The hospital corridor seemed to have no end. A missing-person announcement played over and over through the speakers, leaving Gao Ming feeling dazed.
Someone had gone missing inside the hospital?
The window in the door of Room 7003 reflected Gao Ming's own face. For an instant, they seemed to see each other, one behind transparent glass, the other behind an icy mask.
Pushing open the ward door, Gao Ming heard the scratching of a pen tip against a wall. A young man wearing glasses stood beside it, his expression focused, as though he were calculating something.
He was thin and frail, but his lower body was bound with restraint straps, preventing him from moving too far from the bed.
His wrists were shackled, a rope had been fastened around his neck, and a blood-red danger symbol marked his hospital gown.
Noticing someone enter the room, the young man looked astonished. He turned to study Gao Ming, seeming to ask a question and mutter to himself at the same time. "A doctor making rounds? A patient dropping by? Or another fish caught in the net?"
The patient in Room 7003 was under close supervision at Lishan Hospital, but he did not look ill.
After observing him for a moment, Gao Ming followed his own blurred reflection across the floor tiles and entered the room.
"Don't touch anything on the walls, and don't step on the writing on the floor." The young man's pen had already run out of ink. He used its sharp tip to carve strange symbols into the white wall.
"What are you calculating?"
"This world is too fake. It's like an absurd dream. I'm looking for a way to wake up." The young man did not even turn his head. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you.