An unfamiliar dream

February 1772.

Li Lianying woke up with a start. An overwhelming heat was making her incredibly dizzy and she felt herself suffocating. Panting, she opened her eyes and took a deep breath. A foul smell rushed into her parted mouth. When she regained her senses, the first thing she saw was a magnificent fabric covered with floral patterns that formed a sort of ceiling over her head. They were bed curtains. An unfriendly voice announced: "The crown princess has woken up."

Li Lianying immediately recognized this language: it was French. That means that she was still in Paris! But she wondered why there were people talking about crown princesses in her hospital room. Was anyone watching a historical drama? Her gaze wandered over the surface of the cage of fabric surrounding her. She put her hand against the embroidered silk, marveled at them, and wondered why someone had put such a thing in her hospital room. How did her relatives get permission to do so? And how much must this silk curtain have cost them?

Suddenly a voice spoke from the other side of the curtain: "Your Royal Highness, here is your breakfast." A silver tray penetrated through the wall of curtain and presented itself before her eyes. The porcelain cups placed on it were exquisitely refined! Li Lianying thought that she was dreaming. As a result, she lay down again, closed her eyes, and decided to go back to sleep. A strange "diiing" echoed in her head and made her even more dizzy. This time, she thought, I'm definitely dreaming !

She tried to fall asleep again, but heard people whispering all around her bed. Moreover, she was suffocating from the mysterious and unbearable smell that was stinking up the room. Very well ! Since this is only a dream, she might as well take full advantage of it! She could first get out of this stench-filled room, go on a legendary quest to find a magical object, face demons, seduce beauties and ridicule her enemies, before finally falling asleep in a beautiful park to wake up in her hospital room which, at least, did not stink! Her decision made, Li Lianying rolled out of bed, knocked over the silver tray but catched all the porcelain cups before they could fall down and put them on her bed. Even in a dream, beautiful things must be protected! She heard panicked screams and exclamations around her as she ran towards the door and she saw huge balls of fabric standing in her path. As she ran, she made her way through the gigantic pompoms which, strangely, gesticulated like humans. But, wait… they were humans! There were about twenty women dressed like dolls or clowns, their faces white and covered with a layer of plaster, their cheeks red as if they had used chalk instead of blush, some women even had small cracks on their faces! Li Lianying was awed by her own imagination. She somehow managed to dream of female clowns cosplaying as giant pompoms!

As Li Lianying ran out of the bedroom, she found herself in another room. In every room she passed through, she was blinded by sparkly gilded walls and precious objects and fabrics while a deafening ruckus of "diiing diiing diiing" stunned her. She opened a large window and looked outside. Her floor seemed very high, there was at least 5 meters (16 feet) separating it from the ground floor. She wondered if she should jump out of the window, since, after all, this was only a dream! Maybe she could fly away if she threw herself out of the window? In the end, she decided against it since, after all, the rooms in her dream were way too pretty! She was curious to see how much her imagination would surprise her.

So she trotted happily in her white dress through the enfilade of rooms and corridors covered with gilded paneling, went down a beautiful marble staircase, and headed for a door which opened onto the courtyard. However, before she could reach it, her way was blocked by a dozen men wearing nice uniforms and white wigs. Li Lianying said to herself 'Ha! Here are my first opponents! It's time to show them the incredible magical powers of the lucid dreamer that I am!'

She stretched her arms, uttered a magic spell out of Harry Potter, and waited for her opponents to levitate. Nothing. What ? How is it possible ? Even Ron managed to levitate something and knock out a troll in his first year at Hogwarts! Why wasn't Li Lianying even able to control her own lucid dream and levitate something or someone ?! She didn't even have time to be annoyed when the guards surrounded her and asked: "Your Royal Highness, what are you doing in your nightgown here, in front of the front door?"