Chapter 860: Choice

Chapter 860: Choice

Inside the room, the soft rustling of paper being turned slowly filled the air—records of everything Li Huowang had just detailed to him.

After waiting for over ten minutes, Yi Donglai looked up. “So it’s because of all this that you believe yourself to be Ji Zai, the heavenly principle in charge of confusion?”

“Mm,” Li Huowang, dressed in his blue-and-white hospital gown, lowered his head and nodded with his hands crossed in front of him.

“Did you take your medicine today?”

“Yes.”

“Let me confirm once more—do you truly wish to cooperate with my treatment? In the realm of the mind, the patient's mindset plays a decisive role.” Yi Donglai took out his phone, opened the recording function, and placed it aside.

“Of course. Otherwise, what am I doing here talking to you? I’m sick—I need your help.”

“No, Li Huowang, you don’t understand what I mean. This willingness must come from the depths of your heart, not something you try to escape from.”

“I, Li Huowang, never run away!”

“Li Huowang, don’t speak so soon. I’ve seen many patients who, even if they vaguely know it’s an illusion, pretend not to see it.”

“After all, compared to illusions, reality is too harsh. Instinct drives them to hide within their own delusions.”

“It’s like forcing a supreme deity who governs heaven and earth to admit he’s a blind man, a high school dropout, suffering from severe mental illness, utterly worthless.”

Yi Donglai paused after saying this, giving Li Huowang time to reflect.

“You can rest assured—what’s over there is definitely not a comfort zone. It’s far more brutal than reality.” Li Huowang remembered something and bit down hard on the back of his right hand.

“Yi Donglai, I don’t care if I’m the Fate Keeper or if I’m Ji Zai! Qing Wanglai doesn’t care either—he’s someone who abandons others when crossing rivers, emotionless. If they’re all illusions, then that would be better!”

“All of this has ended now. I want to get out. I want to live peacefully!”

“If what you say is true—that everything was false, an illusion—then let it come! No matter what means you use, I’ll take it all!”

Li Huowang said firmly, “If you have the ability to make me never see them again, then I’ll believe you.”

“Very well. Then I’ll tell you now—out of all your experiences, which ones were illusions.” Yi Donglai laid the paper covered in writing before Li Huowang and drew a line under one of the sentences with his pen.

“Here. See this? You didn’t kill anyone, and there was no Yu’er, the divine Fate Keeper, killed by you.”

“No one shot you, and there are no bullet wounds on your body. Your clothes aren’t bulletproof.”

“At the time, everyone else saw you as just going mad. They called the police, so our people knew where you were and sent someone to pick you up.”

“That’s impossible!” The memory of that shocking battle between the Fate Keepers echoed in Li Huowang’s mind. As Yi Donglai guided him, that memory began to waver. “All of it was fake? From the beginning?”

“No. Words alone won’t convince me. You need proof. Just hearing you say it isn’t enough—I still think it’s all an illusion.”

“I’ll find evidence. Since you truly want me to treat you, try to look at everything from the angle that it was all an illusion.”

Seeing Li Huowang nod solemnly, Yi Donglai felt slightly relieved. At least the man was cooperating.

“Come, look at this one. You said that Qian Fu died somewhere with armored vehicles. Think about how illogical that is. We’re in a rule-of-law society now, everywhere is monitored. Do you really think such things could appear domestically? So this part is definitely false.”

Li Huowang stared at the line drawn beneath the sentence and said to Yi Donglai, “Not necessarily. Find out about Qing Wanglai. Investigate his real identity. If you say he’s fake, then we shouldn’t be able to find anything about him.”

“Don’t give me that nonsense, Li Huowang. I’m the one treating you now, not the other way around. Understand?”

As he spoke, Yi Donglai’s phone suddenly rang. He picked it up, glanced at it, swiped across the screen, and held it to his ear. “Hello? Warden?”

Yi Donglai glanced at Li Huowang, stepped outside, and took the call. Li Huowang only saw him nodding a few times outside, speaking quietly, before hanging up and returning.

“For now, we’ll stop here. I’ll organize a treatment plan and start again later. But remember—don’t fall into the illusions. You must recognize reality.”

“As long as the people I care about aren’t illusions, I can definitely tell what’s real.” Li Huowang stood up.

But after walking a few steps, he stopped again. “Yi Donglai, since your medical skills are so great, wouldn’t treating depression be easy?”

Yi Donglai pushed his glasses up his nose and looked at Li Huowang with interest. “Your girlfriend? I glanced at her records—external factors. Easy to cure.”

“Really?” A radiant smile spread across Li Huowang’s face. His guess had been correct—depression wasn’t something he couldn’t handle.

“Mm. External depression is easy to treat as long as you avoid the triggers. That’s why I can’t treat her unless I first cure you.”

Hearing this, Li Huowang recalled something and his expression darkened.

“Li Huowang, at your age, you think your sincerity is everything.” Yi Donglai’s tone softened, like an elder teaching a younger generation.

“But when you reach my age, you’ll realize that whether your sincerity is real or not doesn’t matter—it matters what it brings to those you love.”

“Don’t always view things from your own perspective. Try seeing it from theirs.”

“If your love only brings pain to Yang Na but you keep loving her anyway, then your love is selfish—you love only yourself.”

Watching Li Huowang stand frozen in place, Yi Donglai patted him on the head and walked out.

“I know you’re sick, but you’ll make the right choice.”

Li Huowang remained standing there for a while. His face trembled slightly before settling into calm again.

With shackles on his feet, he moved slowly toward the door, eventually returning to his empty ward.

He curled himself under the bed, biting the sheet in his mouth, and pounded the wall with fists clenched tightly.

The pain in his hands only made him hit harder, until his fists were nothing but bloody pulp. Only then did he stop.

Li Huowang pulled his trembling hands into his chest and curled up tightly. The beautiful memories of their past together replayed endlessly in his mind.

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