Emperatrices transmigradas (hombres y mujeres)

Capítulo 47

This is the first time I've wanted to talk to someone after having the same nightmare for many nights in a row.

I remember it clearly; this nightmare started one night when I was 18. At first, it only happened occasionally, but then it became more and more frequent, appearing at night. Recently, I've had it almost every night. The nightmare always ends with a suffocating feeling, like my lungs are about to burst. Each time, as I wake up, I can faintly hear the cries of countless millions of people in the dream: "Come back! Ali Duodona! Come back! Ali Duodona!"

"You're going to get me killed! You woke me up in the middle of the night again, you're inhuman!" Shui Ying finally answered the phone and started cursing as soon as she picked up the receiver.

I heard a man's slightly annoyed voice next to her through the receiver, so I yelled into the phone, "You heartless bastard who values women over friends! I'm being tormented by nightmares, and you're still cuddling with a handsome guy!"

"Oh my god!" came Shuiying's exaggerated exclamation from the other end of the line, "You called me in the middle of the night just to tell me you had a nightmare?"

"That's right! I don't have any handsome guys with me, so who else would I bother if not you?" I said firmly.

"Oh my God! You've really defeated me! Okay, I'm fully awake now, so why don't you tell me about that bullshit nightmare of yours?" Shuiying was now quite engrossed in arguing with me. I could hear some unlucky handsome guy next to Shuiying muttering under his breath through the receiver.

"Sigh, never mind, I won't disturb your sweet dreams. Come to my place tomorrow and we'll talk about it then." I pretended to be very understanding while secretly chuckling to myself. I'd really piqued Shui Ying's interest.

"Ugh! You've completely defeated me. Okay, that's settled. I'll be there tomorrow at noon. Remember to prepare some good food." Shuiying said, then hung up the phone. Before she hung up, I heard her scolding the handsome guy next to her: "Stop nagging! Are you even a man?" I'm a freelancer. To put it nicely, I'm a freelance writer. To put it bluntly, I'm an unsuccessful writer.

I take on all sorts of writing-related jobs, such as writing articles for magazines that reserved writers are unwilling to write, writing short filler jokes for newspapers, rewriting stolen famous works for publishers, and writing my own stuff for established writers while crediting them... I do anything that can earn me money.

But that doesn't mean you should think my life is impoverished. Wrong. Actually, I live a very comfortable and leisurely life. However, I didn't earn all of this myself; it's all thanks to my beautiful and capable mother.

A few years ago, my father died in a car accident, and my beautiful and extraordinary mother became the object of many men's affections. In this respect, I feel really inferior in front of my mother. I'm already at the threshold of being considered old, but I still don't have a boyfriend. It's not that I don't want one, it's just that I'm too lazy. Most of the time, I just like to stay in front of the computer and write.

My beautiful mother picked and chose, and finally married a rich foreigner.

However, I liked this foreign stepfather's generosity. To ensure that I wouldn't starve after my mother went abroad with him, he acquired a large supermarket in my city and put it under my name. He also found a capable person from his company to manage it. He knew that if I were in charge, I would definitely sell the supermarket and buy boxed lunches.

I met Shuiying online; we argued, cursed, and talked about men in a forum.

Later, we found out we lived in the same city, so we arranged to meet. The meeting place was a nightclub in the city, which was probably the first time I met someone I met online in my secluded life. In the bar, I immediately saw Shuiying, who was dressed very sexily, and I fell for her instantly. Later, she said she felt the same way.

The reason I wanted to tell Shuiying about my nightmare was because I felt that the place in my dream was there, and I wanted to know if such a place actually existed, even though I now firmly believe in my heart that such a place does exist.

Another reason is that Shuiying studied archaeology. Although I never understood why she would choose to study a major that deals with rotten bones and broken porcelain shards in this day and age, I am now secretly proud that I have met such a rare person who studies archaeology.

However, Shuiying had little on-site archaeological experience. She studied this major all the way to her master's degree, and immediately became her supervisor's teaching assistant. While her supervisor was away on archaeological expeditions, she was busy teaching his students and helping him find materials. But no matter what, she was a professional, which was better than me. Shuiying arrived right at lunchtime; she always timed her arrival precisely.

The dishes I made were all ones that Shuiying and I love. I put them on a tray and casually tossed them on the tatami mat. I opened a bottle of dry red wine, poured a glass for Shuiying and me, and then leaned against the cushion in the corner with my wine glass.

Shuiying sat not far from me. I raised my glass to her and took a large gulp of red wine. Shuiying also raised her glass, but only took a small, elegant sip: "So, Miss, what nightmare did you have?"

Shuiying knows I'm not a very delicate woman. I told her that having nightmares must mean they're really scary, otherwise I wouldn't have told her about them.

"Do you know such a place?" I didn't tell Shuiying about my dream; instead, I asked her about a country first.

“I know, it’s a small country in the Middle East, currently in a period of chaos, with wars happening from time to time,” Shui Ying answered without hesitation. “What does your dream have to do with this country?”

"Yes, let me explain slowly." I took another sip of wine.

"I started having this dream one night when I was 18, and it would recur every now and then. As time went on, the intervals between these nightmares became shorter and shorter, until recently, it happened almost every night." I entered the dream again, and that loneliness and fear, along with my narration of the dream, once again appeared vividly in my heart.

"What kind of nightmare was it?" Shuiying began to wonder.

"It was a deserted city, probably an ancient one. Every time I dreamt, the scene was exactly the same. There wasn't a single person in the city, except myself walking alone on the empty streets. But I could feel as if many eyes were watching me, yet there wasn't even a dog on the streets or in the houses on either side. I just kept walking forward, and I seemed to hear many people calling me from somewhere: 'Come back! Alidodona! Come back! Alidodona!' They weren't using any language I understood, but strangely, I could understand them. One man's voice was particularly gentle and clear, and he was calling me in the same way. And I, involuntarily, kept walking forward." It was as if I had returned to the dream, and cold sweat broke out on my back.

"What are the buildings like in the city?" Shuiying didn't notice my odd behavior and continued to ask curiously.

"All the buildings in the city are made of huge stones, and the streets are also paved with huge stones. The houses on both sides of the street are relatively low, and a small part of them are underground, with steps leading down from the doorways. Among these buildings, two are particularly tall. One is a huge complex, clearly a palace or something similar, and the other is a slender, tall, domed tower, which should serve a purpose similar to a church. Don't ask me how I know; I just know it in my heart." As if hypnotized, I continued to speak following Shuiying's questions, feeling as if I were now in that desolate ancient city from my dream.

"Are you just going to keep walking down these streets?"

"No! No." Cold sweat had soaked my clothes. I was back in the dream, and that suffocating feeling came over me again: "Then I felt suffocated, so suffocated that my lungs felt like they were going to burst." I grabbed my collar, gasping for breath, my face burning. I felt like a fish out of water. I didn't even know where I had thrown the wine glass. I just wanted to tear open my chest that was about to burst.

"Ziyue! Ziyue!" Shuiying gently patted my face. "What's wrong? Ziyue, don't scare me."

"Ah!" Just like every time I woke up from a dream, I took a deep breath. The feeling of suffocation and my lungs about to burst instantly disappeared. I was covered in sweat and lay half-reclined on the tatami as if all my strength had been drained.

The wine glass in my hand fell to the side, and the remaining half glass of red wine was spilled all over the tatami mat, the aroma of the wine wafting gently in the air.

Shuiying took a cold towel and wiped the sweat from my forehead, then placed it on my forehead.

"I'm fine." I took the towel off my forehead, sat up, and wiped the cold sweat from my body. "I was just possessed by a demon. In Buddhism, it's called karmic hindrance."

"Are you hallucinating?" Shuiying asked me cautiously.

"Maybe." I poured myself another glass of wine, took a big gulp, and calmed myself down. "Shuiying, I believe the ancient city in my dream exists. I feel that it is in the country I just mentioned. I don't know why that voice is calling me there, but I want to go and see it."

"You... what did you say? You want to go see it? Just because of a nightmare?" Shuiying looked at me with some disbelief.

“Yes, it’s just because of a nightmare, but I feel like the place in the nightmare really exists, or rather, it used to exist. I think I can even remember the name of that ancient city, but it will take some time.” I took another big gulp of red wine. I wasn’t drinking; I was guzzling it down. “And having this nightmare every night is having such a huge impact on me. I’m going to break down if this continues. So, I have to get to the bottom of this.”

"Well... okay, how do you want to start?" Shuiying thought for a moment and didn't insist on objecting.

"I'll need your help with this. First, help me research the architecture and archaeology of this country. Back up any information that resembles the scene in my dream. Then, let's learn about the current situation of this country. I think only on-site investigation can yield results. I have a feeling that as long as I go to that country, I will definitely be able to find the location of that ancient city!" I said quickly, afraid that Shuiying would change her mind and refuse me.

Actually, I started paying attention to architecture in various countries a long time ago, hoping to find something similar to the buildings in my dreams. Unfortunately, after looking through all the available information, I couldn't find any ancient buildings (let alone modern buildings) that were similar to the buildings in my dreams. So I had no choice but to trouble Shuiying, a professional, for help.

"My God!" Shui Ying exclaimed, her pretty mouth agape. "You're really crazy! You actually want to go to that country for research! Do you know how chaotic it is there? Life isn't protected there; accidents can happen at any moment!"

“I know,” I smiled. “I’m not so ignorant that I don’t understand anything. But I have to go, or I’ll have nightmares for the rest of my life.”

"Sigh!" Shui Ying sighed. "Alright then, I can't do anything about it, so I'll just have to make sure you have enough."

"Darling, you're so sweet! I knew you'd help me!" I wrapped my arms around Shuiying's neck and showered her with kisses.

"It's because I often eat your cooking, sigh, I'm beholden to you!" Shuiying sighed deliberately, then she brushed my hand away, "Be careful, be careful, if someone sees us, they'll think we're lesbians."

"So what if it is? What's there to be afraid of?"

II. Investigating Nightmares

Ever since I decided to search for that ancient city of my dreams, the nightmares have stopped suffocating me so much, although I still hear that mysterious call in my dreams: "Come back! Alidodona! Come back! Alidodona!"

Shuiying, as expected of a professional, collected a lot of information on the ancient architecture and archaeology of that country in just three days, and also included a very detailed map of that country.

Since school was about to let out for break and Shuiying had nothing to do, the two of us stayed in my room looking at those documents.

However, after searching through all the available information, I couldn't find any data related to the scene in my dream.

Shuiying, unconvinced, flipped through all the materials again, while I opened the map of that country and stared blankly at it. Compared to our vast and powerful China, that country was incredibly small. But for some reason, looking at the map, I felt a surge of familiarity, as if I had an indelible connection with that place.

I couldn't help but reach out and gently stroke the surface of the map.

Suddenly, my hand trembled, and I felt a mysterious power, like the feeling of summoning a spirit when playing with a Ouija board. I wonder if anyone has ever successfully summoned a spirit through a Ouija board. It's when the spirit appears, the disc moves across the paper, and your fingers on the disc involuntarily follow its movements.

My fingers moved across the map involuntarily, not because I wanted to, but as if I were being controlled by a mysterious force.

It was as if I had entered a dream again. Different scenes appeared before my eyes as I moved my finger. Shuiying and everything in the room had long since disappeared from my sight.

My finger finally stopped at a certain spot on the map.

“Sila.” The ancient city appeared before my eyes again, and I involuntarily uttered a meaningless syllable.

"Ziyue! Ziyue! What did you just say?" Shuiying gently patted my face, and I woke up from my dreamlike state once again.

"What? What did I just say?" I was even more anxious than Shuiying to know what I had just said.

“Sila, you sounded like that just now.” Shuiying looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"Don't be afraid. I just have hallucinations when I come into contact with certain things or think about certain things. All the hallucinations are related to that ancient city." I smiled. "Say what I just said again."

“Sila,” Shui Ying uttered a meaningless syllable.

“Sila? Sila?” I murmured the syllable in a daze, feeling an overwhelming sense of familiarity. “Sila…that’s it!” I exclaimed. “Sila! That ancient city is called Silan! I finally remember!”

“Xilan?” Shuiying looked at me in confusion. “I’ve never heard of such a place.”

“Here!” My finger kept pointing to the spot where I had stopped after wandering around the map. “I just felt that the ancient city was right here.”

"You mean the ancient city is here?" Shuiying pointed up as well.

I was hallucinating the whole time and didn't even look at the map. But now that Shuiying mentioned it, I looked down at the location on the map that I was pointing to, and I was stunned. Oh my god, it's clearly a huge desert!

I withdrew my finger with some confusion and looked up at Shui Ying: "But just now, a force brought my finger here, just like when you summon a spirit in a Ouija board game."

Shuiying and I looked at each other in silence.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind. I remembered some research I had done on lost civilizations for my writing: "Shuiying, it's not surprising that it's a desert. Judging from the scene in my dream, it's undoubtedly an ancient city. Think about it, how many ancient civilizations in world history have been swallowed by nature? Atlantis, submerged in the sea; Minos, swallowed by a volcano; and Loulan, buried by the sands… These once glorious ancient cities are now all buried in unknown places. So what's so strange about the ancient city in my dream being in this desert?"

"Yes." Shui Ying nodded. "I've figured it out too."

“Alright then, let’s set this location here for now, and then we can look up information around this point, which will narrow down the scope.” I said to Shuiying while marking the desert with a pencil. There were several towns around the desert.

"Yes, there's also the name Xilan. Let me see if I can find any relevant information."

Just then, Shuiying's phone rang. The ringtone was Ah Du's "Walk Back," which some people said was sung because his voice was burned by sulfuric acid.

"Hello?" Shuiying's voice was as gentle as if she had just drunk honey, which gave me goosebumps. "What? Ah! Oh my god, I forgot!... Okay, okay... I'll be right there." Shuiying hung up and busied herself looking for her bag: "I had a date today, and I completely forgot. I'll go now and check for you tonight. Wait for my message."

"Go on, go on, you've forgotten all humanity when it comes to the opposite sex." I mocked Shuiying while pursing my lips.

"Go find a handsome guy to hang out with all the time. If you stay cooped up like this, you'll become a pervert!" Shui Ying retorted defiantly as she ran outside.

"Not interested." I called out to Shuiying's retreating figure outside the door, then flopped down on the tatami mat piled with documents. After lying there for a while, I tried to go online, only to find that the internet was down. So I called the internet company, who told me they were working on it and didn't know when it would be fixed.

I'm truly defeated.

So I got up, changed into a short-sleeved T-shirt and jeans, slung a backpack over my shoulder, and headed out the door looking like I was going on a long trip.

While I was eating at the restaurant, the waitress, seeing my attire, assumed I was a tourist and started enthusiastically recommending their restaurant's signature dishes. After I ordered two stir-fries and ignored her, she rolled her eyes and left my table.

Sighing inwardly, I thought, "If it were Shuiying, she wouldn't have let the waiters feel slighted by ordering just a bowl of noodles at the best restaurant. Compared to her, I feel like an archaeologist, while she's a lady from a wealthy family. I can't learn Shuiying's elegance."

After finishing my meal listlessly, I picked up my large backpack and wandered through the city's streets and alleys.

The results that Shuiying and I came up with this afternoon are a bit hard for me to process on my own. I don't know what to do now, and I can't go online to find someone to chat with, so I can only wander aimlessly around the city.

On the brightly lit pedestrian street in the city, I walked from one end to the other and bought a bunch of things that weren't really useful: a box of colorful candles, a pen holder shaped like denim shorts, a small bag of colorful bells, some colored paper, and a bag of various colored threads.

When I reached the end of the pedestrian street, I realized it was getting late and thought I should head back; maybe the internet would be working again by then.

Turning back, I suddenly noticed a small stall selling books by the roadside, with a group of girls browsing around. I've always loved books, and bookstores and stalls are places I frequent. So I turned and walked towards the little book stall.

I peeked out and saw that they were books about horoscopes, fortune telling, and the Book of Three Lives.

I'm not very interested in these things. Although I read Buddhist books, I believe in fortune-telling books.

Just as I turned to leave, a voice called out to me: "Miss, please wait a moment."

I turned around and saw a woman sitting behind the stall's lamp. She was wearing a light purple dress, and a light purple veil covered half of her face. From the half of her face that was visible, she appeared to be a young and beautiful woman. "Are you calling me?" I asked her, pointing to myself.

"Yes," the woman's voice was soft and sweet. "Miss, your facial features are quite unique. I'd like to perform a divination for you. Is that alright?"

"Me?" I was taken aback. "I don't believe in that."

"Believe it or not, it's up to you. I just rarely encounter someone with such an unusual appearance as you. I'll cast a divination for you, and I won't charge you. If you don't want to hear the result of my divination, I promise I won't tell you." The woman's voice made it impossible for me to refuse.

"Okay." So I turned around and stood in front of the stall.