Who is whose alternate personality?

The woman was stunned for a moment, at a loss for what to do. When she came to her senses, she suddenly screamed, her face flushed, and she pulled out her finger and fled in panic.

This scene is almost identical to one described in a novel I read last month while on night watch. A mountain girl rescued a general in distress, and while he was unconscious, she groped and pinched him. As soon as he woke up, she ran away in fright. After the initial shock and embarrassment subsided, she returned to peek, and seeing the general struggling to get up, she quickly helped him. The two then engaged in some intimate acts and eventually consummated their relationship.

Unfortunately, there's a difference between novels and reality. I neither screamed nor ran away. I just kept holding his head and chuckled a couple of times, saying, "You woke up as soon as you heard I was going to find you a partner. Are all soldiers this impatient?"

A look of confusion flashed in his dark eyes as he weakly asked, "Who are you?"

I insisted on groping around the back of his head and indeed found a lump the size of an egg. Then I laid him flat, straightened up, and said without any room for doubt, "Your savior."

The news that Company Commander Gao had woken up spread quickly throughout the family. Zhang Yanhuang sprinted back to the ward, collapsed by the bedside, and sobbed, "Company Commander, you're finally awake! Company Commander, we can't find Squad Leader Chen! We can't find him! I'm so sorry!"

My dad laughed heartily: "Finally some good news! Soldiers are lucky to survive!"

My mom was also very happy: "It's good that you're awake, it's good that you're awake. For so many days you could only have liquid food, now you can eat solid food."

Liu Meili put on her stethoscope and listened to his chest, then pried open his eyelids, waved her fingers in front of his eyes, and shouted, "Can you hear me? What number is this?"

The girls crowded around the doorway, peeking in and watching the commotion; the house was in complete chaos, both inside and out.

Company Commander Gao was clearly not used to this scene. His internal injuries had not fully healed, and he could not move his body. He could only frown slightly and look at Zhang Yanhuang, who was closest to him and crying uncontrollably, and whisper, "And who are you?"

Zhang Yanhuang was stunned, speechless, and didn't know how to answer for a moment.

Upon hearing this, Liu Meili glanced at the two of them, her eyes suddenly lighting up as if a new understanding had been revealed. She exclaimed confidently, "Don't panic! This might be a sequela of a mild traumatic brain injury! He's lost his memory!"

These words struck Zhang Yanhuang like a thunderbolt. He collapsed to the ground, his face filled with disbelief, his sorrow almost palpable in his eyes. Oh dear, he was so flustered.

Let him panic. I'm not worried at all; as long as I'm alive, that's all that matters. Apart from Zhang Yanhuang, he doesn't know any of us anyway, so whether he has amnesia or not makes no difference.

So I herded everyone away like chickens: "Hey hey hey, stop making a fuss, go outside and move your things, it's time to go!"

The patient has woken up, and the house has been moved to a new home – double happiness, at least for me. My long-held dream of living in a high-rise building with a garden, swimming pool, and elevator has finally come true, albeit in a lesser sense. Even with the burns that have left me with alopecia areata, the garden is still a garden, the artificial lake is not only for fishing but also for swimming, and the hospital ward has ten floors – it's practically a mid-rise!

If the air were fresher, the neighbors were more normal, and I wouldn't often encounter severed limbs and mangled corpses while taking a walk, it would be perfect.

Actually, our cleanup wasn't thorough. The inpatient department has many floors and wards, and with limited manpower, we couldn't check every corner. We've confirmed that floors one through eight are safe, and we roughly swept floors five through ten. Then we welded the stairwells shut, so even if a few sneaky individuals slipped through, they'd be trapped inside.

The outpatient building (four floors) and the administrative building (three floors) have all been cleaned up, and our group of twenty can now live here to our heart's content.

Liu Meili and I, as former employees, took on the role of saleswomen, leading the first group of people to the mental hospital on a tour of the entire complex.

In the canteen's kitchen, my mother looked at the four large stainless steel stoves, the spacious vegetable washing sink and worktable, the special pastry board, the large oven without electricity, and the small cold storage room with dirty water flowing out. She was full of praise and kept saying, "This is spacious enough to accommodate ten people."

My dad kept a straight face the whole way, and even when Xiao Hei enthusiastically recommended the basketball court and Fishing Lake, he only gave a soft hum without saying anything. It wasn't until Zhao Zhuobao led him into the patients' recreation room that things changed. After touching the ping-pong table and the pool table, and examining the cannon on the chessboard for a while, my dad said, "Not bad."

It had been so long since I had walked freely in nature. Trees, wildflowers, grass, the warm sun high in the sky, a gentle breeze, and the clear waves rippling on the lake. There were no terrifying zombies, no vicious bandits. Girls held hands, looking around and whispering to each other, their laughter ringing out like silver bells.

The veterans' hospital has its own emergency power system. As long as there is enough fuel, it is not a problem to illuminate every inch of the hospital. The security team also has electric patrol cars, stun guns, handcuffs, walkie-talkies and many other useful items. However, the large generator really requires a lot of fuel. Adhering to the principle of saving resources, we decided to maintain the primitive lifestyle of relying on fire for lighting at night, on foot for internal transportation, and on voice for short-range communication.

After the visit and a collective discussion, it was unanimously agreed to temporarily settle the new home in the administration building. This small building had hardly ever been set foot in by zombies. On the day the virus broke out, all the administrative staff had gone home. The few wandering zombies that were there were probably my former colleagues from the security department, who had long been killed by Yu Zhongjian and his team. It was fortunate that I didn't get to see their mutated state.

The administration building is tastefully decorated. The four offices for leaders on the third floor all have restrooms and bathrooms for lunch breaks. The second floor houses the administrative offices, finance, personnel, labor union, youth league, and women's federation departments, all fully equipped; you could practically live there just by moving in a bed. At the end of the corridor is a public restroom. Aside from the slightly inconvenient showering, the difficulties are negligible.

I suggested that the four suites be allocated as follows: one for my parents, one for my second uncle and his son who are seriously ill, one for Captain Gao and Zhang Yanhuang who are in the recovery period, and the remaining suite be allocated by drawing lots. No one objected.

In the reception room on the first floor of the administration building, everyone sat in a circle, their eyes fixed intently on the small ball of paper I was shaking in my hand. Zhou Yi stared intently, as if trying to bore a hole through my palm.

I smiled, but with a hidden dagger, I slashed at him: "If you draw a suite, you can share it with whoever you want, but there's one rule: men and women can't live together!"

"Why should I?" Zhou Yi was indeed indignant.

"Of course we respect and protect women. Do you have a problem with that?"

"What if she's willing to live with a man?"

"I don't know who this family you're talking about is," I gestured towards Chen Ruonan and Qin Yun, "would you two be willing to live with a man?"

"No." The two shook their heads vigorously.

I looked at Liu Meili again: "Are you willing to live with a man?"

Liu Meili hugged me with a grin and said, "I'm willing to live with you."

Finally, she looked at Ma Li and asked, "And you?"

Ma Li sat on the leather sofa in front of the large French windows, wearing an oversized T-shirt and men's casual pants. Her hair was tied in a low ponytail, revealing a section of her smooth, fair neck. She lowered her head and didn't look at anyone. Her eyelashes trembled as she said in a soft but firm voice, "I don't want to live with a man. I never want to live with a man in my life."

The room fell silent for a moment. Zhou Yi stared at her with a look of disappointment. I unconsciously shrank back and exchanged a glance with Han Bo, who shook his head at me.

In the end, Xiao Hei drew the suite, and he was overjoyed. He grabbed his good friend and buddy, Fatty Luo, and rushed up to enjoy the VIP treatment. The others were free to choose, either in pairs or alone, and carried their own beds and made their own arrangements.

I seized the office of the workers, youth, and women when no one was looking, and continued to share it with Liu Meili. The reason I chose this room was because all the staff members were women, and there were a lot of women's belongings left behind.

After making do for one night, I handed over the task of arranging the rooms to Liu Meili the next day. I still had serious work to do – the resettlement of prisoners.

Han Bo and the others went to pick up the person. I found the key at the duty desk and took Yu Zhongjian up to the seventh floor of the inpatient department.

"Do you still recognize this place?" I asked, holding the key and opening the wards one by one. This was the intensive care unit. Each room was a single room with only one bed, and each bed was secured with restraints. The windows were made of tempered glass, and outside the glass were steel bars as thick as a finger. Even the ward doors were not ordinary wooden doors.

It's more accurate to call it detention than treatment. Patients who haven't spilled the blood of the people on their hands or been involved in any major criminal cases can't even get to the seventh floor.

Before the apocalypse, only one patient lived on this floor.

“I don’t recognize him,” he said.

"You've been hospitalized for over two years, and you don't even recognize your own ward?"

Yu Zhongjian followed my footsteps, his eyes sweeping over the empty wards, and said calmly, "I don't remember ever staying here. Every time I wake up, I'm in Dr. Lu's consultation room."

I looked at him strangely: "What do you mean? How did you wake up? Did Lu Xiaodou wake you up?"

"yes."

"This doesn't make sense," I said, confused. "Why would he wake you up? Shouldn't he be eliminating you?"

Yu Zhongjian smiled and said, "I'd rather be eliminated, but he wouldn't. As a doctor, he has a lot of integrity."

I was embarrassed to find that Yu Zhongjian was right. I really didn't understand what he was saying. "Don't move, let me sort this out. Lu Xiaodou wants you to stay awake, but you don't want to wake up yourself, so you are always forced to wake up under his stimulation therapy. Once you leave him, you will fall asleep again and switch to another personality. Is that what you mean?"

"yes."

"That's impossible! Why?"

Do you need a reason to want to die?

"...Maybe, probably, maybe still a little bit is needed." I felt the conversation was getting increasingly difficult, but I wasn't interested in his reasons for wanting to die, because I noticed something else very strange. "No, no, no, it has nothing to do with whether you want to die or not. As Yu Yu's alternate personality, Lu Xiaodou should do his best to eliminate you and support your death. After all, that's his job. Why does he keep stimulating an alternate personality to stay conscious? I don't quite understand. Can you explain it to me?"

I cautiously asked my question, a sudden sense of foreboding washing over me. He said that Lu Xiaodou was a very principled doctor, and that was indeed a widely acknowledged fact. He was passionate about treating mental illness and treated all patients equally, even a serial killer. He maintained a professional attitude towards his patients, showing no resistance or discrimination, focusing solely on the illness, not the person.

Why would such a professional doctor repeatedly awaken the alternate personality, which is detrimental to the patient's condition?

He gets anxious if he doesn't smoke for five minutes. In this slightly dim corridor, he took out a cigarette, lit it, and took several puffs before giving me a meaningful look and saying something that sent chills down my spine.

"Who told you I'm Yu Yu's alternate personality?"

"Holy shit!" I cursed, jumping three meters away from him. Instinctively, I pulled out my ever-present screwdriver from my back and quickly assumed a fighting stance: "Who the hell are you? A possessed one? A reincarnated one? Don't try to scare me with your tricks, I'm telling you, I'm not afraid of you!"

Seeing my alarmed expression, he chuckled and said something even more chilling.

"I should say that Yu Yu is my alternate personality; he is a person who does not exist."

Wow! This is truly explosive news, defying all logic and understanding. It shocked me so much that it took me a while to calm down. Holding the screwdriver, I thought for a long time before asking him, "The other day, I told you to take your medicine to Liu Meili. Did you take it?"

Han Bo and his men arrived armed, escorting the prisoners, interrupting my conversation with Yu Zhongjian. In truth, I didn't really want to continue. Lately, I've been busy and haven't had much time to pay attention to the mental states of the mentally ill individuals. And as time went on, I gradually became accustomed to their occasional attempts to veer off the edge of their mental illnesses. For example, Zhao Zhuobao's infatuation symptoms persisted, and Xiao Lizi couldn't stop fighting once he started, only chocolate could calm him down.

Then there's Yu Zhongjian, who's the most like a normal person. I've even been angry at his low emotional intelligence, been jealous of his attempts to win over Han Bo, and tried to deepen our communication in order to achieve mutual understanding and make future cooperation more harmonious... Even though I often call him mentally ill, I can't deny that I'm increasingly inclined to treat him as a normal person.

But listen to what he's saying! Yu Yu has become his alter ego. Who is Lu Xiaodou desperately trying to save? It's Yu Yu! Liu Meili has Yu Yu's medical records every day, how could she not know the truth? When she registered for admission, she pulled out a legitimate second-generation ID card issued by the state with anti-counterfeiting features. This guy's delusions are much more severe than Zhou Yi's!

I was so stupid, really. I only knew that the behavior patterns of mentally ill people were hard to figure out, but I didn't know that mentally ill people who pretend to be normal are even harder to figure out.

When assigning wards to the prisoners, four men struggled violently, screaming with all their might, refusing to go in, perhaps out of fear or some other reason. Distracted and lost in thought, I didn't act immediately. Suddenly, someone bumped into me hard, my earlobe hitting the doorframe, making me wince in pain.

Yu Zhongjian gave me a little push from behind, then stepped forward and threw a punch with lightning speed, striking the man in the side of the neck. The scoundrel fell silently into the ward, lying motionless on the ground.

By the time Han Bo and his men came over and raised their guns to threaten them, the prisoners had already gone into the room, looking obedient.

I rubbed my ears and said to Yu Zhongjian, "Thank you."

He replied, "You're welcome."

In that instant, it suddenly dawned on me. Since Lu Xiaodou was nowhere to be found anyway, let him make up whatever he wanted. It seemed he didn't want to die anymore, and there was even a faint air of domineering arrogance emanating from him, like a king returning to take control of his body… Actually, delusions aren't such a big deal. Like Zhou Yi, who, despite being a nobody, fantasized about being a king, yet it didn't stop him from smacking his lips while eating, snoring while sleeping, fighting with deadly force, and swearing without any kingly bearing. So, it's fine if Yu Zhongjian can continue to fantasize about being the dominant personality, as long as he can suppress Yu Yu and continue to shine in the team, maintaining unity and friendship, he'll still be the kid I most want to keep.

They had to settle the personnel, clear out the spoils of war, allocate manpower, and set up sentry posts. At the same time, they also had to care for the sick, interrogate prisoners, track down escaped criminals, guard against zombies, and continue to gather more supplies to ensure the normal operation of living facilities. The number of people remained the same, but after moving to a vast area, the workload suddenly increased several times compared to when they were at Old Qi's house.

When Yu Zhongjian came downstairs, he talked to me about these issues and asked me to come up with the articles of association.

Me: ? Why am I asked to take the charter?

I consider myself a frontline fighter, and I have no patience for management stuff. Besides, once I leave my home, I'm no longer the host. Now, if anyone comes to ask me if I have chili sauce, find me a shoe brush, or if I'm out of toilet paper, I can confidently reply, "None of my business."

However, everyone was clearly still haunted by the feeling of being "dependent on others." As soon as I returned to the administration building, a group of people rushed over.

"Hey, does anyone have a new toothbrush? Send one to us, Fatty and I haven't brushed our teeth for half a month."

"Go and get it yourself."

"Sister Qi, what should I do if there's no hot water in the bathroom? I want to wash my hair."

"Burn it yourself."

"It's windy here, and there's not much liquefied gas left on the stove. I've told you so many times to go get it, but you just ignore me!"

"I'll go tomorrow."

"Sister Feng, I don't want to sleep in a hospital bed. I've got my eye on the electric bed in the intensive care unit. Can you move it?"

"...That's an electric chair."

I sat in the small flower bed on the side of the building, smoking with a sad expression, hiding from my mother. I was indignant. Why did no one remember that Liu Meili was also an employee here? She knew the place well. She called me "Sister Qi" so fluently. All she did was order me around. It was so annoying!

Han Bo and Zhou Yi walked over side by side. Even though I only peeked out from the bushes, they recognized me: "Does Da Feng need toilet paper? Come out, I'll tell you about those women."

I slowly stood up: "Which women?"

"It's in the auto repair shop..."

"Sister Qi! Sister Qi!"

Han Bo was interrupted. I got a headache as soon as I heard the word "sister". I turned around and said angrily, "It's so annoying. Can't you give me some peace and quiet? What's the matter now?"

Zhang Yanhuang ran out of the building, panting heavily. "Company Commander, the company commander says he wants to see you."

Uh... I don't know why, but when I heard that, all the anger and irritation I felt vanished in an instant.