CH 46

The next day, after a whole week of snowstorm, it finally cleared up in N City.

Zhang Man got up early and went online to make an appointment with the psychiatrist she had last consulted.

Since Li Wei has known his delusions, it is good to receive a little psychotherapy at this stage, even without medication.

Additionally, she was still worried that he was traumatized by something she didn’t know about.

After Zhang Man made an appointment, it was a little difficult for her to speak to him about it—fearing that he would become resistant.

After all, no one wants to admit that they have a mental illness.

So she gritted her teeth and said, “Li Wei, will you go to the hospital with me today? I have contacted a doctor who is an expert in this field, very powerful.”

The youth listened and sank slightly.

He thought for a while, as if doing a full mental struggle, before he smiled helplessly: “Alright, then you go with me, okay?”

Zhang Man saw his smile, her heart was relieved.

Finally smiling… It looks like he’s getting better after all.

No matter what, as long as he is willing to overcome this, she can stay with him through the difficult times.

But she was still a little uneasy, as this was too big a blow for him, and she had to be careful everywhere.

Zhang Man shook her head and said to herself, “No matter what, let’s go to the hospital first.”

The two of them went to the last hospital with their documents and appointment slips.

In front of the hospital, many doctors and nurses who were not on duty worked together to clear the road of snow and thick ice—they had to make sure that the ambulance route was clear at all times.

Zhang Man lightly took Li Wei to the office where she had been last time.

The doctor should have known her, and to avoid revealing herself, she did not accompany him inside, but sat at the door and waited for him.

About an hour or so later, the youth walked out with a calm face.

Zhang Man greeted him anxiously, “How is it? What did the doctor say?”

The youth raised his hand to pinch her face, his face unchanged: “Well, she said it was okay.”

She knew it was useless to ask him. After talking for an hour, the only sentence he recalled was “he’s okay…?”

Zhang Man stuffed the next few checklist items into his hand: “You sit at the door and wait for me obediently, I’ll ask myself.”

She knocked on the door of the doctor’s office.

“Please come in.”

Zhang Man pushed the door in, the female doctor was not surprised to see it was her, smiled and nodded at her.

“I heard the boy just describe the symptoms and guessed it was probably what you said last time, that friend of yours.”

“Doctor, then …… My friend, how is his state? He just found out yesterday that he was delusional, he had a serious breakdown yesterday, but today he seems to be much calmer.”

The doctor took out a few large sheets full of diagnostic notes that she had just taken during her conversation with Li Wei.

“First of all, your friend’s symptoms are, indeed, due to delusions present in schizophrenia, and to a very serious degree at that. Secondly, his thinking was clear and logical and agile, and there was no dementia or impaired social functioning.”

Zhang Man listened and asked emphatically, “Then by your judgment, did he appear depressed?”

In the previous life, Li Wei broke out in extremely severe depression after this.

The doctor thought for a moment and shook her head.

“After this hour-long conversation, he didn’t show any depressive state.”

She nodded approvingly: “His mental state is very much more optimistic than I had imagined, almost unlike a mental patient. Perhaps it also has something to do with the care of you, his friends. He himself admits that although he had a breakdown at first, he has now accepted his mental condition and is willing to actively cooperate with treatment. Such a situation, we are happy to see of course but his mood might be unstable, irritable or capricious at times so we hope you can be more understanding and tolerant.”

Zhang Man was relieved to hear that, and her tense mood relaxed a lot.

Li Wei’s depression in his previous life is anyone’s guess. He was alone with it all at that time, and may even have been delirious for a long time, not knowing what is real and what is not in this world.

While in this life, because she had been with him, she had told him in the simplest way that he was just ill.

The symptoms he showed and the mental damage he suffered afterwards must have been very much less than in his previous life, and perhaps he now can actually bear it.

Zhang Man is suddenly incredibly glad that she went back to him last night.

After several other tests were done, the two walked out of the hospital.

—

After a stressful morning, Zhang Man felt a little hungry.

“Li Wei, are you hungry? Let’s go eat lunch first.”

She turned around and found the youth standing at the traffic light at the intersection, looking at her in a bit of a trance.

His deep black eyes seemed to contain too many emotions.

“What’s wrong?”

Zhang Man touched his face.

Such a look on the youth’s face flashed, then he smiled warmly and came over and held her hand: “It’s okay, let’s go.”

Zhang Man remembered what the doctor had just said, that he might still be emotionally unstable during this time.

She squeezed his hand, “Mm-hmm.”

It just so happens that there is a small crowded noodle shop in the street opposite the hospital. This noodle shop does not even have a name, and the store is very small, with a large shed built in front of it and has 7 or 8 small tables set up. With simple folding tables and plastic chairs, neither is considered clean.

It was noon, and the store was packed with people inside and outside the store, almost full.

A typical old fly restaurant.

These kinds of small restaurants hidden at the end of the street with many customers usually taste good.

Zhang Man was just about to sit down, but suddenly heard the youth say—

“Man Man, let’s go to a nicer place for lunch today, okay?”

Zhang Man decided to listen to him on everything today, so she took his hand and said with a smile, “Sure.”

At the end of the nineteenth century, the Germans leased a large area to build a railroad and a port, so there are numerous German and Italian restaurants that opened in that time in the area of the European-style street in the N City.

The youth led her into a historic German restaurant located in Fengqing Street.

The Gothic style of architecture in this area is also very European— straight walls, towering spires, and large stained glass windows are among its features.

The restaurant is located in the most central and busiest part of the area.

The receptionist at the door was very cultivated and did not show the slightest bit of slackness because of the young age of the two.

The two then were directed to a window seat.

The youth walked to her side first, and pulled the chair for her in a very gentlemanly way, which Zhang Man was slightly uncomfortable with.

With a very old-fashioned and elegant decoration, the restaurant’s large floor-to-ceiling windows allow the midday sun to shine in unreservedly, hitting the whole piece of colorful glazing on the wall that reflects rainbow-like light.

And although it was lunchtime, there weren’t many tables in the restaurant–apparently most people in N City are more accustomed to the casual richness of Chinese flavors than the expensive and polite Western restaurants.

The two didn’t get a menu, but simply asked for today’s chef’s recommendation.

The main course is a traditional German sausage and Schwenkbraten (grilled pork chops), slightly heavier in flavor and not as delicate as French dishes, but actually more to Zhang Man’s taste.

The salad after the meal tasted refreshing and nicely neutralized the spicy and oily taste of the previous meat sausage and pork chops.

Even though the price of this meal was nineteen years prior to what she is used to, it was still too expensive for Zhang Man when she saw it.

After the two of them finished eating, Li Wei proposed to go for a walk on the beach again.

She couldn’t pinpoint it but Zhang Man’s heart had a slightly strange feeling.

The “him” today, seems to mention a lot of proposals. Usually he is very indifferent to these aspects of life’s details, so basically when the two are outside, he listens to Zhang Man.

But during the meal just now, she always felt as if he was always looking at her, but every time she looked up, she would find him with his eyes downcast, concentrating on his meal instead.

She shook her head and made herself ignore the strange feeling in her heart.

Maybe the doctor was right and he was just a little emotionally unstable.

At the exit of Fengqing Street, there is the sea.

Unlike the sea next to Li Wei’s house, there is pure golden sand along the coast here.

The beach here is full of jagged reefs.

The winter sun was not as scorching as the summer, and the two strolled through the reef complex, with large pebbles underfoot.

Zhang Man walked a little unstable, but the youth held her hand at all times.

After about seven or eight minutes of walking, there was a pile of reefs towering over the beach at the corner of the shoreline.

The two climbed to one of them along the zigzagging stone crevices honed by the seawater in the middle.

At the top is a flat stone platform.

The youth jumped up with one hand on the stone surface, agilely flipped up and turned back to her and extended his hand.

“Man Man, I’ll pull you up.”

Zhang Man nodded. She pressed her foot on a projecting rock on the reef and was pulled by him soon after and sat beside him.

As soon as she sat down, Zhang Man let out a gasp.

“It’s so beautiful…”

It is very high, with a very good view of a straight coastline at the junction of sea and sky.

In the distance, some large and small fishing boats drive by, in addition to the annual fishing moratorium, even in winter, the fishing people who depend on the sea for a living never stop fishing at sea.

Underneath the reef they were sitting on was the roaring sea, with waves rolling up and lapping at the rocky surface.

There is really a feeling of… being embraced by the sea.

“Li Wei, this place is so beautiful, have you been here before?”

—

This place is really too beautiful.

Such a beach is suitable for saying goodbye.

The youth wrapped his arms around her and looked in the direction of the sea: “When I was alone and bored at home before, I would occasionally come here to see the sea. Actually, now that I think about it, it’s not bad when you’re alone.”

Zhang Man did not hear the meaning of his words, so she wholeheartedly expressed: “The world always exudes its beauty quietly in some unknown corners. Li Wei, when you get better, let’s go on a trip together, shall we? We can go to Sanya for the winter, where the winter is warm as usual and far less difficult than N City. In spring, we can go to Jiangnan to experience the plum rain season and the sea of flowers. And in autumn……”

She rambled on, getting more and more excited as she went on.

Even if he is ill, he will always be cured one day as long as he can actively cooperate with the treatment. She wants to be with him all the time, to go with him to all the beautiful, romantic corners of the world, so that he has someone to be with and feel happy every moment of the day.

She spoke seriously, but did not notice that the youth beside her looked so intently and greedily at the side of her face.

His eyes had a sorrow wider than the sea.

He would also love to have a future with her, a future where the two of them will always be together.

The youth didn’t let her say any more as he lowered his head firmly over hers and kissed his angel one last time on the towering reefs of the roaring sea.