Eyes and Psychological Problems

It was my first assignment. Honestly, I was terrified.

You could say I knew absolutely nothing about the procedures of Bureau Five, Section Nine's Special Division. Xie Yi had not even had time to brief me before putting me on the job. I did not know whether he trusted me too much or simply did not take this case seriously.

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

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

With that, he hung up, leaving me feeling completely dizzy.

Who handled cases like that? Follow my heart? Put bluntly, did that not just mean doing whatever the hell I wanted? But this was way too casual.

I looked at the man before me. What had Xie Yi said his name was? Oh, Gu Song.

"Mr. Gu, your wife is dead. You now suspect she was murdered, and that her killer was not human. There is something I want to understand: what do you want me to do?" I was very direct. At the very least, I needed to know what he wanted and whether I could do it.

Gu Song moistened his lips with his tongue, and I quickly poured him a glass of water.

He took it and looked at me gratefully. "Thank you!"

After draining the water in one go and letting out a burp, he finally began telling me about his wife.

He first spoke of how he had met his wife, something that had happened nearly twenty years ago. His face was filled with a happy smile as he spoke. It was clear that they had truly loved each other, and that he loved his wife deeply.

But none of that seemed to have anything to do with his wife's death. Several times, I wanted him to get to the point, but I could not bear to interrupt his remembrance of her.

"He really is long-winded." At some point, Duan Hongbin had sat down beside me. I gave a wry smile and shot him a look, telling him to be patient.

This matter really could not be resolved without Duan Hongbin. He was the expert in this field, and his appearance had come at just the right time.

Duan Hongbin slouched sideways against the sofa, his face full of impatience.

Gu Song continued talking to himself. He spoke of a time when he had fallen ill and his wife had stayed by his side day and night to care for him. His eyes had even begun to redden.

I suddenly understood why Xie Yi had sent him to me. I figured Xie Yi must have had time to meet him in Lin City and might even have been able to solve his problem, yet he had left Gu Song to me instead. It seemed he understood Gu Song's way of telling a story very well. Otherwise, he would not have said to follow my heart.

If I really followed my heart, I would tell Gu Song to leave right now. I had no desire to help him write a memoir.

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

After nearly another half hour, I truly could not take it anymore and had no choice but to urge him on.

Gu Song looked embarrassed and coughed twice. "Look at me, falling into my old habits again. The moment I start talking, I wander miles off topic."

His speech was somewhat bookish. I asked what he did for a living, and he told me he was a teacher at Qianzhou Normal University.

My eyes widened. I pictured him delivering long-winded lectures that never got to the point, and I could not help feeling sorry for his students. Having a teacher like that must have left them speechless.

"This is what happened. About two months ago, my wife suddenly told me that she felt as though someone was always watching her from the shadows. She said she felt it on her way to work, at her workplace, and even after returning home. I thought, how could that be possible? Even if someone really were following her, they could not possibly be everywhere, could they? Especially at home, she kept saying the same thing. I thoroughly checked the house more than once, and even went outside to look around several times, but I found nothing. So I thought perhaps she had been too tired during that period and was having hallucinations."

I nodded, signaling for him to continue.

"I had her take two days off and stay home. I took leave as well to keep her company. As far as I could see, everything was normal, but during those two days at home, she remained just as nervous. I clearly remember that one night, in the middle of the night, she suddenly sat up and began speaking as though she were talking to someone. I was terrified, because when I followed her gaze, there was no one in the bedroom. And I could not understand anything she said. I had no idea what she was talking about."

"You could not understand?" I narrowed my eyes.

He nodded hard. "It was another language, one I did not know."

"A foreign language?" I asked.

He answered with certainty, "Not a foreign language. It could not have been a foreign language. I am a foreign language teacher, proficient in English, French, German, Japanese, and Korean. I can tell the moment I hear whether something is a foreign language."

I was stunned. I had not expected Gu Song to be such an academic powerhouse. Being proficient in five foreign languages was impressive enough.

"It sounded like an ancient dialect, and it should have been a minority language," he said.

He told me that his scalp had gone numb at the time, because his wife had not seemed to be talking to herself, but rather conversing with someone. She appeared to have forgotten he existed. Whenever she became agitated, her voice would rise, even trembling slightly.

"The next morning, when she woke up, I asked her what had happened the night before, but she did not remember anything at all. And I made a mistake. I should not have asked her. I frightened her. At first, I had not taken her claim that someone was constantly watching her too seriously. I thought she only needed a couple of days of rest to recover. But the feeling grew stronger and stronger, and every night afterward, those conversations would happen again. Mr. Jiang, you have no idea—even I began suffering from neurasthenia."

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

"I felt we could not go on like this, or both our minds would collapse. So I took her to see a psychologist. I thought perhaps there was something wrong with our mental state. Although she was strongly opposed at first, she could not persuade me otherwise and eventually agreed to go with me."

At that moment, I glanced at Duan Hongbin beside me. He had actually closed his eyes and fallen asleep. I lightly kicked him, and he half-opened his eyes. "I'm listening."

Naturally, Gu Song could not see Duan Hongbin, nor did he notice my little movement. He continued speaking.

He took his wife to a psychological clinic. After listening to his account, the psychologist examined his wife and conducted several psychological tests. The results showed that there was nothing wrong with her. On the contrary, the psychologist believed Gu Song had mild psychological problems: nervousness, anxiety, and some manic tendencies.

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

"The psychologist must have believed he was lying, and that everything he described was merely an illusion created by his own mind. That was precisely why the psychologist believed he was the one with psychological problems," Duan Hongbin said lazily.

Sure enough, what Gu Song said was exactly the same as what Duan Hongbin had said.

"He simply did not believe what I said was true. I swear, none of that was my imagination, much less some illusion. Really, she truly was talking to someone. It is just a pity I could not understand what they were saying."

He was deeply frustrated. He shoved both hands into his hair and scratched fiercely, and I watched dandruff fall all over the floor.

"Mr. Gu, calm down first. Take your time."

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

"I do." I was not merely humoring him. I truly felt he was not lying. Otherwise, Xie Yi would not have sent him to me.

"After we left the clinic, she began blaming herself. She said it must have been because she had told me about being followed that I had ended up under such mental strain. She asked me to cooperate with the psychologist's treatment and said that while the problem was not too serious, I absolutely should not refuse treatment out of pride. Once psychological problems worsened, the consequences could be severe. At that time, I truly did not know what to say. She meant well, but I knew there was nothing wrong with me. If I let the psychologist fuss over me, he might actually make me sick. So I told her that I had probably just been overly tense these past two days because I was worried something might happen to her. I said I would slowly adjust and would be fine after a few days. Only then did she stop pressing me, but she reminded me that I had to take my medicine. The doctor said I had to take it."