The night before the promotion

Chapter 59 Huo Daochuan

"Hey, I'm relieved to know that Dr. Zhou is safe."

Huo Daochuan glanced at the silk banners covering the wall behind Zhou Si, and then said, "Since we're here anyway, why not prescribe the next dose of medicine in advance?"

Zhou Si did not refuse and looked through Huo Daochuan's diagnosis records. Huo Daochuan first came for treatment two months ago, but Zhou Si could not remember clearly whether he was introduced by someone or came here on his own. But what was certain was that he was not forced to come here by Zhou Si.

Zhou Si stood up to open the refrigerator and asked while preparing medicine, "How are you feeling recently?"

"Not bad, quite optimistic and cheerful."

"What about hallucinations and auditory hallucinations?"

Huo Daochuan said uncertainly, "The hallucinations are almost gone, but there are still some auditory hallucinations. However... I'm not sure whether this can be considered an auditory hallucination."

Zhou Si turned around and said in a serious tone, "Speak more clearly."

In order to make patients cooperate with you actively or passively, as a doctor, you must have a sense of authority, both in attitude and means.

Huo Daochuan fiddled with his phone and said embarrassedly, "Doctor Zhou, you also know about my breakup, right?"

"Huh?" Zhou Si didn't understand why he suddenly mentioned this.

"How should I put it? Maybe I just won't give up," Huo Daochuan's eyes wandered around. "I always hope that she will come back to find me, so I have always turned up the notification sound of my phone to the maximum, hoping that one of the notification sounds is a message from her."

"After a while, I would often mistake certain noises for ringtones, and suddenly wake up. I would dream about related things at night, and even take out my phone and check it non-stop when I was half asleep."

Huo Daochuan asked in a very relaxed tone, "This should have nothing to do with the Lishi disease, right?"

"Compared to the Lishi disease, your condition is more likely to be a psychological problem caused by some emotions," Zhou Si said immediately, "and your emotional problem seems to be quite serious."

Zhou Si asked curiously, "Do you love that online ghost so much?"

"I'm not sure. To be honest, sometimes I can't tell whether this is love or not."

Huo Daochuan sighed deeply, with a helpless expression on his face. "Doctor Zhou, my life has not been smooth. My parents passed away in an accident very early. Perhaps influenced by their death, my personality has become very withdrawn and unpleasant..."

He turned his head and looked at the street outside the window, speaking incoherently, "I don't have many friends, and I don't even have any concrete connection with the world. My work and life are just driven by my physiological instincts and desire to survive."

“I also tried to make friends, but when I walked into those brightly lit social places and saw those faces drunk by alcohol, I suddenly felt that it was just a waste of time and I had no desire to communicate.

But she is different. Since I met her, I have felt connected to the world for the first time. Maybe I fell in love with her, maybe I regarded her as a spiritual pillar... Who can tell for sure about this kind of thing? "

Zhou Si is not an emotional master, he is just a doctor. He is helpless with Huo Daochuan's emotional problems.

He could only continue to ask, "Is your neurasthenia better?"

Huo Daochuan said, "It's okay. If you take melatonin before going to bed, you can sleep more peacefully."

"Um……"

Zhou Si thought for a while and concluded, "It seems that your condition has almost improved. The strange symptoms you have developed are mostly due to your emotional problems."

Huo Daochuan laughed at himself and said, "It's ridiculous, isn't it?"

"There's nothing funny about this," Zhou Si shook his head. "Humans are emotional animals. It's normal for them to be troubled by this."

Huo Daochuan sighed, "You are really tolerant, Doctor Zhou."

"This is just a guideline for a doctor."

Zhou Si packed up the medicines, but he did not give them to Huo Daochuan immediately. Instead, he placed them on the table. Zhou Si sat down opposite Huo Daochuan with his hands crossed, not knowing what he was thinking about.

Huo Daochuan saw that Zhou Si was deep in thought, but he didn't disturb him and waited quietly. After a moment, Zhou Si spoke.

"Huo Daochuan, I have a few questions for you."

Huo Daochuan smiled and said, "Ask whatever you want. I will answer all your questions."

"According to the medical record, you are an incarnation laborer," Zhou Si observed Huo Daochuan's subtle reactions, "Do you know about Hidden Alley?"

Huo Daochuan's expression froze for a moment. Zhou Si didn't know whether this was his natural reaction or he was showing it on purpose.

He replied, "Hidden Alley, the largest second-hand avatar trading center in Anyan City. Of course I know that place."

Zhou Si continued to ask, "Then do you understand the deeper level?"

This time Huo Daochuan hesitated for a while and said cautiously, "Doctor Zhou, are you referring to the shady businesses in the hidden alleys?"

"Yes, now that you understand the gray area, are you involved in it?"

In order to make his words more convincing, Zhou Si further explained, "I won't beat around the bush, Huo Daochuan, the Hidden Alley is a place where all kinds of people mix, and there are often illegal avatars for sale. As an avatar laborer, if you control those illegal avatars, you are very likely to be polluted, which will affect your spirit and cause and aggravate the disease of separation."

Zhou Si was not joking about this. An incarnation body that is not protected by high walls and large systems will expose the consciousness to the risk of network torrents at all times. Once the consciousness is slightly exposed, there is a high possibility that the brain will be blown up by the large amount of information, just like Luo Yong, and the person will completely lose himself.

Huo Daochuan fell silent, looking at the ground, picking his nails unconsciously.

“Were you involved?”

Zhou Si's words became more and more pressing, and his gaze was like a knife, cutting into Huo Daochuan's body, piercing the skin and squeezing out blood.

After a brief period of pressure, Huo Daochuan gave up resisting. He was still smiling, but there was a lot more sadness in his smile.

"Doctor Zhou, you also know the recent market trends."

Huo Daochuan tried hard to make his words more lighthearted and interesting. "It's about the massive layoffs at Zhijiang Human Resources and the introduction of a large number of foreign avatar workers."

Zhou Si knew about this. There were constant protests on the Internet, and some people even went to Zhijiang Human Resources’ headquarters to hang banners offline.

In the old days, only local residents were responsible for hanging banners, but in modern times, many affected avatar laborers also controlled a large number of avatar bodies and appeared under the Zhijiang Human Resources Company.

The crowd was so huge that it even alarmed the local supervisory bureau, which dispatched a large number of security agents to maintain order at the scene.

"It's so unlucky. I was the one who was laid off." No matter how hard Huo Daochuan tried to force a smile, when he said this, his expression turned cold and his eyes were unfocused.

"Then I found a job in a hidden alley a while ago. It was a black workshop, serving some illegal human resources companies. I competed with those cheap people with lower prices, and then did some shady work."

Huo Daochuan rubbed his head and confirmed again, "So far, I have not been affected by the Lishi disease. It seems that my boss is still conscientious and did not let me use an illegal avatar body."

Zhou Si remained silent. This was not the boss's conscience, but it was a pity to use illegal incarnations for ordinary labor operations.

Huo Daochuan then said, "Don't worry too much, Dr. Zhou. This won't last long."

Zhou Si saw Huo Daochuan looking hopeful, "What's wrong?"

"Didn't you watch the news? Due to the chain reaction of a series of events such as the massive layoffs at Zhijiang Human Resources, news reports related to incarnation labor have emerged one after another."

Huo Daochuan listed all the things related to his own interests, "high workload, exploitation of labor, strict rules and regulations, and refusal to acknowledge the existence of Lishi disease, etc."

"These reports ultimately point to one source - the 524 Draft."

Huo Daochuan said excitedly, "I've seen people saying in relevant forums that if this momentum continues, the draft will definitely be passed, and by then our situation will definitely be much better."

Looking at Huo Daochuan's hopeful expression, Zhou Si couldn't help feeling a little sad.

He remembered what Shanjun had told him. Even if the draft was passed, it did not mean that these unrecognized patients were protected. It was just that another bigger sickle had been sharpened and was ready to harvest them.

Huo Daochuan joked, "Doctor Zhou, you won't be unemployed by then, right?"

"How could that be? After the industry is formalized, I might be invited by a pharmaceutical company to be a consultant," Zhou Si looked around, "Then I can get rid of this simple clinic."

Zhou Si turned the topic back on track, "Let's continue what we were talking about just now, Huo Daochuan, are there many incarnation laborers like you in the hidden alley?"

"I'm not too sure about this," Huo Daochuan thought about it seriously and shook his head. "The flow of people in the Hidden Alley is very large every day, and you also know that it is a gray area. You should also understand the relevant matters."

"Are not you afraid?"

"Scared? There's nothing I can do about it. I have to eat," Huo Daochuan complained. "My current job is paid by the day. I work one day at a time. If I work one day less, I may not be able to make enough money for next month's rent."

Zhou Si recalled Madam Cui's words. He carefully considered his words and asked indirectly, "So, do you know the status of these incarnated laborers? Do they suffer from the disease of consciousness separation? If they suffer from the disease of consciousness separation, how do they alleviate their own illness?"

"Condition? They all come to Hidden Alley to work illegally, so whose condition will be good? As for the Lishi disease, who knows?" Huo Daochuan said with lingering fear, "The Hidden Alley is a violent area, and there are too many ways to deal with patients with Lishi disease."

"As for self-relief..."

Huo Daochuan continued thinking along the lines of Zhou Si's question. Suddenly, he seemed to realize something and a look of panic flashed across his face.

Zhou Si naturally noticed this, and he showed no mercy and struck while the iron was hot.

"Huo Daochuan, do you know Yunzhong City?"

Zhou Si's question was like a sharp sword that suddenly stabbed into Huo Daochuan's thoughts without warning, bringing a sharp pain.

Huo Daochuan was stunned for a moment, with fear in his eyes and a stiff expression. He deliberately avoided Zhou Si's gaze to avoid looking at him. This is a normal reaction when a person feels nervous.

Zhou Si's nerves also tensed up. Perhaps it was his intuition that played tricks on him. Zhou Si suddenly felt that Huo Daochuan was not that simple.

Looking back on the previous experience, when he lost the clue and didn't know where to go, Huo Daochuan suddenly appeared and told him the important clue of the Paradise, leading him to the golden dreamland, which triggered a series of events afterwards.

Zhou Si was not sure whether this was a humorous coincidence or a carefully planned conspiracy. If it was the latter, what was Huo Daochuan's purpose?

Besides, if Huo Daochuan had a problem, why did he dare to come to see me in person, and why did he take the risk to see me? Or was I too alert because of the tiger?

All kinds of speculations ran rampant in Zhou Si's mind, but soon they calmed down.

Zhou Si carefully observed Huo Daochuan's various micro-expressions. Huo Daochuan's next answer would determine whether his suspicion was true.

"Sure enough, I can't hide this from you, Doctor Zhou," Huo Daochuan scratched his head embarrassedly, "Cloud City is a legend in the hidden alley. It is said that it is a blessed land and a place where mortals can ascend to heaven.

This time it was Zhou Si who became hesitant. He didn't expect that Huo Daochuan would admit it so easily, as if it was just a coincidence.

"I haven't worked in Hidden Alley for long, so I don't know much about this kind of urban legend," Huo Daochuan paused, "I also heard from them that there is a path to immortality in Cloud City, which can free humans from the troubles of Lishi Disease and even all pain and resentment. It's like a perfect utopia."

"At first I just thought the so-called immortality was a joke, but they became more and more serious. Later, several incarnation laborers disappeared. Some people said they went to Cloud City to seek immortality, but I think they just couldn't make it and went back to their hometown."

Huo Daochuan burst into laughter. He wanted to make Zhou Si laugh with him, but when he looked forward, he was responded by Zhou Si's gloomy expression.

Huo Daochuan's laughter gradually became quieter, and the atmosphere in the room fell into coldness and deathly silence.

Zhou Si calmed down and asked calmly, "Do you have more detailed information about Yunzhong City?"

"No...no more," Huo Daochuan smiled awkwardly, "It's just an urban legend, right."

Seeing Zhou Si's still serious expression, he asked cautiously, "Right...?"

Zhou Si's breathing gradually became heavy, but soon, Zhou Si adjusted his mood and handed the bag of medicine to Huo Daochuan.

"It's just an urban legend, it's nothing," he said considerately, "Take your medicine on time and have regular follow-up visits. With your current condition, you'll be able to recover in no time."

"Okay...Okay, Doctor Zhou."

No matter how slow Huo Daochuan was, he understood what Zhou Si meant. He took the medicine, said hello to Zhou Si, and turned and left.

The clinic was empty with only Zhou Si left. After pondering for a while, Zhou Si called Li Weiyu.

"Team Leader Li, I need you to help me check on someone. I think there's something wrong with him."

Li Weiyun's reply came from the phone, "Who?"

Zhou Si stared at the figure disappearing outside the door and spoke.

"Huo Daochuan."

(End of this chapter)