Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 13: Sleepwalking in Dreamland

1625: Venture Capital

When flowers, fruits, or wheat begin to ferment but haven't fully transformed into wine, they often release a scent that's hard to describe: a deep and rich base note, soft yet prickly, as if filled with tiny, invisible needles that both please and offend the senses.

Xie Feng had encountered a similar smell once when her mother brewed plum wine. But that batch, with its added rock sugar, had been too cloying—nothing like the strange scent now surrounding her. This new smell was delicate as it entered her nose, but it made no effort to hide its intent to invade and conquer.

The scent wrapped itself around Xie Feng's mind, pulling her consciousness along like a broken plank floating through a hazy, turbulent dream.

She felt herself moving, drifting in and out of nausea and dizziness. She wanted to wake up, but her eyelids wouldn't cooperate. 'Where am I? Did I fall asleep on my way to school? Did I miss my stop on the subway? I just want to go home—or no, school's fine too,' she thought, the confusion thick in her mind.

"Ah, crying," a woman's voice, unfamiliar and distant, remarked. The voice carried the same strangeness as the scent that clung to her senses.

'Who's crying? What's happening?'

"Sister Dong Luorong, are you really planning to take her with us?"

A man's voice, sharp with an imperial accent, cut through the haze like a knife, triggering a wave of panic inside Xie Feng. A jolt of awareness cleared her head slightly, though she fought the urge to open her eyes. Instead, she remained still, feeling sweat gather on her skin, quickly cooled by the air conditioning. 'Right, I'm in a car,' she realized.

"I mean, look at her. Dressed like that, she doesn't even seem like a girl. She might be one of those dangerous types. Wouldn't it be safer not to take her with us?" the man continued, unease creeping into his tone.

The woman he called "Sister Dong Luorong" must have been the one who brought her into the car. But Xie Feng couldn't tell if she was being rescued or if she had escaped one danger only to fall into another. 'Why did she take me? Where is she taking me?'

The woman didn't respond right away. For a few seconds, the car filled with heavy silence.

Then, as if the man's concerns had never reached her ears, she suddenly asked, "Do you prefer streetlights or fortune trees?"

"Huh? What does that mean?" The man sounded baffled. After a moment, he gave a hesitant answer. "Uh... fortune trees, I guess?"

The woman responded with a detached tone. "I don't like either."

'What is she even talking about?' Xie Feng wondered, her head swimming with confusion.

After that peculiar exchange, the man didn't press further. The silence returned, and with it, the haze in Xie Feng's mind. She drifted off again, consciousness slipping away into the unknown.

When she next woke, she opened her eyes to dim surroundings and reached out to feel the space around her.

"You woke up in the car a few times, didn't you?" the now slightly familiar voice complained. "So why are you acting like a sack of potatoes now that you're here?"

Xie Feng pushed herself up, still groggy and disoriented. She blinked hard, trying to clear her vision.

Her clothes were soaked through from the rain, clinging uncomfortably to her skin after being blasted with cold air from the car's AC. Someone had thrown a heavy blanket over her, making her feel like she was being buried alive. She shoved it off and sat up, her bare toes pressing against the cold floor, sending a shiver through her body.