Chapter 204: Of Life And Men (1/2)

After Qin Shiya’s second session, her mother ran to find Cheng Xi again. This time, her attitude was much better. She had no intentions of interfering with or warning Cheng Xi about her treatment methodology, but her attitude was still tainted with arrogance.

She asked Cheng Xi, “I saw that she fell asleep right when she got home. Does this mean that her condition is starting to improve?”

“Not that quickly,” Cheng Xi responded with a shake of her head. “She’ll almost certainly relapse without further treatment. At this time, remember to not over-stimulate her. The best thing you can do for her is to not treat her as a hero, but rather as a regular person.”

“What do you mean?”

Later, Cheng Xi found out that, after the earthquake, Qin Shiya had been paraded around and been made to give speeches everywhere as a model example of someone who had performed a heroic feat during an earthquake. Because no one had thought that she would need psychological counselling, the halo placed on her head had grown immeasurably heavy, causing her mental condition to deteriorate to her current state.

In light of this, Cheng Xi’s tone was quite severe. “I’m trying to say that she’s just a regular human. She’s not some sort kind of shield against destruction or an angel descended from the heavens. Please, stop forcing her to act like a hero. If you treated her just as your daughter and nothing more, that’d be sufficient.”

Qin Shiya’s mother’s expression grew ugly upon hearing Cheng Xi’s words. “Do you think that she’s unfit to be called a hero?”

Some people just never seemed to be able to grasp the salient points of a conversation, no matter how heavily it was emphasized. But Cheng Xi had met her fair amount of these people, and she simply smiled in response as her expression remained calm. “No, it’s not that. She just simply doesn’t want to be called a hero.”

Her mother left in a huff of anger once again, and Cheng Xi felt her outlook on Qin Shiya’s recovery turning pessimistic. During lunch, she talked to the director, bringing Qin Shiya up again. “I’m afraid that this might take quite a long time.”

The director glanced at her. “But you’re confident that she can be treated, yes?”

“Yes. If her family was willing to cooperate, the likelihood of success would be much greater.”

After the director heard about Qin Shiya’s mother’s behavior, she fell silent for a moment before volunteering some information. “Before the earthquake, Qin Shiya’s father was just a minor branch secretary, and her mother was just an ordinary peasant woman. But now, her father’s already become a vice-secretary, her mother found a new job working at the county’s women’s association, and even her brother’s education prospects improved. To ask them to discard her title of “hero” and all the benefits that come with it will indeed pose some difficulty.”

Cheng Xi frowned; she could understand what the head was insinuating: Rather than Qin Shiya’s recovery, perhaps her family valued her status as a “hero” more. As long as she stayed alive and didn’t try to kill herself, did it matter if she was mentally unsound?

Cheng Xi held her forehead weakly. “They won’t stop her from coming here, will they?”

“Ha, ha, they might.” When the director saw Cheng Xi’s expression crumble, she smiled wryly. “But as long as Qin Shiya is determined to get better, they won’t be able to stop her. I’m sure of that.”

Almost as if to confirm the director’s words, Qin Shiya didn’t show up for the next scheduled appointment. When Cheng Xi called her, it was her mother who picked up, and she said, “She’s already improved greatly, so we feel like there’s no need for her to return to the hospital.” And with that, she hung up.

Cheng Xi considered paying them a house call, but she was too preoccupied to do so. Due to her excellent performance in treating Qin Shiya, the director had given her a few more patients, all of them suffering from PTSD to various degrees. One of them was a fifty-something old man who would be triggered by any loud noise. Even if the sound of cars honking was unbearable for him, and it would send him into a frantic scramble for somewhere to hide. It often caused a local panicked rush, as the people around him would follow along unknowingly.

He’d suffered from this for quite a long time, and he was also a somewhat bull-headed person who refused to accept any opinion that differed from his. After a deeply unsatisfactory therapy session, Cheng Xi forcefully made him undergo exposure therapy; she played both faint and loud noises near his ear and then repeatedly and incessantly told him, “Look, there’s no earthquake!”

It was actually mainly this patient that monopolized most of Cheng Xi’s time, leaving her unable to worry about Qin Shiya. By the time his condition had improved, Qin Shiya had come to her herself.

She had tried to commit suicide by cutting up her bedsheets and hanging herself on the windowsill. Logically, it should have been impossible for her to kill herself from that height, but her willful insistence on dying might actually have given her a chance of succeeding.

If not for her brother returning home, she really might have died.