Only Hai Rui and his old servant lived in the gloomy and cramped courtyard.

The old servant was called Hai An, and he was Hai Rui's distant cousin. In addition to being a servant, he also served as Hai Rui's book boy, doorman, cook, laundry woman, sweeper, and many other jobs.

There is no way, who made us poor? But this also forced the old man to master many skills at his age, otherwise he really couldn't understand the poem.

Hai An saw how Hai Rui looked like a walking corpse after he was released from prison, and he was worried.

So when Hai An saw Zhao Hao's poem, which actually analyzed Hai Rui's psychological condition so vividly, he introduced him to his master with the hope of just in case.

As expected, Hai Rui, who looked emaciated at first, finally showed a change of expression after seeing the poem. He ordered Hai An to bring in the person who wrote the poem to see what this person's intentions were.

After hearing Zhao Hao's answer, Hai Rui's eyes became even colder. But behind the coldness, there seemed to be a hint of anger.

Zhao Hao knew that it was the anger and shame he felt after someone saw through his thoughts.

He admitted that he wrote this poem to provoke Hai Rui, which was actually a gamble.

But when he saw Hai Rui's reaction, Zhao Hao knew that he had made the right bet - the Lord Hai Rui in front of him was not the Ming Dynasty's magic sword that was immune to all evil, but a pitiful mental patient.

It's just that no one can define this disease yet. It wasn't until four hundred years later that it was given a name called 'post-traumatic stress disorder'.

Zhao Hao once read a medical study that was so boring that it said that Hai Rui was likely to suffer from severe post-traumatic stress disorder due to a series of events in the 45th year of Jiajing. After he wrote a letter to the emperor, Emperor Jiajing fell ill and died. This made him feel that he was to blame for the death of the previous emperor.

To make matters worse, almost at the same time, his two sons also died of shock...

Hai Rui was a staunch believer in Confucianism and had a deep belief in the theory of "harmony between man and nature". Naturally, he thought that the deaths of his two sons were due to the interaction between heaven and man - in simple terms, it was because he killed the emperor that heaven sent down a punishment and took away his two sons.

Once this kind of cognition was formed, it was absolutely a devastating blow to a stubborn person like Hai Rui, and it made him fall into a death spiral of self-doubt, self-denial, self-exile, and even self-destruction.

These are all specific symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The series of extreme behaviors that he displayed throughout the rest of his life were probably also caused by this trauma.

Zhao Hao decided to help him.

Because he always has respect for those who dare to speak up for the people.

Moreover, even from the most utilitarian point of view, Hai Rui is the future governor of Yingtian and one of the important figures.

Although the hair on the thighs is prickly and it is not very comfortable to hug, as long as you are skillful, you can still use this magic sword to cut through the evil spirits on the ground.

Of course, we couldn't let Hai Rui give up on himself and end up becoming a paranoid man who was useless...

~~

"Why did you write this poem?" Hai Rui asked coldly.

"Because I respect Lord Hai very much, I cannot sit idly by and watch him get sick." Zhao Hao replied gently.

"Nonsense!" How could a fifty-year-old man's defenses be broken with just a few words? Especially a man as tough as a rock like Hai Rui. He just smiled coldly and said, "I am in good health. I don't even have a headache or fever."

"Mr. Hai's illness is in his heart," Zhao Hao shook his head and said, "The disease in your heart cannot be seen or touched, but it is constantly eroding your spirit, making you mentally confused and behaving abnormally. If you don't take it seriously and get treatment as soon as possible, it will ruin you."

After a pause, Zhao Hao met Hai Rui's gaze again and said in a deep voice, "Besides, Lord Hai is an official of the Dali Temple who is in charge of the national judicial system. If you become mentally ill, it will not only harm you, but the fate of millions of people!"

This statement was the biggest concern of Hai Rui. The honest Lord Hai nodded slightly and said in a hoarse voice: "I have repeatedly petitioned to leave, but the court would not allow it..."

Realizing his own gaffe, Hai Rui quickly lowered his face and said, "But I'm leaving not because I think I'm mentally ill, but because I'm worried about my old mother having no one to take care of her..."

"Mr. Hai is not afraid of death, so why doesn't he have the courage to face his own heart?" Zhao Hao took two steps forward.

Hai Rui couldn't help but lean back slightly, frowning and saying, "I examine myself three times a day..."

"That's great. Do you dare to have a frank conversation with me?" Zhao Hao said with a smile, "Swear that every word you say is from your heart without any pretense?!"

"Why should I waste my words on a brat like you?" Hai Rui said with a straight face, "I never tell lies!"

"Okay, that's what you said!" Zhao Hao selectively ignored Hai Rui's first sentence and firmly grasped his second half, saying, "Then let's start this frank conversation."

"Who wants to talk to you?" Hai Rui turned his head away, but did not let anyone kick him out.

"The root of Hai Gong's illness is still the 'Public Security Memorial'." Zhao Hao stood in the hall. At this time, the distance between him and Hai Rui was about four feet, which was the limit of social distance. In this position, it was enough to make Hai Rui feel oppressive, but not to the point that he would have obvious psychological rejection.

Hai Rui frowned and asked, "What's the problem with the 'Public Security Memorial'?"

"Everyone says that it is an honor for you to be on the Public Security Memorial, but you feel deeply guilty about it." Zhao Hao said in a deep voice.

"Nonsense! I wrote this letter to plead for the people and to make the king as good as Yao and Shun. Now that I have done it, I will not regret it!" Hai Rui seemed to be insulted. Veins on his forehead were throbbing and his breathing became heavier.

"Then on your last day in the imperial prison, the jailer prepared wine and food for you to eat. Why did you vomit all the food after hearing that the late emperor had passed away, and then cried until you fainted?" Zhao Hao smiled faintly, thinking that it was true that a gentleman could be deceived by his own tactics. If there were gentlemen like Hai Rui everywhere in the world, he would be invincible.

"Shouldn't I be sad when I heard that my king and father passed away?" Hai Rui's heavy breathing became disordered, and the blue veins on his forehead gradually faded.

"You can cry if you want to, but why did you spit out all the food you ate?" Zhao Hao showed an abominable expression that said 'I've seen through you'. He looked directly at Hai Rui, not letting him look away, and said, "Your reaction at that time was not out of grief at all, but because you were hearing the jailer congratulating you on being acquitted and reinstated!"

"The late emperor didn't kill you and even pardoned you in his will. How dare you say that you don't feel any remorse at all?" Zhao Hao asked in rapid succession, leaving Hai Rui no room to dodge.

"I, I..." Under Zhao Hao's penetrating gaze, Hai Rui blushed for a long while before finally nodding his head dejectedly and saying in an undetectable voice, "Of course I blame myself."

"After you were released from prison, you learned that the two young masters, Zhongdi and Zhongliang, had died one after another while you were in prison. This made you feel even more guilty!"

"This makes you wonder, is it because you cursed the late emperor to death that you incurred the punishment of heaven, and took away your two sons whom you cherished as your life?!"

Zhao Hao took another step closer, invading Hai Rui's psychological safety distance.

Hai Rui had no reaction to this, and just listened to Zhao Hao's assertion blankly.

Suddenly, he felt his cheeks getting cold. He reached out his hand blankly and felt it. It turned out to be tears that he had not seen for a long time, flowing down from his sunken eye sockets...

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