Late at night, Liu Qing walked alone on the road like a zombie.
He had drunk too much to be able to tell whether he was walking on the sidewalk or the main road.
Headlights flashed as he reached a corner. A speeding car slammed into him, sending him flying.
"!!!"
Liu Qing had been sleeping over the table in the sentry post when he suddenly sat up straight. His heart was still beating violently, and he was stunned when he looked up and saw the dazzling sunlight outside the sentry post.
"I'm not dead?"
"Did I just have a nightmare?"
"But why was that dream so real?"
"When did this nightmare of mine start?"
He took out his phone to check the time.
June 14, 2019, Friday
1:45 p.m.
He was dumbfounded.
"June 2019… which means that although more than two years seemed to have passed in the dream, it had only been only an hour or so in reality."
"How is that possible?"
"How can one dream so much in just over an hour?"
In this dream, it was already 2021.
Every day of this dream felt so real. Every scene was so real that he could not believe that it was only a dream.
In the dream, he had gone through the period of more than two years by living it day by day, minute by minute.
In the dream, he had moments of happiness but he also had moments of misery when the days felt like years and he felt like he was better off dead.
Now that he realized that it was all just a dream, it was difficult for him to accept the fact. Looking like a fool, all he could think about was what had happened in the dream.
Liu Qing was a security guard at an apartment complex, and his guardpost was located at the security booth at the south gate of the Jiayi apartment complex.
His job was to keep an eye on this south gate. He was supposed to open the door for residents of the apartment complex who did not have their key cards with them. For non-residents, if they were here to visit residents, he would need to register them as visitors. Non-residents who were not making any visits to residents were not allowed entry.
Well, that was the procedure on paper.
In reality, the side door access system for entry into the apartment complex had long been broken. The door could be opened with a push without the need for an access card. One could enter and leave as one pleased.
He was just there for show.
The property management company had stipulated that the number of visitors during each shift could not number less than 10. On the registration book, the names that he took down were usually of the food delivery men, the parcel delivery men and the delivery men transporting water and milk to the apartment complex.
Since those people would basically come by every day, so not only did he know their names, but he could even memorize their identity numbers. He had no stress when it came to registering them.
The door access system had actually been broken by someone among the security guards because it was too troublesome to keep opening and closing the door for the residents. By breaking it, the guards would not be disturbed when they were playing with their phone or taking a nap.
From noon to 2:00 p.m., the staff in the property management office would get off work to take a rest and no one would come to check on them. That period was when they could take a break.
On this day, as was his usual habit, Liu Qing took a nap over the table in the sentry post after he had lunch at the canteen.
After the staff from the property management office started work again, they would routinely do checks on the various sentry posts. Therefore, he set the alarm clock for 1:55 p.m. to ensure that he would wake up before the routine spot checks.
This time round, he woke up before 1.55 p.m.
However, he was completely in a daze and his mind was filled with scenes from that dream.
Summer came a little earlier to Pengcheng than anywhere else in the country. Although it was only June, the weather was already very hot.
Liu Qing sat inside the security booth at the south gate of the Jiayi apartment complex. There was a palm-sized rechargeable fan on the table in front of him. Its blades spun around with a whirring sound, but it did not manage to make him feel any cooler.
In that long nightmare, this small fan was smashed by his then-girlfriend, Huo Zhenzhen, after an argument sometime in the future.
The reason why he referred to her as his "then-girlfriend" was because Huo Zhenzhen was no longer his girlfriend by then. After she broke up with him, she immediately met another man and they got married and had children, all in the span of less than a year.
After that, he had not been able to recover from the setback and had been in a state of depression until he woke up from his nightmare.
At this point, these thoughts suddenly flashed past Liu Qing's mind.
"No, that was just a dream."
"That was just something that happened in the dream."
"In reality, Zhenzhen didn't betray me."
Perhaps the scenes in the dream were too real and brought about feelings that were too unforgettable. When the words "Zhenzhen" crossed his mind, he actually felt a little disgusted.
In the dream, after they had a falling out, he had found out the extent of Huo Zhenzhen's heartlessness and meanness, and the betrayal she had hidden from him for so long. All these were so clear in Liu Qing's memory that he could not get rid of those emotions even after waking up.
As he closed his eyes from the emotional pain, another thought suddenly flashed into his mind.
"Was it really just a dream?"
"Or have I been reborn… like what we commonly read in web novels?"
Once he had this thought, it was hard to contain it.
After all, the scenes in the dream were too real.
He started to recall what had happened on June 14, 2019.
If whatever happened from now onwards was the same as what he remembered, it would mean that what he was experiencing was not just a dream, but his rebirth.
If whatever happened from now onwards was different from what he remembered, it would mean that what he had was just a nightmare.
The dream spanned a period of more than two years. Logically speaking, one might not be able to remember the details of a certain day more than two years ago.
As he was going through his memories, his phone suddenly chimed. He looked at it and saw a WeChat message from Huo Zhenzhen.
"Have you gotten paid today?"
The property management company that Liu Qing worked for usually paid out employee salaries on the 15th of the month. When there was a public holiday around that period of the month, the payday could either be brought forward or pushed back.
Sometimes it was brought forward and sometimes it was pushed back. There were no set rules.
That was why Huo Zhenzhen would send such a message.
Liu Qing could not remember whether he had been paid or not. He went on his phone to take a look through the bank's mobile application before replying:
"Yes, there's 3,800 dollars."
Then, Huo Zhenzhen sent him a web link.
"I've been eyeing this dress for a long time. Help me buy it."
She even added an emoji of a cheeky smiley face.
Liu Qing felt as if his mind was struck by lightning as many memories surged into his mind.
If he remembered correctly, the price of that dress was 1,588 dollars. At that time, Liu Qing knew that he would only be left with less than 2,000 dollars after deducting his rent payment from his salary. If he went ahead to buy the dress, he would only have 400 dollars left, so he hesitated and did not buy it.
What happened after that was more than 10 days of cold war between them.
It was not until he bought the dress and mailed it to her home that Huo Zhenzhen sent him a smiley face.
Liu Qing's hands were trembling as he clicked on the web link and looked at the price.
It was indicated that the original price was 1,988 dollars. He would receive a 400-dollar discount coupon so the final price was 1,588 dollars.
"Those things are true…"
"I wasn't dreaming."
"I am reborn at this point in time more than two years ago."
After confirming this, Liu Qing slumped weakly in his seat, looking as if he was seriously ill.
He felt a little sad.
At the same time, he felt a strange sense of relief.
In that life, he went through his days painfully with a lowly existence and lived his life as a simp. However, in the end, he still ended up with nothing.
Now that he was reborn, he must choose to live his life differently.
There was nothing good in being a simp!