Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Li Su stared at the palm-shaped water stain on the ceiling.

The water stain she had been staring at for fourteen days.

Then she moved her fingers.

The canvas restraints made a tearing sound as they were strained under the weight.

With a gentle pull, the canvas strap, about the thickness of a thumb, broke in two.

She sat up and looked at her hands.

The marks on my wrists have completely disappeared, and my skin is as smooth as if it had never been tied up.

She tore off the straps binding her ankles and stepped barefoot onto the cold floor tiles.

The heat from the floor tiles seeped up through my feet, making them feel cold and hard.

She stood up.

My legs, which hadn't been standing for two weeks, didn't feel weak at all; my muscles were full of strength.

She raised her right hand, her five fingers spread.

Then she pushed the iron door of the ward.

An invisible force surged from his palm and slammed into the iron gate.

The iron gate made a dull, loud thud.

A bulge appeared on the door panel, as if it had been hit by an unseen car.

The plaster around the door frame was falling off in a rustling sound, and chunks of cement were hitting the floor tiles with a piercing cracking sound.

Li Su withdrew her hand and looked down at her palm.

She could feel that power still surging within her body; that power was something more fundamental.

Her will transformed into a pair of invisible hands, capable of pushing, pulling, tearing, and crushing.

【Mind power control】

[Using mental power as a guide, one transforms their will into an invisible force field, physically interfering with objects within their field of vision through pushing, pulling, tearing, and crushing. The strength and precision of the force depend on the degree of mental concentration; the purer the will, the more violent the power. One can condense mental power into an invisible spear to pierce a target, or spread it into a large-scale force field to suppress multiple enemies simultaneously, or use it to create area-of-effect damage by carrying away rubble and debris. The range and duration of interference are limited by the upper limit of mental power. The greater the total mass of the objects manipulated in a single instance, the more intense the mental consumption. Prolonged, high-intensity use will lead to severe headaches, blurred consciousness, and in severe cases, ruptured blood vessels in the brain. — "You say I'm crazy? Then I'll show you the will of a madman!"]

She focused her mind on the iron gate, slowly closing her five fingers.

The iron gate emitted a piercing, metallic creaking sound.

The three-millimeter-thick iron door began to dent inward, like a piece of paper crumpled by a giant.

The dent spread from the size of a palm to the size of a washbasin, and then from the size of a washbasin to the entire door.

The hinges on the door snapped, and the screws were forced out of the door frame by the immense pressure, bouncing and rolling under the bed on the floor tiles.

Then the entire door, frame and all, was torn off the wall.

With a loud crash, the iron gate slammed onto the corridor floor tiles, sending shards of brick flying everywhere.

Li Su put down her hand, walked barefoot over the fallen plaster and broken bricks, and left the ward.

The fluorescent lights in the corridor hummed, their stark white light illuminating her sallow face and straw-like hair.

Her blue and white striped hospital gown was still stained with blood from her earlier struggle, and there was a tear in the cuff, revealing a section of her almost transparent white wrist underneath.

She stood barefoot in the middle of the corridor, her feet sinking into broken bricks and cement blocks.

Then, the sound of doors opening came from the nurses' duty rooms at both ends of the corridor at the same time.

The head nurse on the night shift, surnamed Wang, was in her fifties and had worked at the mental hospital for twenty years.

She pushed open the door to the duty room, holding an enamel teacup filled with goji berry water.

"What's all the noise about in the middle of the night?!"

Nurse Wang's voice was loud, filled with annoyance at being woken up.

She thought it was another patient in one of the wards having a fit of madness.

This kind of thing is all too common in mental hospitals. Patients have episodes in the middle of the night, banging their heads against the walls, shouting, and smashing things. It happens every few days.

After each incident, they have to work overtime to clean up the mess, add more medication to the patient, change the restraints, and tie them back to the bed.

"Could it be that the one at the far end of the second floor has had another attack?"

Two young nurses followed behind Head Nurse Wang, one in her early twenties and the other around thirty.

The one in his early twenties still looked sleepy, while the one around thirty was already yawning.

"Li Su just increased her dosage last week, she shouldn't be causing trouble again so soon."

The nurse, who is around thirty years old, said.

"Whether or not there's a commotion is up to you to decide? Can you judge a madman's mind by normal standards?"

Head Nurse Wang carried a teacup towards Li Su's ward.

As she turned the corner in the corridor, she first saw a pile of broken bricks on the ground.

Then she saw a twisted and deformed iron door at her feet.

The iron gate stood in the middle of the corridor, with a clear handprint on the door panel. The five fingers were spread out and pressed into the iron sheet, as if a hand had pressed from the inside out, shaping the outline of five fingers into the iron sheet.

Nurse Wang's enamel teacup fell to the ground.

Goji berry water was spilled all over the ground, and the reddish-brown liquid flowed into the cracks between the broken bricks.

She looked up.

At the other end of the corridor, Li Su stood barefoot amidst broken bricks and cement blocks, her hospital gown blindingly white under the fluorescent lights.

"you--"

Nurse Wang's mouth opened and closed repeatedly.

She wanted to ask, "How did you get out of here?", but her eyes told her that the question was pointless.

Because the iron gate wasn't pried open or smashed open; it seemed to have been torn off entirely from the inside by a single hand.

It's impossible for a human hand to tear down an iron gate.

That's something only a monster could do.

Li Su looked at them.

She knew all three women.

Head Nurse Wang—every time she struggled and resisted, it was this man who directed the male nurses to pin her down on the bed. She remembered Head Nurse Wang's voice, and the impatient tone in her voice when she gave orders, as if dealing with a soiled sheet.

The nurse, who was around thirty years old, was in charge of giving her injections. Haloperidol, chlorpromazine, olanzapine—she injected each one quickly and accurately, never caring whether she would cramp up in pain.

The nurse, in her early twenties, was responsible for tightening her restraints. Each time she finished securing them, the young nurse would pull the buckle a little tighter, causing her wrists to turn purple.

"you."

Li Su spoke up.

His throat, which hadn't spoken for two weeks, produced a hoarse sound, like a rusty blade scraping against a rough whetstone.

Do you remember my child's name?

Nurse Wang took a step back, her high heels hitting the broken bricks, and she almost fell because her ankle twisted.

"Li Su! Calm down! We're just following the rules! If you keep causing trouble, the doctor will have to give you more medication!"

Li Su smiled.

Her lips cracked, and her smile was as dry as the wind in the desert.

"Add more medicine."

She repeated those two words.

"I remember every single injection you gave me. Haloperidol, muscle spasms, my tongue sticking out and I couldn't retract it. Chlorpromazine, confusion, I couldn't even remember my own name. Olanzapine, my brain felt like it was being disassembled into a pile of parts."

"You're afraid I'll come to my senses."

She took a step forward.

"You're afraid I'll remember it."

She took another step forward.

"You're afraid I'll walk out of this door alive and tell you all your faces one by one."

Head Nurse Wang had retreated to the base of the wall, her back pressed against the cold surface, her face completely drained of color.

"Don't come any closer! I'm going to sound the alarm!"