The corners of Lin Jie's mouth twitched. Gazing out of the window, he felt an inexplicable sense of guilt.
Making sure he still had a conscience, Lin Jie muttered to himself, "The first two times that were a little close, and maybe because I'm cursed, but it's many streets away from me this time. I think it has nothing to do with me, right?"
He still remembered the last time he said, "Hopefully, everything gets better," and there was a gas explosion that very same night on the street opposite him, which turned everything there into ruins.
I don't think I have made such inauspicious remarks recently...
Shaking his head, Lin Jie drew the curtains and went back to his desk.
Hmm... gas explosions seem to be quite frequent in Norzin.
Lin Jie had seen such news almost every month for the past three years and certain gas plants blew up from time to time. Lin Jie sometimes even wondered whether they were manufacturing explosives rather than gas.
Although he joked so, some of Norzin's tabloid media went even further. They even suspected that these so-called gas plants were in fact secret arms factories of Rolle Resource Development.
And each explosion was actually them testing a new weapon...
A slightly more reliable media outlet said that it had secretly interviewed the senior management of Rolle Resource Development and obtained the information that this "gas" was actually a very unstable new energy that had been found in the Lower City District and still at an experimental stage, so accidents often occurred.
Opinions varied, but in short, the perennial explosions were one of Norzin's urban folktales.
Anyways, when the Central Districts governing body was asked for a reason behind this, there would only ever be one answer—"Don't ask. It's a gas explosion."
Lin Jie's gaze returned to the book on the table and his fingers went back to gently brushing the pages. He usually went to bed at this time, but he was so engrossed in the book today that he barely noticed time flying by.
If it weren't for the gas explosion interrupting him, Lin Jie might have read until dawn.
"It's rare for me to stay up this late..." sighed Lin Jie.
He then clipped on a bookmark, closed the book, and got ready for bed.
Truth be told, the book's illustration of the Alfords Kingdom's history was very detailed and vivid. There were plenty of magical and fantasy depictions that were like the stuff of legends, which made this book feel like a perfect combination of ancient Chinese myths and history that was really amazing to read.
However, as some of the descriptions regarding the early deeds of Candela, the last king of Alfords, were the same as what he had seen in his dreams, Lin Jie now felt that the contents in the book were mostly true, just that they could no longer be verified since all this happened a long time ago.
He had read till the part regarding the coming of the Dark Age where the Sun and the Moon were engulfed together by the darkness when he felt a hint of doubt.
This was because the Sun and the Moon were still in the sky as usual, and it didn't appear like they had been swallowed up.
However, he soon realized that the Sun and the Moon here might be symbolizing certain gods, and this part of the book referred to their deaths.
"The Sun was extinguished with silence while the Moon's skin was stolen by beasts." Such a weird and ambiguous description holds too many possibilities just by my speculation alone...
Lin Jie felt his head starting to hurt as he thought about all this and uttered to himself, "Silver said that she would tell me the truth only after I master swordsmanship. Ahh, I've been scammed!
"But constructing my own dream is even more of a scam!" grumbled Lin Jie as he switched off the light and lay down on his bed.
He had completed the framework for his first dream realm, but it was just an endless space filled with complete darkness. There was nothing there and Lin Jie could merely walk around in.
Lin Jie "placed" all the aether that he had collected into this dream realm. Only when he was in the dream could he enter the special state where he could see and feel aether.
Beyond that, progress moved at a snail's pace.
It was really difficult to create objects that were close to reality in the dream realm until even himself could believe that such an object was real.
However, Lin Jie had a flash of inspiration today and thought of a way that might reduce the difficulty and make it easier to construct a dream.
Lin Jie was already standing in the darkness the next time he opened his eyes again.
Then, he reached out his hand, pressed slightly, and felt a flat surface. As he looked down, he saw an old mahogany wooden table in the space.
There was a pile of messy books, a few lesson plans, a pair of glasses, some small instruments, pens as well as a piece of old parchment.
Lin Jie smiled and rapped his knuckles on the tabletop. The sound, the touch, and the texture were just like the real one.
"It worked."
With that, he sat back boldly and was automatically caught by a chair that appeared out of nowhere.
The chair he had specially custom-made was as comfortable as usual. He closed his eyes and leaned back. Now, his feet could feel the touch of the wooden floor.
A familiar ceiling greeted his eyes as he gazed up.
Lin Jie then looked around and saw that the darkness had become a study room full of bookshelves with a faint smell of mold.
Not far from the desk, natural light shone through the window. Dust was flying in the air, and the lush, green leaves of a tree outside swayed and rustled in the wind.
Lin Jie was certain he would see ivy vines creeping along the wall if he went to open the window, and he would see a long corridor leading to the stairs if he opened the door on the other end.
This familiarity… was of course, his own house, which he had lived in for more than 20 years before he transmigrated. It was the place most familiar to him.
His first dream had been successfully crafted!
Lin Jie felt that creating any dreams in the future wouldn't be too difficult for him.
A deluge of nostalgia overwhelmed Lin Jie as he gazed at the parchment on his desk. He suddenly had an idea. What if… I could construct people in the dream?
He shook his head, dismissing the thought that only lasted for a second.
——
Mu'en got up at first light. She washed up, put on an apron, and started cooking. Then, she acted as a human clock and woke Boss Lin at the set time.
While having breakfast, Mu'en kept sneaking peeks at Lin Jie's face in between bites.
Then she suddenly made eye contact with Lin Jie.
Mu'en stopped immediately and stared at Lin Jie unblinkingly. Her cheeks were still bulging with the rice in her mouth, but she seemed boldly confident.
The corner of Lin Jie's mouth twitched. Placing his chopsticks down, he smiled patiently. "Do you have something to say?"
He understood that children of this age sometimes had embarrassing questions to ask their parents. Sometimes this required patient guidance from parents so that the children would go through their youth smoothly.
Mu'en hesitated, then nodded and said, "I…I want to be the Moon!"
… Yeap, just like this. Lin Jie's smile stiffened slightly.
Silly rascal, you want to become Sailor Moon too?