When Bright Moon Encounter the Dark Clouds

——Tan Jiao——

I opened my eyes abruptly to find myself lying on my sofa at home.

My brain froze.

I recall hearing the rain tapping away at the window and could even feel the chilliness of a rainy night. However, the familiarity I felt reminded me of where I am—the room, the sofa, and the cupboard.

After I sat up and drank some hot water I poured from my thermal flask, the sensations I felt gradually seemed real.

So I took a nap just now and dreamed about the trip from a few weeks ago? Yet, the dream felt extremely real, down to every little detail. Every word I said and all the sensations I felt were still fresh in my memory. Even the sensation of the fine-sand-textured curtains on the balcony lingered on my fingertips.

I looked up at the clock and saw that it was only ten something in the morning. Leaning on the railing of my balcony while basking in the sun, my heart calmed down as I thought to myself, This shouldn’t be. I never met up with that guy after having that heated argument on the first day of boarding that ship. Nor did I contact him after the trip.Like a floating cloud, he vanished without a leaving trace. So why would I have this dream that left a deep impression?

I went back to the living room, turned on my computer, and shared my doubts with my best friend, Zhuang Yu.

Zhuang Yu, whose real name was Zhou Xiaoyu, was also a web novel author. Zhuang Yu was famous for her thriller science fiction stories on the internet. We both stayed in the city of Dali, but she was younger than me and was still in college. Our friendship was perfectly harmonious, and our thoughts were always synchronized. There was nothing we could not talk about when we were together.