The dopey grin on Wang Shenglong's face had long since vanished. He scrubbed the words off his drawing board, and a flash of pain flickered through his small eyes, barely visible beneath the rolls of fat.
"We're all monsters?"
Hearing the commotion inside the bedroom, Dr. Gao and Wang Shenglong's family all rushed over. "Chen Ge, what happened?"
"I slipped and accidentally hit the door." Chen Ge rubbed his back and stood up.
"Is it serious? I have some red flower oil at home." Wang Shenglong's elderly father didn't question Chen Ge's explanation and turned to head into the living room to look for the oil. Dr. Gao, standing nearby, seemed to sense something off. He glanced at the perfectly flat carpet on the floor but said nothing.
"It's nothing, don't go to any trouble." Dr. Gao helped Chen Ge to his feet, and he stepped out of the bedroom. Things were not going smoothly at all. Wang Shenglong had kept the biggest secret hidden from everyone. On the surface he was cooperating with treatment, but in reality he was misdirecting them all, concealing the true cause of his condition.
Why would Wang Shenglong do this? Did he have his own reasons?
Chen Ge clearly remembered the expression on Wang Shenglong's face when he'd written that sentence — helpless, anguished, and above all, he simply didn't want to change.
Rolling his shoulders, Chen Ge suddenly realized that Wang Shenglong's strength was far greater than that of an ordinary adult.
"This guy looks harmless enough, but he's actually dangerous."
Wang Shenglong refused to tell him the truth, and with the man's father and brother standing right there, Chen Ge couldn't resort to force. And even if he did, he might not win.
After turning it over in his mind, Chen Ge had no choice but to pull Dr. Gao aside and leave, hoping to enlist the doctor's help in uncovering the secret hidden within Wang Shenglong.
Wang Shenglong's father saw them to the door. As the two sides exchanged contact information, Chen Ge caught a glimpse from a distance of Wang Shenglong, looking dejected in the bedroom, picking up his drawing board once more.
He seemed to know Chen Ge was peeking. After scribbling a few quick strokes, he held the board upright, aimed at the doorway.
"What did he draw?"
Several small figures sat inside a room. Perched on the shoulders of the shortest figure was a monster, bending forward to survey its surroundings, as if preparing to leap onto the other figures.
"Is this a hint for me?"
Chen Ge memorized the drawing and left Wang Shenglong's rented apartment with Dr. Gao. After heading downstairs, they entered Room 304 and prepared to pick up
"Dr. Gao, do you think there's something seriously wrong with Wang Shenglong?" Chen Ge closed the apartment door and, once he'd confirmed the Wang brothers hadn't followed them, spoke up.
"There is something abnormal about him." Dr. Gao spread out Men Nan's bedsheet and bundled the quilt and mattress pad inside. "Based on his father's description, this boy's condition should be quite severe. But when I questioned him, the results told me he has no psychological disorders whatsoever — he has a positive outlook, clear logic, and all of that stands in sharp contrast to that vacant smile on his face. Someone with sharp thinking wouldn't be unable to manage their own facial expressions. I can say with certainty that he's hiding something from me. This patient is clever and very good at concealing his true thoughts, but he's being a bit too deliberate about it."
Chen Ge hadn't expected Dr. Gao to have noticed as well. "That's the professional touch for you. But if you've already figured it out, why not confront his father directly? That would make treatment easier."
"How you handle the relationship between a patient's family and the doctor — that's an art. Don't be fooled by how polite his father was to us today. If something were really wrong, he'd side with his own child in a heartbeat, and then getting close to Wang Shenglong would become even harder." Dr. Gao carried the bundled bedding out of the room. "Come help me pack Men Nan's books and notebooks from the drawer into a box — those things are important to him."
Chen Ge stepped into the bedroom and pulled the books from the drawer one by one. Just as the drawer was nearly empty, he suddenly noticed a photograph tucked into the very bottom layer.
A woman in a hospital gown lay on a hospital bed. Beside her stood a shy, bashful little boy.