He had originally made up his mind that no matter who came, he would pretend to be unconscious to the end, and no one would be able to wake him up.

However, after that strange man asked that question, he changed his mind.

The man's voice was low with a slight hoarseness, but it didn't sound like a natural hoarseness, more like the result of exhaustion from overexertion. To Shen Lan, this voice sounded strangely familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before.

Human memory is truly a very mysterious thing. Sometimes a small detail can pull out a whole string of things you thought you had long forgotten; while other times, a scent, a voice, a melody, can make a person inexplicably fall into a familiar feeling in a very short moment, and then withdraw in an instant before people can accurately capture that feeling, just like a mule pulling a mill with a wooden pole sticking out from the top of its head, with a carrot hanging from the end of the pole, looking right in front of its eyes, but no matter what, it can't reach it.

That feeling is really a bit heart-wrenching and maddening. For the persistent ones, not being able to remember might even make it hard to fall asleep. Shen Lan naturally didn't reach that extent, not to the point of being heart-wrenching, but it indeed made him a bit restless.

He paused for a few seconds, then sat up from the bed, adjusted the brightness of the bedside wall lamp, still holding Xia Chuan's hand in a death grip, showing no intention of letting go for a moment.

The dim light in the room gradually brightened, and only then did Xia Chuan see the face of the man at the door clearly. The man had short black hair that was closer to an oriental style, very white skin, and sharp features with a sense of vicissitudes, looking a bit like a mix of East and West. There was some stubble on his chin and the corners of his mouth, showing a faint trace of a beard, making him look a bit more mature, but in fact, he was at most thirty-four or thirty-five years old.

Shen Lan's eyesight was really a bit poor. Even at just the distance of a bed, he couldn't see the features of the person at the door very clearly, the outline always a bit blurry. But even so, he still felt that the person looked a bit familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before.

Except for Xia Chuan, Shen Lan was usually not very talkative in front of other people. It was fine with familiar people like Dennis and the others, but in front of strangers, he was almost unwilling to take the initiative to speak. So he just observed carefully, but did not rashly say anything.

Seeing the two tall men squeezed together on one bed, the man at the door was stunned for a moment, his face looking a bit unnatural for a second, but then he very graciously returned to normal and continued, "The little boy is about this tall."

He raised his hand and gestured horizontally at a position by the door about the same height as his waist. "His hair color is similar to mine, maybe a bit lighter, with very big eyes, likes to purse his lips, wearing a gray-blue jacket."

Xia Chuan shook his head and said, "Sorry, haven't seen him. In fact, we also just woke up not long ago and were unconscious before."

The man was stunned for a moment, then took a step back, glanced around the door, and said, "This is the infirmary? You were rescued the day before? Sorry, there's no nameplate on the door. I disturbed you. You continue to rest, I'll go ask elsewhere."

As he spoke, he nodded to express his apologies and was about to close the door for Xia Chuan and the others.

But just as he grabbed the door handle, Shen Lan, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly asked, "Where do you live?"

"Me?" The man was stunned for a moment, then raised his hand and pointed to one end of the corridor. "I live right up ahead, in the room marked 109."

Xia Chuan said "hmm", nodded, and continued for Shen Lan, "If we see him, we'll let you know."

"That would be great, thank you." The man thanked them and then closed the door and left. Shen Lan tilted his ear and listened for a while, then pointed to the corridor and said to Xia Chuan, "He went to Dennis's side. The little nurse opened the door for him, but it seems there's still no result."

The soundproofing here was already very good for ordinary people like Xia Chuan, but for Shen Lan, he could still hear the movement outside.

Xia Chuan glanced at him and said, "You know him?" Shen Lan's every move was in his eyes. Usually, for such small matters that had nothing to do with him, he would be too lazy to open his mouth to intervene. But this time, he actually took the initiative to ask, which was really a bit unusual.

Shen Lan was stunned. "How do you know? No, not really, just feel that he looks a bit familiar, as if I've seen him somewhere before."

"Are you sure?" Xia Chuan glanced at the tightly closed door and said, "But his expression doesn't look like he knows you. Could you have remembered wrong? Maybe he just looks like someone you've seen before."

Shen Lan shrugged. "Who knows, maybe."

This matter was just a small interlude for the two of them and had no substantive relevance. Even Shen Lan soon stopped caring about the issue of whether the man looked familiar or not.

Nothing else happened that night.

The two of them slept on and off for a while. Because there was no timing device in the room, they couldn't figure out what time it was. It wasn't long after they fully woke up that the little nurse Bonnie lightly knocked on the door three times and then pushed the door open and walked in.

When Shen Lan heard her footsteps, he had already buried his head and lay down, looking like he was still unconscious, tightly grasping Xia Chuan's left wrist with his right hand, very experienced at playing dead.

Xia Chuan: "..."

When the little nurse came in, she saw Xia Chuan looking at Shen Lan with a speechless expression. She thought he was having a hard time and said, "That gentleman still hasn't woken up?"

"Oh, it's okay." Xia Chuan raised his hand and waved at her.

Bonnie had a white square tray in her hands with things like a stethoscope on it. Xia Chuan glanced at it and said, "Time for a check-up?"

"Yes, that's right." Bonnie nodded and put the tray on the bedside table. She said to Xia Chuan, "If there are no problems and everything is normal, you don't need to stay in the infirmary anymore. After all, it's a bit small here, isn't it?"

"Are there still vacant rooms?" Xia Chuan asked.

"Yes." Bonnie nodded.

"Are there double rooms?"

"Of course." Bonnie replied while putting on the stethoscope.

Xia Chuan cooperated fully with her examination. After a night of recovery, his complexion looked much better than before, and it was impossible to tell that he had just been fished out of the sea the day before. His side profile was very handsome, and Bonnie stole a few glances, her face turning red again.

"Everything is normal," she announced to Xia Chuan with a smile after completing all the necessary checks.

"Thank you." Xia Chuan politely nodded to her, then asked, "If it's convenient, could you arrange a double room for us?"

"Um, okay, let me check which double rooms with two beds are still available," Bonnie nodded.

"That won't be necessary," Xia Chuan glanced at Shen Lan's paw and said indifferently, "A double room with one bed will do."

The young nurse pointed to Shen Lan and said, "Are you worried that this gentleman still won't wake up and you can't be separated? Actually, this gentleman has been in a coma for quite some time. If he doesn't wake up by this afternoon, it will have been forty-eight hours. We may have no choice but to take some measures to separate you two. You can definitely go stay in a regular room, while he will need further examination by the doctors."

Xia Chuan felt Shen Lan's hand holding his move slightly, and looked down.

He saw Shen Lan move his fingers a couple of times, then turn over and slowly open his eyes, looking at Xia Chuan and Bonnie in a daze. He squeezed out a slightly hoarse voice and said, "...Where am I?"

What a moving performance.

Xia Chuan: "..."

Bonnie: "..."

Xia Chuan watched him put on a two-minute show with a speechless expression, then looked up at Bonnie and said, "How convenient, he's awake. Do you need to examine him as well? If everything is normal, please arrange a double room for us."

Bonnie was still stunned by Shen Lan's acting. Hearing what Xia Chuan said, she finally reacted. "Oh oh," she called out twice, picked up the tray and hurried over to Shen Lan's side, starting to carefully examine him.

Only after completing a round of checks did she straighten up and say, "You also have no major issues. Just pay attention to resting and relaxing over the next two days. Then I'll go find someone to arrange a... double room for you?"

Halfway through, she realized that Xia Chuan still didn't want two rooms, and was momentarily stunned. She reminded him, "You two are no longer stuck together, there's no need to squeeze into one bed anymore."

But after saying this, she discovered that Shen Lan was still holding Xia Chuan's wrist with no intention of letting go. There could be many reasons for holding on while unconscious, but when both people are awake, with one holding and the other showing no particular reaction, it was a bit...

Before she could recover from her daze, Xia Chuan had already raised the hand that Shen Lan was holding, grasped it in return, shook it at Bonnie, and said with a calm face, "I think a double room is still more suitable, don't you agree?"

Bonnie: "..."

The young nurse was already a bit dazed, and hearing this, she was completely stunned, as if her soul had been blown away. After a moment, she nodded blankly, "Yes, a double room is more suitable..."

After saying that, she drifted out in a daze. After floating a couple steps, Shen Lan called out to her, "Wait, you forgot your tray."

The young nurse let out a dazed "oh", floated back to the bedside, and picked up the tray.

"By the way, has my companion in the next room woken up?" Xia Chuan remembered to ask.

"Huh?" The young nurse, who had just drifted to the door and grabbed the handle, slowly turned her head back, then reflexively said, "He's awake, just woke up not long ago."

"Okay, thank you." Xia Chuan nodded.

Bonnie drifted out the door, ghost-like, saying, "You're welcome, of course, I'll go arrange a room for you..."

"It's over," Shen Lan said to Xia Chuan after seeing her close the door, "We've scared one silly."

Xia Chuan gave him a displeased look.

Since they had no major physical issues and heard that Dennis had woken up, they got out of bed and freshened up in the bathroom. When they were fished out of the sea, their clothes were probably in terrible shape. Either the doctors or nurses had changed them into loose hospital gowns.

They had boarded the ship empty-handed, naturally having no other clothes to change into. So they simply walked out wearing the gowns, intending to knock on the door next door.

As a result, they ran into another man who was about to knock.

The man was tall and sturdy, with deep eye sockets, a straight nose bridge, slightly thick lower lip, and downturned corners of the mouth, looking so stern that he almost appeared fierce. Although he was wearing a white coat and holding a folder, looking like a doctor, there was still a sense of incongruity in his temperament. It always felt like this kind of person would be more suited to wearing all black and wielding a gun.

Xia Chuan and this man ran into each other in front of the hospital room where Dennis was staying, and both were stunned.

"Gerald?" Xia Chuan was surprised after seeing the man's appearance, and said, "Why are you here?"

Gerald Weimer, compared to this name, Xia Chuan was more used to Dennis's nickname for him - that German guy who always has a long face.

He could barely be considered Xia Chuan's acquaintance, because Xia Chuan had to go to Gerald's clinic every month or two to treat various hard-to-handle wounds. However, aside from some necessary communication about the wounds during treatment, they had almost no other conversations.

Xia Chuan was cold by nature, while Gerald was a typical silent type. Put these two together, in Dennis's words, it was like a gathering of Antarctic glaciers with a refrigerating effect - if you didn't freeze to death, you'd be half-crippled.

Yet Dennis, that masochist, liked to be the one to freeze to death, often inserting himself in the middle for no reason, saying a couple of words for one, then a couple for the other. He probably had a disease where he'd die if he didn't play peacemaker.

Most people who were cold and spoke little ate up Dennis's act, so neither of them ever had the thought of shutting Dennis's mouth and throwing him out to dispose of the body, allowing that guy to live vivaciously for another two or three years.

Xia Chuan originally thought that encountering a maritime disaster in the Bermuda would be his last interaction with this German doctor, but who knew they'd run into each other here.

Xia Chuan would not have been so surprised if Gerald was wearing the same patient gown as them when they met. But instead, Gerald was wearing a doctor's white coat.

"How did you escape?" Xia Chuan couldn't help but ask, "Didn't the boat sink? How did you..." How did you end up standing here unscathed?

Gerald, as always, had that same serious expression. He flipped through the patient records in his hand and said, "Luckily I didn't die. You're also standing here in one piece, aren't you?"

After saying that, he looked up from the patient records and glanced at Xia Chuan. As for Shen Lan, whom he didn't know at all, he didn't even spare him a glance.

He lifted his chin towards the ward door and said, "Are you sure we should stand at the doorway chatting about recent events?"

Of course Xia Chuan had no such intention. He raised his hand and knocked on the door. Just as he was about to turn the doorknob, he felt the door being opened from the inside. A little nurse carrying a tray was startled by the three tall men at the door who were as imposing as pillars, and almost threw the tray.

"Be careful." Gerald expressionlessly raised his hand to support the bottom of the tray.

The little nurse quickly responded, then turned sideways to make way, letting Gerald and the others enter the room, while she herself ran off along the wall.

As soon as Xia Chuan entered the door, Dennis scrambled to sit up from the bed. He was also wearing the same patient gown as Xia Chuan and Shen Lan. His complexion looked slightly worse than Xia Chuan and the others, probably because he had just woken up from a coma and hadn't been properly recuperated.

"You're awake?" Dennis shouted, "I wanted to rush to your room as soon as I woke up, but the little nurse stopped me, saying you were still sleeping. Overlord? Overlord, weren't you still in a coma? How come you're awake too? And why are you with a doctor? Didn't the little nurse just tell me everything was normal? Why did they call a doctor again..."

As he was saying this, he only saw the back of the doctor in a white coat closing the door behind Shen Lan with his head down. But just as he was about to finish speaking, that doctor in the white coat turned around.

Dennis: "...Wait, am I hallucinating?"

He looked at Xia Chuan with a horrified expression, "Am I not awake yet? Hit me and see."

Xia Chuan: "..."

Gerald walked towards his bedside expressionlessly. Dennis instantly shrank into a corner, looking at him with a green face and shouted, "Are you human or ghost?"

"You want me dead that badly?" Gerald glanced at him, then said concisely, "Lie down properly."

Dennis glanced at Xia Chuan, then lay down on the bed with his neck shrunken. Gerald put on his mask and raised his hand, about to give Dennis another examination.

Xia Chuan was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, his attention on Gerald's hands. But just as Gerald's hand was about to land on Dennis, Xia Chuan felt a figure flash past him out of the corner of his eye, pouncing straight towards Gerald by the bed, and then fiercely throwing a punch, knocking that serious-faced man down onto the bed.

"Shen Lan!" Xia Chuan obviously didn't expect this turn of events. By the time he made his next move, he was a step too late. Gerald had already been hit three times by Shen Lan, his whole body curled up on Dennis's hospital bed.

"What's going on? Why did they suddenly start fighting? Stop fighting!" Dennis, who was lying on the bed, was greatly shocked by this unexpected development, but because his legs were being pressed down by Gerald, he couldn't get up to break up the fight at all.

Fortunately, Xia Chuan's movements were nimble and his skills formidable. And he was also the only one who could hold back Shen Lan.

He quickly inserted himself between the two, hugging Shen Lan and locking his movements, making it impossible for him to continue pummeling Gerald on the bed. Clutching his stomach, Gerald took advantage of this gap to slide off the bed to one side, temporarily out of Shen Lan's attacking range.

"What's wrong?" Xia Chuan didn't let go of Shen Lan immediately, still maintaining his hold on him, and asked.

Shen Lan's breathing was heavy, his chest heaving violently. The few punches just now were not enough to make him feel tired. This kind of reaction could only be due to being too emotionally agitated or angry.

This made Xia Chuan and Dennis feel extremely puzzled.

In fact, although Shen Lan couldn't be considered particularly approachable, he was definitely not a difficult person to get along with. After they got to know Shen Lan, they basically never saw him get angry more than a few times. Otherwise, Dennis wouldn't dare to constantly court death by calling him "Overlord" all the time.

Emotional fluctuations to this extent today had really never happened before.

Shen Lan was already very strong to begin with. Although Gerald had been dodging the whole time, and Xia Chuan had later pulled them apart, he still didn't fare well after being hit.

Gerald was seen sitting on the edge of the bed, half-collapsed, clutching his abdomen and coughing like crazy. He coughed for a good while and had some difficulty breathing, so he raised his hand to take off his mask. This simple action seemed to take a lot of effort for him.

He panted for a while before regaining some strength, then looked up at Shen Lan and said, "Did I offend you?"

Xia Chuan and Dennis were equally perplexed, looking at Shen Lan and waiting for his answer, but Shen Lan stared in Gerald's direction, his eyes turning from anger to some hesitation.

"I really don't remember ever seeing you. Too many people come and go in the clinic. Could it be that your family members have been treated by me?" Gerald picked up his mask and said to Shen Lan, "I don't think I've done any irregular operations or misdiagnosed any patients, as far as I can remember."

Even after being punched a few times and sitting on the ground with injuries, Gerald still had that emotionless look. Except for his complexion looking a bit unwell due to the pain, there was no difference from usual. Even his tone was still neither cold nor hot.

Shen Lan still stared at him intently, still not saying a word.

"Sorry." Xia Chuan glanced at him and said to Gerald, "Those few punches just now were not light. You'd better find another doctor to take a look. If it's convenient, I'll take him back to the room and ask him clearly. If it's really a misunderstanding, we'll definitely apologize and compensate."

Gerald frowned, suppressing a wave of pain, then propped himself up with the corner of the bed and stood up with some difficulty, saying, "No need. I know my own condition. I'll leave first. You guys can just talk here. Of course, if it turns out to be a misunderstanding in the end, forget about compensation. An apology is enough." He said coldly, refusing Dennis' kind offer to help him out of bed. Instead, he supported himself against the wall and walked out slowly, one step at a time.

"What on earth... is going on?" Xia Chuan asked, waiting until Gerald had walked far away before releasing the restrained Shen Lan.

Shen Lan stared silently at the closed door for a long time, then turned to look at Xia Chuan. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "The sight of him wearing a mask made me feel very... disgusted."

Dennis: "...Just because of disgust?"

Xia Chuan glanced at Dennis, then turned his gaze back to Shen Lan. He didn't rush to respond, feeling that Shen Lan hadn't finished speaking and was just having some difficulty expressing himself.

"I don't know how to describe it," Shen Lan spoke again, as expected. "When he wears a mask and puts on this white coat, I always feel like I'm about to remember something. But before I can recall the complete scene, the first thing I feel is an uncontrollable anger and... hatred?"

He thought for a moment, then added, "Or perhaps it's revulsion."