I never thought that one day I would get to know my body again.
Especially my legs.
They failed to help me escape when I needed it most, and now they have been replaced by mechanical prosthetics. I really feel like a waste. But such a waste can actually survive, and even enjoy the most advanced medical equipment in the world today.
medical service.
Learning to walk with a mechanical prosthesis is not as difficult as I thought, and it's certainly not that simple either.
This sentence is not contradictory. After I fell to the ground for an unknown number of times, I simply lay on the ground motionless. The practice room was very large, and it was obviously not designed and built specifically for me.
Lying on the cold floor and looking at the gloomy sky above the transparent ceiling, I fell into deep thought.
Who exactly saved me?
Is it Takahashi Ginko’s family? The Shimizu family that almost supports the entire existing government structure of New Tokyo City?
I quickly shook my head. I didn't think that such a twisted family who exchanged contact with the old gods for wealth and glory that didn't belong to them would really be kind, and I didn't think that Takahashi Ginko would save me out of guilt after waking up.
I realize more and more clearly how insignificant I am in this game between man and God. Maybe they have thousands of ways to get rid of me, but they will never go to all the trouble to organize so many medical experts to treat me.
I.
So who else could it be?
This is the question I think about and explore most these days besides getting familiar with my own body.
I try to look for clues in everything around me.
At first, it was the nurses and doctors who were very friendly to me, but they all made it clear that they had signed a confidentiality agreement, so they could not reveal even a shred of the truth to me. In desperation, I had no choice but to divert my attention to various items that I had access to.
I hope to understand my situation and my benefactor through them.
But what the other party did was so thorough.
There is almost everything here, but there are no clues that allow me to find out the truth.
But it wasn't all without success.
At least I can be sure that I have returned to China now. In the outdoor activity area, I saw the towering observation base between the mountains and rivers, as well as the familiar terraced fields and farmers working in the fields.
These familiar pictures made me feel at ease and also allowed me to roughly guess a few possibilities.
But when they came to see me, I realized that my exploration and discovery during this period was a pure waste of time.
…
"How is he feeling recently?" After getting off the private plane, the dignified middle-aged man started talking to the person in charge of this private hospital about the condition of the only patient here.
The person in charge was an amiable old man with white hair. He walked with his hands behind his back and said with a smile: "He is doing well. He can eat well and sleep well. He is just a little restless. He probably wants to know who saved him."
The middle-aged man smiled slightly. He took off his white gloves and revealed that his right hand was also a mechanical prosthesis.
It's just that his mechanical right hand is obviously more refined and flexible.
Taking off his glasses and wiping them, the middle-aged man smiled slightly: "It's too difficult for him. Come on, take me to see him."
"Um."
…
In the days after I woke up, apart from the necessary daily walking exercises and basic activity training, I would choose to stay in the library of this private hospital most of the time.
When I first learned that there was a library here, I thought it was just a small room filled with books, or maybe even just a reading room the size of a study. But when I came here, I realized that I was wrong.
…
The people who built this place are really wealthy.
He can design a walking practice trail into a four-kilometer-long corridor around a lake, he can design the hospital swimming pool to be large enough to accommodate hundreds of people partying at the same time, and naturally he won't make the library stingy.
When the nurse opened the door for me, I couldn't help but take a breath when I saw the real appearance of the library. I felt as if I had entered a palace of knowledge. The Library of Congress, once known as the world's first library, and this place
It pales in comparison.
Where is the library here? It is clearly an endless forest made of books.
"The collection of books here has now reached 190 million volumes, covering all languages in the world. There are also many rare and unique books and some rock wall inscriptions copied from the depths of ancient ruins." The nurse led me.
After arriving here, she transformed into a guide and gave me a brief introduction.
After hearing this, I was so shocked that I was speechless for a long time.
What is the concept of a collection of 190 million books?
No wonder the bookshelf here is so uniquely designed, looking like lush and towering trees. It was originally designed to store as many books as possible without affecting the overall design style of the library.
I passed by a bookshelf and picked up a well-packaged ancient book. Just as I was about to read it, the nurse hurriedly stepped forward and reminded me, "I'm sorry, sir, most of these ancient books are orphans. It's not convenient to borrow them at the moment."
After hearing this, I put the book back in embarrassment and asked: "So... which books are available?"
The nurse pointed to the book next to the ancient book whose basic material was obviously very new and said: "Books like this that have not been individually protected and encapsulated are copies. You can browse them at will. In addition, the library has seventeen reading rooms.
You can also go directly to the reading room to select the book you want to read through the equipment there. It is relatively complete at present, with 70% of the books already supporting human voice reading in more than seven common languages, and 84% of the books have complete
Electronic reading version, of course...you can also submit an application and get the paper book to read by yourself, which is very convenient."
I was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help but admire the owner of this library once again!
This is awesome! Not counting the 190 million books in the collection, 70% of them actually support human voice reading? What a huge amount of work this is.
"Um...thank you, I understand."
"Okay, if you need anything else, you can call me at any time, and I won't interrupt your reading." I was flattered by the nurse's thoughtfulness.
I quickly said some polite words.
After the beautiful girl left, I looked up at the dome of the library, which must have been at least dozens of meters high, and I couldn't calm down for a long time.
At that time, I even had an idea, that is...if I could spend the rest of my life here, wandering in the palace of knowledge, that would be great...
…
But when I saw him, my dream was immediately shattered.
Logically speaking, the meeting with the benefactor should be very warm and full of goodwill.
But the atmosphere in the room was strange and eerie.
"Who are you?" This is the question I wanted to blurt out immediately after entering this room, but I was silent for more than an hour before I finally had the courage to ask.
The reason for this situation, or the reason why I didn't dare to speak for a while, was that... apart from the fact that the middle-aged man sitting opposite me had a face that was almost exactly the same as mine, there was actually some teasing and ridicule in his eyes.
He has been holding a coin in his hand. Judging from the texture, it should not be a modern industrial product.
The appearance of the ancient coins looks like the calloused hands of farmers who often work in the fields. They are rough, irregular, and very dark in color.
I'm pretty sure I've seen that coin.
It was a relic left to me by my grandfather before he passed away. Unfortunately, I was too young at the time and lost it early.
But in my impression, grandpa has always been inseparable from this weird coin. Even when eating, he always has a free hand to turn the coin. Because of this, he often quarreled with grandma.
.
Later, after grandma passed away, grandpa became even more unscrupulous. Not only would he spin the coin on the table when eating, but he would even take the coin with him when taking a shower.
I once tried to ask my grandfather what was so special about this coin and why he would cherish it so much.
But grandpa always glared, hit me on the head and said: "Children don't understand anything, don't ask if they have these things."
I would definitely feel aggrieved by this, so I went to ask my father about it.
What I didn't expect was that my father smiled and said, "When I was a kid, I asked the same questions as you and ended up getting beaten. But I was more courageous before and sneaked past that thing. You guessed the result.
What's wrong?"
When I was young, I blinked and asked, "What's wrong?"
The father said: "It turned out that the thing seemed to have telepathy with your grandpa. As soon as I picked it up, your grandpa woke up. As a result, I was beaten again, and your grandpa was angry that time. He almost hit me with a stick.
It broke my leg, so since then, I never dare to touch that damn thing again."
After hearing this story, instead of being scared, I became even more curious about the meaning of that coin to my grandfather.
But until my grandfather passed away and he personally handed the coin to me, I had no way of knowing the secret behind it. I only remember that my grandfather stared at me and moved his lips, as if to say: "Don't lose it..."
"
Indeed, I cherished the coin even more when I first got it, because I was finally able to explore the secret behind it myself.
However, the coin seems to have lost its spirituality due to the death of my grandfather.
After it was passed down to me from my grandfather, I couldn't find anything special about it. Even the strange sound the coin made when my grandfather turned the coin at the dinner table disappeared for me, even because the coin itself was not special at all.
With its irregular appearance, I couldn't even throw it on the table and spin it like my grandfather did.
Over time, I completely lost interest in the coin. Not only did I not carry it with me as carefully as I did at the beginning, I even often lost it.
After several attempts, I finally lost it one evening...
But I never dreamed that after decades, I would see it again on an occasion like today, and that the man holding this coin actually had a face that was almost exactly the same as when I was young.
Seeing him smiling and saying nothing, I frowned and said, "Who are you?"
He finally said: "You and Luo An made a bet before, saying that sooner or later human beings would enter a mirror world, but Luo An didn't believe it at all at that time, and kept saying that you were stupid because of reading, so he made it in front of
You smashed all the mirrors at home, and both you and Luo An were beaten because of this, remember?"
Of course I remember, but...
"Don't change the subject, I'm asking you who you are?"
But he continued to answer the unreasonable question: "When you graduated from high school, you fell in love with a girl. Unfortunately, she didn't like you at all, so you secretly kissed her while she was sleeping. She didn't know about it at the time.
, but this scene was seen by the school leaders, so you became the laughing stock of the whole school, and that girl also chose to transfer to another school a week later. This incident... should be regarded as a big stain in your life, right? "
After hearing this story, I immediately felt like I had been stripped naked and thrown on the street to be laughed at. I even wanted to strangle the bastard in front of me immediately!
But I suppressed my anger.
"Haven't you guessed it yet?" He was really annoying when he laughed.
I shook my head and said with some difficulty: "I can't believe this is true."
"Oh, it looks pretty good. You didn't disappoint me." The man said, picking up the coins and standing up, "This place was completely built according to our dreams when we were young, and it's basically completed."
I looked at his back and felt inexplicably uneasy.
He continued to talk to himself: "Swimming pool, walking trails, martial arts field, library, endless food, endless wine and drinks... Gee, aren't we just fighting for such a few dreams in our lives? We actually don't
It’s all come true.”
"Us?" I still didn't want to accept this, so I sneered, "I don't remember what I did."
He turned around and looked at me: "Is it fun to lie to yourself?"
I immediately countered: "Then can't you speak more clearly first? What the hell is going on?!"
He was stunned for a moment, and then smiled: "It is indeed a bit complicated and difficult to accept, but don't be angry. If it hadn't been for such an accident, we would never have met, so... if you really
If you want to know the whole truth, then we have to start recalling the night when you were eaten like roast chicken by that girl."
Being treated like roast chicken?! This metaphor is really harmonious.
I frowned and said, "Tell me, my psychological quality is very good."
He curled his lips and looked noncommittal.
I really want to hit someone now.
He sat down and threw the coin on the table. The strange coin looked like a worthless antique when it was in my hand, but in his hand it became like a top and actually started to spin.
The coin was spinning and he slowly said it.
…
That night, I was indeed treated like a roast chicken.
And logically speaking, there was no way I could survive.
But at the moment when I was about to die, everything stopped. Time seemed to be stripped away and no longer affected my life. I was frozen in the moment of life and death.
Then a ray of light fell from the sky and I was taken away.
Next came the rescue process... I was just a pile of rotten flesh spread out on the hospital bed.
Even the surgeon who had seen the survivors of the most horrific car accident was shocked when he saw me like that. Fortunately, his professionalism did not let him waste precious rescue time.
External mechanical organs were intervened in my body, and I began to breathe through those cold metals, digest food, and transport blood and nutrients to all parts of the body...
The operation lasted for three full days. During these three days, more than a dozen top medical experts and five surgeons worked perfectly and finally brought me back from the line of life and death.
The list of medications after the surgery was more than ten meters long, and the plasma used was enough to fill an entire bathtub.
In this way, I "miraculously" survived.
Later memories are more boring.
Most of them revolve around how to give my body a new lease of life.
After all, many of my key internal organs were severely damaged, and some parts of my torso were completely eaten away.
Unless I have the ability to resurrect like a superhero, I am destined to be a disabled person. And because the trauma was so severe, even though my consciousness has been in a coma, my body seems to have memory.
, those body organs that obviously no longer exist still torture my brain every night.
This is phantom limb pain, a very common post-traumatic syndrome.
After suffering in the hospital bed for more than half a year, with the mechanical prosthesis connected, I was finally able to sleep peacefully.
…
After reading these memories, I asked two questions without expression: "What is that light? Who are you?"
He put away the coins that were still spinning on the table and smiled: "The light in memory is just a concrete description of the perception of reality. In fact, there was no light at all when I took you away... In addition... you don't need to
I continue to deceive myself, I am, you are me, we are the same person, we are just not at the same time and space node."
He finally answered my question directly.
But after listening to it, I sneered and said, "Do you think this is a time travel novel? Anyone with a little knowledge of science would not believe your nonsense."
But he just smiled and didn't intend to give any explanation.
Seeing him like this made me lose my confidence.
But I didn't choose to believe him either.
After a while, I asked: "What about Takahashi Ginko? What happened to her later?"
He directly suggested: "How about I take you to see her directly?"
I didn't expect him to say that. I was stunned for a moment, then frowned and said, "Are you teasing me?"
He looked innocent: "No, how could it be? I just feel that there are some things that you have to face on your own. You can't let her shadow you for the rest of your life just because she treats you like food."
I'm speechless.
What he said is indeed true... Even though I have accepted myself as I am now, I still often dream about what happened that night.
Why didn't the scene in the TV series where people lose their memory after suffering extreme fear never happen to me?
Seeing that I didn't speak, he asked with a smile: "What? You don't dare to see her?"
I frowned when I heard this and said angrily: "If there's anything I don't dare to see, I'm just about to find her."
He laughed: "Okay, I'll make arrangements right away, and we'll leave after lunch."