Chapter 2: If it was not an illusion, what was it?
The research topics related to Sentinels and Guides were numerous, and “Sea Area” was one of the most important among them.
The formal use of “sea area” to refer to the spiritual realm of Sentinels and Guides was introduced by the German psychiatrist Louis Yang. In the late 19th century, German psychiatry held a dominant position worldwide, so the naming convention of “Sea Area” became firmly established.
Sentinels and Guides themselves possess strong mental abilities, and “Sea Area stability” became a crucial aspect of Sea Area studies. This led to the emergence of psychological adjusters responsible for guiding and regulating “sea area” issues.
Qin Ge said, “Director Gao, I can’t do this. Mental illness should be treated by psychiatrists. I’m a psychological adjuster; I can only provide guidance and regulation, not treat illnesses.”
“This isn’t a mental illness.” Gao Tianyue cleared his throat and gestured for Qin Ge to turn to the last page of the report.
The last page included test results from several assessment scales. The results showed that this doctor had no observable mental abnormalities.
Qin Ge: “…”
Gao Tianyue: “If it were a mental illness, it would be easier to handle. The problem is that his mind is completely normal.”
Qin Ge couldn’t contain his curiosity and picked up the two sheets of paper again.
His mental state showed no abnormalities, but he claimed to experience hallucinations. Dr. Peng Hu from the 267th Military Hospital was a Guide, and based on his extensive clinical experience, he believed there was an issue with his “sea area.”
Gao Tianyue sipped his tea with relish, watching Qin Ge frown and carefully examine the report.
After a moment, Qin Ge set down the papers and still decided to decline, saying, “I haven’t dealt with such cases before; I can’t handle this.”
Gao Tianyue waved his hand as if to dismiss Qin Ge’s objections.
“We all know what the 267th Hospital is. When a doctor in the hospital faces issues, it’s a problem that crisis management should indeed address. Aren’t you part of the crisis management office? Aren’t you the only psychological adjuster in the crisis management office?”
Qin Ge: “…”
Gao Tianyue: “Although the Psychological Adjustment Department hasn’t been formally established yet, I’ve always had high hopes for you. Not only me, but the higher-ups also hope this matter can be resolved quickly. Xiao Qin, can you do it?”
“…Can I still go back to the archives room?” Qin Ge asked.
Gao Tianyue didn’t give a direct answer, saying, “Qin Ge, I’ve known you for many years, and I know you’re a quiet person who keeps everything inside. This is an opportunity to step out for you. Young man, there’s a vast world out there! Working in the archives room is a waste of your talent.”
The rhythm of the conversation was firmly controlled by Gao Tianyue, and Qin Ge finally fell silent. He knew he didn’t have the right to oppose.
“Alright,” Qin Ge put away Peng Hu’s self-report, “I’ll contact my friend first, then go to the 267 Hospital to gather information.”
After getting up, he realized he might be a leader without a team.
“Of course, we have staff, several of them, and they are all very capable,” Gao Tianyue immediately replied.
Qin Ge thought for a moment, “Not Bai Xiaoyuan.”
Gao Tianyue took a sip of tea, her smile mysteriously ambiguous, “Do you have any issues with Bai Xiaoyuan? We should work harmoniously with our colleagues. I think Xiao Bai is quite good, smart, and efficient.”
Qin Ge rubbed his forehead for a moment and added, “Alright, then I won’t be needing Tang Cuo.”
Gao Tianyue’s smile became even warmer, “You have issues with Xiao Tang too? Qin Ge, you should reflect on yourself. Tang Cuo is an easy-going, cooperative, and diligent person. If you have any problems, just communicate openly and resolve them.”
Qin Ge was at a loss for words. “Anyone else, Director Gao? Just tell me all at once.”
“There’s one more, a sentinel transferred from another office, very outstanding,” Gao Tianyue shook his head, “He’s coming to report this afternoon. I’ll introduce you two then.”
Qin Ge guessed that this sentinel was likely to be similar to Bai Xiaoyuan and Tang Cuo. He dryly chuckled a couple of times, his anticipation smaller than a dust mite.
Qin Ge didn’t have much of an issue with Bai Xiaoyuan; he just found her annoying. With 24 hours in a day, subtracting the eight hours of sleep, he suspected that Bai Xiaoyuan talked for about 15 hours a day.
Qin Ge himself had countless things to worry about every day, and adding Bai Xiaoyuan to the mix scared him.
He didn’t have any conflicts with Tang Cuo, either. Tang Cuo was indeed easy to talk to and diligent. The only problem was that his thought process was quite different from others, and he couldn’t do anything right. After two years of transferring between various departments at the Crisis Management Office, Tang Cuo finally found his place in Qin Ge’s archive room, where he could be a bookworm in peace.
Qin Ge was already trying his best to pretend to be a mentally sound adult every day, and he was not eager to bring Tang Cuo along.
He turned the key, unlocked his electric bike, and temporarily set aside the matters of Bai Xiaoyuan and Tang Cuo. He quickly replayed his conversation with Gao Tianyue in his mind.
He was definitely set up by Gao Tianyue.
This so-called “Psychological Adjustment Department” was probably just a department created to comply with higher-ups’ requests, so Gao Tianyue had stuffed a few unhelpful people into it and, on top of that, made him in charge of them.
Although he had obtained a professional qualification certificate for psychological adjustment therapists, Qin Ge had never used it seriously.
The assessment for psychological adjustment therapists was extremely difficult, and there were only five registered in the whole country, and Qin Ge was one of them.
He was currently the Crisis Management Office’s only guide who could engage in snorkeling, deep diving, patrolling, or even interrogation* in the “sea area” of others.
However, most sentinels in the Crisis Management Office had guides as partners, and the guides themselves could self-regulate. Besides the annual requirement to patrol the “sea area” of new employees according to the procedure, Qin Ge hadn’t had the opportunity to play an important role yet.
Patrolling these “sea areas” was not a pleasant task. Qin Ge always felt that he was rudely intruding into the secrets and emotions of others by diving into their “sea areas.”
He was actually somewhat saddened and angry about Gao Tianyue’s arrangement. However, he didn’t show any of this on his face.
The most regrettable thing was that he hadn’t been able to thoroughly review the contents of the archive room.
As he rode away from the Crisis Management Office on his electric bike, Qin Ge caught a glimpse of a tall man in a black leather jacket leaning against the window of the communication room, asking the old man in the communication room for a cigarette. Qin Ge could only see his side profile, which had a straight and prominent nose.
A large lion lay by the door of the communication room, yawning widely.
“Xiao Qin, heading out?” The old man called out while taking a break from work.
“Going on an errand,” Qin Ge replied.
As the electric bike bumped over the speed bump, the unfamiliar man turned his head and glanced at him twice, but Qin Ge didn’t see it.
The 267 Military District Comprehensive Hospital was a specialized hospital for special individuals. It had a moderate-sized area with clear zoning, and there was also a medical area underground for underground people to use.
The hospital had strict security measures, and everyone, including visitors, had to swipe their identity cards. When the system showed that the visitor was a special individual, they had to undergo additional checks, such as a sentinel guide releasing their spirit animals for inspection.
Qin Ge was delayed at the entrance for a few minutes, and when he entered the hospital, he found Yan Hong waiting for him at the outpatient building.
Yan Hong was Qin Ge’s college classmate and currently works in administrative roles at the 267 Hospital. His daily social media posts were either “working hard overtime” or “the cafeteria is open, let’s go.” He affectionately put his arm around Qin Ge’s shoulder and said, “How about a dinner date tonight? I’ll treat you.”
Qin Ge asked, “Where are we eating? The cafeteria?”
Yan Hong replied, “Our hospital’s cafeteria is famous inside and outside the hospital. Even patients and their families who have been discharged can’t resist coming back just for the daily special.”
“After I gather information, I need to go back to the office.” Qin Ge shook off Yan Hong’s hand, not wanting to listen to his chatter. “Cut to the chase, who is Dr. Peng Hu in your hospital?”
“He’s the best doctor in the 267 Hospital’s Thoracic Surgery Department.” Yan Hong placed his hand on his chest and made a cutting motion. “Patients waiting for surgery under him are lining up. Just a few days ago, the CEO of that listed company fell critically ill, and Dr. Peng Hu was his attending physician. Now that Peng Hu is in critical condition, the hospital is in a hurry, and the patients are anxious. If his problem isn’t resolved soon, he won’t be able to perform surgery.”
Qin Ge understood: the reason he was asked to start working before the establishment of the Psychological Adjustment Department was because the patients of Dr. Peng Hu had been exerting pressure on the Crisis Management Office through various means.
“Bureaucracy,” Qin Ge said.
“Yes, bureaucracy.” Yan Hong once again affectionately put his arm around Qin Ge’s shoulder. “Now, let me take you on a tour of the ‘bureaucratic’ operating room.”
Yan Hong didn’t lead him to the outpatient building or the inpatient building. Instead, he headed straight for another three-story building behind the medical technology building.
The building looked old from the outside but was well preserved. It had been converted into a hospital history exhibition hall, and there were a few patients with crutches chatting in the air-conditioned space.
“Dr. Peng is not here today, so you can visit the operating room first,” Yan Hong said. “Your department hasn’t been formally established yet, so you can only have a small role like me to receive you, Chief Qin.”
Qin Ge was quite surprised. “The operating room is here?”
“That operating room has long been abandoned,” Yan Hong said as they walked upstairs. “In the past, when the hospital was smaller, this building served as the inpatient ward, and each floor had two operating rooms. About thirty years ago, the government allocated funds for a new building, and this place was given to the Oncology Department for inpatient use. It was only converted into a hospital history exhibition hall a few years ago.”
As they reached the third floor, there were windows and balconies on the right side of the corridor, while on the left side, there were several rooms with closed doors and windows. Through the slightly open windows, you could see conference tables inside.
“The third floor is all meeting rooms, and nobody comes here usually,” Yan Hong pointed ahead. “The room in front is what Peng Hu mentioned as Operating Room 6. Our hospital no longer uses numerical designations; the major operating rooms are all in the inpatient building and are named after the departments on each floor, like Obstetrics and Gynecology Operating Rooms 123 and Surgery Operating Rooms 123. So when he said Operating Room 6 was wrong, even the Deputy Dean was scared. We don’t have any operating room 6 here.”
With a flick of his wrist, a small bird with a pink beak fluttered its wings and flew from his hand.
“Oh, fat bird,” Qin Ge greeted the bird. “Long time no see.”
“It’s called Honeyguide!” Yan Hong corrected him angrily. “Are you doing this on purpose? I’ve told you like thirty thousand times; can’t you remember?!”
The honeyguide was only slightly larger than a sparrow. It recognized Qin Ge and chirped affectionately at him, and then Yan Hong waved at it, shooing it forward.
The bird flapped its wings and flew to the end of the corridor, disappearing through the closed door.
After a moment, the little bird flew back and landed in Yan Hong’s hand, chirping affectionately twice before turning into a light mist and vanishing into Yan Hong’s palm.
“Alright, my bird says it’s okay. Let’s go!” Yan Hong pushed Qin Ge forward.
Qin Ge couldn’t help but laugh and cry. Yan Hong was timid, but he didn’t expect him to be this timid.
“There is no problem,” he reassured Yan Hong. “I checked downstairs, and there were no abnormal spiritual fluctuations here.”
Yan Hong was both impressed and annoyed, “Then why didn’t you tell me?”
Qin Ge looked at him, “Wait… You used your spirt animal to investigate because there was something unusual about this operating room?”
He was somewhat surprised. The one who had the issue was clearly Dr. Peng Hu and the scenes he saw were impossible to occur in reality. Why would Yan Hong bring him to see the operating room and be so cautious about it?
“Everyone who read the report thinks the problem lies with Dr. Peng,” Yan Hong pulled out a key, “But the real oddity is this operating room.”
The key was inserted into the lock.
“I believe in a materialistic worldview; I’m a fan of Marx, but this situation is too strange.” Yan Hong lowered his voice, “The self-report that Dr. Peng wrote was organized by me, and there were certain things the hospital didn’t allow him to include.”
“What things?” Qin Ge was intrigued by his mysterious demeanor and also spoke in a hushed tone.
“Dr. Peng mentioned that the walls were covered in blood, flowing down from the ceiling. The operating room floor was filled with it.” Yan Hong hesitated for a moment, lowering his voice further, “And he also saw patients and doctors in the operating room, wearing uniforms from decades ago, performing surgeries.”
After dropping Yan Hong back at the outpatient building, Qin Ge sat down on a bench in front of the hospital history exhibition hall.
There was only one bench, surrounded by four or five willow trees just beginning to sprout leaves. He looked up at the third floor but couldn’t see Operating Room 6 from this angle.
Next to the small path, a boy was crying loudly, clinging to his father’s leg, and a tiny sheepdog was cowering by his side, looking frightened.
It was then that Qin Ge noticed there were children and their little spirit animals everywhere. Today was probably the day for testing the spirit animals of young sentinels and guides. Some children easily played with their spirit animals, while others were still afraid of their unfamiliar but ever-present companions.
He glanced around and saw a large lion lying on the grassy area near the outpatient building, yawning lazily.
There were no spirit animals daring to approach the lion.
Amidst the cacophony of laughter and crying, the lion’s yawn seemed like a stop-motion animation.
Qin Ge stared at the lion, lost in thought, his mind racing.
Today, without Dr. Peng, there was seemingly no progress to be made. However, Yan Hong had intentionally taken him to see the operating room and described the more detailed parts of Dr. Peng Hu’s hallucinations.
That operating room was now filled with clutter, with used banners and broken chairs stacked high, the floor covered in dust, and scattered footprints. Yan Hong opened a window just a crack, and the springtime sun, not yet too intense, cast a beam of light into the room. The dust inside the room swirled and danced in the light.
There was no operating table, and certainly no blood or medical personnel like what Dr. Peng Hu had described.
Dr. Peng had said that blood flowed from the ceiling of the operating room down the walls, and there were many people moving in and out of the walls. But Qin Ge, inside the operating room, couldn’t sense anything unusual.
It was just an ordinary utility room.
Yan Hong had emphasized repeatedly that Dr. Peng Hu’s descriptions contained many specific details. There were so many details that everyone who heard them would think it wasn’t a hallucination but a scene genuinely appearing before his eyes. After all, Dr. Peng couldn’t have seen an old operating room from decades ago since he hadn’t been at the hospital back then.
If it wasn’t a hallucination, then what was it?
Qin Ge stood up. He had to return to the Crisis Management Office to check on some documents. For some reason, he felt that this situation was very peculiar, causing a subtle unease, like the warm-up exercises before a dance party.
He took a shortcut to the parking shed and noticed the lion looking at him as he passed by.
Even in the Crisis Management Office, lion spirit animals were a rarity. Qin Ge couldn’t help but glance at it a few more times and suddenly recognize it as the same lion he had seen in the Crisis Management Office’s communication room.
It seemed that the sentinel who had been asking for cigarettes had arrived at the hospital after him.
Out of an inexplicable curiosity, he raised his hand and waved at the lion.
On his way back to the Crisis Management Office from the hospital, Qin Ge would occasionally think of the lion’s owner, recalling his beautifully prominent nose and fairly attractive profile.
Author’s Note:
Snorkeling: A term used in diving activities, specifically referring to shallow consciousness exploration in the sea of studies.
Deep Diving: A term used in diving activities, specifically referring to deep consciousness exploration in the sea of studies.
Patrolling: A term used in diving activities, specifically referring to the guide’s roaming through an entire or part of the sea to find anomalies.
Interrogation: In the sea of studies, it specifically refers to the guide forcibly invading a sea area for unauthorized exploration.
“Honeyguide” is a type of bird that enjoys eating honey. Humans often use it to locate beehives.
