The Wire Hanger

“Fine!” Qian Fu agreed to Chen Hongyu’s request without hesitation.

“Where are you going to get fifty thousand?” Li Huowang stared at him.

Qian Fu quickly sidled up to him, lowering his voice. “Shh, shh. Just pretend I do have it, alright? Right now, we need to figure out how to get through this mess together. We’ll worry about the rest later! Being in debt is still better than being dead!”

Hearing this, Li Huowang fell silent and watched as Qian Fu shoved the handful of cash into Chen Hongyu’s hands.

Yang Na’s face was twisted with conflict. It wasn’t the money that bothered her, but the conversation she had just overheard. “Huowang, are you sure what this woman said is true? About special abilities and all that… I mean, this is really…”

“I…” A flicker of hesitation crossed Li Huowang’s expression. His gaze darted back and forth between Qian Fu and Chen Hongyu. “I don’t know either. Since we’re already here, let’s just try it. Let’s not listen to what they say, just watch what they do.”

He said that, but if he’d had a second option, Li Huowang definitely wouldn’t have chosen this one.

Hearing this, Yang Na’s conflicted expression finally settled; she just nodded without saying another word.

“So, how do I get you out of here?” Li Huowang asked Chen Hongyu.

“It’s fine. We don’t need to rescue her! She’s tough! She can get herself out!” Qian Fu said, brimming with confidence.

“I’m not like Qian Fu. I wasn’t locked in here—I checked myself in. Getting out is just one word from me. Come on. I have a lot of stuff. Help me pack up my luggage.” With that, Chen Hongyu turned and walked out of the visiting room.

“Come on, Li Huowang! Let’s go help grab her bags! See that? That’s one new helper we’ve got!” Qian Fu said, turning and heading toward the inpatient wing.

Li Huowang’s expression was complicated, but after a moment of thought, he said to Yang Na, “Let’s go. We’ll get her out first, then figure out the rest.”

Yang Na nodded and followed Li Huowang into the inpatient wing.

Since they were there to help a patient pack, and a self-funded patient at that, the three of them got inside the Sixth People’s Hospital without any trouble.

The place wasn’t any different from other psychiatric hospitals. It was just the usual strange behavior and nonsensical rambling—Li Huowang was already used to it.

As they walked deeper into the ward, all kinds of absurd statements drifted into his ears.

“I’m not refusing to eat eggplant because I’m a picky eater. It’s because the eggplants they give me all look shifty-eyed and sneaky. If you swapped them out for a different bowl of eggplants, I’d eat them for sure.”

“I’ll tell you a secret. The world we live in is probably just a holographic impression left behind by some higher-dimensional world. Everything around us looks solid, but it’s all just an image. The reason we can move is because something in that higher world moved. The reason we can think is because something in that higher world is thinking! I came up with this physics model in 1997, but it never got academic recognition. But I’m telling you, it’s all true!! The whole world is fake!”

“Higher world, lower world—let me feel your pulse for a minute. Aiya, you’re pretty sick. Did you take the medicine I prescribed for you last time?”

Sensing Yang Na’s tension, Li Huowang gently reassured her. “It’s fine. The ones who can move around freely are all mild cases with no violent tendencies. They’re not dangerous.”

The three of them soon reached Hongyu’s room. When they saw the massive pile of luggage under her bed—a heap of plastic buckets, basins, and things Li Huowang couldn’t even identify—they realized the scale of the job.

It wasn’t just that there was a lot of stuff; the luggage bags and snake-skin sacks were all filthy, making it hard for the cleanliness-conscious Yang Na to suppress her frown.

“Just grab that bag of snacks. I’ll get the rest when I come back.” Li Huowang said, hoisting a snake-skin sack filled with clothes and heading out.

Moving the stuff back and forth was exhausting. Fortunately, Li Huowang and Qian Fu were both fairly strong. After two trips each, they finally got everything moved.

Carrying a suitcase, Li Huowang walked out on the last trip alongside Chen Hongyu, who had changed into casual clothes.

“You ran into them? You fought them?” Chen Hongyu suddenly asked.

Li Huowang nodded. “Yeah. I even killed one of their people. Bit off one of their fingers. But even after I called the cops, they couldn’t find them.”

“Hmph. How naive. You actually thought about calling the police. They won’t believe you. They’ve recruited some people, and one of them has a very strong special ability. They can wipe the evidence clean, down to the last trace.”

Li Huowang looked at her very seriously, staring at her triple chin. “I just want to ask you one thing. Is everything you’re saying real?”

“What? Even after they came for you, you still don’t believe it?”

“Believing or not believing, it doesn’t matter. I just want to completely get rid of this problem. I want to live a normal life. I don’t want to care about anything else.”

“Don’t count on it. Some things aren’t something you can just decide not to care about. If you want to solve the problem, you have to get involved.”

With that, Chen Hongyu picked up her luggage and quickened her pace.

But just then—“Shh!” A figure suddenly flashed behind Li Huowang. Two hands grabbed a clothes hanger, pulled it taut, and wrapped it around his throat.

The wire wrapped in plastic squeezed his windpipe. Li Huowang couldn’t breathe. His head uncontrollably began to fill with blood. He grabbed the hanger with both hands, struggling, and twisted his head back to look.

He soon saw a familiar, upside-down face. It was Wang Wei—his former attending physician!

Wang Wei’s feet were braced firmly against Li Huowang’s back, making it impossible for him to break free. His expression was twisted as he glared down at him. “How much longer are you going to keep lying to yourself?! Remember! That world is not fake! Everything that happened there was real! Wake up!!”

“Cough, cough, cough…” The suffocation was getting worse. Li Huowang’s pupils rolled up, and soon he saw a strange circle in them, filled with shifting patterns like snow.

“Bang!” Chen Hongyu’s fist slammed into Wang Wei’s head, knocking him unconscious on the spot. He sprawled to the side, his condition unknown.

Li Huowang quickly pulled the hanger that had dug into his flesh, clutching his neck and coughing violently.

“You alright?” Chen Hongyu patted Li Huowang on the back, her expression turning serious as she looked at the unconscious Wang Wei. “I really didn’t think their people could make it in here. What exactly did you do to get watched this closely?”

Once he could finally breathe a little more steadily, Li Huowang recalled the experience with lingering fear. That guy’s strength had been terrifying. If Chen Hongyu hadn’t helped, Wang Wei’s sudden ambush would have likely succeeded.

Thinking this, he cast a look of gratitude toward Chen Hongyu. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

Whether or not she was mentally ill, she had at least proven she meant him well. Even if she really was a patient, she was one of the good ones.