Hu Xing has no idea where she is now. He saw the sewer and his grandfather in the sewers, and the shadow that was entangled with his grandfather, but she knew she wasn't in the sewers. She could see them, but they couldn't see themselves.

"What the hell is this?" Hu Xing asked.

Aoki shook his head and said, "I don't know either. ”

"You say that dreams are a world of their own creation, so nightmares should also be created by themselves, but why should people create a terrifying world for themselves to scare themselves?" Hu Xing said: "Just like my grandfather now, why do you want to create a shadow in your dream to kill him? ”

Aoki said: "People often have nightmares that are stimulated by the outside world, such as if I burn your toes with a lighter while you are asleep, you will definitely dream of burning yourself; I pour a little water on you, and you will dream of a monstrous flood. Of course, even without this extraneous stimulus, you will have nightmares. That's because you have fear in your heart, and this fear is hidden in your subconscious, and when you dream, your subconscious mind visualizes your fear by weaving relevant memory materials. The darker the heart, the more nightmares will be done. ”

"But what I'm sure of—" Aoki's face became solemn, "this shadow was not created by your grandfather, it is not a product of your grandfather's consciousness, it is an intruder!" ”

"Intruders?"

"Yes, intruder." Aoki said, "Just like now, we can also be called the intruders in your grandfather's dreams, except that we have stayed at his borders, and we have not interfered with him, let alone violated him. If you get closer, his consciousness space will be disturbed, the space will fluctuate, and the dreams of ordinary people with weak mental strength will collapse, and he will wake up from his bed. If the dreamer's mental power is much stronger than yours, you may be bound by his spatial rules and unable to escape, or even be attacked by him. ”

"You're saying that the shadow is another person like us?" Hu Xing asked.

Aoki said, "Not really. It can disguise itself as your grandfather's shadow, which means that it has a very close connection with your grandfather, which makes sense if your grandfather is a schizophrenic. ”

Hu Xing felt very incredible and said, "Impossible! My grandfather never had a mental problem. ”

Aoki said, "That's going to be a lot of trouble. That shadow is clearly independent, and knows everything about your grandfather. The fact that he can control the lamp in your grandfather's dream shows that he knows the rules and spatial structure of this dream, and he even knows what your grandfather's consciousness is going to do next. ”

"It's just horrible! Why did he want me to kill my grandfather? ”

"To be precise, not to kill your grandfather, but to kill your grandfather's ontological consciousness." Aoki said.

"So what's the difference?" Hu Xing asked.

"If he succeeds, your grandfather's brain and body will be his. In other words, your grandfather will not die, he will still eat, drink and laugh with you every day, but this person is probably not your grandfather anymore, but another person. You can also call it - Takeaway! ”

"Ah, that's terrible!" Hu Xing's mouth opened wide, "Aoki, you have to help my grandfather, he is a good person, this family can't do without him." You must have a way to eliminate this intruder, at least get him out of my grandfather's body! ”

"I'll give it a try."

Aoki took a step forward after speaking. The strange thing is that they have been at the boundary of Xia Wenyuan's dream, obviously far away, but this step out, it is like passing through a certain space-time corridor, and they suddenly arrived at Xia Wenyuan's side.

At this time, the long shadow was crawling along the cave wall of the sewer to the top of Xia Wenyuan's head.

The head of a thin shadow hung upside down from the roof of the cave. It opened its mouth, revealing its teeth, and in its mouth was a dark, bottomless hole.

But Aoki's arrival apparently disturbed it. Shadow and Xia Wenyuan turned their heads to look at them at the same time.

"Who are you?" Almost at the same time, Aoki and Xia Wenyuan's shadows asked the same thing.

The surrounding dream space shook suddenly, as if it had been felt at the beginning of an earthquake. The muscles on Xia Wenyuan's face also trembled with the space, looking extremely painful.

Hu Xing only felt that his chest was hit hard by a heavy object, and his brain fell into a short-circuit stagnation for a moment.

The shadow glanced back at Xia Wenyuan, and then at Aoki: "You can actually stop him from exiting the dream!" ”

Aoki said, "Tell me who you are, maybe I can let you go." ”

The shadow showed a hideous look: "Why? ”

A crow suddenly flew through the sky outside the sewer exit, "croaking".

The shadow looked a little frightened, shook it a few times, and fell back to the wall with a "boom", saying: "You can't hurt me, I'm his shadow, and if you hurt me, it's equivalent to hurting him!" ”

"Really?" Aoki said as he took two steps forward, tapping on the water with a more beautiful tapping sound than the ground.

There was another crow's cry, and the crow flapped its wings and flew out of the rock, claws retracted, and grabbed the shadow.

The shadow wailed in pain under the crow's claws.

"There shouldn't be a shadow in a dream." Aoki said, "The reason why people have shadows is because they have a dark side, and if your heart is full of light, where does the shadow come from?" ”

Hu Xing unconsciously looked at his feet and saw nothing.

"Nope! There can be no one like that! At least he wasn't! The shadow roared.

Aoki glanced at Xia Wenyuan, and Xia Wenyuan's body shook significantly. Aoki knew that Shadow was telling the truth, and if he didn't find out where it came from, it would be impossible to keep the manager of such a large family without any darkness in his heart.

"Who are you?" Aoki asked. His voice was no longer so lazy, but deep and loud, like the bells of a temple, striking at people's hearts.

"I'm Xia Wenyuan." The shadow said bitterly.

"Who the hell are you?" Aoki asked again.

"I'm Xia Wenyuan." The shadow became more and more painful.

Aoki sighed and stopped talking.

The crow suddenly tightened its claws, then flapped its wings and flew deeper into the sewers with a "quack". The shadow was clawed to pieces by the crow's claws, and as the crow faded, it scattered in the filthy water.

Only the shadow's painful screams still echoed in the sewers: "I'm Xia Wenyuan......"

Xia Wenyuan curled up in the corner, the sky light outside the exit came in, shining on his body, and on the water beside him, a faint and dim shadow slowly emerged......