In the blink of an eye, a month passed.
The assessment report on Hu Long's condition finally came back.
The final assessment found that his condition had stabilized.
At last, he was allowed to leave the enclosed room, go outdoors, and take part in rehabilitation activities.
The sunlight was blazing, pouring down through the dome's enormous glass canopy.
It shone over a lush green park.
Here, in the heart of the Morning Light Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, lay a healing garden.
Greenery covered the high walls and the spaces between the columns.
On the grass, a dozen or so figures in blue-and-white striped hospital gowns sat or lay about. Some stared up at the sky; others chased butterflies that weren't there.
Along one side of the garden, water murmured from a white marble fountain.
At its center stood a statue of an angel in a woman's likeness, her wings slightly spread and her face full of compassion.
Droplets splashed at her feet, refracting faint, fragmented rainbows.
A thin, emaciated figure was curled up in a wheelchair beside the fountain.
It was Hu Long.
He was in somewhat better spirits than before.
But he was still frail and gaunt.
His hospital gown, once a proper fit, still hung loose on him.
A caregiver stood behind him, though it wasn't Li Dalin. It was another male caregiver, around forty.
At that moment, he had both hands on the wheelchair handles, his gaze fixed on the treetops in the distance, lost in thought.
Hu Long was too weak to walk for long, so he could only come out in his wheelchair to bask in the sun and breathe some fresh air.
Now, as he soaked up the sunlight,
he held a stack of newspapers on his lap and read them carefully.
A few large black characters were printed across the top:
Yu State Morning Post
Rustle!
The newspaper spread across his lap, its printed characters glinting faintly in the sunlight as he turned the page.
The contents came into view.
The lead headline stood out:
"Moon Palace II Successfully Enters Orbit, Marking a Key Step Forward in Our Country's Deep-Space Exploration.
—It has now entered the Earth-Moon transfer orbit and transmitted the world's first full lunar map at seven-meter resolution, validating key technologies for Moon Palace III's future soft landing..."
A picture of the moon was printed in the lower-right corner of the report.
Hu Long's gaze lingered for a moment on the line of small print.
He turned the page.
Another report filled half the page:
"The Mobile Internet Era Has Fully Arrived: Changing Everything Once Again.
The accompanying image was a glossy advertisement for a silver-gray tablet.
—Yuanguo Company's newly released iPad has officially gone on sale, promising to redefine personal computing."
The article went on at length, analyzing how touchscreen interaction would overturn tradition and how its app ecosystem would create entirely new categories.
He drew his gaze away.
Hu Long looked up.
The sunlight made him squint.
He looked at the water flowing through the fountain, the hazy figures on the grass, and finally, at the patch of gray sky visible beyond the high wall.
After all this time spent sorting through and piecing together the fragments of his remaining memories, he finally had a rough outline of this world.
It was called Earth Star.
Its nations and the course of its civilization were astonishingly similar to those of the home he remembered, a place called "Earth."
The country he was in now was called Yu State.
Aside from a few minor differences, its technology, culture, and even the course of its history were almost exactly the same.
According to the newspaper, combined with what little knowledge his original self had retained...
The current era was probably equivalent to Earth in 2010.
"Is this a parallel world, or just a coincidence..."
As he thought about it, his fingers unconsciously rubbed the rough edge of the newspaper.
Even the course of development overlapped so closely that it was unsettling.
He had crossed over from the year 2027, when artificial intelligence had already begun to become commonplace.
If the world's development followed a similar path,
that meant he now had some ability to foresee the future and could plan ahead. Making some money shouldn't be difficult.
But Hu Long wasn't particularly interested.
In a normal world, perhaps he would have done so.
But now that those strange things had appeared, even a fool could tell that this world wasn't as simple as it seemed on the surface.
Besides, with the Primordial Plain Panel that let him download skills at will, making money wouldn't be difficult for him, and his original self's family wasn't short of money either.
So this foreknowledge wasn't of much use to him.
Of course, the most important question was: Was this world really as simple as it seemed?
He shook his head.
Hu Long stopped thinking about it and lay quietly in his wheelchair, basking in the sunlight.
Now and then, he saw the words "Source Value +0.01 wisp" flash into view, which put him in a fairly good mood.
Before long, lunchtime arrived.
The mentally ill patients here could generally be divided into two groups.
The first group was patients in the acute phase, who were at risk of harming themselves or others, or of severe disorientation. For their own safety and that of others, staff usually brought meals to their rooms or to specially designated isolation rooms. They weren't allowed out at all.
During this period, treatment focused on stabilizing their condition and ensuring their basic safety.
Hu Long's original self had belonged to this group.
The second group was patients whose condition had stabilized and who were in rehabilitation. They were allowed time outdoors and encouraged to go to the cafeteria for meals.
This was an important part of rehabilitation training.
Hu Long now belonged to the second group.
So he was allowed to go to the cafeteria.
The Morning Light Rehabilitation Center cafeteria was at the end of a first-floor corridor, behind a heavy anti-pinch door.
The door was pale green, its paint peeling in places.
Inside, the first thing he noticed was a jumble of smells.
Disinfectant, stewed food, and the faint, lingering odor of old grease.
The room was spacious, with high windows fitted with fine wire mesh. Sunlight broke into small diamonds across the beige floor tiles.
The tables and chairs were plastic and bolted to the floor in rows.
Some patients were already there, sitting quietly in their assigned areas with caregivers beside them.
Now and then, utensils clinked softly, or someone unconsciously hummed a vague tune before falling quiet again.
All in all, things were fairly peaceful.
That was only natural. The patients who had been assessed and allowed to eat in the cafeteria were generally stable.
Hu Long sat in his wheelchair as the caregiver behind him pushed him inside.
His hands dangled over the sides of the wheelchair.
Every so often, he would brush against the patients he passed, seemingly by accident.
Since his movements were so light, they didn't react much.
Of course, no one paid any attention to what Hu Long was doing.
After all, anything a mentally ill person did was to be expected.
And from a perspective no one else could see,
lines of silver characters, legible only to Hu Long, kept appearing before his eyes.
[Target: Wu Yi]
[Skills: Painting, Sketching (Beginner)]
[Size: 1.5 MB (Status: Available for download)]
[Classical Dance (Proficient)]
[Size: 3 MB (Status: Available for download)]
[Target: Liu Zhi]
[Skills: None]
[Target: Song Guohua]
[Skills: Go (Expert)]
[Size: 4 MB (Status: Available for download)]