Persecutory delusion disorder is a type of schizophrenia.

Patients are often in a state of fear, leading to disordered reasoning and judgment. Their thinking becomes impaired, and they become convinced they are being persecuted or harmed.

This can include feelings of being gossiped about, framed, plotted against, robbed of their property, or raped.

In their daily lives, such patients usually become extremely cautious and guarded. They often incorporate people they know into their delusional world.

Patients with persecutory delusions generally have suicidal tendencies.

When faced with specific stimuli, they can also exhibit severe violent tendencies, potentially leading to disaster…

Yan Feifan quickly ran through all the information and data he knew about persecutory delusion disorder.

“Mr. Miao, why do you suspect he’s faking it?”

Mr. Miao didn’t answer directly. Instead, he opened a file on the coffee table and showed Yan Feifan a few photos.

“This is the patient, this is his twelve-year-old son, and this is the lover the patient killed.”

‘Holy crap…’

Yan Feifan could tell at a glance.

The eyes, the double eyelids, the chin, the flat-bridged nose—the son had inherited too many of the lover’s features.

It was so obvious they wouldn’t even need to spend money on a paternity test.

Mr. Miao explained in a low voice, “This lover returned to the patient’s city last year for work-related reasons.”

“Less than a month after that, the patient had his first-ever violent outburst where he beat his son. The persecutory delusions started soon after.”

“That’s the first suspicious point…”

Mr. Miao picked up his large thermos, took a sip of water, and continued, “During the subsequent treatment, the patient had several severe episodes.”

“These episodes almost always happened at home and were usually triggered by outsiders visiting.”

“On one occasion, he even attacked his father-in-law and threw him out of the house.”

Mr. Miao analyzed, “I personally believe he is intentionally creating an impression for outsiders that his home is a safe haven. As soon as an outsider intrudes, he has an episode and becomes violent.”

“However…”

Mr. Miao smiled. “The patient’s personal life is extremely disciplined. He commutes to and from work on time every day.”

“Every Saturday morning, he goes to his psychologist for a counseling session.”

“He eats lunch out, then goes to the park in the afternoon to take a walk and play chess. In the evening, he returns home for dinner.”

“But on that particular Saturday, the patient suddenly returned home…”

Yan Feifan asked, a little puzzled, “Mr. Miao, if the suspicious points are so clear, what’s preventing you from determining whether this person is genuine or just faking it?”

Mr. Miao took another photo out of the folder.

It was a picture of a bookshelf.

Yan Feifan looked closely and saw that the bookshelf was completely filled with books.

Upon closer inspection, they were all professional books on psychology, mental illness, and persecutory delusion disorder.

Yan Feifan did a quick count. There were one hundred and thirty-five of them in total.

“Mr. Miao, this is?”

Mr. Miao nodded. “That’s right. This is the patient’s own bookshelf. According to him, he wanted to study his condition to better cooperate with his psychiatrist and recover as quickly as possible.”

Mr. Miao tapped the photo of the bookshelf heavily with his finger. “This amount of professional reading is comparable to someone with a bachelor’s and master’s in psychiatry.”

“Add to that a year and a half of clinical experience…”

Mr. Miao sighed softly. “We’ve run all sorts of tests on him, and he perfectly matches the typical characteristics of persecutory delusion disorder.”

“Our daily observations, as well as his behavioral and linguistic analyses, are all consistent with the symptoms he should have.”

“You could say he’s too consistent.”

“If you showed his test results and daily behavior to one hundred undergraduate psychiatry students, all one hundred would give you the same diagnosis.”

Mr. Miao shook his head. “A few of us are suspicious, but none of us can produce any concrete evidence.”

“Mr. Tan said it’s highly possible this guy has been faking his mental illness for so long and has become so invested in the role that the act has become reality.”

After a pause, Mr. Miao said with some uncertainty, “It’s not an impossible scenario, and it would explain our suspicions quite well.”

“But I just have this feeling that this man is incredibly sharp and is still faking it.”

Yan Feifan let out a soft “oh,” his own doubts growing.

“Mr. Miao, what can I do?”

“This is something that even you and the other experts in the department can’t solve.”

Yan Feifan’s words carried a hint of wanting to back out.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to try his best.

It was because knowledge related to mental illness was the weakest link in his entire knowledge base.

One could even say that Yan Feifan was biased against the field of psychiatry and psychology, had never taken it seriously, and hadn’t spent much time on it.

Mr. Miao naturally picked up on the implication in Yan Feifan’s words.

He huffed. “Don’t think so highly of yourself, kid. Did you think I was placing all my hopes on you to turn the tide?”

“How is that possible!”

“Catching you was just a last-ditch effort.”

Mr. Miao picked up his thermos and took another sip of water. “We’ve been taking turns with him recently, but there’s been no breakthrough. The result is still the same obvious one.”

“Around noon, it suddenly occurred to me that we might be trapped by our professional perspective, that we might be looking at things from the wrong angle.”

“So I thought about bringing in a non-specialist to take a look.”

He poked Yan Feifan’s nose and chuckled. “Just your bad luck that you walked right into it.”

“Besides Qin Ying and Wang Chuan, Mr. Qi and Mr. Liu have also been singing your praises, saying you’ve been a pleasant surprise.”

“I hope you can give me a surprise today, too, kid.”

Mr. Miao pointed to the pile of materials and files on the coffee table and instructed, “Go through all of this carefully. See if there’s anything we’ve done poorly or a blind spot we’ve missed.”

“Tonight, you’ll take over for the night shift colleague and observe him for the whole night…”

Mr. Miao said hopefully, “We have to issue the evaluation report this Friday.”

“Yan Feifan, I hope you can give me something different, something to show me that I’m not just prejudiced or paranoid.”

“Honestly, I’m starting to doubt myself now.”

Yan Feifan quickly declared, “Mr. Miao, I’ll do my best…”

After that, he made separate calls to his sister, Mrs. Qin, and Mr. Wang.

He explained that he had been roped into this by Mr. Miao.

Then, Yan Feifan began to go through the large stack of materials Mr. Miao had left on the coffee table.

The files were incredibly rich and detailed.

There was his medical history, the psychiatric evaluation report from his previous city, records of his treatment and psychological counseling, prescriptions, and so on.

There were the patient’s various physical examination reports.

There was also the detailed police report on the case.

There were descriptions and evaluations of the patient from his colleagues, neighbors, friends, and family.

There were the patient’s work journals and articles he had written on paper.

There were also personal essays saved on his phone and computer, photos and comments posted online and on his social media, his replies to others, and more.

There were the daily check-up records from the start of his custody until now.

It took Yan Feifan over two hours to quickly read through all the materials.

As he did, a vivid image of a middle-aged man began to form in his mind.

This man, from a small county town, was talented. His academic journey had been smooth, culminating in a doctorate from a prestigious university.

However, he was not good with words and had a narrow social circle.

He stayed in the big city for work, proud yet sensitive.

He earned the admiration of his colleagues and the high regard of his superiors through his papers and research achievements.

Yan Feifan suddenly felt that this talented man’s personality was somewhat similar to his own.

‘This made him a little worried that he might become mentally ill in the future.’

“Don’t worry. You already are. Dissociative Identity Disorder.”

Seeing Yiyi suddenly pop up, Yan Feifan said worriedly, “Why are you out again?”

“This is the most dangerous place to be. Are you trying to get us both locked up?”

Yiyi sat down nonchalantly on the sofa opposite Yan Feifan and said with a scornful tone, “Mr. Miao isn’t here.”

“And even if he were, he can’t see me.”

“Hey, do you have any leads on this patient?”

Yan Feifan shook his head. “Yiyi, you think too highly of me. A whole team of psychiatric experts is stumped. What kind of lead could I possibly have?”

“However, since the professional and conventional methods aren’t working, I have thought of a more unconventional approach.”

“How unconventional?” Yiyi’s eyes widened.

Yan Feifan tapped the files on the table. “The patient has suicidal tendencies. He’s actually tried to act on them several times recently.”

“That’s why the psychiatric department has someone watching him day and night.”

Yan Feifan looked at Yiyi and asked, “Yiyi, what do you think would happen if a patient with persecutory delusions met someone who genuinely wanted him dead?”

“How would he react?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep