“Does Lucy paint?”
“Well, she can paint. After Professor Romanka discovered her talent, he also trained her diligently and guided her to paint this mysterious world that is little known to the rest of us.” Alice moved to his side and lowered her voice. “You shouldn’t be in this place.”
The boy felt strangely apprehensive. For some reason, a cold sweat broke out on his back.
Alice said to Gong Jie, “I’ll take you to the office. Wait there for me while I talk to Professor Romanka. I’ll join you when I’m done.”
The man raised an eyebrow. “What’s the matter?”
Alice sighed. “Professor Romanka seems reluctant to release her.”
“Lucy?”
“Uh huh.” Alice nodded. “He wants to continue his research on her. He can’t bear to hand her over to me. I’m still communicating with him. The old man goes back on his word. What a headache.” She led them to a room and instructed them to stay there and not wander anywhere else.
After sitting down on the sofa, Youyou looked around. It was a large room, with a desk, two stools, a row of sofas, and a row of bookshelves. Other than that, there were no other unnecessary furnishings. There were many abstract paintings displayed on the snow-white walls. The colors were warm and comfortable.
Gong Jie studied the paintings and said, “Once the patient enters this room, the paintings begin to give psychological prompts.”
“Psychological prompts?”
“Uh huh.” The man sat down on the sofa. Seeing that the boy had a strong desire to know more about psychological prompts, he explained, “Someone carried out an experiment in which they took a condemned man to a room and blindfolded him. Then they saw that all his limbs were tightly bound. At this time, a doctor used a scalpel and made a shallow cut on his wrist. This drew blood. A basin was placed beside him. Although it was bleeding, it was not fatal. However, the doctor opened the mouth of an IV bottle. Water flowed along the tubing and dripped into the basin. At first, the condemned man looked relaxed, but gradually it got to him. He began to cry with pain, to struggle, to fear death. He thought that the dripping sound was the sound of his blood running out… He said he was having a headache and started vomiting. He was tense.”
“What happened in the end?”
“In the end he really died.”
The boy was speechless. “How did that happen? Was he scared to death?”
“No. The parasympathetic rebound caused a cardiac arrest.”
Gong Jie continued, “When a patient enters a room like this and sees the paintings, they begin to receive psychological cues and gradually lower their guard.”
“I see…” The boy suddenly found doctors rather frightening.
The man read his thoughts at once. “You find it frightening?”
“Well … a little.”
“There you go. Next time you’re looking for a wife, don’t look for a doctor-to-be.”
“…”
He was actually in the mood for such a cold joke.
Youyou did not bother to remain seated. He stood up and walked around the ward and circled back to the desk, where he sat down in the leather chair. As he did so, he caught sight of a dark shape under the desk and he cast his gaze over the edge of the bed. The boy caught a glimpse of the snowy hem of a garment through the light.
He sprang to his feet, startled.
Seeing this, Gong Jie moved towards him warily. “What’s the matter?”
