I Am Your Natural Enemy

”Doctor Meng, you’ve worked hard...” The girl at the front desk shivered, quickly offering some comfort.

”If it weren’t for the reputation I’ve worked so hard to build...” Doctor Meng’s features were practically wrinkled together.

Strictly speaking, his clinic is really just his cafeteria.

It’s just that the things he needs to eat happen to be a burden, for humans at least.

Like nightmares.

That’s why his kind can easily form a symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship with humans.

This is also why Dream Tapirs become the role models so highly praised by the Scorching Sun Department.

Because there’s no conflict of interest, and both sides can actually help each other out.

What they call sleep therapy is just eating people’s dreams, letting them slip into a deep sleep where they’re not aware they’re dreaming.

Long-term insomnia or lack of sleep puts a lot of pressure on both the body and the mind.

His therapy clinic, although it doesn’t really cure the root problem most of the time, just one night of truly deep sleep is enough for anyone to breathe a huge sigh of relief, easing their mental stress by a lot.

He also has an ID, went to school properly, actually studied modern medicine. His thesis and later research all focused on sleep, dreaming, the subconscious—stuff like that.

As a doctor, and someone who grew up in the Divine Land, he can’t waste food, and also has to stick to medical ethics.

Even when patients, because they’re dieting, don’t eat fat or carbs and end up spending their dreams gorging on unmelted lard tossed with fish mint, no salt, no vinegar, no soy sauce, nothing.

For the sake of his hard-earned reputation and those medical ethics he holds dear, he still sucked it up and chowed down on that lard and fish mint salad.

Because that stuff was the core of the dream—the best starting point.

Even if people from Tianfu County love eating fish mint, which somehow counts as an actual dish, expecting him to eat lard and fish mint salad, dry and without salt, vinegar, or soy sauce, first thing in the morning is enough to make him want to puke.

Doctor Meng feels like he’s pretty experienced and worldly, seen all kinds of tough cases. But cases like today—not actually that hard, just literally impossible for him to stomach—are rare, even for him.

”Doctor Meng, maybe you should take a break today?”

”Huh? There’s a patient?”

”Yeah, a college student came in. I had a quick chat with her. She’s from Yu State University.

I asked around and her insomnia seems pretty bad, and she has nightmares even when she does fall asleep.

I took her to the treatment room and she was out like a light—must be really serious.

What if, when she wakes up, we just let her go and have her come back another time?”

”How did she find this place?”

”Said someone referred her. I asked, but she wouldn’t say the name. From her tone, I think it was someone from the Scorching Sun Department.”

”Sigh, let’s just take a look first.”

Doctor Meng’s face still looked off. Cradling his hot water, he drank half the cup—warmth flooding his belly before he finally felt a bit better.

Entering the treatment room and seeing the dark-eyed girl already asleep under the influence of this place’s power, Doctor Meng frowned slightly.

”This really is severe, though... it doesn’t seem like it’s been going on for long.”

”Doctor Meng, are you sure you don’t want to rest first?”

”No need. Judging by her expression, she’s already started having nightmares.”

The girl at the front desk was a bit worried but still left the room.

Once only Doctor Meng was left, his face began to shift into his Dream Tapir form. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he had transformed into a giant Dream Tapir, crouched in the mist.

Floating in front of him was a bubble, and inside it, a miniature world.

In the chilly world inside, the dark-eyed girl was sprinting frantically down an empty street, darkness slowly devouring every flickering streetlight as she ran.

She ran for her life, desperate and directionless, toward a lone building still lit up.

The building was like an old-school communal apartment, three sides joined together, only the side with the entrance being a chaotic storage area on the first floor.

As soon as she rushed in, the light inside gave her a tiny sense of safety.

Because the approaching darkness hadn’t eaten into this place yet.

The dim streetlights still shed a faint glow ahead.

Even that faint light gave her some comfort and confidence.

She walked inside the building, following the trail of light. Not a soul in sight.

She glanced around carefully, peeking into a room with its door open.

It looked a bit messy inside, but that messiness actually made the place feel deeply lived-in—people really lived their lives here.

The kettle was bubbling away, and from next door’s TV came the sounds of a local soap opera.

The smell of meaty broth laced with medicinal herbs started to reach her nose.

In the neighboring building, it sounded like someone was arguing—probably over a game of mahjong, judging by the shouting.

The dark-eyed girl felt like there really were people here now, and that odd fear inside her finally eased up.

In that moment of haziness, all kinds of people started appearing in the hallway, rooms, all over the apartments—men and women, young and old.

She thought a lot of them looked familiar or at least friendly, and her lingering anxiety and fear began to fade away.

”Pop.”

A soft sound caught her attention. In the room in front of her, the water in the kettle had started boiling, and the electric kettle automatically switched itself off.

A little boy sat there watching a cartoon, while the kitchen sizzled—a sign someone’s stir-frying, and savory aromas were beginning to waft out amid the haze of cooking oil.