Chapter 128: The Gap Between Dreams and Reality

"Since humans can identify that the limit of multiple dreams is 7 layers, can we calculate the ratio of the gap with reality based on how shallow or deep the dream is?"

"This... seems hard to define, after all, there are no relevant papers studying this."

"Right, some people have a dream that ends in a few minutes, and the whole night passes."

"Ah? Looking at it this way, it seems the time of a single dream is easier to calculate, but the time ratio of multiple dreams to reality seems hard to calculate."

"Who knows, maybe Jiang Zhe has already calculated it himself?"

"..."

Inside the dormitory building of Suzhou Media University.

Prof. Wei Min and his younger brother, Weiguo, were lying on two sofas watching the live stream.

Prof. Wei Min looked at his younger brother, who had a heavy expression, "Little brother, has he told you about these things from the past?"

Weiguo rested his hands on his protruding belly, seemingly recalling bits and pieces of his time with Jiang Zhe; he didn't hear his older brother's question.

He remembered 3 years ago, when Jiang Zhe was a freshman, he had learned about Jiang Zhe's family background.

He had no father and no mother.

He worked part-time alone in Huai'an, Northern Jiangsu, and got admitted to Suzhou Media University.

Since his first year of high school, Jiang Zhe had been working and studying in his hometown.

It seemed that because young people care about their pride, he hadn't mentioned to the school after starting university that he was a student from a poor family, probably fearing that his classmates would look down on him.

Or perhaps...

It was Jiang Zhe's strong-willed personality.

Since high school, he had entered Suzhou Media University with excellent grades.

When Weiguo discovered that Jiang Zhe was a student from a poor family, it was during his junior year; it was only after Weiguo's persistent questioning that Jiang Zhe was forced to confess.

After confessing, Jiang Zhe went to do an internship, and Weiguo couldn't help him privately.

"Sigh. Little guy, your life used to be so hard, why didn't you tell your teacher?"

"You are a very strong person!"

"Without a father or mother, how many people have taken their own lives during their period of confusion."

"At such a young age, you endured so much that you shouldn't have had to bear."

Weiguo had a son at home, and although it was a single-parent family, he thought about his own son, if he lost himself, this father.

Then his son would probably...

Have felt the sky collapse long ago.

When people compare themselves to others, the gap is manifested in the details.

"What? What did you say, big brother?"

Weiguo suddenly reacted, turned his head to look at his older brother on the sofa to the left.

Prof. Wei Min scanned between the television and his younger brother, saw his younger brother's thoughts, and didn't continue asking.

...

In the leadership meeting room.

Old Zhao and Old Wang were also silent for a long time.

Finally, they only said one sentence: "Everything is in the past; now you will get better and better!"

Only Wang Lin and Xiao Shiyi were considering what Jiang Zhe had said earlier today.

[I am very good at making money!]

Yes, he was certainly very good at making money.

After all, from childhood to adulthood, Jiang Zhe had walked the path alone.

Even before entering society, Jiang Zhe's experience and insight far exceeded his peers.

However, as Jiang Zhe's brothers, the two of them looked a bit unwell.

They hated themselves for not knowing Jiang Zhe earlier; if they had known him earlier, they would certainly have gained another [close brother].

...

At this moment, in the lecture hall of Kyoto University of Science.

Professor Hua Yunfeng and Old Feng led all the experts to begin investigating the calculation of the ratio between dreams and reality that Jiang Zhe mentioned.

But...

The more they calculated, the more outrageous it became!

Until the final truth made them frown and feel incredulous!

...

Tsinghua University, inside dormitory 808.

Professor Zhuang just nodded gently, inwardly acknowledging this young man, Jiang Zhe.

At this time, Zhou Qing asked curiously.

"Teacher, if we calculate it this way, what is the gap between dream time and reality time?"

"I saw someone on the phone barrage say — the time of a single dream is the easiest to calculate compared to real dream time."

"The duration of a dream lasts about 2 minutes, and then you wake up. This is under normal circumstances, close your eyes and open them, and the whole night has passed."

"This night refers to the real world: 8 hours."

"8 hours = 480 minutes."

"It is roughly 2 minutes to 480 minutes = 1 minute : 240 minutes."

"If calculated down to the second, it is — 1 second of dream time = 4 minutes (240 seconds) of reality."

Hearing this, Professor Zhuang nodded gently, "Normally speaking, this is how it is calculated; but in reality, no one has calculated it; after all, if you refer to this multiple dream of Jiang Zhe's, the deeper the dream, the slower the dream time, and the slower the reality time."

"If you use Jiang Zhe's previous layers of dreams to calculate..."

"It is still easy to calculate, and it makes sense."

"If you use the time in the eighth layer of dreams: it is equivalent to 80 years, 80 years of dream time = 37 minutes of reality."

"1 year = 365 days = 525,600 minutes = 31,536,000 seconds."

"The 80 years in his dream = 31,536,000 x 80 = 2,522,880,000 seconds."

"2,522,880,000 seconds in the dream = 37 minutes in the real world (2,200 seconds)."

"This ratio reaches —"

"1,146,763 seconds to 1 second."

"1,146,763 seconds passed in his eighth layer dream, while only 1 second passed in reality."

"As a result, the time in his eighth layer dream has long exceeded the single dream you calculated — 1 second : 240 seconds."

Following the answer from Professor Zhuang's mental calculation, the two women were not surprised.

After all, their teacher could always do mental math.

Zhou Qing pondered and said: "In this way, teacher, the time ratio between you and me seems to be reversed."

"Single dream time, 1 second of dream time to 240 seconds of reality."

"Jiang Zhe's eighth layer dream time ratio: 1,146,763 seconds of dream time to 1 second of reality."

Zhou Qingqing added: "That's right, it seems the more dreams there are, the slower the time, and the slower the flow of the real world."

Zhou Qingqing suddenly realized something and asked a question:

"If... I mean if, teacher, if a person's dream keeps deepening, wouldn't it eventually reach a shockingly unimaginable degree?"

Hearing this, Professor Zhuang raised his head, looked at Zhou Qingqing, and smiled and nodded, "Of course it will. As the dream deepens, it will naturally reach a terrifying value; until this person is completely unable to return to reality from the dream. There are examples of this in reality, where after not being able to wake up from a dream, the physical body becomes a vegetable. And those who cannot wake up are highly likely to have had illnesses themselves, and deep dreams induce the occurrence of the disease; eventually becoming a vegetable."

Once these words were spoken, the two women stopped talking, but their expressions became extremely serious.

It was at this moment that Jiang Zhe on the big screen smiled and continued:

"I believe you have all discovered —"

"If you use a single dream of 2 minutes as the dream duration to calculate the ratio to the outside real world of 8 hours."

"In the end, everyone will get a simple answer —"

"1 second of dream time = 240 seconds of reality."

Once these words were spoken, a massive amount of barrage expressed support.

"Yes, yes, yes, this is the most recognized normal data!"

"I also calculated this, but dream time has a range, some hover between 1 minute to 3 minutes, some hover between 5 to 8 minutes; and the 2-minute dream duration is the average value."

"I calculated your eighth layer dream time, Jiang Zhe, calculated as 80 years, and finally shockingly calculated that — the ratio of the eighth dream to reality reached a staggering: 1,146,763 seconds to 1 second of reality: from Zhou Qing."

"Holy crap... as expected, there are experts calculating this. Isn't this the female genius from Tsinghua University, one of Professor Zhuang's favorite students."

"Wait, does this mean Professor Zhuang is also watching this live stream?"

"Yes, our teacher and I are both watching this live stream: posted by Zhou Qingqing."

"Hiss~~ This is getting interesting."

"..."

This is equivalent to the subject of Jiang Zhe's decryption watching him decrypt his own dream.

Receiving the broadcast from the backstage director, a subtle smile appeared on Jiang Zhe's face.

Facing the camera, he regained his composure and continued to explain.