Chapter 420: Chapter 270: Localized Amnesia
Hearing Liu Qingsong say this, Ran Yan knew that the supposed summons by the Princess of Xiangcheng was just a random excuse he had made up; the real reason was still this case.
Ran Yan was also a bit confused by this case, so she went along with him. Sitting in the carriage, she thought more and grew increasingly uneasy, “You said Chai Xuanyi and the Princess of Wenxi were attacked together?”
“Mhm, I don’t know the specifics. Just now when I went out to the restroom, I grabbed that servant who ca to report the news and asked him, but he only knew this much,” Liu Qingsong said.
Ran Yan frowned, her dark eyes staring at him as she said irritably, “So what you an is, our visit this ti is not at Xiao Song’s request, but rather your own decision to join in on the action?”
“What do you an, ‘join in on the action’?” Liu Qingsong laughed dryly a couple of tis and then spoke with conviction, “Is there anyone else throughout the Great Tang with more authority as an Autopsy Officer than you? No! With the New Year fast approaching, if this case is not resolved, Jiulang will inevitably be implicated, at the very least getting demoted two ranks. Do you know how easily one ascends those two military ranks and how hard it is to climb back up? As Jiulang’s future wife, how could you just stand by and watch? He doesn’t want you to suffer, but you can’t really just not care, right?”
Liu Qingsong spoke so reasonably that Ran Yan was at a loss for words.
“Last ti you ntioned that this case is related to opium, right?” Liu Qingsong asked.
Ran Yan responded affirmatively. Suddenly, a thought flashed into her mind, recollecting that Ran Yunsheng seed to have ntioned that the Princess of Baling used opium to control those captured gentlen. So, could there be a lot of opium at the Princess of Baling’s place?
With this thought, Ran Yan imdiately inquired, “Did Xiao Song ever investigate the Princess of Baling’s private garden? That Yu Lang might be one of the gentlen who escaped from the Princess of Baling’s place!”
Liu Qingsong, who mixed in the gossip circles, imdiately understood Ran Yan’s aning, his expression changing slightly as he asked, “The Princess of Baling’s estate isn’t sowhere we can investigate just because we want to. At the very least, we need solid evidence. There are many haunts for opium addicts in Chang’an, almost one or two in each district, and so are even found in certain brothels, so it can’t be definitively tied to the Princess of Baling.”
This was rely a fleeting inspiration, and Ran Yan didn’t dwell on this issue. What puzzled her most now was who had attacked Chai Xuanyi and the Princess of Wenxi. She had a nagging feeling that knowing this would be more enlightening than inspecting the bodies outside the city.
With Xiao Song extrely busy, in order to have soone to discuss the case with, Ran Yan ended up sharing the detailed condition of the Princess of Wenxi’s personality split with Liu Qingsong.
Liu Qingsong was astonished, his sowhat small eyes widening as he said, “Personality split this severe? Oh, I rember a story I once read about a well-behaved, top-achieving schoolgirl whose split personality turned out to be an internationally wanted criminal…”
“Liu Qingsong, please stay focused on reality. I have no interest in discussing these irrelevant stories with you,” Ran Yan said coldly.
“Fine, we won’t talk about that,” Liu Qingsong readily agreed, but then shrank his neck and added weakly, “But in those detective films, there’s always a character with an eccentric personality, handso and suave looks, and whimsical ideas beside the protagonist, who often inadvertently says sothing that sparks the protagonist’s inspiration…”
As Ran Yan’s deadpan gaze beca unblinkingly fixed on him, the rambling voice gradually faded. After a pause, he coughed dryly and said, “What I actually an is, could it have been the Princess of Wenxi’s split personality who did it?”
Ran Yan looked away, slowly controlling her emotions, and answered, “If that were true, wouldn’t Chai Xuanyi know about it? Though he has lost his mory before, it’s not like he has…”
Ran Yan’s voice suddenly stopped. Amnesia cos in many forms, with so people selectively rembering certain events from a period while forgetting others, so completely forgetting their life background, including their na, address, etc., and others forgetting experiences before a certain year or event… There’s also sothing called localized amnesia, where the patient completely loses mory of the circumstances hours before and after a traumatic event.
If Chai Xuanyi’s symptoms were like localized amnesia, it wasn’t just past events he forgot, but also all events that happened beyond a few hours’ ti, right?
Even if the Princess of Wenxi’s personality switched back and forth, he wouldn’t have any mory of it at all!
Although it was just a speculation, it wasn’t without any basis or a wild guess. Dissociative identity disorder is often uncontrollable; it’s an illness, not sothing the host personality can simply decide to play a role in. Chai Xuanyi had lived with the princess of Wenxi for so many days, and yet there had been no abnormal findings, which was very strange, wasn’t it?
Or perhaps he was concealing the truth for so reason.
Ran Yan sighed, if by so misfortune, her guess was correct, then the couple of the princess of Wenxi were indeed tragic; one with dissociative identity disorder and the other with hardly any mory. What a difficult husband and wife!
Ran Yan knocked on the carriage wall, “Go to the Chai residence.” It was the first ti she neglected a body to instead investigate a living person.
“Ah? Why didn’t you say so earlier!” Liu Qingsong complained, “We’re already far from the Chai residence; we’ll have to go back.”
Ran Yan remained silent, both hoping that Chai Xuanyi was suffering from localized amnesia and also hoping he wasn’t. After all, if one of the spouses had a ntal disorder, that was one thing, but if both were ill, how would they communicate?
…
Upon reaching the Chai residence, Ran Yan rely said she was there to visit Chai Xuanyi. There was a reason for her to phrase it this way; firstly, she wasn’t sure which personality the princess of Wenxi was currently displaying and whether she would et her, and secondly, to probe Chai Xuanyi.
After waiting in the gatehouse for half a cup of tea’s ti, a servant led them to the garden.
In the plum grove, petals fluttered down in profusion, with only a few remaining blossoms clinging to the branches. The thick carpet of petals on the ground obscured any path, making one unsure where to step. They had no choice but to follow the servant.
It was the sa pavilion where she had first t Chai Xuanyi, with curtains hung all around. The afternoon sun fell on his handso face, still carrying an air of casual grace, yet his brows showed more confusion than when she first saw him.
“Lady Ran Shiqi,” Chai Xuanyi said as he looked at Ran Yan and smiled faintly, gesturing to the mat, “Please, have a seat.”
Seeing his seemingly familiar deanor, Ran Yan thought she might have guessed wrong; perhaps Chai Xuanyi really had only forgotten his past. But what happened next made her have to pick up her suspicions once more.
Chai Xuanyi glanced at Liu Qingsong, then questioned, “Assistant Minister Xiao?”
Even soone with the poorest sight couldn’t possibly mistake Liu Qingsong for Xiao Song!
“Young Master Chai, half a year ago, you said you would give a poem to Assistant Minister Xiao. I wonder if that offer still stands?” Ran Yan suddenly asked.
Chai Xuanyi was taken aback for a mont, then imdiately replied, “Of course it does.”
“Do you truly rember , Young Master Chai?” Ran Yan felt certain that Chai Xuanyi must have used so thod to rember her, probably related to the princess of Wenxi, and had thus forcibly rembered that the person accompanying her was Assistant Minister Xiao, while he didn’t actually rember Xiao Song’s appearance.
A normal person, even if they don’t rember soone’s appearance, would still be able to recognize them after eting once. (
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