Love in a Mental Hospital

"Is this what they call the consumer perspective of young people on the internet?"

"Yeah, or maybe I'm just poor."

Gu Ran muttered to himself as the washing machine made whooshing noises, started to fill with water, and then slowly began to turn with a low hum.

During the time before the clothes were done washing, Gu Ran sat on the living room sofa, reading medical records he had borrowed from the office.

"Buzz~"

Before he could get engrossed, his phone, lying aside, vibrated.

Gu Ran sighed.

He hated getting messages while reading or sleeping. It would be tolerable if they were serious messages, but he feared reaching for the phone only to find—

[Your prize qualification is about to expire], [Sis~ have a good end of the season~, bro~ come play~] type of texts;

More urgent than parents in giving you money calls;

And the three major carriers with their [Give us a perfect score or we'll be a nuisance] harassing calls.

Though he knew there was a high probability it was harassment, he still felt compelled to check.

Not this time.

[Su Qing: Where are you?]

It wasn't a comment, but a direct message.

[Gu Ran: What's up?]

[Su Qing: (Screenshot: The content is a chat history between Zhuang Jing and Su Qing, where Zhuang Jing is asking Su Qing to bring Gu Ran and Chen Ke out to hang out over the weekend)]

[Gu Ran: No need, I prefer exploring alone to following a tour guide]

[Su Qing: Then I'll reply that way]

[Gu Ran: Okay]

Gu Ran wasn't lying; he was planning to explore Haicheng, the tourist city, on his own.

Putting down his phone, he continued with the medical records.

After the clothes were washed and hung up to dry, he went out alone.

He waited for the bus at the nearest bus stop where there was a tourist map available for visitors, which he took.

It showed his current location and, starting from there, which bus routes he could take to which attractions.

He followed the map.

One attraction after another.

There was a world-famous amusement park, a bustling snack street, a shopping district specializing in pearls, a charming beach, a botanical garden that could only be described as gorgeous, and a heart-stopping marine aquarium.

Among the attractions that required payment, Gu Ran, being stingy, only visited the aquarium.

He liked these strange and curious marine creatures; with the oceans covering seventy percent of Earth, perhaps these odd creatures represented the true face of our planet.

In the eyes of these fishes, humans probably looked pitifully weird, too. How could there be creatures that stood upright all the time? Seahorses? No, they don't look right; males don't give birth to offspring, after all.

—These were Gu Ran's thoughts to himself as he wandered around the aquarium alone.

After leaving the aquarium, he consulted the map and found that there was an attraction 200 meters away: a seaside lighthouse.

This was Haicheng's first lighthouse, its historical significance greater than the attraction itself.

Confirmed that it was free, Gu Ran gladly went there.

"Excuse me, can I add you on WeChat?" asked three women in shorts as they approached him.

"Sorry, thanks." Gu Ran smiled and walked away.

If he could, he would like to be like Ji Xianlin, interacting with several women, but first, he was shy; second, being a virgin he was afraid of being mocked; third, he was afraid of catching diseases; and fourth, he genuinely felt it wasn't right.

This resulted in him never having held hands with a woman.

Who would believe that? He was actually quite handsome.

Because no one believed him, it made him even more embarrassed to interact with girls. What if he was laughed at?

However, now that his job was stable, he just needed to save up a bit for a down payment and renovation expenses before considering getting a girlfriend.

The road from the aquarium to the seaside lighthouse was lined with tall palm trees. Under the shade, a van converted into a snack cart was parked, selling freshly squeezed fruit juices and starch sausages.

Gu Ran was tempted by the starch sausages, but there were too many people buying them, and he didn't feel like queuing.

"I love a city with the sea, the person I love is also in a city by the sea." He recited the sentence on the snack cart's electronic sign, continuing his walk toward the coast.

Under the shade of the trees, the sound of the waves was faintly audible.

He sniffed carefully, but couldn't detect the "salty smell of the sea breeze" as sung in the lyrics; it seemed no different from the wind inland.

Maybe there was something wrong with this part of the sea.

Or maybe the person who wrote the lyrics had a poor sense of smell.

Gu Ran rolled up the map, stepped out of the palm-lined path, and before him was the beach with a chaotic pile of rocks. Amidst the rocks was a plateau, and on top of that, the red and white striped lighthouse.

Many people were taking photos on the rocks and the beach.

Having taken his own photos, he was ready to go back the same way to take the bus, but Gu Ran suddenly decided to keep walking along the beach to see how far he could go.

Not very far out, the crowd quickly thinned; those who were there were in groups, with only him alone, but he enjoyed his solitude.

On the sea, there was a cargo ship slowly passing by. It was very long, with only a small building like structure at the bow—or maybe it was the stern; he didn't know.

Poor thing, like playing seesaw with no one on the opposite side.

When the ship was out of sight, Gu Ran also returned to the main road.

In this way, sometimes a slave to the map, sometimes a master of his thoughts, sometimes taking the bus, and sometimes scanning a code to ride a bike.

Sending blessings to the cars and motorcycles revving through the streets—

Bang!

Die!

He roamed this way for a whole day.

He ate all three meals out, bought a 3L laundry detergent to take home.

Collected his laundry, read medical records for an hour, played with his phone for three hours, wrote in his journal, took a bath, and went to bed.

The next day he was too lazy to go out, watched TV, played with his phone, read medical records, and ordered takeout.

Before he could come to his senses, it seemed like he had just walked out of the office, and the weekend had passed.

August 6th, Monday, Gu Ran went to work lamenting, "Where did the time go!"

Damn it.

"You're here early, Mr. Gu." The security guard surprisingly greeted him.

"Good morning." Gu Ran looked at him and realized that this was not the security guard from Thursday or Friday, which explained it.