Li Huowang

"Phew, finally back." With a sigh of relief, Li Huowang called into the microphone by his bed.

Before long, his Attending Physician entered the ward with a nurse, carrying a white tablet.

"Little Li, how are you feeling? What new changes were there in this hallucination?" The doctor sat on a stool and asked kindly.

"It was the same setting, and I was doing the same things. But this time, Pockmarked Head Master brutally killed someone right in front of me and refined her into a pill." Li Huowang described everything he had seen in the hallucination in detail.

"Mhm, mhm." The Attending Physician nodded while rapidly tapping notes into the tablet.

After thinking for a moment, Li Huowang asked hesitantly, "Doctor, what do these different hallucinations represent? What meaning do they contain for my mind and psyche?"

"No, don't concern yourself with that. You should pay more attention to the duration of each hallucination and the stability of your mental state." The doctor shook his head, rejecting Li Huowang's idea.

"Since they're hallucinations, you must remember that they're all false. You've already overcome Hallucinatory Perception Disorder, so don't fall back into it."

"As long as you follow the logic of that side whenever you fall into a hallucination, and cooperate with the hospital's treatment, you'll recover soon enough."

Hearing this, Li Huowang's heart clenched. This concerned whether he could leave the hospital sooner, so he absolutely could not be careless.

The doctor also did not forget to encourage his patient.

"Actually, you're already doing very well. When you first arrived, you couldn't even distinguish reality from fantasy. Things will get better from here on. Keep it up."

As the two spoke, light footsteps sounded from the ward entrance.

Both of them turned toward the sound and saw a young girl in a black turtleneck sweater peeking inside.

She looked sixteen or seventeen, just at the most beautiful age, like a flower bud waiting to bloom.

Her skin was fair as jade, and her jet-black hair cascaded straight over her shoulders like a waterfall. Like a flower bud opening its petals, she was so lovely.

Seeing the two young people hesitate to speak, the Attending Physician chuckled knowingly. He gently pushed up his glasses with one finger, then turned toward the door.

"I have matters to attend to over there, so you two carry on. Oh, Little Li, remember to take your medicine on time later."

The moment the doctor left, the girl entered. The two smiled at each other, and Li Huowang immediately felt sweetness well up in his heart, swiftly casting his worries about his illness behind his head.

"Stop smiling. You look awful when you smile. Look what I brought you—review assignments personally assigned by your teachers!" With a sly look, the girl pulled a canvas shoulder bag from behind her back.

At those words, Li Huowang's face immediately fell. "Na Na, we've known each other since we were kids. Is this how you get back at me?"

The girl named Yang Na turned around and shut the door, then took out a small handheld game console and waved it smugly. "And this too~ Hehe. Be good—call me big sister, and I'll give it to you."

"Big sis! You're my real big sister." Li Huowang rushed forward excitedly and snatched the game console from her hand.

Being cooped up in the Mental Hospital every day was unbearably boring. Even if he was not crazy, he was about to be bored crazy.

"Don't play too much. Remember to do your homework." Yang Na sat sideways on the edge of the bed and reminded Li Huowang as he turned on the console.

"Mhm, mhm, mhm." Li Huowang's attention was entirely fixed on the handheld's screen.

Her slender, fair fingers pinched the blue-and-white hospital gown on him and tugged it clingingly. "Hey, don't forget what you promised me."

Li Huowang's hand paused. He looked up at her, and his expression suddenly turned very serious. "Mhm. We agreed that we'd get into the same university."

Yang Na lowered her head shyly under his gaze, her voice becoming as soft as a mosquito's buzz. "Mhm. Get better properly. I'll wait for you."

Li Huowang suddenly reached out, pulled her close, and wrapped her in his arms.

Yang Na's face flushed crimson, but she did not struggle. She only closed her eyes and whispered, "Big pervert."

The two did not do anything. For two people in the first flush of love, simply holding each other was enough to make them happy.

After lingering together for quite a while, Yang Na had to leave. After all, she was in the crucial final year of high school, and squeezing out half a day was already precious.

Though every visit was brief, to Li Huowang, it was a ray of dawn amid his bitter days.

"I'll walk you to the hospital gate." Li Huowang, dressed in blue-and-white striped hospital clothes, threw back his blanket and put on the hospital's white slippers.

He had only just followed Yang Na toward the door when he felt that something was off. To his shock, the medicine-pounding jar he had used in the hallucination was sitting on the bedside table.

Li Huowang's body jolted as he staggered back two steps. But when he steadied himself and looked again, the medicine-pounding jar had become his lunch box.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Seeing his startled reaction, Yang Na's face showed a trace of concern.

Seeing the worry on her face, Li Huowang immediately put on a playful grin. "Haha, what do you think? Scared you, didn't I?"

Yang Na frowned angrily, puffing out her cheeks as she reached out and fiercely pinched the soft flesh at his waist. "You're already this old, and you still think you're a child? Doing something so childish."

"Don't be mad. I just wanted to make you happy." Li Huowang reached for her hand, but she directly shook him off.

Yet after shaking him off a few times, their hands ultimately still clasped together.

The other patients sunning themselves in the courtyard saw this and all revealed peaceful smiles. Such tender, pure love was truly beautiful.

Though they walked slowly, they eventually reached the end. Yang Na stood at the hospital gate, looking at Li Huowang with reluctance. "I'll come see you again next week. Be good in there, okay?"

"How about you don't come next week? I know studying is stressful now. You only get half a day off each week, and you still have to waste it on me."

Yang Na raised her shapely calf and lightly stepped on Li Huowang's hospital slipper, her delicate brows drawing together slightly.

"You underachiever, don't judge others by yourself, okay? I've never dropped out of the top three. What study pressure could I possibly have?"

"Ah~" Li Huowang clutched his chest and put on an expression of utter agony. "That pierced my heart, girl."

Yang Na burst into giggles at his antics. She raised her fist and lightly punched him, then turned and ran like a little deer toward the bus stop across from the hospital gate.

Only after the bus carrying his girlfriend had completely vanished did the smile on Li Huowang's face gradually disappear.

Remembering what he had just seen, he walked toward the doctor's office with a heart heavy with worry.

An hour later, Li Huowang lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to sleep as he irritably thought about his future with Yang Na. On the table beside him was new medicine the doctor had prescribed for his new symptoms.

The medicine-pounding jar from the day and Yang Na's smile kept alternating in his mind.

What if my condition gets worse and I can't leave the hospital before the college entrance exams? Then I won't be able to get into the same university as Yang Na.

Though he was stuck in here, Li Huowang understood the gossip outside. To the neighbors, someone like him was a complete and utter lunatic.

Yet when faced with a lunatic like him, Yang Na, his childhood sweetheart, had taken the initiative to confess to him the day before he was admitted. Her feelings for him went without saying.

She was a good girl. As a man, he did not want to let her down.

That shouldn't be possible. I've followed the doctor's orders completely these past days, so how could my condition still worsen? Do I have to transfer hospitals again? This is already the third one.

Doctor Li should be fine, right? He's the best doctor Dad could find.

The more he thought about these troubles, the more vexed he became. In the end, he simply sprang upright like a carp flipping over, dumped out Yang Na's books and test papers, and began to study.

He wanted to use this complicated, obscure knowledge to dilute the lingering worry in his heart.

Li Huowang continued doing his homework. As he wrote and wrote, midnight arrived without him noticing.

Just after finishing an English test paper, he stretched hard and rubbed his swollen temples with his fingers.

"Ha~ What time is it? It must be late, right?" Li Huowang put on his slippers, preparing to use the toilet before coming back to sleep.

As he walked yawning toward the door, his right hand scratching at his chest suddenly stopped. Li Huowang felt that something was strange with his chest.

Li Huowang pulled open his collar and found a puddle of blackish-brown stuff limply stuck to his chest.

That vaguely familiar color made a thought flash through his mind.

Li Huowang lightly dipped a finger into it and put it in his mouth. The hint of sweetness amid the bitterness made his pupils contract slightly.

This was the candy Foolish Senior Sister, who had died in the hallucination, had given him before! Something from the hallucination had actually appeared in reality!