Chapter 117: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Men Nan dared not fall asleep, stubbornly standing in the center of the room. He still maintained that eerie posture, his head seemingly about to be pressed down from his shoulders.
"I always feel like there's something pressing down on top of his head," Chen Ge said, keeping his voice low for fear of startling Men Nan. "Not something imagined psychologically, but something real."
Dr. Gao gently waved his hand, staying close to Men Nan. He took out his phone, seemingly texting someone.
Seeing that Dr. Gao didn't respond, Chen Ge began searching the other rooms in the rental apartment.
The place was only about thirty square meters, but though small, it had everything—a bedroom, a living room, and a separate bathroom.
"From the looks of it, this is just a very ordinary rental," Chen Ge said after circling around, finding no blind spots. There was simply no possibility of hiding a body.
He came out of the living room and pushed open the bathroom door. To his surprise, a half-length mirror hung on the wall directly opposite the door.
"A mirror facing the door?" Because of his first nightmare mission, Chen Ge was extremely sensitive to mirrors.
He silently walked up to the mirror, looking at his own reflection. "A rare layout. Opening the door and seeing yourself in the mirror right away—it would feel a bit strange, wouldn't it?"
The mirror surface was spotless, as if frequently wiped clean, with not a trace of dirt to be found.
Shifting his gaze, below the mirror was a sink. In Men Nan's nightmare, he had been standing here washing his hair the whole time.
Chen Ge mimicked Men Nan's posture, leaning over the sink, bending his body forward at a ninety-five-degree angle, his head just able to reach under the faucet.
"From this angle, you can see the scene outside the room. What he dreamed about could absolutely happen in reality." If, when leaning under the faucet, he couldn't see the living room, or if his view was blocked by something, Chen Ge wouldn't have felt afraid—it would just be a dream.
But after testing it himself, he realized that even in reality, this was entirely possible.
With his head in the sink, the world appeared upside down before his eyes.
"Men Nan said that every time he dreams, the man gets a little closer to him. This spot is also suspicious. Why doesn't the other party just walk over and kill him? Why torment him bit by bit? Is there some deep-seated hatred between them?" As Chen Ge pondered, a sudden chill touched the back of his neck. He immediately straightened up and touched his neck.
"A drop of water? Where did it drip from?" Chen Ge looked up at the ceiling. There were no signs of water seepage. That drop of water had appeared out of nowhere.
"Could it be the mirror?" An image involuntarily formed in his mind: himself washing his hair at the sink, while the reflection in the mirror leaned out halfway and grabbed his neck.
"The black phone shows that this trial mission is called 'The Room of Three People.' The mission name itself is a subtle hint." Chen Ge looked at his reflection in the mirror, feeling like he had guessed something. "There are three 'people' in the room. Men Nan counts as one, the man approaching in the dream counts as another, and there's a third 'person' in the room right now. Could that third person be hiding in the mirror?"
Chen Ge braced himself on the sink and glanced around. He noticed two empty shampoo bottles in the bathroom trash bin.
"How long has Men Nan been living in this apartment building? He's already used up two bottles of shampoo? If he's only washing his hair in his dreams, how would the real shampoo be gone? Does this kid have a habit of sleepwalking? Does he get up in the middle of the night to wash his hair?" Chen Ge thought for a moment but found it unlikely. Earlier, when talking with Dr. Gao, the doctor had mentioned that to rule out the apartment itself as a cause, he had taken Men Nan back to his own home, but Men Nan's nightmares hadn't stopped.
"Let's temporarily rule out sleepwalking. But if Men Nan used up two bottles of shampoo in a short time while awake, that's even stranger. Why would he wash his hair obsessively?"
Even the most hygiene-conscious person would wash their hair at most once a day. Yet Men Nan had gone through two bottles of shampoo in a very short period, and the third bottle by the sink was only half full.
"In what situation would someone keep washing their hair? An itchy scalp? Dirty hair? Or feeling like there's something in their hair?" Chen Ge leaned against the wall, thinking. "Men Nan got into fights at school twice. The first time was because the animal patterns on the curtains weren't symmetrical. The second was because he couldn't count the sesame seeds on a pie. This person likely suffers from severe obsessive-compulsive disorder."
For someone with OCD, even the slightest thing out of place would drive them to correct it obsessively, and if they couldn't, they'd feel unbearably uncomfortable. Chen Ge suspected that Men Nan's compulsive hair washing was for the same reason.
"The answer to the question is something only Men Nan knows. He's probably hidden some very important things from Dr. Gao." As Chen Ge was speculating, his phone suddenly vibrated. He took it out and saw it was a text from Dr. Gao.
"Men Nan's family situation is a bit complicated, different from what I initially investigated. After I informed his family about his condition, their response was very cold. They just said they'd transfer enough treatment fees to his bank account, with no intention of coming to Jiujiang to see him. I don't want Men Nan to know about this, so I'm texting you."
"His own son is sick, and the parents don't want to come and be with him?"
"I didn't expect it either. Earlier, when I asked Men Nan and his classmates, everyone thought he came from a very harmonious family. I even checked his social media, which had many articles expressing gratitude toward his family."
Men Nan presented himself to the outside world as a well-educated, cheerful, and academically solid student from a warm family. But in reality, all of this might just be a facade.
After reading the text, Chen Ge shared his own findings with Dr. Gao.
Not long after, Dr. Gao replied with several texts.
"OCD can be roughly divided into four categories: worry, ritual, cleanliness, and perfection. Based on my observations, Men Nan's symptoms don't fit any of these categories. His hair washing seems to stem purely from a need."
"In my view, Men Nan's behavior is more akin to another psychological disorder—post-traumatic stress disorder. For example, after an earthquake, some survivors remain in a state of heightened alertness for a long time, unable to shake the shadow of the disaster. Their brains feed them a false message that the earthquake could happen again at any moment."
"Men Nan's symptoms are very similar to PTSD. His nervousness and darting eyes indicate a lack of security, as if something might come out and harm him at any moment. In this state, washing his hair might be a form of self-protective behavior."