Chapter 3: Fire in the Stone, Body in a Dream

Qingshan Hospital, 11:30 PM.

Doctor Lao Liu, on duty for the night, had just poured himself a fresh cup of strong tea when the door was kicked open with a loud bang.

"What do you think you're doing?" Lao Liu barked angrily.

"Erdao, pin him down."

"Where to?"

"The desk, I suppose."

Erdao strode over to Lao Liu and slammed his head onto the desk with a thud. The side of his face burned with searing pain.

Paoge pushed Chen Shuo and Wang Huiling into the ward, walking in with measured steps. "Chen Shuo confessed that you took fifty thousand yuan from him to conspire and lock his nephew in this mental hospital, is that right?"

Lao Liu roared, "Someone! Help! There's a disturbance!"

Rapid footsteps echoed in the hallway, but Paoge remained completely unruffled. He simply took off his Tang suit jacket and slowly rolled up his shirt sleeves, revealing arms covered in tattoos and muscles.

When a primal beast sheds its disguise in front of its prey, everyone targeted by it should cherish their lives.

The moment two male nurses appeared at the doorway, Paoge tilted his body slightly to the right to dodge a punch. In the next second, he delivered a thunderous uppercut to one nurse's jaw, leaving him stiff and motionless.

Before the other nurse could react, Paoge flashed in front of him like a jaguar and landed another uppercut to the jaw!

"Too weak."

It wasn't until his words faded that two thuds were heard; the two nurses collapsed like wooden poles, unconscious.

Paoge turned to look at Lao Liu, who was still pinned to the desk. "Anyone else?"

"N-no... no one."

"Can we talk properly now?"

"Yes! Yes!"

"Alright, the three of you, squat in a row," Paoge pulled up a chair, sat down, and crossed his legs. "Does Chen Ji actually have a mental illness?"

"No, no," Lao Liu said. "His thought process is just a bit abnormal. He has mild violent tendencies and depressive tendencies, but he isn't truly ill."

Paoge lit a cigarette. "That's strange. Since he anticipated your moves in advance, why did he still let you get him inside?"

"He wanted to use you to take revenge on us!"

Paoge shook his head. "That's not right. If he could specifically find me for a loan, he must have known what I do for a living. If that were the case, he could have just given me the money to break both your legs. Why go through the trouble of getting himself committed to a mental hospital?"

Chen Shuo: "..."

Paoge suddenly asked, "Did you two kill his parents?"

Chen Shuo was on the verge of tears. "His parents died in a car accident. The driver was caught; it has nothing to do with us."

Paoge signaled for Chen Shuo to hold out his hand, then flicked the cigarette ash into his palm. A scream echoed through the hallway. "A seventeen-year-old kid loses his parents, and you, his uncle and aunt, immediately start plotting to take his house. You’re truly scum. And you, Doctor—you old dog, you’ve done this kind of thing before, haven't you?"

Lao Liu panicked. "I’ve never harmed anyone before! The patients I handled were all people who had committed crimes and didn't want to go to prison, so they came to me voluntarily to buy a medical certificate."

"Oh?" Paoge looked thoughtful. "What kind of crimes did those people commit?"

"The most recent one was a guy from the streets named Wang Long, who works in the earthwork business. Half a year ago, he hit and killed a couple while driving..." Lao Liu stopped abruptly, looking up at Paoge in terror.

With a hiss, Paoge pressed the cigarette butt into Chen Shuo's palm. The scream was deafening.

Paoge put on his black Tang suit and grabbed Lao Liu by his thinning hair, dragging him toward the door. "I know why he had to get into this mental hospital. You people are truly wicked for harming a kid like that. Erdao, give them some 'punishment' to help them remember this. I’m taking this doctor to the sixth floor. I know Wang Long; he’s not easy to deal with."

Chen Shuo was shaking like a sieve. "This is a hospital! There are surveillance cameras! You can't commit violence here!"

Erdao scratched the scar on his bald head. "Paoge, execute immediately?"

"Execute repeatedly."

...

...

Snores rose and fell in the ward. Chen Ji lay on his bed with his eyes wide open, staring quietly at the ceiling.

He found that the dream-talk in the mental hospital was unusually frequent and difficult to decipher.

In a daze, he felt as if he had returned to his childhood, hearing the clattering sound of a green-skinned train starting up.

Young Chen Ji was sickly, and he would often hear sounds of fighting in his dreams, so his father would frequently take him to the capital to seek medical help.

When they had no money, the two of them would buy standing tickets for the green-skinned train.

They would sit in the space between two carriages. When Chen Ji was sleepy, he would sleep in his father's arms. When he was hungry, his father would take instant noodles from his backpack, wait in line for hot water, and then hold the bowl in his hands for Chen Ji to eat first.

When he woke up, Chen Ji would press his face against the train door glass, asking endless questions like a child with ten thousand whys, and his father would answer them tirelessly.

Later, when he was 12 and his illness was cured, his father made money in business and bought a villa.

On summer nights, his mother would teach him to use a flashlight to find cicadas that had just emerged from the soil in the yard, which they would soak in salt water and fry to eat.

During the New Year, his mother would take Chen Ji to cut paper window decorations, paste spring couplets, and steam flower-shaped buns.

On the hospital bed, Chen Ji wiped away his tears with his finger in a trance.

Li Qingniao appeared by his bedside at some point. "Now, sell me something, and I can answer another question for you."

Chen Ji’s eyes were hollow yet profound. "What do you want to buy?"

"A cicada."

"A cicada of what age?"

"A twelve-year-old cicada."

"Not for sale."

At that moment, Chen Shuo’s pained wails drifted up from downstairs, echoing through the hospital.

There was no time left.

Chen Ji rolled off the bed, took a dagger from the strap on his inner thigh, discarded the sheath, and headed straight for a specific spot in the ward.

He was a little afraid—afraid of what he was about to do, and afraid of the consequences that would follow.

But he had no other choice.

Wang Long, who had hit and killed a man and a woman while drunk and fled the scene, causing the victims to die due to delayed treatment. The next day, Wang Long turned himself in to the police, but he had already obtained a medical certificate from Qingshan Mental Hospital in advance. The court was supposed to review the certificate, but Wang Long’s family gathered over sixty earthwork truck drivers to cause a scene at the court, and the matter was eventually dropped. Wang Long escaped judgment and moved into Qingshan Hospital.

But how could you escape judgment?

Chen Ji arrived silently at Wang Long’s bedside and thrust the dagger down with all his might.

Wang Long’s eyes snapped open. He grabbed Chen Ji’s wrist with his strong, powerful hands and sneered, "Did you really think I didn't know who you were?"

During the legal proceedings, Chen Ji had always let his lawyer handle things, so he and Wang Long had never met. But Wang Long, wanting to settle with the victims' families, had naturally hired people to investigate him.

So when Wang Long saw Chen Ji appear, he knew exactly what he was planning.

He said urgently, "I can pay you more money! A lot of money! Your parents are gone; you need to learn to look forward!"

He didn't want to kill anyone else. If he killed again, he would be stuck here for the rest of his life.

Chen Ji silently pressed the blade down, inching closer to Wang Long’s chest.

"You're looking for death!" Wang Long’s strength was ultimately far greater than the teenager's. He roared, snatched the dagger from Chen Ji, and stabbed it back into Chen Ji’s left side, piercing his ribs.

Wang Long thought this blow would be enough to strip Chen Ji of all fighting ability, but he didn't expect that the moment he snatched the knife, Chen Ji wouldn't resist at all. Instead, taking advantage of the opening, he lunged like a beast and bit down on Wang Long’s carotid artery!

Blood seeped from Chen Ji’s lips and teeth, staining the pillow a dark, bruised purple.

Chen Ji felt the metallic sweetness in his mouth, the sensation of blood spraying into his mouth and flowing out.

This was his first time killing for revenge; his heart was trembling with fear, but he bit down hard and refused to let go.

Wang Long felt the pain in his neck, a sensation like an electric shock that made him shudder—it was the crisis of impending death.

He pulled the dagger out of Chen Ji’s abdomen and stabbed it in again fiercely. "Let go!"

"Let go!"

"Let go..."

With every roar and every stab, Chen Ji gave no response, only closing his teeth tighter and tighter, tearing a chunk of flesh from Wang Long’s neck.

Wang Long’s pupils began to dilate. As he twisted the dagger, he muttered, "Was it worth it? Was it..."

But what Wang Long didn't understand was that for Chen Ji, his life had long been left in the past by that car accident—endless, and impossible to escape.

The dark purple blood spread across the white pillow, just as it had spread across Chen Ji’s life.

*Click.* The iron door of the ward was opened from the outside. Paoge appeared in the doorway, wearing his black Tang suit and dragging Lao Liu by his hair.

Wang Long’s right hand finally released the knife handle, hanging limply.

Chen Ji raised his head, his face covered in blood, and looked at Paoge. Whether from fear or the aftereffects of an adrenaline rush, his whole body was trembling.

Paoge sighed. "Too late."

Chen Ji slumped at the foot of the bed, clutching the wound at his waist, and whispered to Paoge, "Sorry."

Paoge knew the boy was talking about using him. He grinned. "It's fine. Even though you're dying, it's not too late to get to know each other. My real name is Chen Chong. My friends like to call me Paoge."

"Okay, Paoge."

"First time killing someone? Calm before the act, using all your strength during it, not a single wasted word. I like that." Paoge kicked Lao Liu aside and lit a cigarette for himself.

Chen Ji gave a miserable laugh. "Still going to die anyway."

As he spoke, blood continued to gush from his wound.

"Want a smoke?"

"No."

"Need help with anything?"

"My phone is with Dr. Liu. It should have recorded evidence of his illegal transactions with my uncle. Please send it out."

Paoge hadn't expected that even on the verge of death, this boy would still remember to seek fair revenge on every enemy...

He sat down beside Chen Ji and asked, "Any other wishes?"

"No," Chen Ji’s voice grew weaker. A wave of sleepiness washed over him, but he couldn't bear to close his eyes. He just stared blankly out the window at the crescent moon, shaped like a hook.

In the ward, the patients slowly stood up and watched them silently.

Li Qingniao came to Chen Ji’s side and gently stroked his eyes, whispering, "Like a horse passing a crack, a spark from a flint, a body in a dream. The forty-nine heavens cannot hold you. Go, go to the place where you belong."

After saying this, he returned to his foolish state and sat by the bed. Paoge covered Chen Ji with his black Tang suit, turned, and walked into the darkness outside the ward. "A pity, we met too late."

(End of chapter)