Lying in the bed at the psychiatric treatment center,
"He seemed perfectly fine during the day — how did he get so bad at night?" Zuo Han sat back down on his own bed, keeping a considerable distance from Chen Ge. "I studied forensic medicine for years, and I've never heard that repeated exposure to stimuli can reactivate memory."
"You forensic guys deal with corpses. Living people might be a lot more complicated."
"Do you have any idea how low your body temperature dropped when you had your episode just now? The only difference between you and a dead person was that your heart was still beating." Zuo Han had initially wanted to cooperate with Chen Ge — work together to escape. But he was gradually realizing that his roommate was dangerous, and might kill him at any moment.
In Zuo Han's eyes, Chen Ge was more than just sick. He seemed to be hiding other secrets.
"Could this hospital be running human experiments?" Zuo Han tried to use his knowledge to find an answer, but the more he thought about it, the more confused he became. Science couldn't explain Chen Ge's condition — this was already in the realm of the supernatural.
"Zuo Han, can you tell me a few ghost stories? The scariest ones you've got." Chen Ge lay on his bed, turning his head to look at Zuo Han with a face full of anticipation.
"Are you out of your mind? Why would you suddenly want to hear ghost stories?" Zuo Han blurted out. He was finding it impossible to read Chen Ge. "It's midnight and you want your fellow patient to tell you ghost stories — do you have any idea what kind of mindset it takes to say something like that?"
"I just want to test whether the emotion of fear can stimulate my memory recovery."
Hearing Chen Ge's words, Zuo Han had to admit there was a sliver of logic to it. The corner of his eye twitched slightly, and he proceeded to tell Chen Ge a few ghost stories he knew.
"Did any of them scare you?"
"No good. Your stories can't get me excited at all."
"Nobody gets excited listening to ghost stories!" Zuo Han climbed out of bed and dragged his bed frame away from Chen Ge, all the way to the door before stopping.
At this distance, if Chen Ge made a move against him, he could bolt out the door immediately.
"Has anything truly terrifying ever happened to you?"
"Yes. I was locked in a psychiatric hospital, and my roommate is making me tell him ghost stories at night." Zuo Han could not comprehend Chen Ge's behavior at all — neither medical science nor the occult could explain it.
"Your ghost stories aren't scary at all. How about…" Chen Ge raised his hand with some effort. "We play some spirit-channeling games? Like pen spirit, plate spirit, things like that?"
He didn't need to think about it. Some things were already etched into his body. Chen Ge was intimately familiar with these terms.
"I thought you lost your memory? How come you know so much about all these weird things?" Zuo Han caught on to the issue.
"As far as I remember, I used to be the owner of a haunted house, but the doctor said I adopted someone else's identity. My stories were fabricated."
"The doctor might be lying to you. Judging by your bizarre behavior tonight, you're drawn to seeking thrills, you enjoy the feeling of terror, and you're well-versed in scary games like pen spirit and plate spirit. You probably really did run a haunted house before!" Zuo Han stroked his chin in thought.
"But why would the doctor lie to me?"
"How should I know?"
"Then let's play the pen spirit game. I might be able to slowly remember something."
"I'm not playing. There's no pen."
"What about plate spirit? I also know a horror game called Back to Back, where one person lies on the bed and another hides underneath the bed frame…" The moment he tried to think deeply, Chen Ge felt as though his brain was being torn apart. So whether he was speaking or acting, everything came purely on instinct.
Zuo Han stopped talking to Chen Ge. With a cold expression, he lay on his side facing away from Chen Ge and began thinking about how to escape the hospital.
After lying in that position for a while, Zuo Han felt a sudden, inexplicable unease creep over him. He replayed Chen Ge's words in his mind and something felt off. "Is it possible he's faking his illness? With my back turned to him, could he be standing right behind me right now?"
Goosebumps erupted along his neck. Zuo Han whipped around and found that Chen Ge had already fallen asleep.
"He looks perfectly normal when he's sleeping. Hard to believe he'd say such terrifying things."
The ward fell silent. Just past two in the morning, a sudden strange noise echoed from somewhere in the hospital — it sounded like something had exploded.
Both Chen Ge and Zuo Han were jolted awake. Before they could figure out what had happened, footsteps suddenly sounded in the hallway outside.
"Someone's coming!"
The ward door was tapped lightly twice. Before either Chen Ge or Zuo Han could get close, the footsteps receded.
When Zuo Han opened the door, there wasn't a soul in the hallway. "Who knocked on the door?"
"Oh, right — last night when you went out to check, someone also came and knocked, but they only knocked once." Chen Ge discovered that when he tried to recall his memories from after waking up in the hospital, his head didn't hurt. But if he tried to remember anything from before he lost consciousness, a tearing sensation would rip through his skull.
"They knocked once last night, and twice tonight. It seems like someone came specifically for this." Zuo Han fixed his gaze on Chen Ge. "Do you know some of the other patients in this hospital?"
"I don't remember. Since I've been hospitalized, it feels like I've lost consciousness many times. Every time I wake up, the memories from before the last blackout become blurry."
"Could it be something like this? The hospital wants to turn you into a 'normal person' that meets their standards, but every attempt at treatment fails, so they can only keep 'resetting' you?" The more Zuo Han thought about it, the more plausible it sounded. "You may have already been through this treatment process many times — you just weren't aware of it."
"But what does that have to do with the person knocking on the door?" Chen Ge lay on the bed, trying his best to control his thoughts and conserve energy for his body's recovery.
"Could your relationship with that person be the same as ours?" Zuo Han ventured boldly. "He's probably a former patient of yours. You were 'reset' after treatment failed, but he managed to hide. The knocking might be some kind of agreement between you two — or maybe he's trying to tell you something."
"That makes sense." Chen Ge nodded.
"He might show up again tomorrow night. We'll figure out a way to contact him then."
"Alright."