There seemed to be some special connection between
Everything played out almost exactly as it had in the Brain Maze rehearsal, except that in reality Chen Ge couldn't see the battle between the black threads and the blood vessels.
"I feel like you originally belonged to me." Chen Ge stared at the head inside the glass jar, a very strange feeling welling up inside him — as though his own head were the one sitting in the jar.
The child's disfigured face pressed against the surface of the glass. He had no eyes; two pitch-black hollows stared directly at Chen Ge.
The two regarded each other like that for a while. Gradually, Chen Ge saw another version of himself reflected in the child's dark eye sockets. His consciousness began to blur. Memories of his past within his mind were being siphoned away by the head in the jar, replaced by the unfamiliar memories of a third person.
"What is he trying to do?" Memory fragments were being stripped away — which was tantamount to slowly losing himself — yet Chen Ge felt no panic or unease whatsoever, as though the two of them were merely conducting an equivalent exchange.
The void in his mind was filled by the child's memories, while the child acquired his past.
Chen Ge's brain was gradually being emptied. All the memory fragments that had been locked away were absorbed by the head in the glass jar. Only the memories he had previously unlocked remained in his mind.
"Could it be that he's trying to help me open the locks in my memory?" Every time Chen Ge tried to force himself to recall the past, he would get a splitting headache. Most of the time, even enduring the pain wasn't enough to unlock those most critical memories.
Now this head had absorbed all the locked memories from his mind. It seemed worried about Chen Ge being exposed, so it actively filled his mind with other memories instead.
Those memories belonging to a third party sank into the depths of his mind, their purpose unknown.
After regaining consciousness, Chen Ge felt as though the shackles on his mind had been broken. He felt much lighter, as though another force had taken on the burden of his pain and despair.
Chen Ge moved his hand across the surface of the glass jar again and again. After discovering he couldn't trigger anything further, he quickly withdrew and returned to the isolation ward.
"Seven glass jars. I've only touched one so far. I can't draw any conclusions yet." Chen Ge lay in the isolation ward for several minutes before the orderly finally arrived in a hurry. Seeing Chen Ge sitting obediently inside, the orderly let out a sigh of relief.
"I'm going to sleep. Close the door when you leave." Chen Ge pulled the covers over himself and went to sleep.
The orderly noticed nothing out of the ordinary and didn't report the morning's events to
That evening, Doctor Gao and
They tried once again to persuade Chen Ge, hoping he would voluntarily cooperate with treatment. Only by opening his heart and eliminating the negative memories brought on by his delusions could he be reborn.
This time Chen Ge didn't resist. After touching the jar containing the head that morning, most of his memories about the past had already been absorbed. There was nothing left to be afraid of.
The midnight treatment went remarkably smoothly. Even Doctor Gao himself was surprised — the results were too good. In a single session, the vast majority of memory fragments in Chen Ge's mind had been eliminated.
After much deliberation, Doctor Gao concluded that the main reason was that Chen Ge had given up on his illusory past and decided to embrace a brand-new life.
Honestly, Chen Ge was already the most resilient patient Doctor Gao had ever encountered.
The hospital's goal of thoroughly "curing" a patient involved several steps. The first was eliminating their past memories, the second was reshaping their identity, and there were several more steps after that — a lengthy process.
For Chen Ge alone, the first step of erasing past memories had taken more than half a month. In the end, a glimmer of hope for success had only appeared when he actively cooperated.
It wasn't just Chen Ge who was exhausted — Doctor Gao was tired too.
"The treatment results are excellent. Keep this up, and you'll certainly be discharged without issue." For the first time in a long while, Doctor Gao finally wore a smile.
…
The hospital gradually loosened its watch over Chen Ge, though it still refused to let him return to the regular ward and wouldn't allow him to interact with other patients.
Most of the time, it was Xu Wan who accompanied Chen Ge. She took meticulous care of him and always had an endless stream of conversation.
Within this hospital, Xu Wan seemed to embody everything beautiful.
During this period, Chen Ge also took every opportunity he could find to enter the offices of former directors.
Each time it was a narrow escape, but someone was always secretly helping him.
After Doctor Gao had treated him three times, Doctor Sun appeared once more and led Chen Ge to meet with the Deputy Superintendent.
This Deputy Superintendent gave Chen Ge a very strange feeling — as though they had met somewhere before, yet he had absolutely no recollection.
To be discharged, Chen Ge needed the Deputy Superintendent's approval. In other words, the Deputy Superintendent was actually the most important person in this entire hospital when it came to Chen Ge.
He had to pass the Deputy Superintendent's examination before he could leave.
After being treated by Doctor Gao multiple times, and after both Doctor Gao and Doctor Sun had repeatedly examined him and found nothing wrong, the Deputy Superintendent still refused to approve the discharge.
Chen Ge had no choice but to remain in the hospital for yet another two full weeks.
He finally found the opportunity to touch the last glass jar. All of his remaining memory fragments about the past were hidden within it.
Now the memories in his mind had been completely replaced. Memories drawn from seven glass jars intertwined deep within his consciousness, forming the image of a child covered in wounds.
Although the seven glass jars still remained in the hospital, the memories embedded in the organs within those jars had already escaped, using this opportunity to hide themselves inside Chen Ge's mind.
Chen Ge didn't yet understand what any of this meant. He only knew that he would likely be discharged very soon.
Seven days after touching all the glass jars, Doctor Gao prepared to administer Chen Ge's seventeenth treatment.
This treatment was highly unusual. Doctor Gao hadn't given Chen Ge any advance information. It wasn't until Chen Ge pushed open the door to the treatment room that he discovered Doctor Sun and the Deputy Superintendent were standing inside as well.
Before Chen Ge could say a word, the moment he opened the door, he seemed to have already fallen into the Brain Maze. He didn't even know when the trap had been set.
"Chen Ge, this is your final treatment. If everything goes well, you can leave the hospital by dawn." Doctor Gao smiled at Chen Ge. He, Doctor Sun, and the Deputy Superintendent all stood on the opposite side of the table.
"What do I need to do?"
"It's simple." Doctor Gao produced a tray from beneath the table. Resting on it was a scalpel. "Your second personality is hiding inside your heart. Dig out your heart — he is the final obsession born from your delusions."
"If I dig out my heart, will I still be alive?" Chen Ge hadn't expected the final treatment to be like this. He had thought he would be discharged smoothly. He hadn't imagined the hospital would be this cautious — that clearing away all the memory fragments still wouldn't be enough.
"You and your second personality — only one of you can survive. If you can't make the decision yourself, then let your second personality choose." Doctor Sun spoke in a sinister tone, the scars on his face twitching.
Neither Doctor Gao nor the Deputy Superintendent particularly wanted to stand next to Doctor Sun. They both felt he was far too extreme.