Chapter 1 Akham?

“Arkham, eh…” Feng Bujue had excellent eyesight; he could see a paper notice on the opposite wall through the iron bars of the cell. Although that notice only contained a few rules for the guards like “No Smoking,” it was enough for him to gather the information that "this place is Arkham Asylum."

“Hmm… Even though the facilities here vary depending on the era and story background, the cell I’m in right now clearly isn’t the type used for ‘long-term confinement’…” After confirming the location, Brother Jue began to examine the surrounding details. “The walls of this cell are old, but very clean. There’s no sign of秽物涂墙 (huiwutujian, smearing filth on the walls) or carvings. The toilet is the same; it looks old, but the stains from urine and feces aren’t very obvious, which means it’s not used often… Plus the thin bedding and the fact that I’m not wearing a patient’s gown…” He quickly came to a conclusion, “…Clearly, I’ve just been brought in and am waiting for processing in a ‘temporary cell’…”

Dang, dang, dang…

Just as he was pondering, a rhythmic sound of metal striking metal came from the corridor, getting closer.

After a moment’s thought, Feng Bujue realized that it was the sound of a guard lightly tapping the iron bars of the cells with his baton.

It was a habit, with no particular meaning. It was like how we liked to walk along the edge of the sidewalk curb like walking a balance beam when we were kids, or touching the decoration on top of every railing when passing a row of fences…

When people grow up, if they work in a monotonous, oppressive, and not very complex environment, they might develop similar habits; in a way, it’s a form of self-relaxation for the brain.

Sure enough, before long, a guard appeared at the entrance to Feng Bujue’s cell. When the guard stopped, the tapping naturally stopped as well.

“Get up.” The guard didn’t waste words with Brother Jue. He simply issued an order through the bars.

Since he hadn’t received a main quest yet, Feng Bujue didn’t want to act rashly, so he silently got out of bed after hearing this.

“Come here.” The guard’s next command came quickly.

Feng Bujue did as he was told, walking a few steps forward until he was in front of the iron bars.

“Hands out.” As the guard spoke, he reached to his waist and took off a pair of handcuffs.

This time, Brother Jue hesitated for a moment.

“Both hands through the same gap…” After taking off the handcuffs, the guard saw that Brother Jue hadn’t moved and reminded him.

Hearing this, Feng Bujue understood that the other party wanted to take him out of the cell to somewhere, not to play some dirty play through the cell door.

So, after cuffing Brother Jue through the bars, the guard used the key to open the cell door and then grabbed Brother Jue’s arm, taking him out.

There was no conversation along the way. Feng Bujue was very cooperative. He didn’t ask where they were taking him, nor did he take any rebellious actions. Instead of acting rashly, he preferred to quietly observe the environment and security of the asylum during this journey, just in case.

Unfortunately, there was nothing worth collecting in the corridors he passed. Besides the surveillance cameras installed in the corners of the ceiling, he could only see rows of closed doors on both sides of the corridor; those doors only had numbers on them, with no other markings, and the rooms didn’t look like cells for confining patients.

After walking for a while, turning a few corners, Feng Bujue was taken into a room that looked like an interrogation room.

In this small, rectangular room of just over ten square meters, there was a table and two stools, all of which were welded to the floor; one wall of the room was embedded with a large mirror. Anyone could tell it was a one-way mirror. There was also a camera in the corner of the ceiling, which was obviously turned on.

For Brother Jue, entering and exiting this kind of room was like coming home… Whether in real life or in the game world, he had been arrested more than once, and being taken to this kind of room for questioning was commonplace.

“Sit down.” After bringing him into the room, the guard pointed to the seat facing the glass and said.

After Feng Bujue sat down, the guard skillfully took out a pair of shackles, locked Brother Jue’s right leg to a chair leg, and then left without a word.

About two minutes later, the door to the room opened again, and a young woman in a white coat walked in.

She wore a pair of slightly old-fashioned black-rimmed glasses, and her long brown hair was neatly tied behind her head. Under the white coat was a proper shirt and suit skirt, and on her feet were a pair of not-too-high heels. Even though her clothes and temperament were relatively conservative, her face and figure were still very eye-catching. Men who saw her for the first time would usually take a second look, until they caught sight of the luxurious diamond ring on the ring finger of her left hand, and then they would restrain themselves slightly.

“Hello, Mr. Nameless.” After entering the room, she sat down in the seat opposite Feng Bujue without any restraint. While opening the folder in her hand, she said, “I’m Dr. Quinn. I’d like to ask you a few questions. If you cooperate well, you can change your current situation.”

“You’re lying.” In less than a second, Feng Bujue answered without thinking.

“Why do you say that?” Dr. Quinn didn’t have any particular reaction to Brother Jue’s response, she just asked back calmly.

“Your so-called ‘ask a few questions’ is just a preliminary psychiatric assessment of me so you can ‘classify’ me.” Feng Bujue replied, “After you’ve completed this task, I’ll be taken to ‘where you think I should be taken,’ and then a period of indefinite ‘confinement and treatment’ will begin, until the next regular assessment, my situation won’t change.”

It had to be said, Brother Jue was quite familiar with the various procedures of mental hospitals… After all, he had plenty of personal experience.

“Wow~” Dr. Quinn’s expression changed slightly when she heard this. “I’m very surprised. From the current conversation, your thinking is very clear, your wording is very accurate, and you haven’t shown any violent tendencies in your speech.”

“Is that strange?” Feng Bujue asked tentatively.

“Heh…” Dr. Quinn chuckled lightly, pulled out a few photos from the folder, and threw them on the table at random. “If you can explain… why you rushed into the police station last night with a fire axe, slashing at anyone you saw, and tried to take on the entire law enforcement department by yourself… then this wouldn’t be strange.”

As she said this, Brother Jue’s gaze had already shifted to the photos.

The image quality of these photos was very poor. They looked like they were taken from video surveillance footage; but even though the photos weren’t very clear, one could still tell that it was a man in a long purple suit hacking at people with an axe.

“Fifteen police officers and three civilians were injured, two police officers died on the spot, and another four injured are still lying on the operating table,” Dr. Quinn waited a few seconds, then continued, paying close attention to the changes in Brother Jue’s expression.

“Hmm…” What kind of person was Feng Bujue? Trying to pull this on him was like showing off in front of an expert.

After only a moment of contemplation, Brother Jue put on a confused face and asked, “The person in the photo with the axe… is that me?”

Dr. Quinn didn’t answer this question, because in her opinion it was meaningless nonsense.

If the person asking this question really didn’t remember doing this, then it meant he had a mental problem, and answering him wouldn’t make him remember anything; and if the person asking this question was knowingly asking, then there was even less need to answer.

Dr. Quinn exhaled from her nose, put on a straight face, and continued, “Let’s start from the beginning… Do you remember your name?”

“Jack.” Feng Bujue replied.

“Jack… what?” Dr. Quinn tried to ask his last name.

“I don’t remember.” A mentally ill person could use this answer to answer any question at any time. This should be considered the privilege of a mentally ill person, right?

“Okay… Jack.” Dr. Quinn said again, “How old are you? Where are you from?”

These "routine questions" had to be asked, only through these questions could a baseline of cognition and thinking level be established for the patient, in order to further analyze their symptoms.

“I don’t think that’s fair, doctor.” But Feng Bujue didn’t continue to answer.

“What’s not fair?” Dr. Quinn asked.

“It’s not fair that only I’m unilaterally telling you my privacy.” Feng Bujue said.

“Privacy?” Dr. Quinn looked down at the word “Jack” that she had filled in on a form ten seconds ago, and pursed her lips. “Besides a name that has yet to be verified, what privacy have you told me?”

“If you want me to tell you more, you should exchange it for something of equal value.” Feng Bujue stared directly into the other person’s eyes, and said with a smile that was not a smile.

“For example… ‘doctor-patient confidentiality’?” Dr. Quinn asked.

“Ha!” Feng Bujue laughed at the time, “The one-way mirror behind you, the recording pen in your coat pocket, and the camera in the corner of the ceiling tell me… doctor-patient confidentiality in a place like Arkham should have another name – Bullshit.”

“Then what do you want?” Dr. Quinn said, “A certificate of mental health?”

“No, I don’t want that.” Feng Bujue said, “If you prove that I’m completely mentally normal, then the place I should go to isn’t the asylum but the police station… Considering that more than a dozen police officers went to the hospital and the funeral home last night, I don’t think it’s wise to deal with the police right now.”

Speaking of which, he paused, and then said: “Dr. Quinn, I have a proposal…” He tilted his head, one corner of his mouth slightly raised, “For every question I answer for you, you answer one for me, that way… I think it’s fairer.”

“So… can you also tell me… what reason do I have to agree to your request?” Dr. Quinn replied.

“You don’t have to agree.” Feng Bujue said, “In that case, our conversation will end here; I’ll go back to my cell to continue thinking about life, and you’ll go back to your office to write ‘patient refuses to communicate’ in the report, and then hand this report that looks like you’re just going through the motions to the police, and see if they’ll be satisfied.”

As soon as these words came out, Dr. Quinn hesitated, and her expression clearly showed this.

She was, after all, just a doctor, not an actress. Even a psychology expert would find it difficult to completely hide their emotions.

“The choice is the same, doctor.” Feng Bujue said, “I’m a fair person… If you think the questions I ask offend you, or you don’t want to answer them, you can refuse to respond; correspondingly, I may not answer all the questions you ask.”

Brother Jue was advancing methodically, approaching the other party’s psychological defenses step by step.

“Okay.” Dr. Quinn thought for a few seconds, and then said, “However, I still have to start asking questions first.”

“Please.” Feng Bujue raised his handcuffed hands and made a gesture of invitation.

“How old are you? Where are you from?” Dr. Quinn asked about the things the other party hadn’t answered before.

“Twenty-five years old, from Metropolis.” Feng Bujue answered very quickly. He could have answered "I don't know where I come from", but if he used such an answer to respond from the beginning, it would easily cause the other party to also adopt a negative attitude, which would prevent him from obtaining further information.

“You don’t remember your last name, but you remember where you’re from?” Dr. Quinn keenly sensed something, and immediately questioned the credibility of the other party’s answer.

“That’s already another question, doctor.” Feng Bujue wouldn’t be led by the nose by the other party, he immediately said, “You have to answer one of my questions first, before you can ask a question.”

Dr. Quinn looked helpless, paused for a second, and said, "Ask away."

“What’s your husband’s name, and what does he do for a living?” Feng Bujue almost blurted out the question. It seemed that he had already thought about what to ask.

Faced with this rather abrupt question, Dr. Quinn was slightly stunned. After a brief hesitation, her gaze instinctively lowered, stayed on the wedding ring on her hand for a second, and then looked at Brother Jue again, trying to discern some kind of intention from the other party’s eyes.

And such details naturally couldn't escape Feng Bujue's eyes...

If Dr. Quinn was an expert in analyzing mental illnesses, Feng Bujue was a master in seeing through people’s hearts. Whether it was a slight change in the eyebrows and corners of the eyes, or a slight movement of the body, or even the action of swallowing saliva, all were a reflection of Dr. Quinn’s inner activities… Through these, Brother Jue could roughly deduce even the other party’s thinking process.

“Don’t think too much, doctor.” After seeing through the other party’s thoughts, Feng Bujue added two seconds later, “I won’t do anything to your family, I’m just curious, which lucky man married a beauty like you who has both beauty and wisdom.”

“Wayne… my husband’s name is Bruce Wayne.” After a moment of silence, Dr. Quinn gave an answer that even Feng Bujue found somewhat surprising, “He is an entrepreneur.”