Feng Bujue had successfully escaped.

The development of events was much easier than he had imagined, so easy that it felt unreal…

In fact, according to Brother Jue's original plan, this first "prison break" had a 90% chance of failure.

Because the information he currently possessed was still too limited.

In the past three months, he had only investigated all the information he "could access"; but regarding the things he "couldn't access," he could only catch a glimpse from other people's fragmented words.

For example, "the door's password," "the hospital's complete architectural structure," "the hospital's geographical location," "the route to escape the hospital," "the route after escaping the hospital," and so on and so forth. He wasn't unwilling to investigate this information, but he simply couldn't access it.

Therefore, Feng Bujue's idea was to first "escape once," and through this failed escape, obtain a large amount of valuable information, so that he could make a more detailed plan for the next escape.

However, even he didn't expect that this first escape would actually succeed.

And the process was unbelievably simple…

First, Brother Jue asked the caregiver uncle to take off his coat and pants and throw them over, which the latter did.

Then, Feng Bujue made Dr. Zhang maintain a kneeling position, and while still threatening him, quickly changed into the caregiver's uniform (if you find this a bit incredible, let me remind you… don't forget that Brother Jue has already mastered the toilet paper clothing change technique these days).

Next, he held Dr. Zhang hostage and went to the corridor with surveillance cameras, and locked the caregiver uncle in his own room.

Then, Brother Jue walked Dr. Zhang quickly through several corridors, passed through a door that required a card swipe (the caregiver uncle's pass card pinned to his chest had also been taken by Brother Jue), and then arrived at the public area.

So far, no one had noticed anything unusual; because the two night shift security guards were either dozing off in the lounge or dozing off in the monitoring room…

After arriving at the public area, Feng Bujue glanced at the floor plan, and then forced Dr. Zhang to take him to the locker room; he swiped a set of casual clothes there and also swiped all the usable valuables.

Finally, he came to the parking lot with Dr. Zhang and demanded that the latter drive him away from this mental hospital.

At this point, Dr. Zhang had no turning back, so he drove Brother Jue out of the parking lot.

When passing through the gate, the guard just stayed in the guard room and glanced out, seeing that it was Dr. Zhang himself sitting in the driver's seat, and opened the gate to let them pass.

Well… this place wasn't a prison, and there was no regulation saying that staff members couldn't go out; so, the guard naturally wouldn't ask too many questions when he saw the doctor driving himself.

Thus, Brother Jue, hiding in the passenger seat, left White Sand Mental Hospital without any hindrance or incident.

Everything seemed uneventful.

It was so smooth that it was unsettling, and so simple that it was boring.

But it was logical…

Sitting in the car, Feng Bujue recalled the whole incident, and his feeling was like… at the end of a suspenseful and wonderful detective novel, seeing an ending similar to "a criminal with a record committed a crime on impulse, robbing and then killing the victim and fleeing."

And this… was "reality."

Perhaps in some cases, reality is more bizarre than fiction, but in 99% of cases… reality is a cold and boring machine.

There are not so many locked room murders in reality; most cases are clumsy crimes of impulse.

There are not so many people in reality who are still dutiful in boring positions; there are only a group of pathetic people who think about getting paid and muddling through, and who are dissatisfied with life no matter what level they reach.

There are not so many Long Aotians and Mary Sues in reality; the world is filled with countless mediocre but self-important despicable people.

In reality… there are even fewer coincidences, fates, and miracles…

In reality… there is only "reality."

Humans create fantasies and indulge in them, all because there are too many helplessness in reality; it is cold, sad… and makes it difficult to move forward.

But this world needs reality.

In the dark, there is a scale of justice, and on both ends of it—light and darkness coexist, infinity (space) and eternity (time) coexist, fantasy and reality… must also coexist.

People cannot only live in fantasy, using illusory dreams as an excuse to waste time and deceive themselves.

People also cannot be without fantasy, otherwise they are walking corpses, no different from the dead.

Thoughts extended, thinking of this…

Feng Bujue suddenly understood, and his eyes changed.

"I understand…" he muttered, "This… is indeed 'reality,' a 'real world,' and I… don't belong here."

Whoosh—

In that instant, Brother Jue suddenly heard a whistling sound in his ears.

Immediately afterward, his eyes were blinded by a burst of dazzling white light.

When he reopened his eyes, he found that… he was already sitting in a comfortable armchair.

The mental hospital, the car, the night, everything outside the car window… all seemed like a dream, which had never happened and had never existed.

At this moment, his surroundings were filled with shimmering light and shadow, thoughts like a tide of fog, and intertwined time and space… a scene of illusion.

Although it looked very different, Feng Bujue could still feel that this… was his mind palace.

"Heh…" He looked at the surrounding scene and chuckled dryly, "That's strange… I remember there were seven of us here."

"Are you referring to these people?" The next second, a voice exactly like his suddenly sounded.

In the blink of an eye, another version of Feng Bujue appeared in front of him, and at the same time, five corpses appeared on the ground around his armchair—they were five Feng Bujues wearing long purple suits.

"Ho~" Brother Jue looked at the still-alive version of himself in front of him and said, "What's going on here? Did you kill them all?"

"No." The other Feng Bujue replied, "You… killed them all."

"Is that so?" Feng Bujue asked.

"Yes." The other Feng Bujue answered.

"Then should I kill you now?" Feng Bujue asked again.

"What do you think you came here to do?" The other Feng Bujue asked with a smile.

"Then… why would I do that?" Feng Bujue said again.

"Kill me, and you'll understand everything…" The other Feng Bujue said, reaching into the void and immediately grasping a Western-style kitchen knife, "You will understand… that you locked yourself in a cage…" He held the kitchen knife and walked towards Brother Jue, "You will understand… that you created the six of us to watch over you…" He handed the handle of the knife to Brother Jue, knelt on one knee, and placed the tip of the knife against his own throat, "You will also finally understand… the truth that you buried and forgotten…"

After saying that, he grabbed Feng Bujue's hand and pulled it forcefully…

At the same time, Feng Bujue's hand also felt the warmth of blood.

After a moment of silence, Brother Jue looked at the six corpses on the ground, and then at the blood on his hands.

Then, he suddenly showed an evil, yet very charming… smile.