Chapter 1: Return to Zero

Luocheng, autumn.

In the hollow office, under the pale, sickly light of an incandescent bulb, the middle-aged doctor pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose.

"Hello, Chen Ji. I need to ask you a few questions now. After you answer, I will make an assessment based on my judgment, scoring you on a scale of five levels: 'None,' 'Very Mild,' 'Moderate,' 'Severe,' and 'Very Severe.' Is that alright?"

"That's fine."

"Do you want to end your life?"

"……End whose life?"

"Your own."

"No, I don't."

The middle-aged doctor hesitated for a moment. "Do you hold grudges? Is it difficult for you to forgive those who have hurt you?"

"I don't hold grudges."

"Do you often forget things? What other memories do you have from when you were twelve?"

Opposite the doctor, eighteen-year-old Chen Ji’s gaze drifted toward the darkness outside the window. "Twelve? That summer, my desk mate Ma Kai secretly took an eraser of mine. I quite liked that eraser because it had a picture of Itachi Uchiha on it."

The doctor’s gaze returned to the previous question about holding grudges. He crossed out "1 point, None" and wrote down "5 points, Very Severe."

He scrutinized the youth across from him. Eighteen-year-old Chen Ji had rather delicate features. Perhaps due to long periods of staying indoors, his skin was clean, and his eyes were clear and sincere.

"Next question: Can you endure loneliness?"

This time, Chen Ji finally paused to think seriously about the question. After a long while, he replied, "I can."

……

……

The questioning lasted for half an hour. When the hands of the quartz clock on the wall hit ten o'clock at night, the doctor said, "Last question: Do you feel that someone wants to harm you?"

Chen Ji: "No, my family treats me quite well."

The doctor’s eyelid twitched slightly. He recorded rapidly in his notebook: 168 points, positive symptoms, 67 positive items, factor score 3.8. Patient developed severe 'Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder' after parents died in a car accident; exhibits violent tendencies.

"Student Chen Ji, the diagnosis shows you have severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and need to be hospitalized for observation. The nurse will take you to the sixth-floor ward in a moment. You need to hand over your phone; outside information will cause interference and affect the treatment results."

"Oh," Chen Ji didn't seem surprised.

"Sit here for a moment; I need to inform your family of this result," the doctor said, rising with the diagnostic report.

"Wait!" Chen Ji called out to him.

"What is it?" the doctor asked, turning back.

"I haven't given you my phone yet," Chen Ji said, pulling a phone from his pocket and handing it to the doctor.

"I'm just keeping the phone for you temporarily," the doctor said, putting the phone in his own pocket, turning to leave, and closing the door firmly behind him.

In the empty, dim corridor outside, only a middle-aged couple stood, their expressions anxious.

The man stepped forward. "Old Liu, did it go smoothly? Did he... discover anything?"

"No, he still thinks you treat him quite well," the doctor, Old Liu, nodded. "This is the diagnostic report. You can go to the court now to apply to have him declared a 'person without capacity for civil conduct'."

The middle-aged woman smiled awkwardly. "Thanks, Old Liu. We'll treat you to a meal later."

Old Liu gave a stiff, insincere smile. "Forget the meal. I don't know why you want to have him declared mentally ill, and I don't want to ask. But if the court comes to audit this, I can also overturn my own diagnosis."

Chen Ji’s second uncle, Chen Shuo, hurriedly took a bulging file bag from his black leather briefcase. "Count it."

Old Liu opened the file bag and glanced inside. "Alright, you two can go back. I’ll arrange his hospitalization right now. I don't see any signs of resistance from him, but to be safe, I’ll call two male nurses over."

"Alright, then I'm off," Chen Shuo said, leading his wife, Wang Huiling, toward the elevator.

In the dim corridor, Wang Huiling lowered her voice and asked her husband, "How much money did you slip him?"

"Fifty thousand."

"That much? He just sat there and asked a few questions, why does he deserve so much?" The plump Wang Huiling widened her eyes.

Chen Shuo was impatient. "Do you really think a meal would have finished it? It’s only fifty thousand; what is that compared to Chen Ji’s house! Go to the court tomorrow to submit the application. Once he’s a person without capacity for civil conduct, we’ll transfer the house to our names immediately to avoid any complications."

Wang Huiling whispered, "Is Old Liu reliable? Don't let Chen Ji run away from the hospital."

"Don't worry. I heard the sixth floor of Qingshan Hospital is like a prison; he won't be able to run. Let's stop talking about this in this creepy place; I always feel like it's eerie here."

As they walked out of Qingshan Psychiatric Hospital, Chen Shuo looked back, driven by some strange impulse.

In the night, twisted, dense ivy snaked along the building, almost covering the windows entirely. As his gaze swept over, shadows seemed to be flickering in the gaps of the ivy, as if many 'people' were watching him from there.

……

……

Chen Ji was flanked by two male nurses, walking down the dim corridor of the sixth floor. Only the safety exit signs on the walls provided a faint light.

There was no nurse station on this floor; at the end of the corridor was an iron door that required a password to open. One male nurse covered Chen Ji’s eyes while the other entered the code.

*Click.* The door opened.

Inside was a vast, empty hall with single beds placed every meter and a half. In the gloom, the rows of beds looked like coffins—there were at least a hundred of them.

The next moment, black figures sat up on those beds one by one, turned their heads, and silently stared in Chen Ji’s direction.

The male nurse whispered, "Ignore them. Let's get this done and get out."

The two of them pushed Chen Ji onto a bed, forcing him to lie flat, and secured his hands and feet with restraints.

"Wait!" Chen Ji said.

"What now?" the male nurse asked impatiently.

Chen Ji: "Don't I need to change into a hospital gown?"

"……Are you sick in the head?" the male nurse cursed under his breath, then turned to his colleague. "Let's go."

*Clang.* The iron door closed, and the room fell back into silence.

Chen Ji twisted his head to look around. The windows of the ward were all welded shut with stainless steel anti-theft bars.

*Rustle, rustle, rustle.*

The sound of clothing rubbing against bedding echoed in the ward, followed by the sound of light, fragmented footsteps.

Chen Ji heard those sounds approaching him, growing more numerous and closer.

"No..." Chen Ji sighed, opening his eyes to stare at the ceiling. "Are you only tying me up? That’s a bit presumptuous, isn't it?"

By the faint moonlight from the window, he saw five or six heads poking out like turtles, crowding the ceiling in his field of vision. On each of their dark faces, there was a strange, eerie smile.

Chen Ji: "That’s damn scary. You’ve cured my mental illness..."

Someone asked in a low voice, "Do you think he usually poops before or after meals?"

"Let me call the UN and ask," a middle-aged man said, pulling out a calculator and rapidly pressing a string of numbers. The crisp, female voice of the calculator announcing the numbers was particularly abrupt in the ward.

Before he could finish, an old man pressed down on the calculator.

"Clear."

All sounds vanished. The patients cleared a path for the old man.

The old man came to the bedside, bent down, and looked down at Chen Ji. "You really came."

Chen Ji: "What does that mean?"

The old man took out a piece of paper. "Someone once said you would come here today."

On that paper, his likeness was drawn in pencil, vivid and lifelike.

Chen Ji looked on with respect. "Very reasonable."

……

……

People who can enter a psychiatric hospital are either too stupid or too smart.

They are merely circling themselves in a paranoid world, endless and unable to find release.

Chen Ji had a modicum of respect for psychiatric hospitals.

So, when he saw that sketch, he immediately felt the world becoming mysterious. "My head is so itchy, it feels like I'm about to grow a brain! Old man, did you draw this?"

"I didn't draw it, but I can take you to see the person who did." The old man unfastened Chen Ji’s restraints, and all the patients cleared a path for them.

At the end of the path, a young man sat foolishly on the edge of a bed, staring blankly out the window.

"What is his condition?" Chen Ji asked.

"Severe delusion. He always says he lives in another world and that this world is his dream. Later, he developed dissociative symptoms and became completely catatonic," the old man replied.

"When did he come in?"

"A year ago. He said you would appear today, which proves he wasn't lying."

Chen Ji looked at the old man in surprise. "What is your condition? Your train of thought is exceptionally clear."

"I'm not sick," the old man said.

"That sounds a bit like a mental patient..."

The old man was annoyed. "I'm really not sick. I committed a minor offense and hid in here. If you don't believe me, use the paranoid thinking scale to test me."

Chen Ji: "Do you like Daddy or Mommy?"

The old man: "I like Mommy."

Chen Ji: "……"

He walked up to the delusional young man. "Hello?"

But the young man just stared fixedly out the window into the darkness, saying nothing.

The old man: "He hasn't spoken in half a year."

"What is his name?"

"Li Qingniao."

Chen Ji felt a bit regretful. He scrutinized the blank-faced Li Qingniao and asked in a low voice, "Old man, has he ever mentioned what the world he lives in is like?"

"No," the old man shook his head.

Chen Ji asked again, "Old man, has he received any treatment since entering the hospital? Is there any way to help him regain consciousness?"

"What's the point of treatment? Everyone on the sixth floor has given up on treatment; just staying alive is enough."

"Ah? No more attempts to save him? What if he gets cured?"

"There have been some who got cured," the old man stroked his chin.

"How were they cured?"

"There was a young girl with severe depression who lost over thirty pounds in a month after coming in. Later, her dad won over twenty million in the lottery and came to take her out of the hospital, and her illness was cured."

Ah?

Chen Ji slowly turned his head to look at Li Qingniao. "I'll give you twenty million too."

Li Qingniao, who had been silent for half a year, suddenly said, "You are going to that world too."

Ah?

The old man’s eyes widened.

Chen Ji hurriedly continued to ask, "How do I go to that world?"

Li Qingniao went silent again.

Chen Ji: "I'll give you another twenty million!"

Li Qingniao: "The people of Beiju Luzhou are responsible for the smuggling."

Chen Ji: "Another twenty million... what is that world like?"

Li Qingniao paused for two seconds. "You only have forty million in your account in total."

Chen Ji: "???"

Big brother, are you faking your illness?

He reached out to pinch Li Qingniao’s cheek, but no matter what he did, Li Qingniao wouldn't speak again.

The old man stood with a hunched back, hands behind his back, and asked, "Young man, what did you come in for?"

Chen Ji replied, "My parents passed away, and I've been a bit withdrawn for the past six months, so my second uncle and aunt sent me here."

The old man narrowed his eyes slightly. "Young man, how much inheritance did your parents leave you?"

Chen Ji: "A villa worth over twenty million and tens of millions in savings."

The old man was thoughtful. "Then you’d better be careful of your second uncle and aunt. If they apply to the court to have you declared a 'person without capacity for civil conduct,' you won't be able to keep this property."

Chen Ji’s expression was swallowed by the gloom of the ward. "How could that be? They are my own family."

The wind rose outside the window, blowing the ivy until it swayed. The shadows of the leaves, cast by the moonlight, flickered and danced on the floor like black flames.

(End of chapter)