Found You

Yin Chao looked up, seemingly interested in the topic.

The director grew even more animated. "He often imagines himself as a little girl, while his real self died in the orphanage long ago..."

Watching the director gleefully turn someone else's suffering into a conversation piece, Yin Chao narrowed his eyes and interrupted, "Wang Ren. His name is Wang Ren, isn't it?"

Caught off guard, the director answered without thinking. "Yes. How did you know?"

Once the words were out, he seemed to realize he had committed a serious breach by revealing a patient's information. His expression changed at once.

"There's no one by that name in our sanatorium. If there's nothing else, you should go back."

Having gotten the information he wanted, Yin Chao did not press him further. He stood and followed the nurse to his new room.

The new surroundings were more normal. At least the windows were bright, the room was clean, and there was plenty of sunlight.

The only difference was that his single room had become a three-person room.

"All right, 8759. If you need anything, just use the call button by your bed."

With that, the nurse left to attend to other things.

Yin Chao lay calmly on his bed, looking up at the snow-white ceiling and the incandescent light that gave off a ghostly blue glow.

He kept feeling as though he had seen all this before, perhaps in an old dream, or perhaps in a scene from some game...

While he was thinking, a roommate who had been quiet all this time greeted him. "Hello."

Yin Chao turned toward the man in his thirties. Before he could speak, the man continued.

"Hello, Little Red. Hello, Little Green. Hello, Little Purple. Are you three new transfer students?"

There seemed to be plenty of people in the man's world. Good thing I didn't answer when I heard that hello, Yin Chao thought.

An old man occupied the third bed. He gave a hearty chuckle and said to Yin Chao, "Don't mind him, young man. He was bullied at school and lost his mind."

Yin Chao nodded, thinking that this old man might be a little more normal.

That thought had not lasted a minute before the old man said, "I'm heading to Mars later to visit an old friend. Oh, don't get me started on that place. It's the middle of nowhere, but my old buddy just won't move. Says he wants to return to his roots, that even if he dies, he has to die on that land."

The old man spoke with complete confidence, as though going to Mars were no different from visiting the next village.

Yin Chao listened calmly, nodding from time to time.

At the end, he even asked, "How old is your friend?"

"Him..." The old man seemed to be searching his memory as he raised his head and looked into the distance outside the window. "1.38 billion years old."

Yin Chao's brow twitched. He remembered that the universe had originated in an enormous explosion 1.38 billion years ago-the so-called Big Bang.

He asked another question. "Sir, how much schooling did you have?"

"Schooling?" The old man laughed. "Back in our day, staying alive was good enough. Even now, I, old Li, can barely read a handful of words."

Yet this illiterate old man knew precisely when the universe had begun. Few people would believe it was a coincidence.

Yin Chao felt he could not keep talking to the old man. Any longer, and he really would start believing the man had an old buddy on Mars.

A little while later, it was time for free activities.

The nurses told everyone they could only move around downstairs outside the sanatorium, and that they were not to hide or wander off. They sounded as though they were instructing kindergarten children.

The sunlight was particularly bright that day, making this perpetually mist-shrouded mountain seem much more full of life.

A row of tall camphor trees grew outside the sanatorium. With the building halfway up the mountain, the chirping of insects and birds never ceased.

Yin Chao studied every patient who passed.

Even as the activity period drew to a close, he had yet to find anyone who might be Luo Lingyue.

In fact, he already had the beginnings of a theory about why none of the major guilds could find her.

He just needed facts to verify it.

"What are you doing? Didn't we tell you to stop trying to escape?"

A nurse looked up at the camphor tree in the farthest corner and shouted.

The shouting quickly drew everyone's attention. Medical staff soon arrived and surrounded the tree.

Yin Chao stood and walked over.

Only when he got closer did he notice the scrawny boy in the tree.

The boy's hands clung tightly to the moss-covered trunk. His wary, feral gaze made him look like a stray cat arching its back and hissing at strangers.

With neither side giving in, and no way to climb the tree and drag him down, the nurse had to change tactics.

"7283, come down! We're not saying you can't leave. We were planning to let you out tomorrow! Really! The head of the sanatorium said so himself!"

"Really?" the boy asked.

"Really! We already asked the director, and he agreed! I've got a voice message from him here. Come down and I'll play it for you."

The boy did not believe a word of it. He turned toward the perimeter wall not far from the trunk, weighing his chances of jumping across and escaping pursuit by the sanatorium.

As long as he got out, he could see that person from the instance again...

Suddenly, his expression froze.

He stiffly turned his head back, his gaze settling on the nearby crowd.

The moment their eyes met, Yin Chao smiled. Standing amid the bustling crowd, he mouthed reassuringly, "I'm here. I've come to find you."

In that instant, something seemed to fill the boy's large, exquisite eyes.

His heart beat slowly, sending every drop of warm blood coursing through his body.

He willingly returned to the cage called Fog Mountain Sanatorium. Even when the nurses and doctors pinned him down and injected him with a sedative, he no longer struggled.

As his consciousness blurred, he remembered when he had first arrived at the sanatorium.

When he first came, they all said his name was Wang Ren. But hadn't his big brother Wang Ren died? Wasn't he Luo Lingyue?

The doctor said he had schizophrenia. Because he had suffered immense trauma, he needed to become someone else, to turn the pain he had endured into someone else's experiences.

The doctor also said that no girl named Luo Lingyue existed in this world. But that name sounded so lovely...

Yin Chao watched as the unconscious Wang Ren was taken away. They seemed to be heading toward the special wards.

He was in no hurry, either. First, he followed everyone else to the cafeteria for a meal.

The sanatorium's food was fairly decent: three dishes and a soup, with two meat dishes and one vegetable dish.

Everyone lined up in an orderly fashion for their food. A young girl wearing a volunteer badge caught Yin Chao's attention.

Although he had only met her twice, she had left a strong impression on him. It was An Nian from the Miracle Squad, the young girl who was still in high school.

She noticed him right away, too.

She walked over to Yin Chao and greeted him. "Hi! Do you still remember me? We met last time."

Yin Chao nodded. "Volunteering?" he asked.

An Nian scratched her head a little sheepishly. "I'm helping our guild leader look into that instance participant. Liang Chen told me she's a quiet little girl, apparently named Luo Lingyue. My school happened to be organizing volunteer activities, so I applied to come to this sanatorium."

Her frank disclosure of everything left Yin Chao somewhat unsure how to respond.

But looking at An Nian's sparkling eyes, he managed to squeeze out a question. "Then... have you found anything?"

An Nian shook her head. "Nothing at all! Neither Long Zang nor I have!"

She had given up her accomplice so quickly. Frighteningly honest, Yin Chao thought.