Chapter 7: Heart Ailment

Psychological Stress Trauma

Ha, the Eldest Miss Bu has really changed drastically.

Xing Yue sneered. The expression on her face didn’t soften much. The bullying, bossy attitude towards her before had merely changed its approach. Orders had turned into requests, now asking if it was “okay”.

Essentially, it was still a bad nature hard to change. She actually wanted her to kiss her foot? The damnable thing was… she really did feel a slight wavering!

Xing Yue began to suspect if it was a lingering effect from that marriage ten years ago. Otherwise, why was she this twisted? It was utterly damnable!

The moment she realized she had the impulse to obey, her emotions had already shifted from mockery to a mix of shame and anger. She couldn’t tell if she was angrier at herself or at Bu Yao.

“Let me tell you,” Xing Yue irritably tugged at her collar, the V-neck white silk shirt slightly disheveled, revealing the petal-edged tube top inside. She gritted her teeth. “This is the last time.”

She took off her glasses. Holding up one cloud-soft, porcelain-like foot, she quickly pecked the instep. The entire process took less than a second, to the point where not even a tactile sensation was transmitted.

The tips and heels of Bu Yao’s feet were blush-red; her skin texture was exquisitely delicate and pampered, showing just how noble and precious she was.

In a moment, a red snake tail flicked out beyond the curtain, waving aimlessly in the air, lost and panicked. A few seconds later, it curled up on the hospital bed, shrank back under the blanket. Along with it, Bu Yao’s thoroughly flushed face also burrowed into the blanket…

Xing Yue angrily yanked the curtain open and retreated to the corridor outside to wait. The doctor who brushed past her gave her a very subtle look. Xing Yue, overly sensitive, felt even angrier. She felt the matter of kissing Bu Yao’s foot must have been discovered by a third party.

Damn! Why on earth had she listened to Bu Yao and kissed her foot?! Utterly humiliating!

On the surface, Xing Yue was calm as still water; inside her heart, she was going berserk.

She paced back and forth in the long corridor, wandering aimlessly until she reached the innermost department at the very end, which had a sign reading “Hypnosis” and an introduction to the hypnotist.

Xing Yue had heard of this name in passing. She heard that through hypnosis, one could diagnose a patient’s mental symptoms and psychological illnesses. She hadn’t registered, she just curiously peered inside a couple of times.

The environment inside was mostly the same as regular departments, just with an extra, strange-looking chair.

“Want to give it a try?” The hypnotist in a white coat came out from the break room, raising an eyebrow at Xing Yue. “Looks like you’re under quite a bit of pressure.”

Xing Yue approached this strange chair, groped her way onto it, and lay down, just in time to kill some time: “Doctor Tan does consultations too?”

Adults — who doesn’t have some pressure?

Tan Xiang’e smiled without speaking. She didn’t have the friendly, compassionate aura typical of a doctor. Instead, her expression carried a sense of unrestrained excitement, eager to try.

She pressed the chair’s switch. A faint electric current spread over Xing Yue.

“Miss Xing, fill out a questionnaire.” She produced a questionnaire card.

Xing Yue took the pen and paper: “How do you know my surname is Xing?”

Tan Xiang’e teased: “I know magic.”

Xing Yue didn’t think much of this joking remark. Ten years ago, when she married Bu Yao, magazine pages were plastered with coverage of her and Bu Yao for a period.

It wouldn’t be anything surprising if someone who enjoyed celebrity gossip recognized her.

Xing Yue browsed the questions on the paper.

Q1. What was your most recent nightmare related to?

a. Family b. Romance c. Ghosts/Monsters d. None

Q2. If staying alone one night, which of the following rooms would you choose?

a. A boat on a lake b. A Mongolian yurt on the grassland c. A small European-style apartment d. A treehouse attic

Q3. Among which groups of people would revealing your tail make you feel comfortable?

a. Lover b. Family c. Friends d. None

Xing Yue focused intently on answering the questions. Every time she pondered a question, she would sink into deep thought, immersed in the scenario, feeling a strong sense of realism.

A faint, warm current spread through her limbs. Tan Xiang’e was also humming a little wordless tune. That voice… it sounded as if it came from within a deep, fog-shrouded, gloomy forest. Xing Yue felt very uncomfortable listening to it, her heart feeling suspended and hollow.

Without realizing it, she fell into a deep sleep…

Harsh sounds filled the entire living room. Bowls and chopsticks were smashed. Broken ashtrays. A floor strewn with debris.

The little girl who had been asleep in her room was startled awake. She scrambled up from the bed in one swift motion, wailing loudly. Her tail rustled as it slipped out of the room. Almost subconsciously, out of habit, she hugged the woman’s thigh, seeking a sense of security.

“Mom…” she babbled, calling out. Her two little hands kept grabbing, wanting to be held.

The woman was in the middle of a fierce argument with her husband. No matter how hysterically she screamed and shouted, the man wore a face of silence, as if this home had nothing to do with him, as if this woman had nothing to do with him either.

This cold indifference completely drove the woman insane. She picked up a freshly boiled kettle of water and hurled it. The other party only tilted his body slightly, easily dodging it. But it brought disaster to an onlooker.

The hot water kettle smashed against the wall, the scalding boiling water splashing back onto the little girl. It all poured onto her small snake tail, which was right in its Molting Period.

A fiery, bone-drilling, severe pain struck. The little girl’s cries instantly pierced the heavens. Her half-shedding tail swelled up with blisters filled with pus fluid. The snake scales curled up, and the skin and flesh beneath were scalded open.

Unfortunately, her cries did not awaken her mother’s pity. The woman picked her up and shook her wildly mid-air, screaming: “Shut up! Stop crying! I said, don’t cry, do you hear me?! Ah— Don’t make a sound! Not allowed to cry!”

When Xing Yue woke up, the scene projected on the ceiling was of the Jiangnan water towns. Her mind was dazed, and her entire body ached as if her bones were falling apart.

“How do you feel, Miss Xing?” Tan Xiang’e asked softly. The instrument screen connected to the chair was filled with chaotic indicator graphs.

It was enough to deduce that the dream Xing Yue had was extremely heart-wrenching.

Xing Yue seemed unable to hear the outside world. She stiffly got off the chair. Her legs had no strength and she nearly collapsed on her knees to the floor. Those eyes were so red they looked like they could drip blood.

She didn’t have tear glands, or she would have long since been flooded.

Xing Yue wanted to make herself appear normal. Her fingers were clenched white, yet her body still couldn’t stop trembling uncontrollably. She answered irrelevantly: “Has Doctor Tan seen what illness I have?”

Tan Xiang’e took out a handkerchief reeking of disinfectant and handed it to Xing Yue: “A heart ailment. Possibly some Psychological Stress Trauma. Very strange… I didn’t see your tail neuron activity on the electrical graph…”

This equipment should have shown the neuron activity for every person’s organs. How could Xing Yue’s be missing? Could it be that Xing Yue didn’t have a tail?

Tan Xiang’e was inwardly alarmed by the thought she herself had produced.

She wanted to ask more, but a flash of red appeared at the doorway. She immediately fell silent. Patient privacy did not allow her to discuss freely when a third party was present.

Bu Yao held the prescription in her hand. Seeing Xing Yue here, she specifically stepped back out the doorway, carefully scrutinizing the department sign hanging on the wall.

Xing Yue had kissed her foot once, and the psychological shadow was so severe she needed to see a psychologist…