Chapter 05: The Red Snake's Tormented Dream (Part Two)

Tan Wei: "He seemed to have gone mad... kicked the red snake away with his other foot, then held me... and ran towards the shore..."

Liang Zhe hurriedly asked, "Could you describe his condition after he woke up?"

Tan Wei's head once again retreated into her trench coat, revealing only half of her face and a pair of eyes. Her eyes were fixed intently on Liang Zhe, exhibiting an exceptionally strange expression, one that Liang Zhe had never encountered before.

Liang Zhe: "What next?"

Tan Wei lowered his head, his shoulders trembling slightly. After a long while, he said: "She, like him, also wanted to pull me to that river and kept staring at me, staring at me intently! No matter where I was or what I was doing, they both kept their eyes fixed on me!"

Tan Wei suddenly laughed in a sickly manner, a smile that Liang Zhe was very familiar with, as it was the same smile Tan Wei had when he pulled him into a dream last night

Liang Zhezhong nodded emphatically and said, "Yes, the day after tomorrow"

Liang Zhe clapped his hands and pushed open the door.

Liang Zhe sensed the subtle change in Tan Wei's emotions: "Are you happy about his surveillance?"

Tan Wei: "I was very happy when he woke up... but soon, I realized something was amiss. His gaze towards me carried a strange feeling; he was like my shadow... always following me, even at times... I would suddenly wake from a deep sleep, and he would be sitting beside me, staring intently at me"

Liang Zhe took a light breath, striving to adjust his emotions: "What happened next? Did he succeed?"

Tan Wei's speech became hurried, as if she could not control herself: "I struggled... but to no avail... its head stretched above mine... its crimson eyes fixed on me... its mouth opened... a red serpent's tongue licked my forehead..."

Liang Zhe: "Give me one day, and I can cure you"

Tan Wei: "That abandoned factory... is the place where I currently reside in my dreams... However... they will soon find me... I can see them coming step by step along the path and in the books..."

Tan Wei asked in disbelief, "The day after tomorrow?"

Tan Wei suddenly shuddered, as if recalling something terrifying, "My mother passed away when I was very young; I never even met her..."

Tan Wei's reaction was meticulously noted in Liang Zhe's mind without any omissions

Tan Wei: "I can vaguely sense... they are already near me... as long as they find me again... I will definitely be drawn in, pulled to that river, and I will die!"

Accompanied by the sound of the bookshelf scraping against the floor, a door suddenly appeared behind the bookshelf

A sudden flash of inspiration struck Liang Zhe's mind: "That abandoned factory?"

Liang Zhe shook his head slightly and secretly poked his own hand with a pencil. Due to the excessive force, he almost cried out in pain.

Tan Wei: "Hmm"

Tan Wei: "No, it didn't last very long. Later, he began to try to pull me away towards the distance, in the direction of that river..."

The room is filled with various kinds of clutter, with rows of videotapes, audiotapes, and a tall, dust-covered camera standing upright.

Tan Wei seemed a bit reluctant, still sitting on the sofa, raising her head to look at Liang Zhe: "Is it over so soon?"

From the very first consultation, Liang Zhe did not proactively mention Tan Wei's family, nor did he bring up her father and mother, let alone the issues she faced in reality

The sound of crunching or cracking

Liang Zhe touched the side of his nose while glancing at the wall clock

Liang Zhe no longer kept his eyes on Tan Wei, "And then?"

From the very beginning, Liang Zhe knew that such an approach would be utterly futile; instead, it would only exacerbate Tan Wei's subconscious defensive mentality, potentially causing the treatment to fall into a deadlock right from the start

Liang Zhe frowned and gestured for Tan Wei to continue speaking

Liang Zhe's tone remained flat, his eyes fixed on the paper on his lap, as he organized the previous information relationships with his pen: "Where is your mother?"

It is unclear how much time has passed, when Tan Wei suddenly raised her voice and said, "I really can't take it anymore!"

Tan Wei's voice became softer: "No, I am very scared. Every time I feel he is heading towards that river, I stop moving forward. Moreover, I don't know why he is so weak; he cannot pull me."

Tan Wei: "Later, one day, he left alone, as if he was going to leave me, but I did not dare to follow him. I knew he was heading to that river!"

Liang Zhe still appeared very languid, as if he were completely unconcerned with Tan Wei's response: "Oh, do you have any other relatives? Siblings?"

Liang Zhe: "Can you see them?"

Tan Wei's body suddenly went limp, collapsing onto the sofa, like a sugarcane that had been drained of its essence, leaving only a hollow shell: "Then... he died..."

Regardless of how extravagant or illogical the content of a dream may be, it is a reflection and response to reality, carrying profound significance, especially when the same scenes or characters repeatedly appear in dreams

Tan Wei appeared quite restless, writhing on the sofa like a frightened water snake

Tan Wei's hands were tightly clasped together, his entire body arched like a bow, appearing extremely tense: "He held onto the snake's head with all his might... Suddenly, it rolled up from the bottom of the water... and shouted at me—run, run—"

Liang Zhe took a deep breath and said, "How did you manage that?"

Liang Zhe seemed to have thought of something and hurriedly wrote it down on paper: Pocket Woman

Liang Zhe smiled and said, "Do you believe me?"

Tan Wei's eyes were filled with terror, and his hands instinctively clutched his trench coat

After seeing off Tan Wei, Liang Zhe returned to the room and smiled as he looked at the bookshelf behind the armchair

Liang Zhe: "What did she do to you?"

Tan Wei did not seem to expect Liang Zhe to suddenly inquire about her parents, and after thinking for a moment, she said: "I have always had a good relationship with my father"

Liang Zhe: "So you pulled me into your dream, thinking that I could help you"

Tan Wei stared at Liang Zhe, his eyes and expression somewhat peculiar, causing a chill to run down Liang Zhe's spine.

Just now, Liang Zhe's seemingly casual question was, in fact, an exceptionally important inquiry

Liang Zhe's heart suddenly skipped a beat: "Have I found someone who resembles a human?"

Tan Wei's voice was surprisingly calm: "Of course he really died... because the one who came back to life later was not him at all..."

Tan Wei: "At first, it was a bit difficult, after all, I had always followed him like a shadow, fearing that I would lose him. Now I feel as if he is afraid of losing me..."

Liang Zhe felt a slight dryness in his throat. He swallowed, formulated his words in his mind, and then asked: "Is he spying on you?"

Tan Wei nodded slightly, his voice trembling: "He has returned, and he has brought back someone who resembles a human."

Tan Weiqing let out a hum, appearing much more relaxed as he emerged from his trench coat, looking at Liang Zhe: "It can't really be called peeping; he wasn't being sneaky. I think 'following' or 'monitoring' would be more appropriate..."

Tan Wei's voice was light and airy: "I didn't pursue... Perhaps I was intimidated by his aura, or maybe it was because he simply couldn't reach the shore... I dragged his body... back to the convenience store..."

Tan Wei shuddered again, remaining silent, merely shaking his head gently

Liang Zhe blew away the dust on top, gently shook it, and a mysterious smile appeared on his face

Liang Zhe placed the pencil and paper on the table and turned off the voice recorder

Tan Wei: "Fourteen years old, soon to be fifteen..."

Observing Tan Wei's condition, Liang Zhe decisively said, "Alright, let's not discuss this any further"

Liang Zhe: "So you want to commit suicide? Looking for someone to help you?"

Tan Wei: "But he was not a match for the red at all... The red bit into his thigh... Vivid red blood surged up from the bottom of the water..."

Tan Wei's voice became sharp, as if something had happened in her throat that was obstructing her pronunciation: "He saw me standing still... suddenly lunged at me... and pushed me towards the shore... the red snake bit his thigh... pulling him back..."

Liang Zhe recorded on paper while asking, "If he died in a dream, does that mean he is truly dead?"

"Revoking my hypnotherapist certification means I can no longer perform hypnosis? What a joke. I want to hypnotize, and I doubt anyone can stop me."

Liang Zhe: "Did the red snake not continue to chase you?"

After a long time, Tan Weicai said: "He is alive... but he has changed... changed dramatically... you can hardly imagine it... I think it might be due to the snake venom... but it doesn't matter anymore, because I know he is no longer the person he used to be... I once tried to communicate with him... but he just stared at me intently... not saying a word..."... I once tried to communicate with him... but he just stared at me intently... not saying a word..."

Tan Wei: "Their gaze, it is their gaze... like a black hole... wanting to draw me in!"

The passage of time today is remarkably slow, absurdly slow

Liang Zhe suppressed the emotions within his heart: "How old were you then?"

Tan Wei gazed into Liang Zhe's eyes and nodded

Liang Zhe: "Where did you run off to"

Tan Wei: "Ran to a place they could not find"

Liang Zhe stood up and said, "Tan Wei, our treatment for today will conclude here. How about you come back the day after tomorrow at 9 o'clock?"

Liang Zhe suddenly found himself at a loss for how to ask. He put down the pencil, rested his palm on his chin, pressed his index finger against his nostril, and fixed his gaze intently on Tan Wei

Liang Zhe stepped over the clutter and walked directly to the corner of the wall, where he opened a wooden box and took out an old pendulum.

Liang Zhe was increasingly perplexed; the course of events was completely different from his previous assumptions. He rhythmically tapped his pencil on the notebook a few times, noticing that Tan Wei had calmed down somewhat, and continued to ask: "And then? Did he come back?"

Tan Wei: "I was stunned with fear... Blood flowed around me... I didn't know what to do..."

Both individuals fell into silence, and an unusual scent lingered in the air

Liang Zhe felt that things had become somewhat distorted, not developing in the direction he had previously assessed. "Have you all been like this for a long time? How long has it lasted?"

Liang Zhe took off his coat, rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, leaned his body against the left side of the bookshelf, and pushed back with both hands.

Liang Zhe swallowed hard and silently wrote down on the paper: Red Snake Attack

Looking at the bloodstains on the back of his hand, Liang Zhe thought to himself: This is not a dream

Liang Zhe was organizing the content on the paper while casually asking, "How is the relationship between your parents?"

Liang Zhe looked at the information recorded on the paper, which was already quite extensive, yet still very disorganized. Based on this information, Liang Zhe firmly believed that Tan Wei must have encountered significant setbacks in real life

Liang Zhe was taken aback and hurriedly pulled his thoughts back to ask, "What has made you unable to bear it?"

Tan Wei hurriedly said: "No... I didn't intend to pull you into the dream at first... because I didn't know if I could pull you into the dream... I just thought in my mind that you might be able to help me... I didn't mean to..."

Tan Wei: "I ran"

Tan Wei suddenly reached out with both hands to grasp his head: "I don't know... I don't know why I can do that... just like I don't know why I can pull you into my dreams... but others cannot..."

Liang Zhe: "Did he live?"

Two streams of tears flowed from Tan Wei's eyes, like two small brooks: "It seems I have forgotten him... but he has not forgotten me... He lunged forward... his entire body pressed against the red snake... and began to wrestle with the red snake..."

This setback may stem from the bloody scenes witnessed in childhood, external blows encountered, or domestic violence, leading her to immerse herself in dreams, where she, with her somewhat inexplicable dream-weaving ability, fabricated such a world.

Tan Wei tightened his windbreaker, leaving only one index finger exposed, which trembled incessantly as if plucking the strings of a musical instrument: "I do not know whether he is truly human, because she... looks very strange... The entire upper body is shrouded in a huge black pocket, and I cannot see his face... I can only see his limbs... They resemble those of a woman... because the skin is very fair..."... I can only see his limbs... They resemble those of a woman... because the skin is very fair..."