Chapter 212: [Blessed with Longevity] Attending Physician
The young child was sitting on the lawn playing with a plush rabbit toy, accompanied by a nurse nearby.
Bai Cha strolled casually across the grass.
She surreptitiously sized up her surroundings.
Ever since she stepped out of her hospital room, gaze after gaze had been trailing her.
Glancing around with the peripheral vision of her eyes every now and then, she could catch sight of several nurses, and even a few doctors, watching her intently.
A person wasn’t entirely oblivious when being watched, especially when being watched by a multitude of people.
Yet when that person turned their head to look, only to see no one, a thread of doubt would subconsciously creep into their mind: Was I just overthinking things?
It was a form of self-doubt.
Under such conditions, how could these patients—whose mental states were fragile to begin with—ever truly recover?
After taking two laps around the lawn, Bai Cha found a spot with ample sunlight and sat down.
Plucking a blade of grass, she used the momentum to inspect her hands.
Her arms bore numerous needle marks, which actually throbbed with pain whenever she moved. Many of the puncture sites had expanded into dark bruises, leaving her entire arm feeling heavy and sore.
These were all the result of her occasional psychotic episodes when she believed she was Bai Cha.
No… she was Bai Cha!
Bai Cha raised her eyes, looking up at the towering ward building.
This building ought to have nine stories.
Based on standard floor heights for hospital wards, this wasn’t particularly tall.
It was a nursing home, after all.
The immediate surroundings consisted of lawns, while a dense patch of trees stood slightly further off.
Those trees appeared to be locust trees. Since it was currently April or May, it happened to be the blooming season for locust trees, with clusters of white flowers hanging heavy from the branches.
Peering through the gaps between the trees, a row of iron railings was visible beyond.
Did escaping the nursing home mean escaping the medical compound where this single building stood, or escaping the entire nursing home complex?
In her memories—or rather, in Li Yun’s memories—Bai Cha reminded herself once more that these memories didn’t belong to her.
When Li Yun had first arrived, she entered through the main gate of the nursing home. Right upon entering, she had seen elderly residents exercising over in that section.
Those elderly residents appeared to be in remarkably vibrant spirits.
The environment in their section was exceptionally picturesque, with lush greenery and abundant flora. Blooming tulips filled the flower beds, while pink and white roses climbed all over the fences on both sides.
A fountain stood in the center of the courtyard, featuring a carved angel statue at its center.
One had to cross that area to reach the care facility designated for young people.
It took roughly a five-minute walk to get there.
However, the two areas weren’t entirely sealed off from one another.
On occasion, when her condition was good… when Li Yun’s condition was good and she went out for a stroll, the nurses would take her and a few other patients over to the elderly section.
Regarding this, the doctors’ explanation was that the mental state of those elderly residents was exceptionally fine—perhaps even better than that of the young people. They had lived through many of the struggles the young people were currently facing, yet they had overcome them all.
Thus, having the young people interact and converse with them could yield positive therapeutic benefits.
Li Yun wasn’t much of a conversationalist, yet the elderly folks over there were genuinely gentle and warm.
Only, she… Li Yun always felt the way they looked at her at times felt slightly off.
It was exceedingly enthusiastic, like looking at some precious treasure, yet she wasn’t their child.
As for Bai Cha, viewing it from the perspective of an instance—supposing the lifespans of these young people could be stolen by those elderly residents through certain means, whether by extracting drugs from these youths or through even more metaphysical methods…
Then the gazes those elderly residents cast toward the young people were no longer strange at all.
After Bai Cha sat for a while longer, a doctor walked over.
It was Li Yun’s attending physician, Qin Fa.
He was thirty-seven years old this year, reportedly an outstanding graduate from the psychology department of a prestigious university, having specialized in clinical psychology for ten years.
“Li Yun, how are you feeling right now? Are you still being disrupted by the memories of that alter personality?”
Sitting down beside her with natural ease, Qin Fa couldn’t be considered exceptionally handsome, yet he possessed plain, balanced features and an aura that naturally put people at ease.
Wearing glasses and carrying a scholarly air, he radiated the presence of a refined intellectual.
He gave off a trustworthy impression.
Bai Cha nodded.
“My head throbbed terribly after waking up today. At times, I still mistakenly take myself for another person.”
Qin Fa noted it down rapidly in his notebook.
“That’s completely normal. Your two personalities have fused into one, which essentially means you are merely one final step away from complete recovery.”
“Don’t dwell too much on the matter of memories. You simply need to remember that you are Li Yun. Quite often, we humans indulge in fantasies about what it would be like if we lived a different life—fantasizing about what achievements we could attain or what kind of life we could have under those circumstances. That’s all perfectly normal.”
Bai Cha nodded in silent agreement.
“By the way, Bai Cha, do you like locust trees?” Qin Fa asked out of the blue.
“Doctor Qin, I am Li Yun,” Bai Cha reacted naturally. “I don’t like locust trees.”
Qin Fa let out a soft smile.
“My apologies, don’t misunderstand. I simply wanted to test how much influence the alter personality still exerts over you. Looking at it now, your recovery is indeed progressing well—unlike the patient in Room 35. You remember him, right? The young man who suffers from the same dissociative identity disorder as you, named Wang Lei. His alter personality clearly gained the upper hand today—the fellow actually claims his name is Liang Xin-hui.”
As Qin Fa spoke, he let out a soft sigh.
“Your situations are quite similar. His alter personality also believes he has entered a horror game at times.”
Qin Fa shook his head.
Bai Cha indeed retrieved the relevant details from Li Yun’s memories.
Wang Lei’s father engaged in severe domestic violence.
Since childhood, he had witnessed his mother being beaten frequently by his father. Whenever his father flew into a rage, he would beat him as well; his mother would shield him, only to be beaten even more brutally.
On the day he passed his university entrance exams, his mother finally took her own life.
Before dying, she said that her sole motivation for staying alive was to protect her son. Now that her son could finally spread his wings and fly far away, she hoped he would never return, nor did she want to become a burden that held him back.
Wang Lei collapsed in tears while holding his mother, just as his drunken father returned home, bellowing for his mother to get up and wait on him.
In a fit of uncontrollable rage, Wang Lei accidentally beat his father to death.
Following that, his secondary personality emerged: Liang Xin-hui, a personality belonging to an ordinary household where, though not entirely blissful, his parents treated each other with mutual respect.
That was all Li Yun knew.
“He’s quite pitiable as well,” Bai Cha sighed.
Qin Fa smiled and nodded.
“Indeed. Most who come here carry their own deep wounds, but I believe that one day, you will all overcome these issues, step out from the shadows of the past, and embrace the sun once more. Keep it up!”
Qin Fa patted her shoulder, then stood up.
“Soak in the sun a bit longer—it’ll do good for both your physical and mental state. I’ll go check on the other patients.”
Bai Cha nodded.
Taking two steps forward, Qin Fa suddenly turned back.
“Bai Cha, how old are you this year?”
Bai Cha: “…”
She put on a speechless, helpless expression and let out a soft smile.
“Rest easy, Doctor Qin. I can clearly tell who I am right now. I’m twenty-seven this year, and I am Li Yun.”
Like hell she was—she was Bai Cha! Twenty years old this year!
Only then did Qin Fa finally take his leave.
