At dawn, when the sky was just beginning to brighten, Yu Sheng was rudely awakened by a small doll headbutting him.
He sprung upright with a snap and saw Ailin using her head to press against his pillow.
Though she had just headbutted him, the little thing hadn’t even opened her eyes.
Instead, her head bumped around messily a few times before she settled back into a deep sleep, her breathing soft and even.
Yu Sheng himself, however, found he couldn’t fall back asleep.
He sat on the bed, still dazed for a moment, then leaned back against the pillow.
His mind was still clinging to the faint impressions of the dream he had before Ailin’s headbutt woke him.
He felt as if he had spent the entire night tangled in a chaotic jumble of bizarre dreams—strange and wonderful scenes cycling through his mind like slides—and the images hadn’t fully faded even now.
At first, he was strolling along a riverbank with a huli, while in the river, a crowd of mermaids and snake ladies flailed about.
Xuan Che was standing on the riverbank undergoing a thunder trial, zapping the mermaids and snake ladies so hard that they leapt and scattered.
Suddenly, the scene shifted to him working at the Shouji gang, digging stones for the locals.
Mo Ran erected an over-eighty-meter-tall statue of him in the city center.