The Cure and the Forgetting

After speaking his mind, Dr. Li, a gentle smile on his face, lightly ruffled Li Huowang’s hair, then adjusted his glasses and walked toward the door of the ward. Just as he was about to leave the room, he suddenly stopped.

“Oh, right, Xiao Li. You just said that because you can bring things from that world over here, you think this world is the fake one. But have you ever tried sending something from here over there? You might get a different result.”

Having said that, Li Huowang was left rooted to the spot, his mind instinctively chewing over the words. If I really can send things from here to there… then which side is actually real?

Should I try it? What if it actually works?

No. I can’t keep interacting with these hallucinations! It’ll only drag me in deeper!

Just a try. What are you so afraid of?

Before he knew it, Li Huowang had fallen back into a state of bewildered confusion, his face twisting in extreme agony.

Just as he was wrestling with the question, he felt the pristine white walls around him and the machines beeping nearby beginning to rapidly fade. Before long, the bright fluorescent lights dimmed into the murky glow of an oil lamp.

When Li Huowang found himself lying on an old-fashioned wooden bed, staring at the dust-covered beams overhead, he understood immediately. I’m back.

After a moment of stillness, he pulled back the covers.

Compared to bringing things out of the hallucination, I have a much more solid way to figure out whether that side is an illusion.

He looked down at his abdomen. To his surprise, the wound he had carved into himself was now wrapped in clean white gauze. He pressed it with his hand—only a faint ache remained.

Just before, his intestines had been spilling out!

“It was completely torn up… and it healed?” A chill ran through him. When he had performed the ritual from the bamboo slip, he had been ready to die. Yet here he was, alive.

Could it be... The image of the clean, sterile ICU from his hallucination—the beeping machines, the two IV drips—flashed through his mind.

He wanted to run from it, but he knew he was starting to doubt again. He tried to discard the suspicion, but couldn’t.

“Senior Li! You’re awake!” Bai Lingmiao rushed in excitedly, holding a bowl of chicken soup.

“Where are we?” Seeing her, Li Huowang quickly buried his doubts deep inside.

“Wujia Village.” Bai Lingmiao carefully set the soup on the table, then reached under the covers to check his wound.

“How did this… how did I heal? Why didn’t I die?” Li Huowang asked bluntly, the doubt he had just suppressed surging back unstoppably.

“Senior Li, what are you saying? Why would you die? We found you in the bamboo grove and gave you a few of the pills you refined. The medicine must have healed you.”

Bai Lingmiao’s head was hanging low, nearly pressed against the blanket. She couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes.

His own pills? Li Huowang knew them well. They were ordinary remedies, nothing miraculous. There was no way they could heal such a severe wound.

Isn't your world perfectly reasonable, either? Dr. Li’s words echoed in his mind.

A terrifying thought seized his heart. What if this side is the fake one?

A wave of sheer panic washed over him, though he didn’t know exactly what he was panicking about.

The next moment, Li Huowang grabbed Bai Lingmiao’s face in both hands, forcing her to look directly at him. His expression twisted with mounting terror.

“What’s going on? Tell me! What are you hiding? Or are you fake, too?”

Two streaks of clear tears slid down Bai Lingmiao’s cheeks. She was terrified by the ferocious face before her.

The sight of the weeping, speechless girl struck a chord in Li Huowang’s heart. He opened his arms and pulled her into an embrace, pressing down the pain inside him as he murmured to himself.

“Miaomiao, don’t hide things from me, okay? This is so important to me. Please, tell me. How did my wound really heal?”

The dim room fell silent for a long time. Finally, Bai Lingmiao’s voice came, faint and reluctant. “Senior Li… I… I became a chuma disciple. I invited the old lady of the Bai family to heal you. There’s only one yang life pill left in your gourd.”

Li Huowang’s pupils contracted sharply. Images flashed through his mind: Bai Lingmiao, just recovered from her own grave illness, and her deliberate taking of the drum skin. The signs had all been there. He just hadn’t been willing to think in that direction before.

Bai Lingmiao pulled back from his embrace, looking at him with a timid, fearful expression. “Senior Li, I really didn’t mean to lie to you. Can you not blame me?”

Li Huowang let out a sudden, deep breath, and began to laugh with relief. “It’s fine. It’s fine. As long as it’s real. As long as it’s real.”

“What is real?” Bai Lingmiao was clearly confused.

“Nothing. Bring me the soup. I’m a little hungry.” Li Huowang changed the subject, his heart feeling much lighter. No matter what Dr. Li said, this side was real. So that side must be the illusion.

Ever since he had eaten the Black Tai Sui, nothing from that side had appeared. That was the crucial evidence. He had fallen into a hallucination once, and he would not let it happen again.

He lifted the bowl of fragrant chicken soup and drank it greedily. His stomach told him his body desperately needed the nourishment.

Soon, the bowl was empty. He handed it back to her. “Get me another bowl.”

“By the way, I was insane just now. How did you get me to drink this?”

Bai Lingmiao didn’t answer. Her face reddened, and she turned to run outside.

“How else? She fed it to you mouth-to-mouth. I told her we could just pour it down your throat with a spoon, but Junior Bai was too soft-hearted to treat you that way,” Xiaoman said, walking in and answering the question.

Xiaoman came to his bedside, her expression full of mixed emotions. “Senior Li, Junior Bai really has given everything for you. You need to treat her well.”

Li Huowang coughed awkwardly, unwilling to discuss the topic. “After everything that happened, the people of Wujia Village still let us stay here?”

Xiaoman’s face clouded. After a moment, she said, “They’re all gone.”

“Gone? Where?” Li Huowang was puzzled. Wasn’t this their village?

“I don’t know. Ever since the trees in the forest started to wither, everyone in Wujia Village seemed to have become different people. Nobody recognized anyone else. Even Old Wu’s six sons didn’t know each other anymore. It was as if they had never been surnamed Wu, and as if they had never been brothers at all.”