Li Huowang

"Hah, finally back." Letting out a sigh of relief, Li Huowang called out into the microphone by his bedside.

Before long, his Attending Physician walked in through the ward door, carrying a white tablet, accompanied by a nurse.

"Little Li, how are you feeling? Any new changes in this round of hallucinations?" The doctor sat down on a stool, asking in a very kind tone.

"Same environment, same things I'm doing. Except this time, Pockmarked Head Master killed someone right in front of me, brutally, and refined them into a pill." Li Huowang recounted everything he had seen in the hallucination in detail.

"Mm-hmm." The Attending Physician nodded while rapidly tapping notes on the tablet with his finger.

After thinking for a moment, Li Huowang asked hesitantly, "Doctor, what do these different hallucinations mean? What significance do they hold for my inner self and psychology?"

"No, don't focus on that. You should be more concerned with the length of each hallucination and your mental stability." The doctor shook his head, rejecting Li Huowang's line of thought.

"Since they're hallucinations, remember—they're all false. You've already broken free from hallucinatory perceptual integration disorder. Don't fall back into it."

"As long as you follow the logic of that side every time you sink into a hallucination, and cooperate with the treatment here, you'll be cured soon enough."

Hearing this, Li Huowang's heart tightened. This was about whether he could leave the hospital as soon as possible—he couldn't afford to be careless.

Then the doctor didn't forget to cheer on his patient.

"Actually, you're already doing well now. When you first came, you couldn't even tell reality from fantasy. It'll only get better from here. Keep it up, stay strong."

As the two were talking, light footsteps came from the ward door.

They both looked over at the same time, seeing a girl in a high-necked black sweater peeking inside.

The girl looked about sixteen or seventeen, right at that most beautiful age of budding youth.

Her skin was as white as jade, and her jet-black hair cascaded straight down over her shoulders like a waterfall. She was as lovely as a flower bud just beginning to bloom.

Seeing the two young people hesitating to speak, the Attending Physician tactfully chuckled. He gently pushed up his glasses with a finger, then turned and walked toward the door.

"I've got things to attend to. You two catch up. Oh, and Little Li, remember to take your medicine on time later."

As soon as the doctor left, the girl walked in. They exchanged smiles, and Li Huowang felt a sweetness in his heart, quickly pushing aside his worries about his illness.

"Stop smiling, it makes you look ugly. Look what I brought you—review homework personally assigned by the teachers!" The girl with a sly grin pulled a canvas satchel from behind her back.

Hearing that, Li Huowang's face immediately fell. "Na Na, we've grown up together since we were kids, and this is how you repay me?"

The girl named Yang Na turned to close the door, then pulled out a small handheld game console, shaking it triumphantly. "And this too~ Hehe, be good, call me 'big sister,' and I'll give it to you."

"Sis! You're my real sister." Li Huowang rushed over excitedly and snatched the console from her hand.

Being cooped up in the mental hospital every day was too boring—if he wasn't crazy already, he'd go crazy from the boredom.

"Don't play too much, and remember to do your homework." Yang Na sat sideways on the edge of the bed, instructing Li Huowang as he turned on the device.

"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm." Li Huowang's attention was glued to the handheld screen.

Her slender, fair fingers pinched the blue-and-white hospital gown he wore, tugging at it with a hint of attachment. "Hey, don't forget what you promised me."

Li Huowang paused, looked up at her, and his face suddenly turned very serious. "Yeah, we agreed. We're going to take the college entrance exam for the same university."

Yang Na, flustered by his gaze, lowered her head shyly, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Mm, get better, and I'll wait for you."

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

Yang Na, her cheeks flushed red, didn't struggle. She just closed her eyes and quietly muttered, "Pervert."

They didn't do anything else. Just holding each other was enough to make the two deeply in love feel happy.

After they lingered for a while, Yang Na had to leave. After all, she was in the most critical period of her senior year of high school—squeezing out half a day was already precious.

Though each visit was short, for Li Huowang, it was a ray of light in his days of hardship.

"I'll walk you to the hospital gate." Li Huowang, still in his blue-and-white striped hospital gown, threw off the covers and slipped into the hospital's white slippers.

Just as he followed Yang Na toward the door, he felt something was off. He suddenly noticed that the mortar he used for grinding medicine in his hallucination was sitting on the bedside table.

Li Huowang's body jolted violently, and he stumbled back two steps. But when he looked again, the mortar had turned into his lunchbox.

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

Seeing her concern, Li Huowang immediately put on a playful grin. "Haha, got you, didn't I?"

Yang Na frowned angrily, puffing out her cheeks, and reached out to pinch the soft flesh at his waist. "How old are you? Still acting like a kid? Doing such childish things."

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

After a few attempts, though, their hands eventually found each other again.

Other patients sunbathing in the courtyard saw this and broke into gentle smiles. Such pure, innocent love was truly beautiful.

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

"Maybe you shouldn't come next week. I know the study pressure is heavy. You only get half a day off each week, and you're wasting it on me."

Yang Na lifted her shapely leg and lightly stepped on Li Huowang's hospital slipper, her delicate brows knitting together.

"Slacker, don't project your own issues onto me, alright? I've never dropped out of the top three in rankings. What study pressure?"

"Ah—" Li Huowang clutched his heart, putting on a pained expression. "Right in the feels, girl."

Yang Na giggled at his antics, lightly punched him on the arm, then turned and ran like a deer toward the bus stop across from the hospital gate.

He watched until the bus carrying his little girlfriend had completely disappeared. Only then did the smile gradually fade from Li Huowang's face.

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

An hour later, Li Huowang tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep, his mind churning with anxious thoughts about his future with Yang Na. On the table beside him sat the new medication the doctor had prescribed for his latest symptoms.

The image of that daytime medicine mortar and Yang Na's smile kept alternating in his mind.

"If my condition gets worse and I can't leave the hospital before the college entrance exam, what then? Then I won't be able to get into the same university as Yang Na."

Even while stuck in here, Li Huowang understood the gossip outside. In the eyes of the neighbors, he was nothing but a complete madman.

Yet facing a madman like him, on the day before he was admitted, Yang Na—his childhood sweetheart—had taken the initiative to confess her feelings. Her emotions toward him went without saying.

She was a good girl. As a man, he didn't want to let her down.

"This shouldn't be happening. I've followed the doctor's orders to the letter lately. Why is my condition getting worse? Am I going to have to transfer hospitals again? This is already the third one."

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

The more he stewed over these troubles, the more irritated he became. Finally, he sat up with a sudden spring, dumped out Yang Na's books and test papers, and started studying.

He wanted to drown his lingering worries in these complex, dry bits of knowledge.

Li Huowang continued writing his homework. Writing and writing, before he knew it, it was already deep into the night.

Just as he finished an English test paper, he stretched hard and rubbed his throbbing temples with his fingers.

"Haah~ What time is it? Must be pretty late, right?" Li Huowang slipped on his slippers, planning to go to the bathroom and then come back to sleep.

As he walked toward the door, yawning, his right hand—which had been scratching his chest—suddenly stopped. Li Huowang felt something strange on his chest.

He pulled open his collar and looked down. A dark brown, soft, sticky mass was plastered against his skin.

The oddly familiar color sparked a thought in his mind.

Li Huowang lightly dabbed it with his finger and put it in his mouth. The bitter taste with a hint of sweetness made his pupils contract sharply.

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