During the holidays, Dong Yi didn’t go ho but stayed in her dormitory, and she seldom made phone calls.
Dong Yi shook her head, "My relatives all died in the mudslide."
Qian imdiately noted this important information in her mind.
"How old were you then?" Qian asked in a conversational tone, though the therapy had already begun.
"I was 6 years old. That day happened to be our ethnic traditional Hair Washing Festival. In the morning, all the n, won, old people, and children went to the river to wash their hair. I wore a silk qima that I loved, but now I can’t rember its color. I looked forward to the hair washing banquet at ho in the evening, wanting to sing hair washing songs with my family and enjoy a sumptuous dinner, but before evening ca, the mudslide erupted..."
Qima is what the Xian Clan calls a long skirt. Qian silently handed Dong Yi a tissue, knowing that Dong Yi had been brought into her mories. Being a good listener is also a quality that a psychologist should possess.
"My dad threw onto the roof. He wanted to pull my mom, but the mudslide swept her away, and when he went to pull her, he was gone too..."
Dong Yi cried. Qian sowhat understood why Dong Yi ran upstairs while sleepwalking. She must feel guilty, having watched her parents die in front of her. How could such a young child endure that?
"Sotis I think, it would be better if I died. If my dad hadn’t carried up, and they both ca up, it would’ve been fine..."
"Every parent, in tis of crisis, thinks of their child first. It’s instinct."
"No... I’m a jinx. I didn’t wash well during the Hair Washing Festival. I didn’t pray properly for my family, and that’s why this happened. Many people in our village died, but no one else, like in my family, where both parents died, leaving only the child."
At this point, Dong Yi was already sobbing uncontrollably.
Qian hoped she could cry more, as it could release so pressure, but crying alone was not enough.
Dong Yi didn’t go into much detail, but Qian could analyze it herself. In a rather traditional village, public opinion is frightful. Dong Yi would certainly be assigned various criticisms and even curses.
When people have no way to direct their anger towards a natural disaster, this emotion needs a vent. Obviously, little Dong Yi beca the scapegoat. Everyone said she was a jinx, venting their dissatisfaction with the disaster on her.
No wonder Dong Yi didn’t talk to anyone. Qian suddenly felt like crying too.
It turned out she didn’t have symptoms of a ntal disorder, but an excessively silent kindness. Was she afraid that interacting with others would bring them bad luck?
So, she just quietly watched over everyone, standing far away from the crowd, observing everyone like a spectator of the world.
"When is your Hair Washing Festival?" Qian thought it was only the day of the incident that caused Dong Yi such stress and sleepwalking.
"The fifteenth day of the sixth lunar month."
That’s not right; the dates don’t match up.
Qian thought for a mont and suddenly recalled a scene from last night.
"Who was that man who ca to find you last night?"
"..."
Seeing Dong Yi reluctant to speak, Qian changed her approach.
"With your parents gone, who raised you?"
"My uncle."
"So, the person who ca yesterday, is he your uncle’s child?"
"...No, he’s the... fiancé my uncle found for ."
"What?! How old is he!"
It’s ridiculous. Dong Yi is so young now, and when that man isn’t dressed as a laborer, he looks thirty, at least. If dressed as he was yesterday, he looks at least forty.
"My uncle wants to get engaged to him in the winter holiday."
"Nonsense, don’t listen to him. They’re not your biological parents, and even if they were, there’s no such thing as arranged marriage." Qian couldn’t stand hearing this.
No wonder Dong Yi was under such great ntal stress recently; there was such a thing happening!
"My uncle said I used a lot of his money growing up. He wouldn’t have let co here if I hadn’t always had governnt subsidies for my good grades. I don’t want to get married..."
Only now did Dong Yi express the emotions typical of a young girl her age, crying on Qian’s shoulder.
Qian patted her like a mother, "Don’t be afraid, I’m here, he can’t do anything to you."
"I want to work and make money for my uncle, but he said he already took 10,000 yuan from the other side. Actually, we don’t need a dowry for marriage from where we co from, so why did he take the money? I need to work hard..."
Tutoring only pays a few yuan per hour right now, and it’s hard to find, and she doesn’t know if she can earn that much.
"I’ll help you resolve this issue. In your first year, don’t take this problem too seriously. Let figure out a way to release your pressure. You’re carrying too heavy a burden, and if you don’t release it, it’ll be very bad for you."
"Qian, what should I do, I..."
Qian patted her; the current situation was not very optimistic.
Dong Yi’s issue isn’t just a matter of one or two ntal knots; it deals with the heaviest matters of human life. If hypnosis therapy is used, its effectiveness is uncertain, and simply venting emotions isn’t enough either.
"Damn it, why couldn’t I have t you a few years earlier!"
Qian said hatefully.
After a disaster, people’s minds in the disaster area will suffer varying degrees of damage. Houses can be rebuilt, but psychological wounds remain unhealed.
Many people say that ti can forget everything, but that’s not true. So wounds only get more painful with ti, especially for soone like Dong Yi. If Qian had t her when she was still a little girl, perhaps it would have been easier.
Relying solely on conversation to vent emotions is far from enough, so what should be done...
"Dong Yi, were you sitting on the roof the whole ti when you were rescued?" Qian could only grasp at sothing, hoping to find a way to stop Dong Yi from running to the roof during sleepwalking.
"No, my house soon collapsed, and many uncles saved ."
No wonder she has such a good impression of Mr. Yu. Qian thought of the incident at the ti of enrollnt, and indeed Dong Yi had principles. When that troublemaker caused everyone grief, everyone resisted except her. It’s related to her previous experiences.
"Can you describe the process?"
"I was sitting on the roof, feeling the water becoming more violent. I could even feel the house shaking, my mind was blank. I kept watching the flood, hoping my parents could co up, but after waiting a long ti, they didn’t. I wondered if they were dead. At that ti, I didn’t even know what death was."
Still a child, limited in understanding, but vaguely felt it was not a good thing.
"Then, a helicopter flew in the sky. A very handso uncle descended with a rope. He held with one hand and the rope with the other. Just as he carried away, the house collapsed. His embrace was so warm..."
Qian’s eyes lit up, great, there’s a turning point!
Cracking the code of the heart can solve psychological problems.
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