Eldritch Horror Theatre

The Corridor here was quiet.

Proving you weren't crazy inside a sanitarium had always been a notoriously difficult problem.

Yet at that moment, Columnist Fu Qian's demeanor gave the distinct impression that he was attempting to do exactly that.

The immediate consequence was that even Brother Buyiren, who had secretly tightened his grip on his weapon, froze in place once again.

Among the medical personnel, someone visibly relaxed and stopped backing away.

An explosive situation was thus defused by a rather unconventional interpretation—

It wasn't that a dangerous individual had escaped, but rather that a dangerous individual was truly integrating into their big family.

Worrying about whether there was something wrong with your brain was usually the first sign that there was.

Everyone present was a veteran in the field; their sensitivity to such things far exceeded that of ordinary people.

In short, the situation before them was now perfectly clear.

A certain patient who had been locked up for over forty days was finally successfully diagnosed and out for a stroll, accompanied by the relevant personnel.

Although his chosen location was somewhat unusual, his threat level was clearly no longer anything to fear.

"You do look... quite well."

It didn't seem like an illusion. After the Old Man in the hospital bed briefly froze and looked him up and down again, a bit more vigor seemed to return to his eyes.

He didn't mind at all that the young man was flaunting his youth; he even chimed in with agreement.

"Let's go."

After that, even his voice seemed to carry more strength, recovering a bit of the commanding presence he had previously lacked.

Without waiting to see if Fu Qian would respond, the Old Man signaled to the group that it was time for him to return to rest.

...

"Do you know what you're doing?"

The Old Man in the bed clearly held significant status. Once he gave the word, the surrounding staff didn't delay at all, immediately pushing his bed away.

In the blink of an eye, the crisis dissolved into nothingness. For a moment, even Buyiren, a man who navigated both the lawful and underground worlds, looked as if he had never witnessed such a scene.

Staring meaningfully at Fu Qian, he lowered his questioning tone.

"Of course I do. I was making sure they didn't get scared."

Fu Qian was still watching the group disappear around the corner on the other side of the Corridor, casually summarizing his intent.

...There actually didn't seem to be anything wrong with that.

Buyiren was clearly preparing a rebuttal, but at that moment, he found himself hesitating to speak.

Making sure people didn't get scared sounded absurd, but the results were right there in front of them.

The group really had just left amicably, without any extreme escalation.

And it was now clear that Fu Qian's final performance had been entirely deliberate.

It was specifically to make the staff believe his mind was afflicted, and thereby "understand" why the two of them had appeared here.

One had to admit, the reaction was remarkably flexible. His sense of proportion was frighteningly accurate, but there was still one problem—

"I believe I reminded you earlier that just leaving directly would yield the same result?"

Buyiren took a deep breath. He was reminding Fu Qian that this still amounted to creating a problem just to solve it; it might seem clever, but it was a meaningless waste of time.

"How so? I also took the opportunity to encourage the Old Man to face life with a smile."

The group had completely disappeared from sight. Only then did Fu Qian turn his head, looking at Buyiren with some surprise.

...

Who said it was meaningless?

In truth, Fu Qian's words really weren't nonsense, no matter how absurd they seemed.

One core purpose of stepping forward just now truly was to counsel the Old Man.

They certainly couldn't be considered familiar with one another, but the Old Man's eyes were too sharp; he had locked onto them the moment he arrived.

This extraordinary reaction, coupled with the Old Man's condition, instantly triggered a certain worry in Fu Qian.

What triggered the Well of Time was the "darkness" of the mind, which could sometimes be understood as an unresolvable knot in one's heart.

And what knot could possibly be harder to untangle than the fear of death?

Exactly. In Fu Qian's eyes, the Old Man's aging body had instantly transformed into a pile of nitroglycerin; the slightest carelessness would deal a devastating blow to their remaining seven days.

Perhaps in Buyiren's eyes, this suddenly appearing group was a pile of trouble, but there was a significant difference in the degree of trouble they posed.

Through their subsequent exchange, the Old Man quickly helped confirm this point.

It was truly great to be young.

In just a few dozen short days, the Columnist had gone from suddenly going mad to returning to normal. His wonderful life could actually continue.

Yet the Old Man himself could only continue to plummet despite his struggles; in the face of aging, even the most exquisite care in the Sanitarium was futile.

Just from chatting face-to-face for a few sentences, Fu Qian had felt like he was about to be drowned by the Old Man's resentment.

His method of handling this was very simple: he just needed to help the Old Man regain his self-confidence.

While youth was enviable, its lack of experience made it fragile and sensitive, meaning its psychological drawbacks could not be ignored.

Take this promising Columnist, for example; he had already experienced a certain kind of death on a psychological level.

In contrast, the resilient nerves forged by rich life experience possessed far more vitality.

Thus, the superior and inferior were instantly decided; the sudden vigor in the Old Man's spirit clearly proved the point.

A certain potential darkness might have been pushed back because of this intervention...

In short, perhaps he could boast that those skilled in war have no brilliant achievements?

At the very least, Brother Buyiren clearly felt there were faults to be found, but no merits.

"Then it seems I should also thank you for your concern toward the work at the Sanitarium?"

At Fu Qian's "sophistry," the man beside him almost sneered aloud, his words carrying more than a hint of mockery.

"How could it compare to your concern for this place?"

Unfortunately, engaging in mutual personal attacks with Fu Qian was undoubtedly an extremely irrational move.

Returning the compliment without the slightest hesitation, Fu Qian stared at Buyiren's face with a smile, seeming to emphasize that this was not just friendly mutual flattery.

...

There was a phrase called "unable to handle sincerity," and at that moment, it seemed perfectly embodied by Buyiren.

Fu Qian had spoken with deep emotion, making it clear that his praise came straight from the heart.

Yet, faced with Fu Qian's final smile, Buyiren suddenly looked as if his heart was leaping in terror.

"I don't understand... What do you mean?"

When he finally mustered the courage to speak, his voice was practically squeezed through gritted teeth, and his question was highly defensive.

"Just the literal meaning. You seem quite concerned about everything."

Such a passive reaction was simply courting death in front of Professor Fu.

Without holding back in the slightest, the latter spoke with complete assurance.

"You worry about the train, you worry about the office, and you even worry about dragging the patients into this...

"Most importantly, some of these choices seem contradictory to me. Unless one is incredibly universally loving, it's very difficult to care about all of them at the same time. So sometimes I even feel—"

Pausing for a moment, the gaze with which Fu Qian observed Buyiren became peculiar, as if he were looking right through his body to see something much further behind him.

"That there is far more than a single person's will behind this."

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