Eyes, Psychological Problems

To be honest, the first time I took a job, I was terrified inside.

You could say I knew absolutely nothing about Bureau Five, Section Nine's special operations procedures. Xie Yi hadn't even had time to brief me before putting me on the job. I didn't know if he trusted me that much, or if he just didn't take this case seriously.

Before he hung up, I asked, "What should I do?"

Xie Yi said, "Do whatever you want. Follow your heart."

Then he hung up directly, while I was left dizzy on this end.

Who does things like this? "Follow your heart"—basically, that's just "whatever," right? But this was way too casual.

I looked at the man in front of me. What did Xie Yi say his name was? Oh, Gu Song.

"Mr. Gu, your wife is dead. You're saying you suspect she was murdered, and that the murderer wasn't even human. I want to clarify one thing: what exactly do you want me to do?" I asked directly. At least I needed to know what he wanted, and whether I could deliver.

Gu Song wet his lips with his tongue. I quickly poured him a glass of water.

He took the water and looked at me with gratitude. "Thank you."

After downing the water in one gulp, he belched and then began telling me his wife's story.

He started with how they met, nearly twenty years ago. A happy smile spread across his face as he spoke. It was clear they had a very good relationship; he loved his wife deeply.

But this probably had nothing to do with his wife's death. I wanted to tell him to get to the point several times, but I couldn't bear to interrupt his reminiscence of her.

"He really talks a lot." Duan Hongbin had somehow sat down beside me. I gave a wry smile and shot him a look, telling him to be patient.

I couldn't solve this without Duan Hongbin. He was the expert in this area, and he'd shown up just in time.

Duan Hongbin leaned sideways against the sofa, impatience written all over his face.

Gu Song kept rambling on. He talked about the time he was sick and his wife stayed by his side day and night without changing clothes. His eyes were even a little moist.

I suddenly understood why Xie Yi had sent him to me. I figured Xie Yi probably had time to meet him in Lin City and even solve his problem, but he left Gu Song for me. It seemed he knew Gu Song's narrative style well, otherwise he wouldn't have said that "follow your heart" line.

If I really followed my heart, I'd send Gu Song packing right now. I didn't want to write his memoirs for him.

"Mr. Gu, how about we get to the point, okay?"

After about another half hour, I couldn't take it anymore and had to urge him.

Gu Song looked embarrassed. He cleared his throat twice. "Look at me, falling into my old habit again. I always go off on tangents as soon as I start talking."

He spoke in a rather refined manner. I asked him what he did for a living, and he told me he was a teacher at Qianzhou Normal University.

My eyes went wide. I imagined him lecturing his students with long-winded digressions that never hit the main topic. I couldn't help but feel sorry for his students. Having a teacher like that was just... speechless.

"Here's what happened. About two months ago, my wife suddenly told me she felt like someone was always watching her from the shadows. She said she felt it on the way to work, at her workplace, and even when she came home. I thought, how could that be? Even if someone was tailing her, they couldn't be everywhere. Especially at home, she kept saying it. I thoroughly checked the house more than once, even went outside and circled around a few times, but found nothing. So I thought maybe she was just too tired during that period and was having hallucinations."

I nodded, signaling him to continue.

"I told her to take two days off and stay home. I took leave too to keep her company. Everything seemed normal to me, but even during those two days at home, she was still that neurotic. I clearly remember one night in the middle of the night, she suddenly sat up and seemed to be talking to someone. I was terrified, because when I followed her gaze, there was no one in the bedroom. Also, I couldn't understand a word she was saying. I had no idea what she was talking about."

"You couldn't understand?" I squinted.

He nodded emphatically. "It was another language. One I didn't know."

"A foreign language?" I asked.

He answered very firmly, "No, not a foreign language. It couldn't be. I'm a foreign language teacher. I'm proficient in English, French, German, Japanese, and Korean. I can tell whether something is a foreign language just by hearing it."

I was taken aback. I didn't expect Gu Song to be such a scholar. Five foreign languages was pretty impressive.

"It sounded like some kind of ancient dialect, probably a minority language," he said.

He told me his scalp crawled at that moment. His wife didn't seem to be talking to herself; it was like she was having a conversation with someone. She seemed to have forgotten he existed. When she got excited, her voice even rose, trembling a little.

"The next morning, I asked her what happened last night, but she didn't remember a thing. And I made a mistake—I shouldn't have asked her. It scared her. Originally, I hadn't taken her claim about someone watching her very seriously. I thought a couple of days' rest and adjustment would fix it. But the feeling only grew stronger for her, and every night after that, the same conversation played out. Mr. Jiang, you have no idea—even I started getting neurasthenic."

He gave a bitter smile, tinged with self-mockery.

"I felt we couldn't go on like this, or we'd both have a mental breakdown. So I dragged her to see a psychiatrist. I thought maybe there was something wrong with our mental state. She was resistant at first, but I insisted, and she finally agreed to go with me."

At this point, I glanced at Duan Hongbin beside me. He had actually closed his eyes and fallen asleep. I gave him a light kick. He half-opened his eyes. "I'm listening."

Gu Song naturally couldn't see Duan Hongbin, nor did he notice my little gesture. He kept talking.

He took his wife to a psychological clinic. After listening to his account, the psychiatrist examined his wife and ran some psychological tests. The result was that his wife was perfectly normal. On the contrary, the psychiatrist thought Gu Song had mild psychological issues—tension, anxiety, and some mania.

Gu Song said helplessly, "In the end, that psychiatrist wanted me to undergo psychological treatment. I refused, so he prescribed me some medication. As for my wife, he told me to pay more attention to her. He thought what she said might be true, that someone really was spying on her and wanted to do something to her. I asked the psychiatrist how he explained my wife getting up in the middle of the night and babbling nonsense. Guess what the psychiatrist said?"

"The psychiatrist must have thought he was lying, and that what he described was just a hallucination his own mind had created. That's exactly why the psychiatrist thought he was the one with the psychological problem." Duan Hongbin said lazily.

Sure enough, what Gu Song said next matched Duan Hongbin's words exactly.

"He didn't believe a word I said. I swear, none of that was my imagination, let alone a hallucination. It was real. She really was talking to someone. I just couldn't understand what they were saying."

He was very frustrated. He dug his fingers into his hair and scratched hard. I watched dandruff fall all over the floor.

"Mr. Gu, calm down first. Take it slow."

He stopped scratching his head and looked at me. "Do you believe me?"

"I do." I wasn't just humoring him. I really didn't think he was lying. Otherwise, Xie Yi wouldn't have sent him to me.

"After we left the clinic, she started blaming herself. She said she must have caused my mental burden by telling me about being followed. She told me to cooperate with the psychiatrist's treatment, to not refuse treatment out of pride while the problem wasn't too serious. She said if psychological issues escalated, the consequences would be severe. At that moment, I didn't know what to say. She meant well for me, but I knew I wasn't sick. If I let the psychiatrist mess with me, he might actually make me sick. So I told her I was probably just too stressed these past couple of days, worried something would happen to her. I said I'd adjust slowly and be fine in a few days. Only then did she stop pushing me, but she insisted I remember to take my medicine. The doctor said I had to."