Am I a Lunatic?

Early the next morning, Lu Menge stopped Wu Changkong by the edge of the training field.

She was dressed quite normally today—a beige sweater, dark blue trousers, low-heeled ankle boots, and her hair tied in a low ponytail. It was the same outfit she had worn when she went to the training grounds to prove to him that she had eight rings, but her expression was completely different. There was none of the lazy teasing in those amber fox eyes, nor was there any aggressive readiness to argue. There was only a seriousness that had settled after being weighed down all night.

"Teacher Wu, may I have a few minutes of your time?"

Wu Changkong had just finished his morning inspection, still holding a training record board. He looked at her, nodded, and followed her beneath a gingko tree at the edge of the field. Golden leaves rustled in the morning light, several falling at their feet.

"I want to talk about what Gu Yue said yesterday." Lu Menge did not beat around the bush. Her voice was calm, her pace unhurried. "First of all, none of it was true."

Wu Changkong's gaze tightened slightly. He did not interrupt, waiting for her to continue.

"Gu Yue told you I was being kept, that I wore skirts in freezing weather, that someone pinned me to the ground—all of it was fake." She carefully broke down every fabrication Gu Yue had made, controlling her pace well. She neither rushed to defend herself nor avoided a single detail. At the end, she paused, then laid out the most crucial part as well.

"My martial soul is not an ordinary White Tiger. It is the Nine-Headed White Tiger. I have lived longer than anyone. You know Di Tian, right? The leader of the ferocious beasts. He is still obediently running errands for me in the Star Dou Great Forest. Gu Yue is not my cousin either—she is the reincarnation of the Silver Dragon King, the other half of an old friend of mine. I treat her as my cousin because an old acquaintance entrusted her to me."

Wu Changkong was silent for a long time. At first, his brow had been furrowed. When he heard terms like "Nine-Headed White Tiger" and "Silver Dragon King," it gradually loosened—not because his confusion had been cleared up, but because it had been replaced by another, deeper concern. When she finished, he nodded.

Lu Menge's brow relaxed as well. She thought he finally believed her.

Without saying anything further, Wu Changkong turned and left. After walking a few steps, he paused, as if he wanted to turn back and say something, but in the end he said nothing and continued toward the teaching building.

Classes proceeded as usual that morning. The moment Lu Menge entered her office, she sensed that something was off—Wu Changkong's gaze had changed. Before, whenever he looked at her, it was either a cold "do not disturb" or a restrained concern that he thought he hid well but actually hid terribly. Today was different. When he passed her office, he specifically detoured to glance at her through the small glass window in the door. Lu Menge understood that look: he was making sure she was still alive. It was the same sort of confirmation he had shown after first discovering her "tragic background," as if he feared she might shatter at any moment.

He said he believed her. Yet his eyes clearly said that an entirely new tragic drama was playing in his head. And this time, the protagonist was even more miserable than before—so miserable that she had started talking nonsense.

Lu Menge narrowed her fox eyes slightly and leaned back in her wicker chair. Fine. At least he believed her on the surface.

What she had not expected was that Wu Changkong contacted Gu Yue directly after leaving her office.

At lunchtime, Gu Yue had just sat down in the cafeteria when she received a message. It was from Wu Changkong, and it was brief: [Under the gingko tree after lunch. We need to discuss something.]

Under the gingko tree. Gu Yue turned those words over in her mind, recalling her glorious achievement of weeping there for nearly fifteen minutes yesterday. Without changing expression, she deleted the message, finished the last half cup of soy milk, and went to find him.

Wu Changkong was already standing there. Dressed in white, his back straight as ever, his fingers unconsciously tapping the edge of Heavenfrost Sword's scabbard. That was the first detail Gu Yue noticed—he was nervous. The second was that when she approached, he did not lower his head to look at her as usual. Instead, he looked away for several seconds first.

"Teacher Wu, what did you want to see me about?"

"Your sister." Wu Changkong's voice was very low, as though he was afraid the wind might carry it somewhere it should not go. "She came to see me this morning."

"What did she say?"

"She told me everything."

Gu Yue's heart skipped a beat—everything? Lu Menge had not really revealed the identities of the Nine-Headed White Tiger and the Silver Dragon King, had she? Yet not a flicker showed on her face. She merely tilted her head slightly. "How did she put it?"

Wu Changkong recounted everything Lu Menge had said by the training field that morning. As Gu Yue listened, she grew quieter and quieter, while the corners of her mouth increasingly threatened to rise. But she held them down with all her might. Only after he finished did she speak. "And what do you think?"

Wu Changkong was silent for a long time. The wind stirred the black hair over his forehead, and he tightened his grip on the scabbard.

"She has suffered enormous trauma before. She was already hurt, and what you said yesterday was only part of it. What she said today—'Nine-Headed White Tiger,' 'older than Di Tian,' 'having lived longer than this plane'—this is not ordinary confusion."

He raised his head and looked at Gu Yue. In those cold blue eyes was the heaviest concern Gu Yue had ever seen.

"Your sister may have a mental problem. Dissociative identity disorder, or delusional disorder. She is using a vast, complete, internally consistent mythological system to cover up her real traumatic memories. Turning the experience of oppression into 'I am an ancient sacred beast, no one can bully me'—that is a classic psychological defense mechanism. The trauma is too deep, so deep that her rational mind cannot bear it. So her subconscious invented an identity stronger than everyone else. She said, 'Di Tian runs errands for me in the Star Dou Great Forest.' Di Tian is the Beast God, an existence at the pinnacle of soul beasts. She chose the Beast God as her backdrop—the psychological implication is too obvious. Yesterday, she overturned everything you said. She has begun placing herself in the role of the abuser because she never wants to be the victim again."

He paused and lowered his voice to its gentlest.

"We cannot delay any longer. I know a seven-ring mental-type therapist, introduced by Senior Zhenhua. Tomorrow, I want to take her to see them. But I need your cooperation—she trusts you the most."

Gu Yue stood there, her expression still the usual standard cold mask. Her purple eyes met Wu Changkong's steadily without evasion, while the muscles around her mouth underwent the greatest trial of their lives. She gathered every scrap of willpower she had, forcing the laughter rising to her throat back down, pressing down the corners of her mouth that wanted to curl up, and even forcibly straightening her eyes that were about to curve into crescents. She kept her voice steady.

"Make the arrangements. She will cooperate—she trusts you very much."

Wu Changkong nodded and turned to leave. Gu Yue suddenly spoke. "Teacher Wu."

"Yes?"

"What if she is not crazy? What if every word she said is true?"

Wu Changkong looked at her, then lowered his eyes.

"Then I will accompany her to psychiatry," he said. "Whatever they find, I will stay with her and treat it."

Gu Yue stood alone under the gingko tree for a long time. Golden leaves fell onto her silver hair, but she did not brush them away. She took out her phone and sent Tang Wulin a message: [The situation has changed. Teacher Wu now thinks Teacher Lu has dissociative identity disorder with delusional symptoms, and he plans to take her to psychiatry tomorrow.]

Tang Wulin instantly replied with a whole line of exclamation marks, followed by: [????????]

Gu Yue: [He took the truth Teacher Lu told him as a delusional episode. Because it was too outrageous. Nine-Headed White Tiger, a cousin who is the reincarnation of the Silver Dragon King, Di Tian running errands for her—would you believe it?]

Tang Wulin was silent for a long time before replying: [...I guess it really is hard to believe. But didn't he believe what you said yesterday? Gu Yue, I have a question. Which version of Teacher Lu does Teacher Wu believe now? The pitiful girl being kept, or the delusional patient with dissociative identity disorder?]

Gu Yue thought for a moment and replied: [Both.]

Tang Wulin: [???]

Gu Yue: [Because both are more miserable than the Teacher Lu in his mind. At first he thought her life was hard, then he thought it was even harder, and now he thinks it is the hardest of all. In every version, he can find a reason to feel sorry for her. It is not about which version is true—he never had the heart to let her go from the start. The cruelest part is that she told the truth, and he took it as illness.]

After a long while, Tang Wulin replied: [So will Teacher Lu really be taken to psychiatry tomorrow?]

Gu Yue looked at the line on the screen, the gold of gingko leaves reflected in her purple eyes. She remembered the curve of Lu Menge curling up beneath her blanket last night, remembered the sound of her voice when she said "thank you," remembered how red the tips of her ears had turned in the darkness.

[No. Before she enters the consultation room, she will find a way to get away. Or she might just pin Teacher Wu against the wall and explain everything again. If it comes down to it, there is still me. I had a hand in making this mess.] She paused after typing that, then added: [But honestly—she has lived for so long, and no one ever dared call her crazy. Wu Changkong is the first. I will remember this for the rest of my life.]

Tang Wulin replied: [I think if Teacher Lu finds out... she will hit you first, then Teacher Wu, then squat on the ground with her hands over her ears and say, "I'm not listening, I'm not listening."]

Gu Yue looked at the message, and at last the corners of her mouth rose without restraint. She slipped her phone into her pocket and headed toward the teaching building.

Tang Wulin was right. But he had left out one thing—Lu Menge could not bear to hit Wu Changkong either. He had just slapped his salary card onto her windowsill and said there was no deadline. She had not even thrown the card away. Hit him? She could not even bring herself to say anything harsh. So tomorrow's trip to psychiatry would most likely become another legendary scene of Wu Changkong getting countered.

Gu Yue pushed open the door to the teaching building and happened to run into Lu Menge, who was leaving her office with a thermos in hand. As they passed each other, Gu Yue lowered her voice and said, "Teacher Wu is taking you to psychiatry tomorrow."

Lu Menge stopped in her tracks. She turned to look at Gu Yue, her expression as if someone had smacked the back of her head with a brick. "...What did you say?"

"He took all the truth you told him as delusions. Nine-Headed White Tiger, a cousin reincarnated from the Silver Dragon King, Di Tian running errands for you—he said those were classic symptoms of dissociative identity disorder."

"He is worried about you." Gu Yue left after saying those three words.

From the end of the corridor came Tang Wulin's voice, his head poking halfway out from the stairwell as he greeted, "Hello, Teacher Lu." Lu Menge stood in the middle of the hallway holding her thermos. The pupils in her fox eyes contracted for an instant, then she slowly set the thermos on the windowsill and took a deep breath. She could not hit him. She could not bear to hit him. But she had to make things clear.

She grabbed her thermos and headed for her office. Tomorrow—she would see just how he planned to drag her into a psychiatric consultation room.