Xiao Cheng pinched her thigh hard, then gasped. It hurt! This was no hallucination!

The pile of things looked bulky, but it moved extremely fast, like leeches, stretching itself into a long strip. In the blink of an eye, it had climbed more than halfway up and was about to make intimate contact with the other side.

"Damn it!" Xiao Cheng cursed under his breath. Ignoring the injury on his ankle, he jumped off the other side of the bed the moment the thing flipped up and ran towards the broken glass without thinking.

"Xiao Cheng! Aren't we friends anymore?! Why are you avoiding me?! Weren't we on good terms during the day?!" The thing seemed to sense the betrayal and let out an angry roar.

"Take a look at yourself now and see if you're the same person you were during the day!"

Xiao Cheng is going crazy. Yesterday it was bed number 3, today it's Su Xin. What is this? Is this the kind of wonderful nightlife unique to mental hospitals?

She felt a dampness at her ankle, and a faint smell of blood filled the air; the wound had reopened. She gritted her teeth and endured the pain, limping towards the other ward.

The thing continued its relentless pursuit: "Xiao Cheng! What did I do wrong! Why did you betray me!"

"Who the hell betrayed whom?!" Xiao Cheng nimbly ducked and crawled through the hole, using a snake-like maneuver to dodge a wave of slime attacks from behind.

She glanced back briefly, and the thing was completely unrecognizable, with distorted facial features stuck to it, making it utterly disgusting.

Xiao Cheng could no longer treat it as Su Xin. Looking around, he couldn't find anything he could use as a weapon, so he simply ripped off the bedding, then lifted the bed board with both hands, dragged it outside, and slammed it down hard in front of the rapidly approaching monster.

The ward fell silent instantly.

The thing was hit squarely by the bed board, crushed into pieces by the wooden planks, scattered on the ground like clods of earth, even its facial features were completely shattered, and it became completely still.

Xiao Cheng let out a heavy sigh, paused for a long while, and then cautiously leaned closer.

It seems like he's really dead.

Some of the fragments had completely dissolved into water and emitted a faint creamy artificial flavor, just like... melted cold drinks.

Xiao Cheng suddenly thought of Su Xin's medical record report.

She suffers from delusions; she believes she is an ice cream cone.

Is there a connection between the two? Xiao Cheng couldn't figure it out. She walked around Su Xin's ward again but found nothing, so she prepared to go back. After all, no one knew what the consequences would be of leaving their ward for a long time.

On her way back, she consciously looked into the other patients' rooms. Just like the night before, everyone except herself and Su Xin seemed to be fast asleep, including Fang He, who had said he would keep watch, who was also completely still.

She felt as if she were isolated in another space, and then waited until dawn...

Xiao Cheng paused in her steps.

A cold, damp sensation came from the back of my neck, like a tiny hand stroking me.

Goosebumps rose all over her body. Without making a sound, she slightly turned her body to the side and, using the blurry reflection from the glass wall, saw what was clinging to the back of her neck.

It's Su Xin.

Or rather, it was a solid-liquid mixture, only half the size of a palm.

"Hehe." Knowing that Xiao Cheng was observing her, she openly leaned close to Xiao Cheng's ear and chuckled softly, "Xiao Cheng, you can see me."

Xiao Cheng wanted to say that she hadn't seen it.

But it was too late.

In the ward behind them, the water on the floor condensed into a jelly-like substance, which kept rising and stretching, eventually becoming dozens of Su Xins of different sizes.

They squeezed out from the hole in the wall and ran over chattering, "Xiao Cheng! So many of me!"

"So many versions of me! Xiao Cheng, please don't betray me, okay?" Su Xin, who was lying on top of Xiao Cheng, whispered, her cold fingers hooking a strand of her hair. "Is this your spore?"

“This is my hair, let go of it.” Xiao Cheng felt threatened.

"Aren't you a mushroom? You're lying to me!" Su Xin suddenly screamed, and Xiao Cheng's ears rang, giving him the illusion that he was going deaf.

Amidst the buzzing sound, she suddenly remembered her persona.

Mushrooms! Mushrooms that grow bigger and stronger when they get wet!

Suddenly realizing this, Xiao Cheng had a strange feeling. She felt full of power, her back no longer ached, her ears no longer rang, and her legs no longer hurt. She was filled with an aura of dominance, and even her pendant Su Xin could no longer hold her!

Then she turned around and realized that it didn't seem to be an illusion.

Su Xin's body was instantly dried up, leaving her as dry as a piece of paper. She floated down and immediately turned into dust upon touching the ground.

The remaining little people, including Su Xin, looked at Xiao Cheng as if they had seen some monster, and fled in all directions in a panic.

But it was completely useless.

The water on their bodies rose into a thick mist, which automatically drifted towards Xiao Cheng.

One by one, the little figures turned into dust. As the moisture flowed into her body, Xiao Cheng felt a warm and comfortable sensation all over her body. She felt as if she were floating in the clouds, and her whole body became lighter and lighter until suddenly her feet lost their footing.

The feeling of weightlessness came suddenly, and before Xiao Cheng could even cry out, she fell heavily to the ground.

The expected pain did not come; the ground beneath me was soft, like some kind of cushion, and felt quite thick.

The air was filled with a musty smell; it must have been a long time since anyone had been here.

The place was pitch black, and eyesight was of no use at all. Xiao Cheng did not get up immediately, but instead groped around for the things around her.

Suddenly, Xiao Cheng's fingertips touched a round, tubular metal object. He picked it up, felt around it, and finally confirmed that it was a flashlight.

She located the switch and tried to turn on the flashlight.

I don't know if the filament is broken or the power is insufficient, but the flashlight's light is very weak, flickering as if it might go out at any moment.

But that was enough for Xiao Cheng to understand his current situation.

The injury on her ankle had actually healed completely; when the bandages were removed, there wasn't even a scar left.

She was now in what appeared to be a basement, with a thick, dark red carpet on the floor and a locked, dilapidated wooden door a few meters away.

This door is really old; a rusted iron lock hangs on the handle, with the key still attached to the lock.

Xiao Cheng walked over and tried to turn the key, but before she could use much force, the lock and the doorknob fell off together.

The wooden door opened automatically, making a dry, creaking sound.

Outside was an extremely deep and dark corridor, or rather a passageway, extending forward in a downward arc.

Xiao Cheng didn't rush out. She circled the basement again but couldn't find the place where she had fallen.

It seems the only option is to move forward.

She stood by the door again, shining her flashlight into the depths of the passageway, but could see nothing; the faint light was completely swallowed by darkness.