Chapter 1022: Recovered

Chapter 1022: The Illness is Cured

Li Huowang lay upon the pristine hospital bed, eyes wide, drinking in the sight of everything around him.

He scanned the room, then looked down at his own body, seemingly grasping at some truth, yet feeling as though he understood nothing at all.

As the ringing in his ears gradually faded, a familiar voice broke the silence: "Li Huowang? You’re finally awake? Thank God!"

Li Huowang turned his head toward Yi Donglai, finding the man gazing at him with an expression of profound concern.

"I... I’m awake. I’m finally awake. Those hallucinations were so terrifying, but thank goodness they were only illusions. Thank goodness they weren't real." A look of immense relief washed over Li Huowang’s face.

"What do you mean they weren't real? They were all real! Time has looped again! It’s just that the point of divergence is different! Haven't you noticed you’re down to one eye?" Yi Donglai’s voice rose, trembling with frantic tension.

He appeared utterly terror-stricken, his eyes mapped with a web of bloodshot veins.

Li Huowang looked at him with a strange expression. "Dr. Yi, please, stop testing me. My illness is truly cured. I understand now that everything before was just a fabrication."

"I know. I’ve read your notes. Everything that happened in those hallucinations was merely an external manifestation of my own emotional instability."

"But rest assured, I have completely regained my senses. I will never self-harm or attempt suicide again."

Yet, at that very moment, the atmosphere in the room shifted. The brightness began to bleed into darkness; as Yi Donglai turned to walk toward the door, his upper body began to swell, stretching until it nearly scraped the ceiling, while inhuman, mocking laughter erupted from his throat.

"Hahaha! You think you’ve succeeded? You ignorant fool!"

As Yi Donglai spun around, the world began to warp; black water seeped from the floor, the entire ward disintegrated, and the previous visions began to manifest once more.

"Since you have discarded the power you once held, you can no longer block my infection. You are finished! The Great Nuo is finished! Now, White Jade Capital belongs to me!"

The Dao of Fear and Despair, wrapped in all the horrors it had spawned, surged toward Li Huowang.

Just as the tension reached its breaking point, Li Huowang stared blankly at the deformed head of Yi Donglai. "Dr. Yi, really, stop testing me. I am truly cured."

The moment the words left his lips, the surroundings melted away like snow under a scorching sun. Yi Donglai’s expression contorted in a struggle, but eventually, his upper body shrank back to its normal size.

Everything restored to normalcy, Yi Donglai nodded at Li Huowang with satisfaction. "Excellent. Test passed. Congratulations, Xiao Li, your illness is cured. At last, my efforts over all this time have not been in vain."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the room flooded with people, clapping joyfully for Li Huowang. Zhao Shuangdian had donned a doctor’s coat, as had Wu Qi and Chen Hongyu.

They announced to him with delight: "Congratulations, your illness is finally cured."

"What?" Yi Donglai looked at them, bewildered, a flicker of fear in his eyes. "Impossible, you were clearly..."

Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he looked at Li Huowang with sheer terror. "Could it be that what you said was actually true?"

Yi Donglai’s reaction startled the others, who rushed to steady him.

But the more the other doctors spoke, the more violent Yi Donglai’s reaction became, his eyes filled with growing panic and dread.

Finally, the orderlies were forced to intervene with a straitjacket, subduing him and dragging him away.

Watching the shouting Yi Donglai being hauled off, Qing Wanglai sighed with a headache and said to Li Huowang, "You’re really something. You got cured, and now the doctor’s gone mad."

Li Huowang watched Yi Donglai disappear at the end of the corridor, a smile on his face. "It’s fine. There are so many good doctors here; he will surely get better at this White Tower Hospital."

Qing Wanglai reached out and patted Li Huowang’s shoulder. "Xiao Li, let’s go. I’ll write up your discharge papers; you can move from the intensive ward to the light-care unit. You’ll have more freedom there."

Once they reached Qing Wanglai’s office, the doctor pulled out a white disposable cup and brewed a bag of tea for Li Huowang. "The hospital facilities are crude. Oolong tea bags—you don't mind, do you?"

"I’m only in high school; I can’t tell the good from the bad."

"Heh, you’re honest. Hang on a second," Qing Wanglai said, opening his drawer to rummage through it.

"No rush. I have plenty of time now," Li Huowang said, taking a gentle breath of the antiseptic-scented air, feeling an immense sense of peace.

"You kid, you talk like an old man. After you get discharged, go back and study hard. Aim for a good university."

"Dr. Qing, if I go to university, what will you do?" Li Huowang asked, as if making idle conversation.

"What else? Keep grinding away at the hospital. Use your case for my thesis and see if I can get a promotion this time."

"They say those who encourage others to study medicine are cursed by the heavens—staying up all night, working overtime, and having to act out plays for you patients."

Qing Wanglai took the pen from his chest pocket, scratched his head with it, and then began to scribble illegible symbols on a piece of paper.

Li Huowang watched him write, his fingers tightening around the disposable cup as he stared into the brown tea. "Doctor, can you do me a favor?"

Qing Wanglai stopped writing and looked at him. "Sure. We’re friends now, aren't we? Tell me, what do you need?"

The car was moving. Li Huowang looked at the scenery outside, pulled out his phone, and dialed Sun Xiaoqin’s number.

"Hello, Mom? My illness is cured. Yes, really cured. I promise, it won't happen again. Come pick me up next month."

Two hours later, Qing Wanglai’s luxury car pulled up in front of the Sixth People’s Hospital. Through Qing Wanglai’s connections, they easily gained access to a private ward. Lying on the bed was none other than Yang Na.

Seeing Li Huowang walk in, Qing Wanglai stopped outside. He took Yang Na’s medical chart from a doctor; it read: Severe Depression.

Li Huowang walked to the bedside, pulled up a chair, and sat down, silently watching Yang Na, whose eyes were vacant, her body like a puppet. "Nana, I’ve done what I promised you. Look, I’m truly cured."

"I will stay with you until the day you are cured, too. When you get better, we’ll take the college entrance exam again. We’ll go to university together. This time, I’ll be by your side."

Li Huowang held Yang Na’s skeletal, scar-covered right hand and whispered to her for a long time. He did not know how long he spoke; the sky outside shifted from light to dark, and from dark to light again. When he felt Yang Na’s hand gently squeeze his own, Li Huowang smiled.

He reached out with both hands and pulled Yang Na tightly into his embrace.