When the Wild Beast is Trapped in the Nightmare Cycle (BL)
Chapter 312: Echo of the Past (1)

Chapter 312: Echo of the Past (1)

"...an..."

"..Nian!"

"Wake up, Nian!"

Nian felt a sensation akin to falling and his body jerked awake, his eyes snapping open with a gasp. He was met with the sight of large windows with dazzling sunlight filtering in through the rustling leaves. A sudden wave of vertigo washed over him and he squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to regain his bearings.

The person who had roused him awake called out again, this time with more urgency, accompanied by light slaps on his shoulder. "Hey, hey, how much longer are you planning to sleep? The professor is almost here!"

Professor?

Nian raised his head in a daze, only to realize that he was currently in a bustling classroom filled with dozens of students. The morning sky was a clear azure, and the air held the coolness of late autumn. He took in the sight of the smiles, chatter and laughter around him in a bewildered state, and it was not until someone waved their hand in front of his face that he snapped out of his reverie.

"Hello, Earth to Nian! What’s wrong with you? Gosh, your face looks so bad! Do you have a nightmare?"

Nian turned to the person seated beside him. It took him a second to recall that this was his roommate and close friend. "It... seems so?" he replied with a soft exhale, pinching his brows. A dull throb pulsed at the base of his skull, and his thoughts were all jumbled up like a messy ball of yarn that had yet to be unraveled. A fleeting thought flickered in his mind, but before he could grasp it, it slipped away from him like fine sand slipping through his fingers. In frustration, he shook his head, "I can’t remember."

The other person laughed, "Aren’t all dreams like that? I’ve also had countless dreams of beautiful meimeis[1], but I can never remember their faces once I woke up. Such a shame!"

Nian scoffed, slightly amused. He did not tell how instead of a beautiful meimei, he had dreamed of a man. Or was it a beast? He could not quite recall.

What lingered most vividly in his mind were a pair of beautiful yet terrifying eyes fixed upon him amidst the dark. Those eyes glowed in an inhumane intensity, and the different colored pupils only added to the mysterious charm. Nian tried to summon the man’s appearance to no avail, as his memory was getting more and more blurred with each passing second. The most vivid impression he had was the overwhelming pressure that weighed down on him, unlike anything he had ever felt before. It was as if his body could be crushed into pulp simply by gazing into those eyes. Yet instead of fear, all he felt was sadness. His heart ached terribly, and the sorrow that engulfed him was so intense that it brought tears to his eyes.

For some inexplicable reason, he could tell that the man was suffering. He was tormented by extreme pain, and it almost felt like Nian could feel a fraction of his agony as though there was an invisible thread connecting the two of them together.

But how could that be possible? Everything was merely a dream, after all.

He shook his head to dispel the wayward thought. Just in time, the professor walked in and stepped onto the podium. Nian swiftly tossed the hazy dream to the back of his mind and shifted his attention to the lecture, ready to listen and take notes.

As the morning class commenced, the once-boisterous classroom fell into a hushed silence, only broken by the professor’s steady voice delivering his lecture. However, Nian found himself unable to focus like he always did. He would jot down a word or two in his notebook, only to pause as his mind wandered aimlessly like the seed of dandelion floating along the breeze.

He pressed his lips into thin lines and pinched himself, growing more and more frustrated. What the hell was wrong with him today? It was truly unlike him to daydream, in his favorite class to boot!

Alas, despite his best efforts, Nian couldn’t shake off the nagging sensation on the back of his mind. This was a familiar classroom, a familiar scenery, a familiar sequence. He was surrounded by people whom he would see every single day.

So why... why did everything feel so foreign, as if he had never gone through this kind of routine before?

***

The strange feeling persisted until the end of the morning classes. When his close friend invited him to the cafeteria together, he refused with the excuse that he was feeling a little unwell. His friend insisted on bringing lunch back to him, leaving Nian with no choice but to accept the kind offer. Slinging his bag over his shoulder, he exited the classroom and made his way back to the dormitory as if he was sleepwalking.

His dorm room was on the third floor, and he was currently sharing it with three others. Nian went through the familiar motions of retrieving his key, unlocking the door and entering the room. However, he halted in his tracks when he laid eyes on the interior.

With knitted brows, he slowly stepped in and closed the door behind him. The strange feeling arose in his heart again. He swept his gaze over the room, taking in the space where he slept each night and a cluttered table full of books and sticky notes typical of a university student.

So where did this strong sense of incongruity come from? Why was he getting the impression that... he had never stayed in such a small and shabby room before? His bedroom, in his mind, should have been spacious and elegantly decorated, with a large wall-mounted TV, a queen-sized bed draped in silk sheets and a canopy, and floor-to-ceiling windows that provided breathtaking views of—

His thoughts came to an abrupt halt, much like an old television which suddenly malfunctioned, leaving nothing but a blank and dark screen. Nian shook his head and chuckled wryly, "Damn, you’re really losing it, Nian. What? Did you dream of becoming a rich young master?"

Not wanting to dwell on this useless thought, he kicked off his shoes, entered the room and nonchalantly dropped his bag onto the table. "Maybe I should take a shower to clear my mind..." he muttered to himself. He grabbed a set of clean clothes from the wardrobe and made his way into the bathroom. Soon enough, the soothing sound of running water was heard from within.

Had he been a little more attentive, perhaps he would have noticed a series of bold characters written on the random sticky notes affixed to the wall across from his table. They looked as if they had been deliberately written to catch his attention. If the messy notes were lined up, these characters would form a sequence that spelled out:

A - P - O - C - A - L - Y - P - S - E

.

.

[1] Meimei = little sister