0934, What Is Behind the Door?

Li Xiaofei stared at the screen of his mobile phone for a while, and felt that this day seemed a little familiar.

"Are you awake?"

The young man who was playing chess turned his head and looked at Li Xiaofei, saying, "You had another attack yesterday, shouting 'This ending is unreasonable' and throwing away the notebook. Nurse Tan told you to take medicine quickly after you wake up, so that you can get better quickly."

Li Xiaofei turned his head and saw a delicate plastic medicine box on the table, which contained red, blue and white pills and capsules. He didn't know what the medicine was for.

He didn't say anything, but opened the drawer and took out a wrinkled notebook from it.

He opened the notebook and started reading. .??.

It was a crudely made fantasy story. The protagonist's name was Li Xiaofei. It combined the styles of time travel, science fiction, fantasy, etc. It was like a hodgepodge. In the end, the protagonist was destined to return, but he still couldn't beat the final villain...

Li Xiaofei rubbed his eyebrows.

For some reason, he liked this story very much, as if he had experienced it himself.

Li Xiaofei picked up a pen and wanted to continue writing.

But suddenly, his mind went blank and he couldn't write a single word.

Because the ending reached a dead end, he couldn't see how the protagonist would win.

The protagonist's teammates had all died.

And his opponent seemed to be a demon that could never die.

The protagonist burned himself, but still couldn't compete with this terrifying opponent.

Li Xiaofei looked at the notebook, thinking constantly in his mind, for more than an hour, but still couldn't write.

There was no hope.

Even if it was fantasy, which could bring the dead back to life, there was still no hope that the protagonist could win this battle within a reasonable range.

Unless the deus ex machina descended.

But Li Xiaofei felt that the ending of this story shouldn't be like this.

He looked at the notebook in front of him, and thousands of thoughts flashed through his mind.

For a moment, he thought he might as well just write the villain to death casually, as long as the protagonist won, it didn't matter how he won.

But for some reason, a voice in his mind kept telling him that it was not possible.

It couldn't be written like this.

It absolutely couldn't be written like this!

It couldn't be written like this!

It couldn't be written.

No!

In this natural battle, time passed slowly.

For some reason, even the sound of Ye Qing and Hao Ding playing chess seemed to disappear in Li Xiaofei's mind.

Suddenly——

The door of the ward was pushed open.

The slender and beautiful nurse Tan Qingying walked in. After a simple ward round, she came to Li Xiaofei.

After taking a look at the medicine box on the table, the young and beautiful nurse said softly: "Writer Li, why don't you take your medicine? You must take the medicine obediently so that you can get better and be discharged from the hospital earlier."

Li Xiaofei still stared at the notebook and did not respond to her.

But Tan Qingying was still patient and gentle, saying: "Take the medicine, get better, and you can write better."

Li Xiaofei looked up at her.

I always feel that this girl seems to have seen it somewhere.

And there is an inexplicable sense of intimacy.

So, he took a look at the medicine box next to him, hesitated a little, opened it, poured all the pills into his palm, and then poured them all into his mouth.

Nurse Tan handed him a glass of water considerately.

Li Xiaofei took the cup, drank it all, and returned the cup.

The two young men who were playing chess opened their eyes wide in surprise when they saw this scene.

"So obedient?"

"Is this the first time that writer Li has taken medicine obediently?"

The two looked at each other.

Nurse Tan smiled happily and clapped like a child: "Great, keep it up. If you cooperate with the treatment like this, you can be discharged from the hospital in no time."

Then she measured Li Xiaofei's blood pressure, heart rate, etc., and then pushed the cart away.

Li Xiaofei still leaned on the bed, holding the worn-out notebook, reading the story over and over again, and the more he read, the more absurd he felt.

He wanted to write a complete ending, but he felt that it was not satisfactory.

He wrote a line on the notebook, but quickly crossed it out.

"It still doesn't work."

He put down the notebook and turned his head.

While the people next to him were not paying attention, he opened his mouth and spit out the pills, tablets and capsules in his mouth.

Yes.

He didn't swallow these pills just now.

In order not to be discovered, he did not throw the vomited medicine into the trash can, but directly put it into his trouser pocket.

"When can we go out for fresh air?"

Li Xiaofei looked at the two young men on the side.

"Fresh air?"

"No."

"We can only move around in the ward. It is a violation to walk out of the ward."

"Writer Li, cooperate with the treatment obediently."

The two seemed to be telling a crosstalk.

Li Xiaofei still did not speak.

He lay on the bed and emptied himself.

Time passed.

He fell asleep.

Meanwhile, nurses and doctors stood at the door of the ward and looked at him several times. They found that Li Xiaofei was sleeping soundly, so they left with peace of mind.

Another half an hour passed.

The two young men who were playing chess also fell asleep on the bed.

A slight snoring sound came from the ward.

After a while.

Li Xiaofei suddenly opened his eyes.

He tiptoed out of bed without making any sound, left the ward barefoot, looked around in the corridor, and when he saw that there was no one there, he quickly walked towards the door at the end of the corridor.

The time is noon.

Milky white holy light shines through the gap at the bottom of the door, as if there is a bright sun in the sky shining directly on the door panel.

The golden light attracted Li Xiaofei.

Make his heart beat hard.

He came to the door and pulled gently.

The door didn't move at all.

Li Xiaofei took out a toothbrush and a thin piece of wire from his pocket, stretched it through the gap in the door, and started tinkering.

If the door is only locked on the outside, it can indeed be opened with this simple equipment.

Li Xiaofei's heartbeat was getting faster and faster.

He didn't know why, but there was an intuition telling him that if he opened this door, all the doubts and mysteries would be solved.

Open it!

The movements of Li Xiaofei's hands became faster and faster.

But it was at this time that exclamations, shouts and footsteps came from behind.

"Patient No. 25 ran away again."

"catch him."

"Quick, he's trying to pry open the door."

"I told you to increase the dose of medicine a long time ago. Didn't he take the medicine already?"

A crowd of people arrived.

Doctors and nurses were furious.

Li Xiaofei ultimately failed to open the door before being caught.

The doctors carried him back to the ward, tied him to the hospital bed, and found the vomited medicine from his trouser pocket.

Then, a larger dose of new medicine was put into his mouth. A nurse pinched his nose, filled him with water, and force-fed him. After making sure he swallowed all the medicine, he was given another injection of sedative.

Li Xiaofei fell into a deep sleep.

Quietness returned to the ward.

The two young men on one side looked at Li Xiaofei who was sleeping, with smiles on their faces.

"Sleep, sleep, and when you wake up next time, you will know your true identity."

"Hey, go to sleep."

…

…

Golden sunlight shines through the gaps in the curtains.

A faint smell of disinfectant filled the air.

A slightly noisy radio came, reporting the latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Li Xiaofei slowly opened his eyes.

He felt weak.

He turned around and glanced at the phone next to him, which showed the time——

September 17, 2023.

Sunday.

An ordinary day.

"It's broken. I haven't taken the medicine yet."

An idea suddenly popped into my mind.

He remembered that he didn't take his medicine properly yesterday, which made Sun Fei, the attending doctor, very angry. He seemed to have added a few medicines today.

Eh?

Wait, what medicine?

who I am?

where am I?

What am I doing?

Li Xiaofei suddenly fell into confusion.

He subconsciously raised his hand and looked at his bracelet.

Oh, it turns out my name is Li Rui.

correct.

I remembered that I was a patient.

psychiatric patient.

I like writing, often have random thoughts, and fantasize about becoming a world-famous writer. In fact, by the 22nd year of my life, I have only written a few thousand words in a worn-out notebook.

Not finished yet.

Li Xiaofei looked out the window sadly, then picked up the notebook on the small table next to him and started reading.

There are densely written words on it.

This is his work.

The notebook was thrown aside casually, as if it had just been placed on the table leg. It looked dirty and had signs of water stains.

Golden sunlight shines on the notebook, and there are countless fine dust particles floating in the beam.

Li Xiaofei once imagined that every moving dust is actually a planet, with countless creatures living on it, and countless dust particles orbiting each other, forming different galaxies and universes...

For this dust universe, every breath and breath of oneself may be tens of billions of years. Countless lives are born and die. Even the dust planet itself has experienced countless prosperity and destruction.

Such a self may be the supreme and unimaginable god to the life on the dusty planet.

But actually?

In his own planet, he is just a psychopath, so weak that he can't even decide what he eats for lunch today.

Is there such a god?

He smiled self-deprecatingly, reached out and grabbed the worn notebook, opened the title page, and began to read.

The story is rough.

But for some reason, Li Xiaofei looked at it with gusto, and his eyes became brighter and brighter as he watched.

Did you really write this yourself?

Very exciting.

And, since I wrote it myself, why does it feel like I’m seeing it for the first time?

The ward door was pushed open.

Li Xiaofei turned around and saw that his nurse, Tan Qingying, had walked in pushing a trolley.

Routinely check blood pressure, blood sugar, pulse, etc., and then supervise Li Xiaofei to take medicine.

Li Xiaofei took the pills and tablets, held the water glass, swallowed them one after another, and then drank the water.

"Hey, let me check, have you taken all the medicine?"

Tan Qingying smiled softly.

Li Xiaofei opened his mouth and asked him to check.

"Not bad, I ate it all. Be good, you performed very well today."

After the little nurse finished praising her, she turned and left.

Li Xiaofei was still lying on the bed looking at himself.

He was extremely addicted.

An hour later, he saw the end.

The meaning is still not finished.

"All five of my comrades died, and Li Xiaofei himself was almost exhausted. No matter how I looked at it, he couldn't defeat the demon called Jiemie."

"A qualified author must not write randomly, so there must be no abrupt turns, and the protagonist must not win inexplicably."

"How should the final ending be solved?"

He fell into thought.

But the more he thought, the more chaotic his brain became.

The medicine he took before had a strange ability that made him drowsy and want to forget everything.

In the next half day, Li Xiaofei was awake and drowsy, and countless fragments of pictures kept flashing in his mind.

That was the content in it.

His brain was like a crappy third-rate director, presenting the contents in the notebook in a fragmented and scattered manner...

Until dark.

Darkness fell again.

……

……

The golden sunlight shone in through the gaps in the curtains, making the slightly dim room a little brighter.

A pungent smell of disinfectant filled the air, which was a bit choking.

A slightly noisy radio broadcast came to my ears, reporting the latest developments of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The Black Sea Fleet of the Goose lost a flagship...

Li Rui rubbed his eyes and sat up slowly.

He stared blankly for a while, feeling that he seemed to have forgotten something after waking up.

The two idiots playing chess next to him began to argue about regrets.

Li Rui was not surprised by this.

In his memory, these two patients named Ye Qing and Hao Ding have always been like this. They are bad chess players without knowing it. They are happy every day. Their chess skills have not improved at all.

But their quarrels and cheating skills have improved by leaps and bounds.

Li Rui has no opinion on their chess playing.

The key is that this guy is very annoying when he quarrels, and often interrupts his train of thought, causing the book he is writing to be unable to be completed on time.

Especially at the end, in the quarrels of the two patients, he fell into a deadlock and could never write.

"Why not just write a fresh and unconventional one, where the villain defeats the protagonists, and then restarts the universe and starts all over again?"

This thought flashed through Li Rui's mind.

But he quickly denied it.

He naturally took the water cup, then picked up the medicine box on the table, and swallowed the medicine inside one by one with water.

After a while.

Nurse Tan came in for rounds.

Li Rui's face showed a hint of joy.

After coming to the hospital for such a long time, this little nurse named Tan Qingying has always been a small blessing in his boring life.

The little head nurse is beautiful, has a good figure, and is very gentle. Li Rui once secretly vowed that when he was cured of his illness, he would publish his work and make money to marry Nurse Tan as his wife.

"Huh? You actually finished all the medicine today? Writer Li, you didn't throw it away secretly, did you?"

"Hehe, don't be angry, I'll check."

"Wow, you actually finished all the medicine, great, great."

"Doctor Sun will definitely be very happy."

"As long as you cooperate with the treatment, you will be discharged soon."

The nurse confirmed that Li Rui did not throw away the medicine, and praised Li Rui happily, praising Li Rui like coaxing a child.

When she was pushing the cart to leave, Li Rui didn't know why, but suddenly couldn't help but say, "Wait."

"Huh?"

Nurse Xiao Tan turned around in confusion.

Li Rui asked: "Xiao Tan, is the door in the corridor outside always closed? What is outside the door?"

Nurse Xiao Tan came over, gently reached out and touched Li Rui's forehead, and said: "You don't have a fever either, did you forget? Behind the door is the intensive care unit, which contains some seriously ill patients, some of whom have violent tendencies and have injured fellow patients, so they need to be managed in different areas."

"Oh, really?"

Li Rui scratched his head.

He doesn't remember.

Since he got sick, he has forgotten a lot of things. The doctor said that this is a side effect of the medication and he will get better slowly after being discharged from the hospital.

After the little nurse left, Li Rui had a strange impulse in his heart.

He wanted to push open the door and go to the intensive care unit to take a look.

Maybe those more serious mental patients can bring him some inspiration for writing?

But after thinking about it, forget it.

If the doctor finds out, he will probably have to add more medicine.

He lay on the bed and didn't want to move, then picked up the worn-out notebook and began to look through the plot over and over again.

Suddenly, there were more flickering pictures in his mind.

The pictures were clear, all big productions, and the faces were vivid, as if they were another memory that existed since birth.

Li Rui was not unfamiliar with this.

Why was he sick and hospitalized?

It was because he was too involved in writing, which caused his mind to constantly flash back some pictures, so that he couldn't distinguish between reality and illusion, so he was sent to a mental hospital.

Li Rui closed his eyes and kept watching those flickering clear pictures.

It was like watching a trailer for a blockbuster movie.

Combining these flashing images, and thinking over and over again about the contents in the notebook, Li Rui was trying his best to find a possible perfect ending for himself.

Suddenly, the picture in his mind froze.

It was the final battle, where Jiemie split open the void, and another battlefield appeared, with the Sword Immortal Lin Beichen dying at the hands of the cloned Ziyan version...

Sword Immortal Lin Beichen!

Li Rui suddenly fell into deep thought when he saw this.

This kind of thinking continued until night fell.

Before going to bed, the doctor came to check on Li Rui.

The attending physician Sun Fei expressed satisfaction with Li Rui's condition, then turned to nurse Xiao Tan and said: "No. 25's condition has recovered well. He will be discharged from the hospital in about half a month after another injection tonight."

"Okay."

Nurse Xiao Tan was happy for Li Rui.

Then she gave him an injection.

After turning off the lights, the ward fell into a calm silence.

Li Rui fell asleep.