Chapter 57 Circle (Part 5): Cause and Effect, Cycle.
Everything in the ward had an indescribable sense of reality.
It even made Xia Zhu think that she had completed the task or recited the antidote to escape the dream. The realism of it lacked the eeriness that the dream deliberately depicted.
For example, right now, a warm breeze, baked by the sun, blows into the room, and dappled sunlight falls on the floor, revealing damp marks on the worn floorboards.
And that bouquet of tasteless flowers.
Class 35 of the third year of high school was indeed her class.
This was the first time that a message related to her distant life had appeared in her dream.
Get well soon? So what illness does she have?
Xia Zhu lowered her head blankly, then realized with horror that she was wearing a large, blue striped hospital gown, which meant…
She lifted the covers and searched her entire body.
It wasn't under the pillow or in the drawer.
Her little sword was missing, as was the storage ice ball that Ji Wuchou had given her.
Xia Zhu stumbled and dragged her nearly broken body into the private bathroom of the ward. She looked at herself in the water-splattered mirror, pulling at her clothes and hair.
She stood with her back to the mirror in a strange and contorted posture, struggling to turn her head ninety degrees, and discovered six large blue characters written on the back of the rough, dry hospital gown.
"Dongshan Fourth Hospital".
Xia Zhu had heard of this hospital; it was a famous mental hospital.
She stood there, unable to make sense of it all. She thought to herself how powerful the demons in this dream were, able to make these fantasies so detailed.
Dream?
The thought startled her the moment it popped into her head. A dream? Which is real, the dream or reality?
How do we define the boundary of "awake"?
Fragments of memories flashed uncontrollably through her mind: a psychological counseling event organized by the school after last year's college entrance examination, in which the dean of students asked the invited expert to take special care of her, saying that although Xia Zhu had excellent grades and was smart, her family member had just passed away, and perhaps the pressure was too great, which caused her to miss the exam.
Then, she flashed past her homeroom teacher sitting in the office under the shade of trees, earnestly telling her, "While you're focusing on your studies, you also need to relax appropriately. We need to balance work and rest, right?" Then she pushed her glasses, which had slipped down to the tip of her nose, back up.
The images were like freshly developed film in a darkroom, sticky and damp, the tones and faces gradually distorting in the elongated light and shadow. The cicadas' unusually noisy chirping in the summer air was hoarse and made her dizzy, her stomach felt like it was being twisted tightly by a hand, her throat tightened, and the nausea that rose made her exposed skin break out in goosebumps.
Xia Zhu finally couldn't hold on any longer and started vomiting while holding onto the edge of the sink.
But there was nothing in her stomach, so she could only vomit stomach acid in spasms.
She turned on the tap, and the water washed away the filth, offering a brief respite for her ears.
The sound of cicadas.
She clearly remembered that the New Year had just passed and spring had not yet arrived.
Xia Zhu washed her face with cold water, barely managing to regain her composure. She brought her face close to the mirror, carefully examining her reflection, experiencing a feeling that was both strange and familiar.
There is an old ring mark on each of my earlobes.
Her eyelashes pressed against the surface of the mirror, and the roots of her eyelashes would itch slightly with each blink. She noticed a faint ring around the edge of her brown pupils.
Xia Zhu took a deep breath and returned to the ward. She first went to the window and looked down. Below was the hospital garden, with green trees swaying in the wind. Some people wearing the same style of hospital gowns were sitting on the scattered benches in the garden, accompanied by medical staff or family members.
She walked to the door again, pressed her face against the glass and looked down into the corridor, where doctors and nurses came and went, and occasionally family members and friends carrying gifts.
Everything was unbelievably normal.
Xia Zhu returned to her hospital bed, remained silent for a few minutes, and then suddenly opened the bedside drawer. Inside were only her mobile phone and an ID card.
She glanced at her blank reflection in her ID card, deciding not to touch it, because the document should have been in her backpack, not here.
I picked up my phone.
As Xia Zhu turned on the screen, she felt utterly exhausted.
Even on the phone, the only indicator of whether it was a dream or not, it displayed the date perfectly normal: the 15th of a certain month and year.
It's not number 32.
Is this really not a dream?
She lay back on the bed, arms outstretched, staring blankly at the slightly swaying chandelier above her. Her consciousness, along with her bodily senses, began to float upwards, aimlessly wandering in a sea of information.
Exhausted both mentally and physically, Xia Zhu didn't consciously try to find a way out of her predicament; instead, she simply let her mind wander. This method was usually effective, since before she entered the unknown world, she had spent a large part of her life lost in thought among crowds. It was similar to turning her body into a carrier of data and information, absorbing as much as possible without any burden.
When there is enough data and information, the answer will naturally emerge.
Hospital.
This special location is the only place where the two dreams overlap.
Even if a large, reputable hospital differs in its decor and areas of expertise, there is one thing that is always the same.
That is it.
A morgue is a place used solely for storing corpses and has no other purpose.
Because death is inevitable.
Xia Zhu sat up in bed. She searched the room but couldn't find any other clothes. So she went out in her hospital gown, which looked rather conspicuous and comical.
She walked to the door, placed her hand on the doorknob, praying that her "illness" wasn't serious enough to require her to be locked inside, and then pressed down.
Fortunately, the door opened smoothly, and a strange excitement surged up from the soles of her feet. The more she tried to avoid adapting to her role as a patient, the easier it was for her to drift in that direction. Even this feeling of excitement gave Xia Zhu the illusion that she might actually be a little abnormal.
But no matter what, once she gets there, everything will end. Maybe she can see Feng Feng and Feng Mian. Counting the time, it seems she has been separated from everyone for a long time. So this excitement has a synonym called longing.
She had to see them, those vibrant people, no matter what.
Xia Zhu walked close to the corridor wall, trying to make herself look as normal as possible.
But as soon as she stepped outside, she sensed something was wrong. This was indeed a large hospital, with many medical staff, family members coming and going, and patients seeking advice. The only thing missing was a patient like herself, clearly already admitted to the hospital and wearing a hospital gown.
That's true. Mental patients like them who need to be hospitalized to stabilize their condition should not be able to move around freely.
But having already taken this step, Xia Zhu could only grit her teeth and continue. Fortunately, she only encountered a few nurses along the way who were too busy with their work to pay attention to her.
To avoid the possibility of encountering a doctor in the crowded elevator, Xia Zhu followed the emergency exit signs and made her way to the fire escape, intending to go down the stairs.
By observing the signs in the dimly lit hallway, Xia Zhu discovered, quite coincidentally, that her ward was located on the third floor. This discovery thrilled her, and all the fleeting doubts that had lingered deep within her vanished. She had a premonition that there must be an identical morgue on the basement floor of this hospital.
The journey was smooth, except when they reached the first floor where a patient's family member pushed open the door and entered. The family member had just pulled out a lighter, seemingly intending to smoke a cigarette. He barely glanced at Xia Zhu, the patient.
On the basement floor, the familiar cold air made Xia Zhu breathe frequently. Not only the air, but also the heavy fire door, the remaining adhesive residue on the door, and the rusty handle were exactly the same as the places she had been before.
She pushed open the door with immense joy.
The familiar, dimly lit corridor, the familiar light source at the end—it was the same morgue. Perhaps if she went back in, everything would reset and start anew. She had made up her mind; this time, she was determined to save everyone before the corpses could act.
As she thought about it, she ran towards the brightly lit room.
This short distance seemed impossible to reach. Her already aching muscles had been stretched to their limit, and some parts of them instantly stiffened and twitched under her reckless movements. She stumbled and fell to the ground.
She fell hard, her hands unable to even make a move to resist, her left side slamming onto the cold concrete floor with a loud thud.
For several seconds, I was even unable to move.
But hope lay ahead, and there was no reason to stop here. Xia Zhu struggled to stand up again.
"Who's over there?" A man's voice came from behind, followed by the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps.
Xia Zhu was startled. The unfamiliar voice meant that the person who came was not the one she expected, but other medical staff patrolling nearby.
Despite the pain, she struggled to her feet and started running again.
"It's a patient! Stop!" another voice rang out, and there was more than one person behind him.
"stop!"
The two normal men were much faster than the physically weak Xia Zhu, and they quickly caught up with her, grabbing her arms from both sides.
"Let me go!" Xia Zhu kicked wildly, her eyes fixed on the brightly lit room at the end of the corridor.
"How come a patient has come here without permission?"
A blinding beam of white light shone on Xia Zhu's face, and she instinctively closed her eyes.
“I know her. She used to run away every day and was caught and brought back several times. She even said that she had friends in the morgue.”
"Stop talking, hurry up and take her back to her ward. It's almost shift change, don't make such a fuss." The other man impatiently put away his flashlight, and the two of them forcibly dragged Xia Zhu away.
Xia Zhu couldn't understand what the man was saying at all. What did he mean by running away every day? She was clearly waking up for the first time.
The morgue was just ahead, but no matter how hard she tried, even twisting her arm so hard it was almost dislocated, she couldn't break free from the men's iron grip. They held her arms and shoulders so tightly they almost crushed her bones.
Such struggles will only backfire.
Xia Zhu lowered her head and gave up resisting.
She exhausted all her strength and simply let the two men carry her. Her eyes were fixed on the ground. The enormous blow instantly caused all her positive energy to leave her, and pain and exhaustion once again took over her consciousness.
"bite--"
She heard a familiar voice, slowly raised her head, and met a pair of lifeless eyes in the elevator.
In an instant, all the past scenes became fragments of memory that overlapped in my mind.
Cause and effect cycle.
She began to waver.
Did it all begin when she entered the hospital as a patient, or when the exorcist entered her dream?
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