[Such heavy snow!]

Just when Lin Yijian’s eyelids were fighting and she was about to fall asleep in the next second, she was startled awake by such a voice.

Her consciousness had not yet fully cleared. Instinctively, she turned her head toward the inside to search for the source of the sound. Her mind, soaked in sleepiness for the most part, began to operate with difficulty: Did it snow today?

What entered her sight was a scene full of drowsiness.

On her right side sat a young lady dressed fashionably, with a delicate hairstyle. The latter, half asleep and half awake, was still stubbornly protecting her hairstyle, maintaining a distance between the back of her head and the seatback, her head nodding down little by little. Further out, closer to the aisle seat, was an elderly man, at this moment sleeping with all four limbs sprawled out.

The entire cabin being in a drowsy state was, in fact, very normal.

This flight’s departure time was 7:30 in the morning. It sounded like an easy-to-accept time, but counting the time needed to check in early, passengers had to arrive at the airport around six o’clock. To make matters worse, this was a time when even the first subway could not make it on time. Using other methods to get to the airport would take nearly two hours at the very least. Today, Lin Yijian had gotten out of bed at four o’clock in the morning. Breakfast and washing up—what were those? If she had time to splash cold water on her face, it was already her greatest respect toward going out.

As Lin Yijian sized up the cabin like this, a very strange emotion arose in her heart.

If she had to describe it, it was as if she had seen a group of little blue people performing a hula dance in front of her—something she had seen before boarding while scrolling on her phone, in a certain blogger’s detailed description of their hallucinations after being poisoned by mushrooms. Lin Yijian felt that using it here was very fitting.

Lin Yijian: ?

What the hell?!

She felt the cabin was not strange—instead, it was herself who was strange. Where did this inexplicable emotion come from? And the voice she had just heard was also very strange…

She had not found the person who spoke.

Not even a suspected one.

Although the situation revealed strangeness everywhere, after her brain’s drowsiness and the sense of dissonance churning in her consciousness fought for a long time, Lin Yijian gave up struggling.

—It might be a dream.

She casually found a barely acceptable reason. After brushing it off for herself, she prepared to sleep.

The airplane seat’s backrest was definitely not designed for a normal woman’s height. Lin Yijian had already tried all kinds of postures earlier. Now, she very straightforwardly gave up leaning back and instead tilted her head to rest on the porthole’s window frame.

Before closing her eyes, she glanced again at the scenery outside the window.

Probably, the airplane had just flown past that earlier segment of dense clouds. This section of the route had very high visibility, and one could see the scenery of the ground below through a few sparse wisps of cloud.

The voice whose source she had not found earlier sounded again. This time, its tone was much more amazed, [This is in the sky?!]

Lin Yijian: ?!

She shuddered and was completely awake.

Because of her earlier doubts, this time she clearly sensed that this voice was sounding inside her head.

A clear male voice in her mind, a strange emotion in her chest that did not belong to her, a question with strange content… it really must be a dream! Haha.

Just as Lin Yijian was thinking this, she actually heard that voice give a response, [So this is a dream.]

Lin Yijian: “…!”

Do not panic. When in doubt, first ask a certain Du and a certain Shu.

She picked up her phone.

She put it back down again.

Airplane mode had no internet.

What difference was there between a phone without internet and a brick?

There was still some difference—inside it were comics she had pre-downloaded in advance, originally intended to pass the time when she could not sleep—but this obviously could not solve the problem at hand.

That unknown existence had clearly seen Lin Yijian’s action and asked with great investigative spirit, [What is this?]

Lin Yijian did not answer.

Right now, she still could not be certain whether what was happening to her was a fantasy supernatural event or a pathological change of the mind. It was best not to act rashly. Even taking a step back, the best solution to encountering a ghost was also ‘do not let the ghost know you have seen it.’

Although it now seemed that she was one step too late, Lin Yijian still maintained high-quality silence.

She even closed her eyes.

The perfect outcome would be that she slept for a while now, and upon waking up, found that everything had been a dream.

…

Lin Yijian was unable to fall asleep.

The voice in her head was simply too noisy.

From “Why can we be in the sky? Is it a cloud-riding technique, or an immortal’s magical artifact? Can I learn it?” to “What was that box just now? Why can it give off light?” and then to “Why are all the people nearby sleeping? Have they been struck by some spell?”

Lin Yijian: “…”

Yes, it is an immortal’s magical artifact. If you want to learn, you can choose the aircraft manufacturing major of an aerospace academy; screen illumination can generally be divided into LCD or LED methods, one being electric fields controlling the light transmission of liquid crystal molecules relative to the backlight, the other being light emitted actively by diodes; they have been struck by a spell, the source of the spell is that ‘ding ling ling’ alarm clock sound at four o’clock in the morning…

Lin Yijian silently ridiculing like this all the way, and when Lin Yijian came back to her senses, it was already the thirty-minute-before-landing announcement for the closure of the washroom, the flight attendant’s clear and gentle voice coming from the broadcast. Only then did Lin Yijian realize time had passed so quickly.

As Lin Yijian opened her eyes, that voice also seemed to have been interrupted.

He paused for a moment, then spoke with a slightly complaining tone, [Why are you not paying attention to me?]

Lin Yijian: “…”

I am afraid of being treated as mentally ill.

Although judging from the current situation, this very likely is the literal truth.

Perhaps having grasped something from Lin Yijian’s silence, during the subsequent descent, the other party did not speak again.

To tell the truth, Lin Yijian actually felt a tiny bit unaccustomed to it.

Calm down. Whether it was a supernatural problem or a pathological problem, all this indicated that the situation was improving.

The airplane slowly approached the airport. Sunlight cast the shadow of the fuselage on the slope of the nearby hill, and Lin Yijian heard the other party marvel, [So this is inside the belly of a big bird.]

Lin Yijian: expression of wanting to speak but stopping.jpg

Even her three-year-old niece could…

Forget it. If counted by age, this was still a newborn baby who had only existed for one day. Lin Yijian magnanimously forgave the other party’s cognitive limitations. Of course, she had no intention of speaking to correct him either.

Next came landing, taxiing, and opening of the cabin door.

Lin Yijian took her backpack from the overhead compartment and followed the crowd to walk out. The voice in her mind completely quieted down. Everything was normal, as if everything that had happened during the flight had been a strange dream above the clouds.

While opening her phone to send a message to her parents, who were picking her up, Lin Yijian still felt a little dazed.

Could it really have been a dream?

After walking forward for a while, the restroom sign appeared in her vision. Without much thought, Lin Yijian started to head that way, but stopped abruptly when she was near the entrance.

If she remembered correctly, the voice in her head was a male voice.

The voice was bright and clear, possessing both magnetism and the quality of youth. If it were not for the fact that its way of appearing was too strange, as an invisible voice-enthusiast, Lin Yijian would have been willing to give him an eight out of ten just for the voice.

Perhaps because Lin Yijian had stood here too long, someone asked her, [What is wrong?]

Lin Yijian reflexively replied, “Nothing…”

Just as she spoke, she suddenly froze.

… This voice seemed a bit familiar?

She stiffly turned her head. The people around her were all hurrying by, dragging luggage. None looked like they had the leisure to chat with a stranger.

The voice continued, [You want to go in, right? Why are you not going in?]

Lin Yijian: “…”

Why I am not going in, do you not know?

She first cautiously looked around at her surroundings, making sure everyone was hurrying along with their heads down and no one was paying attention to the “suddenly talking to herself” strange passerby here, and only then did she secretly let out a breath of relief.

But going to this restroom was definitely out of the question.

Lin Yijian quickly walked toward the baggage carousel.

Perhaps that unconscious reply from earlier had confirmed for the other party that Lin Yijian was indeed someone who could communicate, and the voice that had quieted earlier began chattering again, [What is that above? It is also glowing; is it a night-luminescent pearl? The glaze just now was so big and flat, how was it polished?]

Lin Yijian: “…”

What night-luminescent pearl? Have you read too many martial arts novels? Glaze? Glass? Although she did not know the exact production process, window glass was obviously leveled by liquid flow; it was impossible to be polished, right?…

The question’s content was too difficult to describe, and because the voice was sounding inside her own head, Lin Yijian unconsciously developed a sense of shame. Could it be that inside her heart, there was actually such a chuunibyou side^[1]“chuunibyou side” usually refers to the “chuunibyou” (中二病) personality or tone of a character, story, or scene.? Curling her toes into the ground.

She walked in torment all the way to the front of the elevator, her steps pausing slightly.

Sure enough, the next second, a voice came from her mind, [Wow!]

Lin Yijian: “…”

[What is this? It moves by itself? Is someone inside pulling it? Why can it keep moving forward without stopping? Where does it disappear to?]

Lin Yijian: … There is a kind of drive in this world called an electric motor, and there is a kind of physical structure called a conveyor belt.

Expressionless, she stepped onto the escalator and, in a daze, waited until she received her checked luggage.

When she dragged her suitcase out of the baggage claim area and saw her parents waiting behind the pick-up barrier, she could not hold it in anymore. Her eyes turned red, and in a choked voice she called out “Mom,” then dragged her suitcase in a small run toward them.

Dear mother, your daughter might be suffering from some kind of mental illness.

A particularly serious kind.

*

Yuding City.

The Yuzhou Prefect’s residence.

Inside the main hall of the main building, a young man sat carelessly in the seat of honor, resting his chin on one hand in a nap, looking even more at ease than the master of the house. Only, as time passed, his head slid little by little along the palm supporting it, and at a certain point finally lost support, his head dropping down, which woke him from his sleep.

Outside the door was the noisy sound of people hurrying to and fro. A soldier came quickly, cupped his hands, and reported, “General, Yuzhou Prefect Fang Jingzhi, knowing he had no way out, hanged himself a few days ago. All affairs within Yuding City are now under the full control of his younger brother, Fang Gai. This person has already been placed under guard. Does the general wish to go and see him?”

Li Hui had just woken up from that bizarre and dazzling dream and was still a little dazed.

But upon hearing the voice, he instinctively lifted his head. His unfocused gaze fell upon the person who had come, and his face showed no expression.

The reporting soldier felt his whole body tense under that look and could not help wondering whether the other was displeased because of Fang Jingzhi’s suicide.

While he was nervously thinking about how to respond, he heard the man in the seat above speak a completely unrelated sentence, “Isn’t it a bit dark in here?”

The soldier: “…Ah?”

For a moment, he did not react, and only after a delay did he understand Li Hui’s meaning. He could not help glancing around the room.

The Fang clan had operated in Yuzhou for many years and could be said to be the local overlords. The residence they occupied was naturally built tall and spacious, especially the main hall of the main building that served as their facade.

No matter how one looked at it, this room was brightly lit, without the slightest sense of dimness.

However, the one now saying “dark” was the real top authority of Yuding City.

The soldier paused for only a moment before promptly saying, “Subordinate will go and fetch a candlestick at once.”

By now, Li Hui had sobered up.

He raised his hand to press at his aching temple and waved it off with “No need.”

It was not that he truly thought this place was dark, but that the difference from what he had just seen in the dream was too great.

Large panes of glass replaced the walls, letting the light pass freely through. Even a room with no windows was lit bright inside by the light from above. Not only the light, but also the temperature—he had clearly felt the freezing wind outside the instant he stepped out of the bird’s belly, yet inside it was warm as spring.

Was this the “Heavenly Palace”?

Thinking this, Li Hui’s expression became a little awkward.

This Heavenly Palace was not quite what he had imagined.

Not quite at all.

But if people could fly in the sky, it was indeed the Heavenly Palace, was it not? Only, the little fairy who had escorted him did not seem to like talking much.

Thinking that, Li Hui unconsciously curled his lips to the side, looking rather resentful.

Talking to oneself was not much fun.

But since it was all in a dream, thinking more about it was of no use.

Li Hui stretched his muscles and bones, stood up, and said to the soldier below, “Let’s go. Let’s go see that man surnamed Fang.”

*

On the other side.

On the road out from the airport.

Mother Lin looked at her daughter, who still had half a bun in her hand but was already leaning her head against the car window asleep, and could not help shaking her head helplessly.

This child…

She still reached out and took the nearly-falling bun from Lin Yijian’s hand, then glanced at Father Lin through the rearview mirror and lowered her voice to remind, “Turn the sound down a bit.”

The latter understood and lowered the car’s music volume.

The car drove quietly along the smooth highway, heading in the direction of home.