Chapter 12 Interlude, Part 3

After finishing lunch, Feng Bujue began pacing around the room.

Since he had nothing else to do, he helped with digestion by "walking," which basically meant turning in circles.

After walking like this for a while, he suddenly remembered something... In that second, he suddenly wore a pained expression, grabbed his own neck with both hands, convulsed, and fell to the ground.

For the next fifteen minutes, Feng Bujue feigned a grand mal seizure with great dedication. It wasn't until the sixteenth minute that he abandoned his slightly flamboyant acting and slowly sat up from the ground.

"Hmm... looks like there really aren't any..." After settling down, Jue-ge muttered softly.

The thing he was talking about "not having" was, of course, surveillance cameras.

In fact, even before this probing, Feng Bujue had already considered the issue of cameras; the night before, when the lights in the room were very dim, he had carefully observed every inch of the walls, and the result... was that he didn't find any suspicious points of light, nor did he see any gaps that might have a camera embedded in them.

Of course, even so, he couldn't be sure that there were no hidden cameras; Jue-ge also considered the possibility that this mental hospital used some kind of super-technology similar to ******?

However, when you add in the fact that the orderly would pass by the door every hour and open the flap on the door to take a look inside, as well as his "seizure" performance that lasted a full fifteen minutes and went unnoticed... the conclusion that "there are no cameras" can basically be confirmed.

"In a way, 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 pads. 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 continued, "Although not installing surveillance may overlook my 'attack' just now... I think they don't mind.

"For the people who work here and their superiors... being able to write 'patient suddenly died of illness' on the report and attach an autopsy report for archiving is undoubtedly a win-win situation.

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

Thinking of this, he revealed a smile: "Heh... in other words, as long as I don't slip up during the symbolic regular patrols, I can do whatever I want here..."

…………

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

He set himself the goal of doing one hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and running ten kilometers in circles around the room every day.

This level of exercise was already easy for Feng Bujue from 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 them.

And the result of completing them 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 heavily on the ground, the flap 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.

The word "exactly" in this sentence showed that... this wasn't the first time he had asked Jue-ge this question.

In fact, during the previous few regular patrols, this orderly had 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 gasp for breath...

Once or twice was fine, but like this four or five times all 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 constantly repeat, "Water... I want to drink water... give me water quickly!"

"Tch... wait." The orderly responded with an ambiguous 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 pushing a cart with drinking water.

"3232, your water is here." When the orderly said this, he had already opened the food delivery flap 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 jumped up from the ground, picked up the cup and drank it, gulping down the paper cup that could hold about 300 milliliters in one breath; after drinking it, he wiped his mouth and turned to the orderly outside the door and said, "Excuse me, another 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 indirect abuse.

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

Of course, it wasn't as if the patient's requests in this regard could be satisfied indefinitely; there were also clear regulations on 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 want a second cup, they must finish the previous cup and return the cup, and then the orderly will fill the second cup in the same cup.

And the regulations on toilet paper were even stricter—the orderly must enter the ward, check and confirm that the toilet paper in the patient's ward is less than five sheets, and only then is he allowed to take a new roll of toilet paper into the ward; in addition, the length of toilet paper that the White Sand Mental Hospital provides to these individually detained patients is only less than half of a normal roll...

I believe that viewers with good reasoning skills have already seen that, yes... the above two regulations on consumables are also set up to prevent prisoners from committing suicide.

Although not everyone can think of ways to commit suicide using water and toilet paper, but... there was indeed a patient who once played "gilded paper pasted on Buddha's face" (an elegant name for an extremely cruel ancient Chinese water torture) in his ward, and successfully played himself to death...

"Hey kid... are you masturbating in there?" The orderly muttered at the door when he was giving Feng Bujue 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..."

"Hehe... don't worry, I won't get the room dirty." Feng Bujue didn't want to explain anything to him, just smiled and replied, and took the second cup of water.

When drinking this second cup of water, Jue-ge obviously slowed down; it wasn't that he couldn't drink it quickly, mainly because he was afraid of drinking out of osmotic pressure imbalance...

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

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

If Feng Bujue had just arrived here on 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, dawn.

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

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

Personally, I think it would be good to give this disease a common name similar to "hangover," such as "hangsore" or something...

If we compare life to a role-playing game, then "hangsore" 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 willpower were defeated at the intersection of the road to baldness... oh, no... the road to fitness.

Fortunately, Feng Bujue was not one of them.

As a warrior who had once defeated "hangsore," he had long been mentally prepared for this body of soreness, and he had used some kind of psychological suggestion to transform this feeling into sourness...

"Hmm... with today's physical condition, it's impossible to complete the exercise quota in five hours..." The first thing Feng Bujue thought of when he opened his eyes was this, "So... I have to start now..."

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

At this moment, even though he was physically very tired, even painful... he didn't give up at all, not even the slightest bit of wavering.

When his body was saying "you don't have to do it so standard," his spirit was saying "it's meaningless if you don't do it standard"; when his body was saying "it's okay to do a few less," his spirit was saying "it's meaningless to do one less"; and when his body said "if you don't stop, you probably won't be able to hold on"... 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 let them wait long. He quickly prepared himself and followed the two out of the ward.

After leaving the door, they turned right and walked straight along the corridor 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 materials as his plates and cutlery) and washed his face with clean water.

When washing his face, Jue-ge asked in a very casual tone, "Excuse me, how often do 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 else.

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

…………

Light, white light.

In a daze, the white light of the ward appeared in front of Feng Bujue again.

"Here we go again..." After regaining consciousness, he cursed, "Sure enough... I fainted again..."

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

After several seconds of groping, he successfully took out... a small pinch of meat floss from between his teeth.

"Hmm..." After examining the pinch of food residue carefully, Feng Bujue said, "Ground pork..." He paused for two seconds, then continued, "Then it should be a pork bun."

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

At some point, two fingernail marks had appeared on the skin of his calf... The marks weren't too serious, not enough to cause bleeding, but they did actually damage the skin, leaving two marks that wouldn't fade in a short time.

"Two kinds, huh..." After seeing the two fingernail marks, Feng Bujue thought to himself, "Besides the pork bun, what else is there... is it something like bun skin that would be dissolved by saliva, or something that can't get stuck in my teeth at all..." In that instant, a thought flashed through his mind, "Oh... it might be soy milk, tofu pudding, or some other kind of liquid food..."

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 go to breakfast...

"According to the principle of 'from large to small' and 'from dry to liquid' that I formulated this morning, I must have eaten the bun first, and then drank something.

"Considering the production process of the bun, it's obviously not very convenient to add drugs during production; and sprinkling it directly on the bun skin after it's made would be too obvious... you could taste it while eating.

"Therefore, the preliminary inference... at least today's 'drug' was put in the soy milk or tofu pudding."

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

"So... to sum up..." Jue-ge also wanted to divert his attention by using his brain, so that he wouldn't be so concerned about the intense soreness in his leg muscles, "There is a memory-suppressing drug in every day's breakfast, which can cause memory loss for a certain period of time before and after taking the drug; a small amount of marijuana seems to be added to lunch, which is a kind of welfare in a sense... Finally, sleeping pills are added to 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, "Lunch and dinner are easy to handle. It won't take me too long to test which category of food they put the drugs in. The problem is that breakfast... I have to find a way to cooperate with 'myself during that time' to find out the truth in this memory blind spot."