Step Three: Ride on a plane

The airport is filled with people coming and going. Young and old, men and women, foreign and locals. It was very crowded.

Lei was sitting on the waiting area, busily playing with his phone. It was about time for him to board on plane. He has been sitting here, waiting, for more than an hour...

Earlier, because of his mother’s nagging, he had to go to the airport five hours ahead of his flight schedule. Left with no other choice, after finishing the security process, he can only let himself rot in the gate, feeling bored to death. After waiting for what felt like an eternity, the boarding announcement was finally made. Lei got up in haste, putting his phone away, before making his way ahead.

At this time, Lei was just an ordinary employee returning to work after taking a vacation on his hometown. He’s been working as a manager on a publishing company for 5 years now and completely has no idea of the events he’ll encounter a few hours later.

Today’s weather was extremely hot due to summer. Lei was wearing a simple white V-neck shirt paired with black ripped jeans and black sneakers. He was only carrying a backpack on his back. His luggage were already checked so he doesn’t have it on him.

Upon arriving his seat, his attention was immediately caught by the mother and son pair sitting on his left.

“Uwahhh!! I’m scared. Mom, I don’t wanna go! Let’s not visit grandma anymore. I wanna go home.” The child was about three to four years old. He was crying while holding on to his mother. His chubby face was stained with tears.

“Shh, silly child. Be good, be good. Stop crying or mom will hit you.” The child’s mother was a middle-aged woman. Her speaking voice was extremely gentle and soft, almost sounding like a lullaby.

However, her words made Lei immediately shift his gaze. He suddenly thought of his own mother and shuddered, quietly saying to himself.

“Asian moms are really scary.”

“Uwahhh I don’t wanna go. I don’t wanna go wahhh!!” The child continued to cry even harder.

Lei busied himself checking his belongings on his bag. After a while, he took the book he purchased online, the day before yesterday, intending to read the synopsis on the back.

His flight back to his company this time takes approximately 15 hours of travel. For this reason, he especially made sure to take a book with him to pass the time.

Lei has always been fond of reading books ever since he was little. Although eBooks are popularized now, he still prefer the hard, thick, books and the incomparable pleasure it gives- the smell of fresh ink on the paper, the crisp sound of turning the pages one by one, the smooth feeling at the tip of the fingers.

Before reading, Lei raised his left hand to look at the time on his watch. It was about time for the plane to take off. The child on his left was still sobbing but Lei chose to ignore him, focusing all his attention on the book he was holding.

This book was a story about an evil magician brought back to life by a young man, in order to avenge himself from the relatives who made him suffer abuse.

The young man used his life to summon the evil magician’s soul into his body, forcing the evil magician to exact revenge for him. After the deed, the evil magician was given sovereignty over the young man’s body.

However, before the evil magician could even roam around the world freely, he encountered a mutilated arm at the beginning of his journey, causing him to meet the people from his previous life and reunite with his childhood sweetheart. Together, the evil magician and his childhood sweetheart took on a journey of solving the mutilated arm’s mystery. Little by little, they uncover the truth. Little by little, they got closer. Finally, little by little, they ended up together.

This is an undeniably good story. Lei’s favorite genre has always been fantasy. He especially like those fantasy novels where he can enjoy the process of the character's growth, chapter by chapter. It gives him the feeling of being with the main character, venturing the danger and growing along with him.

Lei smiled in satisfaction. As he was about to read the first chapter, something inexplicably came to his mind. He frowned, scrutinizing the book closely. He began to read the synopsis again from the beginning. Upon reading it twice, he suddenly fell into a deep thought.

Was this really the book I bought? Why does the content seem wrong..?

Lei flipped the book over and over, trying to find the source of this strange feeling. The plane was already done taking off but he still couldn’t find anything. He thought for a moment before letting it go.

Forget it. It’s not like I won’t find it later.

And so, he continued reading the first chapter. He read up to the eight chapter before stopping abruptly.

Lei slapped his thigh.

..so that was it! He sighed. I knew something was not right..

 The main character of this book, the evil magician, was a very talented, handsome young man. His childhood sweetheart, whom he knew from a different school, happened to be also a very excellent man. Both the main character and his childhood sweetheart are men. In other words, this novel was a gay one.

Lei’s expression was blank. He thought hard on the plot of the book his friend suggested for him to read, trying to connect them with the one he’s holding.

From what his friend told him, the main character of that book also reincarnated. Although he already forgot the title since it’s been months since his friend made that suggestion and he never really bothered reading it when he made the purchase, he still remembered the cover a little. He was sure he bought the right book but..

Was it really supposed to go like this? Did I really bought the right one?

Lei felt a headache coming. He was still thinking when he felt his phone vibrate. He took it out and saw that it was his older sister sending him a message.

[ Bro, did you buy a new book? ]

Lei read the message, glanced at the book on his hand and silently thought to himself, I’m not really sure myself. Did I really bought something like this?

In the end, he only replied one word.

[ Yeah ]

[ Does the cover have a guy wearing a black and red robe, holding a flute to his mouth? ]

Lei’s body immediately straightened.

[ ..how did you know? ]

[ Did you brought it with you? ]

[ ..I did. Why? ]

Eh? Hold on, where is this heading? Why am I having a bad feeling..?

As expected, not even a minute have passed when he received consecutive replies from the other side.

[ I knew it was you! ]

[ You took the wrong one. Geez! It must’ve been swapped when it was being delivered! ]

[ I’m holding your book here with me. ] 

 A picture of her holding a book to her face was sent.

Lei stared hard at the cover. It almost looks the same with the one he was holding at first glance but upon closer look, it was actually different. Their style and vibe was differing completely.

The one in his hand gave off a slightly softer vibe with a hint of romanticism, belonging to most cultivation novels. The one on his sister’s however, was completely dark with no signs of romance in it at all- just looking at the cover will make you take a glimpse of how dark it is inside. Their only sole similarity that made them look alike at first glance was the color of the robes, both guys on the cover was wearing, and the fact that they both have a flute to their mouth.

His sister continued.

[ And I was just about to return it thinking I got confused and bought the wrong book. Thank goodness, I remembered you. ]

Upon reading this, Lei really wanted to say ..sis, I was thinking the same thing awhile ago. Only, I never thought of asking you...

However, before he could even type a reply, he felt his phone vibrate again.

[ So, did you read it? How was it? Good, right? Especially the bathtub scene~ ]

[ Do you want me to send you the audio drama?~ ]

Lei didn’t know why but he suddenly felt his hair rising after seeing this words.

[ ..good your mother. What bathtub scene? I didn’t see. I only made it to the first eight chapters. ]

[ Oh really? What a pity! ]

..and why do you sound so disappointed?!

[ Anyway, send that book to me over later after I landed. I’ll send yours over too. ]

[ Oh… ]

Lei thought she was being stingy about money again and was about to send another reply but then he saw her continued.

[ Too troublesome. ]

[ … ]

Then she sent an audio.

[ But if you listen to this, I might consider it~ ]

[ … ]

[ .. I’ll just buy another one then ]

[ (≧▽≦) ]

Lei sighed. He touched his forehead and really had a headache. He should’ve known it. Aside from buying the wrong book, what else could it be other than him confusing his sister’s book? It’s just that he completely forgot that his sister likes reading books too. Although, the books she likes to read are all about men and men being together…

I should’ve really realized it the moment I found the main character was gay. Lei silently lamented.

He took the book back on his bag and went to the bathroom. It took him about 5 minutes to return. He was feeling a little dizzy when he got back so he decided to nap.

Surprisingly, after closing his eyes, he immediately slept very soundly. It was a long nap. When he woke up, he found himself lying on a nest. It was a giant nest.

..nest.. a nest?!

Lei’s eyes widened and he immediately sobered up. All the sleepiness he had disappeared in a flash. He stood up, taking in his surroundings. Only then did he confirmed that he really was in a giant nest.

What kind of dream is this? Did I slept too long and was now hallucinating?

Lei tried to calm his nerves and inhaled. The possibility of someone sleeping on a plane and finding himself waking up on a giant nest is simply close to none. Unless the plane crashed and he was thrown out, there is simply no way for him to suddenly find himself here.

But then, even if that was indeed the case, he should be seriously injured after being thrown out and find it hard to move. However, his current condition at this moment is still the same as before he took a nap.

There is no discomfort on his body nor are there any visible wounds at all. Not to mention this giant nest. It’s size expands to more than a hectare. It was simply too big that it was hard to imagine as to what kind of gigantic bird would even build its nest to make it this big. If not for the materials it was made of and the fact that it was suspended on top of an equally giant tree, Lei would really doubt if it was even a bird’s nest.

Coming to this point, Lei came to a conclusion. He’s still dreaming. Only that would explain this bizarre place he was in.

He sighed, about to pinch himself awake when a strong wind blew past his face from above. He looked up. There he saw a gigantic bird the size of a two-storey building flying towards him.

The bird looks like something he’d never seen before. It has a beautiful all shades of blue feathers that was arranged, so that the feathers on top of its head was almost white and the blue color becomes deeper as it reach the fiery red-colored tail. The sun above was reflecting on them, making it look all shiny and smooth. It has a golden beak, its eyes a gem-like beautiful combination of blue and red.

Lei never imagine in his life to find himself suddenly seeing something like this- the kind where you could only see in fairytales and fantasy genres. In the end, he didn’t know whether his luck is good or bad.

However, even if this bird looks very magical it’s still hard to ignore the fact that it was ten times bigger than him, especially with its eyes currently glaring at him like a predator eyeing its prey. Looking at his situation, he will become a bird food in less than a second if he doesn’t immediately get away from here.

Lei tried to calmly turn and run, wanting to solve the situation calmly. After all, there was no use running blindly and panicking.

However, even if he has the heart and mind to do so, his body just won’t cooperate honestly. His legs felt so weak and soft, making him stumble and fall the moment he tried to move them away. He cursed himself lowly, Damn it, why didn’t I take the importance of exercise before? Look at how good my situation is right now.

 The gigantic bird was just a few meters away from him. Lei was seriously scared out of his wits. He immediately crawled backwards, turning his brain over while doing so, trying to find a way out of this predicament.

He crawled for a few meters before he felt his back hitting a wall. Lei felt it with his hands, finding it smooth and hard. The gigantic bird was still closing in on him. He thought it was only a few meters away a moment ago but now, Lei realized it was so big that he couldn’t really tell their distance apart.

He was about to move sideways, intending to continue crawling when cracking sounds came from behind him. He immediately looked backed. Web-like cracks have appeared on the wall he was leaning in.. well maybe it was more appropriate to say that web-like cracks appeared on the EGG he was leaning in.

He directly panicked, his heart throbbing wildly twice as before, about to burst out of his chest.

The egg was whitish yellow in color and was about three meters tall. It’s shell was hard making Lei think of a wall- his mind was occupied with gigantic bird in front of him since the beginning, making him subconsciously ignore his surroundings and not realizing the abnormality. Now that he actually thought about it, he was in a gigantic bird’s nest. Where in the world will a wall come from?

The cracks expanded from the top of the egg to the middle, before an adorable baby bird’s head came out. Its size was about half of the egg. Its feather looks white at first glance but upon closer inspection, it was actually the same color as its mother- just a lot lighter. It has big, round watery blue eyes and looks adorably cute. Only, this adorable baby is now blinking its eyes, looking at him innocently with its beak opening, as if intending to put him into its ‘little’ mouth.

Lei’s blood run cold. His mind haven’t processed anything yet when his two legs were already running without direction. He run with all his might. So this is adrenaline rush? He thought while running.

His feet was about to reach the edge of the nest. He was so close when he was pulled back on the back of his collar by the gigantic bird, who, at this moment have finally landed on the nest. Lei felt his entire body froze. He turned his head and saw that beautiful gigantic bird dragging him back. Looking at it from close range, Lei suddenly realized that the bird wasn’t two-storey tall, it was actually three!

FML it’s really going to turn me into bird food!!

Am I going to die?! NO. Like, how is this even possible?! I don’t even know how I came here?! Wasn’t this supposed to be a dream..?! ..well actually it’s better to call it a nightmare..?! Anyway! Whatever dream or nightmare it is, isn’t this a little too real?!

It was forgotten to mention but Lei is an absolute materialist. Although he loves reading fantasy fictions, he never really believes in supernatural or magic whatsoever.

Lei’s head was full of messy thoughts. He started to struggle madly. He didn’t know what to think anymore. He felt like he was having a vivid lucid dream, one where he was trapped, unable to wake up.

BOOM!!

A huge explosion came from deep in the forest below. It was so great, one can even see a ring of smoke expanding from the center outwards.

The tree where the nest was in just happened to be near the center of this explosion. Because of the impact, the giant tree, with its trunk comparable to hundreds of human adult, hand in hand, forming a circle, actually shook! And it wasn’t just a mild shaking, it was so hard it made the nest tilt to the side!

Just imagine how huge that is- even the gigantic bird was so caught off guard, its jaw beak dropped on the ground nest, completely losing its hold on Lei, making the latter slip and fall afterwards. The explosion just came too sudden and without warning and all of the above events happened within a second.

Lei was utterly dumbfounded. He haven’t even reacted to the explosion yet and now he suddenly found himself falling. His only thought was..

So in the end, is this actually a dream or not?

In fact, Lei knew from the beginning that there was no way this was a dream. No dream can be as realistic as this. Not to mention, all his senses are working. With all these evidences laid in front of him, even if he didn’t want to, he could do nothing than to accept this bitter reality as soon as he came to.

This made Lei so sad he wanted to cry.

“Mom, I don’ wanna die!! Take me back!! AHHHHH-”