Chapter 001: Impersonating Yang Guo

  Late at night.

  Jinghua City, Heping Road, Public Toilet.

  Tang Xiaosheng tiptoed to the toilet door, looked around with a sly gaze, and after making sure there was no one around, he sneaked into the women's restroom.

  He had lived for twenty-two years, but it was his first time entering a women's restroom. After all, it was his first time, and he couldn't help feeling a bit nervous. Tang Xiaosheng calmed himself down slightly, then looked around with a sly expression, preparing to do something.

  Just then, seven or eight men suddenly appeared out of nowhere and surrounded him in an instant.

  "You damn pervert, you even dare to enter the women's restroom!"

  "Everyone come up and beat this beast to death!"

  Seven or eight men rushed forward and Tang Xiaosheng was immediately subjected to a flurry of punches and kicks.

  It happened suddenly, Tang Xiaosheng was caught off guard, and although he resisted desperately, after all, two fists were no match for four hands. Before long, he was beaten to the ground. Even so, everyone didn't intend to let him go, continuing to punch and kick him to death.

  "Beat this son of a bitch to death! Scum!"

  "Beat him to death!"

  Like this, Tang Xiaosheng knelt on the ground with his hands covering his head, letting a group of people beat him up.

  About two minutes later.

  “CUT！”

  At this time, a thick male voice sounded, and everyone stopped immediately.

  The speaker is a man in his fifties, wearing a red duckbill cap and holding a yellow megaphone. He is the director of this urban idol drama.

  What just happened was just a small clip of filming a TV series.

  The director cleared his throat and shouted: "This time everyone performed very well, fully demonstrating the ferocity of beating the pervert, it's not bad, we can wrap up now."

  "Hmm..."

  Upon hearing the director's shout, Tang Xiaosheng fell to the ground and let out a long sigh of relief, finally finishing filming. The scene where he enters the women's restroom had already been re-shot 12 times, and he had also been beaten 12 times.

  Tang Xiaosheng is an extra, commonly known as a "running dragon suit".

  There was once a saying that extras are just like disposable chopsticks, they would be discarded after being used once. This is exactly the true portrayal of Tang Xiaosheng's life as an extra. After finishing filming one scene, he had to rush around looking for another play to film, otherwise he might not have food to eat.

  After finishing the makeup, Tang Xiaosheng found "Qun Tou" and got 50 yuan, which is his total income for today. In Jinghua City Film and Television City, the hourly wage of an extra actor is 5 yuan, and the daily wage is 40 yuan. Tonight, he earned an additional 10 yuan for performing an extra scene where he was beaten by a group of people.

  In fact, three months ago, Tang Xiaosheng was still a martial arts stunt double, with an income of nearly 3,000 yuan per month, but an accident cast a shadow over his acting career.

  Three months ago, Jin Yong's classic martial arts drama "The Return of the Condor Hero" was remade, and Tang Xiaosheng had the good fortune to become the stunt double for the male lead. Unfortunately, during the filming of a fight scene, the steel wire of the aerial rigging suddenly broke, and he fell directly from three meters high to the ground, fracturing his left leg on the spot.

  This accident happened in a very strange way, and the cause of the accident is still unknown until now.

  Unfortunately, Tang Xiaosheng's left leg injury is not optimistic, and the doctor said that it may leave sequelae.

  Due to the high cost of hospitalization, Tang Xiaosheng could not afford it and left the hospital a month ago. In fact, his leg injury has not recovered yet, and there is still obvious swelling and bruising in his knee joint, which is not suitable for intense exercise, but in order to make a living, he can only continue to run errands.

  For him, it doesn't matter what role he plays, and it's okay if it's bitter or tiring, as long as he can make money.

  Tang Xiaosheng stuffed 50 yuan into his pocket and rode a worn-out second-hand bicycle away from the Film City, heading for his residence in the distant suburbs.

  Upon arriving at the residence, it was already past 10 o'clock at night. The bicycle was locked in front of the entrance and I was about to head back to my room.

  "Are you Tang Xiaosheng?"

  At this time, I suddenly heard someone calling from behind.

  Tang Xiaosheng turned his head and saw a strange middle-aged man walking over, about 40 years old, slightly thin, wearing a suit and leather shoes, seemingly a businessman.

  "I'm Tang Xiaosheng, what brings you here?"

  "Hello, Mr. Tang, I'm Guo Yang." The middle-aged man walked up and introduced himself briefly before getting straight to the point, "I heard you're an actor, I have a job here that needs an actor's help, are you interested?"

  Tang Xiaosheng couldn't help but feel curious when he heard this, and asked: "You go first."

  "It's like this..."

  It turned out that Guo Yang had a 16-year-old daughter named Guo Yixiang. She was originally a lively and lovely little girl, and in school she was also an excellent student who excelled in both character and academics.

  But at the beginning of this year, something strange happened.

  For some reason, Guo Yixiang suddenly became mentally ill, lost her mind and began to speak nonsense. She often said she was Guo Xiang from "The Return of the Condor Hero".

  Seeing his daughter's mental state was so abnormal, Guo Yang sent her to the psychiatric hospital in Beijing for examination. After diagnosis by doctors, it was confirmed that Guo Yixiang might have suffered from severe delusional disorder and needed psychological treatment at a psychiatric hospital.

  Unfortunately, a year has passed and Guo Yixiang's condition not only failed to improve but instead worsened. Not only did her emotions become increasingly unstable, she also repeatedly claimed to be Guo Xiang, crying and shouting that she wanted to leave the psychiatric hospital to find her elder brother Yang Guo.

  Seeing his daughter in this state, Guo Yang was also not feeling well. After repeated consideration, he decided to find an actor to impersonate Yang Guo and then invite him to the psychiatric hospital to coax Guo Yixiang, hoping that it would be helpful for her recovery.

  A few days ago, Guo Yang specially went to Jinghua City Film and Television City to find a dragon suit actor named Tang Xiaosheng who had been acting for six years. He heard that his acting skills were not bad, so he found him.

  After listening to Guo Yang's statement, Tang Xiaosheng couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder. The world is so big and there's nothing strange that doesn't exist, yet such a bizarre thing actually happened.

  It's understandable for Tang Xiaosheng to have a parental heart towards the world, and he didn't find it difficult to understand Guo Yang's approach. He sank his voice and asked: "Mr. Guo, what exactly do you want me to do?"

  Guo Yang said: "My daughter has always thought that she was possessed by the spirit of Guo Xiang, and wanted to find her big brother Yang Guo. Therefore, I hope you can pretend to be Yang Guo, pretending to be possessed by Yang Guo's spirit, and then go to the mental hospital to see my daughter."

  Tang Xiao understood his meaning but had some concerns: "Let me pretend to be Yang Guo, no problem, but will your daughter believe I am Yang Guo?"

  "My daughter is not quite right in the head, so it shouldn't be too hard to fool her. I can't think of any other way at the moment, so I'll just have to give it a try. If Mr. Tang is interested, I'm willing to pay 300 yuan per day as compensation."

  "300 yuan per day?"

  Tang Xiaosheng's heart skipped a beat. This price had a fatal attraction to him, and now he could only earn 50 yuan a day by running errands.

  If I take this job, it means that from now on I have to live in a mental hospital and spend every day with mentally ill people, which is obviously not something that ordinary people can bear.

  Thinking of this, Tang Xiaosheng couldn't help but hesitate. After considering it for a few minutes, he finally agreed. On the one hand, it was because he really needed the money now; on the other hand, it was also because the matter itself was quite interesting.

  Tang Xiaosheng has always had a strong interest in acting, but unfortunately, he hasn't had many opportunities to showcase it. In recent years, although he has been filming, he can basically only play supporting roles or be a stand-in for others. Now this job requires him to impersonate Yang and deceive a mentally ill person, which is already a very challenging performance.

  He then said: "Mr. Guo, I think I can try it out and see when I can officially start work?"

  "The sooner the better, preferably within two days."

  In the following two days, Tang Xiaosheng inquired about some detailed information of Guo Yixiang from Guo Yang, and both parties simply signed a labor contract.

  Apart from this, Tang Xiaosheng spent most of his time at home reading Jin Yong's "The Return of the Condor Hero".

  Since he was going to pretend to be Yang Guo in a mental hospital, he needed to spend some time getting familiar with the role of Yang Guo. As for acting, he had always had very high demands on himself. Before performing each character, he would make thorough preparations and strive to perform as realistically as possible.

  Although this time's situation is a bit special, after all it's still just acting out a play, there's no essential difference.

  Actually, Tang Xiaosheng is not unfamiliar with the role of Yang Guo at all. Three months ago, when he was a stand-in in the crew of "The Return of the Condor Hero", he had read through several times "The Return of the Condor Hero" and was very familiar with the characters and plot in the book.

  He thought about Guo Yixiang's claim that she was Guo Xiang, so he specifically reviewed the relevant plot about Guo Xiang.

  XXX

  On the third day, Tang Xiaosheng arrived at Jinghua City Mental Hospital early in the morning. According to the agreement, he would officially check into the hospital as a mental patient today and meet with Guo Yixiang.

  Jinghua City Mental Hospital is the largest tertiary specialized hospital in the province, with a professional medical team that implements open management for mental patients, which is very humane and has won praise from many mental patients and their families. It was rated as one of the top ten domestic mental disease specialized hospitals.

  After arriving at the hospital, with Guo Yang's assistance, Tang Xiaosheng completed the admission procedures smoothly. Each patient admitted has a number, and Tang Xiaosheng's number is 707.

  After getting his uniform, Tang Xiaosheng quickly received the blue and white striped uniform that the hospital had made for patients, and officially began his life in the psychiatric hospital.

  From this moment on, he will no longer be Tang Xiao Sheng, but a time-traveler Yang Guo.

  After changing into his uniform, Tang Xiaosheng followed a female nurse to the rehabilitation center's activity hall.

  The activity hall of the rehabilitation center is located on the second floor of the inpatient department, with an area of over 300 square meters, and is one of the main places for mental patients to carry out daytime activities.

  As soon as I entered the hall, I saw dozens of mentally ill patients active here. Some were watching TV, some were painting, some were talking to themselves, and some were circling around a round table. More often, they sat quietly in their chairs, motionless, with dull eyes, seemingly lost in thought.

  "Everyone, please note." The head nurse led Tang Xiaosheng to the center of the hall and then introduced him to the many mentally ill patients, "Today, a new friend has arrived. Next, we invite him to make a self-introduction. Everyone, please applaud to welcome him."

  To the proposal of the head nurse, most mental patients didn't pay much attention, only seven or eight patients applauded.

  After the applause died down, Tang Xiaosheng hesitated for a moment, clasped his hands together and bowed to the crowd, saying: "Ladies and gentlemen! My surname is Yang, my single name is Guo, and I am a man from an ancient tomb at the foot of Zhongnan Mountain..."

  "Hahaha!"

  At this point, a mentally ill person in the hall suddenly burst out laughing, slapping his thighs with his hands and laughing, "He actually said he was Yang Guo, more seriously ill than me, haha! I'm dead! Haha!"

  Immediately afterwards, several other mentally ill patients also followed suit, bursting into laughter, among whom two patients who looked a bit idiotic even laughed until they fell to the ground.

  Facing the ridicule of many mentally ill people, Tang Xiaosheng did not make a sound, but stood quietly in place. To him, the reactions of these mentally ill people were unimportant, and only the reaction of Guo Yang's daughter, Guo Yixiang, mattered. He was here to introduce himself for the sole purpose of catching her attention.

  At this time, Tang Xiaosheng found that in the corner of the east side of the hall, a little girl cast an unusual glance at him.

  A young girl, fifteen or sixteen years old, wearing a pale blue dress, with her hands propping up her chin, sat alone in the corner. Her hair was slightly disheveled, and her delicate face still had a childish look, while her eyes stared intently at Tang Xiaosheng.

  She is Guo Yixiang.

  "It's really pitiful that such a lovely little girl has contracted mental illness." Tang Xiaosheng thought to himself.

  At this time, a female nurse shouted: "Alright, everyone should take their medicine now. Everyone line up at the window to receive your medication."

  As soon as the words fell, all the mentally ill patients got up one after another and walked towards the window of the office on the west side of the hall, and then took medicine in order under the guidance of the nurse.

  After taking their medicine, the mentally ill people began to busy themselves with their own affairs.

  Tang Xiaosheng was walking back and forth in the hall, getting familiar with everything around him. He knew he would be spending a lot of time here in the future.

  "Are you really Yang Guo?"

  A slightly childish female voice came over, and Tang Xiaosheng turned around to see that Guo Yixiang was already standing in front of him.

  "Yes, it's Yang Guo."