A Decade in a Dream

My Gaokao results came out. I was guaranteed a place at a 985 university, and with some luck, I could even get into a top-tier university.

My aunt urged me to apply to a tourism college near our city.

"You can work at my family's guesthouse as soon as you graduate. What more could you want?"

The night my results came out, I had a dream that lasted ten years!

In the dream, I followed my aunt's advice and went to tourism college.

Four years after graduation, my cousin was living a smooth and happy life, thanks to her degree from an ordinary first-tier university.

Meanwhile, I worked at my aunt's guesthouse, poor and miserable.

At twenty-eight, I was diagnosed with end-stage liver cancer and couldn't even afford painkillers. I died in agony on a cramped staircase.