Mutated Tao

“Don’t forget to take your medicine!” Sun Xiaoqin yelled.

Once Li Huowang was back in his room and could not hear his mother’s nagging anymore, he sighed and tried to remember what happened last night.

He couldn’t come to any conclusions yet because what he had seen yesterday was very unclear. He even thought that it could’ve been nothing but an illusion.

He needed proof that someone was following him. Otherwise, the others would think that he was going crazy again. What he saw was not what the others perceived.

More importantly, even Li Huowang himself could not fully believe what he had seen.

Li Huowang hesitated before typing on his phone.

Why do I feel like someone is constantly staring at me with ill intentions and trying to harm me?

He searched for his symptoms and quickly found something that might explain it: delusional disorder, persecutory type.[1]

Patients with this disorder always believe that someone, or an organization, is trying to harm them by committing acts of crime against them, such as assault, framing, murder, destruction, defamation, insults, poisoning, stalking, or other acts of oppression.

Li Huowang’s fingers trembled when he read the symptoms.

Am I mentally ill again?

He opened his contacts and scrolled to Yi Donglai’s name. Li Huowang hesitated for a moment before closing the app.

He had finally gotten discharged. He refused to go back.

Li Huowang didn’t want to worry the people around him. He knew his mother would be devastated if she learned that he was mentally ill again.

He continued to look up more information on the internet. Li Huowang checked different keywords such as stalking, surveillance, mental illness, and being harmed just to see if there was another possibility.

He found an interesting article.

Hai Mingwei’s mental health deteriorated when he became older and complained to others about how he was being stalked by someone. He told others that his conversations were being wiretapped and that his mail was being intercepted. While eating his lunch one day, he pointed at two people across his table and told the others that the two were stalking him. Everyone thought he had persecutory-type delusional disorder.

Hai Mingwei’s mental health soon deteriorated further, and everyone firmly believed that he was mentally ill. He got admitted into a mental hospital and accepted the electroconvulsive therapy that was popular back then.

He committed suicide one day, as everyone had expected. He was written off as being unable to endure the pressure and committed suicide. His case was recorded in books and journals.

However, fifty years later, someone managed to prove that Hai Mingwei had indeed been stalked. An organization had placed under him surveillance and had been tracking him all the time.

“Hah!”

Li Huowang closed his eyes and threw his phone onto the bed. Being in a difficult position was not scary, but not knowing what to do was. Whatever he decided to do might be wrong!

“What should I do? Is it real? Do I need to go and find out the truth?”

Li Huowang wasn’t sure what he could do, but then he sensed the gaze again. This time, he didn’t act because his window was open and it was daytime.

Li Huowang moved slowly and took out a handheld mirror from his drawer. He lowered his head and used the mirror’s reflection to see outside the window.

He slowly moved the mirror and finally saw a pair of women's shoes. His heart started racing.

Li Huowang moved the mirror again, then he saw Madam Qi’s face in the mirror.

“Fuck!”

Li Huowang turned around and looked out the window. “Madam Qi, aren’t you tired from doing this all day? Is there no one to take over from your shift? Why don’t you come to my house for a drink so you can stare at me all you want!”

Madam Qi left as if nothing happened.

At the same time, a phone rang inside Li Huowang’s home. Li Huowang recalled that it was the ringtone of his mother’s phone.

He walked out and found the phone on a cabinet. It had a cracked screen.

Li Huowang picked up the phone and held it next to his ear.

“Hello? Who is it?”

There was no response from the other end of the line.

“Who is it? Sun Xiaoqin is not here. I’m her son. Who are you looking for?”

—Li Huowang?

The caller’s voice seemed weird, as if it had been altered digitally.

Li Huowang frowned and suspicion arose in his heart. “I’m Li Huowang. Who are you?”However, there was no response, again. He adjusted the phone’s position, trying to hear more clearly.

He could faintly hear the sound of someone wailing in the background. Li Huowang took out his own phone and slowly dialed the police’s number.

Sun Xiaoqin walked into the house with a bag of fruit when she saw Li Huowang was using her phone.

She asked, “Huowang, what are you doing?”

“Someone called you. I think they had the wrong number,” Li Huowang answered as he placed the phone down on the cabinet.

“What? But my phone is broken.”

“What?”

Li Huowang quickly checked the phone and saw nothing on the cracked screen except for his shocked face reflected on it.

“What’s wrong? Don’t frighten me,” Sun Xiaoqin said.

She walked over and hugged Li Huowang while stroking his head.

Li Huowang suddenly laughed. “Haha, how was my act? I fooled you, didn’t I?”

Sun Xiaoqin released him and pushed him slightly. “You rascal. Don’t make jokes like that! They scare me!”

“Haha, I thought you were worrying about something, so I thought I would lighten up the mood.”

Li Huowang walked back towards his room.

When he entered his room, he snarled and howled quietly. “What the fuck is going on? Is someone surveilling me!?”

1. Sounds like a cool technique name. ☜

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