His limbs felt bound, hands, feet, and torso all tightly entwined by something, leaving no room to move.
"Doctor Tang, his eyelids moved. Has the sedative worn off so quickly?" a familiar female voice echoed in the cramped space.
"The patient has been frequently injected with sedatives, so his body has developed a certain resistance to the potion," another male voice spoke, accompanied by the scratching of a pen on paper, "I’ve made a note of it. If he wakes up and still can’t calm down, give him another shot."
"Understood, Doctor Tang," the female voice moved away slightly, followed by the sound of a door opening and closing.
Only one person’s footsteps remained in the room. The woman came back, speaking very close now, "It’s a shame someone as handsome as you looks."
Xu Huo opened his eyes.
The woman was startled by him and quickly stepped back, flicking her disheveled hair and brushing past the "Yu Qingqing" embroidered on her nurse’s uniform, before taking a syringe from the operation table.
Xu Huo didn’t move, quickly sweeping his gaze around the room, pausing momentarily when it landed on the "The Seventeenth Hospital" inscription on the nearby medical equipment.
Yu Qingqing, holding the syringe, observed his condition before putting it down and asking, "How do you feel?"
"I have some pain in my body," Xu Huo’s throat was dry.
Yu Qingqing had a look of it being only natural, "You were thrashing and smashing things in the hospital before. How could you not be in pain?"
"Can you release me?" Xu Huo asked.
Yu Qingqing glanced at the time, "Let’s wait a while, until the other nurses come to help."
After she finished speaking, she sat down beside the sickbed, excitedly saying, "Keep telling the story, what’s new this time?"
"What story?" Xu Huo looked at her and then asked, "How long have I been here?"
"Not too long," Yu Qingqing obviously didn’t want to discuss this topic and after giving him some water she said, "I’ll go call someone."
She left after speaking. The moment she pulled the door open, the nameplate on the door opposite that read "Tang Guangbo" flashed by.
Two minutes later, Yu Qingqing returned with a male nurse, both of them talking outside the door.
The male nurse complained quietly, "Why not just leave him in the treatment room? Why bring him back to the ward so quickly? When he goes mad it takes several people to restrain him; it’s such a hassle."
"Doctor Tang said to bring him back to the ward as soon as he wakes up," Yu Qingqing said displeased, "Dai Wenqian, do you have a problem with me? Why is it every time I ask for your help you have so many complaints!"
"Not at all," Dai Wenqian said, "Am I not worried he’ll hurt you? Schizophrenia, you know. He can’t distinguish between reality and fantasy, and he’s always talking about some player’s game. What if he takes you for a target one day?"
"Don’t talk nonsense, he’s never attacked the medical staff," Yu Qingqing stopped him and then whispered, "And don’t you find his delusions interesting? It’s so boring here every day at Seventeenth Hospital. It’s not bad to listen to them like adventure stories."
"I think you just find him handsome," Dai Wenqian mocked, "You girls always let your judgment be swayed by good looks. Don’t think I don’t know; Zhou Ning has even been sneaking him snacks."
"Oh please, as if you’ve never taken special care of pretty female patients." Yu Qingqing pushed the door open with a smile and nodded at Xu Huo.
Xu Huo watched the person behind her, it was indeed Dai Wenqian.
Dai Wenqian was not as gentle as Yu Qingqing, conducting a simple examination and then untying the restraining straps around him in a matter-of-fact manner, "Move your hands."
Xu Huo tried to do as he was told but his hand dropped back to the bed weakly. He frowned and tried to lift his hand again, but still couldn’t succeed.
"This is normal, it’ll be better in a little while," Dai Wenqian made a record and signaled to Yu Qingqing, who, together with another person, pushed the hospital bed forward from behind.
Passing by several wards was the rest area on the floor, where several people dressed in hospital gowns were sitting next to the clean and spacious tables and chairs, muttering words like "players" and "Special Defense Department." The nurse standing beside them merely responded to their words perfunctorily.
Xu Huo silently returned to his own ward and only after lying down on the bed did he say to Yu Qingqing, "Nurse Yu, may I have an apple?"
Yu Qingqing, of course, had no objections; she left with Dai Wenqian, who wore a stern face, but soon returned with an apple that had been cut.
"Why are they all talking about players?" Xu Huo asked.
Yu Qingqing looked at him in surprise, "Don’t you remember? You’ve asked Doctor Tang about this before. It’s a symptom of mental contamination, initially coming from an online game called Dimensional Rift. I suppose it can be considered contagious."
"But you don’t have to worry. Your condition has improved. When you’re lucid, there’s no difference between you and a normal person. As long as you keep trying to control your condition, you’ll be able to leave the hospital soon."
Xu Huo took the apple pieces and after eating a couple, he smiled again, "Nurse Yu, you have some too."
Feeling his gaze, Yu Qingqing blushed slightly, "We can’t eat things sent by a patient’s family."
Xu Huo swallowed the apple, "Are these apples from my family... Did my brother send them?"
"Can I see him?" Xu Huo asked after closing his eyes for a moment.
Yu Qingqing said with difficulty, "Not for the time being, but you can once your condition stabilizes a bit more."
"What about a phone call?"
"He said he had to go abroad for business the last time he brought something, so it might be difficult to contact him." Yu Qingqing thought for a moment and then suggested, "How about this, when he comes next time to bring something, I’ll let you know, okay?"
Yu Qingqing stood up, "I’ll go get your medicine. You should take it early and get some rest."
After she had left the room, the person who had been covered by the quilt on the opposite bed suddenly poked out and whispered urgently to him, "Don’t eat the medicine they give you! Don’t eat it! If you do, you’ll stay here forever!"
Yu Qingqing returned shortly, with a transparent medicine box containing several capsules and a cup of water, which she handed to him, then picked up the medical record book, her eyes fixed on his hand.
Xu Huo brought the medicine to his mouth, took a glance at the patient whose eyes were widened under the quilt, and then drank some water.
However, the person opposite him suddenly started shaking, mumbling incoherently, "Can’t get out, can’t ever get out again; everyone will die here! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!"
Yu Qingqing, seeing that Xu Huo had taken his medicine, relaxed her expression a bit; but hearing the voice behind her, her face darkened again. She pressed the call button, and soon Dai Wenqian and two nurses came in, dragged the person out from under the quilt, gave him an injection of a sedative, and took him away, bound and carried.
Yu Qingqing then turned back to Xu Huo with a gentle smile, "He won’t come back tonight, so as not to affect your sleep quality. You must be tired; sleep now."
When she turned around, the medical record book clearly read: Patient No. 013, Xu Huo, admission time 4 months.