The Fifth Ward.
When Xinxin returned to the ward, Lian Yan was sitting by the window, tuning his violin.
She hesitated to speak, feeling it would be rather rude to interrupt him while he was busy.
Lian Yan quickly noticed her hesitation, however, and smiled. "Something you want to say?"
For some reason, whenever Xinxin faced him, she felt both familiarity and resistance. She nodded. "About the Safety Key you mentioned for tonight, could you give me some hints?"
Lian Yan seemed not to have expected such a direct question, but he merely shook his head helplessly. "I don't know either."
"Tell me about your world?" Lian Yan suddenly put down his violin and asked a very strange question.
The question came so abruptly that Xinxin's heart lurched.
"From the look of you... you're still a university student, aren't you?" Lian Yan asked.
Xinxin shook her head slightly. "I've already graduated."
"What major?"
"Psychology."
"Psychology?"
For once, a trace of disapproval entered Lian Yan's voice.
Xinxin keenly picked up on that change. Indeed, it was difficult for psychology majors and people with mental abnormalities to get along.
After all, what Xinxin had studied was the quantification of the human mind, something a considerable number of people with mental illnesses considered exceedingly shallow and foolish.
"I don't have time to talk about this," Xinxin said. She did not want to keep talking about herself.
Lian Yan did not insist. He picked up his violin again and continued tuning it.
"I don't know any more than you do. Otherwise, I would have already escaped this world."
He paused, then said:
"The only thing I can tell you... is that this world repeats its cycle every seven days."
With his head lowered, he gazed calmly at his violin, as though discussing something perfectly