I Run Away with the Earth to Save the World [Unlimited Flow] - Chapter 136

Lu Lingxi hesitantly asked, “A psychological escape response?”

Jing Qizhen nodded. “More or less. Honestly, forget patients with schizophrenia and paranoia, even a regular person’s first instinct when encountering the March Hare would be to run, right?”

Manman chimed in casually, “Or maybe they’ll whip out their phone to take a quick video and then call the police.”

Jing Qizhen fell silent for a moment. “…Fair enough.” After another pause, he added, “Actually, I think I might have a new lead on where those survivors are hiding.”

The others asked directly, “Where?”

Jing Qizhen replied, “The morgue.”

Everyone else: “……”

That was certainly unexpected but when they thought about it, it actually made a strange sort of sense.

Jing Qizhen continued, “Although we still don’t know the relationship between the survivor and the car accident victim, the survivor clearly cares a lot about the incident.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. It was evident even from that nearly crumpled newspaper.

After inspecting the five-day-old newspaper, the mirror patched with white medical tape, and the blood-stained fruit knife, Jing Qizhen finally turned his attention to the last item, the notebook. It was a thin notebook and flipping it open revealed that many pages had been torn out.

Lu Lingxi, standing beside him, glanced at it and frowned slightly. “The handwriting here rivals a doctor’s prescription.”

Wang Feizhou muttered with a blank look, “It’s not that bad, really not that bad.”

The others couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

Manman teased Wang Feizhou, “What’s wrong? Haven’t you mastered the fine art of doctor’s handwriting as an intern yet?”

Wang Feizhou nodded bitterly.

Seeing that, Manman stopped teasing him and said sincerely, “Well then, good luck catching up!”

Jing Qizhen flipped through the notebook carefully. Aside from the torn-out pages, there wasn’t much content left. Worse, the handwriting was so illegible that he realized he might not be able to decipher it alone. He silently handed the notebook to the others. “Everyone, take a look and see if you can make anything out of it.”

After a while, Si Jiayang spoke up on everyone’s behalf, coolly and objectively, “It looks like arcane scribbles.”

Jing Qizhen, not responding: “……” Fair enough. Unanimous consensus.

Wang Feizhou couldn’t help asking, “Where’s that guy who helped us decipher handwriting last time? I think he could do it.”

Jing Qizhen nodded. “Good idea.” When it came to this kind of thing, no one else could compare to the Earth. Although the Earth wasn’t there at the moment, Jing Qizhen still called out mentally, “Babyball, are you there?”

There was no reply. Clearly, the Earth was still out in the real world, somewhere in a hospital, earnestly searching for a patient who looked like the survivor.

Despite the lack of response, Jing Qizhen wasn’t worried. That little ball would definitely return soon.

What concerned him more was whether the Earth would actually find anything useful.

After all, the erosion area was extraordinarily peculiar. Even though Jing Qizhen had already guessed that the erosion core was related to a schizophrenic patient, the true nature of the core was still unclear. And taking it a step further, if the erosion core really was the schizophrenic patient, then they were currently inside that patient’s mind, trapped in his fantasy. How could they possibly resolve the core from inside?

Even if they steeled themselves to deal with the patient directly, the real person was still outside in the real world, completely out of reach while they were stuck in the erosion area.

That would be another problem to solve.

Thinking of this, Jing Qizhen decided to say it out loud, hoping someone else might have an idea.

Everyone fell silent for a moment. No one rushed off to keep looking for the missing survivor. Instead, they sat down and opened their minds for a serious brainstorming session.

Manman and Si Jiayang exchanged a look. Instinctively, one of them said, “If this were a horror game, a horror novel, or some story about dreams, the most common solution would be first realizing you’re inside a dream.”

Jing Qizhen replied immediately, “We all know this is someone else’s fantasy. The issue is that the person themselves doesn’t.”

Old Xiao couldn’t help but say, “I’ve always had one question. Is the survivor just one person or multiple people?”

Jing Qizhen answered, “I personally think it’s just one.”

Wang Feizhou added, “Even though schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder are different, since the patient has severe paranoid delusions, that means their fantasies are very strong. Auditory and visual hallucinations are likely too, so the other ‘survivors’ are probably just projections of their imagination. It’s that common phenomenon where others see someone whispering to themselves in a corner, but the person genuinely thinks they’re talking to someone else.”

Jin Guijuan shook her head and sighed. “There you go telling another horror story again.”

Jing Qizhen chuckled. “We all know you don’t mean to make it creepy.”

Wang Feizhou: “……”

After that little detour, Jing Qizhen brought the topic back. Jing Qizhen said, “The patient most likely doesn’t know this is a dream, or rather, it’s not a dream at all, but a fantasy inside their mind.”

Lu Lingxi immediately latched onto the key point. “So if we can get the patient to realize this is a false fantasy, the core of this erosion area might collapse on its own?”

Jing Qizhen nodded. “It’s just a theory, but definitely worth trying.”

Grandma Fang frowned. “Waking up a schizophrenic patient won’t be easy…”

Following the earlier line of thinking he and Manman had discussed, Si Jiayang said, “If it were an ordinary person we wanted to wake from a dream, the best method would be—”

Lu Lingxi, clearly experienced, cut in decisively, “Rip off their blanket and throw cold water on them!”

Jing Qizhen: “……” Brutal move.

Even Si Jiayang choked a bit at that.

Manman, as calm as ever, continued, “The premise of throwing cold water is that we’re outside the dream. Right now, we’re essentially inside it. According to films, novels, or horror games, the typical method of waking someone from a dream is to make the dreamer aware that something’s wrong. Once they sense that something’s off, the dream shatters.”

Jing Qizhen shook his head, outright rejecting the idea. “That method assumes the dreamer has normal cognitive awareness. But we’re dealing with a schizophrenic patient, someone who already lives in their own fantasy. No matter how absurd or surreal the scenario becomes, it only reminds us, the outsiders, that this world is false. The patient, however, will still fully believe in it.”

After all, the erosion area was born entirely from his mind. No matter how much they noticed the inconsistencies, it wouldn’t change the patient’s belief.

Wang Feizhou cautiously added, “There’s also the idea of stimulating the patient directly. It’s not impossible, but it’s hard to predict how a schizophrenic might react. One wrong move could worsen the condition. Of course, there’s also a small chance that we’re lucky and the stimulation brings a brief moment of clarity.”

Wilcox glanced at Wang Feizhou and muttered in his Sichuan-flavored dialect, “That doesn’t sound reliable at all…”

Wang Feizhou sighed too. He knew deep down that communicating with a schizophrenic patient was always extremely difficult. Finally, he mumbled to himself, “If you’re sick, you should go to the hospital, see a doctor, and take your meds.”

That line lit up something in Jing Qizhen’s mind. “Exactly, take your meds!”

Wang Feizhou blinked and then corrected instinctively, “You mean if you’re sick, take your meds?”

Jing Qizhen just blinked back at him with a mysterious smile and said nothing.

Having previously drugged food in an erosion area, Si Jiayang caught on quickly. “I’ll cook again and this time, I’ll add some medication. Once the patient eats it, we’ll try talking to him.”

Given the survivor’s rejection of medical staff, he clearly wasn’t going to take his meds willingly. Otherwise, Jing Qizhen wouldn’t resort to such a tactic. Jing Qizhen glanced at the stunned Wang Feizhou and chuckled. “And although we’re not doctors, the psychiatrists this patient encountered definitely were. Before we approach the patient, we can talk to one.”

Jin Guijuan frowned. “But those ghosts see us like we’re the ghosts. There’s no way to have a normal conversation.”

Jing Qizhen opened his bag, pulled out identity badges from the Health Bureau and Drug Administration, and sighed a little, “I never thought these would come in handy here.”

Manman, quick to catch on, remembered the holiday notice Jing Qizhen had posted downstairs earlier and raised an eyebrow. “Perfect. We can give the other ghosts a day off so they don’t come running and yelling, but we’ll keep the psychiatrist around.”

Jing Qizhen nodded. “We can’t even see the door to the Psychiatric Department, thank goodness for the March Hare.”

Si Jiayang chimed in cheerfully, “I’ll whip up something tasty for it later.”

As everyone pinned their ID badges to their chests, Jing Qizhen thought of something else.

Jing Qizhen: “You know, we could also try calling the police.”

Old Xiao was puzzled. “Why get the police involved?”

Manman immediately caught on. “Because the patient might trust the police, it could reduce his fear.”

Jing Qizhen nodded. “Exactly. But we’ll have to take this one step at a time. If we push too fast, the patient might spiral into confusion.”

With a clearer plan in mind, everyone felt a little more reassured.

Si Jiayang said, “Grab your stuff and let’s head to the cafeteria!”

Jing Qizhen nodded. He also wanted to wait for the Earth to return and confirm a few things. And he still didn’t know if Yun Shuanghua had come back from grocery shopping yet…

Wang Feizhou reminded him, “We really should track down the psychiatrist. Before we add anything to the food, we need to confirm the dosage.”

Hearing that, Jing Qizhen took out the torn label from earlier, marked with ‘hydrochloride chlorpromazine’ and after a moment of thought, said, “We’d better find the actual prescription.”

Who knows, maybe that impossible-to-read notebook contains some useful records.