Qian Fu

"Thump! Thump!" The impact grew louder as Li Huowang drew closer.

Finally, stepping cautiously up to the thick glass reinforced with wire mesh, he saw the source of the sound.

Inside was a patient in a restraint jacket, unshaven, his body arched as he forcefully lifted his head and slammed it against the iron-framed bed beneath him, over and over.

The crashing noise was loud, but the bed board looked thin, offering little resistance to his blows.

"What... what kind of mental illness is this?" Li Huowang frowned slightly, standing there and sizing up the man inside with some curiosity.

The man was tall and sturdy—at least over six feet. His twitching features and the strange symptom of laughing one moment and crying the next made it impossible for Li Huowang to guess the root cause.

If he's locked in here, he must be on medication. Some kind of side effect from a psychiatric drug? Li Huowang speculated randomly.

Just then, the man inside the ward suddenly stopped banging his head. His eyes, showing far too much white, stared straight through the glass at Li Huowang. "Hahahaha!! It's you! You're here?"

Li Huowang thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah. I'm here."

"Good! I've been waiting for you! I never thought, before I could even get out to find you, you'd come looking for me!"

"Oh? Is that so? Are we that close?"

"Hahaha!! Close! Very close!"

Li Huowang exchanged a few more idle words with the severely ill patient. Seeing nothing particularly special about him, he found it a bit dull and turned to leave.

"Xiao Li! You need to be careful!! They're looking for you! There are too many of them! You can't fight them all! You need to find help!"

Hearing this, Li Huowang's heart jolted. He spun around quickly, staring at the psychiatric patient. The man had already jumped off the bed and pressed his entire face against the glass, glaring at him with wide, intent eyes.

But soon, Li Huowang's tense expression gradually eased. "You saw my news story, right? That's how you know my surname is Li?"

Li Huowang had nearly forgotten that he was something of a minor celebrity now. It wasn't strange at all for a mental patient to know his name.

"No!! I've known you for a long time! I was one of them! They sent me to catch you! And your people! But I didn't want to! Because I know that if you're gone, everything is over!"

"Who are 'they'?" Li Huowang asked.

"Them! They are the dark families driven out in the old days! And also! And also their protectors—the aliens from Leo!!"

Hearing this, Li Huowang almost laughed out loud. So crazy people really did have the most entertainment. "You've been watching too much anime, haven't you? And that doesn't even make sense. Are you mixing up your fantasies?"

"I'm locked up, but my brother has been sent down again! He's looking for you! Both of you! He wants to kill you! He's already here! Time is running out! You have to get me out of here! Only if we join forces will we have a chance!"

Li Huowang shook his head, smiling, and was about to say something when a patrol orderly walked over from a distance and spotted him.

"Hey! What bed number are you? This is the intensive care unit! You're not supposed to be near here! Get out!"

"Bye-bye. Take your meds. We'll talk some other time." Li Huowang waved at the man in the ward, then turned and left the area.

After wandering around the entire psychiatric hospital, it was almost time for lunch. Li Huowang took a metal tray and got in line.

Compared to other hospitals, the food here was decent. He ordered celery with pork liver and some water spinach, then found a quiet corner in the cafeteria to eat.

He had completely put the earlier incident out of his mind. After all, no one takes a clearly delusional mental patient seriously.

Still, some basic human instinct left him a little curious about what illness the man actually had.

From the brief conversation, the man wasn't a complete lunatic or idiot. He had a certain logic of his own.

Just then, another patient, Wei Shili, who suffered from bipolar disorder, happened to walk by. Seeing Li Huowang sitting alone, he came over.

Having spent some time with Li Huowang, Wei Shili had set aside his initial prejudice.

When Li Huowang first claimed he wasn't sick, Wei Shili hadn't believed him. But now, he was starting to believe it. The guy seemed perfectly normal—generous, even. He shared the snacks his family brought with the other patients, and he was pleasant and kind in his dealings with everyone.

"I passed my evaluation! As soon as my family comes to pick me up, I can be discharged the day after tomorrow!" Wei Shili said excitedly, plopping down next to Li Huowang.

"I know. You've already told me that once. No need to repeat it."

"Heh, I'm just happy. I've been stuck in here for almost a year. Finally getting out!" Wei Shili scooped the potato chicken from his tray into his rice, stirred it vigorously, and took a big bite.

"Almost a year? That is a long time. By the way, since you've been in this hospital so long, do you know the man locked in the Intensive Suppression Room?" Li Huowang asked.

Wei Shili looked a bit confused. "Locked in the ICU? Which one?"

"The guy with the big beard."

"Oh, him. His name is Qian Fu. Been a patient here a long time. He was here before I even came."

"What illness does he have? Why is he locked up?"

"What illness?" Wei Shili put down his spoon, a puzzled look on his face. "Umm, I think it's... multiple personality disorder?"

"Multiple personality? No way. I've never seen someone with multiple personality disorder talk such gibberish."

A female patient with an anxiety disorder, seeing Li Huowang and Wei Shili talking, leaned in with a gossipy air. "What are you young people chatting about?"

"Nothing much. Just talking about what Qian Fu's actually got. Big Sister, it's multiple personality disorder, right?" Wei Shili asked Zhang Shuie.

"Oh, what multiple personality disorder? Don't just spread rumors if you don't know. They haven't even figured out what he has yet. The doctors don't know."

"The doctors don't know?" Li Huowang was a bit surprised. This was a first for him.

"Yeah, doctors aren't gods. They can't cure everything. Some illnesses aren't even in the medical books. When they come across one, they're stumped too."

"Speaking of which, that Qian Fu is a pitiful man. If the doctors don't know what he has, they don't know what medicine to give him either. So when his condition gets worse, they just have to lock him up like this. Then let him out again when he calms down."

Hearing this, the small curiosity in Li Huowang's mind faded. He went back to eating the food on his tray, completely dismissing everything that had happened earlier.

Li Huowang thought that was the end of it. But a few days later, in the afternoon, he was eating some lettuce when a man coming out of the hallway made his face freeze.

It was Qian Fu. He had been let out.

Just as Li Huowang was looking at him, Qian Fu spotted him too. Without even picking up his breakfast, he strode straight over.

Just as Li Huowang was braced for Qian Fu to latch onto him, the man instead apologized.

"Sorry. I must have talked to you yesterday, didn't I? My apologies if I was any trouble. After all, you know as well as I do that there's a reason anyone ends up here."

Compared to the raving Qian Fu from before, today he was perfectly polite. It was like a completely different person.