Everything had been going without a hitch during the director's inspection; until they reached Ward 502, there wasn't the slightest sign of trouble. The manager couldn't help but wipe the cold sweat off his forehead.
Tan Xi had sought him out the previous day to discuss the situation with Ward 502, as well as to express his desire to take over a patient Zheng Yue was responsible for. He'd considered the circumstances as per his and Tan Xi's discussion and had ultimately accepted. Yet, early this morning, the doctor on duty informed him that an incident had occurred in Ward 502 last night. His heart had just about leapt into his throat when he recalled that the director would be visiting today.
The director visited once every week and, as was only natural, the manager didn't want him to see any major oversights in the floor under his management. Thus, after knowing about the 'commotion' in Ward 502, the manager had been secretly praying for nothing to go wrong since setting foot inside the ward.
Now, it seemed his prayer hadn't worked.
Not only had the director been harassed by a patient, he'd even become that patient's wife. What the heck was this?!
Zheng Yue's expression had become increasingly delighted, but he soon composed himself.
As for the doctor on duty, having undergone the incident from late last night, his mind was now as still as water. He felt as if his dignity had level-upped. Whatever occurred in Ward 502 now was no big deal.
Compared to those three, Tan Xi was conversely unworried. He had some understanding of the director. Not only was the director mature and rational, most importantly, he was very restrained. Tan Xi had never seen the director lose control of himself. How could such a restrained person change colour simply because of this small problem? In his opinion, the phrase 'not batting an eyelash even if Mount Tai were to collapse right before his eyes' couldn't be a more apt descriptor for the director.
The director was an expert on mental illnesses. He might not understand every patient's reaction, but he could still handle them with ease.
Just as Tan Xi had expected, Li Yi kept his composure even with a person hanging on him. However, to his surprise, Li Yi stayed in the same position as he carried the patient to the bedside and sat down before proceeding to call on Tan Xi, "Let me see his medical case."
In the past, he did visit once a week and left after settling some minor problems in the hospital. Even so, this time he happened to be conducting a research study requiring around half a month's time for complete observation and data recording. In other words, he'll be staying at the hospital for at least half a month, hence, if there were any peculiar cases, he wouldn't be opposed to taking over or assisting the patient's attending doctor.
Tan Xi's expression brightened at the director's words, and, without hesitation, he handed over Yu Hao's medical case records he was holding on to.
He had worked overtime last night to straighten out this medical case. After the manager agreed to transfer Yu Hao from Zheng Yue's care to his, he'd swiftly organised Yu Hao's detailed condition as soon as possible. This was the most fundamental principle in professional medical ethics; since he'd requested to take over Yu Hao's case, he had to be responsible for the patient.
Upon seeing this, Zheng Yue's face changed colour, and he was about to get to his feet and speak up. He was extremely dissatisfied about Tan Xi snatching the patient he was responsible for, so it went without saying that he wished to lodge a complaint against Tan Xi in front of the director. However, he was stopped by the manager, whose stern look made Zheng Yue reluctantly rein in his impulse for the time being.
It was rare for the four patients to be behaving well. Naturally, the manager didn't want Zheng Yue to inconsiderately cause trouble at this moment.
Hao Ritian, meanwhile, had taken the opportunity to sit on Li Yi's lap after he'd sat down. He looked like he was lying in Li Yi's arms, and with his chin resting on Li Yi's shoulder, he appeared quite content.
The reason for his sudden silence – other than that Li Yi pushing down his body made it difficult for him to struggle – was because he was currently communicating with the system in his mind.
"System, is it possible for another host to be completing missions in the same world as me?" Hao Ritian asked in all seriousness.
But the system refuted him without hesitation, "Impossible."
Being refuted so quickly made Hao Ritian a little displeased, but he didn't show it. He asked doubtfully, "How can you be so sure?"
"…" The system fell silent.
"Well?" His tone this time clearly sounded dangerous.
Well-acquainted with the host's personality, the system reflexively became afraid. It feared that the host would cause trouble without a word again. After all, it had nearly received psychological trauma from the host in the previous world.
After consideration, the system knew it wasn't the host's match, so it decided to be frank. In any case, it wouldn't affect anything. Moreover, the host had been doing an excellent job with his missions, and giving a little fringe benefit wasn't too much to do.
"It's like this: Host's mission is to change the fate of whoever he transmigrates into. However, the situation in the mission worlds is quite special. The small worlds that Host has experienced all actually exist, and these mission worlds are the projection of those real worlds. What the host does in the duration of the mission will be reflected in the real world. Although these projection worlds will disappear some time after Host completes his mission and leaves, the real worlds will continue to develop according to the fate trajectory that Host changed."
For a while, Hao Ritian made no response. After all, this was his first time hearing of this concept and he needed to digest the information. But it wasn't long before he grasped the general idea and asked, "In other words, after I left the previous world, the projected world automatically collapsed at a certain time, and Mu Ziwen, who I transmigrated into, lived on in the real world based on the fate I changed and got together with Feng Qi?"
Since the previous world had only recently ended, using it as an example was more than appropriate.
To his surprise, the system refuted him again, "Not necessarily." "Hm?" Why did this have to be so complicated?
The system was silent for a moment before saying, "Mu Ziwen's life will continue according to Host's alterations, but he may not necessarily get together with Feng Qi as only the altered fate trajectory won't deviate. Feelings, however, are uncertain, and whether Mu Ziwen and Feng Qi will continue to be together will depend on their own wishes. Host merely provided Mu Ziwen with the opportunity to have another choice. After all, if not for Host crossing over, Mu Ziwen wouldn't have had any intersection with Feng Qi originally."
"The same is true for the first mission world?" For a moment, Hao Ritian couldn't describe what he was feeling in his heart. Still, since he'd already asked, he might as well dive right into it.
"Yes. It's the same in every world."
It was now Hao Ritian's turn to fall silent. But when it came down to it, he was very headstrong, so he wasn't quiet for long, "In that case, why don't we go straight to the real world instead of creating a projection world? Isn't that unnecessary?"
"Every world has its own principles of management. If we really transmigrate into the real world, we'd be infringing on human rights. This is prohibited. That's why projection worlds emerged."
Creating these projection worlds was time-consuming, which was why mission success was incredibly important. After all, if a mission failed, they would have to redo it. Therefore, hosts who had high mission success rates were valued very much.
Hao Ritian finally got it. When you thought about it this way, completing missions really was like playing video games. Getting right down to it, everyone in the mission worlds were merely projections of the real world. Even if they weren't different from their real-world counterparts and even had emotions, it was an unchangeable fact that their projection selves would collapse when the moment arrived.
On learning this, Hao Ritian changed the topic, "How is this related to my question?"
"Of course they're related. It's stipulated by the higher-ups that each world can only have one host. The same world may have different mission objectives, but in that situation, the number of projection worlds would be increased according to the quantity of mission objectives. So it's impossible for hosts who are completing missions to run into each other."
This was to prevent the missions from affecting each other and also to raise the mission success rate.
This time, Hao Ritian was quiet for a while longer.
So, no matter whether it was Wei Zichen from the first world or Feng Qi from the second, they were both people who actually existed. Whoever they would be with in the future depended on their personal wishes and was completely none of his business?
Nevertheless, Hao Ritian believed in his intuition.
He had suddenly raised this question due to the simple reason that he'd discovered that the previous world's Feng Qi was quite similar to Wei Zichen in certain aspects—as was Li Yi, who he'd just met. He purposely threw himself at Li Yi and made trouble because he'd noticed Li Yi's tiny habit.
Soon after entering the ward, Li Yi had subconsciously rubbed his fingers, and had done the action in a slightly particular way. Normally, people would rub the pads of their fingers, but he had rubbed the nails, an action that Hao Ritian had witnessed in the previous two worlds.
He didn't quite believe there could be people so similar in each world, even down to their tiny habits, especially since several of Feng Qi's tiny habits were the same as Wei Zichen's. This degree of similarity was too coincidental.
Since even a bizarre matter like him being able to travel across different worlds to complete missions had happened, why couldn't he let his imagination roam a little?
Despite being a little cold-blooded, forever loving himself the most, his heart wasn't made out of stone either. Whether it was Wei Zichen or Feng Qi, both had treated him extremely well, and he did have feelings for them. He'd always felt incredibly at ease when together with them. It was only because he knew from early on that these were mission worlds, and that he couldn't stay, that he'd disregarded these emotions.
But now, in the third world, he met yet another man who was similar to them. For an instant in which he couldn't ignore the drum of his heartbeat that had grown more intense, Hao Ritian was suddenly flooded with impulses. Hence, his desire to get a positive answer from the system.
Unfortunately, those delusions were now dashed by the system.
And yet, intuition told him that he might be right. Thus, in the end, he doggedly asked the system again, "No exceptions?"
The system's response was especially callous, "No."
In truth, there was. But the probability was too small, and to prevent the host's missions from going wrong, the system hesitated and then still decided not to say anything. After all, these were all elementary worlds. The probability of this idea was so low, it was no different from zero.
Hao Ritian sighed with regret. At the end of the day, he wasn't one to feel conflicted. Whether or not there was an exception, he still had to complete his missions in the end, and he was the model example of someone living life in the present. However, deep down, his feelings towards Li Yi became rather different.
It wasn't only due to this sense of familiarity Li Yi gave him, but also because Li Yi was his type. His figure, appearance and personality all suited his taste.
Just as he was thinking this, he heard Li Yu's voice, "Continue his treatment as per your method. If you encounter any problems, you can come to me. I'll be staying in the hospital for half a month."
As he spoke, he handed the case records back to Tan Xi.
This man's voice sounds even more titillating from a close distance. Hao Ritian inwardly sighed.
***