Clown Game
Chapter 202 - 190: Once Upon a Time, Too Real

Chapter 202: Chapter 190: Once Upon a Time, Too Real

This is a neatly typeset medical record, commonly seen in all hospitals, but what is slightly uncommon is that this medical record’s header is from a psychiatric research institute.

The patient’s name is indeed "Chen Xiao."

Song Xuan furrowed her brow...

The man in the photo, although having the same facial shape, gave off a feeling worlds apart from the current Chen Xiao. It was like the same pair of socks worn by a cleanliness-obsessed woman versus a homeless man who hadn’t bathed in months; even if you disregarded the smell and just looked, you could still discern the stark differences between the two.

Of course, puzzled as she was, her actions didn’t slow down a bit. She quickly skipped the first page, turning to the basic information.

Like other medical records, upon flipping past the title page and the patient’s one-inch photo, details such as the patient’s age and home address followed.

Chen Xiao

years old

K City, XX District, XX Street

There were also some data on height and weight that seemed not to have changed much from then.

However, the admission date at the bottom was four years ago.

Song Xuan frowned slightly, as if she had thought of something, but she didn’t specify what. Then, she turned to the main body of the record and started reading.

As it was a file from a psychiatric institute, aside from the descriptions of the patient’s existing conditions, there was also a detailed section on his life history.

That is to say, within this verbose and lengthy explanation, Chen Xiao’s "origins" were disclosed to us for the first time,

...

...

Just like a third-rate soap opera, the opening lines unfolded a tragic scene. When Chen Xiao was three years old, his family of three encountered a car accident during a trip; his parents died instantly while Chen Xiao, thanks to the child seat, miraculously survived.

With no other relatives, Chen Xiao was naturally placed into an orphanage within the city, (This has no relation to the "Sunshine Orphanage" where Kazuko was—it’s time to rein in those sleazy thoughts.)

Perhaps due to a head injury from the accident, or maybe because his brain was inherently abnormal, as he grew older, Chen Xiao began exhibiting behaviors that deviated from the norm.

He was easily angered, inexplicably panicked, preferred solitude, sought imaginary enemies in crowds, and even demonstrated groundless manic and aggressive behaviors, which only intensified over time. Finally, at the age of thirteen, during one lunch break, he stuck a chopstick into a girl’s ear canal, prompting the orphanage to request the transfer of this reclusive, strange child to the hospital for treatment.

Beneath these briefs was a clearly aged photograph.

In it was a gaunt teenage boy with sparse hair, high cheekbones, and hollowed cheeks that seemed to cave into his mouth. In the photo, he was looking down, his gaze cold and dark as he stared ahead, irritable, uneasy, like an untamed animal, full of fear and aggression towards everything.

This person... was Chen Xiao back then...?

Song Xuan hesitated slightly. Her gaze lingered on the photo for a second before she turned the page.

Next came the part about Chen Xiao’s medical history.

From those lengthy texts filled with professional jargon, Song Xuan roughly figured out what had happened next.

Upon his first time being admitted to the hospital at age 13, Chen Xiao was diagnosed with intermittent mania. Given his prior manifestations, virtually no one disputed this diagnosis. Thus this emaciated boy was labeled "dangerous" and sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.

And as everyone might guess, not only did his original mania fail to improve, but delusions, autism, schizophrenia, severe OCD, persecutory delusions... In short, almost every mental illness listed in textbooks began to appear in succession in this person, resembling maggots on the verge of birthing and finally finding a fresh, plump piece of dung, eagerly implanting all their eggs onto this precious nourishment. And Chen Xiao, like a mental black hole, embraced all these illnesses, flourishing them surprisingly well.

Finally, after another violent assault incident (yes, by biting—a poor doctor had his little finger and half an ear chewed into by Chen Xiao, who also managed to tear off the few sparse clumps of hair along with several patches of scalp)... Chen Xiao was deemed an absolutely severe case with no therapeutic value. He was then transferred to a severe psychiatric research center on the outskirts of K City and locked into a solitary confinement ward.

Comparing the dates on the medical record, it was exactly four years ago, so it was easy to think that the photo on the cover page must have been taken just before Chen Xiao was transferred to a single room.

At this time, Chen Xiao was 25 years old... which meant, unless something unexpected happened, Chen Xiao would stay in this single room, accompanied by daily restraint jackets and sedatives, until death.

Song Xuan continued to flip through the record, the four years of medical records were extensive, but mostly identical. This was easy to understand, as no one really wanted to document the daily changes in a patient who had been declared terminally ill in the treatment realm.

In the end, the monotonous medical records finally had a termination date six months ago. A bright red "Clinical Death" stamp was imprinted at the bottom of the record.

Of course... Song Xuan knew that on this day, Chen Xiao was taken to a suburban "Sunshine Orphanage" as a "volunteer"...

There’s no need to say more about what happened after that, as everyone already knows.

Song Xuan closed the medical record. It had only taken about ten minutes to read these texts. At this point, Song Xuan briefly organized her thoughts, found nothing unusual, and asked Bai Xiong, "So, what did you find out?"

Bai Xiong still maintained his previous posture, "I found out everything..."

"Everything?"

"Yes... From the traffic accident he was involved in at the age of three, the cancellation records of his parents’ accounts, to every trace of the orphanage Chen Xiao was entrusted to, the treatment costs for each transfer, and the list of medications used.

Even the surveillance video of him picking up a small glass shard accidentally left by a janitor after the glass was blown by the wind and slicing open the corner of his own mouth,

Not to mention the archives of the accidents, the children from his orphanage during the same period, the first girl he injured, his attending doctors, the poor guy he bit, their social and interpersonal relationships. His parents’ jobs, friends, and their social circles... In short, I found out everything about him...

There were no doubts, no omissions, no matter from which time, which person, or which event you start, every link can be matched up, if I continue to dig, I could even uncover the source of every bit of gray income of his primary physicians from ten years ago, and the source of that source. It’s as though..."

"It’s like his entire life was laid out just like that." Song Xuan spoke up softly.

"Yes, it’s all too real, so real it’s as if... it’s all real," continued Bai Xiong, although it was an awkward sentence, both understood what it meant.

...

Song Xuan was silent for a while, then she looked up... "What about Chen Xiao... he’s investigating too, right?"

Before her words fell, Bai Xiong nodded. It seemed he wanted to shrug his shoulders, but his expression didn’t change, so it looked as if he just shivered on the spot.

"Of course, even though he left no trace, he must have already investigated it all!" said Bai Xiong, as he grabbed the medical record and pulled off the photo from the cover page, placing it in front of him, "That kid acts like he doesn’t care about anything every day, but I’m certain he started investigating before us and has already dug deeper than we have..."

"So..."

"So, has the Foundation also noticed he’s investigating, and could what he found, including what we found, all be ’bait’..."

Saying this, Bai Xiong’s hefty palm gently clenched,

"Did I really see it wrong then?" Bai Xiong wondered, yet he didn’t know which moment he was thinking about

When his palm opened again, the photograph’s creases had already marred Chen Xiao’s face, distorting it grotesquely

Just like that day, inside the "K city Abnormal Biological Research Area," in the surveillance footage of that figure tiptoeing, dancing gracefully amidst madness

...

...

thing.