Mental Illness Evolution Manual - Chapter 48

Yan Xianchuan followed the sound and saw Lu Mingqiu holding a brown hardback notebook, looking at it intently.

A paper notebook, it was so rare, it was something you couldn’t find even if you searched the outside world. Its cover looked clean, there was no damage, the owner must have cherished it.

Yan Xianchuan didn’t disturb the other party’s reading, she turned to observe the bedroom.

It was small, a single bed against the wall, it was covered with faded blue sheets, the quilt was piled up in a mess, it also had frayed edges from excessive washing.

Opposite the bed was a desk, there were no books on it, but there was a jigsaw puzzle, the production date was blurred and invisible, judging from the wear and tear on the box, it had been here for a long time.

There was a faded yellow poster on the wall, it was a cartoon character, the bottom corner was curled up, revealing a few scratches. Yan Xianchuan walked over and peeled it off, a line of small black words appeared—Mom is crazy, I’m not.

There was a wardrobe in the corner of the wall, Yan Xianchuan opened the cabinet door, there were only a few scattered clothes inside. She squatted down and took out a pair of scissors from the back, there were a few nicks on the edge, but they were still sharp, they didn’t affect their use, it was just that they were stained with an ominous dark brown.

She took a look and knew it was dried blood.

Lu Mingqiu walked over and handed her the diary, “I’ll go and see the other rooms.”

It was about as thick as a finger, the outer layer of the paper was yellow and gray, the title page said—Don’t peek.

The handwriting was the same as the one on the wall.

The initial entries were quite ordinary, penned by a little girl. Her family was harmonious, her parents loving, and her diary reflected a sweet, cheerful tone. Occasionally, she included mild complaints about her mother reminding her to eat more fruit, which came across as an unintentional form of boasting.

She liked to fly kites, the kite maker in the town had died, her father helped her make one by hand, she wrote in her diary that the kite was ugly, but in order to not discourage her father’s confidence, she still praised him for doing a good job, and then she happily played for an afternoon.

The first third of the diary was filled with these trivial matters, today she caught a cricket, tomorrow she was licked on the mouth by a puppy, the life of this little town girl seemed to be filled with endless happy things.

Yan Xianchuan didn’t skip a single page, she sat down at the desk and read it carefully.

Until one day six years ago, she wrote that a church had been built in the town, many people went there to listen to people preach, because the church would give out free food, like eggs, flour, milk, and so on.

People gradually started to believe in the church, they started to pray at home, her parents also became believers, their lives didn’t seem to change much, except for an extra prayer before meals, the food was all from the church, it seemed like it was only right to thank them.

Later, the news was all about the virus leak, a virus in a laboratory in a neighboring city leaked due to improper operation, it would infect people, infect livestock, making people act like they had mania, they would attack randomly, and then suddenly die.

Everyone was on edge, the government was also encouraging people to isolate themselves at home, not to go out, to reduce the possibility of infection, and to wait for the Federation to develop an antidote.

Her parents bought a lot of food, but everyone else thought the same way, all the supermarkets were empty, they managed to buy some back, but it wouldn’t last two weeks.

From here on, her diary was no longer recorded day by day, sometimes it was every few days, sometimes it was every one or two weeks.

She wrote in her diary: “There’s less and less food at home, we only eat two meals a day, one dish, even so, Mom and Dad are still worried, they don’t smile anymore, Dad watches the news all day long, he wants to see the latest policies, many people are complaining about the lack of food, but they’re not getting any response.”

“They argued today, I said we could just eat one meal a day, I could save my portion, they hugged me and cried, before going to bed tonight, Mom gave me a jelly, I thought all the snacks were gone, she said I shouldn’t be afraid.”

“I can’t believe it, the church people actually came to deliver food to us, it’s amazing, they’re really good people! Everyone has something to eat. They also said on the radio that they will continue to deliver supplies to us, they told us not to give up hope.”

“The virus is still out of control, we’ve been at home for half a year and haven’t gone out, it’s good that the church people keep sending food. Dad doesn’t watch the news much anymore, many cities have been infected by the virus, but the town is small, and we started isolating early, so we escaped the disaster, it’s a good thing that everyone is still alive.”

“There were still people who couldn’t stand it and ran out, those people all died of the virus, it’s so sad, I don’t know why they were so reckless.”

“Today is my fifteenth birthday, it’s been a year since we’ve been in isolation, Mom baked a cake, Dad found a box of jigsaw puzzles from somewhere, I thought there were no new things left at home, I’m so happy, it’s just that Mom never plays with us, she said she can’t do puzzles.”

“The people who delivered the food brought something different this time, a small box, it contained medicine, they said it was for treating heart disease. They said this medicine is a new product, it’s different from the previous ones, it will relieve a lot of symptoms after taking it, thank the church, if it wasn’t for them, Mom would have been in so much pain.”

“The new medicine really works, Mom doesn’t have chest pains anymore, but she often has nightmares, she can’t tell me what they are, I asked the church people when they came to deliver food, they said it was normal side effects. Side effects are side effects, it’s better to have nightmares than chest pains.”

“Mom has been acting strange recently, every time I get up at night, I see her sitting in the living room, but when I ask her the next day, she says she’s been sleeping in the bedroom, Dad also says she hasn’t left. Did I see wrong? But I’ve seen her for several days in a row.”

“The church gave me a box of medicine, they said that staying in the house for a long time is a bit depressing, so I had hallucinations, after taking the medicine, I really can’t see Mom anymore.”

“Mom is secretly eating delicious food, I went over to take a look, it was actually a finger, I screamed, then I took a closer look, it was just a braised chicken foot, I was so scared, chicken feet are so delicious.”

“I was playing jigsaw puzzles with Mom, Mom is so stupid, she’s so slow, we used to work together so well.”

“She actually wanted to chop me with a knife, Mom is crazy, really crazy, what is she doing? I had to tie Mom to the bed, the church people gave me a box of tranquilizers, Mom calmed down a lot after taking them.”

“Mom won’t eat, she used to love braised pork, I fed her, she vomited all over me. But Mom is sick, maybe she doesn’t have an appetite. She’s getting more and more confused lately, she always says strange things, I hope the virus will be eradicated soon, I can take Mom out for a walk.”

“Mom cried today, she said something about Dad, it’s so strange, when did we have a Dad?”

Yan Xianchuan turned another page, the rest was blank, the diary ended there.

She put down the diary, came out of the bedroom, found Lu Mingqiu, and asked in confusion, “Was there a virus leak? You know, I haven’t recovered from my amnesia, I don’t remember very well.”

“No.” Lu Mingqiu denied, “There never was, these should all be lies made up by the church, to make them stay at home. Controlling the internet, forging news, it’s not a difficult thing for the church and the forces behind it.”

“So this family should be… the mother and daughter ate the father? Then the daughter ate the mother?” Yan Xianchuan said, “The medicine they took was wrong.”

“Probably.” Lu Mingqiu said, “I saw a female skeleton under the bed, it might belong to the mistress of this house.”

“I don’t know if she’s alive or dead now.” Yan Xianchuan said.

Yan Xianchuan picked up a picture frame from the ground, she shook off the broken glass, it was a family of three, standing on the grass, smiling brightly, there was a heart drawn on the back of the photo.

“Is this a mental stimulation experiment?” she asked, the fighting outside hadn’t stopped, “Then why did the church make everyone fight, a lot of people will die, aren’t the experimental materials very precious?”

“I don’t know.” Lu Mingqiu sighed softly, “I don’t know everything.”

“Anyway, let’s rest here for a while.”

“You rest.” Yan Xianchuan looked into her eyes, “I’ll keep watch.”

“Be careful.” Lu Mingqiu said. She knew her physical condition, the most important thing now was to rest, not to show off, “If anything happens, tell me immediately.”

“I will, don’t worry.” Yan Xianchuan gently pushed her shoulder, making her sit on the bed. She had said countless lies, but in front of Lu Mingqiu, she always maintained the virtue of honesty, and she didn’t hesitate to make promises.

“Trust me.”

She couldn’t leave this house, she had to stay with Lu Mingqiu and ensure her safety, at this time, it was thanks to the drone that she could successfully observe the outside world.

It was a good thing that the drone didn’t need to connect to the internet, otherwise, she would be completely blind and wouldn’t know anything.

The road was still chaotic, but there were fewer people fighting than before, maybe it had something to do with the people lying on the ground, their lives unknown.

Not everyone who gained psionic abilities couldn’t control themselves, some people regained their senses and avoided this hellish bloodbath.

It was just that Yan Xianchuan looked at their psionic abilities, she felt like they weren’t very high level.

These people were crazed, driven by a desperate need to kill those before them. Holding nothing back, they unleashed their psionic abilities with unrestrained fury, employing their full power without hesitation.

BBut Yan Xianchuan observed that some could only spray water, wetting their targets; others could only fly a couple of meters before falling back down, their abilities seemingly weak and limited.

She hadn’t encountered many psionics; her assessment was based only on those she had personally witnessed.

Lu Mingqiu was a level A psionic, her strength was unquestionable, she was extremely powerful, both in terms of lethality and functionality, she was very outstanding.

Gold Ring was level B, he had some limitations, but he could bend and reshape metal at will, control its speed, and even levitate himself and fly low by controlling metal.

Compared to them, these people who had just awakened their psionic abilities were like playing with children’s magic props, it was ridiculous.

Its power was far less than a bullet.

If the church had gone to great lengths to artificially create psionics of this level, then they had undoubtedly failed.

The town wasn’t that small, just looking at its area and scale, it could accommodate three or four thousand people, there was also a small cinema in the town, as well as a post office, a bank, a hospital, and so on, the infrastructure was very complete, it should have been a relatively prosperous town.

But all the signs were blurred, they were covered in rust, and some of the new signs had fallen off, revealing the original names of the buildings behind them.

The information she had found before showed that Walnut Town only had a few thousand permanent residents, after the Great Purge, the town quickly declined, only a few people were left, but Yan Xianchuan took a rough look, there were definitely not that many people wandering around on the street, there must be some who hadn’t gone out, they were still staying in their houses.

What exactly was the Great Purge?

Yan Xianchuan wasn’t interested in the history of this world, so she had never looked it up, she only vaguely knew that it should have been a world war.

After the war, the remaining countries joined together to form a regime, they recognized a supreme authority, which was the current Federal regime.

But if it was a normal world war, it could have been described with terms like World War I and World War II, why was it called the Great Purge, it sounded like something like racial supremacy or a plan to eliminate inferior humans.

It wasn’t a good word.

But she couldn’t look it up now, she would do it when she got out of here.

The church people hadn’t shown up yet, they were still hiding in the shadows.

The green smoke before should have only been aimed at ordinary people, so Lu Mingqiu didn’t react, the birds that were perched on the telegraph poles didn’t either, the drone disguised as a sparrow hid in the flock of birds, moving with them.

Yan Xianchuan was fully focused, she was observing the changes in the situation outside.

Suddenly, she heard a faint sound of friction in her ears, something was coming up the stairs step by step.