# 301
Chapter 301: Little Puppy
Outside the Purification Chamber.
A carriage galloped across the waves, racing in from the open sea beyond the island. Like a ghost it passed through the thick steel walls, flickered, and vanished; every guard and convict inside the prison acted as though they had never seen it, busy with their own tasks.
The pageboy reined the carriage to a halt in front of a bell-tower. Only then did the vehicle finally become visible to mortal eyes.
Master Chen, clad in a scholar’s long robe, pushed open the carriage door, stepped down unhurriedly, and walked inside. A man in a black trench-coat soon appeared before him.
“Master, you’ve returned at last,” the man said respectfully.
“Xiao Xie, while I was away nothing untoward happened, did it?” Master Chen asked.
Xie Yu hesitated. “Up until today… nothing.”
Master Chen raised an eyebrow. “So something happened today? Speak.”
“At noon a brawl broke out in the canteen. Over twenty prisoners were badly injured, and one was crippled with chopsticks.”
Master Chen’s expression darkened. “A brawl in the canteen? What do they take this place for? Outrageous! Who was responsible? They must be punished severely!”
“Master, the ones who did it were two youths.”
“Youths? Youths don’t have to obey the rules? Xie Yu, I left everything in your hands. Is this how you manage things?” Master Chen said coldly.
Embarrassment flashed across Xie Yu’s face. “But Master, one of the two boys isn’t a prisoner—he’s a patient from Sunshine Psychiatric Hospital.”
“A patient? That Wu ‘Old Dog’?”
“No, a boy named Lin Qiye.”
“……”
“Master?”
“Mm? Oh—whom did he beat up?” Master Chen collected himself.
“The one he crippled was Han Jinlong, the suspect we’d identified in several prisoner disappearances. We just never found proof. The others he injured were all close to Han.”
“The disappearances…” Master Chen frowned. “You told me you were making progress. Why still no evidence?”
Xie Yu opened his mouth, then lowered his head. “I failed in my duty…”
Master Chen gave a cold snort and started up the stairs.
“Master, how should we deal with the two fighters?” Xie Yu called.
“Fighters? What fighters?” Master Chen said indifferently. “A misunderstanding. A few unsavoury prisoners got hurt—no great matter. Let it rest.”
Master Chen vanished above the landing, leaving Xie Yu alone. Moments later, Xie Yu’s eyes narrowed…
……
Lin Qiye slowly opened his eyes.
Hard plank bed, empty ceiling. On the white wall beside him hung a neatly pressed military uniform… a uniform?
He sat up, stared blankly, and only after a long moment realised where he was.
The training camp?
I’m back?
He looked down at the blue-and-white patient’s garb he still wore, confusion in his eyes, then turned to the next bed.
It was empty—no sign of Baili Pangpang.
“A dream?” Lin Qiye murmured. “Why am I dreaming of this place…”
He stood, pulled on his army boots, pushed open the dormitory door and walked out.
Beneath a gloomy sky the whole camp was silent. Every door was locked, every room deserted; only a faint breeze drifted along the corridor, carrying a distant, mournful whisper.
He reached the railing and looked down—then froze.
In the yard below, Wu “Old Dog” squatted like a statue in blue-striped patient’s clothes, eyes vacant, staring at the ground.
“It’s him… what’s he doing here?” Lin Qiye narrowed his eyes, turned, and took the stairway.
Half a minute later he stood beside the old man.
Glancing at the empty ground, he broke the silence. “You’re guiding my dream? Is this your Forbidden Ruins?”
Wu “Old Dog” looked up, shook his bird’s-nest head.
“You’re the one dreaming. I’m only watching.”
“Watching what?” Lin Qiye frowned.
The old man scratched his head, bewildered. “To see… what kind of person you are.”
He lowered his gaze again and resumed staring at the ground.
Lin Qiye’s frown deepened. The old man was too strange—not just his lunatic behaviour, but the ability to wander at will through others’ dreams. Inside the Purification Chamber every Forbidden Ruins should be suppressed by the town-ruins stele, yet Wu “Old Dog” could still open his own and enter Lin Qiye’s dream across who-knew-how-many walls.
And having come, he did nothing but squat and stare…
Suddenly Lin Qiye remembered. “How did you know the secret phrase to leave the hospital?”
“Secret phrase?” The old man turned, puzzled. “What’s that?”
“‘Fragrant five-spice spicy spiral-upward turning sauerkraut beef noodles.’”
“Oh…” Wu “Old Dog” seemed to recall. “Someone told me in a dream.”
Lin Qiye pondered. “Did that person mention what he likes to eat tomorrow?”
The old man tilted his head, racked his brains, then said, “Something like… ‘Even Bulbasaur says it’s marvellous—Marvellous Crunchy Corn Snacks.’”
Lin Qiye filed the words away to verify during tomorrow’s free period.
“So you usually slip into other people’s dreams when you’re bored?” he asked.
Wu “Old Dog” considered. “When I’m bored, yes.”
“Don’t enter mine again.”
“Why not?”
“Privacy. What if I dream something embarrassing and you see it?” Lin Qiye spread his hands.
“What happens if I see it?” the old man asked innocently. “Aren’t we friends?”
“Friends?” Lin Qiye was startled.
“You watched little flowers, little grass, little stones with me… aren’t we friends?”
Lin Qiye opened his mouth, then shook his head. “Then tell me—what exactly are you?”
“Me?” Wu “Old Dog” answered solemnly. “I’m Little Puppy.”