Overpowered Resident Doctor

Chapter 542: Chapter 541: Expressing Thanks

The suspect’s claim significantly narrowed the diagnostic scope for Mr. Qi’s team, causing them to focus most of their efforts on whether the man was suffering from hysteria.

However, this brought little joy to Mr. Qi, Yan Feifan, and the others.

The problem was that hysteria was an incredibly complex condition.

Hysteria, known scientifically as dissociative conversion disorder, is a mental disorder caused by psychological factors—such as life events, internal conflicts, or suggestion and auto-suggestion—acting upon a susceptible individual.

Its symptoms are diverse, and its manifestations varied.

Most importantly, the pathogenesis of hysteria is still not fully understood.

The current prevailing theories could be broadly summarized into two categories.

The first is that hysteria is a primitive stress response.

A primitive response refers to the various instinctual reactions humans exhibit in a state of crisis.

These include excitatory reactions such as frenzied running, screaming, and emotional outbursts, which are states of psychomotor agitation; inhibitory reactions like lethargy, stupor, paralysis, deafness, muteness, and blindness; and regressive reactions like childish behavior and puerile dementia.

The second is that hysteria is a purposeful reaction.

Clinical practice shows that hysteria often originates from difficult or dangerous situations, and that an episode can often lead to escaping the environment or being exempted from certain obligations.

Since hysteria fell into the category of psychological and psychiatric disorders, it was precisely the weak point of Mr. Qi’s medical team.

Mr. Qi had thus made a temporary request for Miao Quan, the Director of Neurology, to join the team and compensate for this weakness.

「At 8:50 a.m.」

Zhou Guangji, the driver responsible for the car accident, was transferred to the Affiliated Hospital under the escort of two police officers.

Zhou Guangji was thirty-two years old and worked as a real estate agent.

According to his own statement, on the day of the incident, he and his wife had gone to the Phoenix Tail Mountain Golf Course for a round of golf. He had also hoped to use the rare opportunity to meet a few wealthy individuals and expand his client base.

Things, however, had not gone smoothly.

On the drive back to the city, his wife had been incessantly berating him for his incompetence. The severe psychological stress caused him to lose control, leading to the accident...

After Zhou Guangji arrived at the Affiliated Hospital, Mr. Qi had his students, Zhu Xiangdong and Wei Xin, take him for a detailed examination focusing on his brain, nervous system, and organs such as the heart and lungs.

The purpose of the tests was to check if Zhou Guangji had any organic lesions or damage that could have caused his mental or physical loss of control.

Meanwhile, Mr. Qi, Yan Feifan, and the hurriedly summoned Miao Quan remained in Mr. Qi’s office to review the audio and video from the dashcam leading up to the accident.

To their disappointment, the dashcam had only recorded the couple’s voices inside the car and the view from the front of the vehicle.

They couldn’t see the driver Zhou Guangji’s facial expression, making it impossible to judge his mental state at the time.

However, the nearly twenty-minute recording was a real eye-opener for Yan Feifan, introducing him to a true virtuoso of vitriol.

Throughout the recording, Zhou Guangji’s wife’s mouth hardly ever stopped; she was constantly berating her husband.

Curses like "useless," "incompetent," and "blind" were the milder ones. The viciousness of her vocabulary, the sheer artistry of her insults, made Yan Feifan feel that the legendary tale of Zhuge Liang scolding Wang Lang to death paled in comparison.

’After imagining myself in Zhou Guangji’s shoes for just two or three minutes, I already have the strong urge to grab this venomous woman and jump with her from the sixth floor.’

’This woman’s mouth is so fucking nasty, so fucking toxic.’

For the entire recording, Zhou Guangji only offered a couple of weak rebuttals at the very beginning. For the next ten-plus minutes, he remained completely silent.

When the recording finally ended, Yan Feifan let out a sigh of relief, as if a great weight had been lifted.

"Damn, I can’t believe a woman with such a venomous tongue actually exists..."

Yan Feifan said with a sigh, "Zhou Guangji claimed he was under severe verbal provocation and entered a hysterical state."

"I was highly skeptical at first, but after hearing that recording, I’m starting to think he might be telling the truth."

"If I were him, I would’ve jumped off a building with a woman like that ages ago."

Miao Quan said with mock seriousness, "Yan Feifan, that one sentence just revealed your suicidal tendencies. Come by my office after work."

Seeing Yan Feifan’s expression crumble, Miao Quan chuckled, then his face turned serious. "According to his file, Zhou Guangji and his wife have been married for nearly five years."

"So, this type of verbal abuse certainly isn’t a new occurrence. Zhou Guangji should have built up a considerable tolerance for it."

"Therefore, what sounds to us like a severe personal attack probably didn’t constitute a strong enough sudden stimulus for him."

Miao Quan mused, "I personally believe the probability that the continuous, high-intensity verbal abuse caused Zhou Guangji to momentarily lose emotional control and attempt suicide is far greater than the probability he had a sudden hysterical episode."

After a pause, he added, "I need to speak with Zhou Guangji to see if he has any symptoms of depression or masochistic tendencies."

Miao Quan looked at Yan Feifan and explained, "Masochism can be either psychological or physical."

"Perhaps this kind of verbal abuse is precisely what Zhou Guangji enjoys."

"It’s possible that his repeated permission and indulgence allowed his wife’s verbal abuse to escalate to this level."

Miao Quan stated frankly, "I have to say, the wife’s level of abuse is indeed excessive. Extremely so."

"Clearly, a vocabulary of insults like that has to be constantly enriched and accumulated through repeated practice."

Yan Feifan nodded in agreement.

’Internally, his opinion shifted again. He was now leaning toward viewing Zhou Guangji as a villain trying to lie his way out of a criminal sentence.’

"Hey, Feifan, where’s Xv Fang? You don’t have him with you?"

Faced with Mr. Miao’s sudden question, Yan Feifan quickly replied, "Professor, I sent him to recruit volunteers."

"I have a research project on sleep issues that requires a large number of volunteers."

"I had him and my driver-assistant go to Binhai University to recruit student volunteers."

Yesterday afternoon, Yan Feifan had tested Wang Chuan using the isolated high frequencies.

Sure enough, he had the same drowsy reaction as Yan Feifan.

Testing just him and Wang Chuan wasn’t enough; Yan Feifan needed more test subjects.

So, he sent Xv Fang and Feng Jian to Binhai University with the original recording of the pattering rain, searching for volunteers who reacted to it.

There was one question Yan Feifan wanted to answer.

What percentage of the population would react to the sound of rain just as he and Wang Chuan had?

Miao Quan let out a soft "oh," but didn’t forget to add, "Feifan, I know you’re busy and have no experience teaching students, but Xv Fang is here as a favor to an old friend of mine, so please put some effort into his training."

Yan Feifan replied dutifully, "Professor, rest assured. I won’t just turn him loose and let him fend for himself."

Miao Quan nodded in satisfaction.

Just then, a knock sounded at the door.

As the youngest person in the office, Yan Feifan dutifully got up to open it.

To his surprise, a large group was standing outside.

It included the superstar Shen Daoran, character actor Zhang Maoye, a bandaged Qin Lang, a sixteen-year-old girl, and the families of these last two patients—more than a dozen people in all.

"Mr. Yan, you really are here."

Shen Daoran, who was wearing a sun hat, took off his mask and said with a faint smile, "Today is their discharge day."

"We had to come and thank you before we left..."