After roughly ten minutes, his arms folded inward again, preparing to push his upper body up.
After failing several times in a row, Men Nan, who had been lying face-down on the bed, finally sat up.
His eyes were almost entirely taken over by the whites. He sat on the edge of the bed, his head hanging slightly downward.
"Dr. Gao, is he awake?"
Dr. Gao and
"Probably not." Dr. Gao motioned for Chen Ge to step back. The two of them pressed themselves against the wall, trying not to touch Men Nan.
"Could this be sleepwalking?" It was Chen Ge's first time witnessing anything this eerie.
"Sleepwalking is a common sleep disorder. If it were just sleepwalking, his pupils wouldn't have changed like this."
The two spoke in hushed voices. Men Nan sat at the edge of the bed for a while, then, without any warning, slowly stood up.
"Should we wake him?" Chen Ge had originally planned to rouse Men Nan the moment he started acting abnormally, but what Men Nan was doing now had gone far beyond mere abnormality.
"Not advisable. Waking him abruptly could agitate his already fragile nerves." Dr. Gao paused, then added, "I've been watching his face this whole time. His facial muscles haven't shown any significant changes. Even if we're going to wake him, we should wait until his emotions show some kind of fluctuation."
The two retreated out of the bedroom and observed from outside.
Men Nan stayed by the bed for a few minutes, then slowly turned to face the living room.
With his head down, three-quarters of his open eyes nothing but white, he stepped out of the bedroom.
"What is he doing?" Chen Ge nudged Dr. Gao lightly.
"I once treated a child with a sleepwalking habit. The kid had a mild obsessive-compulsive disorder — every night before bed, he had to smooth out the four corners of his blanket over a dozen times. Once he fell asleep, he'd sleepwalk, suddenly get up in the middle of the night, smooth the blanket's corners flat again, then go back to bed." Dr. Gao stared at Men Nan with a worried expression. "That kind of sleepwalker who goes back to bed on his own is the better scenario. The scary ones are those who lose all control."
After walking out of the bedroom, Men Nan didn't hesitate or pause. He headed straight for the bathroom.
As soon as the wooden door swung open, the mirror was right in front of him. No need to turn — he walked directly up to it.
He reached out and turned the faucet. Almost immediately, the sound of rushing water filled the bathroom.
"Is he… going to wash his hair?"
Chen Ge glanced at Dr. Gao, who looked equally startled. "Don't look at me. This is a first for me too."
The sound of the water changed. Chen Ge and Dr. Gao hurried to the bathroom doorway.
Standing at the sink, Men Nan bent forward in an agonizingly slow motion.
His head hung down. Chen Ge and Dr. Gao could already see his inverted face, and even now his eyes remained wide open, nothing but whites showing.
His hair made contact with the water, and for the first time Men Nan's expression shifted. His skin quivered faintly, as though he had just seen something utterly horrifying.
Chen Ge felt deeply uncomfortable under that gaze. He turned and glanced behind him. The rental apartment was empty.
"Could it be that he's seeing something in his dream, and reality and the dream are synchronized in this moment?" Men Nan had once said his dream had reached its final stage — that man who had entered from outside was now standing right beside him.
With his hair soaked through, Men Nan deftly grabbed the shampoo bottle and squeezed a generous amount onto his head. His hands kneaded his hair in stiff, mechanical motions, but his eyes remained fixed, unblinking, on some invisible point ahead.