Qingshan Hospital, 11:30 PM.

Old Liu, the doctor on duty tonight, had just poured himself another cup of strong tea when the door was kicked open with a bang.

“What are you all doing?” Old Liu shouted angrily.

“Er Dao, hold him down.”

“Hold him down where?”

“On the table.”

Er Dao strode quickly to Old Liu’s front. With a thud, he pressed Old Liu’s head onto the table. Half of his face burned with pain.

Pao Ge pushed Chen Shuo and Wang Hui Ling inside, walking calmly into the ward. “Chen Shuo, confess. You took his fifty thousand yuan and conspired to lock up his grand-nephew in a mental hospital?”

Old Liu roared angrily, “Help! Help! Someone is causing trouble in the hospital!”

The sound of urgent footsteps echoed in the corridor, but Pao Ge didn’t panic at all. He just took off his Tang suit, slowly rolled up his shirt sleeves, exposing a full arm of tattoos and muscles.

A primitive beast’s face was revealed, and then everyone he stared at would cherish their lives.

The moment two male nurses appeared at the door, Pao Ge slightly tilted his body to the right, avoiding an incoming punch. The next second, he landed a thunderous hook punch on one male nurse’s jaw, making him go stiff.

Before the other male nurse could react, Pao Ge, like a jaguar, flashed in front of him and struck his jaw with another hook punch!

“Too weak.”

Only after his words fell, two thuds were heard. The two male nurses fell to the ground like logs and fainted.

Pao Ge turned around and looked at Old Liu, who was pressed onto the table. “Anyone else?”

“No… no one else.”

“Can you talk properly now?”

“Yes! Yes!”

“Alright, the three of you squat in a row,” Pao Ge pulled over a chair and sat down, crossing his legs. “Does Chen Ji have a mental illness or not?”

“No, no,” Old Liu said. “His brain circuit is a little abnormal, with mild violent tendencies and depressive tendencies, but not really an illness.”

Pao Ge lit a cigarette. “Strange. Since he predicted all your actions in advance, why did you still manage to get him in?”

“He wanted to use you to get revenge on us!”

Pao Ge shook his head. “That’s not right. Since he specifically came to me for a loan, he must know what I do. Then he could have just given me the money and had both of you’s legs broken. Why bother getting himself into a mental hospital?”

Chen Shuo: “…”

Pao Ge suddenly asked, “Did you two harm his parents to death?”

Chen Shuo was on the verge of tears. “His parents died in a car accident. The hit-and-run driver has been found. It has nothing to do with us.”

Pao Ge motioned for Chen Shuo to extend his hand, then flicked cigarette ash onto his palm. “A seventeen-year-old child’s parents just passed away half a year ago, and you, his uncle and aunt, plotted against his house. You’re truly terrible. And you, doctor, you old man must have done this kind of thing before, right?”

Old Liu quickly said, “I’ve never harmed anyone before. Those patients I handled came to me voluntarily to get diagnosis certificates because they committed crimes and didn’t want to go to prison.”

“Oh?” Pao Ge seemed lost in thought. “What kind of crimes did those people commit?”

“The most recent one was a gangster named Wang Long, who does earthwork business. Half a year ago, he hit and killed a couple while driving…” Old Liu stopped speaking and suddenly lifted his head in terror, looking at Pao Ge.

With a chuckle, Pao Ge casually extinguished the cigarette butt on Chen Shuo’s palm. A pained cry echoed down the corridor.

Pao Ge put on his black Tang suit and grabbed Old Liu’s thinning hair, walking him outside. “I know why he had to go into the mental hospital. Harming a child like this, you all are truly lacking in virtue. Er Dao, give them a lesson to remember. I’m taking this doctor to the sixth floor. I know Wang Long, he’s not easy to deal with.”

Chen Shuo’s body shook like a sieve. “This is a hospital! There are monitors! You can’t commit violence here!”

Er Dao scratched the scar on his bald head. “Pao Ge, execute immediately?”

“Repeatedly execute.”

…

…

Snoring sounds filled the ward one after another. Chen Ji lay on his bed, eyes wide open, staring silently at the ceiling.

He discovered that the dreams in a mental hospital were especially numerous and especially difficult to understand.

In a daze, he seemed to return to his childhood, hearing the clang-clang sound of the green-skinned train starting.

Chen Ji was weak and often ill as a child, and he always heard shouting and killing in his dreams. His father then often took him to the capital to see doctors.

When they had no money, the two would just buy standing tickets on the green-skinned train.

They would sit in the empty space between two carriages. When Chen Ji was tired, he would sleep in his father’s arms for a while. When he was hungry, his father would take out instant noodles from his backpack, line up to get hot water, and then hold it in his hand for him to eat first.

When he woke up, Chen Ji would lie on the train door glass, full of questions, asking strange things non-stop, and his father would answer tirelessly.

Later, when he was 12 years old and his illness was cured, his father also earned money from business and bought a villa.

On summer nights, his mother would teach him to use a flashlight to find cicadas that had just broken through the soil in the courtyard. After soaking them in salt water, they would fry them to eat.

During the New Year, his mother would take Chen Ji to cut window flowers, paste spring couplets, and steam good-looking flower-shaped steamed buns.

On his sickbed, Chen Ji was in a daze, gently wiping away tears with his fingers.

Li Qingniao came to his bedside at some point. “Now, if you sell me one thing, I can answer another question for you.”

Chen Ji’s eyes were empty yet profound. “What do you want to buy?”

“A cicada.”

“How old?”

“A twelve-year-old cicada.”

“Not selling.”

Just then, a painful cry from Chen Shuo echoed from downstairs, resounding through the hospital.

There was no time left.

Chen Ji flipped over and jumped out of bed. He took a dagger from the strap inside his thigh, threw down the sheath, and ran towards a certain spot in the ward.

He was a little scared, afraid of what he was about to do, and also afraid of the consequences.

But he had no other choice.

Wang Long, who hit and killed a man and a woman while drunk driving and fled, causing the victims to die due to delayed treatment. The next day, Wang Long surrendered to the police station, but had already obtained a diagnosis certificate from Qingshan Mental Hospital in advance. The court originally wanted to review the diagnosis certificate, but Wang Long’s family gathered more than sixty earthwork drivers to cause trouble at the court. In the end, nothing happened, and Wang Long escaped judgment and moved into Qingshan Hospital.

But how could you escape judgment?

Chen Ji quietly and silently came to Wang Long’s bedside and stabbed the dagger down with force.

Wang Long suddenly opened his eyes wide and grabbed Chen Ji’s wrist with his sturdy and powerful hands. He laughed coldly, “Did you really think I wouldn’t recognize you?”

During the lawsuit, Chen Ji always let his lawyer handle things, so he and Wang Long had not met yet. But Wang Long wanted to reconcile with the family of the deceased victims, so he naturally found people to investigate him.

So when Wang Long saw Chen Ji appear here, he knew what Chen Ji was planning.

He said urgently, “I can compensate you with more money! A lot of money! Your parents are gone, you have to learn to look forward!”

He didn’t want to kill anyone again. If he killed someone again, he would have to stay here his whole life.

Chen Ji silently pressed the tip of the knife down, bit by bit, approaching Wang Long’s chest.

“You’re asking for death!” Wang Long was ultimately stronger than the teenager. He roared angrily and seized Chen Ji’s dagger, stabbing it back into Chen Ji’s left side waist, penetrating his ribs.

Wang Long originally thought this blow would be enough to make Chen Ji lose all fight, but he didn’t expect that the moment he seized the knife, Chen Ji didn’t resist at all. Instead, he took advantage of the gap when Wang Long’s hands were open and pounced on his neck artery like a wild beast!

Blood continuously oozed from Chen Ji’s lips and teeth, staining the pillow a dark purple color.

Chen Ji felt the sweet fishy taste in his mouth and teeth, felt the blood spraying into his mouth, and then the touch of it flowing out.

This was the first time he killed someone for revenge. His heart trembled with fear, but he bit down tightly and refused to let go.

Wang Long felt pain in his neck, like an electric current that made him tremble. This was the sense of crisis approaching death.

He pulled out the dagger that was stuck in Chen Ji’s chest and abdomen and stabbed fiercely again. “Let go!”

“Let go!”

“Let go…”

Along with an angry shout and another stab, Chen Ji still didn’t respond. His teeth only clenched tighter and tighter, biting off a piece of flesh from Wang Long’s neck.

Wang Long’s pupils began to scatter. He stirred the dagger in his hand while muttering, “Is it worth it? Is it worth it…”

But what Wang Long didn’t understand was that for Chen Ji, his life had long been left in the past by that car accident, an endless, inescapable torment.

Dark purple fresh blood overflowed the white pillow, just like Chen Ji’s overflowing life.

With a click, the iron door of the ward was opened from the outside. Pao Ge, wearing a black Tang suit and grabbing Old Liu’s hair, appeared at the door.

Wang Long’s right hand finally loosened its grip on the knife handle and hung down powerlessly.

Chen Ji then lifted his blood-stained face and looked at Pao Ge. Whether it was fear or the aftereffect of adrenaline bursting, his whole body trembled.

Pao Ge sighed, “Too late.”

Chen Ji fell back onto the end of the bed, covering the wound in his waist, and said softly to Pao Ge, “Sorry.”

Pao Ge knew the teenager was apologizing for using him. He grinned. “It’s okay. Although you’re going to die soon, it’s not too late to get to know each other now. My real name is Chen Chong, and my friends like to call me Pao Ge.”

“Okay, Pao Ge.”

“First time killing someone? You were expressionless beforehand, used all your strength when killing, no nonsense. I like it,” Pao Ge kicked Old Liu aside and lit another cigarette for himself.

Chen Ji gave a bitter laugh. “Not going to die yet.”

As he spoke, blood was still gurgling out of Chen Ji’s wound.

“Want a cigarette?”

“No.”

“Need help?”

“My phone is with Doctor Liu. It should have recorded the evidence of his illegal transaction with my second uncle. Help me send it out.”

Pao Ge didn’t expect that this teenager would still remember to seek justice for every enemy before he died…

He sat down beside Chen Ji and asked, “Any other wishes?”

“None,” Chen Ji’s voice grew weaker and weaker. A wave of sleepiness came over him, but he was reluctant to close his eyes. He just stared blankly out the window, the crescent moon like a hook.

Inside the ward, the patients slowly rose, silently watching this side.

Li Qingniao came to Chen Ji’s side and slowly stroked Chen Ji’s eyes, saying softly, “Alas, a horse in a crevice, a spark in a stone, a body in a dream. Forty-nine layers of heaven cannot keep you. Go, go where you should go.”

With that, he returned to his foolish appearance and sat beside the bed. Pao Ge covered Chen Ji’s body with his black Tang suit and turned to walk towards the darkness outside the ward. “What a pity, we met too late.”