A Spell Too Far

By Muqing Shi

How are my sisters! I buy my son a car, clothes, and a big red envelope on holidays. During the Spring Festival, I didn't go back to my own home. I stayed at my sister's. My sister is my benefactor! My sister had an accident, I am more anxious than anyone!"

Police then presented evidence and Bian mengting, 27, was arrested on suspicion of killing her cousin.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Muqing Shi
• Release date: Sep 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9780463769799

Book preview

The stories in this book are based on real people and events, and any similarities are purely coincidental.

People in this book are pseudonyms.

A commoner who married into a wealthy family and ended up in a mental hospital

Lao Kang did not know whether Wei Li's in-laws had made her this way, or whether she had made herself this way, or both. Lao Kang did not know whether it was worth being demoted to a doctor on duty.

Lao Kang was in his late fifties, but his eyes were clear and handsome. At first glance, you might think he was a young man in his thirties. He graduated from a famous medical school in south China with a master's degree and came to work in our hospital. I heard that he was rated as attending when he was about 33 years old. He participated in the scientific research group and was young and promising.

However, Lao Kang, who had an excellent resume, was still working as a doctor on duty in the open ward clinic, receiving new patients and answering simple questions. If the patients were seriously ill, they would be referred to a doctor of a higher level. This easy sinecure forced one to conjure up the rumours of his early years -- at least that he was disdainful and haughty, disagreeable to his colleagues, and despised by his superiors; On the other hand, he received a huge amount of red envelopes and resold medical equipment.

However, shortly after I entered the hospital in the second half of 2016, I found that Lao Kang had been doing bodhisattva work:

Generally speaking, the more serious patients in the psychiatric hospital will be placed in the closed ward where I work. Here, everything is safety oriented, the ward is surrounded by barbed wire, and the access control is very strict. Four or five doctors are crowded into a narrow office with poor lighting, and the lights must be turned on no matter day or night. In the open ward where Lao Kang lived, the management was not so strict because most of the patients with mild and stable conditions were received. Generally, each doctor had an office with bright Windows and clean rooms. So, people in the open ward are less likely to go to the closed ward unless they have to.

However, Lao Kang liked to drill into the closed ward all day long, specially taking advantage of the big courtyard (every morning and afternoon, patients go down to the special space for free activities), chatting with some patients and asking about their conditions. Patients are naturally very welcome -- because the doctors in the closed ward are very busy, and they have to deal with the complicated work of sorting out medical records and adjusting treatment plans after checking rooms every day. It is impossible for Lao Kang to take the time to educate them.

Every time Lao Kang stepped into the courtyard, there would be a dozen patients swarmed around, asking all kinds of questions. Lao Kang's professional level is very solid, often a few words said patients deep feeling, those years of treatment seems to see no hope patients, listen to Lao Kang's speech, will nod again and again.

Compound staff, Lao Kang's behavior is mixed. Young people who have just come to work say that Teacher Kang is very nice and warm-hearted, while colleagues who have come for a few years say that he is too busy to care about himself, while senior people always say half-assed words: Alas, if it were not for...

Lao Kang ignored these comments and, after chatting with the patients, would come to me and Lao Wu, the director of the compound, to smoke a cigarette. When I first arrived, I was also curious, but I could not ask Lao Kang in person. Instead, I asked Lao Wu privately, "Lao Kang comes here every day to direct people to the sea of suffering.

The old man looked at me, his eyes hidden in smoke, unintelligible. When I wanted to say more, He waved his hand, probably telling me not to ask.

As a psychotherapist, in the spirit of learning, WHENEVER I have time, I go to Lao Kang's side to steal teachers. After listening to him for several months, HE benefited a lot and admired Lao Kang's care and patience for his patients.

In the early summer of 2017, however, there was an exception.

One afternoon, After answering the questions, Lao Kang was preparing to leave the compound. A female patient suddenly pick open crowd, squeeze to Lao Kang in front: Kang teacher! I have come to the hospital.

She looked scruffy, her face knobby, dark circles under her eyes obvious, her waist protruding and bulging -- the whole person, like a dirty spindle.

Oh, hello! Lao Kang smiled and looked at him carefully. Then he shrank back half a step in panic and said with a frown, Why are you here again? You've just been discharged from hospital for six months."

Spindle chuckled ingratiatingly. My mother and my sister say I'm a mess, nothing at all...

'Oh, stop it! Lao Kang was impatient and interrupted, Go and talk to the doctor. I can't solve your problem.

At this time, the bell rang close the yard. The patients gathered to go back. Old Kang hurried out of the crowd. Spindle looked after Her and raised her hand to shout, but the nurse on duty urged her to hurry to the queue, and she had to obey.

Lao Kang ran to the place where we used to smoke, pulled up a stool and sat down heavily.

I teased him deliberately: Kang Bodhisattva, you save all sentient beings. Why don't you just ignore that?

Ah? Lao Kang was suddenly worried and crumpled his cigarette. No, she... Hi!

He got up and flew away. Looking at his hurried back, I was very surprised. I turned to Lao Wu and said, This is... ?

Old black mouth down a beat, put a hand.

The next day at the fang Yuan, Spindle kept wandering by Kang's side, trying to talk to him, but Kang would not answer her. Lao Kang kept answering others' questions, speaking faster and faster, his forehead unusually beaded with sweat. All of a sudden, he reached out and jerked me forward, pointing at me and saying to the Spindle, Look, this is a psychotherapist. What do you want to tell him?

Say that finish, the old Kangba looked at me, the brow top is slightly twitching, the eyes beseeching.

So I took Spindle to the office and asked her kindly, What's your name? How many times has this been in the hospital?

That was the day someone at work called me lazy, and I got into a fight with them, and then my mom and my sister... She waved her hands theatrically and spoke very quickly.

I raised my right hand to signal her to stop and said in a smooth, clear voice, WHAT's your name and how many times you've been in the hospital? Answer that first.

Well... She stopped her hands, frowned and thought. I... Willy, I wasn't fighting, they were wrong...

"All right! My scalp was tingling -- she was obviously not stable enough to think like a normal person.

I left hand empty lift, beckoned her to stand up, said: first send you back, such as the situation a little better we chat again.

When I was smoking, Lao Kang handed me a Lotus King and asked with a smile: How is it?

What else can it do? I flick flick flick flick flick sound, have no way to communicate at all!

Lao Kang laughed awkwardly and patted me without saying a word.

Willie did not leave the yard for two weeks. Her colleagues in the ward said that she talked nonsense all day, sometimes saying that she was Wu Zetian and should be mother of the world, sometimes saying that hospital management is too chaotic, she should be hired as the director. During that period of time, Lao Kang did not pay much attention to the business of saving all sentient beings, and sometimes retreated halfway and answered absent-minded. He in the patient's public praise for the first time appeared a slide: Kang teacher temper hey, ignore people.

When Willy came to me again, she was much better. She took the initiative to apologize to me: "Teacher, I'm sorry that day, the doctor just adjusted my medication, I haven't adapted to