In the office, Tang Guangbo was organizing the dical records on the desk. Seeing Xu Huo co in, he smiled and gestured for him to pour his own water.
Xu Huo poured two cups of water and placed one in front of him.
Tang Guangbo took out his dical file, “Feeling any better today?”
Xu Huo gave no definite answer, turning his head to look at the sunlight outside the window.
Tang Guangbo did not mind, “Let’s talk for a bit first. After you take your noon dication you can go downstairs for a walk, but don’t go near the periter wall.”
“Do you rember what happened yesterday?” Tang Guangbo picked up his pen to take notes, “In your last dream, you ntioned your older brother and the governnt, and it sounded unpleasant.”
Xu Huo looked at him, “Dream? Am I not sick?”
Tang Guangbo gave a surprised smile, “Isn’t that what we agreed on? You clearly know you’re sick and you understand better than other patients how to control yourself, but you don’t like to call it a fantasy, so during treatnt we replaced that word with ‘dream’.”
“I proposed using the term dream because I think you’re very lucid. Everything in the fantasy feels like an entirely different life—exciting, yes, but in the end you still have to return to reality.”
Xu Huo twirled his finger around the rim of the water cup, “How long have I been here?”
“The most recent inpatient treatnt lasted four months,” Tang Guangbo said. “You’ve co several tis over the years, intermittently, but this is the longest continuous treatnt.”
“Was I like this before?” Xu Huo asked. “Talking about players and gas since I was a kid.”
“No way.” Tang Guangbo took another file from the drawer and handed it to him. “The ga Dinsional Rift has only been popular for half a year, and it has recently been widely banned.”
“I don’t rember playing that ga,” Xu Huo said.
“That’s normal, don’t worry.” Tang Guangbo said. “The human brain is like a massive storage container. Normally, mories closest in ti are clearer and more detailed, but everyone differs. The brain autonomously filters out mories it deems unimportant.”
“You can try mory regression.”
“The first ti I ca to the Seventeenth Hospital, a doctor taught
how to gamble,” Xu Huo said.
Tang Guangbo nodded. “That left a deep impression on you. Each ti you do mory regression you add more details.”
He motioned for him to continue.
“Later I got addicted to gambling, using every possible thod—betting money, racing cars, when I was on a streak I even wagered my life.” Xu Huo seed to sink into the mory.
“For about ten years, my parents and my older brother always cleaned up after . It wasn’t until my brother was killed that I quit gambling.”
“But back then I was arrogant and ignorant and offended a lot of people. Even when I wanted to get out, others wouldn’t let . The last big gamble was when I first went to Ting City—I lost everything I could lose.”
“Then I entered the ga. I had just left a dungeon with Yan Jiayu, and the next mont I was here.”
“Yan Jiayu…” Tang Guangbo wrote the na down. “This is the first ti you’ve ntioned her.”
“Have I never said it before?” Xu Huo asked. “I t her the first ti I entered the ga.”
“I said earlier your dream keeps getting refined,” Tang Guangbo said. “Actually you’re soone who enjoys thrills, but your family upbringing lets you clearly tell right from wrong, so your dream versions always end in tragedy.”
“For example, in the first treatnt in your dream, because you were too young to accept yourself, a doctor teaching you gambling appears. You added last ti that he was using drugs to control you.”
“You’re very intelligent. Many of those bets were conducted online. During that period people did co to cause trouble for you, but nothing too severe. You were coming to the hospital a lot then. You realized you were at risk of losing control, and after regaining self-control, your brother’s death beca the turning point that made you quit gambling.”
“Even the dream about going to Ting City and losing a bet so you end up as a low-tier actor there for ten years is your mind’s way of trying to use ordinary calm life to suppress the craving for stimulation.”
He adjusted his glasses as he spoke. “Afterward you were indeed better for a while, but then you fell back into the ga.”
“It wasn’t that extre. People can’t suppress themselves forever or sothing worse will happen. Using ‘another life’ to vent those emotions is actually beneficial for you.”
Xu Huo watched him;
Tang Guangbo had repeated the sa gestures three tis in a row: adjusting his glasses, sipping water, smoothing the corners of the dical file.
“What kind of person am I in my dream?” he asked.
Tang Guangbo chuckled softly, “Probably a learned but deeply scheming player. Not just , many people in the hospital cao in your stories—except Dean Lin, I and the other dical staff, and the patients here all appear.”
“Sorry.” Xu Huo apologized.
“No need for that. I actually feel rather pleased,” Tang Guangbo smiled. “At least in your story I’m portrayed as an erudite person.”
Xu Huo smiled as well.
“But being lost in the dream all the ti isn’t good,” Tang Guangbo’s smile faded and he spoke more seriously. “mories can be locked or unlocked. Unlocked mories are easy to recall, but locked ones require a bit of technique.”
“You can imagine the brain as a locked door. The mories you truly forgot are the locked ones—so secured with a single lock, so with many. Every ti you regress mory you can open these locks once. The more tis you open them, the less secure the locks beco. Once you wake from the dream and beco aware that your mories are locked, opening them won’t be difficult.”
Xu Huo looked at him. “Doctor Tang, you’re amazing.”
They had only t a few tis before, yet he had still been influenced by him to so degree.
Tang Guangbo politely finished his notes and asked Yu Qingqing to take him out for a walk.
“Are you done talking?” Yu Qingqing pushed the door open with a hint of anxiety, taking Xu Huo by the hand and heading out.
Xu Huo could tell she wanted to speak but held it in until they reached downstairs before opening her mouth. “You told Doctor Tang already, right? Tell
more. Last ti I beca a player, what happened afterward?”
Xu Huo shook his head, “You weren’t in it this ti.”
Yu Qingqing was a little disappointed but soon brightened, “Doesn’t matter, go ahead, tell .”
Xu Huo brought up Yan Jiayu again, but Yu Qingqing looked puzzled and asked, “There’s no one by that na in the hospital. Where did you see that na?”
“Are all the people in my story people from the hospital?” Xu Huo asked.
“Not necessarily.” Yu Qingqing said. “The characters who matter most are those you see often. Like — in your dream I’m your cousin. Dai Wenqian, who doesn’t like you, is the antagonist. Zhou Ning, who’s good to you, is a companion.”
“Dai Wenqian isn’t a villain,” Xu Huo said.
Yu Qingqing waved her hand, “Whatever, I think it’s close enough.”
At that mont, noise ca from upstairs.
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