Chapter 1163 - Self-Perception (2 in 1) (2/2)

“No.” Chen Ge shook his head. The image of Doctor Gao that he had in his mind was overlapping with this Doctor Gao in real life. Perhaps his mind was slowly recovering. The two previously contradictory memories started to heal and agree with each other. There was a force in his mind that was slowly changing his perspective, to aid him in seeing the truth and helping him slowly and gradually peel away the pain.

“This proves that my treatment is still quite effective.” Doctor Gao was thankful. “Today, I will stop Xu Wan from coming to bring you any more meals. You have stayed for far too long inside this room. It is time for you to work your muscles. I believe it will help immensely with your recovery.”

“That means that I can finally go out? Can I go visit that theme park?” Chen Ge was instantly given a shot of enthusiasm.

Doctor Gao tried to hold in his laughter at Chen Ge’s antics. “You wish to go and visit that female boss of the haunted house, do you? I am afraid that is not possible at the moment. For now, you can only temporary move within the hospital.”

“Okay then.”

“I will grab a pair of crutches for you. Hold on.”

After Doctor Gao left, Zuo Han, who Chen Ge thought was asleep, suddenly opened his eyes. He gestured at Chen Ge and after he got Chen Ge’s attention, he whispered, “Do not believe a word that he says.”

“You’re still awake? Aren’t you tired?” Zuo Han did not reply anymore. He did not move again. It was as if he had been asleep the whole time.

Several minutes later, Doctor Gao returned to the room with the crutches. He helped Chen Ge up from the bed, and the two of them left the room together. Throughout this whole process, Doctor Gao did not spare even a second for Zuo Han. It was unclear whether it was because Doctor Gao did not want to disturb the sleeping Zuo Han or there was another reason.

After breakfast, Chen Ge and Doctor Gao went to the garden outside the hospital building. Because they had already missed spring, there were not that many flowers in the garden, but even so, staying there made one feel quite at ease. The wind blew through the tree branches and caressed their faces like a pair of gentle hands. The sunlight filtered through the foliage and danced on the ground like swimming goldfish. The shrubs at the sides of the corridors were neatly trimmed. The whole place was like a verdant heaven in the middle of the hospital.

“Have I been lying in the sickroom for a very long time now?” Chen Ge stood with the help of the crutches and slowly moved his body.

“Why would you suddenly ask a question like that?”

“Because it feels like I have not felt so relaxed in a very long time. In fact, I do not think I have felt anything quite so serene before.” Chen Ge touched the bark of the trees around him to feel the grain under his hand. Then he found a quiet place and sat down on a wooden bench.

“It is not that you have not experienced something like this before. It is just that you are currently trapped inside a room with no light, and you have already forgotten about that feeling.” Doctor Gao sat down beside Chen Ge. He seemed to like chatting with Chen Ge.

“A room with no light?”

“This room with no light is your heart. You took the key and locked yourself inside it. All I can do is try to figure out a way to help you walk out from that room.” Doctor Gao looked into the sky. It was unclear what he was thinking.

“Does this mean my illness will be cured after I leave this room?” Chen Ge asked seriously.

Doctor Gao shook his head. “Mental illness is different from psychological illness. Mental illness cannot be corrected with only self-determination. It needs to be combined with medication. Helping you walk out from the room in your heart is just the first step.”

“Then doctor, how would you consider that I have already cured from my illness? Actually, to be honest, at this moment, I feel like I am not that different from a normal person.” Chen Ge leaned against the back of the wooden bench, and his eyes were glassy with confusion.

“You still have not realized that you are sick. This is evidence that you are still quite a distance away from full recovery. The knowledge of illness and self-perception are the basis that we doctors use to determine the severity of a patient’s condition.” Doctor Gao started to chat with Chen Ge.

“Self-perception? What is that?” Chen Ge grabbed the edge of bench and kept his head lowered. He did not want other people to see the current expression on his face.

“Self-perception is the patient’s ability to diagnose his own mental health and condition. It enables him to see whether his own mental health is good or not. It is clear that you do not have any self-perception at this stage of your illness.”

“But I still feel that I am not so different form a normal person. The only difference is the occasional headache.” Chen Ge lifted his head, and his hands reached to his temple. The headache appeared to have visited him earlier. Doctor Gao did not say anything to counter Chen Ge. He merely lifted his finger to point at a man who was talking to himself at a pergola that was not that far away from them.

The man was about thirty, and he was also wearing a patient’s garb. He stood under the sunlight and kept mumbling to a spot that was under the shade of the pergola. Chen Ge felt the man look incredibly familiar, but in that moment, the name could not come to his mind.

“His name is Zhang Jingjiu. He once stayed in the same room as you, but we realized after he had moved in with you, his condition kept on worsening, so we moved him to another room.”

“Zhang Jingjiu?”

“Yes, his family runs a big winery in Xin Hai. He is not that old. His future should have been incredibly bright, but unfortunately, something went wrong with his mental state.”

“What kind of illness is he suffering from?” When Chen Ge heard the name Zhang Jingjiu, his expression twitched slightly.

“Undifferentiated schizophrenia.” Doctor Gao stared at Zhang Jingjiu, watching his every move. “This patient is under the impression that he can see ghosts.”

“Ghosts?”

“Of course, there are no ghosts in this world. Actually, we have conducted many tests on his senses and realized that they are different from a normal person’s,” Doctor Gao said casually. “Unlike normal people, he finds it difficult to focus his senses. He keeps feeling that there is someone talking to him. This condition does not improve even when he is inside his room alone, and his brain has some issue when processing sound. I will give you a simple example. When a normal person hears a simple sentence, their brain will contemplate the meaning of this sentence, but he will hear them in individual words, so it means that every single sentence that he hears will be fragmented when it reaches his mind.”

When Doctor Gao was chatting with Chen Ge, the patient called Zhang Jingjiu turned his head around to them. His eyes suddenly widened as he ran over toward them. Before Doctor Gao and Chen Ge could even react, Zhang Jingjiu pulled on Chen Ge’s arm as he tried to pull Chen Ge off from the wooden bench. However, he did not realize Chen Ge’s leg was injured, so in the end, Chen Ge was dragged up and was left careening to the ground. This came without any warning, so even Chen Ge did not have the time to cushion his fall.

“Help! Nurse! We need help over here!” Doctor Gao and a patrolling worker dragged Zhang Jingjiu to the side. When he was being dragged away, he still kept screaming at Chen Ge, “Ghost! Ghost! Ghost!”

“Are you alright? Are you injured?” Doctor Gao helped Chen Ge up from the ground.

“I’m fine. It’s just a fall. It’s nothing serious.” Chen Ge sat back down on the bench. He thought the whole episode was rather strange. From Zhang Jingjiu’s parting words and tone, it was clear that he was afraid of ghosts, but if he was afraid of ghosts, why would he voluntarily come to grab me? And after he failed to do that, he kept screaming the word ghost at me…

Chen Ge lowered his head to pat away the dust from his clothes, and at the same time, he moved his eyes away from Doctor Gao. He should be trying to warn me that there is a ghost around me. He believes Doctor Gao is a ghost.