When Zhang Qiang saw the group of people wearing red clothes walking by, he knew he was dreaming, because no one in the real world would be so strange.
The leader of the group was a fat man who looked somewhat like a typical Santa Claus in his red clothes. However, even casual observers could easily see that he was very different from a typical Santa Claus. First of all, Santa Claus would never walk in such a dismissive manner, not even looking ahead, only tilting his head up and walking forward. But the roads in the world are always rough, even in this dream. Perhaps it was for this reason that a group of hunchbacked people surrounded the fat man, continuously laying down flat footboards in front of him. And behind this fat man, there was a string of people who were always vigilant and scanning their surroundings.
Zhang Qiang quickly scanned his surroundings and found that this dream was surprisingly clear. He could even smell a strange scent in the air. Although strange, this scent could definitely be considered a fragrance, even enticing.
At this moment, the fat man, who was walking with his head up, was reminded by someone behind him and suddenly stopped. He glanced at Zhang Qiang, then raised his right hand and mechanically swayed it left and right. The person behind him immediately placed a trumpet in front of his mouth. "Hello, everyone," the fat man's mechanically amplified voice echoed through the entire space.
Zhang Qiang felt surprised, but since it was just a dream, he wasn't panicked. He raised his right hand and jokingly shouted back, "Hello, boss."
However, it seemed that the fat man didn't hear him at all and continued speaking, "We are leading everyone on a glorious path, and I believe we will soon achieve our great goal!"
Zhang Qiang looked around and noticed that several onlookers remained silent, and the atmosphere seemed to become somewhat awkward. Then, the people around the fat man started applauding, and the applause, amplified by the trumpet, became extremely enthusiastic, causing even the ground to vibrate.
The fat man smiled with satisfaction and waved his hand again before walking away.
Zhang Qiang looked at them for a while and also noticed another difference between the fat man and Santa Claus: Santa Claus usually has a rosy complexion, while the fat man had the color of a person in power or a capitalist. "What a strange dream," Zhang Qiang thought, but soon he felt tired. He tapped his head, wanting to wake up immediately because he started feeling the urge to urinate.
Zhang Qiang knew that he couldn't urinate in his dream because it would inevitably have a synchronous effect in reality. He had experienced this embarrassing situation once when he was 15 years old. Now that he was an adult, experiencing the same tragedy would be extremely shameful.
He closed his eyes and forced himself to wake up, just like when his brain called on his body's motor nerves to move after waking up from a nightmare caused by a heavy blanket. However, before he opened his eyes, he already knew that it was ineffective because he didn't feel the sense of reality that comes with waking up. The sense of reality upon waking includes a feeling similar to suddenly emerging from a fog and the brain instantly loading all the real memories, allowing a person to reestablish continuity with their past memories in an instant. What he felt now was like losing the sense of touch in a certain part of his arm due to compression, a distortion.
He closed his eyes again and tensed all the muscles in his body, but it only made the urge to urinate stronger, without successfully waking him up.
"What's going on?" Zhang Qiang muttered, then gently slapped his face. The sensation made him start to doubt whether he was actually in reality. But looking around, he didn't know where he was or where he came from. To confirm his thoughts, he checked all the pockets on his body but couldn't find his phone, which he always carried with him and could never forget. "This is definitely still a dream! But why can't I wake up?"
Then Zhang Qiang suddenly realized another possibility - had he become a vegetable and fallen into a permanent dream? But that couldn't be possible. Zhang Qiang was still young and healthy, and he shouldn't have suddenly become a vegetable. But don't people become vegetables all of a sudden, like from a sudden cerebral hemorrhage or an unpredictable accident? If a person becomes a vegetable, would urinating in a dream still have a real feedback? But since he had become a vegetable, urinating in a dream would probably be forgiven, right? But do vegetables even urinate? Zhang Qiang didn't know. He had never had any experience dealing with vegetables in his life, and daydreaming obviously wouldn't yield any results. Moreover, at this critical moment when his bladder was tense, even daydreaming couldn't be truly achieved because it would always be interrupted by the sudden urge.
Zhang Qiang looked around, hoping that something would suddenly appear to help him escape from his current predicament, such as a guide, a sign, words of encouragement, or... a restroom. He saw a restroom, about less than a kilometer away from him, partially hidden behind a two-story square building, with only the word "Men" visible.
Zhang Qiang nodded and made up his mind: he must walk to that restroom and relieve himself. After all, wetting the bed was probably unavoidable, so he would maintain his dignity in the dream. Zhang Qiang took a step forward, feeling as if it was about to leak out, but fortunately, he stopped in time and controlled himself through deep breathing. To avoid any further risks, he tensed all the muscles in his body. The increased pressure in his blood vessels caused his heart to beat faster, and his steps became mechanical, attracting some sidelong glances and onlookers.
Even though he knew he was in a dream and everything around him was just his imagination, those gazes made Zhang Qiang feel even more embarrassed and nervous - so nervous that he felt his muscles were on the verge of collapse. He felt his face heating up, and his mind gradually became dizzy. But the goal was not far away, just a little more perseverance. He stared at the word "Men," which symbolized his goal, and tried not to imagine how strange and unique his way of walking must look to others.
"Limit."
Zhang Qiang didn't know whether this word appeared in his mind first or if he saw the word "Science" behind "Men" first. But no matter what, he had lost sight of his goal, and he could no longer continue. In that momentary thought, he realized his heart was trembling, causing his scalp to tingle, his limbs to weaken, his mind to feel faint, and his hair to itch. He fell forward, and with the relaxation of all his muscles, he felt a wet and warm sensation in his lower body. That was his final feeling - a sense of relief.
This was He Wei's third year in the criminal investigation team, and he had heard of many bizarre cases, but unfortunately, he had never experienced them firsthand. This occasionally made him feel frustrated, but he wasn't worried because it was like his life was missing a brilliant annotation, but even if it were brilliant, it would only be an annotation. However, today, when he saw the autopsy report of a death case on the roadside of Xinhu Street, he finally found a bizarre story that he could use as a topic of conversation in different situations in his future life: a healthy young man was killed by urine!