An hour after Dr. Sun left, Dr. Gao and
They had a good chat with
Opening the storage room door, Chen Ge stood in front of his own locker and carefully searched for the wedding ring Dr. Sun had mentioned, but found nothing.
"This is everything you have. You can change your clothes here — I'll wait outside." Xu Wan said she would leave, but she didn't actually walk out. She hesitated for a long moment, then suddenly handed Chen Ge a slip of paper. "This is my phone number and social media account. After you leave, if your condition relapses, you can contact me anytime."
"Sure."
Only after Chen Ge took the paper did Xu Wan finally leave.
Closing the storage room door, Chen Ge began to change.
In the pocket of his outer jacket, he found a black phone with a cracked screen. It wouldn't turn on, probably because the battery was too low.
Apart from that, the locker also contained identification documents, a recovery certificate, and a thick file that recorded his daily medication and physical reactions. The treatment records began a year and a half ago.
At the very back of the file, he found a bill — a year and a half of treatment had consumed every last cent his parents had left behind.
"Why is there no wedding ring?"
Chen Ge searched again carefully, then suddenly remembered that Little Sun had come by that morning and told him to check Locker 29.
His gaze shifted, and beneath his own locker, Chen Ge found Locker 29.
The door was unlocked. Inside were the belongings of a female patient, along with her medical file and an urn.
"Don't tell me it's inside the urn — that's an absurdly well-hidden spot."
Chen Ge opened the urn and rummaged through it. At last he found the ring. He quietly slipped it into his pocket, then restored everything to its original state.
"This ring is probably some kind of token. It's not convenient to examine right now — I'll study it properly after I leave the hospital."
The discharge procedure was tedious. Chen Ge spent an entire day on it.
Running from window to window to complete the paperwork, Chen Ge was struck again by that eerie sense of disorientation — everything was far too real.
He was just a negligible person in this world. That didn't mean this was his world.
The sun sank toward the horizon as Chen Ge walked out of the hospital with his bag slung over his shoulder.
He glanced back at the massive complex behind him and vaguely sensed that someone was standing behind a window at this very moment, watching him.
"I'll probably come back to this hospital someday — just not as a patient."
Crossing the road, Chen Ge arrived beside the amusement park opposite the hospital. "It's too late today. Tomorrow I'll go check out the haunted house in this park."
The haunted house was Chen Ge's obsession. He was also curious why his past memories contained so much content related to haunted houses.
"I only have a few dozen yuan in change in my pocket. I need to find somewhere to stay tonight." Chen Ge sat on the curb and flipped through the documents he'd brought from the storage room. They contained information about him and his parents. "My home is in the western suburbs of Xinhai?"
Chen Ge had no recollection at all. He stared at the key in the file folder for a long time in silence. "This is the key to my home?"
The file included his home address. Before nightfall, Chen Ge took a taxi back to his house.
When he paid the fare, the driver gave him a strange look. After all, it wasn't every day you saw someone limping along while carrying a mountain of belongings on their own.
"Do you need me to help you carry your things upstairs?" the driver asked kindly.
Chen Ge shook his head and declined. "That's all right. I can manage on my own."
Watching the taxi pull away, that familiar feeling surfaced in Chen Ge's heart once more — it seemed he was used to being stared at by taxi drivers.
"What a kind soul," Chen Ge muttered to himself as he carried his things into the residential complex.
He had no impression of this place at all. He simply followed the address listed in the files and eventually found his own unit number.
"Building 3, Unit 3, Apartment 303..."
He unlocked the front door with the key. Chen Ge looked at the rather luxurious furniture inside and shook his head slightly. "I don't feel like I'm home at all. This doesn't seem like my home at all."
He tidied up the apartment a bit but didn't bother with dinner. He lay down on the bed with his bag clutched to his chest.
Night fell. Chen Ge didn't turn on the lights. He merged with the darkness, gazing through the window at the distant city skyline.
"There's very little in this home related to my parents. The few photos that exist don't reveal anything unusual, and I can't use them to piece together any clues." Chen Ge searched the entire apartment but found nothing useful. His only hope now was the cracked black phone.
He glanced back at the phone that was charging and realized it seemed to be broken — it wouldn't charge and wouldn't turn on.
"Dr. Sun said the treatment has only just begun, but I've already been discharged. Doesn't that mean the treatment is over?" Chen Ge sorted through everything he'd experienced at the hospital and drew up a plan for himself. "Tomorrow I'll visit my parents first, then go to that haunted house for an interview. If I want to live in this city, I need a job — that haunted house is perfect for me."
Drowsiness crept over him, and before he knew it, Chen Ge had fallen asleep.
The next morning shortly after eight, Chen Ge used certain information from his file to contact the police officer in charge of his parents' case — Li Sanbao.
The elderly officer was very warm-hearted. After learning about Chen Ge's situation, he personally took Chen Ge to visit his parents' graves.
"Your parents left very suddenly. At the time you were in a coma and not in your right mind, so I had to contact one of your parents' friends and ask him to handle the arrangements for you and your parents." Li Sanbao led Chen Ge to a cemetery in the outskirts of Xinhai and laid a bouquet of flowers in front of the gravestone.
Looking at the photo on the gravestone, Chen Ge slowly crouched down. All the strength drained from his body, and he collapsed to the ground.
Li Sanbao sighed softly and walked to a distance.
A few minutes later, Chen Ge rose from the ground. His expression had returned to normal. "Uncle Sanbao, who was the friend who helped out after my family's accident? I'd like to thank him in person."
"His name is Luo Jin. He was your parents' best friend, and he's a well-known real estate developer in Xinhai."
"Luo Jin?"
"Yes. Let me give you his phone number."
Seeing that Chen Ge was in very stable spirits, Li Sanbao was finally at ease. After leaving Chen Ge with Luo Jin's phone number and his own, he departed from the cemetery.