A Psychiatric Ward

“What? No overnight visitors? Even the public hospitals allow that! How come a private hospital has stricter rules?” Faced with this unusual condition, Sun Xiaoqin sounded a bit indignant.

“Ma’am, even though it’s a private hospital, this is hospital policy. As a doctor, I can’t change it. If you’re not satisfied, you can always choose another hospital.”

Seeing Sun Xiaoqin’s eyebrows shoot up as she took a deep breath and planted her hands on her hips, Li Huowang quickly intervened to stop her.

“Mom. Mom. Don’t. My illness is cured now, there’s really no need for you to be here every day. You’ve been tired for so many years, just take a good rest. Go find Dad.”

“No way! Look how thin you are now. If you go in alone, what if some other patient bullies you?”

“Mom, it’s not my first time in a psych ward. Who’s going to bully me?”

Li Huowang argued back and forth, and even called Li Jiancheng on the phone, before he finally managed to get her to drop it. “Just do what the doctor says, okay? Don’t go making trouble for no reason.”

Sun Xiaoqin put down her phone, looking at Li Huowang with reluctance. “Alright, son. You be careful in there. If you feel hot or cold, or if anything feels wrong, make sure to tell the doctor, got it?”

“Mom, don’t worry. My illness is already cured. I’ll be out of here soon enough.”

After watching Sun Xiaoqin walk away reluctantly to pay the fees, Li Huowang followed the square-faced doctor into the hospital. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Wu Cheng. I’m a psychiatrist too, same as Yi Donglai. I’m a few years his junior, you could call me his junior. I’ve already heard about your case from my senior through WeChat.”

“Is that so? Good.” Li Huowang felt a little relieved. “Since you know my illness is almost cured, can you take off the handcuffs now?”

“Sorry, that’s not my call. I know about you, but the director doesn’t. He specifically said you can’t have a single accident.”

“I heard someone put pressure on him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even have taken you in.”

Li Huowang looked down at the handcuffs on his wrists. “So I have to wear these until I’m discharged?”

“Just bear with it for a while. I’ll explain things to him after some time. Ah, we’re here, classmate. You know the drill, we need to do a full body check-up before you go in, right?”

Li Huowang nodded. “I know the procedure. Let’s get it started.”

To prevent mental patients from bringing in anything that could harm themselves or others, a full body search is standard before admission.

After the examination and a full set of admission procedures, Li Huowang finally walked into his room. There was only a single bed inside. It seemed having a bit of a notorious reputation could still get you some perks—he had gotten a private room.

After all the travel and fatigue, Li Huowang was exhausted. The moment his head hit the pillow, he was fast asleep.

He was woken up the next morning. After a quick wash, a nurse’s aide took him around to get familiar with the hospital environment. There wasn’t really much to familiarize himself with. All psych wards are pretty much the same. Li Huowang knew them well.

But one thing did surprise him. After breakfast and his medication, he was called to sit in a circle with the other patients on stools, to talk about their conditions and encourage each other. He’d never seen that anywhere else. According to Wu Cheng, it was an advanced practice learned from foreign hospitals.

Li Huowang could only comment that private hospitals really did have a lot of gimmicks.

A few stools formed a small circle, and several unfamiliar patients began talking about their conditions.

“I’ve got schizophrenia. Mild. Can be controlled with medication,” said a middle-aged woman.

“I’m bipolar. I’m on meds too. I’m getting better.” This was from a crew-cut man whose fingers twitched occasionally.

“Depression…” This came from a high-ponytailed girl whose eyes were somewhat vacant. Li Huowang saw the scars on her wrists. Her overall state looked very poor.

Right after the girl spoke, an old woman who looked to be in her forties or fifties chimed in, “An-anxiety. I don’t even need to be hospitalized. Tch, my kids insisted on sending me here.”

As the conversation went on, it came to Li Huowang’s turn. Faced with this new face, the others couldn’t help but be a little curious.

“Me? I’m not sick. My illness is cured.”

Hearing this, some of the more familiar patients huddled together, sneaking glances at Li Huowang, whispering to each other with surprised expressions.

Seeing this, Li Huowang couldn’t be bothered to explain. He wouldn’t be here long anyway. He just needed to kill time.

He looked around, his gaze landing on the chubby little guy next to him who was staring down, fiddling with his fingers. “Hey buddy, your turn. What’s your illness?”

But the man had no reaction to Li Huowang’s question. He just sniffled and continued playing with his fingers.

“Don’t bother. He’s autistic. He won’t talk to you,” the slightly manic man said to Li Huowang.

“Autism? How did he end up here? That’s not really our department.” Li Huowang couldn’t help but be surprised.

This was a congenital mental disorder that needed early intervention; sending him to a psychiatric hospital wouldn’t do any good at all.

“Tch, what else? They think having a retard in the house is an eyesore and can’t be bothered. Dumping him on the street is illegal, so the only place left is here,” the anxiety patient said. “Look over there. That big fatty with the dark spots on his face.”

Li Huowang turned his head to look at another person in a different circle. “What’s he got?”

“Nothing. He's just an idiot. Moderate mental retardation. Same as the autistic kid, his family didn’t want to deal with him, so they threw him here.”

“Look at that. What kind of parents are these? This is a psychiatric hospital! In principle, we only take mental patients. But look—they’re stuffing everything in here, treating this place like some kind of detention center for idiots and lunatics.”

“Exactly! It’s because of people like this that the reputation of us mental patients is so bad out there.”

“Isn’t this against the rules?” As Li Huowang rubbed his chin, his comment caught the eye of the depressed girl, who saw the shiny handcuffs on his wrist.

“Tch, it’s a private hospital. What rules? Money’s still money, isn’t it? Even if it’s against the rules, what are you gonna do? Expect them to report themselves?”

“To be fair, having someone like this in the family… I can understand it. Every family has its own problems. Taking care of a useless person for their whole life, that takes a lot of energy.”

Just then, Wu Cheng walked over with a clipboard and a pen. He sat down on the last empty stool in the circle. “So, how’s everyone doing?”

Suddenly, the high-ponytailed girl with depression stood up. Her eyes were filled with terror as she pointed a trembling finger at Li Huowang. Her voice was sharp. “I know who this is! He’s the one who was on TV, the one who broke into a school and killed a lot of people!”