Strange Events in Room 202

Chapter 23

Shion: (Looks back) "................................"

Xu Chen: "So, are you scared?"

Shion: "There's nothing to be afraid of."

Xu Chen: "No, you must be very scared inside, just like that old man Lin Ting."

Ziyuan: "Fear is a feeling in your heart, and it can be overcome. Whatever psychological problems you have, I can help you overcome them too."

Xu Chen: (becoming agitated) "You have absolutely no idea what fear is!"

Ziyuan: "I am a psychologist."

Xu Chen (covering his head and shouting): "No, you don't know, you have absolutely no idea..."

...

Ziyuan recalled her first conversation with Xu Chen.

Just then, her phone rang again. She saw a familiar number; it was Wang Yujing calling, another of her patients.

"Hello, is this Xiaojing?"

"Um, Sister Ziyuan, can I talk to you?"

"Are you... in Beijing?" Ziyuan heard the sound of a bus starting up on the other end of the phone.

“I knew you were working as a teaching assistant at this school, so I came here to find you. I’m on my way now, almost at the school.”

After listening to what she said, Ziyuan felt that the situation was a bit serious, but as a psychologist, she had to be calmer than the patient.

“Okay, I’ll pick you up at the school gate,” Ziyuan said calmly, as if welcoming an old friend.

The line over there has been disconnected.

"Could her illness have relapsed?" Ziyuan wondered as she walked out of the dormitory and headed towards the school gate.

Wang Yujing and Xu Chen are the cases that Ziyuan finds most troublesome.

Wang Yujing is a very quiet girl. Two years ago, Ziyuan, a top student in college, worked at a psychological treatment center, and Wang Yujing was her first patient.

Ziyuan first helped her lie down comfortably on the sofa.

"Doctor, I... I'm so scared, someone..." Wang Yujing began speaking incoherently.

"Don't rush, let's talk first," Ziyuan said, trying to calm her down.

Wang Yujing simply nodded, as if she understood, yet also as if she didn't, and continued, "My name is Wang Yujing. I work as a clerk in a company. There are four people in my family: my younger brother is still in high school, my parents are retired, my father is a member of the Communist Party, and my mother..."

Ziyuan interrupted her, "Why don't you talk about yourself first?"

Wang Yujing was startled at first, then said, "I feel like someone is following me lately, and I'm very scared."

"Did you see who it was?"

"I didn't see it, it was just a feeling."

Upon hearing this, Ziyuan felt that the poor girl in front of her might be suffering from delusions.

Ziyuan began to provide her with psychotherapy and talked with her for a long time. One of the dreams she mentioned left a deep impression on her.

“I dreamt that I was in a room with only walls on all four sides and no door. I was sitting at a table writing something. There were two windows on each of the four walls of the room. The room had no roof, and the sky was very dark. There were no stars or moon, but there was a window in the sky.”

“All the windows were open, and outside each window was a person, all of them identical, with half their faces sticking out, peeking at me from in front, to my right, to my left, and behind. When I looked at them, they disappeared, disappeared very quickly.”

After Ziyuan finished listening to her recount the dream, she immediately asked about her parents.

Wang Yujing's parents are both very conservative people. Her father is very strict with her, and he has been like that since she was a child. Even after Wang Yujing started working, her father was still very strict about her daily life and did not allow her to spend money recklessly. If she met a boyfriend, she had to inform him first. Originally, Wang Yujing's company was far from home, and she thought about moving out to make it more convenient for her to go to work, but her father still did not allow it.

Just as Ziyuan had expected, after Wang Yujing finished explaining the situation, Ziyuan already had a clear understanding of the situation.

Zi Yuan analyzed that Wang Yujing's childhood was spent under strict parental surveillance, which left her with psychological trauma. Her strict upbringing instilled guilt in her regarding common childhood activities like playing and playing pranks. This family influence persisted into adolescence, leading her to constantly feel monitored. When she entered the workforce, a trigger may have caused her to develop paranoia.

But what were those triggers? It might have been her colleagues at work, their undisciplined lifestyles, or the sense of superiority that white-collar workers felt on a certain level of society, which caused Wang Yujing's psychological imbalance and triggered the onset of paranoia.

After Ziyuan learned the initial cause of her illness, she talked to her parents. Several months later, through contact with Wang Yujing, all signs indicated that Ziyuan's estimation was correct.

Although Wang Yujing's condition was quite stubborn, Ziyuan still treated her patiently. Ziyuan understood that the most important thing for mental patients is their own self-treatment, as well as their family.

After two years of treatment, Wang Yujing has improved to some extent, and her family has relaxed their control over her. They haven't contacted Ziyuan again, and Ziyuan also believes that Wang Yujing has recovered.

But today she came to see Ziyuan again.

Ziyuan waited outside the door for a while, and then a quiet girl dressed in plain clothes walked over.

Ziyuan greeted her with a smile, but saw that she was looking around anxiously, her mind seemingly preoccupied. Although Ziyuan was a little worried, she didn't show it and smiled as she led Wang Yujing to the dormitory.

"Sorry, the room isn't ready yet, it's a bit messy."

"It's okay, actually I'm the one who's embarrassed to bother you," Wang Yujing said, and then went to help Ziyuan tidy up the room.

Ziyuan immediately helped her sit down in a chair and asked, "What brings you here?"

"That thing is following me again," Wang Yujing said, trembling.

"Xiaojing, no one is following you. Didn't I tell you before? The reason you feel like you're being followed is because you..."

“No, that’s not right,” Wang Yujing interrupted Ziyuan in a panic. “This time is different from before.”

"What's the difference?"

"This feeling was very real. It was following me. I didn't see it, hear its voice, or touch its presence, but I could still feel it."

"So, it doesn't exist; it only exists in your illusion."

"No, no..." Wang Xiaojing slowly shook her head.

Ziyuan handed her a glass of water, but Wang Yujing didn't even glance at it, staring straight ahead.

As a psychologist, Ziyuan carefully observed Wang Yujing's behavior, and Wang Yujing's anxiety and unease were clearly visible on her face.

Wang Yujing paused for a moment, then looked at Ziyuan and said, "I really felt it. That thing followed me back to the company when I went to work, followed me home when I got off work, and followed me into bed when I went to sleep, sleeping right next to me."

“No, you’re just scaring yourself.” Ziyuan blurted out, saying something a psychologist shouldn’t say. Then she added, “Xiaojing, believe me, this is your hallucination, it’s not real.”

Wang Yujing ignored her and continued, "Sometimes I forget it exists when I wake up in the morning, but it comes back at night, and I immediately feel it and remember it; sometimes I forget it exists at night, but when I wake up in the morning, it's right next to me, even though I can't see it, I can feel it."

"Jing, look at me and listen to me..."

Wang Yujing stared straight ahead, still muttering to herself.

"Xiaojing, stop right away."

Wang Yujing seemed to have lost consciousness, still saying, "It's following me, it's following me..."

"Xiaojing, listen to me, that's not real, it's your hallucination."

"No, it's true, it's true..."

"Xiaojing, no, it's not true."

————————

Behind Xiaojing stood a person.

who!

Ziyuan immediately looked behind Xiaojing, but saw nothing.

"Why do I have this feeling?" Ziyuan asked herself.

It was so realistic that Ziyuan broke out in a cold sweat.

Wang Yujing noticed Ziyuan's unusual behavior. She looked behind her and then asked Ziyuan with a serious expression, "Sister Ziyuan, you saw it too, didn't you?"

"No, no, I just..." Ziyuan didn't know what to say at this point.

"You saw it too, your reaction just now told me that."

"No, I didn't see it, it was just my hallucination," Ziyuan said nervously.

The usually quiet Wang Yujing suddenly shouted, "No—no, you're lying to me. You actually saw it too, you must have!"

"Xiaojing, listen to me..."

Before Ziyuan could finish speaking, Wang Yujing ran out of the dormitory without looking back, and Ziyuan followed her out.

Wang Yujing ran very fast, and Ziyuan couldn't catch up. She could only watch her retreating figure from afar, and that feeling resurfaced—someone was following her, no, it wasn't a person...

"That's just my imagination," Shion told herself.

(three)

Someone was spying on her through the window, sometimes even following behind her, but she couldn't see them, only sense their presence. —————————— Why did Wang Yujing have this feeling?

Ziyuan hasn't been able to sleep well these past few days. Xu Chen's matter remains unresolved, and Wang Yujing's condition has relapsed. These two issues are causing Ziyuan great distress, but what worries her most is that she also experienced some strange feelings when she talked to Wang Yujing a few days ago.

Ziyuan thought to herself: Could it be that I've also been infected by Xiaojing?

She dialed Wang Yujing's cell phone again.

*Beep...* *Beep...*

Shion waited patiently.

Over the past few days, Ziyuan has been calling Wang Yujing repeatedly, but she hasn't answered.

This time is no different.

Ziyuan hung up the phone helplessly and sat down on the sofa.

She had never failed and had helped many patients, including Wang Yujing, but now she was devastated and unhappy, not because she had failed, but because she could not help Wang Yujing.

Suddenly, Ziyuan's phone rang; it was Wang Yujing calling.

"Xiao Jing," Zi Yuan said urgently in a loud voice, then lowered her voice and said, "I've been looking for you these past few days."

“Sister Ziyuan, it has appeared again. It is now next to me.” Wang Yujing appeared very calm.

"Did you see it?"

"No, but I felt it." There was a pause on the other end of the phone, then the voice added, "I really felt it."

"Xiao Jing..." Zi Yuan called her name softly, but didn't know what to say.

"It really exists."

Having exhausted all other options, Ziyuan asked her helplessly, "So... what's its name, and what does it look like?"