I dug up the magical girl's corpse.

Chapter 52 Taking a Bath

Chen Mu left the doctor's office.

In the end, Dr. Wang was unable to persuade her. When faced with the question of "what happened in that world," she remained silent and resisted.

"Well, I won't pressure you, so as not to aggravate your condition."

Dr. Wang could only helplessly put away the medical record and ask her to leave: "Come back when you're ready to talk. You'll understand when you've thought it through. I'm doing this for your own good."

"Thank you, doctor."

Chen Mu simply stood up calmly, without reacting much.

Perhaps to please her, Dr. Wang did not send Chen Mu back to the small dark room for continued confinement, but instead allowed her to take a shower and then return to her original ward.

Chen Mu was certainly willing to accept it, but whether this good intention would be useful was another matter.

She was locked up in solitary confinement for a month, and she had a certain smell about her. She probably couldn't smell it herself, but after realizing it, she felt uncomfortable all over and extremely unwell.

It's amazing that the doctor was able to sit across from me without changing his expression or reacting at all.

She was eager to get rid of the sticky feeling all over her body, so she went into the bathhouse under the supervision of the caregiver. The bathhouse in the mental hospital was a large communal room with simple cubicles under different showerheads, separated only by a wooden board, which did not provide much privacy. This was to facilitate the caregivers' supervision and prevent any accidents from happening to patients.

Fortunately, this building is occupied by female patients. I heard that male patients are in another ward, so there is no inconvenience.

Patients usually have fixed shower times, but Chen Mu was treated specially today, so she was alone when she came in, allowing her some peace and quiet to think about the problem.

He turned on the water valve, and the showerhead overhead poured cold water down his neck and down to his ankles. Chen Mu felt the chill he needed and his heart skipped a beat.

"What exactly is Dr. Wang after? Why is he asking me questions from another world?"

Chen Mu wasn't stupid; she could tell that Wang Dashan was definitely planning something when he put on this "good cop/bad cop" and "coercion/enticement" act.

She just couldn't understand what value she, a mental patient, could possibly have to be extracted from her. Was it compensation money? Hadn't she already given it all to the hospital?

But he asked about something else entirely, about the magical girl and the truth behind Lin Chaojing's death, which puzzled Chen Mu greatly.

"Isn't this a world without magical girls? What's the point of him asking these questions? Does he want to become a magical girl too?"

Chen Mu couldn't help but recall her initial assumption:

"Could it be that this world is truly an illusion created for me by some incredibly powerful magical girl? Is this all a ploy to trick me into revealing my secret?"

After thinking for a while, she decided to reject the possibility. Firstly, for the same reason as before, if there really was such a powerful being, they would simply come and attack directly.

Secondly, [Tide] is now in Shenyue City, right under her nose. Chen Mu believes that he will not be in any danger and will not be tricked by such a scheme.

"I entered the dream world without her even knowing, which means it's a power of the same concept as the [Memory World], surpassing the level of a flower."

Chen Mu decided to treat this phenomenon as a real-world phenomenon; there was no point in repeatedly debating whether it was true or false.

The key is to draw strength from it, just like the "history of time," to find patterns and how to use it.

Then she thought of:

"It's possible that Dr. Wang didn't think that much about it; he simply wanted to use me as the subject of his research on that treatment method, as an academic achievement."

If that's the case, Chen Mu will be even less able to cooperate with the treatment.

If his personality were truly frozen in this world, he might never be able to travel back and return to his original reality. In that case, everything in that world would vanish—the magical girl, the league, the sister-in-law, the truth behind his wife's death—all the plans and schemes would fail. How could that be possible!

At that time, Chen Mu will not get any benefits and will probably still be locked up in this mental hospital. At most, his name will become a case in Wang Dashan's paper.

The thought that what she said here was heard or even recorded by others made her very uncomfortable.

"If we get the chance, we have to get that recording back..."

Chen Mu raised his head, letting the water stream down his face, and carefully wiped it: "Ideally, we should completely get rid of everyone who heard about this."

When she opened her eyes again, a hint of ruthlessness flashed in her pupils.

Even knowing that these words were a secret to her and meaningless ramblings of a madman to the rest of the world, she still didn't want anyone to know.

She looked down at her body, which was soaked in water.

Although it had been washed clean and was free of dirt, it was still shocking to see. Pale, emaciated, with ribs visible, limbs thin and joints distinct, it was almost unrecognizable as the body of a young girl. There were also many scars and bruises on her skin, it was hard to tell whether she had been tortured and beaten or had injured herself while in a fit of madness...

With his back to the water, Chen Mu clenched his fist:

"Chen Mu is me, and Chen Mu is me too."

From today onward, she will treat this girl as herself, as another version of herself in a parallel world, rather than as some kind of fantasy or dream.

We must escape this mental hospital, escape this inhuman condition.

...

After taking a shower, Chen Mu changed into a brand new hospital gown. Although the style was simple, she still felt refreshed and clean.

Her gray-white hair had grown to about shoulder length, still considered short, but short hair was more convenient in this environment. It wasn't completely dry yet, clinging damply to her skin, somewhat messy, longer in some places and shorter in others, clearly not carefully styled. Combined with Chen Mu's eyes and features, it gave her a fierce, wolfish air.

It makes people panic when they see it, thinking that the patient is indeed seriously ill.

"Why does it take so long to take a shower? Are you secretly doing something?"

As soon as I stepped outside, the caregiver standing guard at the door complained.

"Isn't it a good thing that the patient can take a bath by himself? There's no need to trouble you ladies for help."

As soon as Chen Mu stepped outside, his expression changed, and he put on a gentle and lovely smile, very friendly: "Besides, being clean and not smelly also improves everyone's working environment."

The caregiver stared at Chen Mu carefully, looking him up and down, but ultimately couldn't find anything wrong with him.

"snort."

He could only scoff, "If only you could stay this lucid all the time. Come on, let's go back to the ward."

Chen Mu agreed and obediently let the caregiver lead her around. A yellow wristband was tied around her wrist again, presumably symbolizing that her level of discipline had been reduced to that of an ordinary patient.

Although she hadn't been back for a long time, she was surprisingly familiar with the way back to her ward. Even with a caregiver following behind, she quickly made her way back to her original ward.

"Xiao Ying, I'm back."

She pushed open the door, intending to greet her fellow patient whom she hadn't seen in a long time. She remembered that the little girl was quite cute, but a bit clingy, always calling her "witch" or something like that.

However, Chen Mu was stunned when he glanced at the scene in the ward—

On the bed where the little girl used to live, lay a disheveled, unknown woman with her limbs bent backwards, face up, in a bizarre and twisted position!