"Little saint..., little saint...," Someone called as they shook a young boy who was sleeping against the wall of a filthy alley.
Yu Nianzhen heard the voice and felt the shaking, but he didn't connect the name with himself.
No one had ever called him a 'little saint'; in fact, almost everyone referred to him as a big demon or demon boss behind his back.
There was also the fact that 'little' couldn't possibly be used to refer to a thirty years old man who was more than one hundred and eighty-eight centimetres tall.
Having decided that the call had nothing to do with him, Yu Nianzhen prepared to go back to sleep but the caller wouldn't stop bothering him.
Yu Nianzhen irritably opened his eyes and immediately recoiled in revulsion as he instinctively pushed away the hand that was touching him, causing the person attached to it to fall to the ground in surprise.
"What's wrong with you little saint?" The person queried as they picked themself up from the ground.
'There was that name again.' Yu Nianzhen thought and frowned deeply, but he couldn't be bothered by that at the moment because the person was once again attempting to touch him.
The person was a boy.
He was wearing filthy, tattered clothes and his face was covered in so much grime that none of his features were recognisable.
The only reason that Yu Nianzhen could tell the other's gender was because the boy seemed to be at that awkward age when his voice was transitioning from childhood to adulthood.
Yu Nianzhen deftly avoided the boy's touch as he used the wall to stand up from the ground, but at this point, he realised that something was incredibly wrong.
It occurred to him that he had been sleeping on the ground, right next to a smelly dumpster at the end of a dirty alley!
As a clean freak, even the thought of a spot of dust on his pristine clothes was enough to cause him indescribable discomfort so it was very shocking to find himself in such a dirty place.
Yu Nianzhen looked around in barely concealed panic, but everything he saw raised more questions and provided no answers.
From his position at the alley, he could see the street beyond but none of what he saw made any sense.
The alley overlooked what appeared to be a brothel called the Pleasure Palace but this made no sense since brothels had long been outlawed and no one would blatantly disregard the law in such a high-profile manner.
There was also the fact that all the patrons who went in and out of the brothel were dressed in traditional Chinese outfits, similar to those usually worn in costume dramas.
Yu Nianzhen frowned as he analysed the situation.
Was this the set of a costume drama?
If so, what was he doing here?
The Yu family had invested in many industries, but it had never been involved with the entertainment industry so there wasn't any reason for him to be at the set of a costume drama.
That he would appear here meant that one or some of his people had betrayed him; otherwise, there was no way for an outsider to get close enough to pull this sort of strange abduction.
Yu Nianzhen seethed in anger as he thought about it and he turned back his attention to the young boy with every intention to question him, and that's when he registered the strangest thing of all.
He gritted his teeth, took a brave look at himself, and then shuddered slightly.
He was just as weirdly dressed as everyone else, of the same height as the boy in front of him, and most importantly, he was just as filthy!
Yu Nianzhen felt his mind go blank for a moment and then he desperately pinched his left arm, wishing to immediately wake up from the nightmare.
However, all was in vain, because nothing had changed even after abusing his arm badly enough to draw blood.
"Little saint…" The boy called again when he noticed Yu Nianzhen's strange behaviour.
"What?" Yu Nianzhen focused enough to ask.
He was very confused at the moment and for the first time in his life, Yu Nianzhen didn't know what to do.
He had a suspicion that he had somehow fallen into a coma and everything that was currently happening was a nightmare he was having in his comatose state.
This thought didn't offer much comfort but it was all he could think of given the strangeness of the current events.
For now, he needed to find a way out of the nightmare and his best lead was the boy standing in front of him.
"We have to go right now or we will miss the ceremony." The boy said impatiently and began to walk away without waiting for Yu Nianzhen.
Yu Nianzhen was hopeful when he heard that there was a ceremony happening, but he was also very apprehensive.
He wanted to find a place to clean up, but the boy didn't seem inclined to do the same, so Yu Nianzhen had to bear with the filth and follow the boy through the crowds of people on the street.
The streets and everything on them were reminiscent of ancient China, but once in a while, Yu Nianzhen would see something that made no sense whatsoever.
At one point, he had seen someone riding a flaming horse through the street and at another, he had collided with a green-faced child.
There were also the strange fights he had witnessed along the way and the more Yu Nianzhen thought about it, the more convinced he became that he was very sick.
He wasn't just in a coma; he must also be suffering from the effects of a hallucinogenic otherwise he couldn't explain this strange dream.
Yu Nianzhen had never been the artistic kind, so he was quite sure that his mind wouldn't naturally come up with such a fantastical dream
Now that he was certain that he was under the influence of drugs, Yu Nianzhen became even more determined to follow his guide and find a way out of this situation, everything else could be figured out after he woke up.
After coming to that decision, Yu Nianzhen turned his attention to the young boy and was just in time to see him snatch a passer-by's waist pouch and stuff it into his robes.
Yu Nianzhen frowned and reluctantly grabbed the boy's collar, with every intention of asking the other to return the pouch, but the boy interrupted him even before he could speak.
"Little saint, it is impossible to survive in the sect without any gold, just overlook it this time around."
Yu Nianzhen was flabbergasted by the information he had just received.
From the boy's words, he had an idea of why the other called him a little saint, but what Yu Nianzhen was more concerned about was the other information.
Sect?
What kind of dream was this?
Yu Nianzhen didn't speak any more and continued to follow through the crowd, pretending not to see the occasional pickpocketing.
After walking for almost twenty minutes, the duo arrived in front of a huge stone gate.
The gate was open and through it, Yu Nianzhen could see a crowd of almost one thousand people standing in front of a very majestic building.
However, there was a great disconnect between the majestic building and the crowd, which made Yu Nianzhen frown in confusion.
This is because everyone in the crowd was just like him and the young boy.
They were all dressed in tatters, covered in filth, and the majority were missing one or more body parts.
Several of them were carrying small bowls for begging and Yu Nianzhen wondered whether this dream was some sort of messed up message.
As the heir of the Yu family, Yu Nianzhen had never lacked anything in his life.
He had gone to the best schools, eaten the best food, wore the most comfortable clothes, driven the best cars, and lived as luxuriously as he desired.
However, no one could deny that he had always been very hardworking and all the things he had were all well deserved.
Yu Nianzhen also had a clear conscience when it came to doing his part for society so there really was no reason for him to have this kind of guilt-tripping dream.
Did he subconsciously believe that he hadn't done enough?
Was this to let him build more schools and create more jobs?
Yu Nianzhen was caught up in such thoughts when sudden loud shouts entered his ears and interrupted his thought process.
He was currently standing at the back of the crowd and couldn't see what was happening at the front so he hurriedly moved to the edge of the crowd and began to squeeze his way to the front.
When he arrived at the front, he saw a group of people standing before the crowd.
These people were also beggars, but they seemed a bit different from the crowd because they all carried a varied number of pouch bags tied to a sash on their waists.
The only exception was the beggar standing at the C position who carried a dog beating staff.
Soon after Yu Nianzhen got to the front, the beggar at the C position took a seat on a putuan and everyone else including the crowd began to reorganise into neat queues.