Insights Chapter 34: Feigning Illness

Chapter 34: Feigning Illness

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Night, at Gu Yanchen’s home. Shen Junci recalled, it was the last day of the college entrance examination. Although many years had passed, he still remembered that day very clearly. While other parents accompanied their children to the exam venue, took time off work, and waited at the door for their children to come out, rushing home to serve them hot meals, he was all alone. Even his meals were bought from a small restaurant downstairs.

On the last day of the exam, probably due to having eaten something wrong for breakfast, he didn’t feel well in the morning. By noon, he dared not eat anything, his stomach ached, and he broke out in a cold sweat. He couldn’t bear it any longer and called Lin Xianglan.

But Lin Xianglan gave him the same old excuses, “Luo Luo, I’m in a crucial moment here, you need to endure a bit. There are medicines in the cabinet at home…”

He interrupted, “Those medicines have been used up half a year ago.”

Lin Xianglan on the other end seemed stunned. He hung up and went to the pharmacy downstairs himself. He couldn’t rely on Lin Xianglan.

During the second half of the afternoon exam, he almost collapsed on the table, feeling so much pain that he could barely see, and he felt like dying. The invigilator noticed something was wrong with him and asked if he needed help calling the emergency school doctor, but he refused the teacher’s help and insisted on finishing the exam.

Finally, when the bell rang, while others celebrated the end of the college entrance exam, he felt isolated and helpless. Eventually, when he finally got home, he curled up in bed for a long time. When he finally felt a bit better, he heard someone knocking on the door outside.

Through the door, he heard the person saying, “Lin Luo, are you home? I’m your dad’s colleague. He asked me to bring you some medicine. If you’re really unwell, I’ll accompany you to the hospital.”

He thought he must look terribly pale and disheveled. Instead of opening the door, he replied irritably, “Is he sending you to check if I’m dead or alive?”

What he really needed wasn’t those cold medicines. And what good would it do to have someone come over now that the exams were over?

At noon, he had hoped that Lin Xianglan could help him. As a father, even if he couldn’t drive him to the hospital or clinic, a few words of comfort would have been enough. He couldn’t believe that Lin Xianglan didn’t even have time to return a call.

Later, he regretted losing his temper with the stranger and said to him, “Thank you, I’m fine now. You can go back. If I feel worse, I’ll call.”

The man still seemed worried, waiting at the door for a while. Seeing that he didn’t open the door, he could only say, “Well… I’ll leave the medicine hanging on the doorknob for you first.”

After ten minutes, when it was quiet outside, he opened the door and saw several boxes of medicine hanging on the doorknob. He opened the bag and found a note inside with a string of phone numbers written on it. “If Lin Xianglan is too busy, you can contact me.”

He thought it was just a polite remark. But when he was about to throw away the note, his hand stopped. After all, it was the first blessing he received for the college entrance exam. Perhaps it had some commemorative significance. He casually placed the note between the pages of a book on the table.

Because of this incident, he didn’t speak to Lin Xianglan for several days.

Then, a few days later, Lin Xianglan fell ill. Only then did he act like a caregiver to the patient, spending his precious vacation after the college entrance exam delivering meals and keeping him company. When the exam results were released, his score was thirty points lower than his usual practice test scores, with the biggest difference in the last subject. Just to spite Lin Xianglan, he chose the telecommunications major.

Shen Junci paused in his recollection, took a breath, suppressed his emotions, and tried to keep his voice calm. He asked, “And then? Did the kidnapper confess?”

“At that time, we almost thought we wouldn’t get any information out of him, but Lin Xianglan kept pressing him. He personally interrogated the robber for eight hours. It was an extremely intense interrogation. Finally, at the end, he broke the kidnapper’s psychological defenses and got him to reveal the location. We managed to save the little girl just before his accomplices tore up the ransom. But after that interrogation, Lin Xianglan fell ill and spent half a month in the hospital.” Gu Yanchen continued, remembering the aftermath, “during those crucial eight hours, it happened to be Lin Luo’s last day of the college entrance exam. Lin Xianglan was busy interrogating and rescuing, and he even sent me to buy medicine when Lin Luo fell ill. That day, Lin Luo didn’t perform well in the exam, scoring lower than usual. Lin Xianglan kept blaming himself afterward, saying he ruined his son’s future forever. Lin Luo could have gotten into a better university with his grades…”

Shen Junci said, “But the little girl was saved. When you think about it, it seems worth it.”

Only now did he understand Lin Xianglan’s choice.

After all, nothing mattered more than life and death. His college entrance exam score was not worth more than a life. Now that he knew all this, he wouldn’t blame Lin XianglAn Nanymore.

Gu Yanchen looked at Shen Junci in front of him, hesitated for a moment, and then said, “But Lin Xianglan told me something about why he didn’t rush back to see Lin Luo. He once told me that his son had been quite fine most of the time, but he had a habit of feigning illness since he was young. Whenever he worked overtime, Lin Luo often used feeling unwell as a reason to ask him to come home. But when Lin Xianglan returned home, Lin Luo would immediately recover. Once, he took Lin Luo to the hospital for a comprehensive examination, but nothing was found. So, he was always unsure. On the day of the college entrance exam, he initially thought Lin Luo just wanted to see him…”

Shen Junci sighed silently. Listening to this, he felt another knot in his heart unravel. But… was it that hard to distinguish? He only acted weak and sick when he was feigning illness. When he was genuinely sick, he always endured it without complaint. If it weren’t for fear of affecting his college entrance exam results, he wouldn’t have made that call that day, and yet Lin Xianglan still thought he was pretending. He admitted that he had feigned illness a few times in the past.

When he was a child, Lin Xianglan always had various reasons to be busy, rarely came home, and when he did, it was always in a rush. On the rare occasions he did come home, he hurriedly packed some cold dishes for him to steam rice, and the cold dishes always contained coriander, which he disliked. Later on, Lin Xianglan just gave him money to buy groceries himself.

Because of this, he learned how to steam rice using the rice cooker at home before he even graduated from kindergarten. Once, he caught a cold after getting caught in the rain. His cough persisted, and he developed a high fever. Only then did Lin Xianglan take him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. The ten or so days he spent in the hospital were the happiest days of his childhood. Not only did Lin Xianglan take leave to stay with him, but his colleagues from the bureau also came to visit.

Lin Xianglan felt extremely guilty about this, as if he wanted to make up for all the times he had neglected him since childhood. Even after he was discharged, he still felt reluctant to leave that feeling behind.

The first time he feigned illness was on his birthday in third grade. Lin Xianglan said he would be working late again that night. He was so upset by the cold tone in Lin Xianglan’s voice that he almost cried. Sensing something wrong in his voice, Lin Xianglan cautiously asked, “Luo Luo, are you feeling unwell?”

Thinking quickly, he said, “My stomach hurts.”

That night, Lin Xianglan brought work home and stayed with him all night. But after using this trick a couple of times, it stopped working. Lin Xianglan took him to the hospital for a physical examination and found him to be perfectly healthy.

In order to outwit his father, he resorted to a new tactic. If feigning illness didn’t work, he would find a way to make himself genuinely sick. For example, he would take cold showers in the middle of winter or wear thin clothing in the cold wind to catch a cold. He would go without eating for a whole day and then eat a box of hawthorn pills to induce stomach pain.

Lin Xianglan, being a detective, caught on. One winter, he came home and found Lin Luo with a cold again. He went into his room, turned on the air conditioner, and his anger rose, “Why has the electricity bill increased again recently? How can you not catch a cold when you’re exposing yourself to cold winds in the middle of winter?”

Lin Luo’s plan backfired, and his hawthorn pills were confiscated.

Lin Xianglan was also merciless. He bought a large medicine box and filled it with various common medicines. He solemnly told Lin Luo, “Son, minor injuries don’t keep you off duty. Dad is really busy with work. If you’re feeling unwell, just bear with it.”

From that day on, he rarely sought Lin Xianglan’s help. His feigned illness incidents mostly occurred when he was young and ignorant. Later, he learned to get into fights and have teachers call his parents over. As he grew older and got busier with his studies, he seldom bothered with such antics. As he got older, he did fall sick occasionally. But most of the time, he couldn’t be bothered to tell Lin Xianglan. He just toughed it out on his own. Often, by the time he recovered from an illness, Lin Xianglan wouldn’t even know he had been sick.

He never imagined that, in the end, he would reap the consequences of his feigned illness during the college entrance exam.

Shen Junci remained silent for a while before speaking, “So, Lin Luo brought this upon himself. Hearing all this, it sounds quite deserved…”

Gu Yanchen said, “But you can’t blame Lin Luo entirely. At least during the college entrance exam, he was genuinely unwell. I understand him somewhat when it comes to feigning illness since childhood. Children feign illness to seek attention from adults. He just wanted to see his dad more often.” Gu Yanchen sighed, “It’s just unfortunate.”

Lin Xianglan was his mentor, and he had taken care of Lin Luo for a while. He felt as close to him as he did to his own younger brother.

Upon hearing this, Shen Junci’s eyes instantly became moist. Yes, he just wanted to see his dad more often. He dared not raise his head, changed the subject, and asked, “So, what’s your plan regarding Liao Yinghan?”

Gu Yanchen said, “Those strategies and analyses are quite boring.”

Shen Junci said, “I don’t find them boring. Please, tell me.”

His mind was in turmoil, and he wanted to hear something else, anything would do.

Gu Yanchen took this opportunity to organize his thoughts, “Now, the first step is to understand the suspect and the victim thoroughly. The second step is to understand the suspect’s false persona in this case. His current false persona is that of a loving husband to his wife, who suddenly becomes a victim of suspicion and interrogation by the police. The third step is to peel away the false persona and find his true inner persona: a scheming man who hunts women, killed his wife, and intends to profit from it by deceiving insurance. Make him talk about his relationship with his wife, narrate the entire process, find contradictions in his outward and inner personas, and uncover the lies in his statements. By asking the right questions, you can force him to remove his facade. This will put immense psychological pressure on him.

“The use of evidence is also crucial. At the right moment, suddenly presenting evidence is like putting boxes in his way. These boxes will accumulate and block every retreat for him. At this point, when you tell him that you’ve seen through his lies, you force him to come up with a new story in a short time, one that makes his logic consistent. Once he’s pushed into a corner by those boxes, he will reveal his flaws.” Gu Yanchen elaborated on a series of theories in a long speech, concluding, “It’s all dry and dull theory. In practice, it’s quite complex, and you have to be flexible in its application. I guess I’ve bored you to sleep with all this.”

“No,” Shen Junci said, “It’s quite interesting.”

As the night grew deeper, Shen Junci handed Gu Yanchen a few carefully selected materials several times, but eventually, there was no more sound.

At one in the morning, Gu Yanchen turned his head and found Shen Junci slumped on the sofa, finally asleep. His eyes were closed, long eyelashes casting shadows on his cheeks, his breathing steady and silent.

Gu Yanchen walked over to him and called out, “Doctor Shen, wake up, don’t sleep here, you might catch a cold.”

He reached out to pull Shen Junci, the person sleeping on the sofa seemed to be in a dream, murmuring softly, “Dad…”

A tear glistened at the corner of Shen Junci’s eye, but it didn’t fall; it just clung to the long lashes at the corner of his eye, looking damp.

Gu Yanchen suddenly stopped his action. He couldn’t confirm if he had heard correctly. If it were any other colleague in this situation, he would have woken them up and teased them for their mistaken identity behavior. But now, Gu Yanchen stood up, looking at Shen Junci sleeping on the sofa, hesitating on what to do with him.

The face in front of him once again overlapped with Lin Luo in his memory. He intentionally used Lin Xianglan and their past to test Shen Junci, but the more he probed, the more confused he became. There were so many differences, yet so many similarities.

After a moment, Gu Yanchen got up and quietly fetched a blanket for Shen Junci, covering him with it. Shen Junci slept until three in the morning. He opened his eyes and glanced at the time, finding Gu Yanchen still sitting at the table, not sleeping.

Gu Yanchen looked at him getting up, “Awake? I didn’t want to disturb your sleep. Would you like to lie down in the guest room for a while?”

Shen Junci rubbed his eyes, “No, I’ll go back to sleep. Captain Gu, you should rest too.” He walked to the door but turned back, “I’ll attend your interrogation tomorrow. I believe you can get to the bottom of it.”