The memory was fragmented, and whenever Chen Ge tried to think about it, his head would hurt. He endured it silently, and green veins surfaced on his hands that gripped the bedsheet.
Seeing how much pain Chen Ge was in, Xu Wan stopped talking. She pressed on Chen Ge's arm. "I know you're in pain, but after dinner, you'd better take a good nap."
Xu Wan picked up the food from the bedside table and used the spoon to feed Chen Ge the food.
His taste buds could taste the fragrance of the vegetables and meat, and it was so real.
Chen Ge swallowed the food mechanically, and his eyes were blank.
The memory fragments that occasionally appeared in his mind told him that everything Xu Wan said was true. He had been searching for his parents, and he rarely drove to a certain place.
The more he thought about it, the more disgusted he felt about driving.
Picking up the napkin, Xu Wan wiped Chen Ge's mouth. "If there's anything, call me. Take a good rest. If you recover well, you'll be able to move out from the quarantine zone tonight. I know how badly you want to return to the normal sickroom. "
"Why do I want to return to the normal sickroom so badly? Is it dangerous to stay in the quarantine zone? "The term 'quarantine zone' made Chen Ge uncomfortable, and he had a deep impression of the term in his mind.
"There is no danger here, and no one will harm you. The reason you want to return to the normal sickroom is because you can see the scenery outside the wall from there." Xu Wan picked up the bowl and left.
"See the scenery outside the wall?"
After Xu Wan left, the sickroom became quiet again. Chen Ge lay in bed. If he did not think about anything, the pain that came from all parts of his body would lessen.
The sun fell on his body, and with a clean pillow as his head, Chen Ge stared out the window.
The sun was bright, and a few clouds floated freely in the blue sky. The only thing that spoiled the view was the iron grille on the window.
"Is the iron grille to prevent thieves from sneaking in or to prevent patients from escaping?"
The hospital had a good environment, and it was very comfortable to stay in, but Chen Ge had a strange anxiety in his heart. He had no idea what he was afraid of.
Whenever he tried to think, he would feel a sharp pain in his brain. When he stopped thinking and lay on the bed like a puppet, the pain would slowly disappear.
Slowly moving his body, Chen Ge tried to control his muscles. After about an hour, he could finally sit up on the bed with his own strength.
"My wrists and ankles are bleeding from the restraints, and there are bruises on my back and shoulders. My left leg is wrapped in plaster, and my cheek is scratched …" Chen Ge was inspecting his body. His eyes moved slowly until they landed on the back of his hand. There was a wound that looked like a drop of blood.
"How did this wound appear?"
As soon as Chen Ge began to think, the nerves in his brain seemed to be fiercely pulled by a hand. The piercing pain almost made him collapse.
"Bang!"
The door was pushed open again, and Doctor Gao walked in alone. He was holding a document in his hand. When he saw Chen Ge was already sitting up, he was quite surprised. "Looks like you're recovering well."
"Doctor Gao, my head hurts." Chen Ge sat on the edge of the bed. His body was still very weak.
"Now is not the time to take the medicine. Come, follow my lead. Cross your arms over your chest and take a deep breath." Doctor Gao guided Chen Ge patiently. After he calmed down, Doctor Gao moved a chair over to sit beside the bed. "Do you still remember what happened last night?"
"Last night?"
"You suddenly acted up last night. It appeared to be a serious hallucination. I had to call three hospital workers to control you." Doctor Gao took out a mechanical watch from his pocket. He glanced at the time and then placed the watch on the bedside table.
When the hands of the mechanical watch moved, they would make a very weak sound, and it was accompanied by a specific rhythm.
"Tell me about it. Just treat it as a conversation between friends. You do not need to worry about anything. If you think of anything or see anything, feel free to tell me." Doctor Gao had a smile on his face. "You only need to be careful of one thing, and that is do not lie. Do not say things that go against your heart."
"I cannot remember. I only know that I entered a dark and eerie hospital last night." The memory in his mind was already fragmented. Chen Ge lowered his head and his expression was pained.
"What was the name of the hospital? What did you see inside the hospital? Was there anyone else around you? "Following the sound of the mechanical watch, Doctor Gao asked the next question.
"The hospital appeared to be called Xin Hai Central Hospital. I saw many different words. The person who accompanied me into the hospital was … Zhang Ya?" A name suddenly appeared in Chen Ge's mind. After he said it subconsciously, he immediately grabbed his head. The intense pain caused him to curl up on the bed. He kept screaming. "So painful! My head hurts so much! "
Doctor Gao sighed softly. He twisted open the bottle and fed Chen Ge two more white pills.
After taking the pills, Chen Ge's symptoms slightly improved. He lay back on the bed and his face was frighteningly pale.
"Your condition has worsened again. Last night, you stayed inside Xin Hai Central Hospital and did not go anywhere else. The creepy and eerie hospital that you saw was here. " After Doctor Gao saw that Chen Ge had calmed down, he pointed around. "Do you think this place is creepy and eerie?"
The sun lit up the sickroom. The sickroom was clean and tidy. This place was not at all creepy and eerie.
"Perhaps this place in the day is different from this place at night." Chen Ge felt like he had said something similar somewhere before.
"There is no difference between the hospital during the day and at night. The building is lifeless. The one that will change is you." Doctor Gao said slowly. "The you in the day is completely different from the you at night."
"Me?"
"In the day, you can communicate normally, but at night, you are like a beast." Doctor Gao placed the information that he was holding on the bed. "Initially, we thought you were suffering from PTSD, but then we discovered that you also suffer from serious delusions. Not too long ago, we discovered the existence of another persona inside you."
"Another persona?" Chen Ge's brain became sluggish. After receiving so much information at the same time, he was unable to process it in a short period of time.
"Why don't you take a look at the surveillance footage from last night?" Doctor Gao took out his phone. The phone was pure white in color and had a large screen.
Pressing the play button, a blurry video started to play on Doctor Gao's phone screen.
Chen Ge, who was lying in bed, suddenly sat up. He dragged his leg that was covered in plaster. Using the wall as support, he silently made his way to the door of the sickroom.
When midnight arrived, he pushed open the sickroom door and wanted to escape from the hospital. In the end, he was seen by the hospital worker on duty. Then the two of them got into a fight. On the screen, Chen Ge was like a beast. He was screaming words that no one could understand as he wrestled with the hospital worker.
Two to three minutes later, the other two hospital workers arrived. The three of them worked together to restrain Chen Ge and sent him to the quarantine area.
The video did not end there. Chen Ge, who was lying in bed, struggled with all his might. His eyes were bloodshot like they were about to bleed.
His body was twisted like he was suffering from unimaginable pain. His mouth kept opening and hissing like he was screaming in pain.
"Is this me?" Chen Ge lay in bed. He looked at the video silently. He could not remember anything like this happening at all.
"He is you, but he is also not you. To be more accurate, he is your second persona. The reason he exists is because of your illness." Doctor Gao's tone was serious. "You have an impression of his existence. You have been relying on him, but you just don't want to admit it."
"No, I am just myself. There is no other person in my body." Chen Ge shook his head firmly.
"Really?" Doctor Gao pulled out a page from the document. "In the strange story that you told me earlier, you have a ghost who has been protecting you. The ghost has protected you without asking for anything in return. In fact, protecting you is the only meaning of his existence."
Veins popped on his forehead. Before the pain hit him, Chen Ge nodded. "I remember him. This is not something I made up …"
"Do you still remember your father's surname?" Doctor Gao suddenly changed the topic.
"Chen."
"What is your name?"
"Chen Ge."
"What is your mother's surname?"
"Xu."
"Try to think back. What is the ghost's name?" Doctor Gao spoke very quickly. There was no pause in between the questions.
"His name is … is Xu Yin." Chen Ge gripped his head in pain.
Doctor Gao placed the document before Chen Ge and pointed at a record from one month ago. "The name you have given to your second persona is Xu Yin. During the day, you are Chen Ge and at night, you are Xu Yin. The ghost who has been protecting you without asking for anything in return is actually you. "
"Impossible!"
"It is normal that you do not realize this. Based on my observation, the main reason for the second persona to appear is because you have been putting too much pressure on yourself. You need a persona to help you share the pain."
"That is impossible! Xu Yin is real! I remember him! "
"He does exist, but he only exists in your story, in your mind." Doctor Gao used the softest tone to converse with Chen Ge. "Every time you wake up from your coma, I am the first person to communicate with you and your first listener. In your story, Xu Yin will appear when you are in danger. He is not that powerful but he will do his best to help you overcome the obstacle. Think about it carefully. Doesn't that lonely figure that isn't very powerful look very familiar? Doesn't it look like you? "
With Doctor Gao's guidance, the figure in Chen Ge's mind blurred and then it slowly overlapped with his own.
Loneliness, pain, sadness that he could not share with others, they had many similarities.
"Xu Yin, Chen Ge …" Different memory fragments appeared in Chen Ge's mind. He did not know who to believe but he soon adjusted himself. "Impossible, if Xu Yin is my second persona, then everything that I have experienced should be fake but I remember very clearly that they are all real! There are real ghosts in this world! Xu Yin is real as well! "
Chen Ge clung to the memory fragments that appeared in his mind. Rationality told him that Doctor Gao might be right but he refused to believe it.
"There are no ghosts in this world, the scariest thing is the human heart." Everything that Doctor Gao said resonated with Chen Ge. Chen Ge subconsciously believed that Doctor Gao was right but he was strangely unsettled.
"Come on, I've helped you settle the paperwork to move back to the normal sickroom. Hopefully, you will recover soon." Doctor Gao called Xu Wan over and the two supported Chen Ge as they walked out of the quarantine room.
There was a faint smell of disinfectant in the clean and bright corridor. The doors of the sickrooms on both sides were locked, and there was a thin curtain on the glass windows. Standing in the corridor, there was no way to see what was going on inside the sickrooms.
Walking down the corridor, there was some commotion outside. Many patients were waiting in the corridor.
"Excuse me."
Doctor Gao walked Chen Ge to the first sickroom at the corner of the second floor. This sickroom was much bigger than the previous one and there were three beds inside.
"You should still remember which bed you are staying in, right?" Doctor Gao whispered to ask but Chen Ge was confused.
"Looks like you have forgotten again. It's okay, take your time. When the injury to your brain fully recovers, it shouldn't be so painful anymore." Doctor Gao helped Chen Ge move to the bed next to the window.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Chen Ge looked out the window. Beyond the protective fence was a small theme park.
From the bed that Chen Ge was placed on, he could see the whole theme park.
Most of the visitors were gathered at the eastern side of the theme park that was away from Xin Hai Central Hospital. There were many high-tech entertainment facilities there but the western side of the theme park that was closer to the hospital was quieter and had very few visitors.
The western side of the theme park was mostly filled with old-fashioned attractions but the most eye-catching one was a Haunted House.
When he saw the Haunted House, the memory in Chen Ge's mind started to churn. He held his head but did not move his eyes away. Resisting the pain, he stared at the Haunted House that was built on the western side of the theme park.
"Is this New Century Park?"
"This theme park is called Xin Hai Theme Park. You often stand next to the window and look at it for an entire day."
"I remember something now." Chen Ge pulled on his hair with both of his hands. Small veins popped up on his face and sweat kept pouring down his forehead. "I once worked at a theme park. I inherited my parents' Haunted House and I own a Haunted House that they left behind!"
"Just like her?" Compared to Chen Ge's crazed tone, Doctor Gao's voice was very calm. He reached out his finger to point at the entrance of the theme park's Haunted House.
Chen Ge followed Doctor Gao's finger. There was a woman dressed as a baleful Specter standing at the entrance of the theme park's Haunted House. The make-up on her face was soaked with sweat. She was wearing a red dress and she was holding a billboard to sell tickets at the gate of the Haunted House.
"Zhang Ya?" When he saw the woman's face, Chen Ge was stunned.
"For the sake of your treatment, I purposely went to investigate. The identity that you gave yourself in the story is actually the identity that you have stolen from that woman. Her family has been operating the Haunted House here for more than ten years. Since her parents' generation, they have been operating the Haunted House. " Doctor Gao shook his head. The eyes that looked at Chen Ge were tinged with pity. "The person who runs the Haunted House at the theme park is her and you have only been hiding behind the window of the hospital to look at her. You have not even spoken to her once. You have only visited her Haunted House a long time ago and know that her name is Zhang Ya. "
"Impossible, she is a ghost, a ghost that is the most important to me!" Pain shot through Chen Ge's brain again.
"If you really care about her that much, then after you recover from your illness, you should go and find her personally. You will scare her to death like this." Doctor Gao helped Chen Ge to the bedside.
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