Normally a patient’s record did not have that many things to write, but Chen Ge’s patient record was an exception, it consisted of several pages and the content of each pages appeared to be completely different. Doctor Gao had been recording Chen Ge’s condition daily. He seemed to sense Chen Ge’s confused gaze on him so he put the patient’s record unassumingly away. “Chen Ge, I remember you told me a few days ago, you were very averse to the sense of fear. As long as you are wrapped in fear, you would feel incredibly anxious?”
“Yes, I did say that.”
“based on my observation, the reason behind the birth of your second persona was to share in your fear. You have lived in your own made up horror stories for too long, at that imagined world, other than yourself, everyone else is fake. You yourself know that deep in your heart, and to buffer the pain and uncertainty, so your mind came up with another version of yourself to take in the pain that you are unable to face, and that person is Xu Yin.” Doctor Gao sat on Chen Ge’s bedside, it was hard to tell the doctor’s real thoughts from the expression on his face. “When you are living in your nightmare, or in other words, surviving in your made up world, Xu Yin has been protecting you, to prevent yourself from being harmed; but when you return to real life and your condition has started to get better, your second persona, Xu Yin became the biggest hurdle in your road towards recovery.”
“He is the problem on my road to recovery?”
“Under our treatment, you can now delineate between the real world and the imagined world somewhat but Xu Yin still does not possess that ability. He exists because of your imagination, your delusion is his whole world.” Doctor Gao’s every word was meant to lead Chen Ge, “When he wants to escape from this made up world, he would try his best to bring you with him so that you would not be able to escape as well. Perhaps, from his perspective, he was only trying to protect you but in reality, we know that he is only going to end up harming you.”
“Then what should I do?”
“Struggle free from his grasp that grips you. Leave him behind in your delusions and you step forward to embrace the light of the real world.” Doctor Gao stared into Chen Ge’s eyes, there was a heavy fatigue in the doctor’s eyes but deep inside his gaze, Chen Ge discerned a complicated emotion as well. That emotion confused Chen Ge, because in his memory, the Doctor Gao that he knew would not have expressed this kind of emotion.
“He will only appear when I am unconscious, I am unable to communicate with him even if I want to.”
“That can be corrected. We can create a unique scenario where we can evoke him from your mind while maintaining your consciousness. This will be very dangerous so we need full cooperation from you.” Many things appeared to have happened at the hospital for the past few days, this gave Doctor Gao a sense of urgency. He appeared to wish to stabilize Chen Ge’s condition as soon as possible, or at least do away with the second persona within Chen Ge.
“I am willing to cooperate with you. To be honest, I also wish to meet my second persona in person.” Once Chen Ge said that, Doctor Gao immediately shook his head. “Do not have any curiosity towards him, do not trust anything that he might say. It has not been easy for us to help you walk out of your delusion, you must not let yourself spiral back into it again.” Doctor Gao’s tone was very serious. “We have spent almost a year in your treatment and we are about to reap the reward soon. This is the most crucial moment, if your conviction crumble now, then everything that we have done will be for nothing.”
“I understand, but how am I supposed to cooperate with you?”
“When the time comes you only need to do one thing and that is to reject him from the bottom of your heart. Remember you have to tell him sincerely that you do not need his help anymore and you do not wish to be dragged down into that despairing dark sea again.” Doctor Gao put away the patient’s record and stood up, “If the reason behind his existence is only to protect you then he should be made to understand that his mission has already been completed, you do not need him anymore.”
Chen Ge nodded silently.
“The treatment will be conducted this midnight, I will return to this room to come fetch you.” Chen Ge took out the medicine bottle and fed 3 pills to Chen Ge. “You better take some rest now, tonight will be a very important night for you.” Pushing open the door, Doctor Gao left. Chen Ge laid in his best, working over the words that Doctor Gao had said in his mind. “There has to be a reason why they have suddenly decided to adopt such a drastic treatment method. Some kind of accident must have happened. The hospital wants me to actively cooperate with them to destroy my second persona, this proves that with their own power, they are unable to temporary remove this second persona in a short period of time. Just what kind of existence is Xu Yin? When I fainted last time, I once saw someone standing behind him, he has volunteered to take on most of the curse and pain, how would someone like that even contemplated harming me?” Chen Ge already knew what he should do. “tonight is indeed a very important night for me.”
Moving down from the bed, Chen Ge took a glance out the window. After bidding farewell to Doctor Fang, Chen Ge moved slowly to the cafeteria with the aid of his crutches. After having a comfortable meal, Chen Ge came to the garden outside the sick hall. After ensuring there was no one watching him, Chen Ge entered the garden. When he came to the chair that he usually occupied, Chen Ge realized Zuo Han was already there, the young man appeared to be waiting for him.
“have you seen the notes?”
“Yes.”
“Then what do you plan to do next?”
“I plan to search for Zhang Wenyu’s that might still be outside the hospital, they might retain the memory that has not been tempered by the hospital.”
“Do you need my help?”
“After tonight’s midnight, Doctor Gao wants to conduct an intensive treatment on me, if something happens to me, you should escape from this hospital.” Chen Ge said with a smile on his face. Just from his tone, it was hard to believe he would be in any kind of danger that night.
“You mean I am to escape on my own?”
“Yes, you need to protect yourself first and foremost, there will be plenty of chances in the future.”
“What about your new roommate? Can you befriend him?” Zuo Han asked carefully.
Chen Ge shook his head. “He believes there are objects inside his body like snail and syringe. I looked down his throat and the result was I saw a human face inside his mouth, it was his own face.”
“There is a face inside his mouth?” Zuo Han sucked in a cold breath.
Chen Ge and Zuo han spoke very quickly. In less than a minute, they had finished their conversation. Zuo han did not stay there for long. After they were done, he left immediately. After sitting for almost an hour on the chair, Chen Ge heard the rustling from the bushes. He walked towards it with the crutches under his arms, and then he saw the cute white cat’s furry head among the bushes. “Have you gotten fatter? How come it feels like you have gotten rounder than before?”
It had been two days since the white cat had seen Chen Ge. It bounded towards him and meowed continuously. Its dual-colored eyes were filled with concern. It brushed against Chen Ge’s feet and then led Chen Ge to the edge of the fence. Even through the distance, Chen Ge managed to see Zhang Ya who was standing on the other side of the fence. Zhang Ya in a red dress gave a sense of familiarity to Chen Ge.
“Didn’t you say you will come here every morning?” There was no trace of accusation in Zhang Ya’s voice, if anything, there was plenty of concern. But the girl herself had no idea why she would be so worried about someone that she did not really know.
“I thought you would not come back here again.” Chen Ge walked to the side of the fence and he gripped the rusted fence links with both of his hands. “Zhang Ya, I need a favour from you.”
“What kind of favour?”
“I need you to help him find people with the name of Zhang Wenyu inside the city.” Chen Ge lowered his voice. “They are currently being sought after, the hospital has claimed them as mental patients who have escaped from the mental hospital but actually they are not sick at all.” Studying Chen Ge who was in the patient’s garb, Zhang Ya hesitated. After all, this was not a request that could be accepted that easily. After all, from the perspective of a normal person, they had more reason to place their trust in the hospital than a patient inside said hospital.
“You said they are being sought after?” Zhang Wenyu is not a single person? Is it a code for a group of people?”
“Yes, these patients have different appearance, age and even occupation, the only thing that ties them together is that they share the same name, Zhang Wenyu.” Chen Ge looked at Zhang Ya seriously. “You need to pay special attention to visitors who come to visit the Haunted House. If they still retain their old memory, then there should be people among them who know about my relationship with the Haunted House so there is a great chance that they might voluntarily go and approach you.”
“I do not quite understand what you are trying to get at.”
“You do not need to, you only need to ask them whether they still remember the real past and ask them about details regarding and try to find a way to send those information to me.” For the sake of security, Chen Ge added the following, “if something happens to me, and I do not show up here for many days, then you should go and look for a young man called Zuo Han. He is a very clever person, he should know how to make use of these information about Zhang Wenyu.”
“How come it feels like you are giving me your last words?” Zhang Ya felt the mental patient before her was acting very strange, he kept saying these thing that made no sense but she did not have any sense of impatience at all, it was as if she could tell that he was telling the truth.
“I need to do something very dangerous tonight, honestly I do not know whether I will be able to meet you again or not.” Chen Ge prepared to leave after he had finished saying all that. “Zhang Ya, remember what I said.”
“Wait a minute.” Zhang Ya suddenly said, she walked to the edge of the fence, this was the first time she was so close to Chen Ge. “I have been coming here for the past few days because I have something to ask you.”
“You have something to ask me?”
“After the day that we met, I had a dream that night, in the dream, the parents that I lived with were not my own parents, my real parents had gotten into a car accident. The day was my birthday and the car still had the birthday present that they had carefully wrapped and a birthday cake that they had just bought for me.”
“Zhang Ya’s birthday present…” An inconspicuous fragment of memory was triggered at the corner of his mind and Chen Ge blurted out the following without thought, “Is it a ballet dress?”
After that, both Chen Ge and Zhang Ya were stunned. Both of them looked at each other in shock.
“How would you know that? I have not told anyone about this dream before!” Zhang Ya grabbed the fence with her hands as well. “The dream was so real, when I woke up, I still had tears on my face. I know that was not my life but I could not control the tears from falling.”
“I have had similar dream before, but in my dream, my parents are the owner of a Haunted House but one day they disappeared and left me alone.” Chen Ge grabbed Zhang Ya’s hands through the fence. “The life that you are experiencing now is the dream that I once had. The reality that I want to escape now is actually your past.”
“Impossible, I have been staying with my parents for over 20 years already…”
“There is no need to rush. Just follow my instructions for now. Among those people named Zhang Wenyu, there should be some who know the truth.” Chen Ge released his grasp. It was much too easy to grab other people’s attention if he stayed there for too long. He held the crutches and left in a hurry.
…
The sun sunk down the horizon. The color of night enveloped the hospital and it was complete darkness outside the window. Chen Ge had no idea what was the content of the treatment intended by Doctor Gao, he could only silently adjust his breathing, and try to ensure that he was in the best possible state to face this imminent challenge.
“For the past few nights, Doctor Gao was preoccupied with something else, I wonder what has he been up to in the nights? This is the first time I have encountered a treatment that has to be conducted after midnight. Is it possible that Doctor Gao in the day is a different Doctor Gao in the night?” Looking outside the window, Chen Ge was thinking when a flash of lightning crossed the night sky. In that moment, the lighting shattered the sky and then it was followed by rumbling thunder. The wind drifted into the room and caused the curtains to flutter. They flapped against Chen Ge’s face.
“A storm is coming?” Ever since Chen Ge woke up, the sky had always been in a good weather. Every morning he would wake up to a warm sun, that was one of the good things that he could experience here. “Could there be a reason behind this sudden change of weather pattern?”
The rolling rain clouds gathered in the sky. A suffocating presence appeared within the heart of every patient. Doctor Fang leaned against the wall and bit on his own fingers. The edge of his lips were stained with blood but he did not seem to realize it. He kept mumbling something to himself. At around midnight, the door was pushed open and Doctor Gao walked in alone. Normally when Doctor Gao came to visit Chen Ge, he would bring the hospital workers with him. But tonight he had come alone, this discrepancy unsettled Chen Ge even more.
“The treatment room is on the fifth floor.” The trace of warmth that was normally in Doctor Gao’s voice had vanquished. In fact, there was no emotion in his tone, it felt like all the emotions had been sucked out of his body.
“Fifth floor?” Chen Ge had been to the fifth floor before with Zuo Han. The place only had rooms for patients with serious problems, there was no treatment room on that floor. Doctor Gao personally bound Chen Ge’s wrist with the strap. He did not give Chen Ge the crutches, instead he supported Chen Ge as they walked out of the room together. Just as they were about to leave the room, Doctor Gao turned back to address Doctor Fang, “Why don’t you come with us, your illness has been dragged on long enough.”
The hospital that night appeared to be different from usual. All the lights in the other sickroom had been switched off. The duty rooms and the nurse stations were all vacated. Chen Ge walked for a distance but did not encounter any other person.
“We are here.” Doctor Gao took out a large ring of keys from his pocket, there was a number written on each key. These keys should correspond to the number of the various sickrooms. Opening the door, Doctor Gao walked into the room. And then as if on purpose, Doctor Gao hung the large ring of key on the hook beside the door while he made sure Chen Ge was watching him. “Why don’t the two of you find a place to sit first?”
The room’s light was not turned on. Chen Ge frowned as he scanned the room. The small room had seven chairs inside it and three of them were already occupied. They were all wearing patient’s garb so they should be patients at the hospital as well.
Doctor Fang’s shoulders were slightly quivering. He sought his way in the dark before settling in chair number one. Chen Ge looked around before finally deciding on chair number seven which was closest to the door. Of the seven chairs, chair number six and three were still empty.
“Two more patients who are supposed to receive treatment have gone missing so their empty spaces will be replaced by me and another night doctor tonight.” Doctor Gao took chair number three. “after that doctor arrives, we will start our treatment immediately.”
10 minutes later, the sound of footsteps came from the corridor and then came the knocking.
Dong dong dong dong dong dong! The door was knocked on consecutively for six times.
“The door is not locked, please come in.”
The door was pushed open. A doctor in a white coat walked into the room. After he saw the seat next to Chen Ge was empty, he went towards it immediately and sat down.
“This new night doctor who has just arrived has the surname Sun, you can call him Doctor Sun.” After making the simple introduction, Doctor Gao took out a bottle of medicine from his pocket. “During the process of treatment, do not matter what happens tonight, do not leave the room. If one of the patients suddenly act up, I hope everyone else will help us to restrain them and then feed them with the pills.”
