The doctor had been suffering from severe sleep deprivation lately. It was extremely severe because he had become obsessed with online games. To be precise, SNS community games – the commonly known planting vegetables, stealing vegetables, buying and selling friends, grabbing parking spots… These social games had recently become wildly popular online, with thousands upon thousands of people addicted to them. As a fashionable person, the doctor was naturally one of them.

But his level of addiction seemed a bit excessive. The doctor had always been a perfectionist who had to do everything to the best of his ability.

So setting alarms to wake up in the middle of the night to steal vegetables was something he could definitely do. Recently, he didn’t even need to set alarms – he would automatically wake up when it was time to steal vegetables. In severe cases, he would even stay awake all night.

Therefore, it was no surprise that he was always drowsy during work hours.

“Hey! Wake up, the morning meeting is already over.” Someone was tapping the doctor’s head with the stethoscope around their neck, once and again, tirelessly.

The doctor struggled to get up from the desk and lazily yawned. Standing in front of him was a big guy who was his good friend from university. After graduation, both had joined the same hospital. This person was two days older than him, surnamed Chun, named Ge. The doctor jokingly called him Chun Ge. Whenever he loudly called out “Chun Ge” in the hospital, it would attract extremely high attention rates.

“Were you on night shift yesterday? Why are you in such poor spirits?” Chun Ge asked with concern. “During the meeting just now, judging by the director’s expression, he wanted nothing more than to throw you onto the operating table for live dissection!”

The doctor rubbed his messy hair and chuckled: “That’s probably because he woke up this morning and found his vegetables stolen by me!” Their director was an unsmiling middle-aged man whom they often joked about privately. But no one had expected that even such a serious person as the director would play online games.

“You…” Chun Ge helplessly shook his head. He wanted to lecture him but felt that everything that needed to be said had been said over these past days. He could only sigh and say: “Pay attention to yourself. You need to maintain mental focus at all times, not think about stealing vegetables during surgery!”

Chun Ge’s eyes revealed worry. Having known the doctor for almost ten years, he knew the doctor’s mental state had been very abnormal recently.

He also knew the reason – it was probably related to that unexpected surgery last month. Due to the doctor’s mistake, the patient had massive bleeding during the operation.

Although the patient was saved through emergency treatment and discharged a week ago, the doctor’s condition had never recovered. He had even started playing online games he used to disdain – this simply wasn’t like him at all!

Chun Ge wanted to say more to persuade his friend, but when the words reached his lips, they turned into a sigh.

The doctor lowered his head and laughed dryly twice. He knew very well what others were thinking. But how could Chun Ge understand his feelings? People who hadn’t experienced such things had no right to lecture him. Although the director had also specifically talked to him, saying that accidents during surgery were unavoidable, for someone who demanded perfection in everything, this was an unavoidable stain.

“She’s here again…” Chun Ge glanced at the woman standing in the corridor outside and helplessly shook his head. The doctor leaned back in his chair and scratched his messy hair, unconsciously frowning. That young woman was the patient he had nearly killed in that surgery. Although she had been discharged, she knew the surgery hadn’t gone smoothly, so she came to the hospital for check-ups every day.

And he was naturally the responsible one. Actually, examining her body was just routine and not difficult. But every time he saw the way she looked at him, his heart filled with self-reproach.

She must be blaming him, right? The doctor knew he was very decadent, but from studying medicine to now being an intern doctor, the string in his heart had been stretched too tight. Others simply couldn’t imagine the mental pressure he was under – he was like an overstretched string.

It hadn’t broken, but had already lost its resilience. He took a deep breath, stood up with a forced smile, and walked toward her.

After work, the doctor habitually headed toward Mute House. Actually, his relationship with the owner wasn’t very close – he had just wandered in by chance once and became fascinated with that place.

He knew nothing about antiques, but the owner of Mute House was amiable. He still remembered two years ago when he had just graduated and become an intern doctor at the hospital. The pressure was enormous, and for some reason, he had poured out all his complaints to the owner, who maintained a smiling face without showing any impatience.

Since then, Mute House had become a place he frequented. Sometimes without saying anything, just sitting quietly in the shop would make his body and mind feel comfortable.

Strangely enough, he had never bought anything from Mute House from beginning to end, but the owner always treated him kindly. Anyone else would have thrown him out long ago.

Just as he was thinking this, he saw Mute House’s antique-style signboard. The moment he pushed open the heavy carved wooden door, he seemed to catch a glimpse of a familiar white figure at the street corner, but when he looked carefully, there was no trace.

It must have been his illusion. The doctor smiled and entered Mute House without paying it much mind.

After he entered Mute House, that white figure emerged from the street corner again. It was a woman who looked at the place the doctor had entered with a complex expression.

If the doctor could see her now, he would discover that this person was actually the female patient he had been responsible for.

Mute House was still as dim as ever, filled with an enchanting agarwood fragrance.

The doctor took a deep breath. He had thought his favorite smell was formalin, but unexpectedly this agarwood scent could also calm his mood.

“Welcome.” The young owner sitting at the counter put down his book and stood up with a smile. The owner was still wearing a black Tang suit. On the Tang suit, a deep red dragon was embroidered on his left chest, with the long dragon body winding around his waist twice, the dragon head lying precisely on his left chest, baring its teeth and glaring with a fierce expression.

It seemed the owner had many sets of this outfit! The doctor thought idly.

“Your spirits don’t seem very good. Is there something troubling you?” The young owner’s smile deepened, his phoenix eyes seemed to see through the doctor’s thoughts but didn’t expose them.

“Sigh, I can’t sleep well at night, which is quite annoying.” The doctor quickly entered complaining mode, plopping down on the chair in front of the counter. When sitting down, he didn’t forget to be gentle with his movements – he remembered this chair seemed to be made of some yellow pear wood, Ming Dynasty furniture, quite expensive.

However, he didn’t know if it was authentic. According to the owner, every item in the shop had a long history and was priceless. Even the shop’s lighting used oil lamps – he had never found any electrical outlets here.

What era was this? There were still people living in a world without electricity?

The owner pondered for a moment and asked back: “Not sleeping well?”

“Yes, do you have any incense here that could help with sleep?” the doctor asked half-jokingly. As a doctor, he naturally wouldn’t casually take sleeping pills, but poor sleep had already affected his normal life.

He used to have very good sleep quality, but starting last month, he would wake up several times every night. Many times he would dream about that surgery where the accident occurred, with that woman lying under his scalpel covered in blood.

Of course, he didn’t hold much hope with the owner and was just asking casually. Unexpectedly, the owner quickly replied: “I don’t have incense, but I have a pillow that can help you fall asleep quickly.”

“Really?” the doctor asked incredulously.

“Have you heard of the Yellow Millet Dream?” The owner turned and went to the inner room, but his voice continued to come out: “During the Tang Dynasty, there was a scholar named Lu Sheng who was staying at an inn on his way to the capital for the imperial examination when he met a Taoist named Lv Weng. Lu Sheng lamented to him about his life of poverty and hardship. After hearing this, Lv Weng took out a pillow and gave it to Lu Sheng, saying: ‘When you sleep at night, use this pillow, and I guarantee you’ll have satisfying dreams.’ By then it was getting late, and the innkeeper began cooking yellow millet rice.”

“I remember this,” the doctor continued: “Then Lu Sheng fell asleep on the pillow and dreamed that he passed the imperial examination with high honors, married a beautiful wife, became a regional military commissioner, won battles, finally became prime minister, enjoyed wealth and glory, and was blessed with many children and grandchildren. Later, when he was over eighty, he fell seriously ill and was about to die when he suddenly woke up, realizing it had all been a dream.”

“And the rice the innkeeper was cooking wasn’t even ready yet.” The owner emerged from behind the jade screen, holding a brocade box. “This is the Yellow Millet Dream, and this is the pillow Lv Weng gave to Lu Sheng at that time, also called the Yellow Millet Pillow.”

The doctor almost burst out laughing. This was just an idiom story – it wasn’t even known if Lu Sheng had really existed in history! How could his pillow exist? However, the doctor still gave the owner face and didn’t actually laugh out loud. Although he didn’t believe it, when the owner opened the brocade box on the counter, the doctor still leaned over to take a look.

It was a porcelain pillow with lustrous celadon glaze, jade-like quality – clearly a fine piece. The doctor knew he was a layman and couldn’t understand the pillow’s origins, but he knew one thing: “A porcelain pillow? Can this be comfortable to sleep on? Sleeping on this, I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep all night.”

“Take it home and try it. I’ll lend you this pillow for a few days – just take good care of it.” The owner smiled slightly and added: “Just remember one thing – if you wake up in the middle of the night, never immediately use this pillow to go back to sleep, otherwise sweet dreams become nightmares, and nightmares become reality.”

Although the doctor was completely skeptical, it was hard to refuse such kindness, and since he had brought up the topic, how could he flatly refuse? So he could only say thank you and pick up the brocade box to leave. When he reached the door, he suddenly remembered something and asked: “By the way, in the Yellow Millet Dream, what was Lu Sheng’s final outcome?”

The owner smiled, his phoenix eyes slightly narrowing with unfathomable depth: “After experiencing this Yellow Millet Dream, Lu Sheng achieved great enlightenment, never went to the capital for the examination again, and went into the deep mountains to cultivate the Tao.”

The doctor’s hand trembled, nearly dropping the brocade box.

Returning home, he first played with Apache who welcomed him with wagging tail, casually ate some food, flipped through medical case books for a while, then the doctor couldn’t help but open his computer to play games again.

Successfully stealing eight carrots from the director’s vegetable garden, the doctor smiled smugly. The director’s avatar was a cute little boy – the doctor figured this must be the director’s 5-year-old son. He had found the director using the search function, applied to add him as a friend for five consecutive days before finally being accepted.

Just as he was about to leave, the webpage reminded him of a new system message. The doctor opened it to find a friend request – the other party’s avatar was actually a serious one-inch ID photo, it was Chun Ge.

“Didn’t expect you’d start playing too!” The doctor chuckled darkly as he approved the verification, discovering the other party’s account was newly registered with a pitifully low level, and there were no vegetables to steal in his garden. The doctor smiled mischievously, opened the friend trading option, and bought Chun Ge at a low price. This kind of game was only fun when played with people you knew. He checked his own vegetable garden again, estimated the ripening times for radishes, corn, tomatoes, strawberries, etc., and found no vegetables would be ready tonight.

Sigh, hopefully he could sleep through the night without dreams. After bathing, walking to his bed, he suddenly remembered the porcelain pillow the owner had lent him today.

Trying it shouldn’t hurt, right? The doctor opened the brocade box, carefully took out the porcelain pillow and placed it on the bed, hesitated for a moment before lying down.

It was a bit cold and quite hard. But because the grooves on the porcelain pillow’s surface perfectly fit the human body’s curves, the doctor unexpectedly found it comfortable.

Soon he fell into deep sleep.

The doctor opened his eyes and found the wall clock showed it was only 11 PM. He had only slept for about two hours. But the sleep quality was very good – he got up without any headache. It seemed this porcelain pillow really had some effect.

Apache, sleeping under the bed, lifted his head to look at his master, shook his head, changed position, and continued sleeping. The doctor touched his somewhat hungry stomach and went to the kitchen for the leftover hamburger from last night. When he opened the refrigerator, he couldn’t help but freeze.

Inside the refrigerator, neatly arranged was a whole stack of carrots, still bearing moist soil, tender and fresh, almost dripping with freshness.

No more, no less, exactly eight carrots. The doctor was stunned for a moment and slammed the refrigerator door shut – it should… should be an illusion, right? He thought in panic. He didn’t remember buying carrots when he came home tonight!

Someone who hated eating carrots like him would never buy carrots! The doctor took a deep breath and opened the refrigerator again – those eight carrots were still sitting there nicely.

What was going on? How could his refrigerator produce vegetables by itself? The doctor shuddered and quickly drove this thought from his head.

Maybe he had forgotten? The doctor refused to let his imagination run wild. He took the carrots out of the refrigerator, went downstairs to put them in the neighbor’s yard where there was a cage with several rabbits. When he returned to his room, he found someone seemed to be inside.

“Who?” The doctor picked up the long-handled umbrella by the door.

“Master, I brought you a midnight snack.” Chun Ge, wearing an apron and beaming with smiles, walked out of the kitchen carrying a plate. A burly man like him wearing an apron from who knows where – a pink apron with gorgeous ruffled edges and a huge Pleasant Goat on the chest that didn’t fit at all! His stern face wore an inappropriate motherly smile, making the doctor’s goosebumps dance collectively.

“You… what did you call me?” The doctor momentarily didn’t know whether to put down the umbrella in his hand, grip it tighter, or directly knock it on Chun Ge’s head.

“Master! Didn’t you buy me? I made you dinner, try it quickly.” Chun Ge took the umbrella from the doctor’s hand, led him to the dining table, pressed on his shoulders, and irresistibly seated him in the chair, looking at him ingratiatingly. The doctor numbly looked at the extremely sumptuous dinner on the table, smelling the enticing food aromas but having no appetite at all. Was this a joke? But he didn’t see any suspicious expression on Chun Ge’s face.

So this was for real? The doctor only felt his throat dry and his hands and feet cold – how terrifying!

“Is master not satisfied? Hmm… then let me please master. What should I do? Give a spa? Massage? Foot rub? Trim nails?” Chun Ge tilted his head in difficulty, pouted, and showed the exclusive expression of a cute little maid.

The game indeed had this option – slaves could please their masters… Stop! What was he thinking? The doctor shivered because Chun Ge had already decided to give him a spa! He was about to faint! Could he exchange for a female slave? The doctor struggled desperately, while Chun Ge seemed determined not to give up until he achieved his goal. The doctor’s physique was no match for him at all, and Apache didn’t help his master at all, instead watching with great interest from the side, barking twice occasionally – whether cheering for his master or supporting Chun Ge was unclear.

While the two were struggling, Chun Ge suddenly stopped, stood straight, and took off his apron. The doctor reflexively stepped back several steps, looking at him defensively, almost screaming: “What do you want to do?”

Chun Ge said regretfully: “What a pity, I’ve already been bought by someone else and need to hurry to my new master’s house.” After saying this, he left without staying even a moment, turning and walking away. The doctor’s face went dark. Hearing the door close, he hurriedly rushed to lock the door, then rushed back to the bedroom to turn on his computer.

Going online, opening the webpage, entering the URL. Sure enough, he had no slaves under his name – Chun Ge had just been bought by the director. Damn, did Chun Ge have to go to the director’s house so late? The doctor couldn’t imagine this and breathed a huge sigh of relief. He also realized that if he bought other people, would they really come to his house to serve him? The stolen ganoderma and ginseng would also appear in his refrigerator?

The doctor couldn’t resist such temptation and sat down at the computer.

As he expected, the slaves he bought in the game would all come to his house within ten minutes, whether he knew them or not. All the vegetables he stole in the game would immediately appear in his refrigerator, from cabbage to ginseng. All the cars he bought in the parking game would soon be parked downstairs, from Alto to Ferrari!

The doctor was completely satisfied. This was exactly the feeling he wanted to experience from playing this game.

Escaping from real society, completely away from surgeries and patients – only himself. The doctor added many friends and played with great relish until the doorbell rang again.

He opened the door to find the female patient suddenly appearing at his doorstep with a brilliant smile.

The doctor opened his eyes and found himself still lying in bed. Through the curtains, he could vaguely see dawn breaking outside. So he had indeed been dreaming. It seemed this porcelain pillow really could produce sweet dreams.

Except that last scene was a bit frightening… but it was still much better than the nightmares of recent days, where the female patient wasn’t standing there properly but was cut open, bleeding everywhere…

The doctor shuddered and forbade himself from thinking further. He lifted his head to check the time – only 4 AM. He simply turned over and fell back into deep sleep.

He had completely forgotten the owner’s warning.

Soon, the alarm clock rang shrilly, and the doctor sat up listlessly. Apache jumped onto the bed, impatiently running in circles. The doctor’s first action was rushing to the kitchen to open the refrigerator. Only after seeing no carrots, no strawberries, no tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, or any suspicious vegetables and fruits did he breathe a sigh of relief.

So it really was just a dream.

After taking Apache for a morning run, returning for simple washing and eating, the doctor was tying his tie while going downstairs when two neighbor aunties at the building entrance were arguing over some trivial matter. Without a word, they pulled the doctor in to judge their dispute.

Patiently listening to both sides and trying to mediate, he found that nothing he said was useful, so he quickly made an excuse to slip away. Just as he left the residential complex, sudden gusts of wind arose, and bean-sized raindrops fell without warning. The doctor muttered about bad luck while jogging to the hospital, but he was already half-soaked.

After the morning meeting, the doctor was assigned surgery duties. He was surprised to find himself assigned as assistant for coronary artery bypass surgery, commonly known as heart bypass surgery – a procedure Chun Ge had prepared for and anticipated for a long time. But at this crucial moment, Chun Ge had actually taken leave and didn’t appear in the meeting room.

Strangely, the female patient who came to the hospital punctually every day also didn’t come today. The doctor didn’t think much of it. Suddenly receiving this important surgery, he needed immediate preparation without much time.

Actually, the doctor really wanted to decline, but the director’s tone brooked no refusal. The doctor had been top of his class in medical school and was familiar with this surgery’s procedures. He was just afraid of another accident during surgery, so he spent the entire morning in the hospital library, researching while simulating surgical steps.

The surgery was scheduled for 1 PM. The well-prepared doctor stood before the operating table with the director as lead surgeon and himself as first assistant.

His hand still trembled slightly when holding the scalpel. During surgery, he found that standing here again wasn’t as difficult as imagined.

General anesthesia, hypothermia, extracorporeal circulation, cardiac arrest, vessel harvesting, bypass… The surgery proceeded very smoothly – that is to say, until the surgery was almost complete, before the heart-lung machine stopped and converted to internal circulation, everything went smoothly. But during the final suturing, the heart suddenly spurted massive amounts of blood, spraying his unprepared face completely. Warm blood flowed down his cheeks as the doctor heard in panic the heart monitor’s alarm as the ECG became a flat line.

“Smack!” The patient who had been lying on the operating table suddenly moved, then shakily sat up. The doctor looked up in shock to discover this patient was actually the woman from his previous surgical accident!

Her pale face was full of resentment, and even more hair-raising was that her chest cavity was still open, allowing clear view of the heart that had stopped beating, continuously gushing blood. “It’s you! You killed me!” the young woman shouted furiously through gritted teeth, casually tearing off various IV tubes and jumping down from the operating table to walk toward him step by step.

“No! No! I didn’t mean to!” The doctor almost reflexively retreated several steps, his whole body tense, but there wasn’t much space behind him to retreat – within a few steps he hit the wall. He had no mental capacity to think that while his surgical error was real, this female patient hadn’t actually died.

The woman’s face slowly approached, half-smiling, looking ghostly, combined with her open chest cavity creating indescribable eeriness.

One step, two steps, three steps… The doctor could even smell the bloody scent emanating from her body.

He was done for! He was definitely dead this time! The doctor closed his eyes in despair.

“Huff! Huff!” The doctor woke from his nightmare to find Apache on top of him, washing his face with its tongue. The sensation of blood in his dream was so real – could it have been Apache’s saliva? The doctor gasped heavily, looking at the rays of sunlight streaming through the curtain gaps into the room, feeling confused about what was real and what was dream.

The helpless feeling from the dream still lingered in his heart, leaving him with vague terror. Like a drowning person watching themselves being swallowed by darkness, wanting to scream but unable to make a sound. Large drops of sweat flowed from his forehead as the doctor reached to embrace Apache to stop it from moving, but his palm touched something ice-cold.

It was the porcelain pillow.

The jade-like glaze emitted an eerie glow in the sunlight, the bone-chilling cold penetrating from his palm made the chill in the doctor’s heart continuously surge.

Why did he have such dreams? Almost identical to the previous surgical accident. Although that patient’s hemorrhaging had been stopped, if the surgery in his dream really occurred, the patient’s life would be in grave danger. But why would there suddenly be massive bleeding?

The doctor painfully held his head, thinking for a long time until Apache couldn’t help jumping up and down, finally making the doctor realize he was troubled by a mere dream. He couldn’t help pinching his face – it was indeed very painful.

This time, he should have truly awakened, right?

The doctor couldn’t help looking back at the porcelain pillow he had used all night. Although he had slept soundly, this night of dreaming was extremely exhausting. All scenes were vividly clear, not like ordinary dreams at all, but as if they had really happened.

He hurriedly washed up. Apache was already squatting by the door wagging its tail, consciously biting the leash, waiting for the doctor to take it for a morning run. Just as the doctor was about to open the door, he suddenly remembered his every move in the dream, and his hand froze.

Looking at the resentful Apache, although feeling sorry, he still decided to cancel the morning run. After breakfast, preparing to leave, the doctor inexplicably took the umbrella from behind the door – although today’s weather forecast hadn’t mentioned rain.

He went downstairs to find two neighbor aunties arguing at the building entrance, the scene and cause seeming familiar, instantly giving him goosebumps. Panic made him avoid them without even greeting, keeping his head down.

Just coincidence, he thought uneasily. However, when reaching the complex entrance, sudden gusts arose and raindrops arrived as predicted in his dream. The doctor opened his umbrella and walked toward the hospital.

Coincidence! Everything was coincidence! he told himself through gritted teeth.

The street scenery was the same as usual. Walking with his umbrella, the doctor gradually felt he was being overly sensitive. The two neighbor aunties had always disliked each other, and summer showers were common.

He took a deep breath of fresh, moist air, feeling refreshed.

The hospital’s morning meeting was as boring as usual. The doctor specifically searched the meeting room and found Chun Ge really hadn’t come. The female patient who stood punctually in the corridor waiting for his examinations every day also didn’t appear.

Everything was like a replay of his dream. These two things couldn’t be called coincidences, making the doctor feel somewhat panicked.

“Chun Ge took leave today. You’ll take over the surgery he was responsible for.” The director stopped beside the doctor, handing him a thick medical file.

The doctor was startled, taking the file with trembling hands under the director’s puzzled gaze. He stared at the file for a long time before mustering courage to open it – coronary artery bypass surgery!

Nightmare replay! A chill crawled up his spine as the doctor went weak all over. He remembered the owner’s final warning – “Just remember one thing – if you wake up in the middle of the night, never immediately use this pillow to go back to sleep, otherwise sweet dreams become nightmares, and nightmares become reality.”

The doctor shivered hard.

“Smack!” He slapped his cheeks hard with both hands.

He wouldn’t give up. This was true reality now! The doctor carefully examined the patient’s file. He still remembered exactly where the bleeding occurred in last night’s dream, but couldn’t see any problems in his examination. He repeatedly considered various possibilities but made no progress.

The afternoon surgery proceeded as originally planned. The doctor stood in the first assistant position, with all scenes and people startlingly identical to last night’s dream. Like a recorded movie replaying frame by frame before his eyes.

The surgery began just as smoothly. Combined with last night’s dream, the doctor was essentially doing it for the second time. But this time, before stopping the heart-lung machine and converting to internal circulation, the doctor stopped the director, insisting on another careful examination.

The director standing opposite frowned. Although this was a difficult surgery, everything was normal. The doctor almost held his breath, watching the director intently. He knew he was just an intern – in the operating room, the lead surgeon was the one who really called the shots.

The director felt there was no problem. Since the doctor was unwilling to suture, he would do it himself. “Stop heart-lung machine, convert to internal circulation.”

Everyone else in the operating room looked sympathetically at the stunned doctor. They all knew about his previous surgical error and naturally assumed his insistence was just his obsession. The doctor didn’t know how to prevent all this from happening. Things continued developing according to his dream, except this time the person suturing was the director.

The moment the needle and thread passed through the heart valve, the scene from the doctor’s dream appeared – the patient’s heart suddenly spurted massive amounts of blood! The heart monitor emitted sharp alarms! The doctor reacted extremely quickly. He clearly remembered where the bleeding point was in his dream. Just as blood began spurting, he stepped forward and clamped that artery with hemostatic forceps!

Chaos erupted in the operating room.

“Convert to extracorporeal circulation!” Sweat poured down the director’s forehead like water while nearby nurses continuously wiped it for him. Artificial tubing immediately drew venous blood from the patient’s body, passed it through the continuous heart-lung machine for external oxygenation, then returned it to the patient’s body.

The doctor looked up at the heart monitor beside him. The patient’s heartbeat had become a flat line, the piercing sound overlapping with his dream… Everything was exactly the same as in his dream…

Mute House’s door was pushed open. The owner put down his book and looked with slight surprise at the person entering. “Why are you here so late?”

The doctor couldn’t hide his exhausted expression, carefully placing the brocade box in his hands on the counter. “The surgery ran two hours longer than planned. When I left the hospital, it was already dark.”

“Did the surgery go smoothly?” the owner asked with a smile.

The doctor nodded and sat down heavily, collapsing weakly in the chair. “It was already a complex surgery, and I took it over at the last minute. You wouldn’t understand the surgical details anyway, but… in the end, the surgery was very successful!”

“That’s good.” The owner seemed to already know this result, his smile unchanged. The doctor opened the brocade box in front of him, quietly looking at the porcelain pillow lying on the silk cloth. After a long silence, he said: “I’m returning this porcelain pillow to you.”

“What? Still can’t sleep?” The owner raised an eyebrow.

“No, I’m truly grateful for it. The sweet dreams it gave me were very real.” The nightmares were equally real. The doctor didn’t have the courage to voice the second half of his sentence. He was a doctor who fundamentally didn’t believe in such supernatural things, which made him afraid. Like a curse, he repeatedly wondered after surgery – if he hadn’t been greedy for sweet dreams, would the nightmare scenario still have occurred in reality?

He didn’t want to know the answer. Dreams were dreams, reality was reality. He didn’t want to struggle every night when sleeping to distinguish whether he was dreaming or not. Or perhaps he had actually been immersed in that nightmare from a month ago, unable to extricate himself for a long time.

After today’s surgery, the usually stern director had exceptionally praised him, truly waking him from his nightmare. One surgical failure didn’t equal failure in all future surgeries. No other irreversible mistakes had been made. This was no different from his school days – he had never given up studying because of one failed exam.

The doctor secretly clenched his fists, thinking what a bastard he’d been this past month.

One should face their mistakes honestly to move forward better.

The owner didn’t ask more questions, reaching out to grasp the doctor’s fist on the counter, smiling comfortingly: “On smooth roads, people can walk through successfully, but only on muddy roads can human footprints be left.”

The owner’s hand was very cool. “Although nightmares may come true, they’re not necessarily unchangeable,” the owner said meaningfully. The doctor looked up, seeing the deep black in the owner’s eyes, feeling his smile seemed to see through his thoughts.

At this moment, Mute House’s carved door was pushed open from outside, and a young woman in a white dress entered. Her gaze fell on the doctor’s and owner’s overlapping hands, and she couldn’t help but freeze. Seeing her, the doctor immediately jumped up from his chair. This pale-faced woman was exactly the female patient he had nearly failed to save in his previous surgery.

Seeing the doctor, a blush crossed the woman’s pale face. She seemed to have recovered considerably, her voice gentle and soft: “Hello, I went to the hospital this afternoon and heard you had surgery, so I wanted to talk to you no matter what.”

The doctor awkwardly lowered his head. Though hesitant, he still firmly apologized: “I’m sorry. I should have formally apologized to you long ago, but I couldn’t face it myself.” The candlelight in the shop flickered, making the woman’s expression seem changeable. The owner still stood behind the counter, smiling faintly.

“Pfft!” The woman looked at the doctor, then at the owner, finally unable to suppress her laughter. “What! So that’s how it is. I wondered how such an excellent man as the doctor could possibly not have a girlfriend? So that’s why… no wonder… no wonder you run to this shop every night… Doctor, goodbye! I won’t come bother you anymore. My body has actually been completely healed for a long time!”

The woman shook her head as she finished speaking and walked out on her own, leaving the two men in the shop looking at each other in bewilderment.

“She… what did she mean?” The doctor was completely confused.

“She’s very pretty and has feelings for you, so she came to find you for physical examinations every day. Didn’t you notice?” The owner revealed the problem that had troubled the doctor for so long, then sat back down nonchalantly to continue reading his book.

“No… I only have impressions of her lying on the operating table after being cut open…” the doctor thought seriously and said.

The owner lifted his eyelids and smiled strangely, not knowing who he was talking about: “Sigh, how pitiful.”

“Hey! Who are you calling pitiful? And what did she mean by that last comment?” The doctor felt uncomfortable whenever he saw the owner’s expression, as if he’d been calculated.

The owner leisurely drank tea and read his book. The doctor, finding no fun in his tantrum, huffily left. Listening to the departing footsteps, the owner smiled and put down his book, taking the porcelain pillow from the brocade box and carefully polishing it with deerskin cloth.

“Huang Liang, it seems this time was also very successful. Not only did we save a life, but we also awakened that fellow. In the future, he’ll definitely become an excellent doctor, saving countless people.” The owner spoke as if to himself. The porcelain pillow seemed to understand his words, its jade-like surface becoming even more lustrous and smooth.

Mute House’s door was pushed open once again.

“Welcome.” The owner looked up, showing his trademark smile, his voice scattering in this dim little shop.

By the door, the candle flames still flickered quietly, as if asking:

Who will this next customer be?