Cooking
It didn’t take long for the group to move to the back kitchen.
The hospital originally didn’t allow unrelated people to enter, especially psychiatric patients. If one is not careful, the kitchen could easily turn into a slaughterhouse.
But Head Nurse Yang had already obtained the consent of her superiors. Seeing that the chef was guarding the door and not giving way, she said in his ear: “Doctor Chu is a distinguished guest, so she would never have been allowed to enter the kitchen. However, the little ancestor1insisted on eating the dishes she personally cooked, so let’s make this an exception.”
The chef has long heard of Xia Yihan’s glorious deeds, as she is now the central figure of Jinshui Psychiatric Hospital. From the head of the hospital down to the cleaning aunts, they all spread rumors of her— She is not crazy, just quiet. But wherever she went, the people around her would go crazy— it was as if she had the ambition to make the whole psychiatric hospital go “crazy”.
Because this “big shot” was about to come, all the supervisor and the logistics staff trembled three times in their hearts. They thought, had the doctors and nurses lost their minds, entering the kitchen to carry out treatment?
After hearing Nurse Yang’s whisper, the chef’s gaze darted between Chu Yu and Xia Yihan, before welcoming them into the kitchen in a professional manner.
Chu Yu changed into a chef’s uniform. Wearing a mask and gloves, she groaned inwardly. Since she was a child, never mind cooking and washing dishes, even when she went into the kitchen, she was regarded as a rare visitor. Today, a word from this kid Xia actually broke the precedent. She walked into the kitchen like a ghost and was frightened by the appearance of the various utensils and appliances— the pots were big enough to be used as bathtubs, the spatula could be used for self-defense, and the oven was even more grand, fit for a crematorium.
This was her first time cooking, but she challenged such advanced materials. Chu Yu weighed her skill level and then stared at the chef, wide-eyed, “Hello, may I ask what dish you think there is that I can make?”
When the chef saw that she looked respectable, born with an intellectual face, and was probably insulated from the struggles of life, he tentatively asked, “Doctor, in the past… what kind of dishes did you make?”
Chu Yu: “I made a sandwich, with bread, eggs and lettuce. Does that count?”
“Did you fry the eggs yourself?”
“No, I bought it in the supermarket, but I personally heated it in the microwave.”
Chef: “…”
This isn’t called cooking, it’s just putting all parts of a meal together.
Faced with a new problem of the century, the chef racked his brain, searching wildly for the simplest of the most simple recipes. Finally, he glanced at the moulds placed by the oven, and the light in his eyes increased by eight degrees. Those were his life-saving straws.
“Doctor, you can make cookies. It’s fast to make and ready to eat right after.”
After speaking, he looked at Xia Yihan and asked: “Little girl, you like to eat cookies, right?”
Xia Yihan had her head lowered, looking at the various shapes of moulds attentively. She didn’t reply, as if she didn’t hear anything.
Seeing this, a little nurse who was helping the others patted Xia Yihan on the shoulder, “Do you like cookies? If you do, we’ll make them, ok?”
Xia Yihan held a small bear mould in his hand and held it out in front of Chu Yu, grinning, “Sister, look! This bear has a big belly, like a kangaroo, it can hold a baby bear inside!”
Chu Yu saw that the little nurse was very embarrassed and thought it was strange. The chef and nurse’s voices weren’t small, and they were close by. The nurse also patted her. She had normal hearing, so it was impossible not to hear her, but why wouldn’t she respond?
“Xiao Xia,2just now Sister Nurse asked you, do you like to eat cookies?”
Xia Yihan did not turn to the nurse. She looked at Chu Yu and nodded seriously, “Yes! Whatever Sister makes, I like!”
Seeing her performance, Chu Yu and Head Nurse Yang exchanged glances. When Nurse Yang shook her head slightly, Chu Yu knew.
It wasn’t the hospital diagnosis’ fault, but Xia Yihan herself.
The biscuits were indeed made quickly, because the dough has already been kneaded and the mold is ready made. Chu Yu “makes” the cookies by just using a tool to press the dough and make a shape. This was equivalent to putting on a “Chu Family Stamp” then tossing it into the oven and waiting for the “ding-” to announce it was done.
Chu Yu took three plates and arranged the cookies into three portions. She wanted to distribute the biscuits to the chef and the nurse, to thank them for their help serving the little ancestor together. When she finished dividing them, Xia Yihan sat down in front of the stove. Before Chu Yu could pick them up, she circled the plates with both hands, raised her head and smiled happily, “Thank you, Sister, this is enough to last me three days. I will eat it slowly and sparingly!”
Chu Yu: “…”
While she was speechless, Xia Yihan picked up a skirt shaped biscuit and handed it to her, “You eat this.”
Chu Yu took the matcha-flavored little thing and couldn’t help but ask, “You only just picked one, why did you give it to me?”
“Because you are a Fairy Sister!”
Chu Yu took a bite, and said Amitabha3 in her heart— fortunately she didn’t call her Fairy Ayi, Fairy Shenshen, or Fairy Niangniang…4
In the end, the small cookies were put into a box that Xia Yihan held in her arms. She walked back happily, looking like a colorful butterfly returning home with a lot of fruit.
Chu Yu walked behind slowly, staring at her back, and said to Nurse Yang in a low voice, “She doesn’t react towards you all.”
Head Nurse Yang nodded, deliberately slowed down, and distanced herself from Xia Yihan, “Yes, she hadn’t said a word after coming for two weeks. Director Xie tried his best to make her speak. We would ask her questions, but she never answers, and she doesn’t get along with other patients. Just now you said that she was clamoring to eat the food you cooked. I’m curious, how did she convey that?”
Chu Yu fell into deep thought. When she first entered Ward 710, Xia Yihan also ignored her and her coldness almost made the whole room freeze. She even asked several questions, but received no response. Then, she suddenly said “Hello, Sister” and ever since, she became very close to her, like… long lost sisters.
What made her speak? What made her so affectionate towards her?
For a few minutes, Chu Yu and Head Nurse Yang were silent, walking side by side. Nurse Yang knew that Chu Yu was thinking and held back a stomach of questions she wanted to ask, not wanting to bother her.
Chu Yu mentally reviewed today’s conversation, but did not find enough clues to judge Xia Yihan’s inner world. The kid Xia says one thing then the other, and every time she got deeper, she began to circle around. You can say she’s mentally ill, but she could perfectly avoid verbal traps. You can say she’s a normal person, but she says things so vaguely that Chu Yu doubted whether she’s a prankster, specialized in fooling psychiatrists.
After thinking for a while, Chu Yu raised her head and said, “Let’s go to Director Xie, and ask for her examination results. I will read them one by one.”
Although Dean Hu stressed that there were no problems with her physical examinations, Chu Yu still didn’t believe it. A psychological pathology, especially one that required hospitalization, would certainly be shown in the body. For example, a patient with violent tendencies might be checked for a lack of triamcinolone oxide, while an impulsive psychiatric patient might be checked for an immature frontal lobe development of the cerebral cortex. Sometimes it is difficult to say whether a physical problem causes a psychological disorder, or a psychological disorder causes a physical problem.
In front of the computer, Chu Yu looked at Xia Yihan’s psychiatric assessment scale, and the symptoms did indeed point towards adult autism.
She propped her chin on her hand and read the information back and forth five times,
not seeing any problems. Chu Yu hated that she couldn’t get a wrench and run around to check and repair the hospital’s equipment
“Dr. Chu, it’s right. This cerebrospinal fluid examination, X-ray, Brain CT scan, and MRI have been done twice, with the same exact results. That little girl has no problems with her body and is as normal as she can be.”
Chu Yu exited the page and looked serious, “In that case, don’t you have any suspicions that maybe she is not mentally ill at all?”
Psychiatrists should not only be able to judge what kind of illness a patient has, but also if the person coming for treatment has a mental illness or not. Sometimes, the latter is more important than the former, especially when it comes to the law.
Director Xie spread his hands and said, “I did have suspicions, but the second day she arrived, didn’t something happen? While she was normal, the patients near her went crazy. Seeing this, we didn’t dare to send her out.”
Chu Yu understood this, and knows that he would add that if the situation gets even more serious, she will have to be discharged, and her family members would have to find another way.
“Have you tried hypnosis?”
Director Xie shrugged, “I tried, but it didn’t work. Her willpower and sense of resistance was too strong. Every time I urged her, I was the one who almost fell asleep while she was still very energetic.”
Chu Yu originally wanted to say: Maybe it’s because your skill level is too low! However, taking Doctor Xie’s thin face into account, she just changed the topic: “Did she take the initiative to seek medical treatment?”
Director Xie shook his head and looked helpless, “No, her father was with her at the time. He went here, registered, gone through the hospitalization procedures, and paid the money. Then, he never showed up ever again. “
She had already heard about the events afterwards from Dean Hu. The hospital called Xia Yihan’s family, but there was no answer and no one reached back.
That meant to judge Xia Yihan’s condition, the hospital did everything with the resources it had, without previous background reference, and no cooperation from the patient.
Seeing that Chu Yu didn’t reply for a while, Director Xie probed her. He actually didn’t know her, and seeing that she was so young, doubted her ability. But he obeyed the Dean’s orders, that she was an important person, so he didn’t dare to be negligent.
“Doctor Chu, what is your opinion?”
Chu Yu’s fingers rhythmically tapped the table, as if it’s on beat with her thoughts. Then, like she had a flash of inspiration, stopped abruptly.
“Didn’t you say that all the patients around her will behave abnormally, especially at night. And that the people in the next ward would go crazy? I will sleep in her room tonight and see how they become demons!”
“Ei, Dr. Chu,” Director Xie reminded amiably, “Except for the toilets in the ward, there’s monitoring. The nurses on the night shift stared at the display screen all night, only seeing her lay quietly on the bed without doing anything!”
Chu Yudong smiled with a deep meaning behind it, “This is not necessarily true, sometimes seeing is not believing. Here’s a simple example: a victim would always remember the suspect who hurt them for life. However, their attention is often focused on the murder weapon in the hands of the suspect. Even if they looked at the suspect square in the face, their brain produces a biased image. They do not realize this bias, believing that their memory is completely correct, thus the saying, seeing but not believing.”
Director Xie rubbed his jaw, carefully studying Chu Yu’s words. Then it finally dawned on him, “Oh, you mean…”
Chu Yu stood up and raised her eyebrows, praising Doctor Xie’s ability to understand, “It’s good that you understand. Have someone add another bed in Ward 710 tonight, and make a glass of lemon water.”
“But aren’t you afraid of sharing the same room with her at night?”
This person made the entire Jinshui Mental Hospital scared to the bones. Even the doctors are afraid to see her, and every time she appears, the medical staff would feel a gloomy gust of wind.
Chu Yu opened the door, paused, and turned around, “Let’s put it this way, if something happens to me, then she really can’t be saved.”