Qingshan District is located in the southwest corner of Yunhe City, far away from the urban development center. Therefore, it has the quietest ecological environment and the most backward economic strength. On the one hand, the poor who once grew up here want to squeeze into the city center, and on the other hand, everything is difficult. The wealthy people began to pursue pastoral songs. As a result, there are both dilapidated adobe houses and elegant private estates, crumbling small clinics and modern research institutes.
A developer boss pointed to these weathered people and things and said: "The current backwardness is the future potential. The lower the starting point, the greater the room for progress. If you wait until the development of this land begins to take shape before participating, by then I’m afraid I won’t even be able to drink soup at that time.”
314 Medical Research Institute is probably a developer seizing the opportunity here. The environment here is beautiful, fresh and quiet. It is a good place for scientific research, healing and retirement. But now, there are 16 special mental patients living here, and the arrival of Lin Xuerou has turned this number to 17.
This hospital has many cooperations with the School of Psychology at Yunhe Medical University. I heard that their dean is also a visiting professor at the Medical University, but Liu Mengwei has never met him.
At five o'clock in the morning, the city had not yet woken up. Liu Mengwei drove slowly. She enjoyed the sense of security brought by the sticky darkness and silence. It took her a full hour of driving on the empty driveway to reach the entrance of the hospital.
The gatekeeper received the visitor who came in the early morning with some surprise. After asking the doctor on duty, he let her in.
What she didn't expect was that as soon as she walked into the gate of the institute, she saw a white figure standing in the empty hall. It was still early, and the entire institute seemed to have not yet woken up. Only that person was like a lonely but awake night owl, ready to go.
When I got closer, I saw a gentle man wearing glasses, about thirty years old, with a thin build and a pale face. When he saw Liu Mengwei walking in, his eyes gradually glowed, and he followed her figure non-stop.
Liu Mengwei was already a little upset. When she saw such a strange person, she didn't care to maintain a polite smile and stared straight back.
But the man showed a nice smile, walked up and said, "Are you Teacher Liu Mengwei from the School of Psychology, Medical University?"
Liu Mengwei saw the nameplate hanging on his chest, which read "Attending Physician Qiu Yuchuan."
He stretched out his hand to avoid hitting the smiling man. When he saw him taking the initiative to show his kindness, Liu Mengwei was embarrassed to put on a face anymore and tried to force out a smile: "It's me. I'm sorry to bother you so early. Are you the doctor on duty today?"
"Yes." Qiu Yuchuan seemed to be in a good mood.
In stark contrast, Liu Mengwei was exhausted, but could not sleep. She was not willing to be polite to this person at this time, so she went straight to the point: "I came to see Lin Xuerou. She is the little girl who was just admitted to the hospital yesterday afternoon. I recommended her to come here.”
"So that's it." Qiu Yuchuan showed an expression of sudden realization: "That's a coincidence. Lin Xuerou is the patient I am responsible for."
Liu Mengwei was also a little surprised: "Can you please Dr. Qiu and tell me about her condition in detail?"
The two walked through a dim corridor and came to a small office. In addition to the vertical cabinets filled with information and books, there is also a row of numerous but neat folders on the table, and a white coat hangs in the corner. It looks like a typical doctor's office.
Qiu Yuchuan took out a cup from the glass cabinet and asked, "What would Teacher Liu want to drink?"
Liu Mengwei felt that Dr. Qiu was a little too enthusiastic, as if they were old friends he hadn't seen for a long time, and subconsciously wanted to refuse. However, she still held back, because she really wanted to drink something now, so she said, "Is there any coffee?" A doctor, a profession that requires high energy, usually has this kind of drink on hand.
"But you seem to be in a bad mental state. It's best not to drink anything that stimulates your nerves." Although he said this, the movements in his hands did not stop. Liu Mengwei could not see his movements, and a unique smell was already exuding in the room. Burnt and bitter aroma.
"Only the instant ones." Qiu Yuchuan showed his white teeth, but in Liu Mengwei's eyes, he looked like a great white shark baring its teeth.
"Just now, his back was turned to me. Could he have planted something inside?" Her thoughts were wandering randomly.
"Tell me about Lin Xuerou." Now, she had to shift her attention. She could feel that something was not right about her state.
Qiu Yuchuan picked out one of the folders and held it in his hand, and said, "Originally, I shouldn't have told you about Lin Xuerou's condition because you are not her legal guardian..." He paused and then handed over the file. Passed it to Liu Mengwei: "But I want to discuss this special case with professionals. It should also be helpful to the patient's follow-up treatment."
The document records the various examination data that Lin Xuerou received when she was admitted to hospital.
"We have monitored her brain waves for a long time. Most of the time, the waveform is abnormally flat and the frequency is very low. It is between what we call Theta wave and Delta wave. The frequency of these two waves is between 1-8Hz. Generally, Only during sleep or in infancy, most of the brain waves in the human brain will be at this frequency. But our patient is obviously not. Since she was sent by you, can you tell me what happened to her? "
Liu Mengwei flipped through the documents in his hand, frowning and saying nothing. After a long time, he raised his head and said, "This is exactly what I want to know. Why does Dr. Qiu think she is like this?"
Qiu Yuchuan mused: "This is the first time I have encountered such a patient. The patients I received before often had some kind of lesions or abnormal discharges in the brain, which caused physical or behavioral abnormalities. But the CT showed that her body All organs are healthy, but too quiet, both in behavior and in the brain."
"Take me to see her." Liu Mengwei stood up.
They came to the patient area. Qiu Yuchuan entered a password on the fingerprint lock and led Liu Mengwei into another area. Looking from the corridor, there are a row of rooms on both sides. The doors are numbered, from number one to number eighteen. These rooms are no different from ordinary wards. The space is not large, but they seem to be in good condition. Each person has his own independent room, the windows are bright and clean, and the facilities are complete.
"The patients we have here are not the kind of dangerous mental patients, so the supervision is not strict." Qiu Yuchuan said: "Some of them have damaged brain function, some have undergone some kind of brain surgery, and some have suffered from severe mental illness. There is some kind of genetic disease. We believe that we can understand the function and role of the brain and nerves through tests and experiments on these patients, and further explore the mystery of consciousness and cognition."
Liu Mengwei was a little surprised by Qiu Yuchuan's honesty.
Qiu Yuchuan answered her with a smile: "I feel very close to Miss Liu. I heard that Miss Liu once studied cognitive neuropsychology in California. I have an intuition that you can bring me a lot of help."
Liu Mengwei couldn't deny it, and they came to Lin Xuerou's ward. He opened the shading cloth covering the glass and looked in. The room was dark, but he could barely see clearly that there was no one inside.
Liu Mengwei's expression changed and he looked at Qiu Yuchuan questioningly. Qiu Yuchuan also didn't expect that Lin Xuerou was not in his room, so he hurried to the nurse's station. There was only a little girl dozing off at the nurse's station. Qiu Yuchuan's voice was not loud, but his majesty frightened her into waking up instantly.
"Where's the patient in room seventeen?"
"Ten...No. 17..." she stammered, as if she was still wondering who No. 17 was: "Is she the little girl who just came...isn't she in her room?"
Facing Qiu Yuchuan's sword-like eyes, the little nurse stammered: "No one came in or out at night. She must still be here. Could she be in another room..."
As he said that, the little nurse also stood up and wanted to go find it with them.
Although these patients are not locked in their rooms like prisoners, the door to the front and rear passages in this area is closed at ten o'clock every night, and people without authority cannot pass through.
There is a patient with locked-in syndrome in Ward 14. Patients with locked-in syndrome have lesions at the base of the pons, resulting in complete paralysis of all four limbs, expressionless faces, and inability to speak. They look just like a comatose vegetative state. But in fact, people with this disease are not motionless, their eyes can still move up and down, and more importantly, they still have a clear sense of autonomy and can perceive everything around them, but they can't speak or move, just like The soul is shackled and trapped in the body.
Lin Xuerou sat next to this silent body.
The two of them pushed the door open carefully, trying their best not to make any noise for fear of disturbing the two people. They stood there blankly for a while, not seeing any reaction from Lin Xuerou, not to mention the person lying on the bed.
"What...are you doing?" Liu Mengwei finally couldn't help but asked.
"He is dreaming." After a long time, Lin Xuerou softly spat out these words.
"how do you know?"
"I saw it."
"What?" Qiu Yuchuan's eyes widened in surprise: "What did you see?"
"……Can not remember."
Qiu Yuchuan sighed and said: "We have discovered before that she seems to be unable to save memories. The things she said to her and the things she showed her were forgotten within half an hour. Only the hippocampus retains some functions and can be stored for a long time. The brain area of memory seems to be blank. She is like a computer that restarts every half hour, and after restarting, the memory will be cleared."
"However, this seems to be a new and interesting discovery today." Qiu Yuchuan quickly cheered up.
This time it was Liu Mengwei's turn to be surprised: "Do you really believe she can see other people's dreams?"
Qiu Yuchuan did not answer her question, but asked: "Does Miss Liu believe in coincidences?".
coincide? Liu Mengwei subconsciously wanted to say she didn't believe it, but she suddenly felt a thought, and the breeze stirred up ripples deep in her heart - why did she visit a research institute in the wilderness in the early morning, and why did Alice choose to make a call at this time today? Not yesterday, not tomorrow, where is the butterfly flapping its wings?
"Before, I would have believed in coincidence. But at this moment, I believe that it is my destiny to meet Miss Liu." Qiu Yuchuan's eyes hidden behind his lenses sparkled.
