"Come on. It's time for activities."
The orderly opened the door to the Metal Room and spoke to Lin Qiye inside.
Lin Qiye nodded and followed the orderly out. As usual, the two passed through layer after layer of checkpoints. The orderly opened his mouth in a yawn.
"Didn't sleep well last night?" Lin Qiye asked casually.
"Don't even mention it. I dreamed all night." The orderly waved his hand and said helplessly, "I dreamed that Old Dog Wu from another ward was playing a game with me on the subway. When I lost, he kept slapping me across the face—smack, smack, smack. My face still hurt when I woke up this morning..."
Lin Qiye froze. "You dreamed about him too?"
"What, you dreamed about him too?" The orderly raised his brows. "Makes sense. You spent quite a while around him yesterday, so he probably left a deep impression on you... Did he slap you too?"
"Not that. He was just squatting there and saying a bunch of nonsense." Lin Qiye shrugged.
"He's mentally ill. Normal."
The two arrived before the transparent door, and the familiar voice came from the speaker once more:
"Employee number, please answer today's passphrase: What does the Lamp Bearer want to eat most today?"
"Fragrant five-spice spicy spiral-to-heaven twisting pickled-cabbage beef noodles."
"Passphrase correct. You may proceed."
The verification device beside the glass door lit up green. With a soft click, the transparent door slowly opened.
The orderly walked to the doorway and saw Lin Qiye standing stiffly behind him. He asked in confusion, "What's wrong? Don't feel like going to activities today?"
"No, it's not that..." Lin Qiye came back to his senses and said, pretending to be calm.
In truth, a storm had already risen in his heart.
He clearly remembered that this