I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

Chapter 364 The Storyteller in the Mental Hospital

Jiangcheng Mental Hospital.

Its official name is Jiangcheng Mental Health Center. It was established in the 1930s and has a history of ninety years. The hospital was last renovated twenty years ago. Since then, only the equipment has been updated and no new buildings have been constructed.

In the minds of many children born in Jiangcheng, the hospital is a symbol of terror and horror. As the best story to threaten children's sleep, the words "If you don't go to sleep, I'll send you to 900 Xicheng North Road" are enough to scare many children into not being able to sleep.

Of course, with the promotion of hospital construction in recent years and the popularization of the Internet, mental hospitals are no longer so scary.

Which of these modern internet users doesn't suffer from depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or paranoia?

Now, No. 900 Xicheng North Road is generally used for swearing.

Phrases like "You'd better hurry back to 900 Xicheng North Road" or "Do you live at 900 Xicheng North Road?" are jokes that only locals can understand. Outsiders would just be confused and at a loss even if they heard them.

The intensive care unit of the hospital.

During this period, the number of people coming to the intensive care unit has been increasing.

This left Dr. Hao somewhat at a loss.

Some people thought they saw colorful pork flying in the sky, some inexplicably wore VR glasses and showed themselves in the toilet, and some even claimed to have seen a walking teddy bear on the street. The variety was endless.

Lu Ban's arrival made the already bustling intensive care unit even more chaotic.

Fortunately, these are all seriously ill patients, and most of them cannot stop taking medication and need to rely on pharmacological methods to suppress their mental illness. Therefore, even if Lu Ban talks nonsense, it will not affect these people much.

Early in the morning, sunlight shone on the headboard, and Lu Ban woke up to the sound of the radio.

The intensive care unit consists of private wards. Lu Ban washed up, changed into her hospital gown, and went to the cafeteria with the other patients.

The cafeteria breakfast consists of traditional breakfast items such as steamed buns, mantou, fried dough sticks, and soy milk, which may seem bland to ordinary people. In fact, the cafeteria is also concerned that highly stimulating foods might trigger an attack in patients.

For patients with severe mental disorders, physical discomfort can easily trigger mental fluctuations, which in turn can exacerbate their symptoms.

Lu Ban took a bowl of soy milk, a fried dough stick, and two steamed buns and sat down in the cafeteria.

At the table, several patients sat together, eating in silence.

Based on Lu Ban's interactions over the past two days, these patients are not actually autistic; their silence is merely a symptom.

Many people develop a habit of being taciturn because they are ridiculed by others or even disliked by their families when they speak differently, which in turn exacerbates their condition.

For a long time, mental patients were viewed with suspicion and fear, and people kept their distance from them.

But Lu Ban felt very warm sitting here, just like being back home.

After breakfast and morning exercises, it's free time.

Most critically ill patients are confined to their rooms and can only move around in the recreation room for a total of six hours: two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon, and two hours in the evening.

At this moment, the recreation room was empty of people playing ping-pong, watching TV, or reading alone.

All the patients gathered around one person, listening to what he had to say.

"...Back then, the Nanhua Private Renji Hospital had not yet been established, and its director was studying in the West at the time..."

Lu Ban held a plastic bottle in his hand as a gavel, sat in the chair, and vividly recounted his experiences.

He would sometimes tell stories of a group of people traveling at night in the wilderness and encountering rats and flying fish.

Sometimes, stories are told about the ghosts who play the piano with mannequins in a dilapidated theater.

Sometimes, a story is told about a wandering swordsman and a young girl who travel to the center of the world, gazing at each other from opposite ends of time.

For some reason, these severely mentally ill patients became quiet as soon as they heard Lu Ban's story. They stared at Lu Ban with curious eyes, like kindergarten children.

As the break ended, Lu Ban slammed the gavel down, bringing the story to a close. The patients, who had been staring with excitement, returned to their dull and silent state.

Seeing this, the nurse outside the break room said to Dr. Hao with some concern.

"Dr. Hao, isn't this a bit strange? Could he possibly influence and control these patients?"

"Don't talk nonsense. These people are just curious. Go get to work and stop loitering around here."

Dr. Hao told the nurse not to overthink things and sent her away. Then, seeing Lu Ban walking out of the recreation room, he went to greet him.

"Director Lu, how are you feeling?"

It has to be said that when Lu Ban was around, these patients became much more obedient. They didn't resist injections or medication anymore, just like elementary school students who would do anything for a school trip.

Dr. Hao suddenly had the idea of ​​keeping Lu Ban in the hospital forever.

"They're pretty good. They're all well-behaved. I often chat with them to understand their thoughts, and I think many of them make a lot of sense."

Lu Ban casually pointed to a bald, 25-year-old patient who was originally a programmer.

"For example, he was brought in for plotting on his computer to hang his boss from a street lamp. I listened to what he had to say, and his boss was absolutely despicable. I think people like that should be hung from street lamps!"

He then pointed to another elderly man with only two or three strands of hair on his head, who was wearing flip-flops and a vest in the dead of winter.

"Take him for example. He was originally a teacher who worked hard to raise three children, but those three brothers were all awful. They sent him in saying the old man was mentally ill. That's outrageous!"

He then looked at a woman who had raised her arm, pretending to hold a child.

"For example, she was walking home from kindergarten with her child when she encountered a deranged killer. She and her child were stabbed more than eighty times. She barely managed to crawl out of the funeral hall by the last breath, and then she was sent here. It's really tragic!"

Dr. Hao looked at the three people.

The woman was unharmed. She had gone on fifty blind dates in a row and finally suffered a mental breakdown after being criticized by her blind date for her high standards. The story then fast-forwards to the point of losing her child.

The elderly person has no children. When they worked in the factory, they were electrocuted for not following safety regulations, and their mental state has been impaired ever since.

As for that programmer...

"Oh, that programmer is really something, that's so tragic."

Dr. Hao nodded in agreement.

"Therefore, I think their opinions are very valuable, and I plan to include them in the textbook."

Lu Ban said solemnly.

"I will include Dr. Hao's name in the acknowledgments section of the textbook when the time comes."

"Please spare me."

Dr. Hao shook his head upon hearing this.

If his name were written down, those actors who portray mental illness according to textbooks would probably want to have their legs broken.

"It's almost time, I'm going back for my lunch break."

Lu Ban glanced at the wall clock.

"Okay, take care."

Dr. Hao waved his hand.

"Let's go."

Lu Ban said something to the person next to him.

Immediately, Dr. Hao saw Lu Ban walk towards the ward, as if he were holding someone's hand, his hand half-raised in the air.

There was no one there.

"...Won't those people in the film and television industry blame me for driving him crazy?"

Dr. Hao shuddered.

Chapter 365 Painter

"It's okay, I'll just take a walk by myself, don't worry."

Bi Jia waved his hand, indicating that the nurse didn't need to follow him.

"I'll just wander around the mild cases area. Don't worry, my wristband isn't hanging on me, so there won't be any mistakes."

He showed his plastic wristband, which had markings similar to those of ordinary patients, except that one section explained that he had a mild case and was there for a check-up.

Since Lu Ban came to Jiangcheng Mental Hospital to gather material and helped an entertainment reporter understand his own illness, the hospital has become a pilgrimage site for many artists after he rested and recuperated.

Some people believe that Lu Ban's ability to create a critically acclaimed and commercially successful film like "The Tide of Deception" is inseparable from his experience in a mental hospital.

For example, the appearance of those monsters may have originated from the delusions of a mental patient.

For example, those bizarre and fantastical settings might be the dreams of some mental patient.

Serious artists are fine; they just have fun.

Some performance artists have tried to infiltrate mental hospitals to gather material.

But things are different now. The patients in mental hospitals are not like monkeys in a zoo. You can't just visit them whenever you want.

The mental hospital implemented numerous protective measures, driving away journalists and artists; however, some still managed to slip through the cracks.

Like Bi Jia, he is a painter who likes to paint pictures that normal people can't understand, and he is also very avant-garde.

He once created a painting using various fresh fruits to depict the process of these fruits rotting and spoiling, which he titled "Fruit".

He also created a painting using still-warm glass, which formed a distorted and bizarre three-dimensional shape on the canvas, and named it "Melting".

Anyway, they're all pretty ahead of their time.

This time, Bi Jia came to Jiangcheng Mental Hospital to gather information from the mental patients there.

He was able to get in because he himself was a mental patient.

Bi Jia suffers from depression.

In short, he obtained a certificate of mental illness, and then went through various procedures and connections to get an examination at No. 900 Xicheng North Road. Today is the day of the examination.

He planned to wander around here, looking for inspiration.

However, after meeting with several patients, Bi Jia felt somewhat disappointed.

"That's it?"

These patients are all too normal. It feels like the people on Weibo outside have much more severe illnesses than them.

"This can't go on."

Bi Jia believes that these patients with mild symptoms may simply have very mild mental illnesses, and the taste is not yet good enough.