C115 — Dreamcatcher

There were paper and pens on the table. Mu Sichen listed every case he knew about inside the “pillar.”

First was the Shouwang neighborhood.

 

From delivering the box to 1-1-101, to the cross-dressing man at 3-4-802, to the meeting place of the cross-dressing man and the burly man at 5-5-302, to where the cross-dressing man lived at 6-2-702, the cases kept expanding.

While Mu Sichen was busy, Chi Lian kept sending messages in the group. After she and Ji Xian’an arrived at 6-2-702, they happened to see someone brutally beating the cross-dressing man Xiao Li. Although the cross-dressing man might be the murderer who framed Ji Xian’an, the two of them still intervened to help. After rescuing the injured Xiao Li, the attacker fled.

Xiao Li claimed the burly man had killed someone, but the person who had knocked Ji Xian’an out wasn’t Xiao Li; therefore there was one more person who could testify that Ji Xian’an had appeared at the murder scene. Xiao Li agreed to hand over the key to 3-4-802 to them, but he asked a favor in return: please threaten the person who had just attacked him, and make them stop beating Xiao Li. So the two of them went looking for the person who’d dr-ugged Ji Xian’an and the person who’d beaten Xiao Li. After finding those two people, new cases surfaced.

The situations became so complicated later that Chi Lian was too lazy to keep posting in the group and only left one sentence: too many.

Chi Lian: [Why do these cases never end? One case wraps into another. I just spent ages drawing a case map and found that in the whole neighborhood, it seems like everyone except me and Sister Ji is carrying a homicide on them — only the two of us are clean.]

Chi Lian: [And these cases are so maddening — in lots of situations, killing someone would solve a lot of problems. For example, when Sister Ji bumped into Xiao Li at 3-4-802 delivering the box, if she’d killed Xiao Li then, there would’ve been no subsequent cases.]

Chi Lian: [Of course, I’m not saying to kill anyone; it just feels too much like the real world, with none of the game-like unreality. If you kill someone here, even knowing they’re a fake soul, I’d feel like I’m not myself anymore.]

 

Chi Lian: [Also, once you kill someone you have to ask others to deal with the body, and that will create another chain of cases — equally troublesome.]

Chi Lian: [I’m tired. I don’t want to keep running around. I might as well lie at home and wait for them to collect the Little Purple Star in the morning. But I’m carrying countless homicides; if I don’t run I’ll be dead tomorrow. I’m really exhausted.]

 

Chi Lian: [The more homicides I carry, the more there are. When will I be free?]

Mu Sichen: [Isn’t it like all the homicides are weaving into a huge net — it feels bottomless? You want to pull away but you can’t?]

Chi Lian: [Yes yes yes! That’s exactly it! God, Captain Mu, you finally answered me! Sister Ji and I are burying bodies in the neighborhood garden right now — you have no idea what I’ve been through tonight; it could be a whole novel!]

 

Your Brother Fei: [Um… Xiao Mu, even though you told me to wait in the room for you, I ran into a tiny bit of trouble. It’s not serious — just that the friend of the person whose leg was found came to make trouble.]

Mu Sichen: [He Fei, what happened over there?]

 

Your Brother Fei: [It’s nothing, really; it’s just a girl, whose sobbing and whining. She said because I turned in that leg, the neighborhood admin found the culprit, who is her friend. The admin said tomorrow morning they’ll offer her friend as a sacrifice to the “Dream-Weaver.” I feel guilty now. Can we do anything to save her?]

 

Mu Sichen: [I think there should be a way. Wait, let me sort this out. Chi Lian, you and Sister Ji help me with one thing: if you meet anyone from the Shouwang neighborhood, ask them one question for me — can you have a good dream tonight?]

Mu Sichen picked up the paper listing the cases and stood to go back to his room.

Shen Jiyue immediately rose to follow him. Mu Sichen frowned and turned to look at him.

Shen Jiyue reached out his hand. “We agreed to cooperate — you can’t abandon me.”

Mu Sichen warned, “Don’t say anything to He Fei that might corrupt him, or I’ll purify you on the spot.”

“I won’t say anything,” Shen Jiyue replied. “I’m just a follower who’s lost his ability. Don’t even mention you — I can’t beat that friend of yours.”

Mu Sichen knew that too, which was why he’d temporarily agreed to work with Shen Jiyue.

The two of them walked to He Fei’s room. Inside room 4013, besides He Fei was a tearful girl kneeling on the floor holding a knife, and a bloodstain had stained He Fei’s shoulder.

Mu Sichen looked at He Fei. He Fei gave a brief explanation of what had happened.

The story was simple: a girl had been assaulted and in turning the tables, killed her attacker. Hatred drove her to dismember the attacker and scatter the body parts. The portion He Fei had handed in allowed the administrator to identify the culprit, so the culprit’s friend came for revenge against He Fei.

The girl who came to assassinate He Fei wasn’t very strong; in a few exchanges He Fei subdued her, and he only suffered minor injuries. After that the girl knelt and cried, and He Fei was at a loss, unsure what to do.

“If only I hadn’t handed in the leg— not only did I not complete the mission, now there’s a life on my hands,” He Fei muttered.

Mu Sichen said, “If you’re not in debt, then you’re not in debt.”

He approached the crying girl. “Tell me everything about how your friend committed the crime. I have a way to save her.”

The girl wiped her tears and recounted in full how the culprit had deceived and killed the victim and then carried out the dismemberment.

Mu Sichen asked clarifying questions and wrote everything down.

Then he told the others, “Come with me to see the administrator. I need to explain the situation to him.”

He Fei looked puzzled. The girl’s face lit with a flicker of hope. Only Shen Jiyue wore a thoughtful expression, then murmured, “So that’s what happened — no wonder I couldn’t find them.”

The group went down to the first floor. Several people were already locked up there; among them was the culprit.

Mu Sichen stepped forward to the neighborhood administrator and pointed at the culprit. “I confess. It wasn’t her who killed him — it was me.”

He Fei and the two girls stared at Mu Sichen in shock.

“Xiao Mu, what are you saying? If you take the blame, tomorrow morning—” He Fei began.

Mu Sichen pressed He Fei’s hand to stop him from continuing.

He altered the story he’d heard and claimed the guilt himself, confessing to the administrator.

The administrator doubted him. “But the homicide happened in the morning, and you only came into the Repentance Community in the afternoon. How could you have done it?”

Mu Sichen kept his eyes open and lied, “I disguised myself as him and came in.”

Then he pointed at Shen Jiyue, signaling for him to back up the lie.

The administrator looked at Shen Jiyue.

Shen Jiyue walked slowly over, stared into the administrator’s eyes and said, “Yes. He disguised himself as me and entered the neighborhood to commit the crime. We’re accomplices.”

As the administrator gazed at Shen Jiyue, it felt like his whole soul was being drawn in by those eyes. Scenes like the ones Mu Sichen and the others described flashed before him, and he became resolutely convinced that what they said was the truth.

He nodded and said, “So that’s it! You two are the guilty ones. We’ll offer you as sacrifices tomorrow morning. Release her.”

The real culprit, the girl, was released, and the two girls hugged each other, crying as if they had narrowly escaped death.

“It’s okay now, stop crying,” He Fei comforted them, though his expression was still filled with confusion.

Mu Sichen and Shen Jiyue remained indifferent throughout, not moved by saving the girl.

The administrator crossed out the girl’s name in the registry and replaced it with Mu Sichen and Shen Jiyue’s names.

The two were locked in a room, and He Fei stood outside, puzzled.

Mu Sichen waved him over. When He Fei came closer, Mu Sichen whispered something in his ear. He Fei looked even more confused after hearing it.

He followed Mu Sichen’s instructions, went to room 7015 where Mu Sichen had left his phone, stayed there for a while, and then ran out shouting, confessing that he had accidentally killed someone.

Soon, He Fei was also considered a suspect and was locked in a room with Mu Sichen and Shen Jiyue.

When He Fei entered, Mu Sichen was sending messages to Chi Lian and Ji Xian’an.

“You’re here too?” Mu Sichen glanced at him and smiled. “Go ahead and sleep, have a good dream.”

“Wait a minute!” He Fei said. “Now it’s just the three of us in here, and the administrator’s gone to bed. Can you explain what the heck is going on? What did you figure out, and what are we going to do next?”

“I was just about to tell you,” Mu Sichen replied.

He Fei sat on his bed, listening attentively.

Mu Sichen began explaining: “Whether it’s Shouwang or Repentance, it’s all been weaving one giant web. Have you noticed that all the cases we’ve encountered are interlinked?”

“Let’s say there are five people in a case: A, B, C, D, and E. The case could unfold like this: A kills B, and C witnesses it. C then uses this to blackmail A into helping him kill D. But A tells D that C plans to harm him. To protect himself, D uses some leverage he has over E to threaten E into making C shut up…”

“That’s a really complicated web of relationships…” He Fei was already losing track of the story.

Mu Sichen drew a simple diagram with the letters A, B, C, D, and E and showed it to He Fei, explaining, “From this central series of cases, more people like F, G, H, and J start committing crimes. Gradually, this case morphs into a web-like structure, pulling everyone in the neighborhood into it. Each person wants to escape, but they can’t.”

He Fei stared at the network diagram, imagining the connections. He nodded in understanding, “That’s exactly how it is.”

Whether it was them, or Ji Xian’an and Chi Lian, they were all trapped in this web. Whenever one case was shaken off, another would emerge.

“So why does this web exist?” He Fei asked.

“To connect everyone’s dreams,” Mu Sichen said.

Since Mu Sichen first encountered the “pillar,” he had been contemplating one question: since the “pillar” was a domain, a shackle that trapped people, where was its space? Or, more precisely, if the “pillar” allowed people to wander freely, then the places they visited could all be considered the “pillar’s” domain—there must be something that connected and maintained that.

How did it turn people inside the “pillar” into its pawns?

It did so through this web of cases.

Only by chaining a series of cases together could the people trapped in the “pillar” be locked in, caught in a cycle of repentance, regret, and relief.

Like a massive net, once everyone was caught in it, they could be controlled.

“So everything—whether it’s the Little Purple Star, the daily tasks, or the sentence reduction card—are all just methods to trap us in this web?” He Fei followed Mu Sichen’s train of thought.

“Exactly,” Mu Sichen nodded.

He Fei was still confused. “But why should we confess? We didn’t even kill anyone.”

“Because we also need to enter this web. Only by doing so can we find the ‘pillar.’ But we don’t want to kill anyone. If the person on the other side is evil beyond redemption or completely corrupted, then to protect ourselves, we can defend ourselves. But if it’s just to gain entry into the ‘pillar’ by killing innocent people, I can’t do that,” Mu Sichen said.

He Fei nodded. “I can’t do it either. Now I get it. In order to enter this web, we have to fall into the cycle of murder cases. Since we don’t want to be murderers or become the victims, we can only be scapegoats, right?”

Mu Sichen nodded. “Exactly. Not just scapegoats. We also acquired others’ confessions and provided them with a sense of relief. When others have emotional exchanges with us, we’re drawn into the web.”

Mu Sichen took the fall for the girl, and she felt grateful to him, while also regretting what she had done to him. Through Mu Sichen’s actions, she experienced relief. In turn, Mu Sichen naturally became part of the case through her.

He Fei was in the same situation.

The death of the person in room 7015 was likely related to the phone call Mu Sichen received earlier that evening. The person in room 7015 had planned to do something bad in room 3016. Perhaps the residents of 3016 sensed the danger early and took action before it could happen.

The person in room 3016 had intended to frame Shen Jiyue, as his role in the case would make him seem like an accomplice of the person in 7015.

However, with Mu Sichen’s intervention, things took an unexpected turn. He Fei voluntarily confessed, which made the real killer feel guilty, and finding the culprit brought them relief.

As a result, He Fei was also smoothly integrated into the web of cases.

Earlier, when Mu Sichen had sent messages in the game group, he had asked Ji Xian’an and Chi Lian to find a corpse and take the fall for the perpetuator, which would set them free from this endless cycle.

“I get the theory, but we’re going to die tomorrow,” He Fei said. “We’ve been labeled as murderers, and tomorrow morning, we’ll be the ‘pillar’s’ breakfast. But we still haven’t found the ‘pillar.’”

Mu Sichen replied, “We’ll find it tonight. That’s why I told you to get some sleep and have a nice dream. In the dream, we’ll meet.”

“Wait, you just mentioned a collective dream,” He Fei said. “You mean everyone in this web of cases will have the same dream?”

Mu Sichen nodded.

This was something Mu Sichen had come to realize after receiving a hint from Shen Jiyue.

The kind-hearted big brother who gave He Fei the poisoned cola had said, “I’ll definitely have a wonderful dream tonight.” Since they were in Mengdie Town, Mu Sichen paid close attention to anything related to dreams, and that statement had piqued his interest.

Afterward, he sent a message asking Chi Lian to ask the residents in the Shouwang Community, “Can you have a nice dream tonight?” Since Shouwang was relatively peaceful with many people walking around outside, the two of them asked a few residents and got answers like, “I hope to have a wonderful dream” and “I’m sure I’ll have a wonderful dream.”

 

From that, Mu Sichen boldly speculated that perhaps the “pillar” was using the rules, the sentence reduction cards, and the Little Purple Star to force the residents to create all these incidents just so they could experience a sense of relief and have a wonderful dream.

A collective dream, with the “pillar” hiding within it.

Mu Sichen felt confident in this bold theory, partly because of Shen Jiyue.

If Shen Jiyue had been able to regain his powers, he would never have willingly cooperated with Mu Sichen. Shen Jiyue had been honest about that.

But Mu Sichen didn’t believe Shen Jiyue’s claim that he couldn’t use his powers. He had already found a way inside, and that eerily beautiful moon outside the window only made it stranger. Mu Sichen couldn’t accept that Shen Jiyue was in a “weakened” state.

Dreams couldn’t reflect light—that much Mu Sichen believed. But he didn’t forget, Shen Jiyue had devoured half of Big-Eye’s power.

Mu Sichen had only inherited Big-Eye’s remnants and could still use the “Eye of Truth.” Shen Jiyue, who had consumed half of Big-Eyed’s power, couldn’t possibly be powerless in the dream realm.

And the only reason Shen Jiyue couldn’t retrieve his power was probably hidden in the one thing he had been forced to admit under Mu Sichen’s questioning:

His dreams had been taken by the Butterfly.

Mu Sichen reasoned that if the Butterfly had struck, it wouldn’t have been for a few pretty dreams — it must have stolen Shen Jiyue’s ability to dream itself.

Which meant only if the ability item was hidden inside a dream would Shen Jiyue be unable to reach it and thus have to ally with Mu Sichen.

Without someone else’s help, Shen Jiyue couldn’t enter dreams — because he didn’t dream.

He needed Mu Sichen’s dream, with himself inside it, in order to travel to the “pillar’s” space.

This single deduction led Mu Sichen to consider the possibility of a collective dream. If they weren’t in the same dream, how could Shen Jiyue appear in his?

All these factors converged, giving rise to Mu Sichen’s theory of the web of cases, the emotions of release, and the collective dream.

After Mu Sichen gave a brief explanation, He Fei could only nod vigorously. He decided to give his brain a rest, get some sleep, and once inside the collective dream, simply do as Mu Sichen instructed.

“You even guessed that I still have my powers. Are you incredibly analytical, or just naturally intuitive?” Shen Jiyue looked at Mu Sichen with admiration.

“A bit of both,” Mu Sichen replied. “I trust my instincts a lot of the time.”

“Such accurate instincts aren’t always a good thing.” Shen Jiyue’s tone was meaningful.

Mu Sichen grew wary. “What do you mean?”

“If you don’t know, it’s best you don’t,” Shen Jiyue shifted the topic. “Do you know what made me decide I wanted to take you as my dependent? It was your terrifying ability to judge situations and your courage to gamble. I really want those qualities of yours.”

Mu Sichen ignored Shen Jiyue’s occasional “confessions.”

His words couldn’t be trusted. Every seemingly kind phrase was laced with pollution, devouring intent, and mental intrusion. A single slip, and Mu Sichen would become his puppet.

“Go to sleep,” Mu Sichen said. “We still need to dream.”

But Shen Jiyue stopped him. “You still haven’t let me into your dream.”

“Just thinking about dreaming of you makes me uncomfortable. How about I retrieve the item myself and hand it over to you afterward?” Mu Sichen replied.

“No way. By then the item might belong to you,” Shen Jiyue said.

“We can swear an oath — you promise not to try polluting me in Dream Butterfly Town, and I promise not to seize your item,” Mu Sichen offered.

But Shen Jiyue shook his head. “How boring. Why can’t it be that I regain my power and get you too?”

“You’re right,” Mu Sichen said evenly. “It could also be that I get the ‘pillar’ and your item.”

“Exactly. That’s what makes it fun. We wager our stakes, and the winner takes all.” Shen Jiyue smiled.

Fortune favored the bold. Since Shen Jiyue insisted on following, Mu Sichen decided to accept the challenge.

“In that case, I’m even less likely to take you into the collective dream. You can sit outside and stew.” Mu Sichen lifted the blanket and prepared to sleep.

“Then let’s make a trade. Bring me into your dream through your eyes, and I’ll tell you the truth behind this collective dream,” Shen Jiyue said.

“Tell me first, and I’ll see if the information is worth bringing you in,” Mu Sichen countered.

Shen Jiyue said, “Sichen, do you know? When you said the words ‘case network,’ I was truly astonished. I don’t know how you came up with it, but you’ve approached the truth from almost nothing but instinct and scraps of clues.”

 

“Do you know how this ‘pillar’ was formed? It’s because the Butterfly has an item called the ‘Dreamcatcher.’ You’ve already grasped its outline perfectly.”

 

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TN:

Ughhh, uni has started and I’m absolutely stressed 😫