Eight in the morning.
Some people are clocking out, some are clocking in.
Yu Jin was a member of the Post-Disaster Investigation Team and had been working at the Bureau since graduation.
8:00 AM was his wake-up time. He turned off the alarm, washed up, cooked, and quickly tidied everything up in no time, sitting down at the dining table to enjoy his breakfast.
The dining table wasn't large, with only two seats and two breakfasts set out.
Yu Jin sat on one side, eating slowly and methodically. Only after swallowing all the food in his mouth did he glance at the other breakfast beside him, saying with lingering interest:
“Once you find the Dream Core, you just kill it. It was just a kid, there was no need to scare him like that, right?”
Even so, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. Clearly, he found it amusing himself.
There was no response beside him.
After hesitating for a moment, Yu Jin grabbed the second breakfast and quickly wolfed it down. As he ate, he muttered in disgust, “Tsk, what a pain.”
Yu Jin was helpless, but he couldn't say much. After all, he wasn't the one who did the work last night.
He could only chew quickly, swallow it down, wipe the corners of his mouth, and ask again, “You didn't get caught, did you?”
Yu Jin froze, crumpled the tissue in his hand into a ball, and threw it carelessly on the table, feeling slightly annoyed.
“If you're afraid of being caught, don't go looking for trouble. It's not like the Special Response Team doesn't do their job. Since when is it a Post-Disaster Investigation Team clerk's turn to worry about them?”
Yu Jin helplessly picked up the paper ball, threw it into the trash can, quickly tidied up the dining table, grabbed his briefcase, and pushed the door open. Facing the morning twilight, he took a deep breath and said, “But they aren't as efficient as you.”
Yu Jin stopped talking. He tried hard to control the upward curve of his lips, let out a “Tsk,” and strode toward the Bureau.
The Bureau's full name was the Nightmare Disaster Emergency Response Bureau, specializing in dealing with Nightmare Disasters that occurred all over the city.
In this world, human dreams had a chance of triggering a catastrophe. Such disasters mostly materialized in reality through nightmares, which was why they were called Nightmare Disasters.
The outbreak of a Nightmare Disaster followed no pattern. When it descended, it was equivalent to projecting a certain dream world onto a corner of reality. As the Nightmare Disaster spread and developed, these projections would gradually solidify, overlap, and even replace reality.
To protect reality from being replaced, the Dream Monitoring and Management Committee came into being.
The Bureau was one of the most important branches under the Dream Committee, and the Post-Disaster Investigation Team was subordinate to the Bureau.
This was a relatively leisure department. It neither required rushing to the front lines of Nightmare Disasters to fight for one's life, nor did it require wrapping up the destruction caused by the disasters.
They only needed to conduct follow-up visits after everything had settled down, re-investigating the state of the primary parties and involved persons in the Nightmare Disaster, recording relevant information, and incidentally making them relive their fears—serving a role of essentially making work for themselves.
Of course, it wasn't completely useless.
At least the relevant data could provide some redundant denominator volume for the scholars at the Dream Exploration and Development Research Institute, helping them firmly believe that their lack of results wasn't due to their own incompetence, but because there was too much complicated data.
The department was good, but not just anyone could get in unless they had connections.
Yu Jin couldn't be considered well-connected. He had simply lost his father, a Bureau agent, in one Nightmare Disaster, and his older brother, also a Bureau agent, in another.
Two losses exchanged for one gain.
A bloody profit! Literally, earned with blood.
Therefore, Yu Jin highly cherished this job opportunity. He worked hard to do well in everything that fell to him, but fate always liked to play little jokes on him.
Arriving at the office just in the nick of time, he walked in to find his direct superior standing at the door waiting for him.
The director of the Post-Disaster Investigation Team was surnamed Mei, a hot-tempered old lady.
She was considered a veteran in the entire Bureau. It was said that when she was young, she was an agent of the Special Response Team, constantly rushing to the front lines of Nightmare Disasters. Only after her husband, son, and daughter-in-law had all sacrificed their lives to protect this city was she persuaded by the Bureau's upper echelon to withdraw to the rear.
At first, she was unwilling to give up, wanting to die on the battlefield alongside her family. But since learning that there were many people in the Post-Disaster Investigation Team just like her, who struggled to step out of the shadows of losing their loved ones, she chose in silence to stay and became the head of the investigation team.
Director Mei, with her graying hair and dressed in plain clothes, stuffed a stack of reports into Yu Jin's arms, her voice full of vigor as she said:
“Last night, there was a brief, large-scale consciousness disturbance on Qingniao Street, suspected of generating a Nightmare Disaster. Special Response Team 6 took over the disposal operation. While rushing to the scene, they found that the Nightmare Disaster signal had disappeared, so they reported it to the Bureau.
The higher-ups have asked our team to investigate the situation to prevent any hidden dangers. Xiao Yu, you go.”
Yu Jin was a bit dazed. Pointing at himself, he said, “Me... Me?”
“Is there any difficulty?”
Director Mei did things with thunderous efficiency, so her expectations of her subordinates were naturally the same.
Yu Jin casually flipped through the report and took a few glances, finding that it was indeed about last night's events.
This was simply too exaggerated. The Nightmare Disaster had clearly been resolved by himself, and the Special Response Team had, at most, just made a round trip on the road. How could they write a report thicker than a fist in a single night?
Are they writing a web novel? So much filler.
He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He thought to himself that there were no other difficulties; the biggest difficulty was the fear of being recognized by that child.
To avoid embarrassment, he tried to excuse himself. “Director, I've only just arrived at the office...”
Director Mei's face darkened as she criticized, “The workplace of the Post-Disaster Investigation Team can be anywhere, except the office.
This case is also being watched by the Special Response Team. Provide a conclusion early so as not to distract the front-line agents. Go on.
Oh right, before you leave, go to Xiao Tang to get the things.”
Having said her piece, Director Mei left as quickly as a gust of wind.
Get things? What things?
Yu Jin was somewhat baffled. He put away the report and walked into the office.
The office was dead silent. Unlike its usual lively self, today it was lifeless.
The familiar colleagues were not at their workstations. Frowning, Yu Jin walked to Tang Yaoting's desk with a look of confusion.
Tang Yaoting was Yu Jin's classmate and best friend, an ironclad relationship forged from getting the exact same scores on their test papers.
His ability to join the investigation team was also for the same reason as Yu Jin's.
Only, Tang Yaoting wasn't like Yu Jin. He was care-free and happy-go-lucky, just slacking off day by day, beautifully dubbing it: “My old man traded his life to get me a relaxing job. If I still try to grind, would I be doing him justice?”
Whether others understood or not, Director Mei did anyway, so Tang Yaoting became the idlest person in the entire Team 4.
When Yu Jin arrived, Tang Yaoting was catching up on sleep at his workstation. Hearing the movement, he lifted his eyelids to glance at Yu Jin and pointed at a bouquet of fresh flowers on the desk. “There, bought by Director Mei.”
Seeing the flowers, Yu Jin finally remembered that today was a special day.
A full year had passed since that Nightmare Disaster, the very one in which his older brother had left.
He had originally wanted to set the day after he learned of his brother's death as his brother's death anniversary, but he hadn't expected Director Mei to prepare a bouquet of flowers for him on the one-year anniversary of the Nightmare Disaster.
So that was where today's task came from; she had given him a day of field leave?
Tang Yaoting stood up and patted Yu Jin. “Let's go. What are you dazed for?”
“You're coming with me?”
“Of course. I haven't seen Brother Xiang in a long time, so it's good to go pay my respects. Let him bless me more from down below, preferably by blessing me to find a good wife.”
Tang Yaoting smilingly pushed Yu Jin out. Yu Jin held the flowers in his hand, feeling a strange mix of emotions.
...
Changming Cemetery.
As the only cemetery used for burying Bureau agents who died in Nightmare Disasters, this place was brightly lit year-round, with the lights never going out even during the day.
They had sacrificed their lives for this city, so the people of the city did not want them to suffer the fears of the long night ever again.
Strangely enough, the sky had been clear and cloudless in the morning, but by the time Yu Jin arrived at the cemetery, the sky had gradually darkened. Inside the thickly accumulating clouds, an elusive heavy rain seemed to be brewing.
Tang Yaoting went to park the car, while Yu Jin, holding the bouquet of flowers, walked into the cemetery along the path.
The place was cold and desolate, with very few people coming to pay their respects. This was because frequent memorials would stimulate obsessive longing, and obsessive longing could easily turn into a murderous nightmare at night.
Yu Jin hadn't been here many times, but he clearly remembered where his brother's grave was.
He walked deeper along the path and soon arrived at the spot. As he drew near, he suddenly saw a woman holding an umbrella standing in front of his brother's grave.
Yu Jin froze and looked up at the sky.
It clearly wasn't raining yet. Why was she holding an umbrella?
Wait!
That's not right!
Who is she?
...
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