The image of the medicine-grinding jar from earlier in the day and Anna Harris's smiling face kept alternating in his mind.

“If my condition gets worse and I can’t be discharged before the college entrance exam, what will I do? Then I won’t be able to take the exam at the same university as Anna Harris.”

Even though he was staying in here, David Thompson understood the rumors outside. In the eyes of the neighbors, someone like him was a complete lunatic.

And yet, facing someone like him—a madman—on the day before he was admitted, his childhood friend Anna Harris had actually confessed to him, her feelings for him clear without words.

She was a good girl, and as a man, he didn’t want to let her down.

“This shouldn’t be happening. I’ve been following the doctor’s orders completely these days, so why is my condition getting worse? Am I going to be transferred to another hospital again? This is already the third one.”

“Dr. Thompson should be fine, right? He’s the best doctor my dad could find.”

The more he thought about these worries, the more troubled he became. In the end, he simply sat up abruptly like a carp flipping out of water, dumped out Anna Harris’s books and test papers, and started studying.

He wanted to use this complex and difficult knowledge to dilute the persistent anxiety in his heart.

David Thompson continued doing his homework, and before he knew it, it was already late at night.

Just as he finished an English test paper, he stretched hard and rubbed his throbbing temples with his fingers.

“Ha~ What time is it? It must be really late.” David Thompson put on his slippers, planning to go to the bathroom before coming back to sleep.

As he yawned and walked toward the door, his right hand, which had been scratching his chest, suddenly stopped. David Thompson felt something strange on his chest.

He pulled open his collar and saw a patch of blackish-brown stuff limply stuck to his chest.

That strangely familiar color made a thought flash through his mind.

David Thompson touched it with his finger and put it in his mouth. The bitter taste with a hint of sweetness made his pupils contract slightly.

This was the candy that the foolish senior sister who died in the illusion had given him! Something from the illusion had actually appeared in reality!

Chapter 3: The Jade Pendant

When he confirmed that the candy on his chest was indeed real, David Thompson's heart pounded wildly, and the first thought that popped into his mind was, “I have to tell Dr. Thompson!”

But as soon as he lifted his right foot, it hung in midair, and other thoughts suddenly appeared in his mind.

He knew that there was more than just candy in his hallucinations—there were other things, things of even greater value!

Tasting the sweetness melting in his mouth, David Thompson paced slowly around the hospital room.

“This is an opportunity! A chance that could make Anna Harris and me rich overnight! It might even let me reach the pinnacle of life!” Excited, he quickly became certain of this.

“I can’t tell Dr. Thompson. I don’t want to be sent to a lab and dissected. Besides, this isn’t even his responsibility.” David Thompson thought to himself.

“But I can’t jump to conclusions about this just yet. I need to thoroughly figure out what’s really going on.” He silently resolved what he wanted to do.

Just as he was thinking this, the surroundings began to twist and change, and the clean, tidy hospital room started to fade away.

David Thompson was already used to this kind of thing. He quickly put his test papers and books into his satchel and tossed it into the far corner, to keep his hallucinating self from tearing them up.

Then he pressed the red button by the bed. A few seconds later, the last thing he saw was several nurses coming in and strapping him to the bed with restraints.

When he opened his eyes again, the crude, icy cave environment had returned, and the “junior brothers and sisters” with physical defects around him were looking at him curiously.

Sitting up from the cold stone surface, David Thompson once again examined everything around him with a special perspective.

Even though this was a hallucination, in his eyes now it was a treasure trove piled high with riches.

Maybe he wasn’t sick at all, but had an extremely rare special ability—one that those mediocre doctors just couldn’t detect.

“Maybe I’m not sick at all. Yes, that’s right, I’m not sick.”

Over the years, he’d really had enough of the label “mentally ill.” Everyone looked at him with strange eyes.

As if the moment he got sick, he was no longer human, but had become some kind of freak.

Just thinking that he might be able to shake off this label in the future made David Thompson so excited he could hardly contain himself.

In a great mood, he reached out and happily rubbed the shiny bald head of someone who had come over. “Haha, this is really fun.”

“What are you all doing gathered here? Get to work! If you don’t get the medicinal primer Master wants ready, you’ll ruin his plans for immortality, and he’ll skin you alive!” An extremely annoying voice came from the cave entrance.

David Thompson turned his head and saw that the speaker was the aloof Taoist who had delivered messages before. He still wore an arrogant expression, as if just talking to David Thompson and the other medicinal primers would dirty his eyes.

David Thompson remembered this guy’s name. In this hallucination, his Taoist name seemed to be Brian Thompson.