Chapter 1034: What Is Behind That Door (1)

Li Xiaofei stared blankly at his phone screen for a moment. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something familiar about the date.

"You're awake?" One of the young men playing chess turned to look at Li Xiaofei. He said, "You had another episode yesterday. You kept shouting, ‘This ending doesn’t make sense,’ and threw away your notebook. Nurse Tan said that you should take your medicine once you wake up so you can recover faster."

Li Xiaofei turned his head and saw a small plastic pillbox on the table. There were red, blue, and white tablets inside. He had no idea what the medication was for. He didn’t respond. Instead, he opened the drawer and took out a crumpled notebook. He flipped it open and began to read.

It contained a poorly written fantasy story. The protagonist's name was Li Xiaofei. The story mixed elements of transmigration, science fiction, and fantasy into a chaotic jumble. In the end, the protagonist was destined to triumph, and yet he still couldn’t defeat the final villain.

Li Xiaofei rubbed the center of his forehead. For some reason, he found himself really liking the story. It felt as if he had experienced it himself. He picked up a pen and wanted to continue writing, but his mind went completely blank. He couldn’t write a single word.

The ending had reached a dead end. He couldn’t see how the protagonist was supposed to win. All of the protagonist’s teammates were already dead. His opponent seemed to be an undying demonic entity. Even after burning himself up, the protagonist still hadn’t been able to stand against that terrifying foe.

Li Xiaofei stared at the notebook. Countless ideas swirled through his mind, but even after more than an hour, he still couldn’t put pen to paper. There was no hope.

Even in a fantasy novel where the dead could be resurrected, there was no believable way for the protagonist to win this fight unless he resorted to a deus ex machina. But Li Xiaofei felt that this story shouldn’t end that way.

He looked at the notebook in front of him. Thousands of thoughts flashed through his mind. For a brief moment, he even considered just casually writing about the villain’s death. As long as the protagonist won, it didn’t matter how. But for some reason, a voice in his head kept telling him that it wasn’t allowed.

He couldn’t write it that way. Absolutely not. No. No! Time slowly slipped by as this silent inner conflict raged on. For some reason, even the sound of Ye Qing and Hao Ding playing chess nearby seemed to fade away from Li Xiaofei’s mind.

Suddenly, the door to the ward swung open. A slim and elegant young nurse, Tan Qingying, stepped inside. After a quick round of checks, she walked over to Li Xiaofei’s bedside.

Glancing at the pillbox on the table, the pretty young nurse said softly, "Writer Li, why haven’t you taken your medicine yet? You need to take it on time so you can recover and get discharged sooner."

Li Xiaofei continued to stare at his notebook without responding. But Tan Qingying remained patient and gentle. She said, "Once you’ve taken your medicine and gotten better, you’ll be able to write even better stories."

Li Xiaofei looked up at her. He felt as though he had seen this girl somewhere before. There was also a strange sense of warm, yet inexplicable familiarity. So he glanced at the pillbox beside him, hesitated for a moment, then opened it. He poured all the pills into his palm and swallowed them in one go.

Nurse Tan kindly handed him a glass of water. Li Xiaofei took the cup, drank it all down, and returned it to her. The eyes of the two young men playing chess widened in surprise when they saw this.

"He actually took it without a fuss?"

"Isn’t this the first time Writer Li’s taken his meds obediently?"

They exchanged glances.

Nurse Tan smiled brightly, clapping her hands like she was praising a child. "Wonderful! Keep it up. If you cooperate with the treatment like this, you’ll be discharged in no time."

As she spoke, she measured Li Xiaofei’s blood pressure and heart rate, then pushed her cart out of the room.

Li Xiaofei remained slouched against the hospital bed, holding the old, tattered notebook. He read through the story again and again, but he only found it increasingly absurd. He wanted to write a proper ending and complete the story, but no matter how he tried, it always fell short of what he hoped for. He added a line in the notebook, but a few minutes later, crossed it out completely.

"It still won’t work."

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

He set the notebook down and turned his head. Taking advantage of a moment when the others weren’t paying attention, he opened his mouth and quietly spat out the pills he had supposedly swallowed.

Yes. He hadn’t actually taken the medication earlier. To avoid being discovered, he didn’t throw the pills into the trash. Instead, he slipped them into his pockets.

"When do we get fresh air?" Li Xiaofei looked over at the two young men beside him.

"Fresh air?"

"There isn’t any."

"We’re only allowed to move around inside the ward. Leaving the room counts as a violation."

"Writer Li, just cooperate with the treatment, okay?"

The two of them spoke like they were reciting a practiced routine. Li Xiaofei said nothing. He lay back on the bed and emptied his thoughts.

Time passed and he fell asleep. During that time, a few nurses and doctors came by and peered into the room several times. When they saw that Li Xiaofei was sound asleep and not even twitching a finger, they finally left.

Another half hour went by. The two young men who had been playing chess were now asleep in their own beds. The room was filled with soft snoring.

Li Xiaofei’s eyes suddenly opened. He climbed out of bed as silently as possible, careful not to make a sound. He crept barefoot out of the room. He glanced both ways down the corridor, and once he was sure no one was around, he quickly moved toward the door at the end of the hall.

It was noon. A milky white, sacred light shone from the gap beneath the door, as if a blazing sun directly overhead were casting its rays right onto the door’s surface. The golden light pulled at Li Xiaofei. His heart pounded furiously. He reached the door and gave it a gentle tug. It didn’t budge an inch.

Li Xiaofei pulled a toothbrush and a thin piece of wire out of his pocket. He slid the wire through the crack beneath the door and began fiddling with it. If the door was merely latched from the outside, then there was indeed a chance he could unlock it with this makeshift tool.

His heartbeat grew faster and faster. He didn’t know why, but he had a strong feeling that all his doubts and questions would finally be answered if he could just open this door.

Open it!

Li Xiaofei’s hands moved with increasing speed. But just then, shouts, exclamations, and footsteps rang out behind him.

"Patient number twenty-five is trying to escape again!"

"Catch him!"

"Hurry, he’s picking the lock!"

"I told you we should’ve increased the dosage! Didn’t he take his meds?"

A swarm of people came rushing in.

The doctors and nurses were furious. In the end, Li Xiaofei didn’t manage to open the door before he was seized. The doctors carried him back to the ward and strapped him down to the hospital bed. They also retrieved the spit-out pills from his pants pocket.

Then, they shoved an increased dosage into his mouth. A nurse pinched his nose, poured in water, and force-fed him until they were certain he had swallowed every last pill. After that, they gave him a tranquilizer shot.

Li Xiaofei sank into a heavy sleep. Silence returned to the ward. The two young men on the side looked at the unconscious Li Xiaofei and smiled.

"Sleep, sleep... Once you wake up next time, you’ll finally know who you really are."

"Heh... sleep tight."