September 9, 2011
Mr. Zhao wiped the sweat from his forehead, tossed the tissue into the trash, and then waved at Zhou Ning, who was not far from the car.
"Stop looking, take the car for a spin to break it in."
Zhou Ning hastily waved his hands.
"Let’s not embarrass ourselves here; let’s leave first."
Mr. Zhao seed about to say sothing else, but seeing Zhou Ning’s nervous sweat form on his nose, he laughed and shook his head.
"Look how nervous you are. You weren’t this jittery during driving practice on University Road. Now that it’s your own new car, you’re afraid to damage it?"
Zhou Ning nodded.
"You drive first. I won’t hit the road until the plates co. A while ago, Mr. Zheng from the lab just got his car and, in less than an hour and a half, a lady who made a mistake at the intersection and pressed the gas pedal instead of the brake slamd right into the bank entrance. The car was a complete write-off; it was heart-wrenching. I really don’t want that to happen to ."
Mr. Zhao sighed but gestured to Zhou Ning to get in the car before he settled in the driver’s seat himself.
"Mr. Zheng really had bad luck. The at-fault driver’s insurance had expired, the driver is still in critical condition, and she doesn’t have any assets—only debts. It’s such a headache dealing with that. Co on, get in. Weren’t you going to see Doctor Shi?"
Zhou Ning humd in agreent. He was supposed to go last weekend, but a case had co up. Today they were off, spending the day picking up the car and visiting Doctor Shi, especially since there had been so new developnts in his dreams.
"Let’s go then. First, to Doctor Shi. I’ll have my treatnt, and you call Shancun. If I finish early, the al is on ."
Mr. Zhao glanced at Zhou Ning, incredulous, as if he couldn’t believe his ears.
"So proactive? Last ti, we nagged you for a half month, and you didn’t offer to treat us. What’s this all about—are you intending to ’sacrifice’ to the new car?"
Zhou Ning dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand, not buying into that superstition.
"We haven’t gotten together for a while, and Xiaoyu is coming over today. I actually have a hidden agenda — hoping that Mr. He will be my brother-in-law and just providing so convenient opportunities."
Mr. Zhao pursed his lips and started the car, heading toward the psychological clinic.
"You’re really not considerate, not even trying to set up with Xiaoyu. I think I’m more suitable. I’m younger than Mr. He, and even if I don’t make as much money, I’m good at having fun and making people laugh. With that kind of competitiveness, how can you not consider ?"
Zhou Ning couldn’t stop laughing. Mr. Zhao was really putting in the effort to sell himself. Zhou Ning slapped Mr. Zhao’s belly, sending ripples through the fat as if they were ripples on water.
"Buddy, you can’t talk about like that. You wouldn’t get past my second aunt with that waistline of yours, which must be over three feet five inches, right?"
Mr. Zhao looked aggrieved and snorted, about to hit the brakes.
"I’ve worked hard to grow this flesh, and you still despise it?"
Zhou Ning was amused and quickly waved his hand.
"Stop joking, let’s get to Doctor Shi, and then on the way back, we still have to buy vegetables and seafood."
Mr. Zhao looked puzzled.
"What do you an? Are you saying we’re eating at your place?"
"Yeah, I bought an electric hot pot and have already ordered beef and lamb rolls. Of course, there’s also a lot of stuff like atballs, but now we just need seafood and vegetables."
Mr. Zhao’s displeasure disappeared in an instant, and he pressed the accelerator a bit more aggressively.
"Why didn’t you say so earlier? I love hot pot! But eating it outside is not satisfying or safe. By the way, aren’t you bad at cooking?"
Zhou Ning nodded.
"I can’t cook, but I can make instant noodles, so as long as it’s sothing boiled in a pot, I think it should be fine. Now, quit the chitchat or we’ll be too late to buy seafood."
Mr. Zhao quickly focused on the road, and the car swiftly turned onto a highway. Soon they arrived at Shi Tianxiao’s psychological clinic. Zhou Ning glanced at his watch and opened the car door.
"Co inside with —it’s too hot outside."
Mr. Zhao rolled his eyes, clearly, Zhou Ning was just trying to save gas by avoiding air conditioning and pretending to be considerate. Pointing to a nearby parking lot, he said:
"I’ll go park the car over there. You’re just worried about using up gas with the AC on, aren’t you?"
"Yeah."
"You’re saying yeah?"
Zhou Ning didn’t waste words. He gently closed the car door with such excessive caution that Mr. Zhao couldn’t help but clench his jaw.
Entering the psychological clinic, the receptionist approached Zhou Ning with a slight nod and an apologetic tone:
"Forensic Doctor Zhou, hello. Our Doctor Shi has been asked by a friend to see an ergency patient. He’s in a consultation upstairs. Doctor Shi said to have escort you to the lounge outside his office to wait. Please don’t rush."
Zhou Ning was quite understanding. It was like the surprise 6.29 case he’d gotten. Many things were decided last minute and often out of their control. Being so rushed that he didn’t even have ti to call ant the patient must be really serious.
"No worries, you go ahead with your work. My friend and I will head up and wait. No need to attend to us!"
The receptionist smiled even more brightly. n and won are the sa; it’s such a joy to talk with a good-looking person of the opposite sex, especially when they’re gentle, a happiness that has nothing to do with love, just pure bliss.
Just then, the clinic’s door was opened again.
Mr. Zhao dashed inside, wiping the sweat off his brow. The girl was about to get up, but Mr. Zhao quickly pointed towards Zhou Ning and then hopped over in a few quick strides, taking two steps at a ti.
Once upstairs, hearing the noise coming from the clinic, Zhou Ning explained to Mr. Zhao that there was a hotpot waiting for them later. Mr. Zhao was in such a good mood that he didn’t mind the disruption and took out his cell phone to play Snake.
Seconds and minutes ticked by. Zhou Ning’s eyes were half-closed, and he was becoming drowsy, but a sudden scream from inside the clinic dispelled all his sleepiness.
It seed as if Doctor Shi was offering comfort, along with the soothing voices of others. After a while, the screaming gradually subsided.
However, the girl’s voice could still be heard, speaking extrely fast, her voice an octave higher than before.
"I don’t know how to explain, I feel like I’m going crazy, and this thing has been troubling . But after I started school, I dared not ntion it to anyone, because everyone gave such strange looks, as if I were a monster.
But that dream seed so real, like a sequence of small vivid dreams, all connected. Every day I would drag my lisping little sister around the yard playing hide-and-seek, playing with mud, and even catching ducks."
Doctor Shi’s voice was calm and slow, offering a comforting, soothing tone.
"Take your ti, deep breaths, relax your body. Now, slowly open your eyes, good, relax. Look at and tell about your dream, okay?"
An anxious man said:
"Doctor, having her recall that dream, isn’t that only reinforcing the mory? She’s been acting as if she’s haunted. Are you going to write a talisman and give her so talisman water next? Are you really a psychologist?"
Zhou Ning blinked. This man was bold, questioning a doctor’s professional skills and interrupting the psychologist’s treatnt session. How ignorant.
Following Zhou Ning’s gaze, the door to Doctor Shi’s clinic opened, and a man was quite literally thrown out by the collar, still highly agitated and continuing to shout and jump.
However, he cald down imdiately upon seeing Mr. Zhao in his police uniform and Zhou Ning.
He found a corner to sit down in, but his eyes remained fixed on the clinic.
In the clinic, it seed Shi Tianxiao was standing close to the glass door, so even though he lowered his voice, Zhou Ning could hear clearly.
"Okay, now that no one will disturb us, is he your brother or your boyfriend?"
"Boyfriend. He dislikes how I always wake up startled or even screaming, which is why he took to so many neurologists. That’s how we were referred to you. I can rember so bits when I wake up, just not as clearly as I do at night."
"Don’t rush, tell the story slowly, or just chat with about that ongoing dream of yours."
The girl seed to reflect for a mont, organizing her thoughts, before she started speaking.
She said that in the dream, she appeared to be about four or five years old, with a younger sister nearly one or two years her junior, speaking indistinctly, always stumbling when walking.
Her little sister followed her everywhere she went, imitating whatever she did.
With a foreign accent, they played hide-and-seek, molded clay, and chased ducks, but that was only part of their experiences. She and her sister slept together in the sa bed every night.
Her last mory of her sister was of her walking into a house with three rooms.
The floor was paved with stones. There were baskets with fresh tea leaves. Feeling hungry, the sister went inside to ask the old grandmother for food. The grandmother took her in with a smile, then closed the door and never ca out again.
Even now, speaking of that scene made her hands tremble.
But from that point on, her mory seed fragnted, as if several years were missing. This wasn’t part of the dream anymore, as she had written down everything in her diary. Once, her mother told her to wash her hair, and she said she’d wash her sister’s hair first.
Her mother was surprised, telling her she’d been an only child from birth, with no sister at ho. Since the dreams were recurring and so vivid, she refused to believe it and questioned all her relatives, who confird she was an only child.
Afterward, her father brought ho a Taoist priest because he thought there was sothing unclean attached to her, sothing that needed exorcism.
After three days of rituals, she ran a high fever for three days.
This ordeal ended only when she admitted her sister was a fignt of her imagination.
Yet she knew deep down that she hadn’t made it up. She had diligently recorded the dream, but the mory from when she was five until she started school was the only piece missing. Besides the dreams, her sister never appeared in reality.
Upon careful comparison, she noticed one thing: the courtyard where she played with her sister, its furnishings, and the material of the house were different from her family’s. She cautiously probed her mother, who ntioned they had moved when she was young. She wondered if the house in her mory was that old ho.
After a long silence, Shi Tianxiao spoke:
"I can’t help you, but based on what you’ve told , it sounds sowhat similar to another patient of mine, except what he experienced wasn’t in dreams."
"If possible, I suggest you visit that old house. As for psychological treatnt, it’s not particularly necessary. Relax and don’t fixate on the dream. After all, life is about looking forward, not being forever imrsed in mories from when you were four or five."
The girl choked up, thanked Shi Tianxiao, and left the room.
Zhou Ning glanced at the girl, noticing she was putting away a photo. Whether out of nervousness or disappointnt, the photo dropped to the ground.
Zhou Ning picked it up and examined it closely. The photo showed five people: two elders, a middle-aged couple, and a girl being held.
The four adults were dressed in traditional minority costus from northern Yunnan, but the little girl in their arms was wearing pink clothes and didn’t bear a particular resemblance to the four behind her.
Zhou Ning handed the photo back to the girl and glanced at Shi Tianxiao.
"Miss, I suggest you go for a paternity test with your parents."
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