The medical facility's private room remained quiet for approximately six hours after Lóng Hǎifēng's initial awakening. Security monitoring indicated he'd cycled through predictable psychological stages—panic, grief, attempted motor control experimentation, eventual exhausted resignation. Standard trauma response to unwanted transformation, documented and observed but not yet addressed.
Riyan had been waiting for optimal intervention timing. Too early and shock would prevent productive communication. Too late and resentment would calcify into permanent hostility. The window for establishing functional relationship with intelligence asset existed in narrow band between initial trauma and entrenched psychological resistance.
