Fog Mountain Sanatorium

As if to prove Mo Nan's words right.

The endlessly winding mountain road suddenly opened up. Even in the dim light of the overcast sky, they could make out the sanatorium's name, painted in red beneath the banks of dark clouds.

"Fog Mountain Sanatorium," Yin Chao murmured.

"Yes. It's a private sanatorium, but the investor behind it is so mysterious that no one's managed to dig up anything about them," Mo Nan added.

Soon, they arrived at the sanatorium's entrance, but a security guard stopped their car.

Mo Nan picked up the document envelope in front of him and handed it to the guard. The guard cast a wary glance into the car, studying all three faces and checking each against the information in the envelope.

Only then did he let them through.

A sense of foreboding rose in Yin Chao's heart. Whenever he had this feeling, something bad almost always happened.

"What was in the envelope you just gave the guard?" he asked.

Mo Nan rested one hand on the steering wheel. Yin Chao noticed that their car had stopped right in the middle of the sanatorium grounds.

There was no one around. It was unnaturally quiet.

"This is a sanatorium," Mo Nan said with a smile. He opened the car door. "Let's go."

Yin Chao didn't get out, because he saw several doctors and nurses emerge from the sanatorium's main entrance and head straight toward them.

He sat calmly in the passenger seat while Mo Nan got out.

Mo Nan opened the door for him and gestured for him to step out.

Yin Chao asked, "So this is how you people get into the sanatorium?"

Mo Nan sighed helplessly. "It's a sanatorium. Of course entering as a patient is the more legitimate way."

Yin Chao didn't believe him. He looked at the curve of Mo Nan's lips, which was full of undisguised mockery.

The doctors had already reached the car. A quick-handed nurse injected a sedative into Yin Chao's vein, and in an instant, his head felt unbearably heavy.

Before he passed out, Yin Chao saw the smug smile on Mo Nan's face and couldn't help remembering Bai Yu's words.

"Don't judge him by how awful he was in The Wedding instance..."

It wasn't just in The Wedding instance, he thought. He's probably an awful person no matter when you meet him.

Yin Chao didn't believe that everyone the guild had previously sent to investigate had entered Fog Mountain Sanatorium this way. This was probably just a prank Mo Nan had pulled out of boredom.

Still, it was an approach no one else had tried. Perhaps this accident really would lead him to Luo Lingyue.

Anna, in the back seat, was also injected with a dose of sedative, but human medication didn't seem to have much effect on ghosts.

Mo Nan watched the oddly dressed little girl with interest. Clearly, he didn't yet know that Anna was a ghost servant.

Unlike the composed Mo Nan, the doctor beside him had never seen anyone remain so calm after being injected with a sedative.

Yin Chao fell out of the front seat and hit the ground with a thud. Anna blinked, then copied him by falling to the ground herself. She even rolled over twice for good measure, though she still clutched her phone tightly.

The doctor wiped away his cold sweat and asked, still shaken, "S-sir, has this young lady... passed out?"

Mo Nan took two steps back and said shamelessly, "Of course. Sorry for the trouble, doctor. I'll leave their treatment to you."

Amid a wave of dizziness and a headache, Yin Chao woke in an entirely white room.

Looking at his unfamiliar surroundings, he realized he must be in a room at the sanatorium.

The room was simply furnished, white throughout, with just enough space for a hospital bed and a bedside cabinet. Its only window was the narrow barred opening in the door.

"Number 8759, you're awake? Are you feeling unwell anywhere?"

A nurse called from outside the door.

8759? Yin Chao understood that this was probably his number at the sanatorium. He simply stared at the nurse without answering.

The nurse didn't pay him any mind, either. He was a psychiatric patient, after all. Even rude behavior wouldn't seem out of place.

Only after he heard the nurse's footsteps recede did Yin Chao get out of bed and slowly walk over to the barred window to look around.

Outside was a row of closely spaced iron doors. There was no useful information to be gleaned.

He turned around and discovered a camera installed in the corner above the head of his bed.

The camera emitted a faint blue light, indicating that it was still operating. At the other end of its connection to a monitor, someone was watching his every move.

This doesn't look like a sanatorium at all... It's more like... more like a prison. No, more like a laboratory.

Yin Chao's eyes slowly widened. He didn't know why he had associated this place with a laboratory.

No one knew him better than he knew himself. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Suddenly, the wails of a grown man came from outside the door, as though someone were being subjected to brutal torture.

Almost the moment the wailing began, doctors ran down the corridor.

Yin Chao heard them urgently shouting into their radios, "Number 8003 is exhibiting severe self-harming behavior again. Number 8003 is exhibiting severe self-harming behavior again..."

Perhaps the sanatorium was laid out this way because most of its patients exhibited high-risk behavior? Yin Chao thought.

He promptly climbed onto the bed and went to sleep without further worry.

Time passed slowly in the sanatorium. Apart from someone delivering three meals a day, he had no contact with anyone.

Yin Chao did nothing but eat and sleep. When he really couldn't sleep, he picked up the books on the bedside cabinet, "How to Become an Emotionally Stable Person" and "One Hundred Ways to Stabilize Your Emotions," and read them.

After finishing them, he felt that his peaceful heart was on the verge of coming to a standstill.

During this time, Yin Chao noticed that Anna had returned to the Myriad People Umbrella on her own. He had wanted to ask how she was feeling, but all he got in response was a single word: "Bored."

Finally, seven days later, a nurse opened the door to Yin Chao's room. "8759, how are you feeling?"

Yin Chao didn't want to answer. He picked up his book, intending to ignore the nurse.

Then he heard the nurse say, "Would you like to move to another room? One where you can go to the cafeteria and eat with everyone else."

Only then did Yin Chao put down the book and nod in reply.

"Come with me." The nurse stood in the doorway, waiting for him to come out.

He followed the nurse down the corridor and arrived at an office.

The nurse knocked on the door. "Director, 8759 is here."

"Come in."

The man inside spoke.

Under the nurse's guidance, Yin Chao sat in a chair in front of the desk and quietly waited for the middle-aged man opposite him to speak.

"I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Xu. We got your medical records mixed up and left you in a special ward for so long. You have our sincerest apologies."

The man held two examination reports, which he set on the desk and pushed toward Yin Chao.

He saw that both reports bore the name Xu Chao. It was probably the new identity Mo Nan had given him.

One listed severe aggressive tendencies, mania, and irritability. The other listed mild depression and an aversion to socializing.

He didn't believe Mo Nan had suddenly developed a conscience and arranged this report-switching setup to get him out.

More likely, Bai Yu or Bai Xu had discovered this utterly pointless prank of his.

When Yin Chao said nothing, the doctor attributed it to his depression and took the initiative to start a conversation.

"There was a little boy whose medical records got mixed up just like yours. Though it was the same, it was also different. He had severe schizophrenia, but his records were swapped for those of someone with depression. Yours was the other way around."