Following the doctor's suggestion, Jiang Lin stepped out of her hospital room.
The corridor was typically spacious and bright, with sunlight streaming through the windows, making the entire hallway appear warm and comfortable.
Compared to an asylum, this place felt more like so kind of high-end sanatorium.
Many other patients wearing hospital gowns were moving about in the corridor, though patients rarely interacted with each other.
Everyone in the hallway was occupied with their own activities—dancing, reading, talking to themselves, or staring blankly at the wall.
Jiang Lin surveyed her surroundings, feeling everything was very familiar.
That's right, she had been staying at this hospital for a long ti—she was a patient here.
This thought surfaced in Jiang Lin's mind once again—yes, why should she doubt it?
However, the patients on this floor were sowhat boring...
"Let check out the floors below," Jiang Lin could see through the windows that this building had five floors, and she was on the fourth floor. "But can I leave my current floor?"
Although Jiang Lin had so doubts and concerns, she quickly convinced herself.
It should be fine—no doctor or anyone had ever told her she couldn't leave this floor...
She also didn't rember any similar restrictions in the hospital's rules... In fact, Jiang Lin vaguely recalled having visited the lower floors before.
She couldn't rember exactly when she had gone... but that was understandable, given she was undergoing treatnt.
With all the psychiatric dications she had taken, mory issues weren't surprising.
Having reached this conclusion, Jiang Lin made her decision.
She would go downstairs—not for any particular reason, just because the urge was growing stronger.
Subsequently, Jiang Lin began searching around her floor.
She didn't waste much ti before finding the staircase leading downward from this level.
The sign at the staircase entrance read "Ergency Exit."
Jiang Lin pulled open the door to find cleaning staff tidying up in the stairwell, along with several patients drawing on the walls.
Seeing Jiang Lin, those patients didn't react particularly, rely nodding slightly in greeting.
Jiang Lin sighed, looking enviously at the brushes in their hands—these people were allowed to paint, following doctors' recomndations.
Unlike her, who wasn't permitted to draw.
But Jiang Lin quickly adjusted her mindset and continued descending, soon reaching the third floor.
Should she go to the third floor?
Jiang Lin hesitated briefly before deciding to continue downward.
She descended another floor, arriving at the entrance to the second level.
Behind the second-floor stairwell door crouched a security guard uncle smoking a cigarette. Seeing Jiang Lin, he hurriedly stood up, sowhat embarrassed as he extinguished his cigarette.
"Oh dear... could you not tell the doctors or the director?"
The security guard uncle said with an apologetic smile.
Jiang Lin nodded slightly, speaking quietly, "Of course I won't."
She wasn't the type to tattle on people.
Although the hospital had rules against smoking, the security guard uncle was already hiding in the stairwell and wasn't bothering anyone...
Hearing Jiang Lin's words, the guard relaxed with relief, hurriedly opening the door for her in an attempt to please.
"You're heading to the second floor, right? Go ahead!"
As the security guard uncle spoke, Jiang Lin politely thanked him and walked through.
Upon reaching the second floor, Jiang Lin found it wasn't much different from the fourth floor.
Similarly filled with patients occupied with their own activities.
But this ti, one particular patient caught her attention.
A woman also wearing a hospital gown but sporting gold-rimd glasses, who appeared quite amiable.
She was crouched by a corridor window, carefully yet furtively peering outside.
Jiang Lin couldn't help but approach and ask.
"Hello, what are you doing?"
As Jiang Lin asked, the other woman jumped in surprise before turning around.
"Whoa, who are you?!"
After looking Jiang Lin up and down, the woman frowned and spoke in heavily accented Hunan Mandarin.
"Wait, you're not from this floor... You're a patient from upstairs?!"
Jiang Lin nodded, "Yes, I'm from the fourth floor... Is sothing wrong?"
The gold-rimd glasses girl grew more alert, "Fourth floor? What are you doing on our second floor... gathering intelligence?"
"Are you planning to declare war on us?"
The gold-rimd glasses girl clenched her fists, treating the situation like a grave threat.
Jiang Lin was montarily stunned, finding the other's thought process quite peculiar.
But upon reflection...
This was a ntal hospital.
The other's strange logic was actually normal here.
After all, if she were ntally sound, why would she be in this hospital?
Maintaining emotional stability, Jiang Lin calmly explained to the other woman.
"We're all patients in this hospital... why would we wage war by floor units? What benefit would that bring?"
"We don't have any conflicting interests... Moreover, shared floor identity isn't enough to unite sufficient people or serve as justification for war."
The gold-rimd glasses woman across from her showed a contemplative expression.
"Right... that makes sense."
"So you're not here to declare war?"
Jiang Lin nodded.
The gold-rimd glasses woman rubbed her chin, "Then why did you co all the way to the second floor?"
"Because... I was bored, I suppose, and it's not that far—just down two flights of stairs."
Jiang Lin said softly, though she herself didn't really know why.
Initially, she just found the people on the fourth floor uninteresting, then suddenly felt this impulse to co here.
But this reason was enough to convince the gold-rimd glasses woman, "I see... you're quite decisive!"
"I admire that—let's be friends. What should I call you?"
Just as Jiang Lin was about to give her real na, the other woman interrupted her.
"Wait... don't tell your actual na! That's not safe!"
Watching the gold-rimd glasses woman speak so seriously, Jiang Lin was taken aback, "Not safe? What do you an?"
"I suggest we use code nas," the gold-rimd glasses woman said solemnly, "After all, we've just t, and this environnt is quite special!"
"Nas are just for convenient addressing—we can share our more commonly used nas when we beco closer!"
Hearing the other's words, Jiang Lin found them quite persuasive.
"That... that makes sense," she said quietly, then continued, "Then you can call ... um, call Robin!"
In Jiang Lin's mory, she seed to have used this na for a long ti—probably a nickna from before she ca here?
Who knew!
Jiang Lin looked at the other woman.
"And what should I call you?"
The gold-rimd glasses woman looked quite proud, "Heh, I prepared a 'code na' long ago for situations like this... Listen carefully, I am..."
Just as she said this, she suddenly froze.
"Eh? Who am I again?"
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