Ever since then, she began to enter this girl’s dreams repeatedly. After several observations, she confirmed that the girl could indeed see her and even interact with her.
After a simple exchange, they got to know each other’s names. The girl’s name was Ye Rumeng, who resided in the Forgotten Land and was a Fool.
Similar interests and complementary personalities brought them together quickly, and meeting each other every day in the dreamland became a shared secret.
Mian Mian followed Ye Rumeng’s dreams every day, experiencing what she went through during the day.
She noticed that Ye Rumeng had loving parents, a wealthy family, kind teachers and close friends, hence her dreams were almost the same as reality. Her life was already happy enough that she didn’t need dreams to compensate for any wishes.
All of this made Mian Mian both envious and aspiring. Sometimes she mused that she and Ye Rumeng were so similar - if their birth circumstances were swapped, perhaps she too could have been a vibrant and cheerful girl. Unlike her current self, brooding and sensitive, having lost the ability to smile, with only calculations and survival plans left in her mind.
’Meng Meng is my alternate self in another world.’ When such a thought crossed her mind, Mian Mian would instinctively feel a sense of satisfaction, as if all the happy moments the other girl experienced were being transmitted to her in real-time.
In the dark, deep underground prison, Meng Meng’s dream world became a redeeming light illuminating Mian Mian’s life.
While other children in captivity were driven to the brink of a mental breakdown from their monotonous routines, her mental state remained abnormally stable.
In this manner, four years passed.
The children in the surrounding rooms kept changing batches. Only she, like a ’hardcore tenant’, was firmly rooted in room number 14 and even began to enjoy life there.
However, as time went on, Mian Mian wasn’t satisfied with merely being a spectator in the dream world. She wanted to stand by Meng Meng’s side in reality, wear pretty clothes like her and walk under the sun.
Especially recently, Mian Mian gleaned from the dreams of a few Admins that they were finally losing patience with her, their resident ’hardcore tenant.’ They decided to schedule her for the ’final experiment’ soon.
As an ’old-timer’ who had been living here for more than four years and occasionally peeking into the dreams of the Admins, Mian Mian certainly knew what they meant by the ’final experiment.’
It was the ultimate fate of all the children imprisoned here; in essence, it meant ’death.’
Mian Mian did not want to die. Over the past four years, she had thought about escape plans: not only her spirit but her physical body as well could enter the actual Dream World. The catch was that she needed to fall asleep while in the backpack space.
As far as she knew, there was only one such backpack space in the entire underground factory, located above the Gu Venom Pool. There was a storage box that led to the backpack space when opened.
However, the area above the Gu Venom Pool was inhabited by the people behind the scenes and was also the lair of the ’monster.’ She had no chance to approach that area under normal circumstances.
Only during the final experiment would the children be taken to that high platform, providing her with the sole chance to escape!
Mian Mian planned everything for her escape secretly. It might not be perfect, but the success rate was still at least 70%.
The problem was, where should she go if she did escape successfully?
"Could you... take me in?"
One day in the dream world, Mian Mian mustered up the courage to ask Meng Meng this question.
"What?" The girl looked at her, puzzled.
"I mean... if I showed up in the real world, could I... live with you?"
"Really?" The bob-haired girl’s eyes lit up instantly.
Ye Rumeng quickly nodded: "I’ll explain everything to my parents and persuade them to adopt you, too! My father is very open-minded. He’ll help you manage your identity and provide all necessary documentation, so don’t worry."
The girl’s answer indicated that she had thought this through, rather than acting on a whim. She fully understood Mian Mian’s situation and had even privately consulted her family about it.
The girl’s response relaxed Mian Mian, making her smile for the first time in a long while.
With all plans prepared, Mian Mian began to look forward to the day of the experiment.
Whenever she thought about leaving this place soon to start a new life in another world, Mian Mian’s heart rate would quicken, and she’d feel an overwhelming sense of anticipation welling up inside of her.
That day arrived sooner than she had expected.
A few days later, Mian Mian was moved to the West District Hospital, in a two-person dorm room. She was to share it with another subject who was to undergo the final experiment along with her.
Mian Mian didn’t care about this, her mind was completely focused on escaping. It didn’t matter who else arrived, they had nothing to do with her.
However, when her door was opened that day, the figure that was thrown in was someone she knew very well.
Looking at the small girl lying on the floor with a bloody head and facial bruises, Mian Mian was initially shocked but then was overwhelmed with a rage that she had never felt before.
She walked to the door and faced the person behind everything. She clenched her fists, glaringly at the silhouette. She could no longer keep her usual aloof demeanor as she shook with anger.