Gu Shen sighed softly.

The second hypnosis was inevitable… Zhou Yexin was indeed more perceptive than others; she had even caught a glimpse of his Burning Flame.

However, before the hypnosis, he decided to tell Little Xin-jie the truth she had been searching for so diligently.

"That wisp of fire... is the same kind of thing as your pocket watch." Gu Shen said calmly, "There are indeed phenomena in this world that science cannot explain... Your experimental research direction is correct, and your thinking is also sound. Dreams and the material world are inextricably linked, and the two influence each other. Matter affects the spirit, and the spirit, in turn, determines matter."

"This is the reason why Mr. Tang Qingquan sent me here... one of the reasons."

Gu Shen affirmed Zhou Yexin's experimental direction.

But, unexpectedly, she didn't reveal a look of relief or ease.

Calm.

Very calm.

Only calm.

To discover the extraordinary in the world of ordinary people was a lonely road full of thorns and blizzards. From studying abroad in Zhongzhou to sampling in Dadu, this woman didn't know how much suffering she had endured along the way.

"I know."

But she just smiled, gazing at the pocket watch, and said, "...My experiment is right. I've always known it."

She raised her head, "Are Mr. Tang and you the same kind of people?"

"Yes... in a sense, we are all the same kind of people, it's just that a small portion of us are more fortunate."

Gu Shen didn't know what made Little Xin-jie so determined.

He suddenly thought of the Awakening Decree, and what Cui Zhongcheng by the lake had said—that supernatural awakening could be artificially controlled. If the decree was really issued one day, then everyone would have the potential to become a supernatural being.

Perhaps in the future, the secrets of supernatural beings would no longer be secrets.

After a moment of silence, he gazed into Zhou Yexin's eyes and said seriously, "People like us... are called 'Extraordinary Ones'."

"Extraordinary Ones..."

Zhou Yexin murmured softly, lowering her eyes, her hair falling down, obscuring her cheeks.

No one saw that her eyes were slightly moist.

She took a deep breath, wiped her face, and when she looked up again, the Burning Flame reappeared between the eyebrows of the young man across from her.

"Little Xin-jie, thank you for taking care of me these past few days..." Gu Shen said softly, "Now is not the time yet, please forget all this."

The Burning Flame swayed.

The pocket watch ticked, this time as if trying to resist Gu Shen.

Zhou Yexin smiled contentedly. She grasped the pocket watch.

The next moment, as her master's will drifted to sleep, the hands of the pocket watch no longer moved restlessly...

"Finally... it's you."

Gu Shen's gaze focused on the malfunctioning pocket watch. His Burning Flame darted out and came to the space between Zhou Yexin's eyebrows, slowly merging into it: "Let me take a good look in the dream, and see your true origin."

...

...

The vehicle sped along.

The sunlight was dazzling.

Opening his eyes, Gu Shen saw shadows of vehicles flashing past on the asphalt road, accompanied by the roaring and clamorous sounds that suddenly faded away.

This was the first time he had entered such a bright and warm dream. There were no oppressive dark clouds, nor strange rules. This place was like a real afternoon world, and he could even feel that his mood was quite cheerful...

His intention was to take advantage of this hypnosis to investigate the origin of the pocket watch in Zhou Yexin's dream. Although the aura contained in this extraordinary item was weak, it was, after all, a type of sealed object.

"The earliest memories of the pocket watch... are from childhood?"

Gu Shen lowered his head.

He saw his own delicate, fair hands.

Then... he felt himself walking forward slowly. Although his vision could move freely, the movements of his limbs were beyond his control.

The owner of this body was the childhood Zhou Yexin.

Although he had come to the dream, he was just a spectator, or rather, a ghost residing in the host's body.

"Be careful."

A broad, powerful hand landed on his head.

Gu Shen saw a tall man in a suit take "him" by the hand. This man's voice was warm, making people feel inexplicably at ease, but his face was covered by a mass of garbled code...

"This is... Zhou Yexin's father?" Gu Shen was stunned, "But... why is his face gone?"

The girl in the dream muttered softly in grievance.

"Dora is gone... I want to find her..."

The man squatted down, countless garbled codes flowing across his face, but his voice was still heartwarming, "Don't cry, Daddy will buy you another one."

"But... buying another one... won't be Dora anymore..."

The girl sobbed, wiping her face hard, trying to look across the road, her voice faltering, "I lost Dora... I want to find her..."

The man, whose face could not be seen clearly, reached out and wiped away the tears on the girl's face.

"Don't cry, okay? It's not pretty when your face is all tear-stained... Daddy will take you to find Dora."

He led the girl across the road, and then across the lawn.

Gu Shen noticed... the color of this dream suddenly changed. The original warm sunlight began to dissipate, and the clouds were covered by leaden clouds. The noisy sounds of vehicles were gone, and the whole world became silent and lonely.

However, the man holding her hand remained steady, giving a very strong sense of security.

Finally, the two stopped in front of a villa, with red bricks and white tiles.

Daylight had faded.

Leaden clouds pressed down.

At this moment, the dream was no longer as warm as it had been at the beginning, but revealed a huge sense of oppression from all directions.

"Daddy... I see Dora!"

The girl shouted happily. Under the eaves of the villa, hung a rabbit doll. The small doll swayed in the wind.

Having just taken a step, the girl's happy expression froze, and her voice stopped abruptly.

The small rabbit doll, which was originally clean, had been pierced through the chest and hollowed out. A thin red rope hung it up, swaying, covered in dirt.

"We found Dora."

The man said softly, "Xin, stand here and don't move. Daddy will help you bring Dora home."

He walked towards the villa.

A peal of thunder sounded in the leaden clouds.

As the thunder sounded, the villa in the dream suddenly exploded. Large pieces of glass suddenly shattered, and a raging tide of flames burst out from the inner room. The soaring flames went straight to the top of the sky, and the majestic tongues of fire instantly engulfed the figure of the father—

The girl stood there in a daze, her pupils reflected a ferocious scarlet sea of ​​fire.

She was standing on the edge of the sea of ​​fire.

A small flame had just sprouted in the weeds at her feet, but was immediately extinguished by the heavy rain.

Thunder rumbled, and heavy rain poured down. The whole world was cold and silent, but the dilapidated villa danced in the soaring flames, as hot as purgatory.

A tall figure, in the core of the explosion, was hit by the huge impact and was blown away in the first moment, falling heavily on the ground, but he did not die... Instead, he struggled to get up, kneeling on his knees, moving slowly, and finally he came to the boundary between the heavy rain and the burning tide, and with a trembling hand, handed out a toy.

The surface of the stuffed rabbit was coated with a thin layer of red plating, as if time was flowing backwards, it was restored to its original clean and flawless appearance.

"Daddy..."

The girl's voice was very soft. She took the rabbit and hugged it tightly in her arms. She recognized the man who had been burned beyond recognition.

This time, the man did not wipe away her tears.

His hand was raised a little helplessly, wanting to touch her, but was ultimately restrained.

"Xin... be a good girl from now on..."

The man smiled gently, the scarlet flames had swallowed him whole, looking like a miserable blood man. This was a flame that ordinary people could not understand, as dazzling as blood, as if it could swallow everything and burn everything.

The wind howled, and the blood-colored fire swayed wantonly in the rain, like a demon laughing wildly.

The father's figure was burned by the fire, blown out by the wind, and shattered by the rain.

The fire lasted for a long time. The girl stood in the heavy rain, hugging the rabbit tightly. There were countless passers-by in the world of the dream. They were all unimportant people, leaving only patches of black silhouettes and blurred faces in the dream.

Finally, the sirens wailed and the ambulance arrived.

Many people gathered in front of this burnt sea of ​​fire. They watched, investigated, and collected evidence.

But nothing was left here.

Not even a scrap of clothing could be found. All traces that could prove the man's existence had been burned to nothingness.

There was only one lonely survivor left... a little girl holding a stuffed rabbit.

After a long time, everyone had dispersed.

After the fire, this dream never had a sunny day again, always being rainy and dark.

"..."

The little girl felt a hard object inside Dora's body.

"Tick."

"Tick."

In the silent dream, this orderly, monotonous ticking sound appeared.

The girl took out the only relic that her father had left behind in the fire from the stuffed rabbit's body.

It was a pocket watch.

This pocket watch had suffered serious damage. The dial had been broken, making it impossible to keep accurate time. The hands were permanently fixed at the 12 o'clock mark.

But.

It was still ticking.