It's a celestial master, not a Taoist priest

The walls are made of earth, but they are very hard. It seems that many people dig and accumulate such a space every day.

Shen Shu walked in, invited Yin Cong and said, "Please come in."

Yin Congyi walked in and said, "Why are you here?"

"Because this is the safest place."

After sitting down, Shen Shu carefully sealed the entrance, then groped the wall, found a switch, and opened it.

When the light came on, Yin Cong narrowed his eyes slightly uncomfortably.

A solitary light bulb exudes a dim yellow light.And Shen Shu stared at the light non-stop, with a somewhat obsessed expression.

He looked at the light for a long time, then sat down and said to Yin Cong:

"Let me tell you a story. Only here is safe."

Yin Cong nodded and said, "I'm listening."

"I was sent here a year ago. I sent myself here, but it was not my intention. They forced me..."

Yin Cong asked: "Why are you forced?"

Shen Shu shrugged, "Because I'm different from them. I couldn't bear it, and no one approached me. They avoided me, as if they thought I was the plague."

"But after coming here, not long after, I discovered something."

He didn't explain in detail how he came here, and Yin Cong didn't go into it, but just listened to him quietly.

"It is here that I can meet a good friend. The first person I met was Li Ke. He had a good personality, was enthusiastic and talkative, and his thinking was a bit unconstrained. I liked to associate with him very much. He is the most daring one here, and he is not afraid of the attending doctor. Teacher, don’t be afraid of psychological counselors.”

"But suddenly one day, he secretly called me over and gave me a book. Inside the book was a page with a few words written on it:

Do not go out at night.

Can't turn on lights.

Don't look in the mirror.

Don't get caught..."

"I didn't understand what he meant by these words at first, until one day, I realized something was wrong."

"I found that most of the people in this hospital began to become abnormal—no, it should be said that they began to become normal."

"One by one, it's all like this. When half of the patients started to change like this, one night after the rounds were over, Li Ke came to me in a panic. He came into my room and told me not to turn on the light. .”

"He looked terrified and hid in my bed, shivering."

"Then he whispered to me what he had found."

"Don't turn on the light. After the light, there will be shadows, and the shadows will take away your other personality. ——It's terrible...I won't let anyone dominate me."

"I didn't understand until he pulled me to the window, quietly opened a corner of the curtain, and looked outside. In a dormitory building in front, there was a light on in the middle of the night to go to the toilet, and I saw a black tentacle under the light quickly. Climbing past, covering all the lights, the patient seemed to be reborn all of a sudden——I can’t quite describe this feeling, as if he was redeemed and cured in an instant, his movements and walking became normal, and his expression changed. Gentle and polite, just like normal people outside."

"Normal people outside?"

Shen Shu looked at Yin Cong, "Yes, corresponding to the normal outside, of course the abnormal in the mental hospital."

"how about you?"

Shen Shu was stunned for a moment, and then said, "I don't know either."

He paused, then continued: "The next day I approached the person I saw last night while eating breakfast. When he went to get food, he smiled and said thank you to the cafeteria workers. He didn't lose control of his previous emotions. There are no exaggerated actions, just a polite and gentle person that normal people like."

"I don't know what happened to him. I talked to him in the past. He is not like being possessed by something. He is himself, but I clearly feel that it is not real, but is hidden..."

"At night, Li Ke came to ask me again. 'Do you think they are still yourself? Could something have eaten their souls?'"

"These doctors should be the first to notice such a change, except for the patients who are with them. But as all the patients become normal one by one, the doctors seem to know nothing, They still do what they should do every day. I tried to talk to a certain doctor, and the doctor looked over with a smile and asked me gently, and I didn’t know what to say again.”

"Li Ke told me that one day, we will become like that."

"I asked him, why did he say that? What did the words on the piece of paper you gave me before mean?"

"Li Ke suddenly smiled, that smile was very strange, half of his face was twisted, and there was only one familiar feeling that I could find."

"He said, 'Don't look at yourself and don't know yourself. Because you're not one, there's a bigger you beneath the surface'."

"That was the first time I realized that I was so out of place in this mental institution. I thought I was normal, but because it was denied by those around me outside, I came here, but here It's out of place again. What's normal? What's sick? I don't know."

Yin Cong asked: "Normal person?"

Shen Shu shrugged. "When I was outside, my personality might not be very pleasing. I lived by myself since I was a child, and I liked my own field. I was not very keen on interpersonal communication, and people seemed withdrawn. I often didn't know how to express my emotions. I know how to accept other people's kindness, but I don't know how to interact with and be intimate with them. I know that all my reactions may be nondescript and weird to others. The way they look at me tells me that I am a different kind. I don't know The answer they told me was right or wrong, but I wanted to find the same kind."

There is no logic in Shen Shu's words, as if he talked to Yin Cong wherever he thought of.Yin Cong can only understand some things by carefully sorting out the content of his words.

But Yin Cong didn't think that being different from others was a kind of illness.

"Do you know?" Shen Shu turned to look at him, "I only learned it after I came here. It is written in the textbooks of doctors that there are many kinds of diseases. Physical, psychological, social Not being able to communicate with people normally, not being able to participate in social activities normally is a kind of disability and disease. I just find it ridiculous. According to this, how many patients are there in the world? How to determine This definition? Why can’t I be myself, but must be related to others? Whether my illness is defined by others? In fact, I can’t understand those people outside. Some of them are bright, some are embarrassing, but It is a deliberate and false face to the outside world. It is necessary to flatter the boss, to respect the nobles, to complain wantonly when facing relatives, and to be contemptuous and disdainful to the weak. So many faces, false There are so many, why are these normal?"