After Picking Up My Down-and-Out Boss in a Dream

Lan Xi saved a boy suffering abuse at home in a dream. After that, his boss, the high-ranking Arbiter famed across the continent, suddenly started acting strange. In the dream, Lan Xi shielded the bruised and battered boy, bandaged him up, and, on a whim, tied an outrageously big bow around the bandage. The next day at work, his boss, a god of war who wouldn't utter a peep even if run through on the battlefield, suddenly cut his finger on a sheet of printer paper and came to ask him for a bandage. In the dream, Lan Xi made the frail boy try one of the bizarre new recipes he'd invented, claiming, “Kids should eat more to grow big and strong.” The next day at work, his boss, a battle-hardened man who knew nothing about enjoying life and preferred simple meals, suddenly brought up an old grievance: “...The cream biscuits you brought in on your first day, half a year ago, weren't for me.” So Lan Xi vented to the boy in his dream, saying his boss had a screw loose, and listed his boss's countless faults one by one. Then, after waking in the middle of the night, Lan Xi suddenly received an apology call from his boss. The Ninth Province's Arbiter spoke in a slightly hoarse voice and asked him to forgive him. Lan Xi was completely baffled. He tugged at the boy in his dream and speculated, “Could he be...” The boy looked at him with hopeful eyes, waiting for him to finish. Lan Xi punched the wall with one hand. “Could he be planning to fire me tomorrow because I walked into the office with my left foot first?!” Ye Shi, the Arbiter of the Ninth Province, had withdrawn from the front lines to recover from his injuries. Recently, he had begun falling frequently into nightmares from his childhood. He struggled again and again in his distorted, jumbled gray memories, yet only sank deeper, causing his injuries to worsen. No one knew what Ye Shi, always calm and self-possessed, who brushed off his pain as if it were nothing, went through each night. They only knew that his already distant nature had grown even more withdrawn. But on the day his consciousness teetered on the brink of collapse, a boy appeared in his dream. It was his most disobedient subordinate, always going against his boss and always able to leave people speechless. But in that moment, the boy shielded his bruised and battered self, protecting him without reservation. From that day onward, the boy became a frequent visitor in his dreams. Ye Shi didn't know who he really was, but the boy bandaged his wounds, cooked for him, and stayed by his side almost constantly. Watching the boy's uninhibited, radiant smile beneath the daylight, Ye Shi suddenly felt closer to the human world than ever before. Reader's guide: The pairing is Lan Xi (bottom) x Ye Shi (top). The couple are sweet and devoted. No breaking them up, reversing their roles, changing their dreams, or swapping their identities. Both are fully conscious adults in the dream, and they are each other's one and only, in body and heart. Theme: Every living being should stand on their own.