Lao Xia's "Illness"

The first thing was that the kindergarten was going to implement a theme-based curriculum, and Xia Libing's parents bought her a goldfish.

The night before, Lao Xia was happily explaining the body and physiological structure of goldfish to his studious daughter using information he had found.

To my surprise, when I woke up the next morning, I saw that the goldfish had been dismembered by Little Lao Xia, and the tool he used was actually the paper cutter in his study.

He was stunned to see the dissected goldfish, its internal organs neatly cleaned and laid out on a sheet of kitchen absorbent paper, and his daughter carefully examining the fish's structure.

When Lao Xia's mother got up, she was also quite frightened and kept asking her daughter why she had done that.

But the answer I received was, "I'd like to see."

After that, Little Lao Xia dissected many small animals at different times and in different places, using different tools. If she bought fresh food at home, she would find an opportunity to dismember it if she wasn't careful.

Little Lao Xia, who had just started kindergarten, did not show any signs of irritability or madness. She remained consistently calm and rational, as if she were not dismantling a living being, but a toy no different from a rag doll or plastic model. This behavior was what frightened her parents even more.

No matter how Lao Xia parents tried to reason with him gently or scold him angrily, they couldn't stop their Little Lao Xia from doing the things they considered cruel and terrifying.

Even Lao Xia's usually gentle and mild-mannered father couldn't hold back one time and slapped his daughter.

Although he regretted it as soon as he finished hitting her and cried while holding his daughter, Little Lao Xia didn't show any reaction. She neither cried nor showed any fear. As soon as he let go, she ran to the mirror and examined the redness and swelling on her face.

Lao Xia's father even couldn't help but wonder if she would suddenly take a knife and cut open her cheek to see why it was red and swollen.

After that, Lao Xia's parents dared not let their daughter go to kindergarten anymore, and kept her with them at home to watch over her.

Not long after, a friend of Lao Xia's father brought his child to play at home. The child accidentally fell and scraped his knee.

After seeing this, Little Lao Xia ran back into the house. Xia's mother, who had been watching her daughter, immediately followed, only to find that Little Lao Xia had taken a small pair of scissors that she had hidden in her dressing case.

Xia's mother quickly stopped her daughter, snatched the small scissors, and questioned her about what she was doing. The answer was chilling, "I want to see his knees."

After discussing it overnight, Lao Xia's parents decided to continue taking her to "seek medical treatment".

Although they still love their daughter very much, they don't want her to grow up to be a potentially vicious "monster" who could threaten others. In particular, her exceptionally high intelligence would exponentially increase that threat.

But just like last time, we consulted various experts and underwent all sorts of examinations and tests, but we still couldn't determine exactly what the problem was.

Lao Xia's brain structure and function are normal, and the nine major neurotransmitters, including serotonin, gamma-aminobutyric acid, norepinephrine, and dopamine, are all normal.

She did not have obvious symptoms of autism or other known mental or psychological disorders, making a diagnosis impossible. Therefore, various institutions, hospitals, experts, and doctors only proposed some conservative "treatment plans," which were ineffective and made Lao Xia's parents feel that they were unreliable.

Then, through connections, Lao Xia's father found a Dr. Li who had just returned from abroad and was the main author of these medical records. She had extensive work experience and theoretical knowledge, and after spending a month with Little Lao Xia, she proposed a treatment plan.

Through fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and other related brain function tests, Dr. Li discovered that although Lao Xia's brain did not have obvious damage or defects, there were indeed some unique patterns in its brain activity.

The way Lao Xia's brain's neural network operates may be slightly different from that of ordinary people, and this difference leads to her unique way of thinking.

Lao Xia can feel pain normally, but her pain tolerance is very high. When a normal person is pricked by a needle, they will subconsciously pull their hand back, look at the place where they were pricked, and even scream. Although Lao Xia will also pull her hand back, her first reaction is to look at the thing that pricked her, and then observe the situation. Although she can feel pain, the pain does not make her feel scared or obviously repulsed.

Standing on high ground, she felt neither fear nor tension; she even had the urge to throw other things down or jump herself, simply wanting to see what would happen.

Although she can use language normally and understand what others are saying, she cannot perceive other people's emotions, nor does she have normal human emotions; she lacks empathy.

Looking at the PDF, which contained images of medical records clearly scanned from paper documents and Dr. Li's diagnoses, Xiang Kun combined this with his previous reading of related books to try and understand the information.

The human brain has 80 billion nerve cells, each of which is connected to about 7,000 other nerve cells, forming a vast, complex, and powerful neural network. Human brain activities such as memory, thinking, and calculation all rely on this network, and the generation of emotions is no exception.

Each nerve cell is like an electronic device, such as a computer or mobile phone, with different functions.

Some are only 2 to 4 nanometers apart, and can directly transmit electrical signals through electrical synapses, just like two devices connected directly, which is very fast.

Some of these signals are 20 to 40 nanometers apart, requiring the transmission of signals via neurotransmitters.

Just like USB flash drives and portable hard drives, the amount of neurotransmitters determines the capacity of the portable storage device; the larger the capacity, the more files it can transfer.

When a USB drive full of files (neurotransmitters) is plugged into the USB port (receptor) of the target device, the target device begins to interpret the files and starts working according to the system's preset software. It may also simultaneously transmit information to other electronic devices on the network, causing them to start working as well.

Many mental or psychological illnesses, including depression, autism, and schizophrenia, are related to the production and transmission of neurotransmitters.

The problem could be that the USB drive doesn't have enough storage space, there aren't enough USB ports or there are reading problems, or the electronic device itself is faulty.

But Lao Xia's situation is different from all of these. It is very likely that many "electronic devices" in Lao Xia's brain's neural network have different systems and applications than ordinary people. The same information file will produce different results after being entered.

As a result, Lao Xia possesses extremely high intelligence, strong learning ability, athletic ability, reaction speed, and balance, but at the cost of having difficulty recognizing emotions and feelings.

To put it simply: Lao Xia's thought process is a bit different from that of ordinary people.

After observing Little Lao Xia for half a month and obtaining Lao Xia parents' consent, Dr. Li began to "treat" Lao Xia using her methods.

Her method was both radical and simple: starve Lao Xia until she sensed an instinctive fear. Then, using that as a starting point, she influenced Lao Xia's other behaviors, making her understand which other things she absolutely could not do and how others would feel if she did those things.

Dr. Li was very accurate. For Little Lao Xia at that time, hunger and appetite were indeed the best way for her to access other senses.

Seeing this, Xiang Kun finally understood what the enclosed room was all about when he first sensed Lao Xia's dream, and why Lao Xia ate in that way in the dream, like a "starving ghost reincarnated."

She was indeed starved, and it happened when she was very young. She was starved to the point of near death.

But this method did indeed help her understand a lot of information.

One of the premises for Dr. Li's use of this method was the exceptionally high intelligence displayed by Little Lao Xia. Although he was still very young, he already had no obstacles in communicating about many things.

After Dr. Li used hunger to make her understand what pain and the fear of death felt like, he gradually helped her recognize her differences and realize how to integrate into society and into other people's lives.

Later, with Dr. Li's help, Lao Xia was able to continue her schooling without any disruption. From elementary school onwards, she looked no different from a "normal person".

Aside from not being very talkative, always staring at others with wide eyes and a somewhat wooden expression, he didn't show anything unusual.

She began to learn and imitate other people's behavior and expressions, and tried to connect outward behavior with their true intentions to help herself understand other people's emotions.

Xiang Kun also learned why Lao Xia wanted to study psychiatry and psychology, and why he specifically transferred to the Third Hospital of Citong.

The former was naturally for "treatment" of herself, or rather, to enable herself to adapt to normal life; the latter was because she knew that there were several cases at the Third Hospital of Citong, some of whom had similar symptoms to her when she was a child. She wanted to see if she could find cases like hers and then find ways to acquire and perceive normal emotions.

However, during this time, she has confirmed that the cases here are not the same as hers.

Of course, this content was not from Lao Xia's own medical records, but rather something she added herself, including even the basic symptoms of those cases.

Clearly, Lao Xia created this document specifically to help him understand his situation.

After reviewing the PDF file and putting the tablet back in his bag, Xiang Kun took another look at the softcover notebook. Some of the pages were clearly old, and even the material was different from the rest, indicating that they had been taken from other notebooks and rebound.

The preceding section contains Lao Xia's summary of behavioral guidelines.

Judging from the changes in her handwriting and the degree of ink fading, one can infer that she must have started making these summaries a long time ago, perhaps in junior high school, or even earlier.

The first rule of behavioral patterns is:

"Keep smiling."

But the second point is. "A smile needs to be adjusted according to each person's facial features to look natural."

The third point is also related to smiles. "Different smiles need to be applied in different situations."

It appears that these are all additions made based on the results of actual application.

Xiang Kun immediately recalled the scene when she picked up Lao Xia at the Tongshi Town train station, and the strange smile she gave to the college student who struck up a conversation with her, which directly frightened him.

He couldn't help but mentally match that smile to the Little Lao Xia in the photo he'd seen in the PDF file, and immediately found it extremely amusing, so he couldn't help but grin silently.

However, after feeling Lao Xia's gaze fixed on him, Xiang Kun quickly suppressed his smile and continued flipping through the softcover notebook.

Article 35: "When the situation is uncertain, observe more and speak less."

Article 113: "People's words may differ from their true intentions; one must judge them by combining facial expressions and behavioral habits."

Article 422: "Sometimes, directly pointing out a sore spot and saying unfriendly things can be a form of humor."

Article 423: "The preceding article should be used depending on the circumstances; otherwise, a conflict may occur."

Article 489: "Occasionally verbally attacking someone you know is a sign of closeness. (Note: Currently, only Yang Zhen'er meets this criterion.)"

Article 706: "When chatting on WeChat or QQ, sometimes emojis are more suitable for expressing emotions than text."

The last one is number nine hundred and seventy-two:

"To gain someone's trust, you can first express your own trust. To obtain someone's secrets, you can first reveal your own secrets. (Note: This applies to Xiang Kun)"

Xiang Kun couldn't help but laugh again, turning around and saying, "How did you come up with this principle?"

Xia Libing said, "Practice."

Xiang Kun thought he had finished reading and was about to get the file bag when he discovered that there was more content at the back of the notebook. So he flipped the notebook over and found that, sure enough, there was also densely written content when flipping from the back to the front.

And all of this content was related to him; it was all Lao Xia's summary of judgments and speculations based on his various observations of him.

From speculations about his physical condition, eating habits, and behavior patterns, to his possible movements at different times and the true intentions behind his various actions, the analysis and speculation about the uses of the various items he sent, including lyrics in calligraphy, Black Circle Graffiti, chopsticks, and Coin, have come very close to the truth, about 60-70 percent accurate.

Xiang Kun knew that Lao Xia had guessed many of these things, but there were still many things that even he was somewhat surprised that Lao Xia knew.

It has to be said that Lao Xia's observation and insight really surprised Xiang Kun. Of course, this was also related to the fact that he had no defenses against Lao Xia.

What surprised him most was that when Lao Xia first came into contact with the "lucky coin" given to him by Xiang Kun in Nana's room in Tongshi Town, he had already noticed the coin's unusual nature.

Normally, according to Xiang Kun's previous deduction, for others to connect with his "Super-Linked Object" or "Emotion-Infused Object," besides his approval, the first requirement is sufficient trust in him and a willingness to believe in the Coin's special nature.

When he Lao Xia the Black Circle Graffiti, Lao Xia had already gained his conscious approval and had a "license to join the network".

At that time, when Lao Xia first realized that the "Super-Linked Object" Coin might have something special, he didn't even know that it was given to Nana by Xiang Kun. Only after he learned this and thought about it carefully and compared it with other Coin did he become more certain that his perception was not an illusion.

Xiang Kun thus deduced that his "Super-Linked Object" and "Emotion-Infused Object" exist in a certain way, and that there is a certain overlap between Lao Xia's cognition and thinking about things.

After closing the softcover notebook, Xiang Kun opened the file folder again.

There wasn't any other information inside; it only contained Lao Xia's own medical records. The medical records in the PDF were scanned from these, but they were all photocopies or photographs, not the originals. It seems she didn't get these directly from that Dr. Li.

After carefully putting away the medical records, Xiang Kun placed the black, soft-covered notebook on his lap, pondered for a moment, and then slowly said, "My situation is actually quite simple..."