2. The Mutual Aid Group

Ning Changkong looked at Marn—a man in his fifties wearing a black suit.

At the Victor Sanatorium, clients in the high-end wing enjoyed a variety of entertainment services, including a weekly social event called the "Mutual Aid Group." When introducing this to the patients' families, doctors would claim that the activity provided psychological support, but in reality, its true purpose was merely to offer this group of wealthy patients an excuse to socialize.

The young woman introduced herself politely:
"Uncle Marn, you should remember me, right? I'm Ning Changkong. We were always in the same mutual aid group before."

Marn felt slightly puzzled by her choice of address; they looked at most a few years apart in age.
"Why do you call me uncle?" he asked, confused.

The young woman seemed to realize something and asked, looking a bit embarrassed:
"Mr. Marn, may I venture to ask your age?"
"Twenty-six," he said, stating the second number that came to mind.

Ning Changkong looked apologetic:
"Actually, I suffer from a cognitive disorder. Simply put, everyone I see is a hallucination. To me, you look about fifty, wearing a black formal suit, with muscular arms and stubble on your chin—a bit like a classic handsome older man in a movie, with a low, charming voice. But these are all my hallucinations, right?"

Marn teased, "Or perhaps I'm the one who's crazy. Maybe I really am a middle-aged man in my fifties who just imagines himself to be young. After all, we are two psychiatric patients."

Rationally speaking, he was currently in a mental hospital. Any superpowers, anomalous entities, bank cards, or fake IDs could all be hallucinations, and his memory lapses were likely just part of his condition. But Marn was completely indifferent to this. After all, he wasn't the one who needed to worry about a madman.

Ning Changkong smiled and said, "Didn't we reorganize the mutual aid group? In the new group, you and I are the only ones who knew each other before, so I wanted to ask if you’d like to head to the activity room with me."

Marn agreed immediately: "Sure."
It was convenient, as he didn't know the way. However, looking at the young woman before him, Marn noticed his own unusual calmness. Despite being trapped in a predicament, he felt as if he were accustomed to such situations, and he was analyzing the current state of affairs quite clearly.

He could use this girl to gather information about the hospital, then find Dr. Li to handle his discharge paperwork, and after leaving, find a way to slowly recover his memories.

As the girl led the way, they walked toward the activity room. Marn slowed his speech and asked:
"Dr. Li..."
He carefully observed the girl's expression, ready to change his question at any moment. But before he could decide what exactly to ask, she had already answered.

"He was a good man," Ning Changkong shook her head slightly. "It’s a real shame."
"Hmm," Marn echoed, though he had no idea what she was talking about.

The young woman sighed softly:
"No one expected that kind doctor to jump to his death."
What? Dr. Li was dead?

Could it be the work of the anomalous entity that had attacked him? If it could erase his memory, perhaps it could also control others to jump to their deaths—or worse, there were other powered individuals here. Furthermore, the information in his notes was outdated. Marn recalled the questions he had written on the paper and immediately realized the answer: by the time he wrote that line about Dr. Li, he had already forgotten the doctor was dead.

"Do you really think it was suicide?" Marn asked, testing the waters.
The girl shook her head:
"I heard a rumor that when Dr. Li was found, he was staring fixedly at the direction of his office, as if someone were looking back at him. But I still believe the police investigation."

Marn nodded slightly:
"Everyone has a side they keep hidden."

She hadn't expected Marn to be this talkative. In Ning Changkong's previous impression, Marn was a taciturn middle-aged man, so she had been worried about him being difficult to approach when she first came over.

"By the way," Marn asked curiously, "have you seen the other members of the new group?"
Since she had been able to find him, she might well have figured out the status of the other patients.

Ning Changkong introduced them enthusiastically:
"I did ask around. The moderator is still Dr. Liu Yujun, but she’s now become the assistant to a new doctor, Dr. Xu. Most importantly, there’s a second-generation rich kid among the patients named Lu Yide. I heard he murdered his girlfriend and was supposed to go to prison, but somehow his lawyer convinced the judge that it was his second personality who killed the girl, so he was transferred to our hospital's high-end wing."

Marn was somewhat surprised:
"Can a murderer participate in a mutual aid group?"

The girl looked at Marn with surprise:
"Mr. Marn, if Mr. Victor hadn't lobbied the state government seventy years ago to designate the sanatorium's high-end area as a legally controlled space, we wouldn't be allowed to move around so freely or enjoy these entertainment services. There is nothing that money cannot buy."

This statement made Marn feel an instinctive rejection. But he immediately remembered that he had thirty million in his bank account. Then, a new doubt arose in his heart:
"What about our safety? Is the hospital going to let us stay with a dangerous individual?"

They were standing in front of the elevator doors as they slowly opened. Ning Changkong said:
"Although my family background is decent, it is far inferior to the Fu'de Real Estate group. I believe neither you nor the other members can compare to Lu Yide's background. When we say money can buy anything, it doesn't just refer to objects, and... do you really believe he has mental issues?"

The girl pressed the button for the fifth floor, taking the opportunity to quietly observe the man. She had been planning this meeting for a long time.

The girl hadn't actually fully confessed her condition. Visual hallucinations were the simplest of her problems. Beyond that, she couldn't smell scents on others normally. Instead, she could perceive something like an aura. When approaching the auras of others, she couldn't help but feel various emotions and sensations—happiness, calmness, confusion, or madness, terror, and despair.

She had nearly lost her life several times due to intense negative auras. Until she met Marn.

The aura around him was one of an indescribable serenity, and for reasons she didn't understand, when Marn was near, she couldn't perceive anyone else's aura. It was as if he were the only person in the world who existed.