Love in a Mental Hospital

"It's best not to practice it if you have it," Mrs. Wang interjected.

Gu Ran then asked Zhao Wenjie, "If you practice this Inner Strength, you must abstain from women for life. What about your wife?"

"I've talked to her," Zhao Wenjie said evenly. "If she finds someone she likes, I can divorce her, but she mustn't hide it from me; there's no need for that."

"Then did your wife divorce you?"

"No, she's a good woman, but I'm destined to dedicate my life to Inner Strength, I can't let this branch of knowledge die in my hands."

Mrs. Wang added, "Once committed to the country, it's hard to commit to a lover."

When Gu Ran arrived, he had caught her sneakily reading a romance novel at the front desk.

"I don't deserve that phrase," Zhao Wenjie shook his head, then asked Gu Ran, "Could you do it?"

Suddenly, Mrs. Wang began to wipe her tears.

"What's wrong with you?" Gu Ran was puzzled.

Zhao Wenjie looked at Mrs. Wang with the kind of care one gives to a psychiatric patient.

"It reminds me of 'Shaolin Temple' by Li Lianjie, when Jueyuan was being tonsured and took his vows, the monk asked him, 'You must abstain from carnal desires from now on, can you do it?' Bai Wuxia was crying in the distance."

Zhao Wenjie sighed, "That's life."

Gu Ran said, "The exact words were 'To exhaust the body's life, to refrain from lustful desires, can you maintain it?' and Jueyuan replied 'I can.'"

Having said that, he said to Zhao Wenjie, "I don't have a girlfriend. I can abstain from sex, are there any other conditions?"

"Only these two, though few—getting up earlier than work hours and avoiding intimacy with women. Yet any one of these conditions is hard for a man to fulfill."

"Let's give it a try," Gu Ran replied, leaving his sentence incomplete.

He wasn't really going to learn Inner Strength anyway.

Zhao Wenjie nodded. "I'll teach you next Monday."

After asking personal questions, Gu Ran asked some routine ones like 'Do you hear any sounds when alone?', 'Does your food taste strange?', 'Do you feel like bugs are crawling on you?', 'Do things seem to become bigger and smaller?', 'Does your face constantly change?', 'Does time sometimes pass quickly or slowly?'

Zhao Wenjie was cooperative, not the kind of person who, when asked 'Gender?' would retort 'Can't you tell?'

Gu Ran wrote down "No delusions or hallucinations detected, no clear thought or associative disturbances" in the medical record, which would later be uploaded by a nurse to the electronic medical record.

Standing at the front desk, Gu Ran lingered, muttering to himself, "Wake up early... abstain from sex..."

"Mr. Gu, you're not seriously considering celibacy, are you?" Wang Jiajia was worried.

Gu Ran snapped back to reality, couldn't help but smile and said, "I don't have a girlfriend, so even if I don't want to, I have to abstain."

Wang Jiajia suddenly got excited, "Then, doctor... do you take care of yourself?"

As mentioned before, Gu Ran had encountered female hooligans at every age, and even in the hospital, he couldn't escape this fate.

"I still have things to do. If Zhao Wenjie has any issues, contact me immediately," Gu Ran quickly made his escape.

Without any patients, Gu Ran, Chen Ke, including Su Qing who had been transferred from the first to the second group, had nothing to do but peruse medical records to pass the time.

He thought about sitting in with the first group, who were preparing for surgery on Wang Ruihan, a middle schooler in the ward. However, the family arrived and requested privacy, so there was no choice but to continue with the medical records.

As closing time approached, Chen Ke was the first person in the dressing room to take off her white coat.

Sitting back down, she was visibly discouraged, "Another day is over, nothing like the professional life I imagined. Su Qing, when will we get our own patients?"

The six patients in the housing area weren't really theirs; they were just allowed to practice on them because the first group lacked the time.

Su Qing said, "Jinghai is expensive, and sometimes my mom even turns patients away, we've always had very few."

The psychiatric hospital had many patients, and it also had various departments like rehabilitation, psychosomatics, intensive care, and social work, with separate wards for men and women.

Jinghai only had a ward and a housing area—actually a sanatorium—with patients staying in single rooms, and if there were windows, they were definitely sea-view rooms.

Su Qing smiled and said, "But this time she probably won't be picky, you are the newbies and can't be kept waiting too long, you both must quickly find your [Profession Card] and master it."

"I'll do my best!" Chen Ke clenched her fists with resolve.

Then Su Qing went to change her clothes. Just as she stepped out, knock, knock, knock, the office door was knocked three times, and Zhuang Jing walked in.

She glanced around, "It's not off-duty time yet, and you've already changed your clothes?"

Only Gu Ran hadn't yet.

He hadn't had the chance.

But that didn't matter.

Chen Ke had already stood up, ready to admit her mistake.

"I'll make the decision, next week Gu Ran gets an extra point, no objections, right?" Zhuang Jing declared.

What could Su Qing and Chen Ke say?

"Zhuang Jing," Su Qing's tone was somewhat perfunctory because of Gu Ran's extra point, "What brings you to our office?"

"We have a dinner at 'Jiansen', I've reserved us seats, you'll drive Ran and Ke there," Zhuang Jing instructed.

"Got it."

After Zhuang Jing left, Gu Ran burst into laughter, as Su Qing gnashed her teeth at him.

"Go change your clothes!" she said irritably.

Tonight, Gu Ran was exceptionally happy.

He found his [Profession Card], learned "Iceberg Therapy," avoided treating everyone to dinner, and even scored an extra point for next week.

He closed the medical record, headed to the changing room, so elated that he started to whistle cheerfully. The tune he whistled was: "By the pond, on the banyan tree! The cicadas call out to summer!"

Chen Ke, who had no previous qualms about him, now found him irritating too.

One thing both Su Qing and Chen Ke noticed was that Gu Ran whistled very well, displaying an exceptional talent.

Right at five thirty, when he finished changing, it was time to leave—they had timed their changing with this in mind, and Zhuang Jing had timed her visit as well.

Gu Ran closed the windows, Chen Ke tidied up the trash, Su Qing turned off the air conditioning and the lights.