Chapter 2: Li Huowang

Chapter 2: Li Huowang

"Phew, I'm finally back," Li Huowang exhaled in relief, calling out into the bedside microphone.

Shortly after, his attending physician walked through the ward door, a white tablet in hand, accompanied by a nurse.

"Xiao Li, how are you feeling? Any new changes in your hallucinations this time?" the doctor asked kindly, taking a seat on the stool.

"Same environment, same tasks. Only this time, Master Scabby-Head brutally murdered someone right in front of me and refined her into an elixir," Li Huowang recounted in detail everything he had witnessed in his hallucination.

"Mhm," the attending physician nodded, fingers tapping swiftly across the tablet to record the details.

After a moment of thought, Li Huowang asked with some hesitation, "Doctor, what do these different hallucinations represent? What underlying meaning do they hold for my inner self and psyche?"

"No, you shouldn't concern yourself with that. You should focus more on the duration of each episode and your overall mental stability," the doctor said, shaking his head to dismiss Li Huowang's line of questioning.

"Since they are hallucinations, you must remember they are entirely false. You've already overcome hallucinatory perception integration disorder, so whatever you do, don't let yourself sink back into them."

"Whenever you fall into a hallucination, just act according to the logic of that world, and combined with our hospital's treatment, you'll be cured in no time."

Hearing this, Li Huowang's heart tightened; this concerned whether he could be discharged soon, and he absolutely could not afford to be careless.

The doctor then made sure to offer his patient some words of encouragement.

"Actually, you're doing quite well now. When you first arrived, you couldn't even tell reality from fantasy. Things will only get better from here, so keep it up and stay strong."

As the two were talking, the sound of light footsteps drifted in from the ward doorway.

Both turned toward the sound at the same time, spotting a young girl in a black turtleneck sweater peeking stealthily inside.

The girl looked to be about sixteen or seventeen, right at that most beautiful, bud-like age on the cusp of blooming.

Her skin was as fair and flawless as jade, and her raven hair cascaded over her shoulders like a waterfall. Like a flower bud unfurling, she was utterly radiant.

Seeing the two young people hesitating to speak, the attending physician chuckled tactfully, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a finger, and turned toward the door.

"I have matters to attend to, so I'll leave you two. Oh, and Xiao Li, remember to take your medicine on time later."

As soon as the doctor left, the girl stepped inside. They exchanged a smile, and Li Huowang instantly felt a sweet warmth in his heart, his anxieties about his illness quickly cast aside.

"Stop smiling, you look hideous. Look what I brought you? Review assignments personally assigned by the teachers!" the girl said with a mischievous grin, pulling a canvas satchel from behind her back.

Hearing this, Li Huowang's face instantly fell. "Nana, we've been playing together since we were kids, and this is how you get back at me?"

The girl, named Yang Na, turned to close the door properly, then pulled out a compact handheld game console and waved it triumphantly. "And this too~ Hehe, be a good boy, call me big sister, and I'll give it to you."

"Sis! You're my own flesh-and-blood sister!" Li Huowang rushed forward excitedly, snatching the console from her hands.

Being cooped up in the psychiatric hospital every day was mind-numbingly dull; he was on the verge of going crazy from the sheer boredom.

"Don't play too much, and remember to do your homework," Yang Na instructed, sitting sideways on the edge of the bed as Li Huowang powered on the device.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Li Huowang mumbled, his full attention already glued to the handheld screen.

Her slender, pale fingers pinched the blue-and-white fabric of his hospital gown, tugging at it affectionately. "Hey, don't forget what you promised me."

Li Huowang paused, looked up at her, and his expression suddenly turned deeply earnest. "Yeah, we agreed. We're going to take the exams and get into the same university."

Flustered by his gaze, Yang Na lowered her head shyly, her voice dropping to a mosquito-like whisper. "Yeah, focus on getting better. I'll wait for you..."

Li Huowang suddenly reached out, pulled her close, and wrapped her in his arms.

Her face flushed crimson, Yang Na didn't struggle; she merely closed her eyes and murmured softly, "You big pervert."

They didn't do anything else; for the two young lovers, simply holding each other was enough to feel profoundly happy.

After lingering in each other's arms for a good while, Yang Na had to leave. After all, she was in the most critical phase of her senior year, and squeezing out even half a day was a precious luxury.

Though each visit was brief, for Li Huowang, it was a ray of dawn piercing through his days of suffering.

"Let me walk you to the hospital gate," Li Huowang said, throwing off the blanket in his blue-and-white striped gown and slipping into the hospital's standard white slippers.

As he followed Yang Na toward the door, he felt something was slightly off, only to abruptly notice that the mortar he used for grinding herbs in his hallucination was sitting right there on the bedside table.

Li Huowang's body shuddered violently, and he stumbled back two steps, but when he focused his eyes again, the mortar had morphed back into his own lunchbox.

"What's wrong, are you alright?" Seeing his startled reaction, a trace of worry surfaced on Yang Na's face.

Seeing the concern in her eyes, Li Huowang immediately put on a playful grin. "Haha, what, did I scare you?"

Yang Na frowned and puffed her cheeks in annoyance, reaching out to pinch the tender flesh at his waist. "How old are you, still acting like a child? Doing such childish things."

"Don't be mad, I just wanted to make you smile," Li Huowang reached out to hold her hand, only to have it swatted away.

But after a few swats, their hands eventually intertwined once more.

Other patients sunbathing in the courtyard witnessed the scene and broke into gentle, peaceful smiles; such young and pure love was truly a beautiful sight.

Though they walked slowly, they eventually reached the end of the path. Standing at the hospital gates, Yang Na looked at Li Huowang with reluctant parting. "I'll come see you again next week. You take good care of yourself in there, okay?"

"Maybe you shouldn't come next week. I know the academic pressure is heavy right now, and you only get half a day off each week. You shouldn't waste it on me."

Yang Na lifted her slender leg and lightly stepped on his hospital slipper, her delicate brows knitting together.

"You slacker, don't project your own struggles onto others, alright? My ranking has never dropped out of the top three. What academic pressure could I possibly have?"

"Ah~" Li Huowang clutched his chest over his heart, feigning an expression of utter agony. "That pierced my heart, girl."

Yang Na giggled at his antics, gave his shoulder a light, playful punch, and then turned and darted toward the bus stop across from the gate like a nimble fawn.

He watched until the bus carrying his young girlfriend completely vanished from sight, and the smile on Li Huowang's face gradually faded away.

Recalling what he had just seen, he walked toward the doctor's office with a heart heavy with worry.

An hour later, Li Huowang lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep, anxiously pondering his future with Yang Na, while on the table beside him lay the new medication the doctor had prescribed for his new symptoms.

The mortar from the daytime and Yang Na's smile alternated endlessly in his mind.

"What if my condition worsens and I can't be discharged before the college entrance exams? Then I won't be able to get into the same university as Yang Na."

Though confined in here, Li Huowang was well aware of the rumors outside; in the eyes of the neighbors, someone like him was nothing short of a complete lunatic.

Yet, faced with a lunatic like him, Yang Na, his childhood sweetheart, had taken the initiative to confess her feelings the day before he was admitted, her emotions for him speaking louder than words.

She was a good girl, and as a man, he had no desire to let her down.

"It doesn't make sense. I've followed the doctor's orders perfectly these past days, so how could my condition worsen? Will I have to transfer hospitals again? This is already the third one."

"Dr. Li should be fine, right? He's the best doctor my dad could find."

The more he dwelled on these vexing thoughts, the more irritated he became, until he finally sprang upright like a carp flipping in water, dumped out Yang Na's books and test papers, and began to study.

He wanted to use these complex and obscure subjects to dilute the lingering anxieties in his heart.

Li Huowang continued doing his homework, and as he wrote, he unknowingly lost track of time until it was deep into the night.

Just as he finished an English test paper, he stretched vigorously and rubbed his throbbing temples with his fingers.

"Hah~ what time is it? It must be really late," Li Huowang muttered, slipping on his slippers to use the restroom before going back to sleep.

As he strolled toward the door, yawning repeatedly, his right hand, which had been scratching his chest, suddenly froze; Li Huowang felt something strange on his chest.

Pulling open his collar to look, he found a soft, dark brown smudge clinging stickily to his skin.

The inexplicably familiar color sparked a sudden thought flashing through his mind.

Li Huowang dipped a finger into it and placed it in his mouth. The faint sweetness intertwined with bitterness made his pupils contract slightly.

This was the candy the deceased, foolish senior sister from the hallucination had given him before! Something from the hallucination had actually manifested in reality!

(Thus Ends the Chapter)