Li Yao felt goosebumps all over his back.
They looked at each other and noticed the coldness in each other’s eyes.
The narration was as creepy as a ghost story in the middle of the night. Li Yao seemed to see a picture where somebody was singing a folk song in the local dialect next to a reservoir in a remote town in the south, and a confused girl was staring at the reservoir with yellow flowers floating on the water…
Li Yao shook his head hard to calm himself down.
Of course, there were many “reasonable” and “scientific” explanations for this matter. For example, “Dream Traveler” had once gone on a business trip to this small southern town, “Chat Chuan”, or maybe he had gathered the local customs and terrain online.
But why?
Why did he scare his own sister with such a thing when he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia?
The whole thing simply didn’t make sense.
Besides, there was still the ‘Ark’.
Li Yao asked solemnly, “What’s with the Ark Foundation? You couldn’t have sent your brother to the Ark Psychotherapy Center in the first place, could you?”
“Of course not.”
The other party said, “In the beginning, we sent our brother to our local hospital. However, our hospital is a small place. The scale of the specialist hospital for mental illnesses is very small. The doctors’ level may not be very high. People simply don’t know much about mental illnesses. They only know the concept of ‘lunatics’. Our hospital only locked up these lunatics so that they wouldn’t run out and harm society and cause trouble for their family. That’s all.
“One can only imagine how terrible the treatment environment is.
“I’ve been to that place three times. It’s—it’s simply not a place for human beings. When I think of my brother suffering in that place, I feel as if my heart has been cut by a knife. I want to cry but have no tears.
“Of course, the conditions of the mental hospital in the provincial capital are better, but I’ve read a lot of files and found that they don’t have any effective treatment for mental illnesses. They can only provide conservative treatment. At most, the environment is better, and the nursing care is more standard.
“If my brother had really gone mad, I wouldn’t have been able to say anything about such an outcome. However, the conversation with Chuan gave me a deep suspicion. This suspicion was the only reason I was willing to be honest with you when I got in touch with the ‘Ark Foundation’.
“After I returned from Tanchuan, I grew suspicious of everything. I couldn’t bear to see my brother locked in a mental hospital with a harsh environment any longer, but I had no other options. Therefore, I wrote down my experience and sent a request for help.
“Oh?”
Li Yao did not expect that ‘Dream Traveler’s’ sister would post something about it, too. But when he thought about it, he realized that 99% of the amazing incidents that popped up on the Internet every day would be buried in the invalid messages and therefore could not be seen by him.
“A few days later, a woman who called herself a worker of the ‘Ark Foundation’ contacted me and asked about my brother’s condition, especially the course of his illness.
The stranger continued, “After I told them everything, they said that it might not be schizophrenia but a new, special mental disease. The ‘psychotherapy center’ under the name of their foundation has a one in ten thousand chance that the disease can be cured. Even if the disease cannot be cured, their treatment environment will be much better than that of the county hospital or the provincial hospital. They will try to make sure that the patient is in a very comfortable environment and that the care is more standard and thorough.
“Is that so?”
Li Yao thought for a moment and said, “Sounds good. It must be very expensive. Besides, such a private medical center might not be reimbursed. Can your family afford long-term treatment?”
“No, they don’t want money.”
The other party said, “The staff said that the elder brother could be placed into a ‘charity medical program’. All the hospitalization fees would be paid for by the ‘Ark Foundation’, at the cost that they might try some untested, cutting-edge medical treatment on the elder brother. It’s quite understandable. How could they cure diseases such as schizophrenia without the most advanced and dangerous medical treatment?”
“So, you agree?”
Li Yao asked.
“We—we don’t have a solution.”
The doctor sobbed again. “I know that the treatment plan provided by the Ark Foundation is very risky and even treats my brother as a mouse. But—but my brother was already in a very bad condition at that time. He tried to kill himself three times when he was hospitalized. He bit his wrist so hard that it was full of bruises because he didn’t have any tools. The last time, he even broke the veins on his wrist in the middle of the night and stuffed his hand into the blanket so that nobody would notice. Otherwise, he would’ve almost succeeded in the ward rounds!
“When he was conscious, he told me that he did not want to die, nor did he want to kill himself. Something was controlling him. His shadow was trying to kill him!
“What can our local hospital do? If we don’t want him to commit suicide, we can only inject high-intensity tranquilizers into his body 24 hours a day. Such tranquilizers can cause irreversible damage to the brain, too. What’s the difference between my brother and death in three to five years?
“Through the previous owner of my brother’s company, a psychiatrist from a major hospital in the provincial capital has also come to give my brother a consultation. Although it is not explicitly stated, it can be seen that they don’t have any particularly effective targeted treatment plans. Even if they are sent to the provincial capital, it will still be the same. Wearing clothes and tranquilizers… My brother used to be such a smart and proud person. I don’t want him to become an idiot and lunatic who will commit suicide at the drop of a hat for the rest of his life. As long as there is a glimmer of hope, I am willing to give it a try!”
“Besides, I’ve investigated the ‘Ark Foundation’ through a lot of channels, and there are no problems. I’ve visited their office and a temporary medical center in person, too. The environment there is indeed much better than that of the county hospital and the mental hospital in the capital city. It is said that a lot of well-known mental and neurological experts will be consulting each other. What is there to worry about?”
“Yes, Miss Dong. You’ve done the best you can.”
Li Yao could tell that her voice was shaking. It was not easy for a girl who had just started her career to do so much for her brother. He hurried to comfort her and said, “Then, can you tell me where your brother is being treated right now? Can you visit him often?”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
The stranger replied, “Brother might not be in the country right now.”
“Not in the country?”
Li Yao blinked quickly. “What do you mean?”
“The Ark Foundation has several offices and temporary medical centers in the country, but their real medical center is overseas. They also have a very advanced medical starship that seems to have been modified by a super tanker. It can accommodate more than ten thousand patients at the same time.
The other party said, “The staff of the Ark Foundation told me that many of their treatment methods and drugs, such as the intervention of the human brain with nanotechnology and the ‘neural restorative drugs’ retrieved from the brains of monkeys, were all approved by medical organizations around the world. Since many of the methods and drugs were highly controversial and even ethically risky like the cloned sheep in the old days, it was very difficult for them to be approved by the medical institutions of other countries within three to five years.
“It means that they cannot establish medical institutions in the territories of the major countries, nor can they engage in activities in the fields of medical treatment, drug sales, and so on. Therefore, they resorted to such a method and employed a starship registered in the Republic of Java as their mobile hospital to avoid legal problems.
“Those things were explained to us in advance, including the risks. We understood everything and respected our opinions to the best of our ability. Our family thought for a long time before we sent our brother to the ‘Ark Foundation’.
“Although I can’t see my brother often, we do video-call him every week. I can tell that my brother is much better after only a few weeks of treatment. He has put on weight, and his skin is darker than before. He is as cheerful as before again. What is there to worry about now that the treatment is so effective?”
“That explains a lot. A medical starship that comes and goes without a trace.”
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and asked, “Are you sure it was your brother who talked to you on the video call? Now that his illness has been relieved, did you say when he will be cured and return home?”
“Of course I’m sure. He is my brother!”
The stranger laughed. “Are you suspecting that somebody is pretending to be my brother? Why? My brother is not a big shot!”
“As for when we are going home, I’ve asked him before, but he said that the ‘Ark Foundation’ does not just treat mental illnesses. Their main research field is ‘the limit of the human brain’. They believe that there is only a thin line between a genius and a lunatic. Only by starting with a seemingly crazy brain can we break through the limits of human intelligence and the soul. In short, the Ark Foundation has gathered countless elites from all over the world. My brother has made many good friends there, and it is possible that he will stay and work at the Ark Foundation. My brother’s schizophrenia has been recorded in the hospital. It will be difficult for the major domestic companies to recruit such a person who has gone ‘mad’, right? If it is possible for him to stay and work at the Ark Foundation after he recovers, my family will have no objections.”
“Understood. Thank you, Miss Dong.”
Li Yao thanked him solemnly. Then, he asked him about the workers of the ‘Ark Foundation’. However, it sounded no different from regular medical facilities. In the end, Li Yao simply recorded the addresses of several offices of the Ark Foundation and temporary medical centers. After thanking him again, he hung up the phone.
