Chapter 267 |
Su Yang sent a car from the Bureau of Heresy to take Bai Liu and his team to the sanatorium. He had already spoken to the director of the place, who promptly met them on arrival and led them inside.
The sanatorium was a bit old, but the decoration and greenery were not bad. The building in the middle was surrounded by a small, well-kept garden. The one in the corner looked more upscale and had a small pond with lotus flowers and fish on the side of the main entrance.
“The patient in room 906 is in the innermost building.”
The sanatorium director led Bai Liu through the small garden, walking quickly as he explained, “We have two hospitals nearby that we work with, but there are often not enough hospital rooms, and they are not comfortable and spacious.”
“Some patients who are financially well off and don’t want to stay in a ward can transfer themselves to our sanatorium if they are willing to pay the cost of accommodation.”
“That’s how the patient in room 906 was transferred.”
The director said, “This patient’s doctor told me that the boy’s illness was not an emergency situation, that no organic pathology had occurred and that it was purely a psychological problem of its own.”
“The doctor said that the patient was unwilling to remember what had happened a week ago, and that he was reluctant to recall it so he rejected the memories of the past. The medication was of limited use to the patient and he needed a more relaxed environment to heal and recover over time, so he was referred to us.”
With that, the director looked up at the building, which was hidden in the trees, with a complicated expression.
Bai Liu looked at the director: “A long stay in a place like this, it costs a lot of money, doesn’t it?”
“He pays for it himself” The director replied, “The patient in room 906 has lost both his parents and relatives, but he inherited a large estate, enough to keep him with us for decades.”
“He has a bank card dedicated to paying his expenses here and we just transfer money from it every month.”
“And it seems like he’s got some sort of business of his own. I don’t know exactly what it is, like online games or something, but every week there’s a lot of money coming into the bank. Although when asked where he gets the money from, the patient himself is confused and says he doesn’t remember.”
The director explained, “Because this patient can only remember what happened within the past week, it has been unclear to him where the money came from the week before.”
Bai Liu nodded knowingly.
Once a week, this frequency is clearly a transfer of points won by Du Sanying in the game.
The director led Bai Liu and the others to the lift: “As this patient has only one week’s memory and has cognitive problems, he is very frightened of his surroundings. I would ask you to be quiet and friendly when you see him, so as not to scare him.”
When the lift reached the ninth floor, the director led Bai Liu’s group through the corridor, took a turn and stopped in front of room 906.
From behind the door came a strangely accented voice, “Someone’s coming! Someone’s coming!”
Mu Sicheng wondered, “Is this… a bird call?”
“Oh! I almost forgot!” The director tapped his head before opening the door and turning to Bai Liu apologetically, “I forgot to tell you that the patient in room 906 has a parrot.”
“????” Mu Sicheng’s head was full of questions, “What does he have a parrot for?!”
The director said, “The patient in room 906 often tries to record what he did a week ago because of his short memory, but the sanatorium does not supply sharp objects to mental patients to avoid them hurting themselves, so we cannot provide him with a pen.”
“Then he got a parrot and taught it to say some key words as a reminder of what he had done a week earlier.”
Mu Sicheng was very confused: “Don’t you provide electronic devices? Like a mobile phone or something? Let him use a memo on his phone.”
“We do provide them.” The director spread his hands, “But this patient forgets his password after a week.”
Mu Sicheng: “……”
The director was helpless: “We are a professional sanatorium, and we are not allowed to record any information about the password for the patient, as it is suspected of invasion of privacy.”
“And with a hard reset, all the original data inside the phone disappears. We have suggested devices such as tape recorders, electronic drawing boards and so on. But the patient also has a reduced awareness of his voice and drawings after his memory loss, so he could not believe that this was what he had written down a week earlier.”
“Patients believe their pets more than they trust electronic devices.”
The director sighed: “It was forbidden to have a parrot too, but after asking the doctor, who felt that keeping a pet might improve the boy’s cognitive condition, we finally had to agree.”
“However the parrot is not kept indoors, it stays outside on the balcony, so it’s OK.”
The director finished and knocked softly on the door, “May I come in?”
There was a long silence inside before the parrot’s peculiar and polite reply came, “Come in.”
The director pushed open the door to the empty room with the balcony window open and the curtains billowing. The parrot stood haughtily on a bar, but there was no one on the bed or in the open bathroom.
Mu Sicheng turned his head four times: “????? Where is he?!”
Both Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi’s eyes stopped on the edge of the bed.
The director sighed habitually, then knelt down to look under the bed and said softly, “Mr Du Sanying, don’t be afraid. We’re not bad people, we’re just here to see you.”
Mu Sicheng bent down incredulously, and just as he had suspected, Du Sanying was actually hiding under the bed!
The skinny boy cowered in the corner clutching bedding and pillows, half his face blocked from view. His knees were curled insecurely to his chest, only one eye showing very warily from the edge of the quilt, his glasses raised up to his eyebrows.
“I don’t know you guys.” Du Sanying said in a small voice.
He shrank in a little more and it was clear that he would not come out easily.
The director slapped his forehead with a headache.
Bai Liu bowed and asked him, “Please, can you give us a moment alone with him?”
The director nodded, “Call me if you need anything. Don’t scare him too much, he should have just recently had his memory cleared.”
After the director had left, Mu Sicheng’s eyes lit up. He rolled up his sleeves and clenched his fists as he tried to pull Du Sanying out.
Mu Sicheng still held a grudge against Du Sanying for his unreasonable luck in overpowering him, stealing a lot of his loot and always playing innocent in front of him!
Although he felt that this guy was also quite miserable, since he was acting like he was begging to be bullied. Mu Sicheng would’ve felt sorry for himself if he didn’t do something about it!
As soon as Mu Sicheng’s hand reached under the bed, Du Sanying gave a startled “ahh” and one of the bed’s corners collapsed, with the broken frame pressing right on Mu Sicheng’s hand.
The IV stand at the side of the bed tipped over, threatening to plunge into Mu Sicheng’s throat.
Tang Erda steadied the frame in the blink of an eye.
Mu Sicheng screamed in dismay and pulled back his hand quickly, jumping to his feet and blowing on his smashed, red palm.
He looked in horror at the iron-barred bed that had suddenly broken, “This thing can break?!”
Liu Jiayi’s eyes showed pity: “Du Sanying is 100% lucky. Do you think you can forcefully pull someone like that out from under a bed?”
She looked at the bed, “As long as he doesn’t want to come out himself, Du Sanying will be the one who stays safe and sound under the bed today, even if an earthquake buries us all.”
Mu Sicheng shook off his smashed hand in disbelief, “So why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
Liu Jiayi looked at him with a sidelong glance: “I had to verify it. The outcome looks positive.”
Mu Sicheng: “……”
There is no such thing as a nice smart person.
Bai Liu crouched down, his hands on his knees, leveling with the terrified Du Sanying at the bottom of the bed, then after a brief pause, without hesitation, he gripped the bed rail and leaned in.
“!!!” Du Sanying, frightened, frantically crawled further under the bed, screaming, “Don’t come any closer! You’ll get hurt!”
Bai Liu laid peacefully beside Du Sanying, smiling sideways at him: “So you’re not hiding under the bed because you’re timid, but because you’re afraid someone near you will get hurt?”
Du Sanying stared blankly into Bai Liu’s black eyes. He slowly loosened the thick blanket around himself, as if shocked by something beyond his comprehension, and looked Bai Liu up and down incredulously, stammering.
“You, you’re okay?!”
Bai Liu offered his hand in a friendly manner, “Perhaps I should introduce myself first, I’m Bai Liu.”
“-a gamer you’ve met once.”
Du Sanying stared at Bai Liu for a moment, as if to make sure that the man would not get hurt by being near him, before tentatively extending a finger and tapping Bai Liu’s hand very lightly, then withdrawing it and whispering a reply.
“…… I’m said to be called Du Ying, that’s what the patient sign above my bed says.”
Instead of pulling back his hand, Bai Liu turned his whole body to face Du Sanying and moved a little closer to him, smiling gently and whispering, “You helped me once. Can we come out and talk?”
Du Sanying looked at Bai Liu with uncertainty for a long time, as if to make sure that nothing would really happen to this person who was in his proximity, before hesitantly placing his hand on Bai Liu’s palm.
“Okay, good.”
Bai Liu pulled with Du Sanying’s hand in his palm, pushing away from the collapsed bed and pulling the boy from under it.
When he emerged from underneath the bed, Du Sanying subconsciously distanced himself from Bai Liu. He looked away uncomfortably, clasped his hands to his chest, bowed his back and scowled, his whole body in a tense posture of resistance to the outside world.
It was easy to tell at first glance that he hadn’t interacted with anyone for quite some time.
Bai Liu kindly took a step away from him, backing up to a position that made Du Sanying feel less constrained, and spoke, “This isn’t the first time we’ve met, but I don’t think you remember me. We met in a game, and you helped me out a lot.”
Du Sanying turned his head to face Bai Liu, his eyes round with surprise: “…… I helped you?”
Bai Liu smiled: “Yes, you’ve done me a great favour, and I’ve come to ask for your assistance this time too.”
“I hope you’ll see that we’ve been friends in the past and lend a helping hand.”
Du Sanying’s eyes went wide: “…… you’re my friend?”
“Of course.” Bai Liu started carving out an identity for himself as he looked at Du Sanying with a seemingly nostalgic look and a light smile, “If you hadn’t forgotten about me and ignored me in the first place, I would have chased you to keep playing games.”
Bai Liu dropped his eyes as if feeling lonely and sighed regretfully, “Unfortunately, you forgot about me after a pleasant game, and we never met again.”
“We had a chance to become soulmates.”
Mu Sicheng: “Pfft!!!”
God! soulmate!
You mean the kind of best friend who takes away their friend’s soul?
Du Sanying felt very sorry for forgetting his best friend. He loosened his arms, which were wrapped around his chest, wiped his palms against the seam of his hospital gown and stole a glance at Bai Liu.
“Sorry ……” Du Sanying blushed a little in shame, ” Bai Liu, I forgot about you, I don’t even remember what games we played… …”
The parrot on the balcony heard a certain key word and, like a repeating doll with a switch triggered, blew up and waved its wings vigorously, trilling loudly and screaming, “Bai Liu, Bai Liu, bad guy, bad guy, encounter, run! Run!”
Du Sanying: “……”
Bai Liu: “……”
Tang Erda: “……”
Liu Jiayi: “……”
Mu Sicheng: “Pfft – !!!”
EN1: How unlucky for that to happen hehe
EN2: SCAMMER ALERT !!!
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