The Confrontation with Wang Wei

1,299 words

Chapter 205: Wang Wei

Upon hearing Doctor Hou state his identity, Li Huowang turned his face away and fell silent. He couldn't be bothered to listen to the ramblings of a doctor from within his own hallucination.

Seeing the patient's resistance, Doctor Hou said nothing more, tapped a few words onto his tablet, and turned to leave.

The moment he was gone, Li Huowang heard new footsteps enter the ward.

"Hey there, little bro. Doctor Hou said you're awake? You think you can manage the bathroom on your own? I really don't want to have to empty your piss bag anymore. Take pity on me, yeah?"

That particular voice, with its obvious chatterbox nature. Without even opening his eyes, Li Huowang knew who it was—the Nurse Wang he’d spoken to on the phone before.

Suddenly, a warm washcloth landed on Li Huowang's face and was rubbed vigorously. "Here we go, Your Highness. Let little me wash your face for you."

Li Huowang yanked the washcloth away and glared at the newcomer.

It was a well-built man with a fleshy figure. His features were peaceful, a blue nurse's cap perched on his head, and he wore a blue nurse's uniform.

The only memorable thing about his face was a black mole on the left side of his chin.

"Oh? His Highness awakens? Is there anything this humble one can help you with?"

Li Huowang looked at him with irritation. "Can you just not talk? You like chatting with psychotics this much? Aren't you afraid you'll talk yourself into a crazy state?"

"Now that's a thing to say. Psychotics have all the fun, you know. Yesterday, that patient in bed 89 was being a picky eater. You know what his reason was? He said the eggplant looked shady and shifty-eyed, and he was afraid that if he ate it, the eggplant would do something bad in his stomach. Hahaha!!"

Finished laughing, Nurse Wang got back to work. He picked up the urine bag hanging by the bedside and headed off to the bathroom to empty it.

He came back holding the bag and opened his mouth again. "Man, your piss is hella yellow. You've been eating too much bad stuff lately, huh. Young people, always managing to get overheated even from hospital food."

Before Li Huowang could answer, he continued. "Hey, kid. I heard at the nurse's station that you've got some kind of divine power or something? What's the deal? Did you become some kind of immortal over there?"

"What's it to you?"

This Nurse Wang was buzzing around him like a fly, non-stop. It made Li Huowang feel inexplicably agitated.

"Come on, spill it. I love hearing your crazy talk, it's really interesting. I can't play on my phone at work, so these days I'm counting on you to kill my time. I also heard you found a woman in there? What about it? Is she realistic? If she is, you've hit the jackpot!!"

Li Huowang’s eyes burned with anger as he looked at the man who had insulted Bai Lingmiao.

But the next second, the anger on his face vanished, replaced by deep suspicion. "What's your surname?"

"Didn't I tell you? My surname is Wang. You can call me Nurse Wang. Or, if you want, you can call me Handsome Guy like the patients in beds 65 and 31 do. I'm not picky."

"Your surname is Wang? Your full name is Wang Deqiu?"

"No, what kind of crappy name is that? My surname is Wang, my given name is Wei. The 'Wei' with the fire radical, like the 'Wei' from Wei Xiaobao."

Hearing this, the suspicion in Li Huowang’s eyes faded, leaving only a deep chill. "You're lying to me. You're not a nurse. Your identity is a doctor!"

Wang Wei scratched his head in confusion. "What are you talking about? Are you having an episode again?"

"You sent my mother away because she's too straightforward and can't lie. You were afraid she'd reveal the trick if she stayed."

"You kept provoking me with words, trying to get a reaction out of me."

Hearing this, a helpless smile spread across Wang Wei's face. He bent down, reconnected the urine bag, and then spoke to the door. "Come in."

The ward door opened, and Doctor Hou from before walked back in. He gave a slight bow to Wang Wei. "Teacher."

"See that? The patient is still very perceptive. It's just that when they're having an episode, they lose their self-control. When they're stable, they're just like normal people, maybe even smarter. So you always have to treat them with normalcy. Don't think that just because they have a mental illness, you can treat them like fools."

After speaking to his student, he turned his head to look at Li Huowang in the bed. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am your attending physician. My surname is Wang, full name Wang Wei, the 'Wei' from Wei Xiaobao. Our first meeting. It's a pleasure."

"Why did you pretend to be a nurse?"

"Because you have a very strong resistance to doctors. So I planned to talk to you under a different identity. But whether it's a nurse or a doctor, what's the difference? We're all here to serve the patient."

Having seen through this person's identity, Li Huowang closed his eyes, refusing any further communication. He would just wait for this time to pass. He'd rather spend the time thinking about how to get out of Siqi as soon as possible.

"Li Huowang, classmate. Did you know? Is it possible that I am really nothing at all, just a hallucination of yours?"

"Hm?" Li Huowang opened his eyes.

Seeing he had a response, Wang Wei continued. "I often think, why is a person's perception of themselves so strange? You think you are something, so you become it. But you know, it's not like that for all consciousness. For example, the thinking of some animals, or even an infant's, doesn't have the concept of 'me.' And people like them don't get mental illnesses. So you could say mental illness is a kind of advanced disease."

"What exactly are you trying to say? You're all over the place, Doctor Wang. If you can't keep up, go home and rest. Don't treat yourself into a nervous condition."

"Correction," Wang Wei paced around Li Huowang's hospital bed. "Not a nervous condition, a psychiatric condition. But doctors have a lot of occupational hazards, and neurasthenia is one of them. So technically, you aren't wrong."

Li Huowang couldn't be bothered to argue and closed his eyes again.

"Li Huowang, based on my analysis of your previous recordings, it seems you've obtained an ability over there? An ability to misplace yourself? You know, that fits the symptoms of schizophrenia perfectly. You're already sick enough as it is. You can't afford to get sicker. It's okay if you don't talk to me. I'll still get paid anyway. But your mother will definitely be upset. After all, your mother spent a pretty penny to hire me. I forgot to tell you, this is a private hospital. The fees are very high, and because it's private, very little of it is covered by medical insurance. Do you really want to stay here for the rest of your life? Have you thought about what a burden this will be on your family? As the saying goes, 'No son is dutiful by a long-sick bedside.' It's the same for a mother. If you're still this stubborn and refuse to cooperate with treatment, then whether it's your girlfriend or your mother, they will eventually leave you. I've seen this kind of thing many times. Your final outcome will probably be getting locked up in some cheap hospital, never to get out, and dying alone!"

Share to

Reading Guide Decoding

The Doctor’s Diagnosis: Your Power is a Symptom

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

This chapter is a brilliant inversion of the typical xianxia power fantasy. In most cultivation novels, gaining a special ability (like spatial misplacement) is a triumphant achievement. Here, that same ability is weaponized against the protagonist by a modern psychiatrist. Wang Wei isn't lying; within the framework of his reality, he is perfectly correct. A delusion that manifests as a "skill" is still a symptom of a worsening condition. This blurs the line between "power" and "pathology" so profoundly that it becomes the novel's central existential horror. The "practice" of the Dao-Twisted World is reframed as the "delusional progression" of a disease. The moment Li Huowang stops seeing himself as a cultivator and starts seeing himself as a patient in this game of psychological Go is the moment he might lose entirely. Wang Wei’s final tactic—appealing to the crushing cost of medical care and the threat of familial abandonment—is a masterstroke of "grounded" horror that is uniquely modern and devastating. It’s not a monster that threatens him, but debt and loneliness.

White Tower Psychiatric Hospital

The modern-world counterpart to the White Jade Capital in the novel’s meta-structure; a private psychiatric hospital.

Chapter Overview

This chapter is a pure psychological duel set entirely within the modern reality (White Tower Psychiatric Hospital). Li Huowang, fresh from the horrors of Siqi, is confronted by his new attending physician, Wang Wei. What starts as a seemingly casual interaction with a chatty nurse quickly unravels into a calculated, diagnostic trap. Wang Wei exposes his own ruse and launches a sophisticated assault on Li Huowang’s identity, using the doctor's ultimate weapon: framing the terrifying, world-shattering abilities Li Huowang has earned in the Dao-Twisted World as mere symptoms of schizophrenia. It’s a masterclass in the novel’s core conflict—is the power real, or is it the disease itself? Wang Wei isn't a physical enemy but a logical one, and his final threat—of abandonment and a forgotten death in a cheap ward—cuts deeper than any claw or claw.

Key Plot Points

Li Huowang recognizes a new voice from his previous phone call—Nurse Wang, a man with a mole and a chatty demeanor. His irritation is immediate and palpable.
After a heated exchange where Nurse Wang mockingly asks about Li Huowang's "her" (referring to Bai Lingmiao), Li Huowang’s anger shifts to cold suspicion. He deduces this "nurse" is actually a psychologist, having sent his mother away to avoid her breaking the act.
Li Huowang's trap is sprung: he points out the man's lies. The "Nurse" stops his act and calls in Doctor Hou, revealing himself to be the senior psychiatrist, Wang Wei.
Wang Wei explains his deception: he used a nurse's identity because Li Huowang is resistant to doctors. He then delivers a devastating logical attack.
Wang Wei uses the very nature of Li Huowang's supernatural "body misplacement" ability—the quintessential Dao-Twisted World power—as evidence of a worsening schizophrenic delusion.
He plays his trump card: a pragmatic threat of economic ruin for his family and eventual abandonment. He warns that Li Huowang’s mother and girlfriend will eventually give up, leading to a lonely incarceration in a cheap institution.

Reading Guide

Get ready for a chapter where the only weapons are words and the only battlefield is Li Huowang’s mind. This is a high-stakes psychological confrontation between a trauma-hardened survivor and a calm, professional interrogator. Pay close attention to how Wang Wei shifts his tactics: from the "friendly nurse" persona to the logical examiner exploiting Li Huowang's own beliefs against him. His argument—that the power Li Huowang is so proud of is just a more complex symptom—is a masterfully cruel form of gaslighting. It’s not a battle of fists, but a war of definitions. The true horror here is not the monster under the bed, but the doctor beside it, calmly explaining why the bed itself is the only reality you have left.