Geisterreich - Kapitel 3
Poor sleep is also a disease. People who come here for the first time usually think they are not sick. That's because there are many misunderstandings about mental illness in China. People who come to me are relatively conscious. Most people don't know that they are actually suffering from mental illness. They always think that if they don't feel any pain or discomfort, they are not sick.
Lu Kang continued to speak to Wen Shan with a smile.
Wenshan could no longer lie still. As if the recliner had suddenly been electrified, he sprang up and questioned Lu Kang: "You said I have a mental illness?"
Lu Kang smiled and shook his head, then pondered for a moment and asked him, "Then tell me, are you suffering from mental distress?"
Wenshan thought for a moment and said, "Well, that's just a problem. I can't sleep well, I keep having the same dream, and I have to wake up very clearly. That's all, just a problem."
Lu Kang nodded emphatically, as if suddenly realizing something. "Oh, I see. Okay, then tell me, what did you dream about?"
Just as Wenshan was about to return to the recliner to speak, he suddenly remembered something and said, "No, no, give me your chair and lie down here. If I lie down any further, I'm sure I won't remember anything."
Lu Kang raised his eyebrows to indicate that he didn't care, then gave the chair to Wen Shan and lay down on the recliner himself.
"It's like this—" Wenshan sat down, lit a cigarette, and watched the smoke rise slowly as he recounted the dreams he had been having recently.
"When did it start? How long have you been having these dreams?" Lu Kang asked while taking notes in his notebook.
"It started about ten days ago. I drank too much that noon, and this dream began when I took a nap in the afternoon. After that, I started dreaming about it every day as soon as I fell asleep, um... rain or shine." Wenshan had a sudden inspiration at the end and used a seemingly appropriate idiom.
"Have you ever had a dream like this before?" Lu Kang asked as he wrote.
"Well... I've done it before," Wenshan said confidently after thinking for a moment.
"when?"
"That was about a month ago. A lot of strange things happened that day, but they didn't seem to have anything to do with this dream."
"Regardless of whether it's related or not, just tell me about anything that happens around you that you think is strange or unusual. It might help in finding the source of the illness."
When Wenshan heard the words "source of the disease," he rolled his eyes at Lu Kang. He was about to argue, but then thought better of it; after all, Lu Kang was a doctor, and perhaps he was just used to talking like that. So he sat up straight and recounted the strange events at the hospital that day in detail, adding his own smug reasoning. Finally, he said, "What's wrong with people these days? Later, someone actually claimed to have seen a zombie, one that could even jump! Ha, even my wife believed it and gave me pomelo leaf water to bathe in. Isn't that ridiculous? I think these people have wasted their education; they're not even as good as my illiterate grandmother. Do you remember Zhang Guihua, the new bride in the upper room of our old house?"
---Magpie Bridge Fairy
Reply [6]: Hehe, I've been waiting for so long, finally there's a new post.
---lanlangc
Reply [7]: “I remember,” Lu Kang nodded and said.
“One night…you might not know this…Zhang Guihua came to my grandma looking flustered. She said that when she walked through the alley, there was no one around, but she heard someone following her. When she stopped, the footsteps stopped, but when she walked away, the footsteps started again. Guess what happened next?”
"What's wrong?"
"Haha... My grandma only glanced at Zhang Guihua's wide-legged trousers that dragged on the ground, and told her, 'Roll up your trouser legs and walk through the alley again, then no one will follow you.' Zhang Guihua was half-believing, but she actually rolled up her trouser legs and mustered up the courage to walk through, telling me to stand guard at the entrance of the alley without making a sound. In the end, she happily came back and told my grandma that no one was following her. Afterwards, I asked my grandma what happened. Grandma said, 'No one was following her, it's just that her trouser legs were too long and wide, and the wind made a sound as they dragged on the ground. Hahaha...'"
Lu Kang listened with great interest and then laughed heartily, "Your grandma is amazing, hahaha..."
“People these days read a lot of books, but they've become feudal and superstitious. It’s ridiculous. I don’t believe in that stuff,” Wenshan snorted through his nose.
"Was that case solved later?" Lu Kang asked after laughing.
Which case?
"A corpse theft case? Have they caught the perpetrator? Where's the body?"
Wenshan shook his head: "It's not solved, the person hasn't been caught, and the body hasn't been found. What can those guys at the branch office do? They're probably scared out of their wits too."
Lu Kang nodded thoughtfully, then wrote something on the paper after a moment's thought.
Wenshan took a sip of water, then suddenly remembered what happened last night. He quickly sat down and said, "Oh right, I had that dream last night, but it was a little different."
"Oh? Tell me—"
"It's like this, it was the same last night, but then I didn't push the door. I looked at the door carefully. It was very old and broken, but it was very real. I can draw it now. I even remember the words 'May all your wishes come true' on the door. It's a pity I couldn't find the door number. Also, when I was walking back, the person who kicked me didn't kick me anymore. I woke up on my own."
"You mean—" Lu Kang sat up straight, thinking as he asked, "You had a clear mind in your dream last night, right?"
"Yes, yes, before, when I saw a door, I would instinctively push it open. If I couldn't push it open, I would turn back. My thoughts were completely out of my control. But yesterday was so strange. It was as if I wasn't dreaming at all, but actually went there myself. My mind was just as clear as it was during the day."
Lu Kang glanced at his watch, closed his notebook, and said, "Alright, that's enough for today. I have an appointment later. I'll look into your matter carefully. Or should I prescribe some tranquilizers for you now so you can get some sleep?"
Wenshan also stood up. "No need. If I dream about it again, I want to find out exactly where that place is. I'm sure that door exists because I saw it very clearly yesterday. It didn't seem like a hallucination."
"That's good. If there's anything different, contact me immediately. I'll have the analysis results in a day or two, and then I'll contact you again."
Four
That evening, Wenshan ate dinner at the police station early. When he got home, he carefully cleaned the moat in front of his door and turned the lock several times from the inside.
While watching TV at home, he took out the half-bottle of wine left over from last night. He stubbornly believed that after drinking the wine, he would have clear thinking in his dreams, even though drinking in reality would only make his thinking confused. Perhaps dreams and reality are opposites.
Indeed, as he drifted off to sleep once again, he stepped onto the empty passageway as usual.
Wenshan walked mechanically, at a leisurely pace. The surroundings remained empty. He tried desperately to concentrate, which seemed to have some effect, yet it felt as if he couldn't fully control his thoughts; he wanted to think but couldn't recall anything. Wenshan could only wait, continuing to walk, waiting to reach that door.
Today, the road seemed even longer. Wenshan walked for a very long time before finally, a building appeared ahead. It was an old residential building, seven stories high, with a large section of the exterior wall missing, revealing the red brick structure inside. The missing section looked very much like a map of China.
Wenshan's eyes, as if drawn by an invisible thread, gazed at a window on the third floor. A warm, yellow light shone from the window, and a half-drawn floral curtain hung there. No one was in sight. Wenshan stared at it unconsciously for a long time. Suddenly, he heard a soft sigh. The sound was definitely not his own; it seemed to come from somewhere around him. The sigh was long and deep, lingering and dissipating from his body.
He didn't know how long he stood there, but he started to walk back. As he walked, he felt an unbearable pain in his bones, as if they were being crushed inch by inch by some external force. He seemed to hear the sound of his bones cracking, and the broken bone fragments were piercing his skin bit by bit. His whole body felt like it was about to explode. He wanted to scream out loud because of the pain, but he couldn't open his mouth.
Just as Wenshan was in so much pain that he was about to faint, he woke up, his whole body drenched in sweat.
He glanced at his watch; it was a little past six, almost dawn. He lit a cigarette and carefully recalled the scene from his dream. Wenshan suddenly felt the apartment building was familiar; he seemed to have seen it before, especially the piece of crumbling wall that resembled a map of China—a feeling of déjà vu. Thinking this, he couldn't sit still any longer and decided to go to the police station as soon as possible to check the records and see what other seven-story buildings were nearby. Perhaps the answer would be found there.
---Magpie Bridge Fairy