Chapter 473 Air-Raid Shelter
“Is this the same city but over 40 years ago? No wonder I kept wandering around without knowing its name for a long time,” sighed Rabbit, breathing a sigh of relief after meeting Zhang Heng. “Something worse happened to me. I was trapped on the roof, and the frigid winds from the sea tortured me for almost half a day! During that time, I saved a guy who fell into the water, and instead of thanking me, he wanted to kick me into the ocean. It was awful!”
“Do you know why we were sent here from that tsunami?” Zhang Heng asked. “Well, most people think that we only dream once a night. That’s because most people only remember their last dream before waking up. That’s not right, I’m afraid. In the study of sleep, the researchers are accustomed to dividing the sleep cycle into two periodsrapid eye movement sleep (REM) and non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM). These happen alternately during a sleep cycle. Early studies showed that people only dream during their REM sleep but later, new research overturned the claim. Therefore, in theory, we might have many dreams in one night. Based on a conjecture of mine, I believe we just came from Han Lu’s previous dream, her second dream. But it is still unclear whether this transition between dreams is natural or a special one triggered by the Dreamland of Death,” muttered Rabbit, blurting out all the words in a staccato.
“Any plans in mind?”
“Uhh… Is reacting per the circumstance considered a plan??” Rabbit shrugged, “We only just acquired this item that allows us to enter someone’s dream. It has unlimited uses, but one thing’s for sure, it uses up one flower for each trip. Right now, there are only three flowers in total. Once we use it up, we’ll have to wait until it grows again. By the time another flower blooms, who knows how many people the Dreamland of Death would have targeted. Hence, we did not conduct any experiments in advance. We have to watch every step we take.”
When Rabbit was finished, she looked at the Popsicle cart not too far away. “Wow, the popsicles look delicious, and they only cost 5 cents. Don’t worry about the calories. I’ll go get myself one now.”
She took out her wallet, handed over ten yuan, and generously gave it to the elderly man operating the cart. “Keep the change, grandpa.”
Instead of taking the money from Rabbit, the old man stared at the ten yuan and frowned. “Little girl, is your bill… a counterfeit?”
Rabbit looked embarrassed, quickly realizing the mistake she made.
In the end, she simply ran away while the old man looked at her suspiciously. She hurriedly returned to Zhang Heng in desperation.
“Shit! They’ve never seen our modern RMB note before.”
Since the two could found no useful clues around the plaza, they could only keep looking for someone that could help them. Meanwhile, Zhang Heng would look at his watch every once in a while.
When Rabbit saw Zhang Heng looking at his watch repeatedly, she sighed. “It’s useless. The time flow in the dream world is different from the real world.”
Acknowledging Rabbit’s advice, he looked at the time recorded on the phone twice, making sure he remembered it. “I know. I just want to see if I can find out the contact.”
“Contact, what contact?” “I don’t know yet, so be prepared,” said Zhang Heng. The two went along the street, asking around randomly about Han Lu’s childhood. Unfortunately, they found no useful information that told about Han Lu’s whereabouts. After what seemed like a long while, they accidentally bumped into Han Lu’s mother, a translator. She had that frequently serious look on her, and she did not like to smile.
It was evident that Han Lu’s feelings for her mother were very complicated. The nature of her mother’s work required her to travel often, and thanks to that, she missed out on most of her daughter’s childhood. At the same time, her emotionless, poker face also made her look like a mean person.
Zhang Heng, however, managed to discover some things in common between the two of them. The way they frowned when they get impatient looked the same, and other than that, perseverance was a quality they both shared. Zhang Heng also finally got to know where Han Lu’s rhinitis came from.
Zhang Heng and Rabbit quietly followed behind Han Mu, trying to determine where Han Lu stayed as a child. Not long after that, though, Zhang Heng once again noticed the abnormally-shaped clouds appearing above his head.
The same thing happened before the tsunami hit the city, like some omen before a catastrophic event.
Rabbit raised her head to the sky. “Again?” she muttered, her hands shielding her eyes from the sun. “The same bloody thing is going to happen to us again. What should we do? Should we continue to follow her or look for a high place and observe the situation?”
Zhang Heng thought for a while before reaching a decision. “You get to a safe place first. I’ll keep following her. Let me know where you’re heading to, and I will look for you once there’s news or when the tsunami passes.”
Rabbit hesitated. “In that case, I’ll stay a little longer. According to the previous pattern, we have around half an hour before the tsunami arrives. I’ll only five minutes to retreat to safety.” Zhang Heng didn’t want to persuade her after hearing her out.
Alas, both couldn’t be more wrong this time. After a quarter of an hour, Rabbit looked bewildered as she stared at the thing poking out of the clouds. “Really?! I thought the inland tsunami was enough nonsense. I didn’t expect anything mythical to be in this dream?!”
‘I saw three huge black shadows spreading their wings above the city, like Death with wings, looking down on the peasants.’
“Uhh… I just hope they won’t spit fire everywhere.”
As soon as Rabbit said that, a giant dragon opened its mouth, and its flaming breath hit a bus on the road dead-on. Its passengers didn’t even stand a chance to escape, where every last person onboard was decimated by the sea of fire. The heat was so intense it melted the cars around the bus.
The dragon did not stop there. Fire quickly swept across the entire street. In just a few fiery spits, the lively and joyful street promptly turned into purgatory on earth. Unlike the previous tsunami, those caught in the fire were completely erased from the world, charred to oblivion.
“Airraid shelter!” Zhang Heng spat out three words quickly upon seeing the deadly scene unfolding before him.
Air-raid shelters were rare in the modern-day. But in the early 1970s, violent Sino-Soviet relations and threats from the United States gave credence to the notion that nuclear war was imminent. During that special period, the powers that be equipped almost all major universities, factories, and government bureaus with air-raid shelters.
A sprawling underground city was built right below the capital. It extended in all directions, from Wangfujing all the way to the railway station. There was even a cafeteria and barbershop. Fortunately, these air-raid shelters didn’t see any use, and they gradually faded out as time went by. With the appearance of the dragons, however, they could surely come in handy.
There was an air-raid shelter less than 400 meters away from the two were, and the terrified crowd was running there. There was no need for Zhang Heng to say anything to Rabbit. She was shoved along with the running stampede of people, joining the horde involuntarily. After running for a while, she realized that Zhang Heng was no longer with her.