Dream and reality, what exactly is the difference?

One could say it's vast,

But also that they're separated by only a hair's breadth.

Zhuang Zhou once posed a philosophical question in his Butterfly Dream: If a dream is real enough, will a person still be able to realize they are dreaming?

Zhou Ze felt that way now. Originally, he might have been merely a borrowed perspective, dragged into this dream, where he regarded himself as an observer.

Nothing more than watching a more realistic and interactive movie.

But as the dream deepened, Boss Zhou was slowly drawn into it, beginning to feel the joys, sorrows, and angers of the characters in the dream, and touching their emotions.

It was clearly a human experimentation lab that treated living people as *maruta* (logs); living people here were the cheapest materials, consumed every day.

But within the prison, the shackles were constructed by lies as something everyone actively craved. Zhou Ze wasn't clear on the specific meaning of the shackles, but it was probably just an excuse; it wasn't hard to guess.

For example, exchanging prisoners of war, or freeing a prisoner every day, as the masterminds here, they had too many ways to create beautiful dreams for the lambs under their control, giving them the hope to continue living strongly in this harsh environment.

This little bit of hope, the "hope" that could be seen every day, was enough to allow most people to tenaciously overcome the devastation brought by the harsh living conditions, allowing them to be preserved as much as possible, and then used as experimental subjects.

Zhou Ze couldn't forget the scene of the husband, after fighting tooth and nail, finally getting a shackle and putting it on his pregnant wife;

In that husband's view, he had done the best he could. He gave up his own chance to leave, giving this chance to his wife, to his child in his wife's belly.

However, his wife had just died in agony on the operating table, and his child was cut out to continue the experiments, in exchange for the white coats' exclamation of

"Yoshi!"

Each laboratory was working on its own project: infant bacterial experiments, limb reattachment experiments, even human-animal hybrid experiments. From a modern perspective, these were almost fairy tales and utter nonsense, but here they were being carried out day and night.

It wasn't that the Japanese here were indulging in *chuunibyou* (middle-school syndrome) and flights of fancy, nor that they really lacked sufficient professional knowledge, but because their living specimen raw materials were too abundant and continuous, so they could experiment and try out those fairy tale-like ideas and concepts as freely as possible.

After all, for them, the cheapest thing was the cost, and the thing they lacked the least was also the cost.

Zhou Ze had been to hell, seen the Road to the Yellow Springs, and looked upon the other shore flowers, but honestly, in this dream, in this place, he seemed to have truly witnessed what a real "hell" was.

The sense of immersion, in fact, came from this: accumulated bit by bit, slowly immersing.

And therefore,

When that huge safe with metal tubes inserted into it emitted that roar,

Zhou Ze's gaze once again turned to that place,

The place he had noticed from the beginning.

Originally, he thought it was a blood bank, because he had seen the white coats draw blood from it and inject it into pregnant women, including the blood injected into his own body, which was grafted from the metal tubes outside the safe.

The young white coat was now extremely dejected and shivering with fear, muttering something, but Zhou Ze couldn't understand it anyway.

And at this time, whether it was the shouts of the white coat or the muffled sound of the safe, in short, more and more white coats began to gather in this laboratory.

Most people's faces were filled with terror, as if they had a natural awe for the things inside the safe, but there were also a few old fellows with gray hair who were filled with excitement and eagerness to try.

Zhou Ze, the experimental subject, was instead ignored at this time. Zhou Ze felt that he had just broken a small record, but it seemed that no one noticed him.

Several of the oldest, or rather highest-ranking, white coats began to argue fiercely, their faces red with anger, and none of them were willing to back down.

Listening to the constant clamor of languages he couldn't understand, Zhou Ze felt a headache coming on.

At this time, the young white coat who had led Zhou Ze to crawl over walked to an older one, pointed at Zhou Ze, and said something. The older one waved his hand impatiently, as if to say that it was inconsiderate of you to bother me with such trivial matters at this time.

The young white coat kept saying "Hai" "Hai", accepting the criticism with a respectful and sincere expression.

Then he walked over and dragged Zhou Ze out of this laboratory.

Perhaps,

They didn't have time to deal with him for the time being, and he did have a small breakthrough in the experiment, so it was still useful to keep him, Zhou Ze thought in his heart.

The young white coat didn't send Zhou Ze back to the prison cell; obviously, it was impossible to be sent back to the prison cell, because Zhou Ze had seen the true meaning of the shackles. For these white coats, they wanted their *maruta* to live more strongly so that they could be used for experiments.

Zhou Ze was pushed into a slightly larger room, about half the size of a basketball court. The young white coat tied Zhou Ze to a metal frame with a thin iron chain, then talked to a few white coats working inside, and then rushed back to the original laboratory.

Zhou Ze sat here. At first, he was still thinking, thinking about the muffled sound that had just occurred, thinking about that safe, but soon, Zhou Ze's attention was drawn to the room he was in now.

The room had a huge container made of metal and glass. Through the glass, he could see the situation inside.

There was a woman and a girl inside. They seemed to be a mother and daughter, because the little girl was snuggling up to the woman, and the woman was stroking the girl's head to comfort her.

Several white coats outside, one with a camera, one with a timer and writing some data reports, and two others standing next to a blower-like thing next to the container, started operating the machine.

At first,

Zhou Ze didn't know what kind of experiment this was,

Slowly,

He understood,

Because the principle of the experiment was very simple: they were constantly extracting air from the container, and a meter showed the real-time pressure inside the container.

As the air was constantly extracted,

Zhou Ze saw that the mother and daughter in the container were all lying on the ground, their expressions extremely painful.

The little girl broke away from her mother's control, crawled to the edge of the container, and kept hitting the container from the outside, but her cries and weeping received no response.

The white coats around were all doing their own work, methodically and very skillfully.

Finally,

The little girl looked at Zhou Ze, who was tied in the corner.

She was asking Zhou Ze for help.

She couldn't tell,

That Zhou Ze was also one of them, and couldn't save her at all. Perhaps, this was the innocence of a child, and her mother may have long foreseen the end, and instead appeared somewhat calm.

Zhou Ze looked at the girl in the container,

The girl in the container was also looking at him,

Two pairs of eyes, just like that, met each other.

Zhou Ze wanted to do something, but he couldn't break free from the ropes. He was already trying, already working hard. This meant that, unconsciously, Zhou Ze had forgotten that he was just a moviegoer, forgotten that he was just an observer. He was drawn into it; he wanted to do something; he wanted to stop everything that was about to happen before him.

In fact, he wanted to stop… what had already happened.

Originally, even the most solid chains were like paper in front of his fingernails, but now, he couldn't do anything about it.

As the air continued to be drawn out,

This scene,

Made one's scalp tingle.

You could feel her joys, sorrows, and angers,

Could feel her pain,

And,

Her despair.

"Splatter…"

Her body twitched for a while,

And then fell to the ground in despair,

She finally no longer stared at Zhou Ze.

After the air was drawn to its limit,

After taking photos and recording the data,

The white coats let out cheers,

As if it was time, the workers were off work, they could go back to the dormitory to rest, and someone might have a ticket to the comfort station to relax.

A white coat saw Zhou Ze, who was still mechanically and numbly twitching the iron chains there.

He pointed at Zhou Ze and laughed, and the other companions laughed along with him.

Zhou Ze was "temporarily" placed here by another laboratory. Of course, they wouldn't send Zhou Ze into the container like that, and besides, their experimental project and data had been completed today, and they could "get off work" and rest.

Hearing the laughter,

Zhou Ze raised his head somewhat blankly,

Looking at the white coats in front of him,

Only his action of twitching the tied iron chains didn't stop.

Knowing it was useless,

After all, this was a dream,

No matter how real,

It was just a dream,

But right now, it seemed that only this action could make Zhou Ze feel that he was doing something,

Perhaps,

This could numb him a little.

"Clang… clang…"

Zhou Ze continued to twitch the chains.

The white coats next to him were still laughing.

"Clang… clang…"

The scene of the little girl staring at him kept emerging in Zhou Ze's mind,

Her eyes,

Originally clear and lovely,

Until the final "splatter",

Were gone.

Hiss…

His heart,

Suddenly hurt so much,

It had been a long time since he had experienced the feeling of heartache, especially after he lost his heart.

Enduring the discomfort in his chest,

Zhou Ze continued to twitch the chains.

"Bang!"

A muffled sound came from another laboratory!

In the first laboratory where Zhou Ze had stayed before, several white coats were still arguing, and a group of white coats nearby stood respectfully waiting for the result of their argument.

Suddenly,

The door of the safe was once again hit from the inside!

All the white coats present were stunned,

Together, they looked at the huge safe in front of them with a look of horror.

"Clang…" Zhou Ze continued to twitch.

"Bang!" The sound of the safe being hit came again.

"Clang…"

"Bang!"

"Clang…"

"Bang!"

The sound grew louder and louder,

Resounding throughout the entire research institute,

The white coats in the laboratory where the safe was located were so frightened that some of them squatted directly on the ground, and the staff in other laboratories who heard this movement were also puzzled and came out one by one to check the situation.

Only the white coats in the laboratory where Zhou Ze was now,

Were looking at Zhou Ze with a monstrous look,

Their faces were full of fear,

Because they were surprised to find that,

The frequency of Zhou Ze's twitching the chains,

Was exactly the same as the frequency of the huge muffled sound!