"What I want you to do is very simple. If a doctor or nurse comes to check on you after I leave, you just need to pretend to be asleep." Zuo Han did not hold out much hope for Chen Ge: "Don't say anything more. No matter what he asks you, just say you don't know."

"Is it that simple?"

"Well, and when I come back, remember to open the door for me." Zuo Han lay on the bed and ignored Chen Ge.

Ten minutes later, Zuo Han glanced at Chen Ge, then stood up and walked to the door of the ward.

He quietly opened the door a crack, and when he saw that there was no one in the corridor, he slipped out.

"This person is suspicious, and his symptoms are indeed very similar to paranoia." Chen Ge sat up from his bed: "Should I help him?"

Without much effort to think, Chen Ge already felt that Zuo Han's departure tonight was not just to check out the hospital, this was also a test for him.

He didn't trust Zuo Han, and Zuo Han didn't completely trust him either. In the eyes of a person with paranoia, the whole world is dangerous and full of potential enemies.

Keeping the same posture, Chen Ge sat beside the bed for more than ten minutes, but Zuo Han still didn't come back.

He looked at the door that was ajar, dragged his plastered leg, and slowly walked to the door of the ward.

Chen Ge opened the door and looked outside. The hospital corridor was not completely dark. Lights were on at the corners of the corridor and at the nurses' station.

"It's completely different from what I remember a hospital to look like. Could it be that the dark and gloomy midnight hospital is really a figment of my imagination?"

Chen Ge has now mastered the balance. He will not think deeply about any problem. As long as the memories of the past are not stimulated, the brain will not feel the pain as if it is being torn apart.

"I didn't have any headaches when I thought about what happened during the day, but when I tried to remember what happened before I passed out, the pain came all of a sudden, which was strange in itself."

"What do the memories of the past mean to me? Why do I feel pain just thinking about them?"

After taking a large dose of drugs, his body was extremely weak and he was suffering from pain, but even in such a situation, Chen Ge still maintained the ability to think independently.

"To some extent, Zuo Han and I are quite similar. He feels that everyone in the world is trying to harm him, and I feel that everyone in the world is lying to me. Are we really sick?"

The symptoms are so similar to those of a mental patient, which indirectly indicates that you may also be a mental patient.

"I can realize that I might be sick, which means I still have the sense of illness. My self-awareness has not weakened...Self-awareness?" The three words that popped up inexplicably in my mind made Chen Ge stunned for a moment: "Why do I feel so familiar with the word self-awareness? This thing seems to be extremely important to me. I need self-awareness, I need something with self-awareness!"

The pain came like a tide, and Chen Ge seemed to have triggered his old memories again. Countless fragments of memories collided with each other in his mind, and the pain made him almost faint.

Chen Ge held onto the bed rails tightly with both hands and clenched his teeth.

His teeth were bleeding, but he still didn't make any sound.

“Why am I so impressed by the word self-awareness?!”

His consciousness began to blur. If Chen Ge continued to think, he would not only have a headache, but he might faint.

Taking a deep breath, Chen Ge tried his best to calm himself down. He followed the breathing method taught by Doctor Gao and tried it several times. The pain in his brain was finally relieved.

In just a few minutes, Chen Ge's back was already wet with cold sweat, and his body became even weaker.

"If I faint, will another me appear? Will I be able to talk to him?"

When Chen Ge was about to return to his bed, footsteps suddenly sounded in the corridor.

"Zuo Han made no sound when he walked. It should be the nurse coming over."

Chen Ge still remembered Zuo Han's words. He lay down on the bed and pretended to sleep. After about ten seconds, the footsteps stopped at the door of the ward.

Chen Ge stared at the door with narrowed eyes. He was not nervous, nor did he feel uneasy. Only then did he realize that his mental state was incredibly good.

"Bang."

Someone knocked gently on the door, followed by footsteps, and the person outside left.

"What do you mean? Come over at three or four in the morning, knock on the door, and then leave? Is this a prank by the caregiver?"

The person outside the door did not come in, and this became the most confusing point for Chen Ge: "Who is knocking on the door? The nurse? Zuo Han? The doctor? Or another patient in the hospital?"

After a while, the door of the ward was pushed open and Zuo Han walked in with a cold face.

"Is it going well?"

"This hospital is very large, it's a general hospital, and the third ward where we are is just a small part of it." Zuo Han walked to Chen Ge's bed and gestured with his hand: "If the hospital is compared to a pillow, we are probably in this corner."

"Do you have the confidence to escape?" Chen Ge was more concerned about this. The inexplicable knock on the door just now made him feel a sense of urgency. It seemed that if he stayed here for too long, something worse would happen.

"No." Zuo Han's answer was very straightforward: "There is a surveillance camera installed at the entrance of the corridor. Our building has three caregivers and two nurses to watch over it 24 hours a day. The door to leave the hospital is also locked, and no one knows who has the key."

"Key?" When it comes to keys, a flash of lightning seems to flash through Chen Ge's mind. He is like a drowning man who suddenly grabs a straw: "I need a key!"

"Yes, without the key, we can't get out." Zuo Han felt that Chen Ge's tone was strange. He did not continue to communicate with Chen Ge and returned to his bed.

"Aren't you going to sleep?" Chen Ge found that Zuo Han was still wearing his clothes and shoes, lying on his side on the bed, with no intention of sleeping at all.

"I don't want to die in my sleep." Zuo Han closed his eyes and hid one hand in his arms, with something hidden in his palm.

A knife? Not really. It should be something sharp. Did he get it from outside?

According to the doctor, Zuo Han was a patient suffering from severe paranoia. It was scary to think about such a dangerous guy holding an unknown object in the same ward with himself.

Reason told Chen Ge that he should be afraid, but to be honest, he felt nothing in his heart.

After changing into a comfortable position, Chen Ge closed his eyes and fell asleep.

…

The door opened and Chen Ge slowly opened his eyes. The morning light outside the window shone on him and he stretched comfortably.

"This life is pretty good. As long as I don't think about those bad memories, I look no different from a normal person."

Chen Ge turned his head and saw Zuo Han still lying on the bed. He seemed to have not fallen asleep until dawn.

"It seems you had a good rest last night." Doctor Gao stood at the door. He did not go to see Zuo Han, but walked directly to Chen Ge's bedside: "Did you have a nightmare last night?"

"No." Chen Ge shook his head. The face of Dr. Gao in his mind overlapped with the face of Dr. Gao in reality. Perhaps because he had seen it too many times, the two contradictory memories actually began to merge.

There seemed to be a force in his mind that was slowly changing his perception, allowing him to see the reality clearly and helping him to get rid of the pain.

"This shows that my treatment is still effective." Doctor Gao was very pleased: "I will not let Xu Wan continue to bring you food today. You have been in the ward for a long time. It's time to go out and walk around. This will be of great help to your recovery."

"Go out for a walk? Can I go to that amusement park?" Chen Ge immediately became excited.

Doctor Gao laughed in silence: "Do you want to go see the female owner of the haunted house? I'm afraid that's not possible. You can only move around in the hospital for the time being."

"All right."

"I'll get you some crutches, wait a moment."

After Dr. Gao left, Zuo Han, who had been unconscious, suddenly woke up. He gestured to Chen Ge and whispered, "Don't believe his lies."

"Why aren't you asleep yet?"

Zuo Han didn't say anything else and didn't move, as if he was still sleeping soundly.

A few minutes later, Doctor Gao returned to the ward with crutches. He helped Chen Ge up, and the two walked out together. During the whole process, Doctor Gao did not say a word to Zuo Han.

I don’t know whether Dr. Gao was worried about disturbing Zuo Han’s sleep or if there were some other reason.

After breakfast, Chen Ge and Dr. Gao came to the garden outside the ward.

Because we missed the flowering season, there were not many flowers in the garden, but it still made people feel very comfortable to stay here.

The wind blows through the treetops and on my face, like a pair of gentle hands.

The sunlight shines through the gaps in the leaves and falls on the ground like swimming goldfish. The grass and trees on both sides of the road are neatly trimmed, like a calm and beautiful green lake.

"Haven't I left the ward for a long time?" Chen Ge leaned on his crutches and moved his body bit by bit.

"Why do you say that?"

"I haven't felt this relaxed for a long time." Chen Ge touched the tree beside him and found a quiet place with few people to sit down.

"It's not that you haven't experienced it before, you're just trapped in a lightless room and have forgotten that feeling." Doctor Gao sat next to Chen Ge. He seemed to enjoy chatting with Chen Ge.

"A lightless room?"

"This lightless room is your heart. You hold the key and lock yourself in your heart. All I can do is find a way to get you out of that room." Doctor Gao looked at the sky, not knowing what he was thinking.

"As long as I can get out of this room, will my illness be cured?" Chen Ge asked seriously.

Dr. Gao shook his head: "Mental illness is different from psychological problems. Mental illness cannot be self-corrected. It requires medication to get you out of the house in your heart. This is only the first step."

"Then how can I say that my disease is completely cured? In fact, I feel that I am no different from a normal person now." Chen Ge leaned against a tree, his eyes a little dazed.

"You don't realize that you are sick, which means you are still a long way from recovery. Illness awareness and self-awareness are also the basis for us to judge the severity of a patient's condition." Doctor Gao and Chen Ge chatted.

"Self-awareness? What is that?" Chen Ge's hands grasped the edge of the wooden chair. He lowered his head, as if to prevent others from seeing his expression at this moment.

"Self-awareness refers to the patient's ability to understand his or her own mental state. It depends on whether he or she can judge whether his or her mental state is normal. In your current situation, you obviously have no self-awareness at all."

"But I still feel that I am no different from a normal person, except that I get a headache occasionally." Chen Ge raised his head again, covering his head, as if he had just had a headache again.

Doctor Gao did not refute Chen Ge. He pointed at a man who was talking to himself beside a pavilion in the distance.

The man was in his early thirties, wearing a hospital gown. He stood alone in the sun, talking to himself in a place in the pavilion where the sun couldn't reach.

Chen Ge also felt that this person looked familiar, but he couldn't remember his name for a moment.

"His name is Zhang Jingjiu. He used to live in the same ward with you, but later we found that his condition worsened after living with you, so we moved him to another ward."

"Zhang toasts?"

"Well, he is the son of the owner of a winery in Xinhai. He is young and had a bright future, but unfortunately he has mental problems."

"What's wrong with him?" Chen Ge's expression changed when he heard the name Zhang Jingjiu.

"Undifferentiated schizophrenia." Doctor Gao stared at Zhang Jingjiu, watching his every move: "This patient always thinks he can see ghosts."

"ghost?"

"How could there be ghosts in the world? In fact, we tested his senses and found that his five senses are completely different from those of ordinary people." Doctor Gao said casually, "He can't concentrate. He always feels that someone is talking around him, even if he is alone in the room. And his brain has problems processing sounds. Let me give you a simple example. When a normal person hears a sentence, the brain will think about the meaning of the sentence, but he hears each word one by one. All the sentences are fragmented in his mind."

While Dr. Gao was talking to Chen Ge, the patient named Zhang Jingjiu turned his head and saw this. His eyes suddenly widened and he rushed over quickly.

Before Dr. Gao and Chen Ge could react, Zhang Jingjiu grabbed Chen Ge's hand and tried to pull him up from the chair, but he ignored Chen Ge's injured leg, and the end result was that Chen Ge was dragged to the ground by him.

There was no sign and Chen Ge did not react.

"Nurse! Someone come!"

Doctor Gao and a patrolling nurse dragged Zhang Jingjiu aside. As he was dragged away, he kept shouting at Chen Ge - ghost, ghost, ghost!

"Are you okay?" Doctor Gao helped Chen Ge up.

"It's okay, it's okay." Chen Ge sat back on the bench. He felt a little strange. From Zhang Jingjiu's last tone, he could tell that he was very afraid of ghosts. If he was very afraid of ghosts, why did he take the initiative to come up and pull him?

After pulling himself, he kept shouting "ghost, ghost, ghost..." at himself.

Chen Ge lowered his head and brushed off the dust on his clothes, then avoided looking at Doctor Gao.

"He was probably reminding me that there was a ghost around me. He thought Dr. Gao was a ghost."