Chapter 10

  Zhen Yi and Xiao ke looked at each other, their gazes falling on the man in white clothes.

Yan Ge rubbed his nose bridge, "Xiao Ke, didn't I ask you to take her over there..." He paused and recalled, "Hmm, I didn't say that."

Xiao Ke chuckled, "Teacher was busy making notes at that time and didn't pay attention."

Yan Ge took off his glasses and said, "I'll take you there." 

He explained the situation to Xiao Ke, then went with  Zhen Yi to the mental hospital across the road.

Upon entering,  Zhen Yi discovered a different world inside. The atmosphere was entirely unlike the research institute. While the institute was cold and quiet, this place was warm and pleasant, with a large lawn, a small pond, and a swing.

There was no one on the lawn, only the sun.

He didn't say a word along the way, his hands tucked into the pockets of his white coat, walking calmly with only the grass as company.

 Zhen Yi followed a couple of steps behind him, finding his silhouette rather handsome. She remembered how he had been diligently taking notes with his head lowered in the laboratory earlier. It was a beautiful sight, a subtle elegance without any showiness.

Strange how just a silhouette could unsettle her heart. The connections between people, it really was unpredictable.

After walking with him for a while, she returned to the purpose of this visit, "Dr. Yan, can patients escape from this hospital? I mean, escape and then come back."

Yan Ge pondered for a moment and replied, "I'm sorry, I'm not certain."

Asking was as good as not asking.

Inside the main building, through the glass window, Zhen Yi saw patients in white clothing lining up waiting to be let out, while doctors and nurses attended to them.

Seeing  Zhen Yi, the patients, particularly sensitive to new faces, abandoned their queue. Their heads crowded against the glass, gazing at her with curiosity, their eyes like inquisitive children.

Each of them were impeccably clean—clean white clothes, clean faces, and clean expressions. They seemed different from the outside, how to describe it... it was as if the outside world wore tainted masks, but they didn't.

Because they were real, they were clean.

A group of them tilted their heads, pressed their faces against the glass, watching curiously. A conflict suddenly arose at the front of the crowd, with a patient shouting loudly, "Why won't they let me go out to play? I want to go out, I want to go out!"

This shout prompted someone else to jeer, "Why hasn't that doctor with the perky butt, Dr. Ke, come? I want him to examine me, I'd let him touch me. I also like touching him, I want to sleep with him."

Zhen Yi: "..."

Several women expressing their affections so boldly? Between the mentally ill and the sane, who was truly clear-minded?

She inexplicably liked this patient...

Another dissatisfied voice chimed in, "Dr. Xu, Meimei is stealing my man again, don't you care?"

The man who had spoken initially grew angry, "You harem of concubines, shut up. I am the Emperor, I want to go out!"

Seeing that the doctors and nurses couldn't calm him down, Yan Ge walked over to the iron railing and asked in a low voice, "Why can't he go out?"

Dr. Xu quickly explained, "He didn’t pass his examination, he'll have to wait a few days."

Yan Ge looked at the "Emperor" and spoke calmly, as if having a casual conversation, "You can't go out for the next few days."

The "Emperor" was displeased, hands on his hips, full of majesty, "I am the Emperor, I say I want to go out, so I go out."

Yan Ge replied nonchalantly, "But the Empress Dowager disagrees."

The "Emperor" fell silent, and after a few seconds, he surprisingly nodded, "Fine. Filial piety is the foundation of the nation." With that, he followed the nurse and left.

 Zhen Yi: "..."

The patient at the front raised a clenched fist towards the sky, "Toot, toot, set sail, big ship! Sailors, take your positions!"

"Set sail!"

"Set sail!"

...

The patient stopped staring at Zhen Yi, and they all went back to stand in line. Some pretended to row, some pretended to hoist sails, some pretended to steer. It was surprisingly organized and orderly.

Patients in neat white clothes formed a line, singing songs, happily "rowing" their way onto the grass.

This mental hospital was different from what Zhen Yi had imagined.

Following Yan Ge, Zhen Yi went up the stairs and arrived in a hall with white tables and chairs, a place where patients could read, play chess, and paint. Everyone had gone outside except for Wu Zhe, who was sitting in front of an easel, painting.

 Zhen Yi whispered, "What's his condition?"

"Not diagnosed yet."

"Why?"

"His condition is quite poor, he can't cooperate. But from his current behavior, he seems to have lost his memory of people, and his memory of things is linked to his feelings."

"So, there is only pain and fear?"  Zhen Yi felt a bit sad, "He's a suspect too, the police must have questioned him many times, right?"

"Yes. He's been muttering to himself, they weren’t exactly question and answer sessions, but they still recorded his 'testimony'." Yan Ge spoke with a disapproving tone.

 Zhen Yi approached Wu Zhe. His canvas was empty, but there were piles of finished sketches on the ground, all in black and white, depicting strange and horrifying scenes. The figures within were contorted, their expressions terrifying and eerie.

After not seeing him for half a month, he was still a handsome young man, but he was no longer the same. The previous version of him, after the tragedy, had encouraged and accompanied Tang Shang, tirelessly searching for lawyers. In the following four months, he had exhibited astonishing patience and tolerance, resisting the tempestuous waves of the outside world to protect the woman in his arms.

When Tang Shang was tormented by the cruelty and darkness of reality, she would lose control and scream. When  Zhen Yi was on the brink of collapse, she would snap at people. Only he had buried all his pain deep within, offering comfort, encouragement, trust, and gratitude to Tang Shang and  Zhen Yi.

Those four months of battling side by side, it felt like enduring a century-long war.

It was him who made  Zhen Yi realize, for the first time, that even an ordinary person, when faced with sudden upheavals in life, could erupt with astonishing and enduring strength.

But it was this man, as strong as reinforced concrete, who collapsed abruptly after Tang Shang's death.

She sat down in front of him, "Wu Zhe?"

Wu Zhe's vacant gaze shifted towards her face, slowly focusing, "Lawyer Zhen."

Zhen Yi's heart thumped. She couldn't describe the feeling—like meeting a comrade-in-arms from her youth after a long separation, bittersweet and painful. "Do you remember me?"

"I said goodbye to you last month and left my address for you." He looked normal, but he felt different.

"Xiao Shang went to buy ice cream and hasn't come back yet. Wait for a moment."

"Alright."  Zhen Yi nodded.

Yan Ge had told her that Wu Zhe's post-injury memory was very short, reshuffling every so often, reverting to the phase when he was waiting for Tang Shang to come home.

And so, he had been waiting all this time.

"What are these?"  Zhen Yi picked up one of the dark-colored sheets on the ground.

"A girl's story."

It was a comic strip where a girl had killed four men. Looking at the figures, they oddly resembled Tang Shang, Lin Ziyi, and the other two.

Zhenyi frowned slightly, and when she reached the last drawing, she asked, "What are these round and flat things?"

"She castrated them." His tone was casual.

Male genitalia?

 Zhen Yi's breath hitched. She had learned from the police that Lin Ziyi had indeed been castrated, and he had died naked, tied in a spread-eagle position, a shameful and disgraceful sight.

Tied up...

 Zhen Yi remembered the scars on Wu Zhe's neck and wrists the first time she saw him, scars from being bound. At that time, she had faintly felt that in this tragedy, the wounds in his heart were probably deeper and more enduring than Tang Shang's.

Could he commit murder in his current state? If he could, would he be conscious while doing it? And, most importantly, was he free to come and go from here?

Her mind was a jumble of confused thoughts, until Wu Zhe's weary voice broke through:

"Lawyer Zhen, I'm so tired."

"What?"

"I ran too much today, I'm tired."

"Ran?"

"Xiao Shang jumped from upstairs, and I ran to the window to catch her. I'm tired from running."

"Did you catch her?"  Zhen Yi didn't know if he was talking about reality or fantasy, so she just followed along.

"Not yet. She jumped from the 50th floor, and I ran to the window on the 49th floor staircase. I didn't catch her. So, she jumped again?"

"He jumped again?"

"Yeah, every time she jumps, I rush to catch her. Each time, I'm on a lower floor than the last. Last week, I ran to the window on the 31st floor staircase, but she still slipped through my fingertips. Lately, I've been stuck on the 31st floor, and I can only run there." As he spoke, he grew anxious, his hands started to scratch the drawing board on the canvas irregularly, "What should I do? I can't go lower than the 31st floor, what should I do?"

"But how do you know you're on the 31st floor?"

"There's a floor number beside the fire hydrant."

"When you rush to the window, how can you see the floor number behind the fire hydrant?"

"A mirror."

"What?"

"There's a mirror beside the window in the staircase. I see the empty wall, the doorway, and the black number in the mirror."

A cold wind ran down Zhen Yi's spine. She couldn't fathom what Wu Zhe's fantasies were indicating.

"Lawyer Zhen, are you here to pick me up?" His thoughts jumped, and he suddenly became nervous.

"I..."

"Everyone here wants to harm me, they keep giving me medicine, trying to poison me."

"But you..."

"Of course, I didn't take it." He quickly interrupted, looking around, seeing no one, he took out a dozen pills from the waistband of his trousers and handed them to Zhen Yi, "The nurses will come to check, hide these for me."

 Zhen Yi felt like a thief but had no choice but to take them and hide them.

"But I don't talk, if I don't talk, they can't see me." Wu Zhe said, "You should go too."

Zhen Yi couldn't understand, she wanted to ask more, but Wu Zhe retracted his gaze, treating her as if she didn't exist, then he hugged his painting and slowly went back to his room.

Could Wu Zhe have thought she was a part of his fantasies in their conversation just now?

The idea made Zhen Yi's scalp tingle.

The hall was empty now. Even Yan Ge was nowhere to be found, leaving an eerie emptiness.  Zhen Yi got up and looked out at the lawn, where the patients were engaged in some sort of recitation or singing competition.

After some thought, she followed the direction Wu Zhe had gone. She saw him entering a room and then asked the nurse on duty in the corridor, "Do you take care of the patients on this side?"

"Yes."

"How's Wu Zhe doing?"

"I think he's doing well, he’s quiet and doesn’t cause trouble. We like well-behaved patients the most."

Though she found the comment uncomfortable, Zhen Yi didn't mind. After all, everyone wished for smooth sailing in their work, and the interests of others was just a good-natured pastime they pursued after their own smooth sailing.

"Do the patients' rooms have locks?"

"It depends on the patient's condition."

 Zhen Yi didn't ask further. With so many patients and so few nurses, could they even keep track if someone went missing?

Thinking as she walked, she realized she had taken the wrong direction. Up ahead, there was a closed glass door. Just as she was about to turn back, she saw Yan Ge. On the other side of the door was another hall, slightly smaller, with a clean and simple environment.

Yan Ge was sitting face-to-face with a man, both dressed in white. However, one was in a doctor's lab coat, while the other was in a patient's gown.

 Zhen Yi could only see the side of the man's face, his features appeared distinct, suggesting he was quite handsome.

Being a fan was a very sophisticated excuse.  Zhen Yi couldn't move her feet again and looked curiously.

The two of them seemed to be having a conversation. Yan Ge was composed and indifferent, while the man at the other side was smiling, looking comfortable.

 Zhen Yi subconsciously pushed the glass door lightly, it was locked.

She was puzzled. What could Yan Ge possibly be talking about with a mentally ill patient? And his expression was so serious and earnest. Considering his usual attitude towards her, where he would treat her like a talking piece of air.

 Zhen Yi felt discontented, and suddenly a whimsical thought popped into her mind—uh, could it be that he was so indifferent to her because... not because she was lacking, but because of her gender?