Chapter 16: Psychosis
She said that at around 7 o'clock last night, Li Weizhi, a patient in room 427, left the hospital without authorization after his wife returned home, and a heart attack recurred an hour later, and another woman was taken to the emergency center, and died at 9:40 a.m. The relics have been notified to be taken up this morning, the ward was empty last night, and today is preparing to admit other patients. She pursed her lips and smiled: "I was drunk two days ago and had angina pectoris, and when I sent it, no one could stand the smell of alcohol, so I ran out to when I was better, and the wind was right away, and it spread all over in the morning, you don't know?" β
Ward 427 is cramped and has only one bed, if this Li Weizhi died at nine o'clock last night, then who did I meet in the middle of the night? My hairs stood on end. I can't tell if I believe that there are ghosts in the world, and I basically have a skeptical attitude towards many things that cannot be verified. Even if it's a ghost, it can't be Li Weizhi's drunkard and pervert, right?
Suddenly, I felt the agate on my chest become cold, and the parts that came into contact with my skin gradually became numb, as if it was highly poisonous. I hurriedly took off my necklace and put it in my trouser pocket as I went downstairs, and what sanity I had left kept me from throwing it in the trash. I kept reminding myself not to be naΓ―ve enough to believe that I could get anything from a ghost, because if that evidence was enough to upend the framework of modern science, it wouldn't be enough to give me a few Nobel Prizes.
My father was still sitting on that bench, and I walked over and sat silently beside him, and said, "Ask whatever you want to know." β
My father asked me, "How did you get this pendant?" β
I shook my head and said, "What I just said is true, last night I met a girl there who was sick with a handful of bones, and she asked me to keep it for her for two days and then return it to her, and I really kept it for me." β
My father looked at me sideways: "It seems that you are not fully awake, this chain was bought by you you more than ten years ago, you said that you wanted to give it to Jiang He as a birthday gift, I read it when you fell asleep in the morning, and at that time a rain word was engraved on the base of the pendant." β
I took out the chain, and sure enough, there was a word rain engraved on the base.
"If you want to give it to Xiaohe, shouldn't you engrave the word lotus?"
"How do I know what you were thinking, you really can't remember it at all? And the girl you're talking about doesn't exist at all. This morning, the story of the patient's immediate stroke has spread all over the hospital, and you don't know until you sleep. If you did see someone in that room last night, I think something was wrong with your spirit. β
It is difficult for me to accept that a healthy and promising young man is suddenly suspected of being mentally ill without warning, there must be some special reason for the misunderstanding, but it is difficult to clarify at the moment: "You mean that I have hallucinations and mental illness?" I came up with everything on my own? But I didn't think there was anything wrong with me, I remember everything these days clearly, and there were many things that the girl said that I didn't know before, such as the Diamond Sutra scriptures, which I didn't understand at all. How could I possibly fantasize about something I didn't know in the first place? If you bought me all the necklaces, why did I deliberately forget to make up a character and give it to myself? Even neuropathy can't be so ridiculous, right? The sun seemed to turn a gloomy gray, shining a little bit of cold sweat on my forehead, and I retorted stubbornly.
"Since you can forget about the necklace, can you be sure that you haven't studied the Diamond Sutra before?" My father's words hit my heart, and I reached out to wipe the cold sweat from my head.
"Don't panic, you're tired during this time, and you may have a little hallucination, and I'm dragging you down. Let's rest first, and if it's really sick, find a way to cure it. I ask again, are you sure you saw the chain for the first time last night? β
I met my father's gaze and nodded affirmatively.
My father and I sat silently for a while, the white sun blackened my eyes, and he suggested that he go back to sleep for a while.
After walking a few steps, my father suddenly turned around and asked me, almost in his ear, "Haven't you forgotten the mantra I taught you some time ago?" β
My father's hot breath tickled my ears, but my whole back was cold, and my voice was almost inaudible: "Po Shan Po is acting? β
The father straightened up with satisfaction: "Remember, don't tell anyone. Lives are at stake. From today onwards, you don't want to stay with me in the hospital, I'll be discharged in a few days, and we'll think about it in the long run. β
I had been thinking about it all afternoon, and I had gone through the experience of last night, and it still felt so real that I could even remember the girl's peculiar body smell. It's also unlikely that I had a dream, and it is said that dreams are all black and white in memories, and my memories are so colorful, and I find it hard to believe that my brain can make up so many details. Besides, there's a necklace, which can't be a by-product of my dreams.
If what my father said was true, and I directed and acted in the hospital, holding a necklace and playing a game of left hand to right hand, then I would be crazy.
The strangest thing is that if this necklace was really a birthday gift I gave to Jiang He more than ten years ago, why is it still in my hand without any memory? I've moved so many times, why don't I have any impression of this necklace? It seems that there may really be something wrong with my brain and I have lost a lot of precious memories.
As for that spell, it was actually taught to me by my father, and last night I somehow recovered some key memories, but it was just a way that reminded me of schizophrenia?
The other day was when my father was out of danger, and he was particularly emotionally vulnerable in those days, and I even saw him crying secretly, maybe he really told me something important at that time? But for more than twenty days I could clearly see everything in my head, except that there was no information about the mantra he had confessed to me. Maybe there was a switch turned on in my brain that caused a part of my memory to be isolated and lost, and of course I couldn't remember what I had forgotten, otherwise it wouldn't be called forgetting.
As for why I was in no mood to think about why I was taught this strange sentence, what my father said would be considered in the long run after being discharged from the hospital, so I would naturally know when it was time to use it.
I always thought that the trajectory of my life was never something I could fully control, but I had always believed that I was in complete control of my body and my mind, but now that confidence began to waver, I couldn't help but think of the girl's words: "Don't trust yourself to be in control of your body." "My ears began to buzz and I was in a cold sweat, could I still warn myself in my hallucinations through imaginary figures? That's a lot of awesome skill.
In the evening, I called Lin Shu, and he said that if Ritalin takes one or two tablets each time, the side effects are not big, this thing is called brain viagra in foreign countries, and it is often used as a cognitive enhancer, and the reason why it is listed as a class of psychotropic drugs in China is mainly because of the fear of abuse. In Europe and the United States, it is actually a common prescription drug used to treat ADHD, and millions of people take it every year for non-therapeutic reasons. The most common side effect is insomnia, mostly because some students abuse it, take a large amount of medicine, do not sleep for a few days to prepare for the exam, and as a result, severe insomnia after stopping the drug.
In the end, he said that he was going to take an exam recently and asked me to return the rest of the medicine to him. I knew he suspected me of stabbing Lou, so I turned around and returned the rest of the medicine to him before going home in the evening.
I thought a lot that night, ashamed of my ignorance and permissiveness. I don't have a strong body, neither the material nor the spiritual world is superior to anyone else, and I have lived to such a great extent that the cherished things are in my memory, and I am destroying my brain.
I've considered visiting room 427 again at night, and that little monster said that he told me his name today, maybe there will be a reasonable reversal in the future? Maybe she was temporarily admitted last night by a patient from another ward? But reason tells me that there is no logical reason in all this, and my father has explained to me very clearly the origin of the necklace, unless he maliciously deceives me. And there were already other patients in that room, so I might get into trouble if I rushed into the room again. The most important thing is that even if there is no one, I don't have the courage to take the initiative to send it to the door again.
I slept very hard that night, although I didn't take Ritalin anymore, my brain was still running wildly, and my five senses became extremely sharp when my eyes opened and closed, as if there was a huge and deep cave above my head, and I could hear all the sounds coming from the depths of the cave.
It was getting darker, and I was a little more relaxed.
I circled around the bench in the hospital hallway to read.
There were scattered footsteps behind me, and when I tried to turn back, she was already close behind me, her breath squirting into my neck, and I even felt the heat. I smelled a musk-like smell.
She leaned into my ear and said very softly, "Po Shan Po plays the bottom." β
She got in front of me and pillowed my lap like a child.
She was still so pale, her eyes were not as dark as last night in the dim light, a little transparent gray-black, looking at her eyes suddenly felt that she had a special charm, and her breath was like a cat.
"Who are you?" I'm not as bad as I thought I was.
"I'm me, why do you ask?" She had more questions in her eyes than I did.
"That necklace wasn't yours, my father bought it for me." I get to the point of the matter.
"Isn't it in your hands now?"
I was speechless, if she hadn't given it to me last night, I wouldn't have known the necklace existed, and I couldn't accuse her of stealing from me.
"You said yesterday to tell me your name today."
"My name is Lou Lanyu."
"Don't be kidding, my name is Lou Lanyu."
"Don't you like night tours? In the future, you will call the name of the night wandering god, Po Shan Po plays the bottom. Lou Lanyu is me. She said it seriously.
"No kidding, what's your original name?"
"Lou Lanyu!"
There was a hint of dissatisfaction in her eyes, and she struggled to sit up, and I tried to help her with both arms, and suddenly woke up, and the sky was already dark outside the window, and the aftertaste of musk seemed to waft through the air.