Lying on the bed at the mental illness treatment center, be it his expression or the words, Chen Ge perfectly blended into the environment.
"He was fine in the morning, so how come he's so sick at night?" Zuo Han sat back down on his bed and kept a distance away from Chen Ge. "I'm a forensic student. I've been studying for so many years, but I haven't heard that frequent stimulation can revive a person's memory."
"Forensic students like you deal with dead bodies. The situation with living people might be more complicated."
"Do you know how low your body temperature was when you acted up earlier? The only difference between you and a dead person was that you still had a heartbeat. " Initially, Zuo Han wanted to cooperate with Chen Ge and escape together, but now he realized how dangerous this roommate of his was. He might kill him at any moment.
From Zuo Han's perspective, Chen Ge was not just sick; there seemed to be other secrets hidden in the man.
"Has this hospital been conducting human experiments?" Zuo Han tried to use his own knowledge to find the answer, but the more he thought about it, the more confused he became. Science could not explain Chen Ge's condition, and this was already within the realm of theology.
"Zuo Han, can you tell me a few ghost stories? I want the scariest kind. "Chen Ge lay in bed and turned to look at Zuo Han with anticipation.
"What's wrong with you? Why are you suddenly listening to a ghost story? " Zuo Han blurted out. He realized he could not read Chen Ge at all. "You want to listen to your roommate's ghost story in the middle of the night? Do you want to know what kind of mentality you have to have to say something like that?"
"I just want to try and see if fear can stimulate me to recover my memory."
Hearing what Chen Ge said, Zuo Han felt that there was some truth to it. His eyes twitched slightly, and then he told Chen Ge a few ghost stories that he knew.
"Do you feel scared?"
"No, your stories do not excite me at all."
"Who wouldn't get excited listening to a ghost story?" Zuo Han climbed out of bed and dragged his bed away from Chen Ge. He only stopped when he reached the door.
At this distance, if Chen Ge wanted to harm him, he could immediately open the door and run out.
"Did anything terrible happen around you?"
"Yes, I was locked up in a mental hospital. My roommate asked me to tell him ghost stories at night." Zuo Han could not understand Chen Ge's behavior at all. It was hard to explain from a medical and mystical perspective.
"Your ghost stories are not scary at all. How about …" Chen Ge forced himself to raise his hand. "How about we play some psychic games? For example, Pen Spirit or Plate Spirit? "
There was no need to think about it. Some things were already engraved in his body. Chen Ge was very familiar with these words.
"Didn't you lose your memory? How come you know so much about these strange things? "Zuo Han realized the problem.
"In my memory, I used to be the boss of a Haunted House, but the doctor said I've taken on someone else's identity and made up my story."
"The doctor is probably lying to you. From your various strange behaviors tonight, it is clear that you are a person who likes to seek thrills and the feeling of fear. You are also familiar with horror games like Pen Spirit and Die Spirit. There is a high chance that you used to own a haunted house!" Zuo Han scratched his chin in contemplation.
"But why would the doctor lie to me?"
"How would I know?"
"Then how about we play the Pen Spirit game? I should be able to remember something. "
"No, I don't have a pen."
"What about Plate Spirit? I also know a horror game called Back to Back. One is lying on the bed, and the other is hiding under the bed … "Once he thought about it, Chen Ge's brain felt like it was being torn apart. Therefore, be it his words or actions, they were all instinctive.
Zuo Han did not say anything else to Chen Ge. He lay on the bed with his back facing Chen Ge and started to think about how to escape from the hospital.
Maintaining this position for a while, Zuo Han's heart started to feel strangely unsettled. He thought back to what Chen Ge had said and he had a feeling that something was not right. "Is it possible that he is pretending to be sick? If I'm facing away from him, could he be standing behind me now?
Goosebumps appeared on his neck. Zuo Han turned around and realized that Chen Ge had fallen asleep.
He looks normal when he's asleep. I really didn't expect him to say something so scary.
The room quieted down. At around two in the morning, a strange noise came from somewhere in the hospital. It sounded like something had exploded.
Both Chen Ge and Zuo Han were startled awake. Before they could process what was happening, the sound of footsteps suddenly came from outside the corridor.
Someone's coming!
Someone knocked on the door twice. Before Chen Ge and Zuo Han could get close, the footsteps moved further away.
When Zuo Han opened the door, there was not even a shadow in the corridor outside. "Who knocked on the door?"
"By the way, when you went out to investigate last night, someone also came to knock on the door, but he only knocked once." Chen Ge realized that when he tried to recall the memory after he woke up at the hospital, his brain did not hurt, but when he tried to recall the memory before he fainted, his brain would feel like it was being torn apart.
"Yesterday, he knocked once, and today, he knocked twice? Looks like the person purposely came here to do this. "Zuo Han stared at Chen Ge." Do you know any other patients at the hospital? "
"I can't remember. Since I was hospitalized, I appear to have fainted many times. Every time I wake up, the memory before the previous fainting will become blurry. "
"Is it possible that this is the case? The hospital wants to turn you into a 'normal person' that fits their standard, but every treatment fails, so they can only 'reboot' again and again? " The more Zuo Han thought about it, the more likely it seemed. "Perhaps you've experienced this kind of treatment many times already, but you're not aware of it."
"But what does this have to do with the person who knocked on the door?" Chen Ge lay in bed. He tried his best not to think about it and used the time to recover.
"Could the relationship between you and the person at the door be similar to the relationship between us?" Zuo Han made a bold speculation. "He should be your former roommate. You were 'rebooted' due to the failure of your treatment, and he went into hiding. The knocking on the door might be some kind of agreement between you two, or is he trying to hint something to you?"
"You have a point." Chen Ge nodded.
"He might show up again tomorrow night. We'll figure out a way to contact him then."
"Okay."
That night, the hospital was not too peaceful. There were footsteps in the corridor. Chen Ge only fell asleep when the sun was about to rise.
At 8 am, the sickroom door was pushed open, and Doctor Gao and Xu Wan walked into the room together.
"How was your rest last night?" Doctor Gao once again ignored Zuo Han, who was lying on his side in bed. He walked directly to Chen Ge's bedside. He looked rather tired.
"Not so good. Last night, something seemed to have exploded at the hospital. The loud noise woke me up." Chen Ge looked rather weak, and his words were coming out slowly.
"There was a problem with the boiler room, but it's nothing serious." Doctor Gao sat on the bed in the middle of the sickroom. "Did you have any dreams last night?"
"No." Chen Ge shook his head. "I feel like I'm forgetting something. Some of the blurry memories in my mind are being replaced by new ones. I'm very conflicted, and I don't know which one is the real me."
"The fact that you're able to realize that means that your condition has improved significantly. Don't force it, we'll take it slow." Doctor Gao was very patient. "You can't rush mental illness. You need to accept it, recognize it, and then conquer it."
After that, Doctor Gao turned to look at Zuo Han for the first time. "Chen Ge, I heard from the hospital workers that there were people wandering around the corridor last night. You and your roommates did not leave the sickroom last night, right?"
Hearing that, Zuo Han's eyes flew open. However, he was lying on his side in bed with his back facing Doctor Gao, so neither Doctor Gao nor Chen Ge noticed.
"We were all in the room, but I did hear footsteps in the middle of the night. It was very chaotic, like there were many people outside." Chen Ge did not continue this topic. Instead, he brought up the fact that he was scared awake earlier. "Doctor Gao, I also noticed something strange last night."
"Go on."
"Last night, when I was scared awake by the explosion, the feeling of terror that came from that moment was like electricity coursing through my body. I hate that feeling of terror, and my body kept shaking." Chen Ge's hands were placed on his chest, and his face was pale.
Doctor Gao listened patiently, and Zuo Han, who was pretending to be asleep, pursed his lips.
A madman who could stare at the mental patients in the door with a twisted smile on his face was now saying that he hated the feeling of terror?
"It was like I was thrown into an endless nightmare. Headache, palpitations, cold sweat all over my body. I couldn't breathe, and there was a sense of weightlessness and near death." Chen Ge held his head, and his tone was urgent. "My past memory seems to be filled with fear. When I was scared again, that deep sense of powerlessness attacked my whole body. I hate my past memories, and I want to completely remove them from my mind! Doctor Gao, can you help me? "
Before Doctor Gao could say anything, Zuo Han's eyes widened. He already knew what Chen Ge was trying to do.
"Fear causes you to feel disgust and fear towards your past memories?" Doctor Gao nodded slowly. "I've communicated with you before. The stories that you come up with are indeed scary, and they are definitely the worst memories."
With his eyes blank, Chen Ge stared at the ceiling dumbly. "This is too painful. I hate myself when I'm trapped in fear."
"This is a normal reaction. The fact that you have this feeling means that you're slowly being cured." Doctor Gao took out the medicine bottle from his pocket and poured out two pills. He watched as Chen Ge swallowed them before turning to leave. "I'll go edit the treatment plan. In a while, follow Xu Wan to have breakfast."
After Doctor Gao left, Xu Wan helped Chen Ge up. She helped Chen Ge wash up and then led Chen Ge to the hospital canteen.
"This is the canteen for the third sick hall. When your condition stabilizes, you can come here to eat on your own." Xu Wan helped Chen Ge get his food before leaving.
"I am very familiar with this scene. In my memory, she often brings me food." Chen Ge talked to himself. He had no friends. He sat alone at the corner of the canteen and occasionally raised his head to look at the patients around him.
"The third sick hall at Xin Hai Central Hospital is a treatment center for mental patients. It is similar to a place called the Third Sick Hall in my memory."
Memory intertwined with reality. Chen Ge used the spoon to tap lightly on the table.
His face was expressionless, but he was thinking of something in his mind.
"Doctor Gao said that self-awareness is very important for mental patients. Some time ago, the term 'self-awareness key' appeared in my mind, and at the same time, the Third Sick Hall appeared in my memory. Even though I cannot remember what I did at the Third Sick Hall, one thing is certain, there is some kind of connection between the self-awareness key and the Third Sick Hall. If the Third Sick Hall in my imagination is based on the Third Sick Hall in real life, does that mean that the self-awareness key is hidden somewhere at the Third Sick Hall? "
The key in his hand was twisted out of shape. The pain tormented Chen Ge's nerves, but he used his powerful determination to hold on.
"Doctor Gao said that my past memory is all made up, and the things that left a deep impression in my memory can be found in real life. Then I would like to see what the self-awareness key in my memory looks like in real life."
When Chen Ge was reminded of the self-awareness key and the Third Sick Hall, another memory fragment appeared in his mind. "Self-awareness is very important for mental patients, and the self-awareness key is related to the mental hospital. This arrangement is not a coincidence. It feels like someone has purposely set all of this up. It's like he predicted that one day I would be locked up at the mental hospital and set up this self-awareness key beforehand."
Whenever his brain worked, it felt like it was being pierced by countless needles. This kind of pain was unbearable for a normal person.
"The self-awareness key is like a node that triggers my memory, it points me in a direction."
Twisting the key that was about to change shape, Chen Ge endured the pain and continued to eat.
He was slowly getting used to the pain, using this stupidest and cruelest method to face his past.
After dinner, Chen Ge walked to the garden outside the hospital with the crutches. "No matter what, I cannot be locked up at the quarantine zone again. I will play the role that the hospital wants me to be, only then will I have a chance to investigate the truth."
Sitting on the bench, Chen Ge looked at the pavilion far away. Zhang Jingjiu did not come.
"He just said one sentence to me, and he has to receive such a severe punishment?" The sun shone on Chen Ge's face, but he did not feel any warmth.
"Looks like Zhang Jingjiu will not be coming."
Several minutes later, the bushes were pushed aside, and a cat's head poked out. This stray cat seemed to have been waiting for Chen Ge, but of course, Chen Ge might have been waiting for it as well.
Crawling out from the bushes, the white cat bit out the bottom of Chen Ge's pants and dragged him toward the fence. Chen Ge did not resist.
However, this time was different from last time. After the white cat led Chen Ge to the fence, it meowed at Chen Ge several times. Then it crawled out through the gap in the fence and ran toward the theme park across the road.
"It wants me to wait for it here?" Chen Ge had no memory of this cat, be it his past memory or his current memory, there was no sign of this cat.
Ten minutes later, just as Chen Ge suspected that he had been stood up by a cat, the white cat reappeared, and behind it was a woman in a red dress.
"Zhang Ya?"
The woman was in ghost makeup. When she heard Chen Ge call out her name, she was slightly startled.
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