In her dream, Mother was so frightened that she wanted to open her mouth and demand what that person was doing, to ask why he had come to their home. But no matter how hard Mother tried to open her mouth, using all her strength, she couldn’t utter a single word.

She saw the man who had entered the courtyard—about thirty years old, dressed all in black. For some reason, his face was impossible to make out, even though Mother strained her eyes to look; it was as if a layer of mist covered his features. A strange man suddenly breaking into her own home wasn’t even what scared Mother the most. What truly terrified her was that the man’s hands and feet were shackled with thick iron chains!

The chains were thicker than a thumb, pitch black. Every time he took a step forward, the chains on his feet dragged along the ground, making a clattering “clank, clank” sound...

Mother was terrified. Someone wearing handcuffs and leg irons—how could that be a good person? Wasn’t that the kind of death row criminal who had committed a capital crime? Yes, Mother was a woman, but she wasn’t ignorant; only death row inmates wore such shackles—ordinary criminals never did.

At that moment, Mother wanted to scream, but no sound came out. She wanted to run, but her feet felt rooted to the ground, unable to move an inch. So she could only watch helplessly as that terrifying man slowly approached her...

When the man, dragging his chains, came up to Mother, he stopped, let out a chilling “hee hee” laugh, and then suddenly rammed into Mother’s stomach...

Mother screamed in terror, felt a cold chill run through her body, and jolted awake from the bench with a start!

After waking, Mother realized it had just been a dream, but it was so terrifying that even after waking, she found her clothes soaked through with cold sweat.

Mother touched her stomach where the man had struck her in the dream—thankfully, there was nothing wrong. Only then did Mother slowly calm herself, thinking it was just a strange dream. But just as Mother was about to turn and go back inside, she was horrified to discover that the courtyard gate was somehow wide open!

This time, Mother was truly stunned. She hurriedly called out my Father’s name, but no one answered. She ran into the inner room and called for Father again, still no response. Mother then realized that Father hadn’t come home, and that door...

At this thought, Mother couldn’t help but recall the nightmare she’d just had. Could it be that the dream was real? Had someone really come to their home? Terrified, Mother clutched her head and ran outside, waiting at the neighbor’s house until nightfall when Father returned, and only then did she go home with Father...

When Father saw how frightened Mother looked, he asked her what had happened. Mother had long wanted to tell someone about her fear, so she poured out everything that had happened that afternoon.

After hearing her out, Father didn’t think it was anything scary. He comforted Mother, saying it was just a dream, and that maybe some neighborhood kid had pushed the door open, telling Mother not to be afraid.

Father was a man, careless and unconcerned, so of course he didn’t think much of it. But Mother was different—this had happened to her, and women are naturally more sensitive. How could she just put it out of her mind?

So, Mother remained suspicious about the strange event. And less than two months later, the strange dream returned. This time it was still my Mother, still in the courtyard, still dozing off without realizing it, still dreaming after falling asleep, and still the same black-clad man with handcuffs and leg irons. The only difference was that this time, the man was already inside the house.

As soon as Mother saw the man whose face she couldn’t make out, she was so scared she couldn’t move. She knew she was dreaming again and wanted to wake up quickly, but just like before, she couldn’t. The black-clad man paced back and forth in the courtyard, muttering to himself as if cursing, but his words were indistinct and unclear. After cursing for a while, the man started to go into the inner room. Mother wanted to follow, but couldn’t move, so she could only watch as the man entered the house. After a while, the man came out, but this time he was carrying the family’s money box, and stormed out of the courtyard...

The money box wasn’t very big, just a small wooden chest about twenty centimeters long, a dowry from my grandmother to Mother, originally used to store wooden combs and such, but later Mother used it as a money box.

Seeing the man running out with the family’s money box, Mother was so anxious she burst into tears—who wouldn’t be heartbroken to watch their money being taken away? Just as Mother was about to faint from anxiety, she woke up. At that moment, Mother didn’t care whether it was a dream or not—she rushed into the inner room, and thankfully, the wooden box was still there, nothing missing.

And so, while pregnant with me, Mother would have similar strange dreams every few days. Later, even Father had the same dream: always a man in handcuffs and leg irons running into the house, sometimes raging and roaring, sometimes sneering at them, sometimes carrying things out of the house, leaving my Parents both deeply unsettled...