The place is Chicago and the time is three months later.
The elevator stopped in front of the corridor, the door opened, and then footsteps sounded in the corridor. They were not heavy or rushed, but very slow, as if they were pacing, and as if every step was filled with complicated thoughts.
The footsteps stopped, and then there was a knock on the door. It was not impatient, it was very gentle, but not gentle, it was a little weak, which can almost make people think of the psychological state of the person knocking on the door.
"Please come in." A gentle female voice sounded from inside the door.
The door opened, and it was a dark-haired man who looked very happy, with drooped eyebrows, but a very bad complexion. He pressed the door handle and opened the door and walked in. He looked up and saw a man sitting at leisure behind the desk.
beautiful psychiatrist.
The psychiatrist is a woman, wearing a spotless white coat and a black knitted sweater that highlights her figure. She is Chinese, but she is not the stereotype of Chinese Americans in the minds of Americans. She is a very traditional classical beauty, with the tail of her eyes slightly upward.
The typical charm of peach blossom eyes is more important in appearance, and the facial features and skin are so exquisite that it almost makes people think that they are at a talent show or a movie shooting scene, and the person behind the desk is a beauty pageant champion or a movie star.
The man swore that he did not choose his psychiatrist based on appearance in the first place. If that were the case, he could go to nightclubs or other sensual and wealthy places, but this is indeed the best private psychiatrist's clinic in Chicago, no matter if it is a woman.
The white coat, the case files on the bookshelf, the simple decoration style in the office, and the ink painting of the word "heart" hanging on the wall all confirm this.
"Mr. Ronald, I haven't seen you for a week. Has anything good happened recently?" The woman sat on the swivel chair, picked up the ballpoint pen on the table and pressed the button at the end of the pen according to the frequency. She smiled and looked at the man who came after closing the door.
man.
Don Ronald, or Old Tang, as people who know him call him so. Old Tang walked to the long gray fabric sofa on the side of the living room in front of the desk, lay down as usual, and leaned against the sofa.
He stared at the carved chandelier hanging from the green ceiling while leaning on the pillow facing east.
He breathed a long sigh of relief, as if only here could he temporarily let go of his fatigue. He closed his eyelids slightly and said feebly, "Nothing happened, doctor."
"Are you still having nightmares?" The woman spoke softly and calmly, pressing the ballpoint pen rhythmically, turning it from time to time, letting it fly like a butterfly through flowers between her slender fingers.
"No." Old Tang replied, "At least not in the past three days."
"Let me guess, you haven't slept for three days?"
"Doctor, is mind reading a required course for psychiatrists?" Old Tang asked feebly.
"Mind reading is indeed a required course for psychiatrists. There are 44 muscles in the human face, which can be combined into more than 10,000 expressions, of which more than 3,000 expressions have specific emotional meanings. This is the secret of mind reading. However, in the industry we
I prefer to call him "Micro Expression Science". This is the only reason that attracts modern young people to join the path of no return in psychology." The woman looked at Old Tang with a smile, "But if you want to know that you haven't slept for three days, you don't need to look at micro expressions.
Expression, your dark circles are almost as thick as your avatar on social software. (Lao Tang’s avatar on social software is a big-headed panda).”
"Is it so serious? I always thought that I was in good health and wouldn't have dark circles under my eyes." Old Tang muttered and rubbed under his eyes.
"Just because you were able to walk a horse on your arms when you were young doesn't mean that you won't have lumbar disc herniation in old age. Mr. Ronald, if you don't wait for youth, time cannot be extended. If you overdraw your youth capital and squander your freedom in advance, you will be punished in old age.
." The woman said with a slight smile.
"Hey, is this really what a psychiatrist can say to a patient? Can your micro-expression science tell you that I'm very angry now?" Old Tang was a little confused.
"You're lying flat now. It's hard for me to see your whole face clearly. And not every psychologist is proficient in this technique. The ones who most often use this technique are not us psychologists, but a group of Chinese called 'fortune tellers.'
profession, their "Micro Expression Science" even broke away from the textbook and became a practical school." The woman said humorously, "Maybe if no one asks me for psychological consultation in the future, I will pack up and go back to China to tell people's fortunes.
."
"So now a future fortune teller is giving me psychological counseling? It's really reassuring." Old Tang twisted his body on the sofa and couldn't help but sigh.
"That will happen in the future too. Now I am still your psychiatrist, the most professional psychiatrist in Chicago and the most sought-after psychiatrist by people from all walks of life. Just like you now, no matter what you will become in the future, at least you are now
It's still Ronald Tang, isn't it?" the woman said with a smile.
"Doctor, you are really philosophical in what you say." Old Tang commented pertinently.
"My brother also praised me like this, so thank you." The woman accepted the compliment very naturally, "Do you feel more relaxed after chatting like this?"
"I feel a little more relaxed indeed. I don't know why. Every time I come to your doctor, I feel a little more relaxed. I feel like my insomnia can be cured. Is there some kind of special incense in your office? Can you sell it to me?
"Old Tang asked curiously with his eyes closed.
"Maybe this is the charm of language. Most of my patients have one thing in common, that is, there is no place to express the accumulated emotions and words in daily life. If the emotions are sluggish together for too long, they will deteriorate and lead to pathological changes.
."
"But I haven't poured out the black mud at all. Let me tell you about the nightmares and troubles I've had this week."
"Mr. Ronald, I have never thought that what troubles you is those nightmares or insomnia." The woman tapped the notebook lightly with a ballpoint pen and said with a chuckle, "In my opinion, you are just too lonely."
"Me? Lonely?" Old Tang couldn't help but opened his eyes, "Doctor, are you mistaken? When I called "StarCraft" to open a room, hundreds of people rushed in and asked me to give them advice. How could I be lonely?
"
The woman looked at Old Tang and turned his head slightly and asked, "Then when the game is over, in the dead of night, and everything is silent, you suddenly feel hungry and look around at the empty room and the Christmas Eve lights in the city outside the window. Can you find someone to accompany you?
Are you going out for a hot pot meal late at night?"
"Why do you want to go out to eat hot pot? Besides, all the hot pot restaurants are closed in the dead of night. Only barbecue restaurants and late-night snack bars are still open."
"Of course, barbecue is also possible, but Chicago is holding a low-carbon life parade recently, so it is estimated that it will be difficult for you to find a barbecue stall that is open normally." The woman shrugged and spread her hands, "But I hope you can catch the focus of my question."
Old Tang was stunned for a long time and scratched his head and said, "Isn't it good to order takeout at home? You have to go out to eat."
"Then are the takeout cards at home so thick?" The woman raised her finger to compare the thickness.
"Half." Old Tang scratched his eyebrows and said.
"Is it half this thickness, or is this thickness only half the correct answer?" The woman squinted her eyes.
"Okay, okay, you win, doctor, damn "Microexpression Science"." Old Tang scratched his eyebrows instead of scratching his head, staring at the ceiling in confusion and said, "Am I really lonely?"
"If you weren't alone, you wouldn't have those nightmares." The woman wrote down something in her notebook, "You have had insomnia in the past three days, so you didn't have any nightmares. What about three days ago? Did you dream of something again? Was there anything?
Good change.”
"It's still a nightmare." Old Tang paused and said.
"Burning flames, noisy figures, noisy noises, men, children and huge bronze pillars." The woman flipped through the notebook on the table and recorded records of Ronald Tang's past cases. "These dreams have troubled you enough.
It’s been three months, and every time you fall asleep, it’s the same dream. In the dream, you feel scared and panicked, but you can’t express it, which causes a huge psychological burden.”
Old Tang, who was lying on the sofa, remained silent. The woman continued, "The last time we chatted, you mentioned that what makes you more uncomfortable than fear and panic is the sadness in nightmares, like having a nightmare.
Some kind of switch is turned on, making you want to cry bitterly. The emotion of the destruction of the world oppresses your brain all the time. Even if your consciousness is clear, you can't get rid of that disgusting feeling of sadness.
."
"So doctor, can you confirm that this is depression? If so, I will quickly prescribe medicine. I asked several of my friends, and they all have channels to get me special medicine for depression."
Old Tang sighed and felt a little depressed.
"It's hard to say whether it's depression or not. Your symptoms are really rare. In my opinion, you're still in a pre-disease stage in psychology, that is, the so-called 'mental sub-health' has not yet reached the stage of 'disease'.
"The woman said, "You mentioned that every time you have a nightmare, you will have a clearer understanding of those dreams. From a vague bystander at the beginning, to a first-person experiencer, you can gradually feel the temperature of the flames, those dreams.
There were only a few words in the noisy curses, and even the angry faces of the dense figures could be clearly seen. So to this day, how real is this dream?"
"It feels like I'm watching a 5D movie. Doctor, are you relying on the real-life experience of my nightmares to judge the severity of my mental illness?" Old Tang said blankly, looking at the ceiling.
"You can understand it this way." The woman said, "You once told me that there is always another figure accompanying you in your dreams, but at the end of the dream, he often separates from you in the form of farewell.
That’s why when you wake up from the nightmare, you will be so grief-stricken and heartbroken.”
"It's better not to use such trivial words as heartbreaking and heartbreaking to describe me. It would be more appropriate to describe me as weeping and bursting with tears." Old Tang accurately found his position.
"Your dream has become so real that you can still remember the details three days after waking up. At first you could only describe some vague pictures to me. This is a good thing. It means that your subconscious mind has gradually paid attention to this.
It's okay." The woman nodded slightly and comforted.
Old Tang thought to himself that it was not only the details of the picture, but also some of the lines of dialogue in the dream. It was just that speaking out seemed a little too outlandish. He had never been embarrassed to tell this beautiful doctor.
"Mr. Ronald, you have an emotional breakdown every time a nightmare ends. As time goes by, the dreams become clearer, and the intensity of your fear and emotional breakdown will also increase. If it were in the past, it would be difficult for me to identify you.
Where is the depression in your heart, but as you understand the dream more and more, I can probably determine what is troubling you now." The woman said softly.
"In your dream, every time you wake up from a nightmare, it is the moment when you and the figure beside you, that is, the 'brother' of the dream protagonist. The separation makes you feel sad, and the loneliness makes you feel uneasy. Maybe the figure in the dream
That 'brother' is the real cause of your illness."
"But I don't have a younger brother. I grew up in an orphanage." Old Tang shook his head.
"Dreams always have referential meanings. In the dream, your 'brother' is a boy dressed in white. In reality, his appearance and form may be completely different from those in the dream." The woman said, "What you are afraid of
It’s not the existence of this boy, what you’re afraid of is just the loneliness of being alone after this boy leaves.”
"But I've really been alone since I was a child." Old Tang didn't understand. "If I'm used to being alone, why am I suddenly afraid of becoming alone again?"
He felt a little convoluted when he said these words. He always felt that something was stuck in his throat and he wanted to blurt it out. The black vortex deep in his brain was slowly spinning. When he was in a daze and fascinated by it, he suddenly woke up with a crisp finger snap.
It was like a clear spring was released in his mind, and the cold feeling brought his rationality back to its peak. He turned to look at the woman who was smiling at him.
"Mr. Ronald, have you ever considered buying a cat?"
"Cat?" Old Tang didn't turn his head.
"Psychology believes that animals can be the best companions for lonely people. They may not be able to talk to you like people, but when you are alone in a quiet space, a weak and pitiful living creature needs you to take care of it, and your sense of responsibility will make you
Forget your loneliness for the moment." The woman said slowly.
I understand what Old Tang said. Every time he is half exhausted after running a mission, he will forget the good movies he downloaded on the computer. This is called work overpowering the body. Now replace the nightmare and the cat. This is to prepare him to use his sense of responsibility to overwhelm the body.
Too lonely?
It seems to make some sense.
"From my staged treatment and observation, it seems that your disease has finally reached the stage of 'disease', so what we have to do next is not just talking, but treatment." The woman opened the desk drawer.
Prepare to take something out from inside.
"But Dr. Lin, isn't this my last course of treatment?" Old Tang said in confusion, and then suddenly became alert as if he had realized something, "You don't want to fool me into giving me a few more treatments, right? Your treatment here is
The fees are prohibitively expensive!”
"In other words, I promised that after three months of psychological treatment, if the patient does not get the treatment he deserves, I will give a full refund without any charges. This is the last course of treatment, although our conversation did not last long.
, that’s because the main treatment method will change from ‘talk therapy’ to actual drug treatment.”
The woman placed a metal box on the table and gently opened the box under the gaze of Old Tang who sat up from the sofa. Inside the box was an insulin needleless syringe that Old Tang was familiar with. He had seen it.
A hunter I worked with in the past tried this thing before eating. I heard that only people with diabetes would use this thing, and there were actually neatly arranged ampoules (small, sealed glass bottles for injections, used for medicine) arranged neatly next to the syringe.
When the bottle neck was broken), it contained a mellow red liquid.
"Aren't these insulins?" Old Tang asked this question naturally.
"If insulin tastes like strawberry, then they probably do." The woman smiled.
The color of insulin is basically the same, showing a light milky white color. The medicine in these ampoules is so red that it makes Old Tang panic and have inexplicable palpitations.
"Inject once a day until the medicine is used up." The woman pushed the metal box to the opposite side of the desk.
"Let me ask you in advance, this medicine is included in the treatment fee. I won't have to pay for it alone, right? If you have to pay alone, I will leave!" Old Tang came over and took the metal box and took a look at the typical three-no product.
, there is no qualification mark from the Food and Drug Administration, no production date, ingredients, functions and indications, adverse reactions, etc. It is just a metal box containing a syringe and a glass bottle.
"Of course this is included in the treatment fee. There is a reason why my psychological treatment is expensive." The woman smiled naturally.
"Aren't there any novice tutorials?" Old Tang looked at the needleless syringe, "I see that all those diabetic patients have their stomachs pierced. Where should I pierce them?"
"Oh, of course there are instructions for use. The patient's health is my top priority." The woman took out a USB flash drive and placed it on the metal box. She looked up at Old Tang and said with a low smile, "Everything you want to know.
It’s all in it. If used well with the medicine, it can solve all the nightmares that have troubled you for half a year. I promise that the medicine will cure the disease."
"You sound like you're selling Dali Pills with USB flash drives? It's the first time I've seen the instructions for using the drug in a USB flash drive." Old Tang picked up this cheap USB flash drive that was also a Sanfei product and complained, this USB flash drive
There was actually a logo of a half-dry, half-prosperous tree on the disk. This electronic product manufacturer had never been seen on the market, but why did he still find the logo familiar to him inexplicably?
"If you are worried, you can report it to the Food and Drug Administration or the court and sue me." The woman sat back and gently folded her hands.
"No need, your reputation is quite good. Although you charge expensive fees, you are all celebrities. If something happened, you would have been exposed. And I feel a lot more comfortable coming to your place these days. Is it your place?"
The feng shui is very good?" Old Tang put away the metal box and USB flash drive, looked at the woman, and then observed this ordinary office.
"Perhaps the rent of 10,000 US dollars a month makes this place more comfortable? The fee is expensive because psychiatrists also need to eat." The woman lay on her back on the transfer and spread her hands. "You are welcome to give me feedback after using the medicine.
, Mr. Ronald Tang.”
"Okay, if it works, I will give you a banner." Old Tang muttered, "Is Bian Que alive or Hua Tuo is reborn? You choose one."
"Psychotherapy is strictly considered Western medicine, so neither Bian Que nor Hua Tuo are suitable," the woman commented.
"Then Asclepius is alive and Hippocrates is reborn." Old Tang started talking nonsense, and he didn't know who he learned it from.
"Instead of a banner, if the treatment is effective, why not give me a book." The woman thought for a while and said with a smile, "How about Greymachus' Norton Reader?"
"What kind of book is that? What is it about?" Old Tang had never heard of this title.
"'It gives each species the ability to survive in a specific environment. But the environment is not static. It changes from time to time and from place to place, even within the short life of an individual. In order to find food more effectively,
To mate, avoid predators and carry out necessary survival and reproduction, animals must adapt to the ever-changing special environment in which they live. In other words, they must learn.'" The woman read out a long string of words and looked at Old Tang, "
This is an excerpt from the third chapter of the book.”
"The theory of evolution?" Old Tang seemed to understand.
"No, strictly speaking, this is a psychological book, which is very suitable for my identity." The woman shook her head and pressed the button of the ballpoint pen for the last time, then put away the medical records on the table, "Today's psychological treatment is over, Rona
Mr. De, please close the door gently when leaving."
"Hey, it's a penny and a quarter of an hour. It's so cruel. Can't you add an extra hour?" Old Tang muttered as he picked up the metal box and USB flash drive and turned around.
"Of course, but extra time also requires extra money. This is a well-known truth." The woman shrugged. Old Tang almost fell over because of this bold metaphor. No wonder this beautiful psychotherapist is so...
Now that we are so popular, we can chat with each other in a non-vegetarian way!
When he opened the door and was about to leave the office, Old Tang suddenly seemed to remember something and shrank back and pointed at the sofa, "Doctor, do you want to sell your sofa?"
"No, I believe you won't be thinking about my sofa anymore if you want to sleep after tonight. You will find a more suitable place for you to rest." The woman sat behind the desk and chuckled.
"You are quite stingy." Old Tang sighed. You should know that his treatment fee was enough to buy everything in this office, but the other party was not even willing to give up a sofa.
"By the way, Mr. Norton."
"What?" Old Tang turned around subconsciously. For a moment, he thought the woman had called his name by mistake, but seeing the other woman's smile and expression, it seemed that he had just heard it wrong (Ronald and Norton have similar American pronunciations).
"Tip, I recommend using the medicine and USB flash drive I gave you before meals." The woman said sideways, "Also, if you have a chance, you can go to the pet market before going home. You can always find someone with you.
The little boy in the dream felt sorry for the weak cat."
"Copy that." Old Tang raised his hand and left the office, closing the door gently as he left.
Behind the door, Old Tang's footsteps gradually moved away until they disappeared, and the woman behind the desk also threw the medical record with "Ronald Tang" written on it into a metal trash can filled with waste paper.
, lit a match and threw it in, until the flames spread and burned from the bottom of her eyes.
Because she knew that after today, this man would never come back to this psychological consultation room again. Just like what she said, she never lied. After tonight, this man would always find someone better than her sofa.
The bed he wants to rest in may not be luxurious, or may only be made of vines, but there he will no longer be troubled by nightmares, because by then he will already be deep in the cruelest reality.