Hospital.

In the corridor.

He Jingsheng sat on a chair by the wall, absentmindedly fiddling with his phone, occasionally looking up at the visiting window of the ward opposite.

The curtain behind the window wasn't completely closed, leaving a thin gap. Perhaps to create a private environment for conversation, the curtain beside the bed was also half-drawn. So, Jiang Que couldn't be seen through the gap, only the half-profile of Zuo Jianqing sitting in a chair beside the bed.

He Jingsheng stared at the silhouette for a while and was about to look away when he heard approaching footsteps in the corridor beside him.

"Are you here?" He Jingsheng turned around and saw Song Yecheng.

Song Yecheng nodded, put the suitcase aside, turned around and looked through the window, then sat down next to He Jingsheng: "How long have they been talking?"

"Since your message arrived," He Jingsheng glanced at the time on his phone, "it's been over an hour."

Song Yecheng frowned slightly: "Did he wake up to eat?"

Jiang Que has not woken up since he was admitted to the hospital last night. He has not eaten anything during this period. Calculating further, his last meal should have been yesterday afternoon, so it has been almost 24 hours.

While diagnosing the illness is important, Song Yecheng is more worried about his health.

"No," He Jingsheng said, "but he received a glucose transfusion before, and after waking up, he said he wasn't hungry and didn't want to eat for the time being."

Although glucose can't be compared to a full meal, it can at least replenish some physical strength. Song Yecheng felt a little relieved after hearing this and asked, "What about you two?"

"We've eaten," He Jingsheng said. "We took turns going downstairs to eat a little while he was still asleep."

The inpatient building of this hospital has its own restaurant, which serves both the wards and the public, so patients, their families and internal staff can have their three meals a day in the building.

Song Yecheng nodded, thinking about what he had said on the phone before, and asked, "Have you been in before?"

He Jingsheng shook his head and said, "Zuo Jianqing didn't allow it. He said he wanted to talk to him first to see the situation before deciding whether it was appropriate for a visit."

Song Yecheng was speechless for a moment. He Jingsheng remembered the call from Qiu Mingyue before he went home, and couldn't help but ask worriedly: "What did your parents say?"

Song Yecheng knew what he was worried about and was about to speak when he suddenly caught a glimpse of Zuo Jianqing, who was originally sitting in the ward, standing up and walking towards the outside. He hurriedly stood up to greet him.

The door of the ward was opened. Song Yecheng looked behind Zuo Jianqing through the crack of the door, but he could only see the curtain blocking the bed. This sight quickly disappeared when Zuo Jianqing closed the door with his backhand.

With a click, the door closed again.

Song Yecheng realized something from his action, looked at him and said, "Can't come in yet?"

"He said he wanted to sleep a little longer," Zuo Jianqing said. "Although he was unconscious for a long time, his mind was very confused during that time and he didn't get enough rest."

Song Yecheng frowned and asked, "So what did you talk about?"

Zuo Jianqing turned his head and looked into the corridor. Seeing that there was no one around except for one or two nurses passing by, he didn't try to avoid them. He just led the two of them a few steps to the end of the corridor and got straight to the point: "One good news and one bad news."

He didn't childishly ask, "Which one should I listen to first?" He continued, "The good news is, I've basically confirmed that his symptoms are indeed dual personality disorder with paranoia, and his current cognitive state is the best I could have imagined."

"Originally, my biggest concern was that he would become so obsessed with his delusions that he couldn't distinguish between reality and fantasy, refusing to accept his illness and treatment. But now, it seems that after last night's outburst, his delusion of 'rebirth' has been broken, and his true memories have returned. He now clearly understands that 'rebirth' never happened, and is simply a delusion based on his adoptive parents' two car accidents."

"That is to say, if we regard his paranoia as a dream, then after waking up, he is not continuing to indulge in the dream, nor is there any residual cognitive confusion. He can clearly distinguish the boundary between reality and delusion."

"As for the split personality, although he still can't share the memories of his other personality, after I explained the whole story to him, he understood the cause of the split personality and the existence of the 'shadow'. He showed no panic or resistance and expressed his willingness to cooperate with the treatment."

Regardless of the disease, the patient's cooperation is a crucial part of treatment. Not only Zuo Jianqing understands this, but Song Yecheng and He Jingsheng also understand it. This explains why Zuo Jianqing called this "good news."

However, he also said there was more than just good news.

"What's the bad news?" Song Yecheng asked.

Zuo Jianqing glanced at the two of them and said, "The bad news is that he doesn't want to see anyone except me for the time being."

Song Yecheng was startled for a moment, and immediately remembered Zuo Jianqing's action of closing the door just now. He then asked, "How long is 'temporarily'?"

"It's hard to say," Zuo Jianqing said truthfully. "My understanding is that although he has accepted the fact that he is ill, he hasn't fully digested it yet, so he doesn't know how to face you yet."

Song Yecheng was silent for a moment. He actually wanted to meet Jiang Que, even if it was just to say a few words, but now Jiang Que avoided him, which made him feel a little uneasy.

But he also understood that no matter how much Jiang Que believed in "rebirth" in the past, it was difficult for him to face the fact that it was just an illusion. Moreover, in addition to this illusion, he also had to accept everything about "shadow". With so much shock, it was understandable that he needed time to be alone to digest it.

Zuo Jianqing saw the worry on his face, but he didn't offer any words of comfort. Instead, he said rationally, "My current thinking is to have him stay here for another two days for observation. I'll contact our hospital to see if we can transfer him there as soon as possible. After all, everything I just said is just a superficial conclusion based on our current contact. A more detailed diagnosis requires further professional diagnosis. After all, this isn't a specialist department, so we can be more targeted."

Although Zuo Jianqing usually travels around the country, he is not without his job. The hospital where he works is the top psychiatric hospital in the country. Compared with any general hospital, it has more professional methods and richer experience in the treatment of mental illnesses. The environment and various facilities are also more conducive to treatment.

However, public hospitals are different from private hospitals, so more arrangements must be made in terms of privacy. We have to wait until Jiang Que has rested well to see what he thinks, so there is no need to rush.

Song Yecheng had no objection to his arrangement. Now that Jiang Que needed some time alone, he could only suppress his anxiety for the time being. He turned back to the outside of the ward, took out the suitcase he had brought and handed it to him: "This is his change of clothes and daily necessities. You can take it in to him later."

After that, he turned to He Jingsheng and said, "You haven't slept all night either. Go home and rest first. He probably doesn't want to meet for a while. I'll call you when he feels better."

He Jingsheng asked, "What about you?"

"I'll stay here first," Song Yecheng said, "Anyway, the wards here are not crowded. I'll open another one to stay with him for a few days."

As he said that, he looked at Zuo Jianqing: "You..."

"Please get a double room," Zuo Jianqing said. "I need to communicate with him a few more times before he can be transferred to another hospital. I'll go back to get some things later so he doesn't have to run back and forth for the next few days."

Song Yecheng knew that he was doing this out of respect, so he didn't bother to be polite with him at this time. He just nodded and said, "Okay, then I'll go talk to the hospital and get the formalities done first."

evening.

In the ward at the end of the corridor.

Just as Song Yecheng said, this hospital didn't admit many patients, so the wards were not crowded. After a brief communication, the hospital quickly gave him the vacant ward on the same floor.

Although Jiang Que avoided him for the time being, Song Yecheng had already informed the doctors and nurses in charge and asked them to come and inform him in time if there was any situation. This way, he could save the trouble of making phone calls, and he could feel more at ease with his close care.

At this time, in the ward.

Song Yecheng sat on his knees at the head of the bed, his laptop placed on the bedside table in front of him, and he was entering his account and password into the login interface on the screen according to the message received on his mobile phone.

That was the account number that Tang Yao sent him when he left home, and it was used to log in to the cloud archive of Tang Yao's dashcam.

Ever since reading Shadow's letter, Song Yecheng had doubts about the content captured by the recorder. It was not that he questioned its authenticity, but he was confused by the contradiction between it and what Shadow said in the letter.

Yingzi said that he had thought about using a winch to realize his plan, but finally gave up the idea because of Jiang Que's thoughts. However, judging from the footage captured by the driving recorder, he did go to the warehouse to operate the winch.

Song Yecheng didn't think there was any need for Yingzi to lie in the letter to Jiang Que, but this obvious contradiction forced him to think deeply about whether there was some hidden secret that had not yet been discovered.

After entering the account and password, Song Yecheng pressed Enter and logged into the cloud archive interface.

The cloud archive can only save records from the most recent year. Records before that will be automatically overwritten as new records are generated. Fortunately, what Song Yecheng needs to see is only the part from half a year ago, so there is no need to worry about it being lost in a short period of time.

The records in the interface are classified by month. Song Yecheng flipped down and quickly found the entrance to January of this year.

There are 31 video records in the January archive, which corresponds to the 31 days of that month. Song Yecheng moved the cursor to the 9th and double-clicked to open it.

The segment that Tang Yao showed him at that time started directly from 10 o'clock in the evening, but this time Song Yecheng did not drag the progress bar. Instead, he chose to play it at double speed and started watching from midnight.

Since it was midnight, the light in the warehouse was very dark without being turned on, but after getting used to the brightness, the outlines of several pieces of equipment in the picture became vaguely visible.

Song Yecheng's eyes swept over the equipment one by one, and soon he made some discoveries - slightly different from the video recording he had seen that night, there were a few more pieces of equipment in the warehouse in the early morning, the most obvious of which were two circular outlines, which looked like blowers.

Song Yecheng recalled briefly and remembered that a blower was used in the night scene shot that day, so the blower should not have been moved to the set at this time in the early morning, and the blower should have been moved away and not returned in the evening scene.

Song Yecheng looked down patiently.

At double the playback speed, the time above the screen jumped rapidly. Soon, the light in the screen turned from dark to bright, entering daytime, and then gradually returned to darkness after nearly twelve hours.

During this period, no one entered the warehouse until after 9 o'clock in the evening, when the lights in the warehouse finally came on.

Song Yecheng pressed pause, adjusted the speed to normal, and resumed playback. Soon he saw the deputy head of the props team entering the warehouse with several stage workers.

Several people came to the area where the equipment was stacked. The deputy team leader pointed at two blowers and gave some instructions. Then a field worker took out the power cord from behind one of the blowers, plugged it into the wall socket, and then turned on the blower.

The blower started to spin. After a moment, as if to make sure it was functioning properly, the deputy team leader turned off the switch, waved to several people to move it away, and picked up another power cord and walked towards the wall.

However, this time, just as the plug was inserted into the socket, a flash of lightning suddenly appeared on the screen, and then the entire warehouse went dark in an instant.

Song Yecheng was stunned for a moment. His first reaction was that the blower had tripped due to a short circuit or leakage. However, he paused the picture and dragged it forward to watch it again, only to find that the flash of lightning was not from the blower, but from the winch next to it.

Did I get the wrong power cord?

Song Yecheng guessed and replayed the progress again. He carefully distinguished the picture and found that although the wire picked up by the deputy team leader was close to the blower, the direction of the line seemed to be connected to the winch next to it.

Song Yecheng had an idea in mind, so he continued to play. After the lights went out, the deputy team leader turned on the flashlight on his mobile phone, unplugged the power cord, and then walked away.

After a while, the lights in the warehouse came on again, and the deputy team leader also walked back from a distance, probably turning the power switch back on.

He returned to the equipment, re-located the blower's power cord and plugged it into the socket. He turned on the machine and tried it out. After finding that it was operating normally, he unplugged the power cord and moved it out with several workers. He also turned off the lights in the warehouse.

Calm returned to the warehouse.

Song Yecheng glanced at the time above and found that it was already 9:30 in the evening, and there was only half an hour left before Jiang Que appeared in the warehouse.

The time was so close that Song Yecheng couldn't help but wonder whether there was some connection between the two things, but he didn't rush to draw a conclusion, but continued to watch patiently.

After the blower was moved away, no one showed up for the next half hour. When the warehouse lit up again, it was indeed Jiang Que's section that appeared.

Song Yecheng had seen that scene many times, but this time he had a different idea in mind. With this idea, he studied Jiang Que's actions in the scene over and over again for a long time, and some kind of guess emerged in his mind.

When the lights in the warehouse went out again, Song Yecheng did not stop, but continued to watch it at double speed.

The video of No. 9 was quickly finished, and Song Yecheng clicked on No. 10, which followed immediately afterwards. He fast-forwarded the video until after 4 a.m., when the lights in the warehouse came on again.

It was the time when they finished working on the night show that day. Several stagehands came into the warehouse to return the blowers, but in addition to the former deputy team leader of the props group, they also came with the team leader of the props group.

Song Yecheng vaguely remembered that his surname was Liu.

Team leader Liu had obviously just come from the set, with a notepad tucked under his arm. After entering the warehouse, he didn't communicate much with the workers, but followed the deputy team leader directly to the winch.

The two men stopped in front of the machine, and the deputy team leader gestured and said something to him. Team leader Liu nodded, squatted down, opened the lid of the box below and took a look, then stood up and talked to the deputy team leader for a few more words, and then the two left the warehouse together.

Song Yecheng's intuition told him that the matter was not over yet, so he continued to fast forward and watched it. Sure enough, at around three o'clock in the afternoon, someone appeared in the warehouse again.

There were two people coming this time, Team Leader Liu and a middle-aged man in work clothes.

The man looked like a repairman, holding a toolbox in his hand. He was led to the winch by Team Leader Liu. He squatted down, opened the toolbox, fiddled with the winch, and then as if he had confirmed something, he shook his head, clapped his hands, stood up, said a few words to Team Leader Liu, then put away the toolbox, and left the warehouse with Team Leader Liu.

Seeing this, Song Yecheng's speculation became stronger. He continued to play the video at double speed. When the video on the 10th ended, he clicked on the next few days one after another, fast-forwarding until the afternoon of the 15th, when Team Leader Liu finally appeared in the warehouse again.

This time, Team Leader Liu brought a few people with him. They carried another winch and several sets of pulleys in their hands. When they arrived at the place, they placed them next to the original winch. Then, under the instructions of Team Leader Liu, they lifted the original winch and the matching pulley set and moved them out of the warehouse.

Song Yecheng realized something instantly.

He dragged the progress bar back a little and looked closely at the two winches.

The two should be from the same factory and brand, because the entire appearance is very similar. The only slight difference is the color of the two sides of the axle. The original one is red, and the later one is black.

After discovering this, Song Yecheng took out his mobile phone, typed a few words on the search page, and quickly found the news about "falling into the water while filming".

His fingertips moved quickly, his eyes swept across the news photos, and finally clicked on the on-set video released by the crew at the time. He patiently watched it frame by frame at 0.5 times the speed, and finally captured the image of the winch in a fleeting shot.

After seeing the colors on both sides of the axle, Song Yecheng did not hesitate any longer. He switched his phone to the call interface and called He Jingsheng.

"Hello?" Song Yecheng said simply, "Do you have Team Leader Liu's phone number?"

"Yes," He Jingsheng said, "What's wrong?"

Song Yecheng said: "Send it to me, I want to ask him something."

at the same time.

In the intensive care unit.

The nurse carefully took down the empty infusion bag hanging above the side of the bed, pulled out the needle and connected it to another one in her hand, and hung it back. Then she quietly glanced at the person sleeping soundly on the bed, turned around, closed the curtain, and walked out of the ward.

Click.

The door closed gently.

On the hospital bed, Jiang Que opened his eyes silently.

He had previously told Zuo Jianqing that he wanted to sleep for a while, but in fact he did not sleep.

Throughout the afternoon, he was clearly recalling everything Zuo Jianqing said and clearly digesting the fact that he was a mental patient.

After falling into a coma last night, his consciousness was confused for a while. He could feel a tearing pain in his brain, as if something was trying to break through the seal, break the shackles, and burst out rampantly. Wherever it passed was like magma, burning and devouring every nerve of his.

When the pain eased a little, he fell into a nightmare that seemed to have no end.

In the dream, Jiang Di died in a car accident in a rainstorm, and he was tortured by Ye Ying for a long time. In the end, he witnessed a suicide that seemed like a replay of the past.

The end of the nightmare is awakening.

But waking up was like a bigger nightmare.

Because the moment he woke up, he realized very clearly that the nightmare was not a dream at all, but a real memory that he had buried for a long time.

Jiang Di died, and Ye Ying also died.

All the forgotten details returned to my mind, floating down like a heavy rain that washed away my memories.

Click.

It was like something was cracking in the void.

It was the protective shield called "rebirth" that enveloped him and isolated him from his memories.

The cracks twisted and spread, and the broken fragments fell wantonly, hitting him on the head, exposing him completely to the real world, facing the naked truth, with nowhere to hide.

He heard the nurse beside him shouting in surprise at his awakening, saw the doctor being hurriedly called over to perform a series of examinations on him, and felt the chaos and noise. He realized more and more that he was like a person who had just walked out of a fantasy and stepped back into the real and cruel world.

Wait until the noise subsides.

A familiar person walked into the ward.

Zuo Jianqing.

The moment he saw him, Jiang Que understood.

He knew that Zuo Jianqing's appearance this time was no longer simply as a friend, but also as a psychiatrist, who came to understand the patient's condition.

So he sat up calmly and answered every question of Zuo Jianqing. He also learned from him the specific cause and symptoms of his illness, the origin of those "past life memories" and the existence of the "shadow".

He wasn't surprised at all.

Because when he saw himself in that video last night and learned from his diary that he had spent that day in a dream, he had already guessed this possibility -

There was "another person" who, without his knowledge, was doing things with his body that he didn't know about.

He just didn't expect that the "other person" had existed longer than him, and he was the "later" one.

Considering that he had just woken up from a coma, Zuo Jianqing did not chat with him for too long. When he heard that he wanted to sleep for another round, he tactfully left the ward.

Jiang Que needed time to digest everything that was happening right now, and Zuo Jianqing understood this, so before leaving, he agreed to Jiang Que's request of "not wanting to see other people for the time being."

It's true that I don't want to see other people, but sleeping again is just an excuse.

After Zuo Jianqing left, Jiang Que lay on the bed, looking up at the ceiling, and quietly pondered everything that had happened in the past six months.

He fabricated a delusion for himself called "rebirth", and his other personality compiled one illusory lie after another for him, taking advantage of Song Yecheng's schedule, He Jingsheng's connections, and everything he could use.

And with these lies, he let Song Yecheng enter his world with an absurd beginning, made him believe in the fairy-tale "rebirth", made him work hard to reverse the so-called "destined ending", made him abandon all rationality and become a fool who was deceived with him.

"I died twice."

"This is my third 2020."

When he spoke out this so-called "truth", what kind of contradictory self-persuasion did Song Yecheng go through, and how strong was the trust in him that one needed to accept such an answer and such an absurd statement?

This statement is obviously full of mistakes and omissions.

It's obvious that with just a little suspicion and a deeper investigation, you can find the clues.

But Song Yecheng chose to believe him again and again. Even when he found out that he didn't have a driver's license and that the truth he said was contrary to the facts, he did not choose to waver in his trust. Instead, he chose to stand in his shoes and look for all possibilities for him.

Even until the end.

Until last night when I was faced with the irrefutable video.

Jiang Que didn't hear any questions from him, he only saw confusion in his eyes and a look that was longing for an answer from him.

Jiang Que's throat rolled and he closed his eyes heavily.

Recalling those scenes was like recalling a ridiculous play in which he starred. Now that the curtain fell, he realized how ridiculous and absurd everything he had said and done was.

The ward was silent.

After he woke up, the doctor had already turned off the monitoring equipment next to him, leaving only the hanging infusion tube still silently delivering slightly cool liquid to him.

It was silent for who knows how long.

Jiang Que opened his red eyes again and turned to look at the side of the bed.

There was a suitcase that Zuo Jianqing had sent earlier. He knew that it was a personal item that Song Yecheng had brought for him.

He sniffed lightly, sat up silently, lifted the quilt and got out of bed.

He walked to the suitcase, squatted down, and reached out to open the lid.

At this time, in another ward.

On the phone, Team Leader Liu explained in detail everything about the winch between January 9th and January 20th. Finally, he asked with some concern, "This... didn't Director Gu already ask about this? Is there... anything new?"

Although Song Yecheng was not injured after the fall into the water, it was a filming accident after all, so Gu Yun still investigated the cause of the accident in detail and concluded that "the props team's work error led to equipment failure." Finally, when Song Yecheng expressed his intention not to pursue the matter, he only criticized and warned the relevant personnel within the crew.

Now that half a year has passed since the incident, Song Yecheng suddenly called again to bring up the old matter. Team leader Liu couldn't help but worry that the matter was not over yet and that he had to continue to pursue accountability.

"Oh, no."

Song Yecheng made up an excuse and said he would not investigate further before hanging up the phone. After putting down the phone, he finally understood the whole situation.

Team leader Liu was unaware of the existence of the dashcam, but all the processes he described matched the images captured by the dashcam. The two corroborated each other, forming a complete and convincing logical chain.

This chain of logic completely resolved some of the doubts in Song Yecheng's mind, and made him breathe a sigh of relief.

It was getting dark outside the window.

Song Yecheng glanced at the time on the computer and found that it was already past seven in the evening.

I don’t know if Jiang Que has woken up from that sleep.

He had obviously not had time to eat the whole day, but he was more concerned about Jiang Que's condition. After thinking about it for a while, he decided to go downstairs to the restaurant to see if there was any suitable food, and then bring one up for the nurse to take in.

However, he had just closed the computer and had not had time to stand up when he heard hurried footsteps outside the door, followed by urgent knocks on the door: "Mr. Song? Mr. Song!"

Song Yecheng's heart tightened. He stood up, strode to the door, and opened it: "What's wrong?"

The nurse outside the door looked panicked and pointed to the other end of the corridor, almost incoherently.

"Mr. Jiang, he's missing!"