Start with a core cabin

Chapter 1699: Facts and Truth (Things before the New Year are done)

Is it normal to eat hot pot in the reception room?

It was normal for Chitanda to have doubts about this, but seeing that Yanami and Duanmu Huai both acted as if it was a matter of course, she... couldn't say anything.

"Mm, this meat is delicious! Is this what they call Wagyu?"

"I don't know, I just buy them randomly."

"That's great! We can only enjoy this kind of luxury when there is a big sale in the supermarket..."

Looking at the two people eating hot pot leisurely in front of her, Chitanda didn't know what to do, while Yanami smiled and handed Chitanda a plate of meat.

"Come on, Eru, this is delicious."

"Ah, um, thank you......"

To be honest, Chitanda was very worried about what would happen if someone in the hospital found out about eating hotpot here. Both patients and doctors would be very angry if they saw this. However, Duanmu Huai and Yanai's reaction to seeing that they were not paying attention to others made Chitanda very confused. After all, people are like this. When you see others doing things that they shouldn't be doing here as if nothing had happened, and they look so confident, you will first doubt whether there is something wrong with your brain.

This is what Chitanda is like now.

"By the way, Chitanda."

Just as she started to taste the hot pot, Duanmu Huai spoke to her casually.

"What do you think we are looking for here are facts? Or the truth?"

"Hey? Is there any difference between the two?"

Chitanda was a little surprised when faced with Duanmu Huai's question.

"Of course there is a difference."

Duanmu Huai took a sip of his drink and snapped his fingers at Banaijian.

"Yanaimi, tell me the story about this mansion again."

"Oh, okay, um..."

Yanaijian ate a piece of beef and tilted his head to recall the past.

"This mental hospital suddenly caught fire one day. When people nearby found out, they immediately called the fire department. Firefighters came and put out the fire, and then found bodies inside. According to the police's appraisal, the doctors and patients inside seemed to have died in a fratricide. Because there were no survivors or witnesses, no one knew what happened."

"That's it."

Duanmu Huai nodded and looked at Chitanda again.

"Do you understand it?"

"……………………?"

Honestly speaking, Chitanda didn't understand at all.

"The facts are what happened here, and the truth is why it happened."

Duanmu Huai shrugged his shoulders.

"Given the current state of madness in the mental hospital, it is almost impossible for us to know the latter, but it is easy to know the former."

"Ah, I see!"

After eating, Yanami's IQ will double, and the same is true now.

"As long as we stay here and keep watching, we'll know why this place caught fire in the first place, right?"

"Yes."

Duanmuhuai nodded.

"The truth is not important. You see, it's like when the police arrested a criminal and found his fingerprints on the murder weapon, and he had no alibi, and there was his DNA residue at the scene, then it can be proved that he killed the victim. But why did he kill the victim? Maybe the criminal won't tell us, and we will never know, but is it important? No, it's not important. What's important is to find the criminal and arrest him."

"Oh...I still feel like this isn't the way it should be."

Chitanda was still a little upset, but Yanami just smiled.

"Ah, I understand. It's like reading a detective novel. If the motive for the crime is not mentioned at the end, it always feels like something is missing."

"Yes."

Duanmuhuai nodded.

"Isn't this often the case in mystery novels? The police arrested someone based on clues at the scene, and then the detective discovered that they had arrested the wrong person, so they started a rescue operation. It seems that the police are incompetent, but the problem is that this is the police's duty. Evidence, testimony, and witnesses, as long as these things are there, the criminal can be identified. As for the motive for the murder, we can only ask about it later."

"But the motive could be false, it could be due to some trivial matter, or it could be simply fabricated. The word truth has different meanings in different contexts. For example, in this incident, what is the truth? Who attacked whom? Or who attacked whom and why?"

"Ugh..."

Faced with Duanmu Huai's puzzle that seemed to be repeating the same thing over and over again, even Yanami, who had the bonus of gourmet food, frowned and started thinking, not to mention Chitanda.

"Generally speaking, it's the patients who attack the doctors."

After a moment, Yanami gave his answer.

"Because the doctor locked them up in the ward, didn't he? The patient must have resented the doctor, so he attacked him."

"Is this what you think?"

"No, I read this statement online. It said that mental treatment at that time was not formal, and doctors often subjected patients to inhumane corporal punishment. Therefore, patients hated doctors, killed them, and then turned into bloodthirsty undeads..."

It turned out to be the case.

"It's pretty convincing though, isn't it?"

Indeed, generally speaking, when people hear a story, they will subconsciously sympathize with the weak. In a mental hospital, patients are naturally weaker than doctors. They are even lower in status than ordinary patients, because doctors can completely restrain or imprison them on the grounds of violent impulses or dangerous behaviors. Faced with such behavior, patients cannot even resist.

"I have a guess, too."

Duanmu Huai took the last bite of meat and leaned comfortably on the sofa.

"What do you think is the limit of normality?"

"………………?"

"What is a normal person, a normal life? For example, let me ask you, do you think you are a normal high school girl?"

"………………?"

Yanami and Chitanda looked at each other.

"It should count, right?" "What's the reason?"

"We all go to class every day, participate in club activities, and hang out with friends, right?"

"So what you're saying is that if you don't go to class, don't participate in club activities, and don't have friends, you're not a normal high school girl?"

"Hmm... well... ..."

Yanaijian didn't know how to answer for a moment.

"What's the reason?"

"Maybe it's because... everyone does this?"

"Yes."

Duanmu Huai snapped his fingers.

"What is the definition of normal? What is normal? The consensus of most people? Or as you said, everyone does it. Then let me ask you, if you go to a school where most students love to study, do not participate in club activities, and study and do homework from 8 am to 8 pm, will you be like them? Or will you still stick to yourself?"

"I……………"

Yanami and Chitanda looked at each other.

"It should be the same as them. After all, if no one participates in club activities..."

"So, what was the normal standard at that time?"

"Ugh..."

"Okay, we've strayed off topic. Let's get back to this hospital. What do you think is the normal standard here?"

"???"

"You think that the patients here are patients and the doctors are normal people, right?"

"Is not it?"

Chitanda seemed to have grasped the hidden meaning in Duanmu Huai's words and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Yes, think about it, if you are a doctor, you are with a group of crazy psychopaths all day long, like... well, they think of themselves as teapots and you are the teacup, and they come every day to fill your cup with tea."

"Hey, hey...I love you, this topic is a bit vulgar, isn't it?"

Banai made a complaint and Duanmu Huai chuckled.

"But you certainly wouldn't think of yourself as a teacup."

"Of course."

"But if you are with them every day and they keep treating you like a teacup, will you eventually treat yourself like a teacup?"

"…………………"

"assimilation."

Duanmu Huai pointed to the house in front of him.

"You can see that this place is sparsely populated. Doctors can't come into contact with normal people after get off work. And you should also have noticed that many of the statements made by those mentally ill patients are quite misleading. When you are in contact with such people every day and cannot return to normal society, do you think you can still recognize where the boundaries of normality are?"

"………………So, Xiao Ai, what you mean is that these doctors are real doctors, but they have been with mental patients for too long, so they have become abnormal themselves?"

The more Chitanda thought about it, the more incredible it seemed.

"But... they are doctors, they are professionals!"

"It's not strange that doctors don't treat themselves. How many respiratory doctors smoke? Don't they know that smoking is harmful to health? They have seen more patients' lungs die from cancer caused by smoking than we have seen in horror movies. If you live with these mentally ill patients 24 hours a day for a year or two, can you guarantee that you will still be a normal person? That you will not be deceived by them at all?"

"…………"

Chitanda wanted to say yes, but when she thought of the ambiguous, true and false words those mentally ill patients had just said to her, she lost her confidence.

These people are so good at making up stories, and their logic is so smooth that it makes sense no matter how you think about it! What's even more terrifying is that you can't tell which one is made up and which one is what he said seriously.

"Emotions are contagious, sadness, anger. You know, doctors and nurses wear masks, gloves, and protective clothing to prevent themselves from being infected by patients. But that is for the virus on the physical level. The mental infection cannot be solved by protective clothing."

Duanmu Huai took another sip of Coke and looked up at the painting on the wall of the living room. It was a Western oil painting of a demon and an angel. The demon was at the bottom of the painting, reaching out to grab the angel, while the angel spread its white wings and reached out to the demon, as if to save them, but the inside of the angel's white wings turned into black feathers.

"Psychologists are also prone to psychological problems, because mental infections are difficult to isolate and prevent with physical means, so you can imagine the situation here. Patients infect each other, then infect doctors, and then doctors infect each other... However, none of them are aware of it..."

“Ouch… It feels a bit scary.”

"By the way, we are the same, do you think normal people would eat hot pot here?"

"Huh? That shouldn't be the case!"

Chitanda was suddenly startled, but Yanami was very calm.

“But hot pot is delicious, right?”

"Xingcai, I don't think this is a question of whether it tastes good or not..."

“But it’s delicious, right?”

“This… is delicious…”

Chitanda was also defeated in front of Yana.

“It’s delicious!”

"Of course, that's not important."

Duanmu Huai yawned.

"This is the memory of the dead, so we don't need to do anything at all."

"What does it mean?"

"It means that they will proactively tell us what happened."

As Duanmu Huai finished his words, suddenly, a shrill scream suddenly rang out from outside the door.

That’s all for the New Year. I’ll talk about the rest after the New Year. I’ll resume updating from today. As the saying goes, no one knows which will come first, tomorrow or an accident, but only those who have experienced it personally will have a personal feeling. I’m still in agony now, because I have to hide it from my grandma until after the New Year. Seeing her so happy every day, I just feel so stressed. By the way, I originally had anxiety disorder and have been controlling it with medication. It has gotten much better, but now it’s relapsed. It’s really a headache. That’s it. Everyone, please make more complaints about the book, and I’ll be happier reading it. That’s it. I’ll talk about the rest after the New Year.