CH 18

Prejudice and Preference

Ou Tingyun stepped into the cafe and stood behind Yi Zhize, resting his hand on the back of his chair, leaning down slightly and saying against his ear, "I've only been gone for a short while and you've already met someone else for coffee, huh?"

His breath tickled the back of his ear and Yi Zhize said, "It was a chance meeting."

"Oh, that's quite a coincidence." Ou Tingyun looked at Mu Xin and displayed just the right polite smile, "I'm sorry to interrupt you, but Mr. Yi is really a bit busy today and we're going back to A City together. Right, Zhize?"

Yi Zhize nodded.

Ou Tingyun helped him stuff his computer into his bag, "Let's go."

Mu Xin watched them in silence, only saying softly, "See you soon, Mr. Yi."

Ou Tingyun carried the computer bag in one hand and held Yi Zhize's wrist in the other, pulling him into the elevator and pressing the basement button: "What soon, Zhize, do you know him well?"

"Let go."

"What?"

"The wrist."

"Did I hurt you?"

"No."

Ou Tingyun frowned and took a closer look at Yi Zhize's right wrist, which was indeed flushed with a few pale red fingerprints, "Shall I blow on it for you?"

"No need." Yi Zhize pulled his wrist back from his grasp, "It's fine."

Ou Tingyun reflected on himself for a while, he didn't think he had used much force, did he?

Perhaps Yi Zhize's skin was more sensitive and more prone to marks?

The elevator beeped and reached the underground car park in the basement. Yi Zhize took the computer bag from Ou Tingyun: "I'll take it."

Ou Tingyun asked, "Zhize, what was the name of that man just now?"

"Mu Xin."

When he got into the car and fastened his seat belt, Ou Tingyun said, "From a professional point of view, he may have some psychological problems."

Yi Zhize laughed lightly, "Dr. Ou, is everyone sick in your eyes?"

"Mental health is a dynamic concept, no one is absolutely healthy."

"What about yourself?"

The vehicle pulled into the exit of the basement, where the light and darkness were intertwined like a chaos of black and white.

"Do you want to hear the truth or the lie?"

"Why would I want to hear a lie?"

"Most people love falsehoods."

"That's your prejudice," Yi Zhize said, "falsehoods don't last."

"Zhize, you are so simple, human nature is much darker than you think."

"How others are is none of my business."

"Okay, then I'll tell you frankly." Ou Tingyun's voice was low, even a little pleasant: "I am perhaps even more ill than you are."

Yi Zhize laughed in a low voice and raised his eyes to look at him, "Director Ou, I'll take the liberty to remind you that you are the psychiatrist and I am your patient."

"That's true when it comes to treating you." The vehicle pulled out of the underground garage and seemed to welcome the light through the darkness. Ou Tingyun said, "But not now."

"And now, what is it?"

"What do you think?"

"What do I think?"

"The relationship between us."

Yi Zhize spoke with a straight face, "Between us... it's a business partnership, I'm a lawyer and you're my client."

"Zhize, are you deliberately angry with me?"

Yi Zhize feigned innocence and looked at him, "How could I be? Am I right? Dr. Ou?"

"Yes, very right, too right." Ou Tingyun asked him, "Do you have plans for tonight? Let's do another hypnosis session."

"Okay."

"At your house or mine?"

The words were spoken so matter-of-factly, as if the two of them had already been intimate.

Yi Zhize was lost in thought for a moment, then said softly, "Either is fine."

Ou Tingyun thought for a moment, "Let's go to your place, so that after the hypnosis, you can fall asleep directly."

"Okay."

"I have one more question."

"Go ahead."

"What's for dinner?"

"What do you want to eat?"

"I'll eat whatever you make."

"Okay."

"Zhize is awesome."

"You do the dishes."

"Deal."

Arriving in A City, they went straight to Yi Zhize's residence.

After dinner, the two of them went to the study.

Yi Zhize took an envelope out of the drawer and handed it to Ou Tingyun: "This is the first letter I received."

Ou Tingyun opened the envelope and took out the photo from inside.

It was a street scene from B City.

On the back of the photo was a line of small letters: [September 29, 2002, Lijing Road]

Yi Zhize sat down on the sofa and rubbed his temples, his voice a little tired: "About that day, I don't remember much."

Ou Tingyun sat beside him, "You mentioned before that you received a total of three letters, what about the other one?"

"It's gone." Yi Zhize said indifferently, "I burnt it."

Ou Tingyun suddenly recalled the night not long ago when he saw him smoking: "Was it that day?"

"I don't know, I don't remember." Yi Zhize frowned, "Don't want to remember either."

"Okay," sensing his anxiety, Ou Tingyun soothingly said, "it's okay, then we won't talk about that. Zhize, would you like to talk to me about what you remember?"

In the silence of the night, Yi Zhize's eyes were downcast, his face hidden in the dark light.

At this moment, his face was getting paler and paler, but it made the teardrop mole at the corner of his eye even more vivid and beautiful.

A long time passed, so long that Ou Tingyun thought he would not answer the question again.

Yi Zhize's tone was calm and husky: "The images from that night always appear in my dreams. But there are only fragments, I can't see the people, and I can't remember the sequence of events. There is only one thing that is certain."

At this point, he deliberately paused and raised his eyes to look at Ou Tingyun: "My mother died on September 29, 2002, on Lijing Road. It was a car accident, in front of me."

"Was it an accident?"

"En, it was said to be due to drunk driving by the driver involved."

"And what was the motive of the person who sent you these letters? Did you have a problem with someone in B City?"

"I don't know, I don't remember." Yi Zhize frowned, "I left B City after my mother died, it was my grandfather who raised me in A City."

"What about your father?"

"Because of my mother's death, there was always a rift between my grandfather and him and we rarely contacted each other."

Ou Tingyun put the two letters together, "Zhize, could it be malicious revenge? Someone in a previous case you handled was unhappy with you and sent a letter to intimidate you, to create anxiety for you."

"Perhaps." Yi Zhize whispered, "Teacher, I'm tired."

"Okay, that's it for today, I'll hypnotise you."

"En." Yi Zhize took his jacket off and laid back against the sofa.

Ou Tingyun gently blindfolded him and whispered guidance in his ear.

Yi Zhize soon fell into a state, falling into an unconscious slumber under his guidance.

———

The following morning, the psychology department of the A City Medical University Hospital.

You Shirui had just arrived at the office when she saw Ou Tingyun, and was surprised: "Teacher Ou, isn't today Monday? I thought you were not consulting in the clinic today?"

Ou Tingyun looked up from his papers, "Shh, keep your voice down, you almost interrupted my thoughts."

"What are you looking at?" You Shirui took a closer look, "Ah, Mr. Yi's case analysis report!"

"En."

"Teacher, you are so partial! There are so many patients in our department, and those who want to register with you can queue up from A City to B City, but you are so generous to spend all your thoughts on Mr. Yi."

"It’s my pleasure." Ou Tingyun suddenly asked, "Have you analysed his situation carefully?"

"That's for sure. I'd have to analyse Mr. Yi inside and out, just because of his beauty."

"Don't be poor," said Ou Tingyun, "I suspect that his condition is related to psychogenic amnesia."

You Shirui tried to remember what she had read in her textbook, "Psychogenic amnesia, it seems to be a selective and paradoxical phenomenon of forgetting. It refers to the patient's partial, selective amnesia, or memory dissociation, of significant events due to excessive shock and overwhelming recall."

Ou Tingyun looked at the picture of Yi Zhize on the computer screen and added in a low voice, "This kind of disorder can be rehabilitated by hypnosis."