Chapter 3

Doctor Su Jinjin's face turned pale at the two murmured sentences from Zhang Dadao. She quickly asked, "Who are you talking about?"

Zhang Dadao shook his head, said nothing, and turned to leave. His slightly agitated expression from before turned into a weary face with dead fish eyes. This sudden change in expression seemed extremely neurotic, with his eyes focusing and unfocusing. Doctor Su Jinjin hurriedly pulled him and pressed, "Tell me! How did you know that patient would have trouble? Could it be that you really can predict things? Do you really think our hospital is cursed by the peach blossom?"

Zhang Dadao was taken aback, rubbed his head, and suddenly broke into a very innocent smile, saying brightly, "I'm a mental patient, do you really believe me?" With that, he instantly resumed his weary face with dead fish eyes, sighed deeply, and left Doctor Su, who was left in confusion, and went back into the activity room.

Doctor Su's face twitched, and she suddenly felt a sense of being fooled. At that moment, Doctor Chen, looking rather disheveled, walked over from the elevator direction. His glasses were askew, and his white coat was wrinkled with a few black handprints. Seeing Doctor Chen, Su Jinjin hurriedly raised her hand to greet him, but Doctor Chen walked past her as if he hadn't seen her. Su Jinjin awkwardly waved her hand and was about to follow Doctor Chen when she almost burst out laughing at the black footprint on his buttocks.

Zhang Dadao, looking weary, entered the activity room, where hospitalized patients could move around. Only patients with less severe conditions and no danger were arranged here to observe their behavior patterns. There were about ten people in the activity room at the moment. A few were gathered in front of the hanging TV, and a few were playing poker together. The rest were either spacing out or reading newspapers and books provided by the hospital.

The TV was showing a singing competition, but the sound was muted. A well-known "actor" among the patients was imitating a judge on the TV, occasionally causing light laughter from the surrounding patients. The patients here were relatively normal. For example, the "actor" had normal intelligence and logic. Apart from his insistence that he was an actor and everyone around him was there for auditions, there was nothing particularly unusual about him.

Zhang Dadao glanced around, tapped his chin, and walked to the bookshelf. In front of Zhang Dadao, a young man who was reading the advertisements in a newspaper put it down, revealing his glasses, and stared at him without blinking. Zhang Dadao leaned against the bookshelf and said to him, "You're almost ready to be discharged, right?"

The young man nodded and said, "I haven't been hearing strange voices lately, and I've been sleeping well at night without taking sedatives!"

Zhang Dadao pulled out a half-smoked cigarette from somewhere, waved to a dazed person nearby, and when the person came over, he took the cigarette from their mouth, puffed a few times to light the half-smoked cigarette. He then said, "Depression is like this; it's relatively easy to treat if caught early. In your case, it's mainly due to organic hallucinations causing insomnia, which in turn led to depression. Get better and leave as soon as possible; this isn't a good place!"

Zhang Dadao blew a smoke ring, ignored the admiring look from the person who lent him the cigarette, compared the lengths of the two cigarette butts, and put the shorter one back in the other's mouth. The young man with glasses, who had depression, didn't say anything, just nodded and flipped through the newspaper. Zhang Dadao continued, "Have you thought about what you'll do after you leave?"

The young man nodded and said, "I'll continue my university studies. I've been on leave for half a year, so I'll probably have to repeat a year, but at least my enrollment is still valid."

Zhang Dadao rolled his eyes, scratched his head, and let out a few flakes of dandruff, asking in confusion, "What are you studying?"

The young man said, "Mine safety data modeling. I got confused when they set off explosives during my field practice!"

Zhang Dadao sighed and said, "Your八字 (eight characters) are too light, and you've been startled. A few of your souls have fled, but it's good that they found their way back on their own, otherwise it would be troublesome! Change your name when you go back! What's your name again?"

The young man, somewhat helplessly, extended a finger and wrote two characters on a nearby table: "Zheng Yu."

Zhang Dadao shook his head and said, "Your八字 are too light, and your name is too heavy to bear. Go find a master to calculate it and change it! Zheng Yu means 'shaking the universe'; you should be called something like Jin Zheng!"

A hint of doubt appeared in the young man's eyes, and the person whose cigarette Zhang Dadao had taken stopped being dazed, his eyes brightening as he interjected seriously, "This is superstition; we should believe in science."

Zhang Dadao laughed and said, "Isn't this science? He's a deep thinker, sensitive. With such a grand name, he always feels he has to achieve something, which puts too much psychological pressure on him. Changing his name is a form of psychological suggestion. The old man Jiang from the psychological clinic used to talk like this!" With these words, the serious-faced person immediately became admiring.

Seeing that the young man was still doubtful, Zhang Dadao didn't push further, waved his hand, and headed for the door. As soon as he reached the door, he encountered Old Han, who was leaning against the wall. Old Han smiled and said, "Little Zheng is getting discharged?"

Zhang Dadao waved his hand, didn't answer his question, and said, "You're so familiar with him? Weren't you told not to interact with patients?"

Old Han smiled mysteriously and said, "In this hospital, I can see and know whatever I want!"

Zhang Dadao laughed dismissively and pointed to the person who had tried to follow him but was held back. "That three-time patient, can you handle him?"

Old Han nodded and said, "He believes in everything. The first time he came in, you weren't here yet! Back then, he believed in Falun Gong, stayed for a while, and then left. A few years later, he came back, this time believing in 2012. He sold his house to build a big boat. When 2012 came and nothing happened, he got better and was discharged. Now he believes in that American Scientology. He's just a fool, no other illness, purely stupid!"

Zhang Dadao laughed and said, "Shouldn't I be allowed to interact with him? If he goes out and believes in Taoist priests again and comes back, whose fault will it be? There are plenty of fake Taoist sects in the world."

Old Han glanced at Zhang Dadao and said, "Aren't you one of them?"

Zhang Dadao shook his head, looking as if he was too good to argue, took a few steps forward, and said, "I heard that Little Mole and Little Pencil are also getting discharged soon. I'll go up and see them; I haven't learned their natural ability to see spirits yet!"

Zhang Dadao turned around and found that Old Han had disappeared without a trace. He shook his head, muttered, "So elusive!" and headed towards the elevator.

At the corner, Doctor Su, looking pale, leaned against the wall, marking a check on her record and drawing a big question mark next to it.

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