“When will you come back? When… it’s time for you to come back…”
Lu Jinxia jolted awake!
It was this dream again!
Over the past two months, she’d had it countless times!
At first, it came once every ten days or so; then every few days.
And for the past half month, she dreamed of it almost every single night!
Lu Jinxia reached for her phone on the nightstand—its screen lit up.
She glanced at the time: half past four in the morning!
She set the phone down and closed her eyes again.
But sleep wouldn’t come.
All she could think about was the girl from her dream.
Clothed in a style of dress from the 1960s or 70s, with two long braids tied neatly at her shoulders.
The girl stared straight at her: “When will you come back? It’s time to come back— the time has come!”
The girl looked sixteen or seventeen, her clothes worn and shabby, clearly from an older era.
“When are you from? Where am I supposed to go back to?” Lu Jinxia would ask in the dream.
But the girl never answered—she only repeated those same few words over and over!
Lu Jinxia squeezed her eyes shut, completely awake now.
Recalling all the novels she’d read, a bad premonition settled in her chest.
But for now, she’d choose to believe in science.
Eight o’clock.
Hospital.
Department of Psychiatry.
“I keep having the same dream—over and over again,” Lu Jinxia said, sitting in the patient’s chair across from the doctor. “Sometimes I can’t fall back asleep after waking up; other times I doze off only to slip right back into that same dream. Doctor… is there something wrong with my mind?”
Noticing the dark circles heavy under Lu Jinxia’s eyes, the doctor asked, “Have you been under a lot of work stress lately?”
“It was intense at first… but it’s manageable now.”
Early on, her superiors had pushed her to her limits; but after she’d climbed the ranks to become a leader herself, the tables had turned—now she was the one assigning pressure to others.
So truly, stress was no longer a major issue.
Whenever she felt overwhelmed, she simply shared the load with her team.
“I’ve ordered a set of tests for you,” the doctor said. “Go pay the fee and get them done.”
“Alright.”
Lu Jinxia walked over to the self-service kiosk, scanning the code to settle the bill.
Her eyes widened at the total displayed: **3,678**.
Lu Jinxia: “?”
“!”
“!!”
“!!!”
She’d expected medical tests to cost money—but never this much!
She pulled up the itemized list to check what exactly was included: why such a steep price?
– Complete blood count + comprehensive biochemical panel
– Thyroid function test
– Six sex hormone assays
– Cranial CT scan
– Cranial MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)
– EEG (electroencephalogram)
– Psychological CT assessment
– Cognitive function evaluation
Wow!
Going through this entire battery of tests would easily take more than a full day!
She’d squeezed this hospital visit into her schedule just before meeting a client—she barely had any spare time as it was.
So many tests, so little time—there was no way she could finish them all today!
And so expensive!
She tapped out of the payment page and turned around, walking straight for the exit.
Forget these tests—they weren’t worth it at all!
Just thinking about it now, she felt perfectly fine—no aches, no pains, no strange symptoms left!
Would you look at that? This hospital’s “treatment” was surprisingly effective!
She felt like every illness had vanished instantly.
Turns out believing in science really does work wonders!
Stepping outside the hospital, she spotted a fortune-teller’s stall up ahead.
Almost unconsciously, Lu Jinxia walked toward it.
The fortune-teller was an elderly man with graying hair—he looked every bit the part of a seasoned master!
The moment she stepped up to the stall, the old man greeted her: “Young lady, here for a fortune reading?”
“Yes—how much for one reading?”
“Two hundred yuan. If it’s not accurate, you pay nothing!”
Lu Jinxia did a quick calculation: it was far cheaper than the hospital’s bill.
Putting aside whether she truly believed in such things—at the very least, this might bring her some peace of mind!
Two hundred yuan for a little reassurance—what a bargain!
Better than throwing thousands at the hospital with no clear answers in return!
A single round of tests already cost over three thousand—who knew how much more they’d charge if they actually “found something wrong”?
Whatever—until there’s a confirmed diagnosis, I’m perfectly healthy!
It wasn’t that Lu Jinxia was being stubborn—she’d only graduated from university three or four years ago, working for just as long.
Her monthly salary was less than ten thousand yuan; living in a big city meant rent, meals, and daily expenses ate up most of her income.
And as a young woman, cosmetics, new clothes—these were unavoidable costs too!
Living frugally, she managed to save only two or three thousand yuan each month—sometimes even less!
Over these years, her total savings had only reached just over seventy thousand yuan; she’d been hoping to save enough to buy a house back in her hometown someday.
The old man asked Lu Jinxia to stretch out her hand to read her palm lines.
After finishing with her palm, he stared intently at her face for a long moment.
Watching the old man’s serious expression, Lu Jinxia grew nervous herself.
She swallowed hard and couldn’t help but ask: “Master… did you see something?”
“Your sleep has been very poor lately!”
“Master—you’re spot on! I haven’t slept properly in ages!”
“Of course I can tell—look at those dark circles under your eyes!”
“…”
Wait a minute—did he figure out my sleep trouble just because he saw my dark circles?
“Haha—just a little joke, don’t take offense!”
Lu Jinxia clenched her free hand into a fist—she was already tempted to turn around and leave.
Seeing her reaction, the old man immediately dropped his playful grin and put on the air of a wise master. He spoke solemnly:
“I see your spirit hall dim, your soul light scattered and unsteady. Your yang spirit is uncollected, your inner consciousness wanders even in waking hours.
Frequent night terrors come from karmic ties from a past life, binding you still.
Faint remnants of another soul and lingering thoughts cling to your consciousness—crossing the divide between the living and the dead, pulling your spirit back again and again to old scenes long gone.
Your body’s vital yang energy is draining away, your mind can never settle—so you cannot eat well, nor rest soundly, nor find peace in sleep.
When karmic bonds run deep, souls are drawn together; when longing weighs heavy, dreams become a torment—this is the sign of souls resonating, of a past connection that can never truly be severed.”
“What… does that mean?”
“Ah—some truths cannot be spoken too deeply, cannot be laid bare!”
Lu Jinxia turned the old man’s words over in her mind, trying to grasp their meaning—she felt she almost understood, yet not quite.
When she finally snapped back to ask for a clearer explanation, the old man was nowhere to be seen—he’d vanished into thin air.
Lu Jinxia: ……
Ugh—wasted two hundred yuan! Not a single clear answer to take home!
She checked the time—it was already nine o’clock! Her appointment with the client was drawing near.
Hastening to the subway station, she rushed off to meet her client.
After wrapping up the meeting and returning to the office, she finally made it to the end of the workday—for once, no overtime required!
Lu Jinxia decided to cook for herself at home tonight.
She rented a small studio apartment—less than thirty square meters in size.
It had a tiny kitchen and a cramped bathroom—even so, rent cost her two thousand eight hundred yuan every month.
Add in daily meals and commuting fares, and very little of her salary remained by month’s end.
Back home, she flopped onto the sofa, lying there listlessly until her stomach rumbled with hunger—only then did she drag herself up and head to the kitchen up and head to the kitchen to start cooking.
Her dinner would be simple: tomato and egg noodles.
She took tomatoes out from the refrigerator, washed them clean, and began slicing them into small chunks.
Accidentally, the knife slipped—cutting into her finger. Fresh blood welled up instantly.
The ring she wore on her hand was quickly stained with red.
Lu Jinxia hurriedly grabbed a tissue, pressing it firmly against the wound to stop the bleeding.