Chapter 646: Mental Patient

Hearing a noise from outside his door, Li Huowang shot up from bed, angrily flung his blanket aside, and strode menacingly towards the entrance.

As soon as the door opened, Li Huowang saw two men in patient gowns leaning against the wall, debating while eating snacks.

One of them was a man with a slicked-back hairstyle and plastic-framed glasses, who appeared refined. The crazy rambling Li Huowang had heard earlier in his room had come from this man. But Li Huowang didn't care about any of that; he just found this newcomer incredibly annoying, incessantly chattering away.

"Get away from here! It's only seven in the morning, what's all this noise about?"

"Hey, comrade! Don't interrupt me. Do you know what I'm doing? I'm fighting for essential rights for our special group!"

It must be said that for a normal person like himself, being confined with these mentally ill patients was truly a kind of torment. Just as he was about to say something more, his companion noticed the handcuffs on Li Huowang's wrist and quickly pulled him away.

Although the men had been driven off, Li Huowang's sleepiness was completely gone. He sighed and went back inside to put on his shoes.

He couldn't even vent his frustration on these confused patients; otherwise, the doctors would think he was having a relapse, putting his discharge even further out of reach.

With his shoes on, Li Huowang had nothing to do in the empty single room. He simply stood up and headed to the cafeteria for breakfast.

"Are you hungry, Suisui?" The breakfast at Mental Hospital B offered no surprises: steamed twisted rolls, plain steamed buns, and thin porridge.

Li Huowang took his tray and ate in a corner, calculating how much longer he would need to stay before being discharged. Wei Shili, who had bipolar disorder, had already been discharged, so it should be his turn next in the group. Just as Li Huowang was about to continue eating, having nothing else to do, he suddenly felt a tension in his back. When he turned his head, he saw Qian Fu, the patient with dissociative identity disorder, staring at him from a distance.

Seeing that Qian Fu was only staring and doing nothing else, Li Huowang ignored him and continued with his breakfast.

Living in a psychiatric hospital, one was bound to encounter such things; it was best to simply keep a calm mind.

With surveillance cameras everywhere, he figured the man wouldn't dare do anything out of line.

As for the things Qian Fu had said before, Li Huowang had long dismissed them. After all, no one would seriously ponder the words of a mentally ill stranger.

After breakfast, the patient support group, gathered in a circle, began again. Li Huowang truly didn't see the point of it.

If mental illness could be cured by mutual encouragement alone, why would they be taking medication day after day?

The plastic stool in the top-left corner was already empty. Li Huowang wasn't surprised, as Wei Shili had told him he was about to be discharged.

However, the stool belonging to Wang Wangsu, who had schizophrenia, was also empty, which puzzled him slightly.

"Sister Wang left too? Is she cured?" Li Huowang asked the depressed girl next to him.

Zhao Ting, looking a bit downcast, shook her head. "No, she's not cured. It's just that her husband stopped paying into the hospital account, so she was asked to leave."

"I shared a room with her. Sister Wang actually really wanted to stay, because her condition was gradually improving. But the doctor said the hospital isn't a charity; if there's no money, there's no treatment."

Hearing this, Li Huowang sighed softly. People outside often thought that if the gates of a psychiatric hospital were open, all the patients would eagerly run out, desperate to escape. But this wasn't actually the case. Any patient with even a slightly clearer mind knew they were ill and genuinely wanted to be completely cured.

There were even cases where patients, wanting to keep their illness from their families, brought their own clothes and admitted themselves alone. Only patients whose behavior was completely uncontrollable were forcibly brought in by orderlies, as seen in TV dramas.

Psychiatric patients were people too, no different from other sick individuals; it was just that the location of their illness was different.

And compared to escaping, they were more willing to be fully cured within the psychiatric hospital, to recover and leave as healthy, normal individuals.

However, reality was cruel. Hospitals also needed to make money, especially private ones. Without payment, even if doctors knew a patient's condition was not optimistic, they would be mercilessly asked to leave.

No money meant no treatment, and being ill meant no income. Many people fell into this vicious cycle, watching their condition gradually worsen until they eventually became completely disabled or insane.

To avoid adding to the depressed girl's psychological burden, Li Huowang comforted her: "Sister Wang's condition is okay, and her schizophrenia is only mild. As long as she keeps taking her medication, it will definitely stabilize. Don't worry about her."

As the two conversed, Li Huowang saw Wu Cheng approaching with two new patients.

One was the slick-haired man with glasses who had been outside his door earlier, and the other was a scrawny old man. "Good morning, everyone," Wu Cheng said. "Our group is down two members, so we've added two new people today. This elder here is Yuan Heping, and this gentleman is Wang Gang. Let's give them a round of applause."

The others clapped sparsely. Li Huowang didn't move, his mind busy trying to figure out how to pass this boring time.

As soon as the two sat down, Li Huowang saw the man with glasses looking him over. When Li Huowang turned to look at him, the man quickly averted his gaze.

"Alright, then, how about the two of you introduce yourselves first?"

As Li Huowang endured the torment, time slowly passed. It felt like an entire year before the long support group finally ended.

During this time, he received no help whatsoever. The only thing he learned was what illnesses the two newcomers had.

The old man had obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the man with glasses had schizophrenia—nothing out of the ordinary.

As people around him stood up and left with their stools, Li Huowang took a deep breath and rose. The torturous morning was finally over.

As he followed the others towards the cafeteria, preparing for lunch, a simple-looking man approached him. It was the patient with an intellectual disability whom he had met before.

"Brother, here, tasty," he said, holding a small package of Wangzai mini steamed buns.

Li Huowang reached out and took them. Just as he was about to say thank you, a figure darted past him from his left.

"Be careful! They've already arrived! Danger is approaching us," the person whispered urgently into Li Huowang's ear before quickly leaving.

Although Li Huowang only caught a glimpse of the back of the person's head, he recognized him as Qian Fu. Li Huowang frowned, stood still and thought for a moment, then finally shook his head and continued towards the cafeteria.