you lie, your eyes look to the left first.”