Su Yang sent a car from the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau to take Bai Liu and the others to the nursing home. He had already coordinated with the person in charge ahead of time, so the moment Bai Liu’s group arrived, the director hurried out to meet them and personally led them inside.

The nursing home was somewhat old, but the landscaping was well maintained. Four buildings surrounded a small garden at the center, trimmed and cared for with great attention. The building tucked into the quietest corner had clearly been built to a higher standard than the rest. Beside its main entrance ran a long, narrow pond filled with lotus flowers and swimming fish, making the place look far better kept than the other buildings.

“The patient in Room 906 lives in the innermost building.”

The nursing home director led Bai Liu through the small garden, giving a brisk explanation as they walked. “There are two hospitals nearby that work with us. Their wards are often short on space, and the environment there isn’t especially comfortable or roomy.”

“Some patients with better financial circumstances don’t want to stay in a hospital ward. If they’re willing to pay our accommodation fees, they can transfer here to recover in the nursing home.”

“The patient in Room 906 was transferred here for that exact reason.”

The director continued, “His doctor told me that his condition isn’t urgent, and there are no organic lesions involved. It’s purely a psychological issue.”

“The doctor said the patient rejects what happened one week ago, as well as his previous memories. That’s why he’s unwilling to remember. Medication has very limited effect on him. He needs a long period of physical and psychological recuperation in a more relaxed environment, so he was referred to us.”

At this point, the director lifted his head and looked toward the building half hidden behind the trees. His expression grew complicated.

“But for this patient, being able to forget everything might actually be a kind of blessing.”

Bai Liu looked at him. “Long-term recovery in a place like this must be expensive. Who’s paying for him?”

“He is,” the director replied. “The patient in Room 906 has no parents or relatives left. He inherited a large estate, enough to support him here for several decades.”

“He has a bank card specifically used to pay our fees. We simply deduct the amount from it every month.”

“And he seems to have some kind of business of his own. I don’t know the details, but it seems to be related to online games. A large sum of money enters that bank account every week, but when we ask where the money comes from, the patient in Room 906 is confused too. He says he doesn’t remember.”

The director explained, “Because this patient can only remember what happened within the past week, he has never been able to explain where the money from the previous week came from.”

Bai Liu nodded in understanding.

Once a week. That frequency clearly matched the points Du Sanying earned in the game being converted into money and transferred into the account.

The director brought Bai Liu and the others into the elevator. “Because the patient only has one week of memory, his cognition has issues, and he is extremely frightened of his surroundings. When you meet him, please try to remain quiet and friendly. Don’t scare him.”

The elevator reached the ninth floor. The director led Bai Liu’s group down the corridor, turned a corner, and stopped in front of Room 906.

A strange clicking chirp came from inside the room.

“Someone’s here! Someone’s here!”

Mu Shicheng looked puzzled. “Is that... a bird?”

“Oh! I nearly forgot!” The director slapped his forehead before opening the door, then turned to Bai Liu apologetically. “I forgot to tell you. The patient in Room 906 keeps a parrot.”

“???” Mu Shicheng’s head was full of question marks. “Why the hell is he keeping a parrot?”

The director explained, “Because the patient in Room 906 only has one week of memory, he often wants to record what he did the week before. However, to prevent patients from harming themselves, our nursing home does not provide psychiatric patients with sharp objects, so we cannot give him a pen.”

“So he raised a parrot and taught it certain key phrases to remind himself of what he did one week earlier.”

Mu Shicheng was utterly baffled. “Don’t you provide electronic devices? Like a phone? Just let him use the notes app.”

“We do provide them.” The director spread his hands helplessly. “But after a week, this patient forgets his own unlock password. He doesn’t remember any information at all.”

Mu Shicheng: “...”

The director said helplessly, “We are a professional nursing home. We are not permitted to help patients record any information related to passwords. That would involve an invasion of privacy.”

“And if we force the phone open, all the original data inside will be erased. We also suggested voice recorders, electronic drawing boards, and other devices, but after the patient in Room 906 loses his memory, his recognition of his own voice and drawings also declines. He can’t believe those things were recorded by himself a week earlier.”

“Compared with electronic devices like those, the patient trusts his pet more.”

The director sighed. “Originally, we didn’t allow parrots either. But after consulting his doctor, the doctor believed that keeping a pet might improve his cognitive condition, so in the end, we had no choice but to agree.”

“But the parrot isn’t kept indoors. It hangs outside on the balcony, so it’s fine.”

After finishing his explanation, the director knocked lightly on the door. “Excuse me, may I come in?”

The room was quiet for a long time before the parrot gave a strange yet polite answer.

“Please come in.”

The director pushed the door open.

The ward was empty. The balcony window stood open, and the screen door fluttered in the wind. The parrot stood reservedly on one leg on its perch, but there was no one on the bed, nor in the open bathroom.

Mu Shicheng turned his head from side to side. “??? Where is he?”

Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi’s gazes stopped at the edge of the bed.

As though used to this, the director sighed, then knelt and looked under the bed. His voice became soft and gentle.

“Mr. Du Sanying, don’t be afraid. We aren’t bad people. We only came to see you.”

Mu Shicheng °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° bent down in disbelief. Sure enough, just as he had suspected, Du Sanying was actually hiding under the bed.

The thin young man was curled up in a corner, clutching his blanket and pillow. Half his face was hidden, and his knees were drawn tightly to his chest in a posture starved of security. He peeked out from the edge of the quilt with only one eye, his glasses pushed all the way up toward his eyebrows.

“I don’t know you,” Du Sanying said in a tiny voice.

He shrank back a little farther, clearly having no intention of coming out easily.

The director rubbed his forehead with a headache.

Bai Liu bowed slightly to thank him. “Sorry to trouble you. Could we have a moment to speak with him alone?”

The director nodded helplessly. “Call me if anything happens. Don’t frighten him too much. His memory should have only just reset recently.”

After the director left, Mu Shicheng’s eyes lit up. He rolled up his sleeves and prepared to reach under the bed and drag Du Sanying out.

Back then, Du Sanying had relied on that outrageous luck of his to suppress him, snatching away quite a few of his spoils while always wearing an innocent expression. Mu Shicheng still remembered that grudge very clearly.

Although he did think this guy was rather pitiful, since Du Sanying was putting on such a pitiful “please bully me” expression, Mu Shicheng felt he would be doing himself a disservice if he didn’t mess with him a little.

However, the instant Mu Shicheng reached under the bed, Du Sanying cried out in fright.

“Ah!”

There was a loud crash as the bed collapsed. One corner snapped, and the bed frame landed precisely on Mu Shicheng’s hand.

The IV stand beside the bed also tilted, looking as if it was about to stab straight into Mu Shicheng’s throat.

Tang Erda moved quickly and steadied the stand.

Mu Shicheng let out a miserable scream and yanked his hand back at once, hopping in place while blowing on his red, swollen palm.

He stared at the suddenly broken iron-railed bed in horror. “This damn thing can just break like that?!”

Liu Jiayi’s eyes filled with pity. “Du Sanying has one hundred percent luck. Did you really think you could forcibly drag someone like that out from under a bed?”

She glanced at the bed. “As long as he doesn’t want to come out himself, even if an earthquake buried all of us here today, Du Sanying would still be the one safe and sound under that bed.”

Mu Shicheng shook his red, swollen hand in speechless anger. “Then why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

Liu Jiayi glanced sideways at him. “I needed to verify it, and you seemed so enthusiastic.”

Mu Shicheng: “...”

Not a single smart person was a good person.

Bai Liu crouched down. With his hands resting on his knees, he looked calmly at the terrified Du Sanying under the bed. After a slight pause, he gripped the bed frame without hesitation and slid underneath.

“!!!” Du Sanying kicked his legs frantically in fright, trying to hide even deeper. “Don’t come over! You’ll get hurt!”

Bai Liu lay down steadily beside him, then turned his head and smiled faintly at Du Sanying.

“So the reason you hide under the bed and refuse to see anyone isn’t because you’re timid, but because you’re afraid the people who come close to you will get hurt. Right?”

Du Sanying stared blankly into Bai Liu’s black eyes. Slowly, as though shaken by something beyond his understanding, he loosened the thick blanket wrapped around him. He looked Bai Liu up and down in disbelief and stammered,

“You... you’re okay?”

Bai Liu extended a friendly hand. “Perhaps I should say this is our first meeting. My name is Bai Liu.”

“A game player you once met.”

Du Sanying stared at Bai Liu for a while. After seemingly confirming that Bai Liu really would not be hurt by approaching him, he tentatively reached out one finger, tapped Bai Liu’s palm very lightly, then immediately withdrew it and answered in a soft voice.

“Apparently, my name is Du Ying. That’s what it says on the patient card at the head of my bed.”

Bai Liu did not withdraw his hand. Instead, he turned fully toward Du Sanying and moved a little closer, speaking in a soft, warm voice with a faint smile.

“You helped me once. Can we go out and talk?”

Du Sanying studied Bai Liu suspiciously for a long time. After confirming that the person approaching him really was unharmed, he hesitantly placed his hand in Bai Liu’s palm.

“O-okay.”

Following the force of Du Sanying placing his hand in his, Bai Liu pulled him out. He pushed aside the already collapsed bed and drew Du Sanying straight out from underneath it.

Once he was out, Du Sanying subconsciously put distance between himself and Bai Liu. He turned his face away uncomfortably, hugged his chest with both hands, hunched his shoulders, and tucked his head down. His whole body was tense, assuming a posture of strong resistance toward the outside world.

It was obvious he had not communicated with anyone for quite some time.

Bai Liu followed his lead and gave him space, retreating to a distance that made Du Sanying feel less restrained. Then he said, “This isn’t actually our first meeting, but you probably don’t remember me. We met in a game, and you helped me quite a lot.” 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Du Sanying turned to face Bai Liu, his eyes widening in surprise. “I... helped you?”

Bai Liu smiled. “Yes. You helped me a great deal. This time, I came because I also want to ask for your help.”

“I hope you’ll lend me a hand for the sake of our past friendship.”

Du Sanying’s eyes went round. “You’re... my friend?”

“Of course.” Bai Liu casually constructed an identity for himself. He looked at Du Sanying with a faint smile, as though reminiscing. “If you hadn’t forgotten me back then and ignored me, I definitely would have followed you and kept playing games with you.”

Bai Liu lowered his eyes, seemingly lonely, and sighed with regret. “Unfortunately, after we enjoyed one game together, you forgot me. After that, we never had the chance to meet again.”

“We originally had the chance to become soulmates.”

Mu Shicheng: “Pfft!!”

Goddamn soulmates!

Did he mean the kind of soulmate where he took the other person’s soul?!

Du Sanying felt terribly apologetic for having forgotten his own soulmate. Flustered, he lowered his hands, rubbed them against the seams of his hospital pants, and quietly peeked at Bai Liu.

“I’m sorry...” Du Sanying’s face flushed slightly with shame. “Bai Liu, I forgot you. I don’t even remember what games we played...”

The parrot on the balcony heard a certain keyword. Like a wind-up repeating toy that had been triggered, it puffed up its feathers, flapped its wings hard, clicked its tongue, and screeched in a shrill voice,

“Bai Liu! Bai Liu! Bad person! Bad person! If you meet him, run away! Run away!”

Du Sanying: “...”

Bai Liu: “...”

Tang Erda: “...”

Liu Jiayi: “...”

Mu Shicheng: “Pfft—!!!”

—

Author’s Note:

Mu Shicheng: I’m dying. Parrot stew.