Qingshan District is located in the southwest corner of Yunhe City, far from the center of urban development, so it has the most secluded ecological environment and the most backward economic power. The result is a mix of dilapidated adobe houses, elegant private estates, crumbling clinics and modern research institutes.

A developer boss pointed to these weathered people and things and said: "The backwardness of the present is the potential of the future, and the lower the starting point, the greater the room for improvement." If you wait until the development of this land takes shape before you get involved, I'm afraid you won't even be able to drink the soup by then. ”

The 314 Medical Research Institute is probably an opportunity for a developer to seize here. The environment here is beautiful, fresh and quiet, and it is a good place for scientific research, healing, and elderly care. But now, there are 16 special mental patients living in it, and the arrival of Lin Xuerou has made that number 17.

This hospital has had a lot of cooperation with the School of Psychology of Yunhe Medical University, and I heard that their dean is also a visiting professor of the medical university, but Liu Mengwei has never seen it.

At five o'clock in the morning, the city had not yet woken up, and Liu Mengwei's car drove very slowly, enjoying the sense of security brought by this sticky darkness and silence, and drove for an hour in the empty lane to reach the hospital gate.

The janitor was a little surprised to receive the guest who had come in the early morning, and after asking the doctor on duty, let her in.

To her surprise, as soon as she walked through the door of the research institute, she saw a white figure standing in the empty hall. It was still early, and the entire research institute didn't seem to have woken up yet, only the man was like a lonely but sober night owl, ready to go.

When I got closer, it was a man with glasses, about thirty years old, with a thin figure and a clear face. When he saw Liu Mengwei walk in, his eyes gradually radiated brilliance, and he kept following her figure.

Liu Mengwei was already a little upset, and when she saw such a strange person, she didn't care about maintaining a polite smile, and glared back with her eyes.

The man showed a good-looking smile, stepped forward and said, "You are Teacher Liu Mengwei from the School of Psychology of Medical University?" ”

Liu Mengwei saw the nameplate hanging on his chest, which read "Attending Physician Qiu Yuchuan".

Stretching out his hand not to hit the smiling person, seeing that he took the initiative to show goodwill, Liu Mengwei was embarrassed to put on a face again, and tried to squeeze out a smile: "It's me." I'm sorry to bother so early. Are you the on-call doctor today? ”

"Yes." Qiu Yuchuan seemed to be in a good mood.

In stark contrast, Liu Mengwei was exhausted, but she couldn't sleep, and she didn't want to be polite with this person at this time, so she went straight to the topic: "I'm coming to see Lin Xuerou." It was the little girl who had just been admitted to the hospital yesterday afternoon, and I recommended her here. ”

"I see." Qiu Yuchuan showed a suddenly realized expression: "That's really a coincidence, Lin Xuerou is the patient I am responsible for." ”

Liu Mengwei was also a little surprised: "Then can you please ask Doctor Qiu to talk to me about her condition in detail." ”

The two walked through a dimly lit hallway to a small office. In addition to the cabinets full of materials and books, there are also rows of large but neat folders on the table, and a white lab coat hanging in the corner of the wall, which looks like a typical doctor's office.

Qiu Yuchuan took out a cup from the glass cabinet and asked, "What does Mr. Liu want to drink?" ”

Liu Mengwei felt that this Dr. Qiu was a little too enthusiastic, as if they were old friends who hadn't seen each other for a long time, and subconsciously wanted to refuse. Still, she held back, because she really wanted something now, so she said, "Is there coffee?" "Doctors, who work hard, usually always have this kind of drink.

"But you don't seem to be in a good state of mind, so it's better not to drink anything that stimulates your nerves." Although he said this, the movements in his hands did not stop, Liu Mengwei could not see his movements, and a unique scorched aroma was already emitted in the room.

"Only instant." Qiu Yuchuan showed his white teeth, but Liu Mengwei was in his eyes, he was like a great white shark grinning with its teeth.

"Just now, he had his back to me, so he couldn't have put anything in there, right?" Her thoughts wandered wildly.

"Tell me about Lin Xuerou." Now, she had to shift her attention, and she could feel that something wasn't quite right with her.

Qiu Yuchuan picked out one from a pile of folders and held it in his hand, and said, "Originally, I shouldn't have told you about Lin Xuerou's condition, because you are not her legal guardian......" He paused, and still handed the document to Liu Mengwei: "But I want to discuss this special case with professionals, which should also be helpful for the follow-up treatment of patients." ”

The document records the various examination data that Lin Xuerou received when she was admitted to the hospital.

"We monitored her brain waves for a long time, and most of the time the waveforms were unusually flat and very low, between the Theta waves and Delta waves, which have frequencies between 1 and 8 Hz, and are generally only in sleep or infancy, when the brain waves are mostly at this frequency. But this patient of ours is obviously not, and since you sent her, can you tell me what happened to her? ”

Liu Meng flipped through the documents in his hand slightly, frowning and silent. After a long time, he raised his head and said, "This is exactly what I want to know, why does Dr. Qiu think she has become the way she is?" ”

Qiu Yuchuan muttered, "It's also the first time I've encountered such a patient. In the past, I used to receive patients who had some kind of lesion or abnormal electrical discharge in the brain, which caused a physical or behavioral abnormality. But the CT scan showed that all the organs of her body were healthy, but she was too quiet, whether it was quiet in her behavior or in her brain. ”

"Take me to see her." Liu Mengwei stood up.

When they came to the patient area, Qiu Yuchuan entered a string of passwords on the fingerprint lock on the side, and led Liu Mengwei into another area. Looking down the hallway, there is a row of rooms on either side, with numbers on the doors, numbered from number one to number eighteen. These rooms are no different from ordinary wards, the space is not large, but it seems to be in good condition, each person has his own independent room, the windows are bright and clean, and the equipment is complete.

"Our patients here are not the kind of psychopaths who are dangerous, so the supervision is not strict." "Some of them have impaired brain function, some have had some kind of brain surgery, and some have some kind of genetic disease. We believe that the mystery of consciousness and cognition can be further explored through tests and experiments in these patients to understand the function and function of the brain and nerves. ”

Liu Mengwei was a little surprised by Qiu Yuchuan's honesty.

Qiu Yuchuan replied to her with a smile: "I think I have a good relationship with Miss Liu." When I heard that Ms. Liu had studied cognitive neuropsychology in California, I had a gut feeling that you could help me a lot. ”

Liu Mengwei couldn't deny it, and they came to Lin Xuerou's hospital room. Lifting the blackout cloth covering the glass and looking in, the room was dim, but I could barely see clearly, and there was no one inside.

Liu Meng's face changed slightly, and he looked at Qiu Yuchuan inquiringly. Qiu Yuchuan didn't expect that Lin Xuerou was not in his room, so he hurriedly ran to the nurse's station. There was only one little girl dozing off in the nurse's station, Qiu Yuchuan's voice was not loud, but the majesty in it scared her to wake up instantly.

"What about the patients in room seventeen?"

"Ten...... Seventeen ......" she stammered, as if wondering who Seventeen was, "Is that the little girl who just came...... Isn't she in her room? ”

Facing Qiu Yuchuan's sword-like eyes, the little nurse stammered: "No one has been in or out at night, she must still be here, will she ......be in another room?"

So saying, the little nurse also stood up and wanted to go with them to find it.

Although the patients are not locked in their rooms as if they were prisoners, the front and back doors of this area are closed at 10 p.m. every night, and no one without permission can pass through.

Ward 14 was inhabited by a patient with locked-in syndrome. Patients with locked-in syndrome have quadriplegia due to lesions at the base of the pons, and their faces are expressionless and speechless, and they look like they are in a coma. But in reality, people with this condition are not immobile, their eyes can move up and down, and more importantly, they have a clear sense of autonomy, they can perceive everything around them, but they can't speak, they can't move, like the soul is bound and trapped in the body.

Lin Xuerou sat next to this silent body.

The two of them cautiously pushed the door in, trying not to make a sound, for fear of disturbing them. They stood stunned for a while, not seeing any reaction from Lin Xuerou, let alone the person lying on the bed.

"You...... What are you doing? Liu Mengwei finally couldn't help but ask.

"He's dreaming." After a long time, Lin Xuerou gently spit out these words.

"How do you know?"

"I see it."

"What?" Qiu Yuchuan's eyes widened in surprise: "What did you see?" ”

“…… I don't remember. ”

Qiu Yuchuan sighed and said, "We found out before, she doesn't seem to be able to preserve her memory, and what she said to her, what she showed to her, was forgotten in less than half an hour. Only the hippocampus retains some function, and the brain region where long-term memories are stored appears to be blank. She's like a computer that restarts every half hour, and the memory is emptied after that. ”

"Today, though, this seems to be a new and interesting discovery." Qiu Yuchuan quickly perked up.

This time it was Liu Meng's turn to be slightly surprised: "Do you really believe that she can see other people's dreams?" ”

Qiu Yuchuan didn't answer her question, but asked, "Does Miss Liu believe in coincidence?" ”。

Coincidental? Liu Mengwei subconsciously wanted to say that she didn't believe it, but she suddenly felt a thought, and a ripple was blown by the breeze in the depths of her heart - why did she visit a research institute in the wilderness in the early hours of the morning, why did Alice choose to call at this time today, not yesterday, not tomorrow, where did the butterfly flap its wings?

"Before I did it, I would have believed in coincidence. But at this moment, I would think that it was my destiny to meet Miss Liu. Qiu Yuchuan's eyes, hidden behind the lenses, sparkled.