Chapter 294: Exchanging Reality and Dreams
In the office, Tang Guangbo was organizing the medical records on his desk. When he saw Xu Huo enter, he smiled and told him to help himself to water.
Xu Huo poured two glasses of water and placed one in front of him.
Tang Guangbo took out his medical record. "Are you in a better mood today?"
Xu Huo neither confirmed nor denied, turning his head to look at the sunlight outside the window.
Tang Guangbo didn't mind. "Let's chat for a while first. After you take your noon medication, you can go downstairs for a walk, but you can't go near the wall."
"Do you remember what happened yesterday?" Tang Guangbo picked up his pen, ready to take notes. "In your last dream, you mentioned your elder brother and the government. The process was very unpleasant."
Xu Huo looked at him. "Dream? Am I not sick?"
Tang Guangbo smiled in surprise. "Isn't this our agreement? You clearly know that you are sick, and you understand how to control yourself better than other patients, but you don't like calling it a fantasy. Therefore, during treatment, we replaced that term with 'dream.'"
"The term 'dream' was my suggestion, because I think you are very lucid. Everything in the fantasy is like another brand new life—though it's exciting, in the end, you have to return to reality."
Xu Huo rotated the water glass in his fingers. "How long have I been here?"
"The most recent hospitalization period is four months," Tang Guangbo said. "Over the years, you've come in and out a few times, but this treatment is the longest."
"Was I like this before too?" Xu Huo asked. "Talking about players and games since I was a child?"
"How could that be possible." Tang Guangbo took another file from the drawer and handed it to him. "The Dimension Rift game has only been popular for half a year, but recently it's been largely banned."
"I don't remember ever playing this game," Xu Huo said.
"That's also a normal phenomenon. Don't be anxious," Tang Guangbo said. "The human brain is like a huge storage container. Under normal circumstances, the closer the memory is in time, the clearer and more detailed it is. However, everyone's situation is different. The brain will autonomously filter out memories it deems unimportant."
"You can try to perform a memory recall."
"The first time I came to the Seventeenth Hospital, a doctor taught me how to gamble," Xu Huo said.
Tang Guangbo nodded. "This event left a very deep impression on you. Every time you perform a memory recall, you supplement some details."
He then gestured for him to continue.
"Later, I became addicted to gambling. I gambled using every possible method—betting money, street racing. When things got big, I even dared to stake my life." Xu Huo seemed lost in recollection.
"For over a decade, my parents and elder brother kept cleaning up after me. It wasn't until my brother was killed that I quit gambling."
"But I had offended many people in my arrogance and ignorance. When I wanted to get out, others wouldn't let me. The last gamble was when I first arrived in Ting City—I lost everything I could lose."
"Then I entered the game. I had just come out of an instance with Yan Jiayu, and in the blink of an eye, I ended up here."
"Yan Jiayu..." Tang Guangbo wrote down the name. "This is the first time you've mentioned her."
"Haven't I mentioned her before?" Xu Huo said. "I met her when I first entered the game."
"As I said just now, you've been perfecting this dream," Tang Guangbo said. "In fact, you are someone who naturally seeks excitement, but your family education allows you to clearly distinguish right from wrong. That's why every time you tell the dream, it ends in tragedy."
"For example, in your first treatment within the dream, because you were too young to accept yourself, a doctor who taught you gambling techniques appeared. As you supplemented last time, he had been using drugs to control you."
"Your intelligence is very high. Many of the gambling games were completed online. During that time, some people came to cause you trouble, but it didn't lead to too serious consequences. You also frequently came to the hospital during that period. You realized you were at risk of losing control, which is why there was the turning point of quitting gambling because of your brother's death."
"Including later when you went to Ting City and lost a bet, forcing you to work as a crowd actor for ten years—this is all a manifestation of your inner desire to use ordinariness and calmness to suppress your craving for excitement."
As he spoke, he adjusted his glasses. "After that, you were indeed fine for a while, but then you started getting addicted to the game again."
"Actually, it's not too serious. A person can't keep suppressing themselves, or sooner or later something big will happen. Using 'another life' to vent these emotions is a good thing for you."
Xu Huo stared at him. This Tang Guangbo had repeated the same actions three times in a row—adjusting his glasses, drinking water, smoothing the corners of the medical record.
"What kind of person am I in your dream?" he asked.
Tang Guangbo chuckled lightly. "Probably a player with vast knowledge but deep cunning. Not just me, many people in the hospital have made cameo appearances in your story. Besides Director Lin, me and the other medical staff, and the patients here."
"Sorry," Xu Huo apologized.
"No need for that. I'm actually quite happy about it," Tang Guangbo said with a smile. "At least in your story, I'm a very knowledgeable person."
Xu Huo also smiled.
"But staying immersed in the dream forever isn't good either," Tang Guangbo said, his smile fading as he turned serious. "Human memories are divided into those that are locked and those that aren't. Unlocked memories can be easily recalled, but locked ones require a bit of skill."
"You can think of the brain as a door with locks. Those true memories you've forgotten are the ones that have been locked. Some have one lock, some have many locks. Every time you perform a memory recall, you can open these locks once. The more times you open them, the less secure the locks become. When you wake up from the dream and can clearly realize that your memories have locks, opening them again won't be difficult."
Xu Huo looked at him. "Doctor Tang, you're really impressive."
Even though they had only met a few times back then, he had still been more or less influenced by him.
The Tang Guangbo in front of him, however, elegantly finished his notes and called for Yu Qingqing to take him out for a walk.
"Are you two done?" Yu Qingqing pushed the door open with a hint of impatience, grabbed Xu Huo, and pulled him outside.
Xu Huo could tell she wanted to talk, but she held it in until they reached the ground floor before speaking. "You've already told Doctor Tang, right? Tell me again. Last time, didn't I become a player? What happened after that?"
Xu Huo shook his head. "You're not in this one."
Yu Qingqing was slightly disappointed, but she quickly perked up. "It's okay. Hurry up and tell me."
Xu Huo mentioned Yan Jiayu again, but Yu Qingqing looked confused. "There's no one by that name in the hospital. Where did you see that name?"
"Are all the people in my story from the hospital?" Xu Huo asked.
"Not necessarily," Yu Qingqing said. "The more important characters are the ones you see often. Like me—in your dream, I'm your cousin. Dai Wenqian, who doesn't like you, is the villain. Zhou Ning, who is good to you, is a companion."
"Dai Wenqian isn't a villain," Xu Huo said.
Yu Qingqing waved her hand. "Anyway, I think it's pretty much the same."
Just then, a commotion came from upstairs.