"Dr. Murata, can I know the schedule for the next few hours?"
When Dr. Murata started to immerse himself in his own world again, Ziong MingDe timely asked again.
"Ah, the schedule? Of course, of course."
Dr. Murata reluctantly interrupted his own topic for the moment, looked on the table for a while, and found a white A4 paper. It printed the experiment schedule for today. Then, Dr. Murata began to read it according to the content on the paper.
"Let me see... it is now 3:13 PM. The scheduled entry time for the experiment is 3:30 PM, and the experiment will start at 4 PM. The experiment is expected to last for two hours, with a margin of error of plus or minus one hour..."
Ziong MingDe listened by the side, pretending to not care, but his mind was filled with many thoughts. After Dr. Murata finished explaining, he sat up from his half-lying position.
"So, that means there is only a little over ten minutes left. Can I remove all these needle wires from my body?"
Ziong MingDe stared into Dr. Murata's eyes as he asked, but Dr. Murata did not respond to his gaze. Ziong MingDe attributed this reaction to guilt.
"Well, of course."
Dr. Murata pressed the intercom button on the table and said a few words in a low voice. Soon, two nurses entered the room and skillfully removed the monitoring devices from Ziong MingDe's body, then left quietly.
"Ah, that feels much better."
Ziong MingDe stretched his limbs, and the joints all over his body made cracking sounds one after another. Each of these sounds was a mark left by past battles on him.
"Ziong MingDe, you are truly an incredible person."
Sitting next to him, Dr. Murata muttered to himself while looking at Ziong MingDe.
"Oh? Why do you say that? We've only met for an hour or two, right?"
Ziong MingDe seemed to have finished pondering, showing rare interest in chatting with others.
"Not long? How do you know that we haven't just met recently?"
Dr. Murata did not directly answer Ziong MingDe's question, but instead asked a new question based on Ziong MingDe's inquiry.
"When a person falls into a coma and wakes up, judging the elapsed time based on one's own feelings is often inaccurate. I'm curious, what clues did you use to come up with the conclusion that 'we just met an hour or two ago'?"
"Oh, didn't you just say it yourself? 'It is now 3:13 PM.'"
Ziong MingDe's answer did not surprise Dr. Murata. On the contrary, his eyebrows raised in a disappointed manner.
"Ziong MingDe, indeed, it is now 3:13 PM. But how can you determine which 'today' it is, the 'today' after you woke up or the 'today' before you regained consciousness?"
Dr. Murata's counter-question made Ziong MingDe pause for a moment, and then he burst into laughter.
"No wonder the old man chose to cooperate with you. It turns out you are such a rigid person. But it also makes sense. Such experiments require someone like you to ensure no mistakes occur."
While saying this, Ziong MingDe got off the bed, put on the slippers prepared for him long ago, and walked towards the door in light blue patient clothing.
"It's about time, let's start the experiment..." Ziong MingDe glanced back at Dr. Murata, who still hadn't figured out the situation, and then answered his question. "My answer is correct, I did indeed only sleep for about two hours. As for why it was two hours and not twenty-six or fifty, there are many reasons that can be inferred, let me casually list one..." "The sleeping pill you asked me to take, when I got it in my hand, I knew how long I would sleep after taking that dose." With that, Ziong MingDe left the room.
