Sequel to the Essential Instruction for Recuperation

"Focus your mind and visualize..."

Zhang Xuezhou devoted all his attention to the white seed inside his body.

According to the Essential Instruction for Recuperation, this white seed was the soul that everyone possessed.

The soul was illusory, yet it truly existed.

It was a product of consciousness and the embodiment of mental thoughts.

Almost everyone believed they had a soul, but few knew where their soul was.

Modern medicine could not confirm these things through dissection, but the Essential Instruction for Recuperation fundamentally gave people a sensory awareness of the soul.

At times, Zhang Xuezhou believed this was the miraculous effect of Doctor Ren's treatment plan; at others, he thought Doctor Ren had merely given him a special suggestion that had led him to misunderstand himself.

But the treatment had to continue.

Zhang Xuezhou looked at the Essential Instruction for Recuperation, which did not seem obscure or profound, while the gaze of his consciousness remained fixed on the white seed.

His sustained attention also caused the white seed to resonate faintly.

Zhang Xuezhou felt as though he had become a seed, growing rapidly in the boundless white light.

Absorption, then breaking through the shell.

It was as if some kind of restraint had shattered. The seed became a towering tree, and as it swayed in the wind, the tree he had become looked down over the entire land.

The world suddenly seemed smaller at that moment. Zhang Xuezhou felt as though he had gained a drone's view, able to look down on the tiny creatures of all kinds below.

When he came out of that state, he realized that what he could see was no different from usual.

But inside his body, the white seed had begun to sprout two faintly glowing leaves, like a tree seed that had just germinated.

Is the second course of treatment going this smoothly?

The thought crossed his mind. He felt that he had gone through the Sequel to the Essential Instruction for Recuperation that Ren Anran had given him in a single pass, arriving directly at the state described at the end.

If he practiced diligently a few dozen more times, he would reach the end of the Sequel to the Essential Instruction for Recuperation.

Doctor Ren's appointments start at a minimum of ten minutes...

Zhang Xuezhou wanted to visit the Sunshine Psychologist Clinic again, but when he thought of the fee of one hundred yuan per minute that Ren Anran had mentioned, and the strong likelihood that the fee would continue to rise, even someone as reasonably steady as him found it a bit much to bear. He could not help getting a headache.

After all, ninety percent of his current income came from Zhang Weimeng's writing fees, while the remaining ten percent was the pocket change Song Fengying slipped him from time to time, barely enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.

But one of them was trying to make a business out of writing novels, and the other was trying to make one as a streamer. Both were relatively niche professions, entirely dependent on other people's subscriptions and tips. They were basically eating by luck.

Of the five elements-metal, wood, water, fire, and earth-Zhang Weimeng and Song Fengying were clearly fated to lack fire. Neither had ever caught fire and become a big hit.

Without enough money on him, he could not even get through the door of the Sunshine Psychologist Clinic.

It doesn't look like there's much chance of becoming a rich second-generation heir by relying on Mom and Dad to strike it rich with their businesses. They're always saying they can make a fortune doing this, but if they could, how would they have ended up like this?

Zhang Xuezhou thought it over and decided his parents were very unreliable.

As for Zhang Manqian, who was likewise at the stage of begging her parents for money, he ignored her altogether.

He had to pay a one-yuan fee every time he used Zhang Manqian's account, and he had already been paying it for more than three years. There was no chance of getting any money out of that ruthless exploiter.

As for borrowing money from someone else for treatment, it was better not to mention it.

In the end, Zhang Xuezhou turned his gaze to himself.

Money truly is the root of all evil!

Without identification marking him as an adult, no one dared take on an underage worker like him.

Moreover, Zhang Xuezhou was still in compulsory education and had only one day off each week, making it hard to hold down a job and earn money. In the end, he muttered to himself and gave up his various unreliable ideas for making money.

After turning it over several times, Zhang Xuezhou could only turn his attention to the school's Adulthood Examination rewards.

The Adulthood Examination was an ordeal that students at every stage of education could not avoid. Whether they leaped into an institution of higher learning for further study or became skilled workers largely depended on this one trial.

Some became worms, while others naturally became dragons, rising higher and gaining a solid foundation for entering society.

It was a contest that affected the fates of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people every year.

The contest took place at the end of the year. The winners were naturally happy, while the losers could only turn off the lights and eat noodles, figuring out how to leave their student status behind and adapt to a new form of society sooner.

The difficulty of becoming a winner, especially one of the biggest winners, went without saying.

The current rewards for the school's top ten are one thousand, nine hundred, eight hundred... If I perform outstandingly in the Adulthood Examination, there are also five thousand, four thousand, three thousand... And once I make it into the city and provincial rankings...

Zhang Xuezhou worked it out, then thought about his school ranking of 256th in the recent unified examination. He decided he should not think about it any further.

We must apply ourselves to our studies and strive to look forward!

Having completed the first stage of his recovery, Zhang Xuezhou studied diligently for three hours.

He was in excellent form throughout those three hours of study. Aside from his head feeling a little dizzy from the rush of blood, he no longer experienced the muddled thinking and drowsiness that had made studying difficult in the past.

You can study eight hours a day, while I could only stay clearheaded enough to study for two. Now I can finally narrow the gap in time a little!

Zhang Xuezhou shook his slightly dizzy head.

Going from two hours of clearheaded study to three was no small leap.

Studying was simple. As long as a person had no intellectual disability, whoever spent more time studying seriously would be stronger.

It was an extremely simple principle, and Zhang Xuezhou agreed with it wholeheartedly. He was also very diligent with the limited time he had.

If he had studied one more hour a day, he would not have ranked 256th.

I should at least push into the school's top hundred!

Although the goal of earning a school reward was still somewhat distant, there was relatively plenty of time left.

As a patient with schizophrenia, Zhang Xuezhou had significant problems with his health, but he felt he was more intelligent than the average person.

If the time he spent studying clearheaded increased, his grades would surely improve considerably.

Number theory is the subject that separates exam scores, so I'll focus on that first!

Zhang Xuezhou considered it for a few seconds and chose the most difficult subject outright.

He was full of vigor and highly motivated to study, and he had settled on the first subject to conquer in his effort to earn money.

Only when the time slowly crept around to nine in the evening did Zhang Xuezhou remember something important.

I think I coughed up blood in my dream!

A dream was a wondrous place, but once a dreamer realized they had died, it would inevitably turn into a nightmare, causing them to wake with a start.

This was something Ren Anran had reminded Zhang Xuezhou to watch out for on several occasions.

He had lived in his own mental world for so long that Zhang Xuezhou regarded it as a second world.

In that world, he likewise knew joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness; he likewise ate and slept, and even had all kinds of social interactions.

If this dream world where he had lingered so long were shattered, Zhang Xuezhou's mind would inevitably suffer an extremely severe shock, and he would very likely descend into the madness of a mental breakdown.

The weak could not bear the weight. If Zhang Xuezhou wanted to withstand the consequences of dying and leaving the dream, he could only continue treatment according to Ren Anran's Essential Instruction for Recuperation.

If he could withstand the shock and devastation of such a mental storm, perhaps he could bring an end to this unusual dream that had accompanied him for more than a decade.

The three hands of the alarm clock went on their way, neither hurried nor slow.

Watching the hands slowly point to exactly nine o'clock, Zhang Xuezhou narrowed his eyes, and his head had already sunk slightly onto the pillow.

Without any tossing and turning before sleep, Zhang Xuezhou breathed evenly, as still as a stone lying quietly in place, and made no further movement.