Chapter 687: Methods

In the men's restroom of Kangning Hospital, Li Huowang, breathing heavily, put his head under the faucet, letting the icy cold water wash over him.

"Ji Zai... Ji Zai! You are Ji Zai!"

Qian Fu's voice echoed in his ears again, and Li Huowang closed his eyes in pain.

His head ached, a crushing pain that felt like his skull was being pulverized. Only under the cold tap water did he feel a hint of warmth.

Li Huowang lifted his head from the sink. Through his drenched hair, he looked at his reflection in the mirror, looking like a drowned rat, with a face that seemed increasingly unfamiliar.

"What is Ji Zai? Isn't Ji Zai the fake name Zhuge Yuan gave me in my hallucination? Why did he call me Ji Zai? Could it be that world over there..."

Some lost memories began to surface, making Li Huowang's head ache even more. He put his head back under the faucet, letting the cold water continuously flow over him.

When Li Huowang lifted his head again, he saw a bizarre sight: his reflection in the mirror did not lift with him. Instead, it remained bent over, its head still under the faucet, letting the cold water rinse the back of its head.

Fear gradually welled up in Li Huowang's eyes. It wasn't just that his reflection wasn't moving with him; it was because the back of his reflection's head remarkably resembled the front, with an identical Li Huowang face on both sides.

"Gasp!" Li Huowang gasped in fright, backing away several steps. When he looked at the mirror again, he found it normal, with nothing but a terrified Li Huowang staring back. It must have just been an illusion.

'What's going on? Could it be that the other world is real, and everything here is...?' An inexplicable fear surged in his heart, making Li Huowang instinctively want to hold onto something.

But soon, a surge of anger rose in Li Huowang's heart, quickly consuming the fear. "Damn it! Trying to trick me again, are you?! I've fallen for this several times already! I don't believe it! I'm crazy, not stupid!"

Since Qian Fu had read Yi Donglai's thesis, learning the name Ji Zai from it didn't mean anything at all.

Moreover, since Yi Donglai could cure him and keep him from relapsing for so long, it was sufficient proof that these were just hallucinations caused by his illness. That was enough.

With growing fury, Li Huowang suddenly clenched his right hand into a fist and smashed it hard against the mirror. Seeing his reflection shatter into pieces, he finally felt a little better.

"How unlucky! I really shouldn't come to this place too often. The problem isn't solved, and I almost got tricked by that lunatic Qian Fu again!"

Li Huowang placed his hand, covered in glass shards, under the faucet, quickly washing away the blood. As he painstakingly removed the broken glass piece by piece, his thoughts returned to Qian Fu.

Regardless of what this guy called him, one thing was certain: he wanted Li Huowang's help.

This madman wanted him to rescue him, promising that once he was out, he would help Li Huowang deal with those who were monitoring and kidnapping him.

"Should I... or shouldn't I do it?" Li Huowang hesitated. Qian Fu was a madman; it was hard to say how much of what he said was true.

But no matter how crazy he was, the threats against Li Huowang were undeniably real.

And they would continue to act. If Li Huowang didn't find a way to deal with them, he would never have peace.

"Could it be that if Qian Fu gets out, he really can help me? Perhaps his insane ramblings are just a facade, and I need to see through to his true nature..."

"What the hell! What happened here?! What did you do?" A man's surprised voice rang out from behind him.

Li Huowang turned and saw a bewildered orderly who had just entered the restroom, staring at the cracked mirror and his bleeding hand.

"You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask? How can your hospital's mirrors be so poor quality! I was just washing my hands, and it suddenly exploded!" Li Huowang retorted indignantly, making a strong case for himself.

The restroom mirror had exploded, and it had injured a patient's hand—a cascade of trivial matters.

Fortunately, a psychiatric hospital was still a hospital, making first aid and bandaging convenient.

By the time Li Huowang's hand was bandaged and tucked into his pocket, and he walked out of Kangning Hospital with Yang Na, he had made up his mind: he would rescue Qian Fu.

No matter how unreliable or crazy Qian Fu seemed, or how disjointed his words were, the fact that those people had tried to put needles in his food and drive a wedge between him and Qian Fu at least indicated one thing: they were on the same side.

If the opponents wanted to stop it, then Li Huowang had to do it. Perhaps there would be an unexpected gain.

However, helping a mentally ill person escape from a psychiatric hospital was a challenge. The only comforting fact was that Qian Fu was just a severe psychiatric patient and had not committed murder.

"Huowang! Look at the sky. The weather is so nice today, not a cloud in sight."

Hearing Yang Na's words, Li Huowang looked up at the clear blue sky. The warm sunlight on his face made him feel warm and comfortable, and his earlier troubled mood improved.

Then, Li Huowang found his thoughts in the restroom amusing. How could such a real existence be false?

"Yes, the weather is good today. It's a shame it's not like this every day," Li Huowang said, walking toward the rideshare car waiting at the hospital entrance.

Although he didn't know who was monitoring him or what they wanted, Li Huowang was now full of fighting spirit. If someone wanted to deal with him, he had to fight back. No matter who they were!

The rideshare car started, and along the way, Li Huowang's mind was consumed with how, given his current situation, he could rescue his mentally ill ally, Qian Fu.

Based on his past experiences, trying to discreetly release a severely mentally ill patient from a psychiatric hospital without alerting anyone seemed almost impossible.

However, just as they arrived at the neighborhood entrance, his past observations sparked an idea.

The matter was both difficult and simple. Kangning Hospital was a private hospital. As long as he found a way to cut off Qian Fu's medical expenses, he wouldn't need to do much; the hospital itself would simply discharge Qian Fu.

"Xiao Li, you're back? How was your follow-up visit?" Seeing Li Huowang return, Auntie Qi breathed a sigh of relief.

Looking at the old woman wearing a red armband, Li Huowang thought for a moment and then said to her, "Auntie Qi, I need to go to the hospital again tomorrow."

"Again? Why this time?"

"I'm almost out of medicine. I need to get more. I tend to relapse if I don't take my medicine."