The Romance of Yesteryears

The psychiatric hospital was situated atop a hill, offering breathtaking views and a sense of tranquility far removed from the bustling city below.

If it weren't for the hospital, this place might have been developed into a villa community.

Upon arrival at the hospital, I went through the usual registration process.

As the staff led me to see my companion, I asked, "How's he been lately? Any improvement?"

Shaking his head, the staff member replied, "It's gotten worse, but he's been more active lately."

Feeling a pang of sadness, I remembered that the person I was visiting was my classmate, my best friend in life.

Back when we struggled together, living in a tiny room of less than twenty square meters, eating instant noodles and debating whether to add sausage.

We would hit the streets to distribute flyers before dawn and work on programming late into the night.

Eventually, we succeeded. At that time, he told me his idol was Bill Gates.

He even said that even if he couldn't reach the heights of his idol, he wanted to be the Bill Gates of our circle.

He was truly a rare talent, but alas, fate was cruel!

Finally arriving at Adrian's ward, I saw him writing something on the wall of his room as I approached.

The staff knocked on the door, "Adrian, your friend is here to see you."

"Shh, keep it down, I'm doing something important!" Adrian turned around and gestured for us not to speak.

The staff member wanted to say something, but I stopped him, saying, "It's okay, you can go ahead and busy yourself!"

After the staff member left, I stood at the door watching him, realizing that he was writing various lines of code on the wall.

Though messy and disjointed, these codes were beyond the capability of an average person.

He was so focused, just like before, except now, in his mentally unstable state, he might not even know what he was doing.

Seeing him in such a disheveled state pained me.

Finally, I walked in, approaching him and picking up the piece of chalk on the ground, adding to the codes he'd written.

Adrian suddenly pushed me away, growling, "What are you doing? You're a bad person!"

I chuckled, looking at him, "I'm just completing it for you. Look, does it look right now?"

Adrian immediately looked at the wall where I had just written, and suddenly, he smiled like a child.

But as he smiled, tears welled up in his eyes, and he burst into loud sobs.

I watched him, unsure of what to do, then approached and hugged him, comforting him, "Don't cry, I'm here."

He continued to tremble, choking out, "It's over, everything's over, I've done wrong, I'm a sinner."

"No, you're not, I don't blame you, Adrian, you're my friend, we're best friends." I continued to comfort him.

Truth be told, I never blamed him.

Even when I didn't know the truth before, I didn't blame him.

Because I felt like we were on the same boat, sharing joys and sorrows.

But he felt sorry for me, especially since his family had suffered a serious car accident, resulting in his mother's death and his father becoming disabled.

Since then, their once well-off family had fallen into even harder times, and he was faced with hefty fines, which eventually drove him mad.

Adrian suddenly pushed me away, wide-eyed, staring at me, asking, "Who are you? Are you here to harm me?"

"No, don't you recognize me? I'm Chen Feng!"

"Alex Phoenix! Ah!" He suddenly screamed madly, then hid under the bed.

I was puzzled because he hadn't acted like this when I last saw him.

So I bent down to take another look at him, and he spat at me, angrily saying, "Go away, I'll kill you! You bad person."

I wiped the saliva off my face, patiently saying, "Come out first, I'm not a bad person, I'm an alien, I'm here to save you."

Hearing me say this, he calmed down and slowly crawled out from under the bed, looking at me, "You... you're an alien?"

"Yeah! I'm from the planet M, I've come to take you away."

"No, I'm not going anywhere, I know you want to steal my things, I won't give them to you." With that, he grabbed the pillow on the bed, holding it tightly to his chest.

Seeing him like this, I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time, eventually letting out a sigh of resignation.

There was no need to stay any longer; his condition had worsened, and staying longer might only lead to further chaos.

As I prepared to leave, he suddenly called out to me, "Alex Phoenix!"

His voice was commanding, making my heart skip a beat, so I quickly turned to look at him.

He still clutched the pillow tightly, saying to me, "Let me sing you a song!"

The thought process of a psychiatric patient was something a normal person couldn't imagine, and I didn't understand why he suddenly wanted to sing.

Then he started singing:

"Soft laughter warms me, injecting joy into my veins

Softly saying..."

I remembered this was his favorite song.

Before he could finish singing, I burst into tears.

After he finished singing, tears streamed down my face.

I stood at the door, looking at him, then smiled and said, "Brother, rest assured, I'll find evidence to prove your innocence, and I'll help you get better."

"Bad people, you're all bad people, you want to steal my things, I won't give them to you."

As he spoke, he crawled back under the bed.

Seeing him like this made me feel really uncomfortable; he used to be so outstanding!

Eventually, I left. Although I hadn't learned anything new, there was no need to stay any longer.

But as I was about to leave, the doctor in charge of Adrian told me that someone else had come to see him a few days ago.

I was surprised; Adrian only had his father, who had been sent to a nursing home, and he didn't have many friends. How could someone come to visit him?

I suddenly felt something was off and immediately asked the doctor if we could check the surveillance footage, explaining that I suspected something was wrong with that person.

After hesitating for a moment, the doctor agreed and took me to the surveillance room.

After retrieving the footage from that day, I saw a somewhat familiar BMW parked at the hospital entrance.

Then, a person got out of the car, leaving me stunned.