Forbidden Land – CH 125

Du Xuemin’s question completely surprised Zhang Chao. If someone else had asked, he would have immediately retorted, “What’s it to you?”

However, Du Xuemin was a renowned professor and a top doctor, so he couldn’t very well yell at him. He could only say somewhat shyly, “This…Professor Du…what does this have to do with anything?”

At this moment, Professor Lin said, “It does. Sexual behavior is related to many things. Tell us so we can analyze the reasons for you.”

Du Xuemin added with a smile, “This is a hospital; it’s very normal. Don’t be shy. We are doctors, and in a doctor’s eyes, sexual behavior is a normal physiological need.”

Zhang Chao recalled his encounter with Chen Rong, lowered his head, and said, “We did it once.”

Professor Lin seemed somewhat unconvinced and asked, “Besides sexual behavior with the opposite sex, have you—?”

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Zhang Chao quickly interrupted, “Impossible, I have absolutely no homosexual tendencies!”

Professor Lin smiled and shook his head, saying, “That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking, for example, besides having sexual intercourse with someone of the opposite sex, do you choose to masturbate in your dorm?”

Zhang Chao blushed, hesitated for a moment, and said, “Well… most normal men… would, right?”

Du Xuemin and Professor Lin smiled understandingly. Du Xuemin said, “It’s normal. We are asking you, how often do you masturbate?”

Zhang Chao’s face turned bright red, and he refused to answer.

Professor Lin said, “We won’t tell anyone. This is a hospital; these kinds of questions are very normal.”

Zhang Chao stammered, “Every one or two days, sometimes two or three days.”

Professor Lin gave Du Xuemin a bewildered look.

Du Xuemin said, “Well, Xiao Zhang, although you’re young, well… I have a suggestion. Could you, for the next period of time, restrain yourself and refrain from any form of… sexual activity?”

Zhang Chao stammered, “This… what does this have to do with my amnesia?”

Professor Lin said, “Your intermittent memory interruptions indicate a problem with your brain’s central nervous system. From what we can see now, the problem isn’t too serious. However, from the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine, essence, qi, and spirit are interconnected. If the essence is weak, it’ll damage qi and spirit. We believe that if you can ‘nourish your essence,’ it’ll be very beneficial for your qi and spirit. The fact that you still can’t remember what happened after hypnosis indicates that your spirit is somewhat weak. Of course, we can’t say what the consequences will be. However, from your perspective, we suggest that you restrain yourself for a period. Let your essence recover, and naturally your qi and spirit will be replenished. Then we’ll do another hypnosis session, and we believe all your memories will be able to connect.”

Zhang Chao nodded after listening. To be honest, he found it hard to connect their talk of sexual behavior with his amnesia.

Others who did drugs and chased a woman were as thin as sticks, yet they didn’t seem to be affected; their spirits appeared quite good.

Since they had said so, Zhang Chao himself wanted to recover all his memories as soon as possible so he could be considered a completely normal person. So he agreed, “Okay, Professor Du, Professor Lin, I’ll do as you say so…so I can have the next hypnosis session as soon as possible and fully recover.”

Hearing his words, Du Xuemin and Professor Lin both nodded in satisfaction.

Zhang Chao then asked, “By the way, Professor Du, Professor Lin, do you know a Professor Lin in the School of Medicine, the one who manages the southernmost storeroom on the sixth floor?”

Both of them were taken aback. Professor Lin suddenly became serious and said, “That’s me. What do you want with me?”

“Ah!” Zhang Chao was very surprised; this was too much of a coincidence.

The Professor Lin he was looking for was actually the one standing right in front of him! But the man before him, whom he had intended to ask about the mummified corpse, suddenly found it difficult to ask, stammering, “Professor Lin, in that classroom, is there… is there something?”

Before Professor Lin could answer, Du Xuemin seemed even more excited, asking, “What did you say there was?”

Zhang Chao awkwardly looked at the two, hesitating for a long time before finally saying, “A… a mummified corpse, an ancient mummified corpse.”

Du Xuemin seemed relieved. Professor Lin looked at Zhang Chao for a moment and said, “There was an ancient mummified corpse, probably from the late Qing Dynasty. It was unearthed during construction last year and kept in my storeroom. But it’s gone now.”

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Zhang Chao asked, “Where did it go?”

Professor Lin said, “When it was unearthed last year, I temporarily stored it in the storeroom. Later, I went abroad for an exchange program and forgot about it. When I came back, I found it wasn’t preserved well; some tissue had decayed, so I sliced ​​it all and preserved it in formalin as a specimen. Last week, I discovered that it had even molded in the formalin. I don’t know why, but anyway, the specimen was ruined, so I disposed of it as medical waste. Why are you asking about this?”

Zhang Chao said with some relief, “So, it’s all been taken care of, haha.”

Professor Lin asked, “Why did you ask about this?”

Zhang Chao smiled. He couldn’t very well reveal anything dirty he knew in front of the two professors, so he said, “Nothing, I just heard that there are some specimens in that classroom, including some strange animal specimens. I’m a little curious and wanted to take a look.”

Du Xuemin and Professor Lin exchanged a glance but said nothing.

They chatted about other things for a while longer before seeing Zhang Chao off.

After Zhang Chao left, Du Xuemin said, “Old Lin, it seems even a student knows about the strange things in your storage room. You aren’t doing a good job.”

Professor Lin smiled wryly and said, “What can I do? I can’t just move everything back to my own home.”

Du Xuemin said, “Hmm, that’s true. But we need to think of a way to move it as soon as possible. If even a student has heard about the strange things in the storage room, what about other interested people?”

Professor Lin nodded. “Regarding the ghost, I think we need to perform a ritual as soon as possible. And that jiangshi and the mountain spirit need to be dealt with promptly; otherwise, they’ll scare the students sooner or later.”

Du Xuemin said, “Yes, but the root of the problem is still that old thing. When the students are on vacation, let’s pick a day and go to the swamp. We need to deal with it as soon as possible.”

Professor Lin nodded and said, “Last year, a mummified corpse appeared. I was about to go abroad for an exchange program and overlooked this matter, never expecting it to cause such a big problem. I discussed this with the association leaders a few days ago. When we were choosing a school site, everyone checked the historical data of the land and thought there wouldn’t be any major issues, especially with the architectural layout of the Heavenly Demon-Binding Array. Who would have thought it would involve the Southern Song Dynasty? After all, the current members of the association don’t have the expertise of their predecessors, especially someone like Principal Zhu. The association has arranged for the school to conduct a preliminary geological survey of the swamp during the summer vacation, when there are fewer students, and to resolve this matter.”

Du Xuemin asked, “What do you think of Zhang Chao?”

Professor Lin said, “I’ve heard your general description of him, but I don’t know much about him yet. His memory problems are most likely due to inhaling corpse energy.”

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Du Xuemin said, “I only noticed him when he was admitted to the Seventh Hospital for treatment. After that, I learned a little about his experiences from Chen Rong, but not everything. From some of what Chen Rong said, I feel that someone might be impersonating us. Once, Chen Rong even asked me if I had heard of the Qiushi Society.”

Professor Lin frowned and said, “It seems things are more complicated than they appear.”

Du Xuemin nodded and said, “I just don’t understand why the impostors would target outsiders like Zhang Chao and Chen Rong, who don’t know anything about the Society. However, since the impostors do know about the Society, their purpose might be related to your storeroom, so I suggest you arrange a relocation immediately.”

Professor Lin nodded and said, “I’ll do it as soon as possible. Decades of achievements are hard-won.”

Du Xuemin said, “By the way, Brother Yang is back from his business trip. He said Chen Rong had arranged to explain some issues to Zhang Chao.”

Professor Lin said, “That’s perfect. I wonder if we can find out what Zhang Chao and his group actually know or even identify the impostors.”