Mu Su pushed the wheelchair, moving along the path between the garden’s bushes and flowerbeds.

"Xinqi Building~" Mu Su, humming a song, soon felt tired and waved backward, "Wen Xi, help me."

Da Vinci reluctantly took over pushing the wheelchair from Mu Su, "Why is Lu Li walking while you’re sitting in the wheelchair?"

Lu Li quietly followed beside them.

"Because sitting in a wheelchair is every boy’s childhood dream!" Mu Su comfortably rested his liberated hands on the armrests.

"But Lu Li is the patient." 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"Precisely because of that, he needs to exercise his rusty body."

Mu Su on the wheelchair excitedly pointed ahead, "Onward! Target, that bench!"

Da Vinci screamed and rushed forward, but after barely ten meters, the roadside shrub tangled in the wheels, flipping both him and the chair onto the ground.

"Do you guys need any help? Give me some money and I’ll help you up..."

A passing patient greeted them eagerly, flashing a smile with gold teeth.

"Oh, trying to bribe me, huh?" Mu Su rolled over on the grass, naturally propped on an arm and crossing his legs, "Give me money or I’ll pull you down."

"If you give me money, I’ll let you pull me down."

The silent Lu Li bypassed the squabbling psychiatric patients and came to sit by the bench.

Sunlight broke through the clouds, warming the hospital gown and emitting a sunny aroma.

Patients enjoyed the afternoon’s leisure in the garden. Colorful camping mats were spread out randomly under the distant ancient trees.

The brief peace was soon shattered successively.

"What does it mean, I’m just asking, what does it mean?" a patient with slicked-back hair holding a cellphone hollered as he passed by, "Don’t I deserve respect? You look like a fool! Do you understand? You don’t understand either..."

Squeak—

The bench trembled as a silhouette sat beside them.

"Didn’t you say you had a dream?" Mu Su lowered his head, picking grass leaves from himself, but couldn’t remove the grass stains.

Lu Li nodded gently, "I had a very long... very long dream."

Squeak—

Da Vinci, covered in even more grass and stains, climbed onto the bench.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Don’t stir things up, let him speak."

Lu Li calmly narrated, "On June 11th, I appeared in a port city named Belfast..."

"Belfast... I remember you were there before you got admitted, is it Ireland?"

"Correction, Northern Ireland."

"Correcting your correction, United Kingdom’s Northern Ireland."

"Haha, who knows if Northern Ireland will secede from the UK in a few years."

Mu Su and Da Vinci argued playfully.

"Are you still listening?"

Lu Li looked at them.

"Go ahead."

Da Vinci covered his mouth, Mu Su mimicked zipping his lips.

"I thought I had traveled there, disassembled phones to sell, opened a detective agency to investigate, and coincidentally encountered a supernatural event..."

"You’ve been watching him since just now." Da Vinci bumped Mu Su’s shoulder, nodding toward a non-uniformed outsider not far away, whispering, "Do you know him?"

"His name is Wang Yao, a member of a mysterious and ancient organization with an undisclosed name and obligation..."

"What name?"

"ofTum"

"What obligation?"

"To contain mind-bendingly dangerous items and maintain world peace."

Da Vinci let out a long "oh," enlightened, "What about the woman with him?"

A figure stood not far from Wang Yao, but he seemed unaware of her existence.

"The one following him is Zhi Zi, an ultimate killer!"

"A Japanese woman?"

"Smart micro-particles, a tool used by alien races to monitor us."

"I’ve read The Three-Body Problem, okay."

Mu Su and Da Vinci were whispering, while Lu Li kept narrating to himself, recalling the seemingly dreamlike story, enjoying the camaraderie, until they were all interrupted by sudden laughter.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

A nearby middle-aged man on the bench laughed madly.

"Ew, what’s he doing?"

"That’s Fang Wenbiao, a patient who thinks we’re all fictional characters." Da Vinci pretended to adjust nonexistent glasses, "He should be trying to steal the spotlight."

"What are you saying now?"

"He believes that laughing loudly will get him written into the book."

It was an asylum. Like those in blue and white hospital gowns crouching among the bushes. One believed he was a mushroom, one believed he was a mushroom picker, one believed he was a showerhead.

"Why aren’t you continuing?" Bored, Mu Su refocused on Lu Li.

"I’ve finished."

"Clap clap clap—" Mu Su mimicked applause with his mouth, "This Lovecraftian story is great, ought to think of a way to plagiarize it online, pretending I wrote it."

"It’s not a Lovecraftian story, it’s my story."

Lu Li just sat on the bench, watching the sunset unfold.

Mu Su and Da Vinci jokingly fought, leaving and returning. After sunset, he carried Da Vinci’s worn-out radio while Da Vinci brought two sodas.

"This cost me several bags of instant noodles to trade..."

Mu Su responded dismissively, taking the soda, kicking Da Vinci aside, and turning on the radio.

The garden slowly quieted as Mu Su started a fire. Such an action should attract opposition, but faced no obstruction.

The flickering shadows behind them danced like they were dancing.

Tss—

Mu Su opened the soda, handed one bottle to Lu Li.

Lu Li remained unmoved, sitting in the cool summer evening, gazing through the rising smoke at the sunset glow.

A bottle suddenly thrust into his hand dispelled the melancholy brought by the evening, then music began to play from the radio:

[Ni una simple sonrisa (In his deep eyes)]

ni un poco de luz en sus ojos profundos [There’s no hint of a smile, no trace of light]

[ni siquiera el reflejo (He doesn’t even have any thoughts)]

[de algún pensamiento que alegre su mundo (to make his world a happier place)]

[Hay tristeza en sus ojos (His eyes hold sadness)]

Night fell, Lu Li squinted, looking up, calmly watching the stars mixed with the flavor of soda.

The stars shimmer like flowers falling.

[El muchacho de los ojos tristes (The boy with sad eyes)]

[vive solo y necesita amor (lives alone and needs love)]

[como el aire necesita verme (as air, he needs me)]

[como al sol lo necesito yo (like sunlight, I need him)]

[El muchacho de los ojos tristes (The boy with sad eyes)]

[ha encontrado al fin una razón (has finally found a reason)]

[para hacer que su mirada ría (to make his eyes smile)]

[con mis besos y mi gran amor (with my kisses and my great love)]

Thud—

An empty bottle fell, and Lu Li collapsed onto the bench.

"Getting drunk on soda, this Lu Li sure is a weakling."

Mu Su shook his head, sighed, gazing upward at the sky bathed in cold light, the full moon mirrored in his eyes, as if raising a glass, holding his soda, toasting the distant moon.