CH 8

[Flashback Arc]

1.

The first time Song Ning met Liang Rong was three years ago, when he had just received his doctorate in psychology from abroad and returned to China to join a private clinic as a psychiatrist.

The second before Liang Rong stepped into his office, he happened to be taking a break and scrolling through Weibo, chancing upon the news of the film emperor being involved in a car accident and took a temporary leave from the film industry. When he looked up, the film emperor himself was standing in front of his eyes.

The film emperor who was only 27 years old looked tall and elegant. Although his face was a little pale, it did not affect the way he carried himself.

He made his way straight to sofa in front of Song Ning and sat down, his hands folded on his laps with a calm expression.

“Hello, my name is Liang Rong.”

Song Ning snapped out of his daze, hurriedly switching off his phone before standing up to say, “Oh, I know you. How may I help you?”

2.

“Dr. Horner recommended you to me. He said you were his favorite student.” Liang Rong said.

Song Ning sat back down in his seat and said modestly, “My mentor is amazing so every student he taught is excellent too.”

“He said you know how to treat dissociative identity disorder.”

Song Ning answered, “Yes, I came across a patient with dissociative identity disorder when I was abroad. It was an old lady in her 70s and her personalities switched back and forth between 70 years old and 17 years old. At first, her family asked me to erase her second personality. I developed a three-year-long psychotherapy program based on her condition. The process went really well but her family voluntarily gave it up in the end.”

“Why?”

Song Ning pursed his lips together. “Because they realized how it was actually a really blissful thing for someone in her later years to develop such a young soul.”

Liang Rong nodded with a monotone expression, “I also have a young soul. I want you to help kill him.”

3.

Song Ning was startled. He didn’t expect Liang Rong to use such an intense word.

He got up and poured him a glass of water before asking, “Can you tell me more about it?”

Liang Rong’s clenched his fists and took a deep breath.

“On the way home with my mother when I was 16 years old, a large truck tailed us really closely behind on the highway. Our driver and I were severely injured, but my mother died on the spot.”

“I was in the intensive care unit for three days. When I finally regained consciousness and found out my mother was no longer around, I passed out again from the huge shock.”

The next few months, I wasn’t in a clear state, muddling through the days. My memories weren’t coherent or connected. One second ago, I would be sitting in the hospital room watching the TV, the next second, I would be in the garden.

“My grandfather took me abroad to see a well-known psychiatrist, which was your mentor, Dr. Horner.”

“He said I developed a split personality due to my unwillingness to accept reality after the car accident. And that split personality’s memory was forever stuck in a time before the car accident occurred.”

“I received almost a year-long treatment from him and my mindset gradually changed, finally suppressing that personality.”

“It has been 10 years since then and he hadn’t appeared in these 10 years. Until…”

“Until the car accident last month.” Song Ning blurted out what he wanted to say.

“Yes. The accident this time wasn’t serious but it triggered my trauma and he returned. In this month, I only existed for 2 days. The rest of the time did not belong to me and my body is almost under his control now.”

4.

Song Ning had encountered a few cases of split personality patients like this. He had quite the confidence in this.

He asked a few more specific questions later on, noting the answers down in his notebook and drafted a preliminary plan in his mind.

Song Ning asked, “Will you be able to come by the clinic every day from now onwards?”

“It’d be best not to. I’m a public figure after all. If I was photographed by reporters and it get posted online, it’ll harm me negatively.”

Song Ning expressed his understanding, “I can provide home visits as well but the fees will be relatively higher.”

“That’s alright. If possible, I hope you can only work on treating me as your only patient from now on.”

5.

Song Ning had several long-term patients on his hands. Pushing them all away at once would be very irresponsible of him.

He told Liang Rong about these concerns, so he asked him not to accept any more patients after he was finished with his current ones.

Song Ning agreed.

The two of them settled on the time of appointment every day. Song Ning sent him off to the clinic’s entrance.

“Then, I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Liang.”

As if Liang Rong was awakened by that sentence, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked straight at Song Ning. He gazed at him without saying anything.

“Mr. Liang?” Song Ning asked with confusion, only to see his pupils dilate a little and his eyes turning glazed and unfocused for a few seconds.

Then, he turned around without looking back, completely ignoring Song Ning’s presence.

His steps were light and cheery, and he was even humming an old song from 10 years ago.

Song Ning was dumbfounded.