Chapter 58 Hypnosis
Bai Xiao turned off the car, sat in the underground parking lot for two minutes, and then took out a cigarette and lit it.
I took a deep breath.
Bai Xiao has a habit: whenever he is thinking about a problem, he can't help but want to smoke. He has had this habit for twenty years.
He sat quietly in the driver's seat.
His gaze fell on the amulet pendant below the rearview mirror.
He took a puff of his cigarette.
After finishing the first one, immediately start on the second one.
Just as he was smoking his third cigarette, he suddenly bent over and coughed violently, as if he was about to cough up his lungs. He quickly took out his medicine and swallowed it.
After a long while, he gradually calmed down.
He decisively pulled out his car keys, picked up his briefcase, and went upstairs.
As I pushed open the soundproof wooden door of the clinic, the last rays of the setting sun shone through the gaps in the blinds and fell on the beautiful figure on the sofa.
The woman's outfit is still sexy today.
A fuchsia slip dress paired with a black, square-shoulder blazer, black stockings woven from her ankles all the way down to her thighs, so thin they were almost see-through, and long hair cascading lazily over her chest.
She crossed her legs and held an English magazine in her hands.
He stared intently, occasionally adjusting his rimless glasses.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting."
Bai Xiao hung his police jacket behind the door and completely closed the blinds, blocking out the glaring neon lights of the shopping mall across the street.
He turned on the phonograph and played Debussy's "Clair de Lune".
"It didn't take long, we just arrived."
The woman on the sofa closed her magazine and smiled faintly: "I thought I would be late."
"Still having trouble sleeping this time?"
Bai Xiao set the air conditioner to 26 degrees Celsius, poured a glass of warm water into her palm, and then turned the hypnosis lamp to its dimmest amber setting.
"I haven't slept for two days."
Her voice was hoarse, and her tone revealed exhaustion: "When I close my eyes, all I see is fire, and my mother calling my name from within the fire."
Have you been taking your medication on time lately?
Bai Xiao walked to his desk and sat down, then pulled a medical record from a drawer.
Shen Ran, 21 years old, college student.
His mother died in a fire, leaving him with psychological trauma. He has suffered from insomnia ever since, and can only fall asleep briefly with the help of alcohol and sleeping pills. A year ago, a friend of his introduced him to this place.
"You know, medicine doesn't work for me."
“Miss Shen, judging from your treatment over this period of time, it seems that what you are afraid of is not just fire. You are hiding a truth in your heart, a truth that you don’t want others to know. I suggest you be more honest, so that we can stop wasting each other’s time.”
Shen Ran stood up, her suit jacket silently slipping off her clothes.
Her beautiful hair fell naturally to her chest, revealing her fair and slender neck and one shoulder.
She slowly walked up to Bai Xiao, hooked her fingers around his tie, and whispered in his ear, her breath carrying the lingering scent of fir and tuberose: "Dr. Bai, everyone has their own secrets. Being completely honest with each other isn't necessarily a good thing, don't you think...?"
Bai Xiao didn't even look up, his eyes fixed on the medical record, his gaze unwavering: "Miss Chen, I think you've misunderstood. I'm not interested in your secrets. You're just my patient, and I'm simply treating your symptoms."
Shen Ran's fingertips stiffened, and she slowly withdrew them.
She took a half step back and picked up her coat.
"Then please delete it for me."
He said in a somewhat cold tone, "Delete all memories of that fire from a year ago."
Bai Xiao did not answer immediately.
He turned around, took an old-fashioned voice recorder from the drawer, and pressed the record button.
“In theory, you can use retrograde suggestion to temporarily ‘borrow’ that fire from your hippocampus. But memories aren’t like film; you can’t just cut them off and forget them. They’ll still stay in your brain’s recycling bin, always being backed up.”
"What do you mean?" Shen Ran frowned.
Bai Xiao tapped the table lightly with his finger, the sound deep yet rhythmic.
"You can think of it this way: after you delete it, you might fill in that blank in a specific scenario. The trigger could be a smell, an object, or a sound. At that time, the memory will be restored, and the pain will be amplified infinitely. So, Ms. Shen, are you sure you want to delete it?"
Shen Ran hesitated for two seconds, then nodded: "Confirmed."
"As a qualified psychologist, I still need to confirm once the hypnosis begins that your privacy will be exposed without reservation, which is not acceptable to everyone. Are you averse to this?"
"To be honest, I find this kind of impolite behavior quite offensive, but Dr. Bai, your professionalism tells me that you are a trustworthy person, so I trust you."
"Thank you for your trust. I will count to three, and you will enter hypnosis."
Bai Xiao took a pocket watch out of the drawer and waved it back and forth in front of Shen Ran.
"one"
"two"
"three"
"Smack!"
Bai Xiao snapped his fingers and instantly put away the pocket watch.
Shen Ran almost collapsed onto the table and fell into a deep sleep.
Before hypnosis begins, the patient must first be relaxed, not in the common, rushed way, but rather as carefully as putting a frightened bird back into its cage.
Bai Xiao placed Shen Ran on the sofa, then took out a thin blanket, unfolded it, and covered her an inch above her knees—this was his professional etiquette.
After doing all this, he moved a small stool over and sat down next to Shen Ran, his voice low and gentle, carrying an inexplicable magic.
"Now, you can give your body to me."
Imagine you're standing on a beach at night, all quiet, with no stars or lights, and you're all alone...
Shen Ran kept her eyes closed and her brows furrowed from time to time.
Bai Xiao continued to guide her, his voice like an extremely thin scalpel, gently prying away the scab along the cracks in her memory.
"Don't be afraid, you have a match in your hand, strike it..."
Tell me, what did you see in the firelight?
Shen Ran trembled with fear, muttering to herself, "A figure... a scream..."
"You can now boldly move forward."
"One step, two steps, three steps."
"stop."
"You are standing in the sea, and the seawater is up to your calves."
"Throw the match down into the dark sea, and everything will eventually sink into the ocean."
"The tide comes in and carries away the ashes."
Bai Xiao's tone dropped another half degree.
As his even bass voice sang, Shen Ran's shoulders slumped down little by little, and her fingertips loosened.
"I count to three, and the sea, the flames, and the night all fade away."
"one"
"two"
"three"
"Smack!"
White Owl snapped his fingers.
At the same time, he pressed the stop button on the recorder and whispered, "Go to sleep, there's no fire tonight."
Shen Ran's breathing gradually became steady, as if an invisible shackle had been removed.
Bai Xiao wiped the fine sweat from his forehead, took one last look at Shen Ran sleeping soundly on the sofa, then put a checkmark on her medical record and carefully closed the soundproof door.
The hypnosis session went very smoothly, even exceeding his expectations. In fact, the success was largely due to Shen Ran's mental state.
Having not slept for two days and two nights had exhausted her nerves to the limit, and the combination of medication made it easy for her to enter a deep sleep.
When she wakes up, she will find that all those painful memories have been sealed away, and the key to unlocking this door is in her own hands.
In fact, there is an inaccessible corner in everyone's spiritual sanctuary.
The white owl is no exception.
He has also experienced pain, but he has never buried it away.
Because he dared to face his fear.
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