Drip...drip...drip...drip...drip...
The world seemed to fall silent, as if only the sound of dripping water remained, a steady rhythm every two seconds.
Drip drip...drip drip...drip drip...drip drip...
The sound of water droplets quickened, like a person encountering a nightmare in their sleep, their breathing accelerating in an instant.
Drip drip drip...drip drip drip...drip drip drip...
The sound of the water droplets became even more urgent, like gunfire changing from single shots to rapid fire.
Drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip...
In an instant, countless water droplet sounds became incredibly dense, like beans being scattered from the sky.
There was no sky and no scattering of beans.
The space was dark and confined, the suffocating sound of water droplets coming from an unknown source.
A cold wind blew through, causing the curtain of water to change direction, cutting off the living's connection to the outside world.
Suddenly, a pale hand emerged from the muddy ground.
A hand filled with the desire for survival.
It struggled to claw through the muddy clumps, much like a drowning person trying to find a lifeline.
Whoosh!
A mud-covered woman pulled herself up by that hand.
Her long hair covered her face, making it impossible to see her features clearly.
Her untrimmed hair for many years was tangled and messy, hanging down past her chest, dripping with mud.
The situation was eerily strange.
Huffing and puffing!
The woman gasped for breath like a bellows.
The right hand that had been clawing earlier remained in that position, getting closer and closer...
This hand touched James' face directly.
"Jamie, it's so cold..."
James suddenly realized what was happening and sprang up like a spring. Due to his sudden movement, the wicker chair he was sitting on flipped over and hit the tea table beside it, creating a noisy mess.
Inside the room, there were clean windows and furniture, while outside there were green bricks and blue tiles.
Where was the muddy rain curtain? Where was the mud-covered woman?
James rubbed his temples and shook his head quickly, trying to get rid of the nightmare-like scene he had just witnessed.
It was that dream again...
In just four days into March, this dream had appeared for the sixth time.
Whether it was during a light nap or deep sleep, this dream always came uninvited.
It came without a trace and left without leaving one.
Was it just a dream?
James rubbed his cheeks vigorously. The cold touch of that pale hand on his face felt real, damp, and sticky, as if it had actually happened.
Especially when...
The moment the touch occurred, the woman's disheveled and helpless appearance was imprinted in James' mind like a photograph, clearly saved in his memory.
'Smack!'
As James was still in a daze, something suddenly fell to the ground behind him.
Looking back, he saw that an old picture frame that had been displayed on a large red rosewood incense table in the center of the living room had inexplicably fallen to the ground without any external force.
An old-fashioned house, an old-fashioned incense table, an old-fashioned picture frame.
The glass in front of the picture frame shattered into pieces, but fortunately, the photo inside remained intact.
It was a 22-inch family portrait that had slightly hazed with age.
The family of four in the photo looked happy and content. James was also in the photo, holding an apple with his chubby little hands at seven or eight years old.
James carefully observed the scene and couldn't help but feel puzzled.
The incense table was about 60 centimeters wide and placed in the middle of the living room against the main wall. The picture frame had always been placed on the right side of the incense table, leaning against the wall.
The day before, when James had returned to their old house in King's Ridge from the city, his first task was to clean up the house inside and out. He wiped and scrubbed until everything was neat and tidy.
Naturally, he had also carefully wiped down the picture frame and placed it back himself. How he had positioned it and where he had placed it were clear in his memory, and he could recreate every detail of that moment.
Even if the picture frame had slipped, it should have slid onto the incense table instead of jumping over the 60-centimeter-wide table and falling directly to the ground.
To achieve this kind of falling effect, it was as if the picture frame could somersault.
"Sure enough,
one strange thing after another happens as soon as Renewal Festival arrives."
He carefully picked up the family portrait from among the broken glass pieces and was about to turn around to find a broom to clean up when his eyes suddenly fixed on the photo.
Without any warning, goosebumps covered James' entire body, beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and even his breathing became rapid.
The woman from his nightmare overlapped with the woman in the photo.
"Mom?" James exclaimed in a whisper.
His teeth clenched tightly onto his lower lip, and his body began to tremble involuntarily.
Never in a million years did James expect that the woman who had been haunting him in his dreams these past few days would turn out to be his own mother who had gone missing ten years ago!
No!
Upon closer comparison, there were significant differences.
In the photo, his mother exuded intelligence mixed with competence and sternness combined with affection. She looked to be in her early thirties, the prime of a woman's life.
The woman in his dream had disheveled hair and appeared to be in her forties or fifties. Her eyes were filled with terror and helplessness, exuding a heartbreaking despair.
But...
James, who was always attentive to details and had an eidetic memory, was able to confirm through repeated comparisons: the similar facial features, the height of the cheekbones, and the proportions of their faces...
It was indeed the same person!
This was getting stranger by the minute.
His mother, who had disappeared eleven years ago at the age of thirty-three, appeared in his dreams as a forty or fifty-year-old woman, crying for help.
James had always been interested in deciphering mysterious and supernatural phenomena, so he naturally had some understanding of dream interpretation.
People who appear in dreams are usually frozen in time.
Especially when it comes to deceased people appearing in dreams, they mostly resemble their appearances when they were still alive.
When his mother's archaeological team mysteriously disappeared ten years ago, James was only eight years old. His mother's appearance in this family portrait was essentially his final memory of her.
He had never seen his mother at the age of forty or fifty, so there was no reason for her to appear in his dreams at that age.
Holding the photo, James stared blankly at it, forgetting about the broken glass on the floor.
"Jamie! Jamie..."
A cheerful shout came from outside the courtyard. A boy with a round face came running through the yard and peeked half his head into the living room doorway.
Seeing James inside, he immediately beamed with joy and rushed over to him, his face full of happiness at seeing a long-lost relative.
The boy was about eleven or thirteen years old, with healthy bronze skin and expressive eyes. Paired with their family's distinctive high nose bridge, he exuded the unique wildness of a country child.
The boy was James' younger cousin, the only child of his uncle. His name was Jack, and his nickname was Little Dog.
His uncle and aunt had been working in a developed city for years, and their grandparents were no longer alive. With no one to look after Little Dog in their hometown, he had been living with his aunt in the town.
On the rare occasion of the Renewal Festival holiday, the little guy had heard that his cousin James would be returning to King's Ridge to pay respects to their ancestors, and he had been eager to come back too.
His aunt was busy running a small shop in town and had no time to bring him back to King's Ridge during the holidays.
This didn't deter Little Dog.
On Renewal day, he got up early and trekked dozens of miles back to King's Ridge by himself. As soon as he arrived at the village, he headed straight for James' old house without even stopping by his own home.
"Little Dog, didn't your aunt say she's busy with her shop and can't bring you back?"
Perhaps it was because of their blood connection, but despite their five or six-year age difference and rarely seeing each other, the two cousins had a strong bond.
Every time James returned home, Little Dog would stick to him like glue, as if they were inseparable.
James was also very fond of his little cousin. Although they were technically only cousins, their relationship felt no different from that of brothers.
Faced with his cousin's question, Little Dog scratched his head, not wanting to admit that he had sneaked back without his aunt's knowledge. Instead, he changed the subject.
"James, who was the woman that just left?"
"Stop talking nonsense! I've been alone the whole time; there was no one here!" James slapped Little Dog on the back of his head, thinking he was just trying to dodge the topic.
Little Dog immediately became upset: "How can there be no one? She was wearing a floral skirt, with long hair. Her face and head were dirty, as if she had just come back from the fields. I even wondered who's crazy wife would wear a floral skirt while working in the fields?"
Jamie' second slap didn't come down. His arm was raised in mid-air and stopped.
Floral skirt, long hair, dirty face and head.
The image strangely overlapped with his dream again.
These few features described by Little Dog sent shivers down James' spine once more.
He suddenly grabbed Little Dog and rushed out of the yard.
"Little Dog, which way did that woman go?"
Little Dog pointed to his left: "Just this way. When I came, she had just left the yard and we met right here. She went along this road. I even looked back at her."
Little Dog spoke convincingly, but there was no sign of anyone at the end of the road.
James followed the path and checked for footprints. Due to the constant drizzle during Renewal Festival, it was easy to spot any fresh footprints on the ground. The only fresh footprints were from Little Dog's arrival; there were none in the opposite direction.
"Little Dog!" James' face darkened.
"Jamie, I swear I'm not lying! If I'm lying, may I be hit by a car!" Little Dog was obviously an honest boy who stood his ground and swore an oath.
Although Little Dog could be mischievous, he knew his limits. Once it reached the level of swearing an oath, it was definitely not a joke; it was a hundred percent true.
James sighed and stared in the direction Little Dog had pointed to, lost in thought.