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Chapter 181 - Diagnosis

For the past two months that Xiu Mei has been asleep, a lot of problematic issues suddenly appeared.

Aside from her second brother’s issue, there are still a lot more issues they are currently resolving.

The finance manager of the charity foundation that Xiu Mei’s mother was operating ran away with half of the money. And then on the Xiu’s side, some random strangers suddenly came out and complained that some of the Xiu officials who work in their local posts are said to be embezzling some of the budgets.

There are a lot of changes inside the government as well. If they’re not being mysteriously killed, some officials suddenly resigned or were struck with an illness that’s causing them to be relieved of their posts. Some had to be promoted and some were replaced by some new person in their respective departments.

This strange changes alerted the Xiu’s. It may look discreet when it comes to the public but as a person who has been engaging with politics for their whole life, this turn of events was very unusual. It was like someone was trying to reshuffle and replace some essential personnel in different departments with a hidden agenda.

On Lu Chen’s side, it wasn’t as messy as the others. As soon as he received the report that Ying Wan Wan was spotted in the underground city, he had his men investigate who she was with and what was her purpose in coming to the underground city.

For the past two months, aside from being busy with the company, Lu Chen has his hands full on with handling these issues along with Xiu Mei’s family. And now that Xiu Mei has woken, he was quite nervous about how Xiu Mei will react to this and starts overthinking again. It would be bad for her condition right now to worry about this kind of stressful issues.

After sleeping for almost two hours, what Xiu Mei saw as soon as she woke up was her parents and grandparents. Prior to her waking up, Lu Chen had already given them the heads-up about Xiu Mei’s situation.

Her mother, Yu Shi Huang, pulled her into her embrace while crying. Her father was stroking her hair and back giving her some comfort and calming feeling.

Her grandparents Yu gave her tough love. Her grandmother was convincing her to take another training lesson so that Xiu Mei could defend herself better. Xiu Mei giggled at them but she knew that they were very worried as well.

Even though she couldn’t talk, Xiu Mei eagerly listened to their stories. Her mom and her grandparents both knew sign language so she could easily communicate with them through gestures. Lu Qiang would chime in from time to time.

Lu Chen was almost like Xiu Mei’s assistant who would gladly serve her. He helped in adjusting her bed, and if she’s uncomfortable he would adjust her pillow, then he would serve her some water in case she’s thirsty.

So basically, the rest of the people inside the room was suddenly given a big bowl of dog food as Lu Chen publicly displayed his affection. Nevertheless, they were all relieved to see that their relationship are still good despite all the things that were happening.

The next day, Doctor Lee dropped by in her room to give his final diagnosis about her sudden loss of voice. Lu Qiang was forced to leave the room despite his protests, leaving Lu Chen and Xiu Mei with Doctor Lee inside the room. Doctor Lee sat down on the chair beside Xiu Mei’s bed.

"So I looked at the results of your radiology exams and they’re all within the normal range. With these, we can already exclude the possibility that your mutism is caused by something different and there was nothing wrong with your brain." Doctor Lee handed the paper results to Lu Chen and Xiu Mei.

Both of them skimmed the contents of the paper as they continued to listen to Doctor Lee’s words.

Doctor Lee took a deep breath and looked straight at Xiu Mei.

"So about you mutism, I can conclude that the reason you are unable to speak is that you are the one suppressing it." He carefully stated as he observed Xiu Mei’s reaction.

Lu Chen’s eyes moved to Xiu Mei while Xiu Mei froze the moment she heard Doctor Lee.

She looked in disbelief at first but the more she thought deeply about it, the more she was convinced that what Doctor Lee was saying was really possible given her history.

She reached out to touch her neck where her vocal cords are and fell silent. Her thoughts unbeknownst to Doctor Lee and Lu Chen who stayed silent for the whole time to let that information slowly sink into her mind.

Somehow, she already had a hunch that what was happening to her was her own doing. After all, she’s someone who’s been diagnosed with PTSD because of her kidnapping experience and witnessing her best friend’s death. She was even almost violated.

And those memories seemed to have overlapped with her recent kidnapping.

The fear that she planned to overcome, her spirit to let go of those painful memories and to heal the wound in her heart that never healed. It was like fate didn’t want her to heal at all. Is that it?

Is that why she had to experience it all over again?

She almost brushed with death two times, how can someone as normal as she could mentally take it?

Xiu Mei closed her eyes as she tried to stabilize her emotions that were threatening to go rampant again. Doctor Lee had her return on her medications for PTSD so she was still able to get a grasp of her feelings quickly.

She felt Lu Chen hold her hand and lightly squeeze it, making her open her eyes. She met his assuring gaze. Even though he didn’t open his mouth, her heart suddenly felt calm. It was as if his gaze was saying that everything would be fine and that she shouldn’t worry about anything.

Her lips slightly curled up as she squeezed back the hand that was covering hers. Then with a determined gaze, she withdrew and turned to look at Doctor Lee again.

Doctor Lee understood her gaze and continued his words, "Do you remember how we did some experiment yesterday? When you said you couldn’t speak at all when we’re here with you but you could still speak when you’re alone. That’s a really positive result actually. It means that you can still speak and that you aren’t really mute." He exclaimed.

Hearing that, Xiu Mei felt more hopeful.

(Author’s note: A warning. I am not in any way a doctor nor an expert in this field. This is purely fictional so mutism and PTSD have nothing to do with each other at all.)

"So your mutism is associated with your traumatic experience. For PTSD, you react so strongly every time you remember your traumatic memories. This time, it’s a different case. Your mind is subconsciously suppressing your ability to speak as a self-defense mechanism of your traumatic experience. Since you tried to repress your strong PTSD reaction during the process, your body probably tried to compensate it this way. Your inability to speak in the presence of other people is probably the fear that you felt at that time so this is your mind and body’s way of protecting you."

Xiu Mei thought, so was it because of her extreme desire to escape from the clutch of her kidnappers that she turned into this?

Xiu Mei wrote a question on her tablet, ’Will I return back to normal?’

"Of course. Selective Mutism cases like this are usually difficult for children but for a.d.u.l.ts, it’ll be easier to cure. Basically, you just have to overcome this ’fear’, and let’s hope that it fixes your problem. To do that, you and I are going to have our sessions thrice a week. Is that fine with you?"

Xiu Mei agreed with his setup. After that, Doctor Lee and Lu Chen stepped out of the room and found a more private space to advise the guardian on what they can do to help the patient.

"Mr.Lu, at this time around, Xiu Mei will definitely need a lot of your support. Not just physically but also as her mental support as we try to cure her. Most especially that she would be like this for a little while, there’s a lot of activities that she wouldn’t be able to normally do. I know Xiu Mei likes to work but with her situation at the moment, that would prove difficult for her since she won’t be able to speak at all with her colleagues." Doctor Lee thoroughly explained.

"Not being able to her normal activities will surely stress her out so you either have to stop that from happening or if she does get stressed out, you have to do something to alleviate that stress and make her emotions stable."