Embers Ad Infinitum

“Neat and symmetrical?” Jiang Baimian asked in confirmation.

Laurice pointed at the coffee table with certainty. “Yes. Look…”

Uh, if Little Red were here and heard these words, he would suffer from PTSD again… This thought flashed across Jiang Baimian’s mind.

It was naturally impossible for Laurice to hear her musing, and she continued, “There should’ve been a flower vase, a wooden box for tissues, and two cups for drinking water here, but he said that they have to be removed because the flower vases and wooden boxes can’t be symmetrical.”

As Laurice spoke, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao cast their gazes at the coffee table and realized that there were only four porcelain cups meant for drinking left. Two of them had been added because of their visit.

Symmetry OCD? As Jiang Baimian retracted her gaze, she glanced at Shang Jianyao.

Shang Jianyao nodded at her.

However, Jiang Baimian couldn’t understand why he was nodding. Do you agree with Laurice, or did you hear my thoughts?

Laurice didn’t sense their silent interaction and sighed. “It actually isn’t too bad; it’s just tiring. I have to pay attention to how items are placed, as well as my clothes and hairstyle. Oh, Oudick won’t be angry because of this. He just quietly fiddles with these things until they meet his requirements. He’s very persistent.”

This reminded Jiang Baimian of the saying: ‘one eye is big, and the other is small. You’re not a good person. I’ll help you dig them all out.’

It was also a manifestation of symmetry OCD, but it was more violent and crazy.

Shang Jianyao stroked his chin. “Apart from this, what else is there?”

“Nothing.” Laurice slowly shook her head as if she were still recalling the various details she noticed while spending time with Oudick over the past two days. She then fell silent for a moment before hesitantly saying, “There’s something else. I wonder if it counts…”

“Go ahead and say it. Whether it counts will be determined by the therapist,” said Shang Jianyao—who loved novelty and acting—as though he was a senior psychiatrist.

Laurice was very grateful that he had preliminarily cured Oudick and also trusted his medical skills. She didn’t hesitate when she heard that.

“He seems more timid and weaker than before. Before going to the Hunter’s Guild today, he looked in the mirror and muttered to himself for a while before mustering his courage.”

Dr. Shang Jianyao nodded. “This is a kind of post-traumatic stress disorder. To put it simply, the tragic outcome of resisting the nightmare left a psychological trauma in him. He’s no longer as confident as before, and he’s prone to being afraid of taking certain risks. It’s easy for him to appear weak in front of the strong. This requires long-term therapy, but it’s not a big problem. There’s no need to worry too much.”

“I understand.” Laurice heaved a sigh of relief. “It’s no wonder he agreed to my insistent request that he stay at home and not meet the parishioners for the past two days. That would’ve been impossible in the past. Yes, apart from being very persistent when it comes to cleaning and object placement, he chooses to listen to me about everything else.”

Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao asked a few more questions before finally confirming that Oudick didn’t have any other abnormalities.

Worried that something would happen to Bai Chen, Long Yuehong, and Genava, they didn’t wait for Oudick to return. They took the initiative to bid farewell, went down to the first floor, and got back into the rented car.

In order not to implicate Oudick and his family, they drove the car into a few empty alleys around them. They then made several turns before embarking on the correct path back to the Green Olive Zone.

After more citizens joined the army, First City became increasingly quiet during the day. Many secluded non-store places would typically take up to 20 minutes to see people passing by them.

In the passenger seat, Jiang Baimian summarized the gains from their visit. “From the looks of it, Oudick has four additional abnormalities: mania, symmetry OCD, feeling timid and weak, as well as delirium.”

“How tragic…” The benevolent Zen Master Redemption sighed sincerely.

Anyone with just one of the stated problems would have their normal lives affected; Oudick had obtained four at once.

Before Zen Master Redemption could finish his sentence, the Shang Jianyao that abhorred evil added, “Therefore, we can’t just let this matter go!”

The Shang Jianyao that valued relationships said, “If we can resolve the nightmare’s minion and find clues to deal with it, it might help Oudick recover.”

As the Shang Jianyaos spoke one after another, Jiang Baimian found it difficult to interject.

After the echoing voices in the car calmed down, she exhaled and said, “Will there be so many problems if one goes crazy because of a nightmare?”

From what she knew, there should only be delirium or mania.

Although symmetry OCD could be considered a mental illness once the severity reached a certain extent, it often wasn’t associated with madness.

Being timid and weak couldn’t even be considered a mental illness.

Furthermore, there was no necessary connection between the four abnormalities. In the field of mental disorders, only mania and delirium often appeared together.

Jiang Baimian preliminarily suspected that being timid and weak was indeed as Shang Jianyao had said—it was a psychological trauma left behind when Oudick met the nightmare.

At this moment, Shang Jianyao had already calmed down. “From the looks of it, Little White’s guess was right. One big eye and one small eye were things Oudick saw in the nightmare. ‘You’re not a good person; I’ll help you dig them all out’ is something Oudick added after he contracted symmetry OCD.”

Upon hearing these two sentences, Jiang Baimian muttered to herself, “Appear…”

She fell silent for a moment before suddenly turning to look at Shang Jianyao. “Why can’t it be an infection? Before we set off to visit Oudick and Laurice, didn’t we guess that the additional abnormalities on Oudick might come from him mimicking what he sensed back then or that it was a mark left behind after he was infected by madness?”

Shang Jianyao slowed down the car and removed his right hand from the steering wheel to stroke his chin. “If it’s an infection or imitation, there must be a source or reference target.”

“A person on the left, a person on the right, with a small picture frame in the middle. This itself is very symmetrical; I said so back then.” Jiang Baimian’s thoughts turned active, and her expression was staid.

Shang Jianyao thought for a moment and said, “You mean that the photo frame or the other person has symmetry OCD? Through the nightmare, they ‘infected’ Oudick with this problem?”

“Maybe…” Jiang Baimian replied with uncertainty before suddenly sitting up straight. “If that’s the case, the reason the target we’re tracking keeps wearing sunglasses isn’t that he’s afraid of the light or wants to hide his appearance but that his companion has symmetry OCD. If he doesn’t do so, it will definitely trigger internal strife! When he asked for directions at night, his companion was hiding around him!”

…

Green Olive Zone.

Genava sat in the room. While paying attention to the need to switch high-performance batteries that needed charging, he would use all the cameras as his ‘eyes’ to carry out real-time monitoring since he had nothing to do.

Diagonally across the corridor of the rented apartment, in a room near the stairwell, Bai Chen and Long Yuehong were quietly lurking.

Nobody lived here; there was obvious dust on the tables and chairs. Bai Chen and Long Yuehong had previously unlocked the door and hid in the quiet corridor when nobody passed by.

Here, they could see the situation around the stairwell through the keyhole and peephole. With the help of the hidden cameras, they could observe if there was anything abnormal in Genava’s rented apartment.

Long Yuehong repeated the few situations he had previously listed in his mind to prevent himself from forgetting the corresponding plans.

Bai Chen consoled Long Yuehong as she looked out through the peephole. “There’s no need to be too nervous. The more nervous you are, the easier it is for you to forget the details and make mistakes that you shouldn’t have made.”

That’s right. I can’t be nervous. I have to make Little White think that I’m steady and reliable… Long Yuehong took a deep breath and slowly exhaled to calm himself.

After an unknown period of time, Bai Chen suddenly suppressed her voice and said, “Someone’s coming up.”

Long Yuehong subconsciously leaned against the door.

Bai Chen looked back at him and lowered her voice. “Watch using the computer. We shouldn’t be squeezed at the door together. That will appear very suspicious to the Awakened.”

“Alright…” Long Yuehong quietly retreated to the table he had cleared.

Bai Chen’s laptop was constantly switched on. With Genava as a temporary base station as a signal source, it displayed the scene captured by the surveillance cameras at the door.

Long Yuehong looked at the screen and saw a man in ordinary clothes enter the building and turn right.

It was noon, and many people not far from their workplaces would choose to return home for lunch. Thus, it wasn’t surprising that someone would appear.

However, the man stopped at the rented apartment where Genava was. He reached out and slammed the door, his voice so loud that it reached Bai Chen and Long Yuehong. “Open up! I’m back!”

He slammed the door for a few seconds before attempting to remove the key at his waist.

At this moment, a human’s voice deliberately mimicked by Genava sounded from behind the door. “Who are you?”

“Who are you?” The man was surprised. He then looked around and slapped his forehead. “F*ck! I went to the wrong floor!”

He didn’t apologize. He just turned around and quickly walked to the stairwell as if he wanted to escape this embarrassing scene.

This seemed to be a coincidence.

However, Bai Chen didn’t let her guard down and muttered to herself, “His memories were affected?”

“If that’s the case…” Long Yuehong habitually echoed. He was then shocked. “As neighbors on the same floor as the target, could our memories be secretly flipped?”