Translator: Cinder Translations
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Beneath the luxurious sofa lay a thick fur carpet, and not far away, the fireplace was dark, filled with ashes left by burning firewood.
The night had taken over this world; they shouldn't have been able to see so clearly, but the crystal chandelier above was still lit, its refracted light fragmenting the newcomers.
This villa still had electricity.
"Let's look around first," the burly man said, retracting his gaze from the chandelier. "Stay together; don't split up."
Soon, they discovered a large amount of food in the refrigerator of the dining room, including vegetables, rice, flour, meat, and even some snacks.
It all looked fresh, as if it had been put there not long ago.
But judging by the dust on the floor, that was impossible.
Clearly, everyone's focus wasn't on that. The burly man glanced at the food, his expression showing no surprise, and after a moment said, "At least we won't starve."
A sound of rushing water came from behind. Jiang Cheng turned his head to see a woman with a mole on her lip turning on the tap, clean water flowing out.
After she turned off the faucet, she turned to the others and slowly said, "We won't die of thirst either."
Then they found a large pile of firewood in a small, secluded storage room.
The firewood was stacked neatly, one pile beside another.
The second floor was for living, with a master bedroom, a study, and two small bedrooms. At the end of the hallway, there was also a locked room.
It was clear that both the burly man and the woman were interested in the locked room, but they both tacitly avoided suggesting they should break the door to see inside.
The staircase to the third floor was locked behind a black iron door. The burly man shook it, but it wouldn't budge.
The group returned to the living room on the first floor.
They had already spent most of the day in this world, especially after experiencing the car accident and a long journey. They were now cold and hungry.
The burly man suggested that he take the middle-aged man to get firewood while the woman, Jiang Cheng, and the fat man cooked, leaving the remaining girl and the male clerk to tidy up the place.
Jiang Cheng stared at the table full of ingredients, feeling lost, and the woman sneered, no longer caring about him.
Fortunately, the fat man knew how to cook; his knife skills and culinary skills were excellent. Before long, he had delicious dishes prepared and even thoughtfully fried an egg for each person.
The area around the sofa in the living room was already clean, and everyone sat around the cupboard with bowls in hand.
The fire in the cupboard burned fiercely, crackling with sound.
After dinner, everyone gathered to discuss the mission.
However, the discussion quickly devolved into a shouting match between the burly man and the woman. This was unavoidable since the mission had just begun and there were few clues, with these two being the most authoritative figures.
It was clear from their familiarity that they had successfully completed several missions before.
As the night deepened, the burly man insisted that everyone should sleep in the living room, while the woman maintained that they should sleep on the second floor where there might be clues.
In the end, they parted on unfriendly terms. The girl chose to stay with the woman, and as they walked toward the staircase, the male clerk suddenly ran past them.
Jiang Cheng speculated that the burly man's earlier slap had left a psychological shadow on him.
Thus, the burly man, the middle-aged balding man, Jiang Cheng, and the fat man stayed in the living room for the night, while the other three went upstairs to the bedrooms.
"Fool!" the burly man muttered under his breath, watching the departing figures.
Sleeping in the living room was less formal. There were only three long sofas, with one person per sofa, leaving one person to keep watch.
The burly man volunteered to take the first watch, then took out a pocket watch from his pocket, opened it, and placed it on the small table in the middle.
"It's about 10 PM now. Dawn is at 6 AM. That gives us a total of 8 hours. There are 4 of us here, so each person will keep watch for 2 hours, allowing everyone ample time to rest."
Just as the burly man was about to continue, he noticed the fat man staring at the pocket watch with a strange expression.
"No need to look at it; the time is inaccurate," he paused to explain. "All clocks brought into the dream world will have their time distorted. The only function it serves now is to keep track of the duration."
The watch displayed 4:18, which was clearly inconsistent with reality.
Considering that Jiang Cheng and the fat man were newcomers, the burly man added a few more words, informing them that any situation defying scientific common sense in this world was normal.
What they needed to do was to uncover the hidden clues behind various anomalies and solve the mission to leave this place.
Jiang Cheng raised his hand, and the burly man looked at him, asking, "Do you have something to say?"
"Since you have escaped from the nightmare world, why did you come back?"
"I only temporarily escaped; it's not the end," the burly man sighed. "By the way, regardless of how injured you are in the dream world, as long as you have breath left, you will return to reality unscathed after the mission ends."
"Then how can one completely escape the nightmare barrier?" The balding middle-aged man raised his head, his voice hoarse and discomforting.
The burly man shot him an impatient glance. "Don't ask such foolish questions. You're not a newcomer; you should understand that this question is as unanswerable as figuring out what point in time this world is currently in."
The middle-aged man fell silent, his face dark.
Jiang Cheng raised his hand again.
The burly man, somewhat exasperated, looked at him. "Just ask directly; there's no need to raise your hand."
"It should be sometime between late March and mid-September of 2006," Jiang Cheng said seriously.
The burly man was taken aback, as was the already bowed middle-aged man, and the fat man looked at Jiang Cheng with a puzzled expression, unsure of what he was getting at.
"How do you know?" the burly man asked.
Jiang Cheng calmly pulled out a small bag from his pocket and handed it closer to the others. They could see it was a bag of Little Garden small breads.
Jiang Cheng flipped the bag over and pointed to a line of small print: production date March 18, 2006. Shelf life: 6 months.
Then, under everyone's gaze, he tore open the bag, pulled out a piece of bread, chewed it for a moment, then straightened his neck and swallowed it. After thinking for a moment, he said, "The taste is good, very soft, and not stale. Considering it's been kept in the refrigerator, I think the date might even be earlier."
(End of Chapter)
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