"Who is Wenshu? Your girlfriend?" Old He asked with a chuckle. "A good friend!" I raised my voice. "She's the primary nurse who cared for me at the asylum. She looked after me constantly and is the one discharging me today." "Oh, it's not easy to make a good friend in a mental hospital!" Old He laughed. The unspoken implication of his remark was that, just like everyone else, he surely thought I was mentally ill. Such a comment was anything but pleasant, so I lowered my head to eat, offering no reply.

In the evening, the hospital only allowed one person to stay overnight to care for the patient. I urged Old He to go home, but before leaving, he insisted on agreeing that we would alternate staying on duty, one day each.

After he left, I sat alone beside my older sister, taking out the folded note from earlier and examining it again and again. The handwriting was very sloppy, bearing an eighty percent resemblance to my sister's usual script. If she had indeed written it, she must have been in a great hurry. What did these few words mean? Had my sister found a clue to breaking the Gu poison curse?

I thought it over and over, finally deciding to call Li Xiaoshu to ask if he knew what the clue on the note referred to. However, Li Xiaoshu didn't pick up. I resigned myself to sending a text message, asking him to reply when he had a moment.

The next morning, Old He appeared at the ward door with a large bag of breakfast. I was surprised he hadn't gone to work. He pulled out his phone, flipped to the calendar page, and explained, "Yesterday was Sunday. I took a makeup day off to handle your case."

"So today is Monday. Did Li Xiaohao go to get the stamp album?" "Who is Li Xiaohao?"

Ugh, I’d let it slip unconsciously, giving myself two quick slaps on the cheek. This kind of grotesque, supernatural affair was something the police wouldn't possibly believe.

"I misspoke, I misspoke, I meant Xiaoshu." "Oh, I don't know, she hasn't made it back to the office yet. Eat your breakfast quickly."

Old He laid the breakfast items out one by one on the table, handing me two steamed buns and a cup of soy milk.

I grabbed them and immediately started devouring them, all the while puzzling over the contents of that note. Why hadn't Li Xiaoshu returned my call? Li Xiaohao should have already gone to retrieve the stamp album early this morning.

"Achoo... Achoo..." Just as I was thinking this, Old He began sneezing one after another, as if a pepper shaker had been overturned.

"Old He, are you alright?" "I'm fine... Achoo... fine..." With that last sneeze, saliva mixed with mucus shot out, hitting my soy milk and soaking my clothes. Direct hit.

OMG, my appetite vanished instantly. Using the excuse of needing a tissue, I put down my breakfast, deciding I didn't want to eat anymore.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Old He apologized repeatedly while wiping his nose. "I'll go back and take some medicine, and I'll bring you a clean set of clothes while I'm at it."

Before I could fully recover from the nausea, Old He had already slipped away.

I tidied up the remaining breakfast, placing what hadn't been eaten into the refrigerator and discarding the rest. After cleaning the mess off my clothes in the bathroom, I sat down on the chair beside the hospital bed, returning my focus to the mystery of the note.

Wangcheng is our hometown, the place my sister went to just before everything happened. Could it be that her return home is connected to this note? Could the address written on the paper be where she went?

Just then, someone pushed the door open. I assumed it was the doctor making rounds, but when I looked up, I was startled almost to death. The person standing there was staring directly at me, their eyes blazing with palpable hostility!