Chapter 6 — The Secret Pages of Room Seven

Kỳ Bách Nguyên is not someone who trusts anyone easily, especially since he took on an undercover investigation mission at An Tâm Clinic five months ago. During that time, he learned to keep his distance from every patient and every colleague, just observing and taking notes, not letting any personal emotions creep into his work, which required absolute alertness. But the patient named Lam was an exception that he couldn't help but pay attention to.

Right from the first evaluation session, he noticed unusual signs in her profile - her personal information was suspiciously minimal, her way of speaking was too calm and selective for someone who was truly in a psychological crisis, and especially her eyes, which observed the surrounding environment with the alertness of someone looking for something, not the confusion often seen in newly admitted patients.

He was suspicious of her from the beginning, even thinking about the possibility that she was a member of the rival side of the network he was investigating, installed to see if anyone was secretly collecting evidence. During the first week, he observed her more closely than any other patient, recording every question she asked, every glance she glanced at sensitive areas of the hospital.

But the more he observed, the more he realized a contradiction: if she was really from the opposing side, her behavior was too clumsy like that of a new person, with no signs of someone well-trained to spy. She asked questions that were too direct, too obvious, as if she were acting on the instincts of someone desperate to find the truth, rather than on a carefully calculated plan.

In the afternoon after she asked him about the sedative in the quarantine area, Bách Nguyên returned to his private office and sat quietly looking at his old leather notebook - where he recorded all the clues he had collected over the past five months. He turned back to the first pages, where notes about patient codes had suddenly disappeared, about unclear surcharges, and about secret shipments into the basement that he had secretly followed several times but had never gotten close enough to have concrete evidence.

Lam's question about the sedative was strikingly consistent with what he had suspected for months about the special isolation ward — which he had never been granted direct access to, despite repeated requests for professional reasons. A normal patient, no matter how curious, can hardly ask such an in-depth and precise question without some special motivation.

That night, when the shift was empty, Bách Nguyên decided to try a risky step. He waited until it was time for Nhã Vân - still under the name Lam in his eyes - to go to the small garden for patients allowed to work at night, then quietly sat down on the bench opposite, not carrying documents, not wearing a white blouse as usual, just wearing a simple plain jacket.

"Miss Lam, can I sit here for a moment?" He asked, his voice completely different from the usual professionalism in the clinic.

Nhã Vân was a bit surprised, but still nodded, her vigilant eyes following his every move.

"I want to ask you something directly." Bách Nguyên looked at her, his eyes no longer looked professional but became unusually serious. "The question you asked today, about the sedative in the quarantine area — did you ask out of genuine curiosity, or because you already knew something?"

Nhã Vân was silent for a long time, considering every possibility that could happen if she answered truthfully. If Bách Nguyên were Chu Bảo Hạnh's person, her honest answer could cause her entire plan to collapse immediately, even putting her in danger. But if he was truly a potential ally, hesitating for too long could make him lose trust in her.

"Why do you ask that?" She responded with another question, carefully gauging his reaction.

Bách Nguyên sighed, looked around to make sure no one else was within earshot, then lowered his voice. "Because I've been searching for the answer to the same question for months now. And I've never met another patient in this hospital who asked the exact question I'm trying to answer."

There was a long moment of silence between the two, only the sound of the wind rustling the trees in the dark garden. Nhã Vân feels an important decision is waiting for her to choose - continue to keep a safe distance, or bet on the slim possibility that the man in front of her is really on the right side.

"I'm not a normal patient," She finally spoke up, choosing to speak vaguely enough to probe without revealing too much. "I have a relative in this hospital who is having an unclear time, and I believe something is going wrong, much bigger than what is being publicly admitted."

Bách Nguyên looked at her intently, as if considering the level of trust he could place in that half-hearted confession. "I believe so too," he said, his voice low. "I've gathered some clues, but not enough to do anything. I need more information from inside, from areas I'm not allowed to access."

"Special quarantine area," Nhã Vân said, not a question but an assertion.

He nodded. "And the basement behind the logistics area."

Hearing that, Nhã Vân knew she was standing at an important crossroads. She could continue to act alone, keeping it absolutely secret to preserve her own safety and the safety of Diệu Kỳ's rescue plan, or she could choose to trust this man, sharing a portion of what she knew in exchange for the professional support and access that she could not get on her own.

"If I tell you part of the truth," she said slowly, "can you promise me anything that will make me confident that I haven't made a mistake?"

Bách Nguyên was silent for a moment, then looked straight into her eyes, his voice firm. "I can't promise you everything will be safe, because I myself don't know what we're up against. But I can promise, I will never use anything you tell me to harm you or your loved ones. From the first day I stepped in here, my only goal has been to find the truth and protect those who are being unjustly imprisoned behind these locked doors."

Nhã Vân looked deeply into his eyes, looking for any signs of deception, but only saw a tired sincerity, exactly the same feeling she had seen in her own eyes every time she looked in the mirror during sleepless nights worrying about Diệu Kỳ.

"Okay." She nodded slightly, the decision had been made. "But not tonight. I need more time to be sure." Bách Nguyên did not force her, just nodded in agreement, stood up and prepared to leave. Before walking out of the garden, he turned to look at her one last time. "Whoever you are, Ms. Lam, I believe that you did not come here by accident. When you are ready, I will be here."

That night, Nhã Vân returned to her room with a strange feeling creeping into her heart - not necessarily complete peace of mind, but a faint glimmer of hope that she no longer had to face the darkness that was covering An Tâm Clinic alone. She still didn't dare to trust Kỳ Bách Nguyên completely, but for the first time since entering here, she felt like she was not alone.

She lay on the bed, going over every word he had said, trying to find some loophole in his words that could be a sign of deception, but the more she thought about it, the more she saw that all of his reactions were consistent with what she had observed over the past week - his unusual devotion to his patients, his habit of taking private notes without going through official records, his eyes lingering for a long time in front of the isolation ward door as if trying to find a way to penetrate the thick metal door. If he was just putting on an act to get information from her, then it must have been such an elaborately staged act that she could hardly imagine any motive great enough for a young doctor to put in so much effort just to deal with an unknown patient or they wouldn't have a buffer.

She also remembered Ngọc Diễm's warning before she entered An Tâm, that she could not be sure who was a friend and who was an enemy in a place where everything could be a cover. But she also understands that if she stayed closed and doesn't dare to trust anyone, she will always be just a remote observer, unable to get closer to the truth that was buried behind the locked doors of the quarantine area and the mysterious basement. Sooner or later, she had to learn how to bet, and perhaps, that man with the old leather notebook was the card worth betting on the most in this entire game.