"...I spent twenty-three years in a dream." The man murmured in a low voice, lowering his head and recalling something.
This dream lasted almost as long as his life.
Lu Li did not disturb the man's memories.
He was not recalling what happened in his dream, but what happened when he came to the detective agency "twenty-three years ago".
That was really a long time ago.
To a certain extent, dreams are equivalent to another life for him. Only the occasional flash of chaotic dreams tells him: These are your dreams.
It sounds okay, the man's dream is simply prolonged, not increased by some kind of multiple.
But it's scary enough.
This means that his next dream will be a hundred years old - in just a few hours of sleep.
The man broke away from his memories. He did not say what he experienced in the dream. Instead, like ordinary people who would encounter this situation, he asked: "Am I still me..."
Rest accounts for one-third of people's lives, but most people's dreams are chaotic and difficult to recall. Even if they are remembered, they will fade away with the passage of time.
It's completely different for men. He remembers things in the dream world just like he remembers things in the real world. What's even more frightening is that compared with the increasingly huge dream world, real time is like tiny gravel.
"Of course it's you." Lu Li replied, with a confused look that only a middle-aged man would have. "It's just that you have twenty-three years more experience in your mental age."
The man buried his head, his body trembling slightly not only from the cold caused by the clothes that were not yet dry, but also from his inner emotions: "But these are just false..."
"Maybe not."
Lu Li didn't think so.
In other words, Lu Li thought there were other possibilities.
It looks like the man's time was frozen after he fell asleep, and his consciousness was thrown to other worlds, only to return to his original form after a long period of time.
Who can say that his dream is really just a dream?
Lu Li's words really made the man feel better.
At least he knew that those long decades might not be his inner imagination.
He is not trapped in his own mind.
He is not alone.
"It's best like this..." The man smiled reluctantly, and then his smile was filled with bitterness. He remembered the more desperate fact: "But my dream is extending... for days... months... years...
Decades...hundreds of years...more...until I can no longer wake up..."
"No, it will only continue to extend and turn into a series of unattainable numbers, but it will not have an end." Lu Li's words were so direct that Anna, who didn't understand the world, wanted to remind him that saying this was really hurtful.
people……
However, the man's emotions did not become more intense. Perhaps the twenty-three years of dreaming gave him a middle-aged state of mind.
But Lu Li wasn't done yet.
"You can think of it as a talent." Lu Li stabbed a dagger into the man's heart again.
"Talent?" The man raised his head questioningly. The bloodshot eyes in his pupils were not weaker than in the morning, and his mood became unstable again.
"Talent." Lu Li confirmed the man's doubts and said, "It has become another kind of life for you. Your resistance can only trouble yourself."
The man remained silent, and Lu Li continued: "Don't take it as a burden, and don't resist it. You can understand that in the dream, you arrive in another world, and then live there with a novel identity. After all, you said, in addition to
Confusing dreams, other times it feels like you are actually living in another world, so that you confuse reality and dreams.”
The man was still silent, perhaps thinking about Lu Li's words.
Everyone's thinking habits are different, and Lu Li knew this kind of thing very well. Just like an old man who encountered this kind of thing, he probably didn't think it was a bad thing - at least during the first few sleeps.
"Do you have any relatives?" Lu Li asked.
The man with his head hanging down shook his head: "No..."
"Where's my lover?"
"No..."
"There's no time."
"So is there anything in this world that you can't let go of?"
The man was silent for a long time this time, and his hoarse voice slowly sounded in the detective agency: "I understand... thank you."
There was sincerity in his eyes, and he might have truly understood Lu Li's intention: If something that cannot be changed happens to you in your life, try to accept it. Resistance and anger will only make you more troubled.
Just hope he still understands after a few days.
At that time, the length of one of his dreams might be several thousand years.
"There's no point in dying, right?" the man asked.
He asked the same question before and asked it again now.
Maybe I forgot, maybe...
"Maybe, but death is your last resort - then maybe you can be freed, maybe you can sleep forever."
"Eternal sleep" is an ironic word for men.
"Don't you have a solution either?"
Lu Li recalled that after the man fell asleep, he felt some kind of presence accompanying him in his dream, and shook his head slightly.
Maybe, but it's far from a price that Lu Li can afford.
Today’s therapy is relatively “cheap”.
"Perhaps I can tell you some news that will make you feel better." After thinking about it, Lu Li told him, "This world is about to end."
The man looked at Lu Li in confusion, thinking that he had not yet woken up and had misheard.
Lu Li continued: "Maybe it won't be destroyed, but it will get worse and worse."
"But how is this possible..." The man murmured in surprise.
"You just experienced the same impossible experience." Lu Li said.
The man fell silent.
After thinking about the destruction of the world for a while, he told Lu Li that the commission was completed. Lu Li handed him a piece of paper with the addresses of the investigators and night watchmen. The man accepted it, but it seemed that he did not intend to find a solution anymore. Lu Li
The "talk therapy" has had some effect.
At least until the next dream.
After a man's dream is measured in units of ten thousand years, he may rekindle the idea of solving the problem.
Before leaving, he promised to give Lu Li everything he had as a reward.
Of course, his reward will be delivered before his next bedtime.
"You can actually comfort people..."
After the man left, Anna looked at him carefully as if she was getting to know Lu Li again.
"Just help him solve the problem in another way." Lu Li said, putting away the pen and tearing up the remaining paper. "When a glass of water is only half full, a pessimist will think that the water is only half full, and an optimist will think that there is only half of the water left."
There’s still half left.”
"What kind of person are you?" Anna asked curiously.
Lu Li didn't answer. He just picked up the kettle, poured half-full water into the glass, and then said to Anna.