Huang Jinchen squatted down in amazement and touched the sandy beach at his feet. “It’s just like the real thing.” 

“It is the real thing,” Kou Tong explained. “The Projector doesn’t pull a person’s consciousness in; it creates a seemingly illogical space based on the person’s consciousness and adjusts frequencies to superimpose that space over the one we live in. It’s quick, convenient, and environmentally friendly.” 

Huang Jinchen glanced at his leg. “All right, then what’s up with your leg?” 

Kou Tong stamped on the ground. “The human body is a substance. This is an alteration brought about by entering an altered space. I believe it’s an intact leg, so it is an intact leg.” 

Dr. Kou jumped twice in place. Then, under Huang Jinchen’s meaningful gaze, his originally injured leg suddenly went weak and wouldn’t hold his weight. He went to one knee on the ground. Huang Jinchen, feeling very accomplished, said, “It really is the overlap of two people’s consciousnesses! See, I didn’t believe it, so you’re lame again.” 

Kou Tong said, “…You have such a practical mind.” 

Huang Jinchen grinned. He walked over and kindly helped Kou Tong up. He asked, “So normally when you diagnose patients, do you also go in yourself?” 

“I go in myself, but I can set up the Projector to block the influence of my consciousness.” Kou Tong stared gloomily at his seemingly intact leg. Right now, it could only exercise the function it had when in a cast—being in the way. 

This Huang really was an asshole, Kou Tong thought, grinding his teeth as he limped one-legged on the beach supported by Huang Jinchen. 

He couldn’t resist turning his head to look at Huang Jinchen. He thought, This asshole is really pretty capable, though. His leg had in fact been intact, and then it had instantly become no good. It showed that Huang Jinchen had instantly changed his ideas. 

A person could control what he said or didn’t say, but it was hard to control what he thought or didn’t think. It was easy to say “change your ideas,” but actually doing it was rather difficult. 

It seemed that, as expected, this guy wasn’t only a genius; he was a great genius. 

Huang Jinchen, supporting Kou Tong as he hopped breathlessly, was also secretly sizing up this long-legged scoundrel in a white coat. He thought that if it was only his own consciousness that had been rolled into the instrument, right now he would definitely pull out a gun to silence him. But instead Kou Tong had turned up this confused overlapping space and dragged himself in as well. It would have been rather rude to kill him, making himself appear too ungracious. 

All around, apart from the sea, there was only the sky. There was only a little island without enough room to turn around on and nothing worth looking at. The two of them naturally rushed towards the tower in the center. 

Huang Jinchen asked, “What do you think is inside?” 

Kou Tong thought about it. “No doors, no windows—clearly we aren’t allowed in. I think that there may be something not very nice in there.” 

Huang Jinchen asked, “Are you hiding something naughty in there?” 

In tones of righteousness, Kou Tong said, “How could that be? Though I have great admiration for both big-chested beauties and delicate beauties and occasionally like a spot of gambling, overall I’m a respectable person.” 

Huang Jinchen was very contemptuous of his aesthetic. He tactfully said, “Your aesthetic is too traditional.” 

Kou Tong modestly awaited instruction. Huang Jinchen, gesticulating, said, “The chest isn’t important. As long there’s a little, it’s enough. The critical thing is to look at the legs. Think about it—during exercise, you can have her wrap those long legs around your waist, and they’ll go all the way around. Then you get some ecstatic little accompaniment. That’s the genuine product.” 

“Yes, yes, yes.” Kou Tong nodded to indicate approval. “Come on, Expert Huang, wipe your mouth. You’re drooling.” 

Expert Huang wiped his mouth without any embarrassment. He pointed at the tower in front of him and said, “A fly can’t sting a seamless egg. How do we get in?” 

The two flies with their three legs made a big circle around the tower. At last, Kou Tong spotted a little window on the side of the tower, around the height of a second floor. He slightly regretted not having brought tools in. Huang Jinchen let go of him, made him stand firm on his own, then backed up a dozen meters. 

A run-up, a leap, and like a big gecko, Huang Jinchen was clinging to the tower’s smooth stone wall, hanging with one hand from a small notch just under the window. His arm strength was considerable. He easily hung from one arm, then pushed the tower window open with his elbow and poked inside to look around. 

There was no pornography inside the tower, and no mahjong table. There was only pitch darkness. 

Surprised, he took out a small flashlight and swept the inside of the tower with the paltry light. 

Inside was a large space. Looking from the outside, it seemed that seven or eight people would be able to surround this tall, narrow tower with their arms; but looking through the window, it seemed to be a single space with apparently endless darkness. 

Huang Jinchen remembered what Kou Tong had said. This was only an abnormal space projected from consciousness; inside it, true laws of physics and logic didn’t exist—could it be that it wasn’t the same size outside and in?

The shadows let off chill, dank air and a slightly putrid smell. His flashlight shone on the wall. There were many murals painted there, like the murals of some religion. They were brightly colored and realistic, but the contents were strange. 

He was planning to get a little closer when he heard Kou Tong below, leaning against the tower with his arms crossed over his chest, raise his head and ask, “What do you see inside?” 

“A big-chested, slender-waisted, long-legged super beauty,” Huang Jinchen blurted out in response, tightly clinging to the window lattice and moving a bit further inward, attempting to see what was drawn on the walls a little more clearly. 

It was a person…or it wasn’t. He had a green, toothsome, monstrous head and a knife in his hand; the tip of the knife was dripping blood, but the thing he had killed hadn’t been drawn. The monster with a beast’s head and a human body was only quietly looking out from the picture with its head tilted; the eyes seemed to be alive. 

What did this mean?

Huang Jinchen thought about it, couldn’t understand it, and could only keep looking down. He saw a painting of a bridge over a racing river. The bridge was covered in people and livestock, heavily trafficked. But under the bridge was a crack; the support was about to give out. 

Something seemed to be floating on the surface of the river, but before Huang Jinchen could look closely, he heard the roar of a ferocious beast come from the bottom of the tower, nearly shaking him off the window. He was startled, feeling a foul wind hit him in the face. He automatically let go at once and flipped backwards, firmly falling to the ground. The tower shook fiercely, as though something inside was about to rush out. 

But Kou Tong was still leaning against the tower without moving, his head raised to look at the monster’s face coming out of the tiny window…or rather, it was only the monster’s eyes. 

Its eyes were the size of the window. Its heavy breathing was rapid. A foul smell came from it. Then there was an even greater roar. It rammed its body against the inner wall of the tower with all its might, making a dull, loud sound. 

“Oh, I see…” Kou Tong looked in admiration at the only visible corner of the monster’s big head. “So this is how fashionable Expert Huang’s tastes are!” 

Huang Jinchen threw himself over, grabbed Kou Tong, and rolled aside. The ramming made a big crack in the side of the tower. Stones dropped down from above, striking the place where Kou Tong had just been standing. 

Dr. Kou’s elegant white coat became covered in sand, but he was still a little detached from the situation. “Wow, what a hot chick!” 

Huang Jinchen stared at the crack that was growing larger and larger and took the handgun from under his pant leg. “The hot chick saw how handsome I am and started getting ideas. She’s staging a prison break.” 

Just as he finished speaking, the tower suddenly collapsed. The monster’s roars covered up even the roar of the ocean waves, thundering so loudly that it numbed their ears. It seemed to be three stories tall; who knew how it had fit into that slender tower. Its sharp fangs seemed able to reach the ground. Its whole body was bright red, as if it had escaped from hell. 

“The chest is pretty big, the legs are pretty long…but what about the waist?” Holding onto Huang Jinchen’s arm, Kou Tong hopped up on one leg. Amid the sea breeze and monster’s ferocity, he looked on attentively and questioned. 

“So slender you can’t see it.” Huang Jinchen abruptly pulled the trigger, firing three times into one of the monster’s eyes. But while the bullets hit its eyeball, they didn’t go in. They raised sharp sparks and bounced away. 

The monster was enraged. It howled and threw itself at him. Huang Jinchen pulled Kou Tong. “Let’s run for now. I think that our little bodies won’t be able to stand up to this girl.” 

Kou Tong staggered when he dragged him. Huang Jinchen immediately remembered that inconvenient injured leg and yelled, “That leg of yours is obviously just fine! It’s not broken! Run!” 

Before he had finished, the shackled feeling on Kou Tong’s leg suddenly disappeared. He stumbled once, and then he could put both feet on the ground again. The two of them ran ahead, and the monster chased behind. They went almost the whole way around the little island. 

Suddenly, Kou Tong pulled Huang Jinchen to a halt and squeezed into the depths of a thicket. The monster’s body was huge. The trees were in its way. It was very impatient, opening its fierce maw and biting through a tree with a howl. 

“What a clever mouth it has!” Huang Jinchen said, staring dumbfounded. Not giving up, he gesticulated, still holding the little handgun. “Where do you think it has a soft spot on its body? Where’s its weak point?” 

But Kou Tong didn’t have attention to spare for him. He quickly dug up a little black box from under a tree. His fingers quickly entered a code. The lid of the box popped off. Huang Jinchen took a glance. Loading a bullet into the chamber, he quietly asked, “Is that a controller? Why was it buried under a tree?” 

“In different spaces, the controller’s position can’t be the same.” When the little black box’s lid popped off, a clear screen and keyboard jumped up inside. The big howling monster was approaching step by step. Kou Tong didn’t so much as raise his head. “Since neither of us was screened off, the controller entered the space at random. When we’re with a patient, the system will screen us off, and we’ll bring the controller along.” 

Huang Jinchen didn’t believe this; if it really had entered at random, then wouldn’t it have fallen into the sea? How could he have found it so easily? Then he fired at the monster’s tongue. The bullet bounced off. “Tsk, that still won’t do. Dr. Kou, my conservative estimate is that the hot chick is still a minute away from us.”  

“OK, no problem.” Kou Tong thought that a minute was ample. 

But before he had finished speaking, there was a howl, and the monster lifted a tree in its mouth, uprooting it and sweeping it horizontally. Kou Tong and Huang Jinchen simultaneously rolled nimbly in two directions. Kou Tong yelled, “Didn’t you say there was another minute?” 

Huang Jinchen yelled back, “I didn’t know it was going to use a rolling pin!” 

Kou Tong’s fingers hopped over the keyboard as though about to take off. Then there was a swish, and a crack suddenly appeared in the ground. From far away, Kou Tong warned him, “The space’s frequency is beginning to enter an unsteady segment, careful…” 

Then he vanished. Huang Jinchen stared blankly. All of a sudden, he felt as if the sand under his ass had grown suckers. It was like being dropped into a toilet. He swirled around and around for ages then at last was “flushed” out. 

He opened his eyes—he was once again standing in front of that big boiler. Dr. Kou, holding his crutch, took two limping steps and plopped into a chair. 

The two of them were silent for a while. Then, simultaneously, they began to laugh. 

“This job is too stimulating.” Huang Jinchen was the first to voice his feelings. “It’s easy to accidentally end up with renal weakness.”