Mutated Tao

Chapter 597: Medicine

The patients were having their meal in the canteen. Li Huowang was there as well, but he had yet to touch his meal.

I thought Yi Donglai had already had a conversation with his junior. Did something go wrong? Staring at his meal, Li Huowang had lost his appetite as he recalled what Wu Cheng told him.

If it weren't for his sharp hearing, he would think that he had misheard Wu Cheng.

“I should just eat first and see what he's up to,” Li Huowang said, making quick work of his meal.

Lunch was over, and Li Huowang soon found himself in his bed, waiting for Wu Cheng's arrival.

He wanted to see what Wu Cheng was planning to do. If there was something wrong, then he'd call Yi Donglai for confirmation.

Time passed slowly, and the door to Li Huowang's room only swung open when it already was two thirty in the afternoon.

“Sorry. There was a meeting, so there's a bit of a delay,” Wu Cheng said, smoothening his hair with an apologetic face. There was a tablet in his hands.

“Don’t worry. Are we starting now? What do I need to do?”

“Don’t be nervous. You don’t have to do anything. It’s just speech therapy,” Wu Cheng asked. He sat on a stool and told Li Huowang to lay himself down on the bed.

Li Huowang complied.

"Do you miss the other side?" Wu Cheng asked.

Wu Cheng's words made Li Huowang's scalp go numb, and he unconsciously reached for his spine sword. “No.”

Wu Cheng nodded and tapped on the tablet, “Good. Now close your eyes and relax.”

“Good, good, good... Now, I want you to recall everything about your hallucination. I want you to remember how real it felt.”

“?”

“Now, you've forgotten the reality. You cannot perceive it anymore. You’ve returned to Shangjing.”

Li Huowang clenched his fists and squirmed. He felt like his head was buzzing and was about to explode.

“Open your eyes. You're back in that world, and you're surrounded by your comrades.”

Li Huowang opened his eyes and swung his “spine sword" at Wu Cheng. “What are you doing to me?!”

Wu Cheng was visibly surprised by Li Huowang’s outrage. He tapped on the tablet and said, “Li Huowang, this won’t do. You won’t pass the assessment like this.”

“Wu Cheng, what is the meaning of this?" Li Huowang stood up and glared at Wu Cheng." Why are you doing the opposite thing?”

“Because I needed to make sure that your illness has truly been cured. The fact that you've relapsed so easily means that you're still ill,” Wu Cheng said calmly.

“I'm cured! I don’t need any treatment anymore! I've become normal once more!”

Wu Cheng let out a regretful sigh and said, “Li Huowang, you're shouting at me. I had a good discussion about this treatment method with Yi Donglai.”

Li Huowang gnashed his teeth, feeling annoyed. “Give me your phone. I need to call Yi Donglai.”

“I’m afraid not. You cannot talk to anyone else in the outside world except for your family members, and it can only be done once a week. It's one of the hospital's rules.”

As Li Huowang stared at Wu Cheng, he realized that the latter had become very unfamiliar to him.

It felt like Wu Cheng had changed in the span of a single afternoon.

“Yi Donglai! Your senior! My doctor! Can’t I call him?”

“I’m sorry, but it is not allowed. Rules are rules. Sit down, and we'll continue. This is for your own good.”

“No! I'm not going to do that!” Li Huowang roared, “I'm cured! Your ‘treatment’ will only make it worse! I want to talk about the specifics of this 'treatment' with Yi Donglai, and I will not let you do this 'treatment' to me until then! I need to hear it from his own mouth, or I will not cooperate!"

Wu Cheng shook his head and said, “If you don’t cooperate, your discharge date will be delayed indefinitely.”

With that, Wu Cheng left with the tablet, leaving Li Huowang alone in the room. Li Huowang paced back and forth in the room, thinking about what was happening.

All of a sudden, he found Wu Cheng to be quite suspicious.

They had been talking amiably to each other, but things had changed drastically in such a short period of time. There was something wrong here.

“Unless... unless—Monk, you're right! Wu Cheng and Wang Wei are probably in cahoots!” Li Huowang exclaimed, and he was certain of his assumption.

Li Huowang suddenly felt like a beast was glaring at him, and it was due to the realization that Wang Wei wasn't alone!

Someone was controlling Wang Wei from the shadows!

What should I do? Killing intent flashed past Li Huowang's eyes as he brainstormed ideas to resolve this situation. No, I can’t! If I kill someone again, I'm going to get myself imprisoned for life in a mental hospital!

Li Huowang stared at the camera in one corner of the room.

Soon, it was dinner time.

Li Huowang had just sat down in the canteen when he realized that something was wrong.

The workers in the canteen were staring warily at him.

The man with manic syndrome saw that Li Huowang was sitting by himself, so he walked up to Li Huowang.

Before he could get close, however, a nurse came and took him elsewhere to discuss something.

Li Huowang guessed that the hospital's higher-ups had become wary of him. Unfortunately, this was bad news for Li Huowang.

After dinner and thirty minutes later, it was time for Li Huowang to take his medicine. However, alarm bells started ringing in his head when he saw an unfamiliar red pill among his pills.

He took the red pill and looked at it in the mirror. For some reason, he felt disgusted even though he was just staring at it.

Li Huowang's back was turned to the camera when he put the pills in his mouth and drank a glass of water.

The unfamiliar red pill was between his fingers. He went to the toilet and flushed it down.

Li Huowang then went back to his bed and closed his eyes. He started thinking about how he was supposed to deal with Wu Cheng.

Li Huowang knew that he had to do something about Wu Cheng. He was the doctor, after all, while Li Huowang was a mere patient. In other words, it would be too easy for Wu Cheng to screw over Li Huowang.

Bam!

The door to Li Huowang's room was shoved open, and six, large-framed nurses charged into the room.

“Get up! Why did you throw your medicine away?! You were supposed to take it!”