Chapter 217: [Blessed with Longevity] Everything Happens for a Reason
Bai Cha sensed an undeniable streak of hypocrisy woven into the man’s words.
Unlike this morning, when his patience had felt thoroughly genuine—almost as if it were real.
Mm… so he loathed her clingy behavior, then?
“It’s like this, Doctor Qin…”
A thread of worry hung between Bai Cha’s brows.
“I’ve shared a room with Li Xiang for so long, and I only know she suffers from persecution paranoia. But shouldn’t there be some underlying cause for her condition?”
Li Xiang was thirty-two years old this year. Aside from her psychiatric condition, Bai Cha knew zero details regarding her background.
Mainly because the woman never engaged in communication.
He Yan, on the other hand, could manage a sentence or two at night when her mental state improved slightly.
Qin Fa pushed up his glasses.
“Her, you say…”
Qin Fa was responsible for Li Xiang’s psychological care as well, so he was naturally clear on the matter.
“Why are you asking about this?”
“I’m just a bit worried. Seeing her like that every day… even though I know my own state isn’t much better, looking at her still makes my heart ache. I wanted to understand her background to see if I could try communicating with her.”
Pausing briefly, she added with a touch of embarrassment, “Doctor Qin, you won’t think I’m being a busybody, will you?”
The impatience in Qin Fa’s heart was practically too bothering to conceal, yet he still had to keep up the act for two more days—after all, this woman before him would be dead very soon.
Naturally, he could guess the reason behind Bai Cha’s questions; it was born of nothing more than that laughable sympathy.
A patient herself, yet attempting to heal others.
Nevertheless, he maintained a flawless, gentle smile on his face.
“Of course not. It’s a wonderful thing that you’ve harbored a desire to help others. However, always remember that the person you ought to help most is yourself; only extend help to others when you possess surplus strength.”
After offering that piece of advice, Qin Fa finally spoke: “Li Xiang’s condition stems from being subjected to domestic violence by her husband.”
Bai Cha froze, a mix of surprise and sudden realization flaring across her face.
“She married at age twenty. Across ten years of marriage, she was beaten for ten whole years—even subjected to beatings during her pregnancies, resulting in miscarriages that left her permanently infertile. That continued until her husband met with an accidental death in the suburbs. It was late at night, and her husband had been drinking when he stumbled into a freshly excavated pit on a construction site. Coincidentally, workers filled the pit with dirt the next day; by the time anyone realized a person was trapped inside, he was thoroughly dead.”
“What ought to have been a liberation for Li Xiang turned into a nightmare instead. She grew perpetually paranoid, believing her husband was still alive, still beating her, and still wanting to murder her—developing a severe case of persecution paranoia.”
Having finished the recount, Qin Fa turned his gaze onto Bai Cha.
“Now that I’ve told you, is there anything else, Bai Cha?”
Bai Cha froze for a second, then spoke in a hurry: “Doctor Qin, I am Li Yun, not Bai Cha!”
Qin Fa let out a soft smile toward her instantly.
“That’s good to hear. Looks like your recovery is progressing well; your alter personality indeed displays zero signs of wanting to surface.”
“Mm… I have nothing else. I’ll take my leave now. Thank you, Doctor Qin.”
Bai Cha stood up, moving with subtle reluctance, stealing glances at him as she departed.
She wore a distinct look of wanting to say something more, yet remaining at a loss for how to open her mouth.
Pushing open the door, that man had vanished without a trace.
Regrettably, surveillance here was far too strict; otherwise, for a ghost like that, stabbing it to death with a blade would resolve all the hassle.
Taking two steps forward, before she even reached her own room, she caught sight of nurses pushing a hospital bed out from an adjacent room.
Restrained atop the bed was a man secured with leather bindings.
A player.
He struggled with frantic desperation; catching sight of Bai Cha, his eyes widened, radiating a plea for help.
Bai Cha observed him in total silence.
If she possessed the capacity to help others, she wouldn’t have been entangled by that ghost moments ago.
It was only because she held a degree of confidence that she dared pry into Li Xiang’s business to begin with.
Along with wanting to inspect the ghost’s condition while she was at it.
As things stood now, supposing all the patients in this nursing home were haunted by ghosts, then therapeutic treatment was inherently useless to begin with.
This was likely orchestrated through intentional screening.
Furthermore, within the nursing home itself, acting recklessly remained impossible for now; the earliest opportunity to make a move would have to wait until tonight, after the majority of doctors and nurses retired for the day.
Consequently, regarding this player, no one would step forward to lend a hand.
She had never been particularly warm-hearted to begin with, rarely engaging in actions that yielded zero personal benefit.
Other players lined the hallway as well.
Everyone watched in silence as the player bound to the hospital bed was wheeled away and pushed into the elevator.
Time crawled agonizingly slow within this instance.
Li Xiang was wheeled back over an hour later, her condition having stabilized into calm once more.
No physical cause for her suffocation was uncovered, yet doctors suspected it might have resulted from a laryngeal muscle spasm caused by the epileptic seizure compounded by her long-term psychiatric state.
They could only speculate as much—at any rate, the patient was out of danger for the moment.
Bai Cha didn’t catch sight of that man beside her again, either.
She looked thoughtful; judging by Li Xiang’s episodes, that man overwhelmingly materialized whenever Li Xiang fell asleep.
At night, Li Xiang was typically injected with a strong dose of sedatives, allowing her to sleep for an extended duration, yet she would invariably wake up during the latter half of the night and plummet into madness.
Judging by what transpired at noon today, it was likely because she caught sight of that man’s presence upon waking up.
Bai Cha sat on her hospital bed, appearing to stare off into space.
She would drift off to sleep during her treatment sessions as well.
Up until now, she remained uncertain whether she was transported to a different environment or merely trapped inside a dream.
These ghosts would invade human dreams to a certain extent.
Because a person’s mental state was at its most relaxed during those moments.
Another half-hour or so passed before Doctor Qin called her in for treatment once more.
This time, however, another player accompanied her—Wang Lei.
He sat in a wheelchair pushed by a nurse, his entire presence dazed and sluggish, resembling someone fighting off intense drowsiness.
His hands and feet were secured tightly to the wheelchair.
Qin Fa paid attention to Bai Cha as well; noticing her gaze fixed on Wang Lei, he spoke: “Wang Lei—the one whose condition mirrors yours—his state suddenly deteriorated again over the past two days for unknown reasons.”
“By the way, Bai Cha, how is your mood right now?”
“Doctor Qin, I am Li Yun,” Bai Cha emphasized once more.
Yet simultaneously, she had to deny it in her mind again.
“My mood isn’t particularly great.”
Bai Cha cast a glance at Wang Lei, then thought of Li Xiang, letting out a soft sigh.
“Doctor Qin, everyone looks to be in such a terrible state. Can we truly recover?”
Qin Fa spoke with gentle warmth: “Rest assured, you will recover. You must possess confidence; only by harboring the courage and confidence to overcome the illness can you truly defeat it.”
Bai Cha instantly flashed a beaming smile at him, looking as though she had been deeply encouraged, nodding.
“You’re completely right!”
Qin Fa reached up to push his glasses, concealing the fleeting flash of annoyance and disgust deep in his eyes.
Arriving at the treatment room, the procedure followed the exact same steps.
Displaying zero resistance on the surface, Bai Cha sank into a deep slumber once more.
Doctor Qin stood beside her, looking down at her from a high and mighty posture.
He turned his gaze toward the mirror.
The original reflective surface vanished, replaced by four or five elderly individuals seated on the other side, impeccably dressed.
They were all advanced in age, gazing greedily at the oblivious Bai Cha.
“As you all can see, this is the drug I spoke of—the one that can grant you eternal youth and immortality.”
