In the afternoon, when the sunlight was strong, an unnamed flag was flying on the flagpole, and I could faintly see its black background from a distance. I stood at the entrance of the building, waiting.
The sunlight was warm, brighter than any artificial light source. I leaned against a tree and observed the dancing dust in the sunlight.
Footsteps gradually approached from a distance, and my companion arrived.
We walked slowly together, as if taking a leisurely stroll. I didn't ask, and he didn't answer until we walked out of the long avenue of trees, and we spoke our first words.
"Do you want to go out?" he asked.
"Okay," I replied. It was simple, but we made a very important decision.
Outside the gate of this complex was a road, and it seemed like there was nothing on the other side, like emptiness. The street was congested with cars constantly moving forward.
I walked with my companion for a long time, but the scenery on the road seemed to be the same every second. I turned back to look for the gate of the complex, but all I saw was emptiness. I turned around suddenly, and the previously repeating road disappeared. In its place was a crowded street, covered by thick gray clouds, as if the whole world had become dim, chaotic, and shattered in an instant.
Like experiencing a war...
My vision also became dark, unable to focus accurately. My mind seemed a bit hazy, as if I had been hit on the head.
My companion started walking forward, his steps firm yet heavy. I stumbled and followed, suddenly noticing that everyone around me was wearing masks, and even my own face had a "thick" mask on it, I didn't know when it appeared.
The crowd didn't notice my companion or me, their eyes filled with fear and numbness towards death.
I didn't know where this place was, or what troubled them, but I had no time to care now, I just wanted to keep up with my companion who had already started jogging ahead.
When I caught up with him, he seemed to be communicating with a vendor. In front of the vendor was an oven, emitting the brightest light in this place. I looked at my companion's gradually blurred face and turned and left.
At the moment I decided to leave, the scenery in front of my eyes disappeared rapidly, and the previous road appeared again, but the weather seemed much darker. However, the sun in the sky was still there, and my heart calmed down a bit as I looked at the traffic on the street.
The traffic had become sparse, so I hurriedly stopped a taxi. But most of the taxis seemed to be full, and only one taxi without any passengers stopped in front of me. I opened the door and got in, but when I entered, I found that the roof of the car was gone...
Just as I was about to ask the driver about the roof, his face suddenly changed, and he turned his head sharply, his eyes lifeless and hollow, staring at me. His face was covered with wrinkles, like the uneven marks on a wall, crawling all over his face. His hair was sparse, but completely gray. The question I wanted to ask was choked back.
The car was still moving forward, but the old man who looked almost at the end of his life was still looking back at me, his eyes seemed to devour me. "Sir, how old are you? You're still driving a taxi?" I asked tentatively.
The old man's expression didn't change at all, but I could hear his emotions from his tone: "I'm almost 120 years old, I'm still trying to get my language level 6 certificate. I've been taking the test for over 20 years! If I don't pass, I won't live much longer... Now I owe a lot of money. At my age, with only a language level 6, who would want me? I can only drive a taxi..." His speech was slow, but the scenery outside the car was changing rapidly. He didn't seem to have any intention of looking ahead while speaking, just looking at me and slowly talking about his difficulties, as if he wasn't the one driving at the moment.
After he finished speaking, I remembered the disappearing car roof, but when I looked up again, the car roof appeared again.
"The car roof..." I was about to ask about the roof, but the driver suddenly changed his expression, started muttering something ominously, and then shouted at me, "Don't ask what shouldn't be asked!"
His voice trembled, hoarse, old, angry, resentful, fearful, and embarrassed. It seemed that all negative emotions could be heard in that shout. After he shouted, his figure gradually faded away, as if he had never been here...
At this moment, the door of the taxi suddenly opened, and there was a woman standing outside. She looked very kind, but at this moment, she reached out her hand towards me. At first, I didn't react and was grabbed by her cold hand on my arm. The coldness seemed to freeze me. After being caught, I suddenly woke up and started to struggle hard, but her hand wrapped around me again, not just one hand, but a second, a third...
I tried my best to struggle, but in the end, it was all in vain. Her three hands tightly held onto me, the coldness piercing my heart.
She slowly approached, murmuring in a vague and incomprehensible language near me. My consciousness gradually became blurred and plunged into darkness.
In the "dream," I seemed to be listening to a song, and its lyrics kept repeating the miracle of the "Three-eyed Guanyin," even with a music video PV. I tried to drag the progress bar. Unexpectedly, this evangelistic song could be fast-forwarded, so I dragged the progress bar to the end.
With the long and melodious chant at the end of the song, I struggled to get up from the seat and saw my companion sitting next to me, who had just separated. I asked him, "Where is the driver?"
He casually pointed to the distance outside the window, "Maybe over there."
At this moment, a voice full of righteousness came from outside the car, "No, how many times have I told you not to open the car door when the driver is not here? You just don't listen, right? Now, whose fault is it?"
The dream abruptly ended...