Chapter 11 Involuntary Amnesia

After lunch, Feng Bujue paced around the room.

Since he had nothing else to do, he was using this "walk," which was basically turning in place, to help with digestion.

After walking for a while, he suddenly remembered something… In that second, he suddenly wore a look of pain, pinched his neck with both hands, convulsed, and fell to the ground.

For the next fifteen minutes, Feng Bujue was very dedicated to pretending to have epilepsy on the ground until the sixteenth minute, when he put away his slightly exaggerated acting skills and slowly sat up from the ground.

"Well… it seems there really aren't any…" After sitting down, Jue-ge muttered softly.

The "nothing" he was talking about at the moment naturally referred to surveillance cameras.

In fact, Feng Bujue had considered the issue of cameras before this test; the night before, when the lights in the house became very dim, he carefully observed every inch of the wall, and the result… he didn't find any suspicious light spots or any gaps that could be embedded with cameras.

Of course, even so, he couldn't be sure that there weren't any hidden cameras; Jue-ge also considered… maybe this mental hospital used some kind of super-tech like *******?

However, if he added the fact that "the orderly passed by the door every hour and opened the baffle on the door to look inside," and his "epilepsy" performance, which lasted a full fifteen minutes without anyone caring… the conclusion that "there are no cameras" could basically be confirmed.

"In some ways, it's understandable…" Feng Bujue then muttered, "This room has nothing that can be picked up except toilet paper, and the walls are all cushioned, so it's difficult for a normal person to successfully commit suicide here. Under this premise, installing surveillance seems a bit wasteful." He paused for half a second, then added, "Although not installing surveillance may ignore my 'illness' just now, I think… they don't mind it."

"For the people who work here and their superiors… it would undoubtedly be a happy thing to write 'patient suddenly died of illness' in the report and attach an autopsy report for filing."

"Anyway, as long as the report isn't 'suicide,' they can't be held responsible for their supervision…"

Thinking of this, he revealed a hint of a smile: "Heh… in other words, as long as I don't give myself away during the symbolic timed patrol, I can do whatever I want here…"

…

That afternoon, after Feng Bujue went to the toilet, he inexplicably started exercising.

His goal was to do one hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and run ten kilometers in the room every day.

This intensity of practice was already easy for Feng Bujue in the original world.

But in terms of the physical strength of this Feng Bujue in the mental hospital… it was obviously a bit too much.

However, Jue-ge was a man with an iron will, amazing perseverance, and endurance. Although his body was weak now, he still gritted his teeth and completed all of these.

And the result of the completion was… he was as tired as a dog and couldn't even stand up.

*Squeak*—

Just as Jue-ge ran the last meter and was panting on the ground, the baffle on the upper part of the door was pulled open, and a pair of eyes appeared behind the door.

"I say… what exactly are you doing?" Then, the voice of the male orderly from the morning came from outside the door.

From the word "exactly" in this sentence, it could be seen that… this wasn't the first time he had asked Jue-ge.

In fact, during the previous few timed patrols, this orderly had already noticed Feng Bujue's abnormality; because every time he came to the door and looked inside… Feng Bujue would immediately stop exercising, rest in place, and pant heavily…

Once or twice was fine, but if it was like this four or five times throughout the afternoon… this orderly was bound to be a little curious.

However, the answer Feng Bujue gave was always the same: "Haa… haa…" Usually, he would start with two heavy breaths and then repeatedly say, "Water… I want water… give me water quickly!"

"Tch… wait." The orderly responded with an indifferent attitude and then left.

About seven or eight minutes later, after he had completed all the patrols, he came to the door of Feng Bujue's ward with a cart dispensing drinking water.

"3232, your water's here." The orderly said as he opened the feeding hatch at the bottom of the door and handed in a paper cup filled with water.

As soon as Feng Bujue saw the water, he immediately scrambled up from the ground, picked up the cup, and drank it all in one gulp, finishing off the approximately 300 ml paper cup; after drinking, he wiped his mouth and turned to the orderly outside the door and said, "Please, one more cup!"

According to the hospital's regulations, patients must be responded to when they request basic necessities (such as drinking water, toilet paper, medical assistance, etc.), otherwise it would be considered a form of abuse.

Therefore, this orderly could only continue to pour water for Jue-ge outside the door.

Of course, it wasn't that the patient's requests in this regard could be satisfied endlessly; there were also clear regulations regarding the scale of requests for "drinking water" and "toilet paper."

For example, water—the way to give patients drinking water must be one cup at a time. If they wanted a second cup, they had to finish the first cup, return the cup, and then the orderly would fill the same cup with the second cup of water.

And the regulations regarding toilet paper were even stricter—the orderly had to enter the ward, check and confirm that the toilet paper in the patient's ward was less than five sheets, before they were allowed to take a new roll of toilet paper into the ward; in addition, the length of the toilet paper provided by the Baisa Mental Hospital to these individually detained patients was only less than half of a normal roll…

I believe that the more outstanding viewers have already seen that, yes… the restriction regulations on these two consumables were also established to prevent prisoners from committing suicide.

Although not everyone can think of ways to commit suicide using water and toilet paper, there were indeed patients who had played "golden paper pasted on Buddha's face" (a refined name for an extremely cruel form of water torture in ancient China) in their ward, and successfully killed themselves…

"You kid… are you doing that thing?" The orderly muttered at the door as he put in the second cup of water, "I'm warning you… if you want to do it, do it in the toilet, don't splatter it all over the room…"

"Heh… don't worry, I won't dirty the room." Feng Bujue didn't want to explain anything to the other party, just smiled and responded, and took the second cup of water.

When drinking this second cup of water, Jue-ge obviously slowed down; not because he couldn't drink it quickly, but mainly because he was afraid of causing an osmotic pressure imbalance…

Then, he asked the orderly for a third cup of water and indicated that this cup would be enough after the other party sent the water cup in.

So, the orderly left the cup and left Jue-ge's ward pushing the cart; before leaving, he didn't forget to remind him that "dinner time is coming soon," so that Jue-ge wouldn't be too full from drinking water to eat dinner.

If Feng Bujue had come here for the first day, he might have thought… the orderly's reminder was out of kindness; but, at this moment, Jue-ge heard different information from this sentence.

…

The third day, early morning.

Feng Bujue woke up in a wave of soreness all over his body.

Many people have experienced this kind of soreness, which usually occurs the day after some kind of overload exercise; in sports medicine, this symptom is called "delayed onset muscle soreness."

I personally think that we can give this disease a colloquial name similar to "hangover," such as "hang-sore" or something…

If we compare life to a role-playing game, then "hang-sore" is at least a small Boss-level monster. Although it is not as powerful as the demon king-level existence of "procrastination," it is undeniable that countless players with weak wills are defeated at the intersection leading to baldness… oh no… to the road to fitness.

Fortunately, Feng Bujue was not one of them.

As a warrior who had once defeated "hang-sore," he had long been mentally prepared for this body soreness. He had used some kind of psychological suggestion method to transform this feeling into refreshing coolness…

"Well… in today's physical condition, it is impossible to complete the exercise quota within five hours…" As soon as Feng Bujue opened his eyes, he thought of this, "So… I have to start now…"

He did what he thought, turned over, and started doing push-ups.

At this moment, even though he was physically very hard, even painful… he didn't give up at all, and he didn't even waver in the slightest.

When his body said, "You don't have to do it so standard," his spirit said, "It's meaningless if you don't do it standard"; when his body said, "It doesn't matter if you do a few less," his spirit said, "It's meaningless if you do one less"; and when his body said, "If you don't stop, you probably won't be able to hold on any longer"… Feng Bujue stopped to rest for a while, after all, he couldn't force it…

In this way, unknowingly, it was time to wash up again.

The two orderlies outside the door were already waiting, and Feng Bujue didn't make them wait any longer, and soon prepared himself and followed the two out of the ward.

After they went out, they turned right, went straight along the corridor, and came to a washroom.

Under the supervision of the two orderlies, Feng Bujue brushed his teeth with a toothbrush made of special materials (the same memory material as his plates and tableware), and washed his face with clean water.

When washing his face, Jue-ge also asked in a very casual tone, "May I ask how often I take a shower?"

"Once every three days." The orderly on his left replied, "Your next shower is tomorrow."

"Oh… then…" Feng Bujue wanted to take the opportunity to find out something more.

But the orderly interrupted him directly: "If you're done washing, it's time to eat breakfast."

…

Light, white light.

In a trance, Feng Bujue's eyes saw the white light of the ward again.

"Here it comes again…" After regaining consciousness, he cursed, "As expected… I'm f***ing blacked out again…"

While muttering, he changed from a lying position to a sitting position, and then, he actually opened his mouth wide and put his hand into his mouth.

After groping for a few seconds, he successfully took out… a small pinch of meat floss from his teeth.

"Hmm…" After carefully examining the pinch of food residue, Feng Bujue said, "Minced pork…" He paused for two seconds, then added, "Then it should be meat buns."

Saying that, he lifted up his trouser leg and looked at the tibia of his left leg.

At some point, there were two fingernail marks on the skin of his calf… The marks weren't too serious, not enough to cause bleeding, but they did hurt the skin and left two marks that wouldn't fade in a short time.

"Two kinds, huh…" After seeing the two fingernail marks, Feng Bujue thought in his heart, "What is it besides meat buns… Is it something like bun skin that can be dissolved by saliva, or something that can't get stuck in the teeth at all…" In that instant, a thought flashed through his mind, "Oh… maybe it's soy milk, tofu pudding, or other liquid foods…"

After confirming this information, he sat cross-legged and thought, "Today's blackout point is a little later than yesterday. Yesterday's memory only went to the corridor, but today it was interrupted after washing up and preparing to eat breakfast…

"According to the 'from big to small', 'from dry to liquid' principle I made this morning, I must have eaten the buns first, and then drank something.

"Considering the production process of buns, it is obviously not very convenient to add drugs during the production process; and the practice of directly sprinkling them on the bun skin after it is made would be too obvious… you can taste it when you eat it.

"Therefore, preliminary judgment… at least today's 'medicine' was put in the soy milk or tofu pudding."

While thinking about this, Feng Bujue had stood up from the ground and incidentally started doing squats.

"So… let's summarize…" Jue-ge also wanted to divert his attention by using his brain, so that he wouldn't be so concerned about the strong soreness in his leg muscles, "Every day's breakfast contains a drug that inhibits memory, which can cause memory loss for a certain period of time before and after taking the drug; the lunch seems to have a trace amount of marijuana, which is a benefit in a sense… Finally, sleeping pills are added to the dinner, which will make the patient fall asleep before 'lights out' and wake up one to two hours before 'lights on'."

"Huff…" He adjusted his breathing and thought again, "Lunch and dinner are easy to handle. It won't take too long for me to test which type of food they put the drugs in. The problem is that breakfast… I must find a way to cooperate with 'myself during that time' to find out the truth in this memory blind spot."