Author: An Ai

"Crack--"

Kevin pinched the quilt and turned over. This method would allow the quilt to change much during the turnover, so he would not steal the half of Mei.

Perhaps because she noticed the blank space around her in the dream, Mei murmured softly, turned over, and her front body was tightly attached to Kevin's back.

“…”

Kevin snorted lightly, and just felt a hint of coldness on his back, but he warmed up under Mei's body temperature.

What's more, it's not just warmth, but the deadly softness directly made his consciousness that could not fall asleep more awake.

He frowned tightly, and finally couldn't help but sigh and opened his eyes.

Carefully stretched out his hand and patted the alarm clock on the bedside table. The alarm clock lit up with a trace of fluorescence: [4:13]

"...It's okay. Anyway, I have holidays these two days and I have finished working overtime. It's not a problem to not sleep."

Kevin comforted himself in his heart.

It seemed that this was not enough, and he continued to remind himself:

"It's okay, it's okay if you can't sleep now, you can fall asleep easily at night."

He was familiar with these words. A long time ago, as a student, if he was so excited that he couldn't sleep on weekends because he played games too late, he would get up under the comfort of these words...

Keep playing the game.

But he was actually very clear that none of these could comfort him.

It’s not that he has used the self-debating technique countless times is no longer suitable for him at his current age, after all, he is facing different things.

But he knew clearly that he used to say these words to fight the phenomenon of "insomnia".

But what he fears now is not the insomnia itself, but the reason why he suffers from insomnia.

Is it because I got too many dreams at once and felt uncontrollably excited, so I couldn't sleep all night?

This should have been the case, Kevin felt that even if he had insomnia, it should be because of this.

But the facts are obviously not.

He was extremely calm inside. He neither felt the sleepiness he deserved or the fatigue he should have, nor did he seem to be particularly excited or excited.

Why is this?

Is it because none of these things he wants?

impossible.

There is no collapsed world, tired, ordinary but stable work, and... with Mei, a happy life.

This is what he wants, and in the past few years, he has never dared to dream of life even in the most satisfying dreams.

But at this moment, why did he feel calm?

It seemed as if he had gotten so much at once, but he could not give him more "joy".

Why... Why?

【4:14】

The numbers on the fluorescent screen jumped and woke him up from his meditation. All the thoughts were just knotted in my mind, and in the end it took only less than a minute.

He felt that it had been a long time.

Perhaps consciousness's perception of time is indeed different from actual time in the physical sense.

Is it because information is transmitted faster in the nerves? It seems that not. Sometimes I think a lot of things in my head, and then time doesn’t pass much in reality, but sometimes I don’t think much about things in my head, but time passes a few hours at once.

Yes, he had been in his dream for seven or eight hours, and he didn't know outside...

This thought had just arisen and was quickly extinguished by him.

"Why do you think about these things? Didn't you say before that this may be a paradox like annoyance in the tank, or that world full of collapse and completely in line with the scientific concepts learned in school, that nose is filled with either the smell of blood or the smell of rotten corpses, or the smell of rust, the smell of pungent engine oil and sweat is the dream, and this world that is ordinary, ordinary, safe, warm, and can smell the fragrance of plum at any time is the real world?"

When Kevin sighed again, the muscles from his chest to his throat became a little tight, so the exhaled sound also trembled.

First, it trembled, then it was rushed.

He turned around gently again, hugged Mei's warm and soft body into his arms, trying to show his attitude to his subconscious in this way - don't doubt that such a life is real.

But behind Mei's back, his fists clenched tightly.

"Why? Why can't such a beautiful world, a world that satisfies all your wishes keep you? Can't I keep you?"

The plum in his arms suddenly spoke.

"I'm sorry, I..."

Kevin didn't know how to express it for a moment.

"It's all what I want, that's right. But... it doesn't seem like what I want."

Mei didn't say anything, but just hugged him tightly.

Kevin didn't know, will the so-called characters in the dream... really have their own consciousness?

No, no! He wished he could slap his head!

I clearly want to regard this so-called dream as reality, but why should I keep reminding myself of the facts?

Why and why!

"hehe……"

Mei buried her head in her arms and chuckled twice.

Kevin's mood was also slightly calmer.

"Kevin, your heart is beating a little fast."

She rubbed her face, leaving her eyelashes, nose, and lips to Kevin, and her heartbeat gradually became soothing.

"Plum... are you really plum?"

When May was silent for a long time when she heard Kevin's question.

Behind her, Kevin held his hand in vain, and a piece of ice cone soon appeared in his palm, and the tip of the cone was pressed against the end of the back of Mei's head.

His vision was already a little blurred. If... if the person in front of him was not a plum, but a puppet created by the Eighth Legal, or the Eighth Legal - he saw the gray-haired girl on the roof opposite before entering his dream, he was sure that he should be the Eighth Legal. After all, ordinary emperor-level collapse beasts should not be enough to make him fall asleep.

Mei naturally felt the chill coming from behind her head, but she was not afraid. Instead, she raised her head, shuttled her hands between the two of them tightly pressing her body, and gently held Kevin's face.

She used her hands a little force, and Kevin was confused and obediently sat up with her movements.

The two of them just lifted the quilt and sat half-sit on the bed face to face.

The ice cone in Kevin's hand also dissipated invisible because he already understood...

"You understand, right?"

It was like her partner in the mirror, she and Kevin spoke almost at the same time and said the same words:

"Of course you are not plum, but you are indeed [Plum]. It is not the eighth ruler who created you, but me, myself."

"Of course I'm not Mei, but I'm indeed [Mei]. It's not the eighth-legged person who made me, but you, Kevin."

The two of them were silent for a few more seconds. Kevin lowered his head and wanted to speak again, but finally closed his mouth and let her voice echo in the small bedroom:

"The Eighth Lecturer hastily just let you fall asleep in a dream full of what you desire the most. As for the specific dream, she didn't have time to make it up - yes, Kevin, this whole dream, including me, is the prolongation of your own consciousness."

“…”

"In your own consciousness, you have constructed a plum image that may be different from her through your memory of plum, but is the most in line with your cognition, that is, me. So, it is not impossible for you to say that I am plum."

Seeing that Kevin was still bowing his head and silent, Mei held his face again.

"That's right, Kevin, all this in front of you now comes from the lowest and simplest wish in your heart. This is your real idea. Since your idea is real, isn't this a real world?"

"The real world is the real world, and dreams are just dreams."

Kevin said lightly, and an ice cone condensed in his hand again, but he did not take the next move for a long time.

"How can things be that simple? Kevin, there is nothing absolute in this world. You think this is just a false dream. How can you know if such branches and leaves really exist on the tree of Immortality? Kevin and Plum inside live their daily life today, and what you dream of is just a projection of that world."

"No, you obviously...you said just now that this whole dream is my own consciousness..."

"Well? It seems you realize again - what exactly is the so-called consciousness? It is the transmission of information in neurons? It is the soul? It is Soul? Seele? душа? Anima? Soul? If so, what is the soul? Why is the [time] that your soul always experiences is inconsistent with your body?"

Kevin tilted his head and thought for a while, and said:

"That's not you... no, it's the theory of relativity that Mei has talked about before, it's the stove...uh..."

For some reason, he realized that he should be able to remember every word Mei said, but at this moment he could not think of the metaphor that Mei used.

But the [Plum] opposite easily found that memory.

"That...that is not so much an explanation of relativity, but rather a story that is just a random statement to you. It has something to do with the physical relativity theory, but it cannot be understood as relativity."

"What do you think of the soul?"

Kevin stared at the pair of purple eyes, and he didn't know whether he was asking [Mai] or asking [self].
To be continued...