The tyrannosaur was only one step away from him.

He could clearly see the interconnecting wrinkles on the tyrannosaur’s body. The wrinkles divided the enormous body into the shape of a chessboard. It was not ugly. Instead, it was glittering and translucent like a body of colorful jade.

Illuminated by the sunlight, the jade armor of the tyrannosaur blossomed with a rainbow-like brilliance and rose up like a chimney, before it turned into a surging redness that seemed to be burning furiously and stimulated a certain strength deep inside his heart that had been sleeping for a long time.

Like a nightmare, he could neither move nor shout. He could only stare at the tyrannosaur.

Such a scene seemed to have been repeated countless times.

Every time, he had a vague feeling that the tyrannosaur wanted to say something to him, but the roars were all lost in the wind and sand.

There were even many times when a bottomless canyon appeared between him and the tyrannosaur. They could only look at each other across the river.

But this time, he was so close to the tyrannosaur that he could see the lipstick smeared on its bloody mouth.

A T-rex wearing lipstick?

He was dumbfounded and found it hard to believe. For a long time, he could not understand the science behind the weird picture.

When he gazed at the tyrannosaur, the tyrannosaur gazed back.

The scorching flames spurting out of his nose, which looked like a train tunnel, ignited the fire in the bottom of his heart. He felt restless and eager, as if his other self was about to break out of his chest and jump on the back of the tyrannosaur.

Weirdly enough, the eyes of a tyrannosaur should be dirty and brutal, just like those in all the monster movies.

But the eyes of the tyrannosaur were full of humanity and indescribable emotions and information. His heart was beating faster and faster, and he could not help but move forward…

Then, he was slapped away by the tyrannosaur.

“Sleeping? Wake up and fight!”

The tyrannosaur let out a deafening roar.

…

“Ah!”

Li Yao screamed and jumped up from the bunk bed. His head almost hit the ceiling, and he almost fell to the ground.

Holding the bed, he breathed heavily for a long time, with cold sweat popping out of his pores.

His other brothers in the dormitory were already used to his weird behavior. The eldest brother went to the library, but the second brother was still curled up in bed reading a novel with headphones on as usual. The third brother, on the other hand, was scared awake by him. He yawned and said, “What are you doing? Why are you crying and shouting so early in the morning? Are you having nightmares again?”

“Yes.”

Li Yao looked at his hands. His fingertips were still shivering. There was no telling whether it was because of fear or excitement.

“Which nightmare is it?”

The third brother, Yu Xin, rubbed his eyes and said, “Is it the one where you were ravaged by a female T-rex time and time again, the one where you were exhausted, the one where you wanted to die, the one where you met a ‘good brother in disguise’ and you saw through him but didn’t say anything? The one where you got intimate with her, and one night when you were in a trance, you discovered that the ‘good brother in disguise’ had a monster boa hidden deep below his crotch, or the one where you dreamed that you would give birth to two computers when you were pregnant?”

Li Yao sniffed and ignored Yu Xin’s teasing.

It was not until his hands were no longer shaking that he carefully climbed out of bed and went to the bathroom to wash his face with cold water.

Raising his head, what appeared in the mirror was a plain, ordinary face.

In this ordinary second-rate university in this ordinary second-rate city, there were as many as one could imagine.

Li Yao was in a trance. He felt that his soul had left his body and was wandering in the outside world.

“Is this really me?”

For some reason, a voice popped up from the bottom of his heart. “Who am I? Where am I?”

He was dazed for a long time, as if he would fall asleep again if he were to stand. He fell into a new, unpredictable dream.

The sharp whistle outside the window woke him up.

Looking into the distance through the window, one could see that the entire Jiangnan University Town was drowned in the slanting wind and drizzling rain. Dark clouds covered the light of dawn. The heavens and the earth rippled with a dark mist. Rows upon rows of tall buildings were lit up one after another like lanterns dancing in the wind. Quite a few vigorous and vigorous university students were unafraid of the wind and rain. They had already started their morning exercise. There were also umbrellas blossoming like flowers that surged towards the cafeteria, bringing a sliver of liveliness to the university town that had just awakened.

Smoke was rising in the sky of the cafeteria. The smoke and fire of the human world covered the earth and blew away the nightmare that he had just had.

“You are truly the ‘God of Sleeping’ of 610.”

With a toothbrush in his mouth, Yu Xin walked to the toilet beside Li Yao and peed. “I’ve never seen someone who likes to sleep so much as you. You sleep on the bed for at least twelve hours a day, don’t you? And when you’re in the classroom, you have to continue sleeping for three to five classes, right? Even when you’re not sleeping, you look muddle-headed and absent-minded. Last time, when the department organized a football match, you could even fall asleep on the field. Brother, what kind of technique are you practicing?”

“Training? Techniques?”

Li Yao’s pupils constricted violently.

But it was zoomed in the next second.

He had no idea what Yu Xin was talking about.

“And those weird, eccentric dreams.

Yu Xin grinned. “Although everybody dreams in their sleep, I’ve never seen anyone else’s dream as wonderful and exciting as yours. The most important thing is that most people forget the dream completely within three to five seconds when they wake up, but you remember every detail of the dream clearly. Impressive. If I can learn your trick, won’t I be able to remember all the erotic dreams and enjoy them again and again?”

Li Yao did not know what to say.

Ever since the accident five years ago, when he woke up from the three-month coma, he had been having weird dreams. They were not really “nightmares”, but more “weird” than “shock”.

The uncanny dreams were like glittering paint that had penetrated deep into his cerebral cortex and wouldn’t disperse even after three to five days. Sometimes, they would even appear in broad daylight and torment him, making him unable to distinguish between reality and falsehood, reality and dream, life and death.

It was not a technique but more like a curse.

The most direct side effect was that Li Yao was originally a cheerful, warm, and straightforward young man. But every time he had a strange dream, he felt that he had become… sleazy, shameless, and dark.

But Li Yao also knew that among the four brothers in the dormitory, Yu Xin was the one who played the best with him. There was no malice in his jibber-jabber. Those who had not experienced these strange dreams in person would absolutely not know how big of an influence these strange dreams had on people. It could even… change one’s fate.

“Are you really alright?”

Seeing that there was still something wrong with Li Yao’s face, Yu Xin couldn’t help but extend his hand. “Do you have a fever?”

“I’m fine.”

Li Yao took a step back. “Don’t touch me with your hands that you just peed on!”

“That’s good.”

Yu Xin wiped his hands on his pants. He thought for a moment and said, “Brother, take it easy. In fact, it’s not a big deal to have weird dreams, but it doesn’t matter if you wake up. It won’t be good if you fall into them.

“Second Brother likes to read webnovels. I like to read comic books. These are also dreams. Riding the wind, riding the sword, singing a song of chivalry, dominating the world, powerful magic, evil robots, terrifying cosmic tyrants… Modern life is so stressful. Everyone needs a channel to vent. Who hasn’t had similar dreams? However, dreams are just dreams after all. They are not reality and can’t be used as food. You and I are not some rich second-generation heirs. We are about to graduate, so we still have to find a way to eat first before we dream. Dreams are all false. They are lies or self-deception. Dreams can’t affect life. We have to be down-to-earth, right?”

“…Yes.”

Li Yao nodded his head. He returned to his seat, opened a drawer, and took out a small notebook with a password lock. He opened the notebook. Inside the notebook were densely packed words the size of a fly’s head, recording the details of all the strange dreams over the past few years. The notebook had been rubbed so often that the edges were white and yellow.

Li Yao thought for a moment, flipped to the latest page of the notebook, and wrote:

“Early morning, May 19, 2018.

“I dreamed of T-rex again, but she put on lipstick. What does that mean?”

He turned to the first two pages and drew a vivid picture of a tyrannosaur with a ballpoint pen. He thought for a moment and added a few strokes to the bloody mouth of the tyrannosaur, which was sort of a ‘lipstick’.

Then, he looked at the tyrannosaur that had been smeared with lipstick and fell into deep thought again.

“It’s over. It’s over. The child is possessed. He’s completely hopeless!”

Yu Xin lamented behind him.

Li Yao closed the notebook and locked it. Just as he was about to turn around and refute, he was shocked by Yu Xin’s appearance. “What are you doing? Why are you wearing a colorful balaclava? And what’s with the foam and plastic?”

“What ‘Colorful Headgear’? This is a ‘Colorful Aura Cool Suit’. Do you know what cosplay is?”

Yu Xin was wearing a layer of armor made of foam and plastic. He gestured a few body-building movements and said, “Isn’t today the ‘Heavenly Horse Lake International Anime Festival’? I spent half a month’s breakfast money to buy this set. Let’s see, let’s see how this bro looks. How professional, how domineering!”

Li Yao was lost for words. “Didn’t you just teach me not to indulge in messy dreams?”

“How is that the same? Your big brother’s head is very clear. I have a very restrained and bottom line. I absolutely won’t let my imagination get mixed up with my real life. After today, of course, I will go all out in the job fair. I will find a job, make a lot of money, get married, have children, buy a house, and so on. But today, hehehehe. I’ve heard that there will be a lot of beautiful girls and professional cosplay teams from abroad at the Comic Festival. They are all golden-haired, blue-eyed foreigners. I must go and appreciate them.”

Yu Xin rubbed his hands and suddenly thought of something. “Hey, why don’t we go together? It’s like fighting fire with fire. It’s better to think about girls and foreigners than to dream of tyrannosaurs all day long. Chances are that you won’t have those weird dreams when you discover the wonderful world of 2D and cosplay.”

“Is that so?”

Today was the weekend, and Li Yao was not a fan of studying. It was not a big deal.

“Go now!”

On the other hand, Yu Xin’s interest was piqued. “Just based on the fact that you often dream of a giant python sticking out of the crotch of your good brother who is dressed as a woman, I’m certain that you have the potential to develop into the 2D world… Maybe even you didn’t realize that you are actually a big shot in cross-dressing who has been hiding himself very deeply?”

“Get lost!”

Li Yao laughed and cursed, but he still stood up honestly. He washed up and went with Yu Xin.

Passing by the bed of Zhao Kai, the second son of the dormitory, Li Yao patted the bed railing and said, “We’re going to the Comic-Con Festival to see the girls. Are you coming?”

Zhao Kai’s muffled laughter came from under the blanket as he said, “No, you guys go ahead. Just take a few more pictures of the girls and bring them back for our brothers to admire!”

“Let’s go. I don’t know what Zhao Kai has been reading these days, but he’s as fascinated as you are.”

Yu Xin dragged Li Yao out of the dormitory. “There are too many wolves and too little meat. Little girls don’t wait for others. GO GO GO!”