Chapter 66: Spiritual Appraisal (Middle)

  Soon, soft and soothing light music began to play in the broadcast of the appraisal room, indicating that the hypnosis work had officially begun.

  A moment later, a senior hypnotist from the appraisal team walked slowly into the appraisal room and came to Tang Xiaosheng, who was still curled up in the corner of the wall. He then took out a pocket watch from his pocket, held it by the chain, and gently swung it back and forth.

  Listening to the light music on the radio, and looking at the pocket watch in front of him swinging back and forth, Tang Xiaosheng realized that the appraiser standing in front of him was going to hypnotize him. He also understood that once a person is hypnotized, they will say things from their subconscious mind, and at that time he might reveal the truth about his fake mental illness. Considering these things, Tang Xiaosheng secretly told himself that no matter what, he couldn't be hypnotized, and he must pretend to be spirited.

  The devil is in the details. The high-level hypnotist's hypnosis technique is unbeatable, and the pocket watch in his hand is just a part of it.

  Apart from the soft music and pocket watch, the hypnotist's mouth kept saying hypnotic guiding words, constantly giving Tang Xiaosheng some mental suggestions. At the same time, the hypnotist's left hand was also coordinating with the rhythm of the soft music, gently stroking Tang Xiaosheng's head, making his body even more relaxed.

  All of this helped Tang Xiaosheng fall into a hypnotic trance.

  Despite this, Tang Xiaosheng still made an effort to maintain a clear consciousness, concentrating his attention and not wanting to be hypnotized. However, after enduring for over two minutes, he suddenly smelled a faintly strange aroma that was slightly sour and fragrant. With just one sniff, he instantly felt refreshed throughout his body, yet at the same time had a dizzy feeling as if he were drunk in a dream.

  This strange smell is emitted from the hypnotist's body, which is also one of his hypnosis tools. This smell can weaken a person's self-consciousness, relax their vigilance, and gradually listen to external guidance, thus entering a state of sleep.

  Under the comprehensive effect of the hypnotist's various hypnosis techniques, Tang Xiaosheng's consciousness gradually became blurred. Coupled with his all-night conversation with Little Dragon Girl last night, he hadn't slept a wink and was already extremely fatigued. About ten minutes later, he fell fast asleep.

  As Tang Xiaosheng had already fallen into a hypnotic trance, the hypnotist softly asked: "Tell me, who are you?"

  Tang Xiaosheng, who was in a hypnotic state with his eyes tightly closed, heard the question and his body suddenly shook violently. His breathing became rapid as he exclaimed in panic: "I... I am Yang Guo! I am Yang Guo!"

  Upon hearing the answer, the hypnotist was taken aback and continued to ask: "How could you be Yang Guo?"

  "I'm really Yang Guo! Long'er, don't kill me, don't kill me, I'm really Yang Guo!" Tang Xiao Sheng replied hastily in his hypnotic state, his face full of terror.

  The hypnotist on the side was a bit dazed, and after a pause, asked again: "Who is Long Er?"

  "Dragon son... Dragon son is naturally Little Dragon Maiden."

  "Does Little Dragon Maiden want to kill you?"

  "Yes, she wants to kill me. Long'er, don't kill me! I am Yang Guo, I really am Yang Guo!"

  "You're not Yang Guo, you're Tang Xiao Sheng." The hypnotist said slowly.

  "No, I'm not Tang Xiaosheng, I'm not Tang Xiaosheng! Long'er, I'm really Yang Guo, don't kill me, don't kill me..." At this point, Tang Xiaosheng's emotions became extremely agitated, his reaction was very strong, his face turned pale, cold sweat broke out, and his whole body even started to convulse.

  Seeing this, the hypnotist felt that something was wrong and didn't dare to continue asking. Because in such a state, if he continued to press for an answer, it would be easy to cause deeper psychological harm to the person being hypnotized. He hastily said: "Alright, I believe you are Yang Guo, you really are Yang Guo."

  "Yes, I am Yang Guo, I am Yang Guo..." As he said this, Tang Xiao Sheng's emotions finally calmed down a bit.

  The hypnosis had proceeded to this point when the hypnotist decided to end it, because in his heart, he had already come to a conclusion about Tang Xiaosheng's mental state.

  After helping Tang Xiaosheng wake up from hypnosis, the hypnotist left the appraisal room and returned to the monitoring room with the other four appraisers.

  As soon as they entered the monitoring room, the hypnotist said: "You all saw the hypnosis process just now, right? After the hypnosis, Tang Xiaosheng actually claimed to be Yang Guo, and this consciousness was extremely strong, which means that his consciousness has split.

  "In psychology, this is called schizophrenia." A psychiatrist next to him added, "Moreover, just now after Tang Xiaosheng was hypnotized, he kept saying that Little Dragon Girl wanted to kill him. This is also a typical symptom of paranoid delusion. These signs all indicate that Tang Xiaosheng indeed has an extremely severe mental illness."

  After Tang Xiao Sheng was hypnotized, the reason why he repeatedly claimed to be Yang Guo is related to his experience of more than half a month ago. Since meeting Little Dragon Girl, he has been living in fear every day, afraid that Little Dragon Girl would expose his impersonation of Yang Guo, and almost every night he had nightmares of being chased by Little Dragon Girl. For more than half a month, he lived under the shadow of this fear. It was precisely because of this that when he was just hypnotized, the first subconscious thought that emerged was the scene of being chased by Little Dragon Girl.

  After the third round of hypnotic testing, the identification group, senior hypnotist and neurologist also began to recognize that Tang Xiaosheng suffered from mental illness. In addition to the previous psychiatrist and criminal psychologist, four out of five experts believed that Tang Xiaosheng was indeed mentally ill.

  However, the human behavior expert in the appraisal team still had a different opinion. He emphasized: "Everyone, although Tang Xiaosheng passed the first three rounds of testing smoothly, it is still impossible to confirm that he has a mental illness just because of this. Don't underestimate the disguising ability of a professional actor."

  For the statement of human behavior experts, senior hypnotist did not agree, he said: "Professor Hu, Tang Xiaosheng is indeed an actor, may have extraordinary disguise skills. Just now he was in a hypnotic state, subconsciously thinking that he is Yang Guo, which does not belong to the category of acting skills at all..."

  "No, you're wrong!" interrupted the human behavior expert. "The subconscious can also be disguised. Everyone present should have heard of a term in performing arts called 'overacting'."

  "Are you getting too into character?" The other four experts looked at each other in dismay.

  Human behavior experts explain: "Yes! Some actors, when performing, become so deeply immersed that they subconsciously take on the role as themselves. Let me give you a few examples. When Zheng Shuang played in 'The Long Ballad', she suffered from severe depression; Wu Yanzu was unable to live normally for over two months after filming 'Dream'; Guo Fucheng had nightmares about killing people after filming 'Crime and Punishment'; Li Xiaoxuan never escaped the shadow of Lin Daiyu after filming 'Dream of Red Mansions'. These are all manifestations of being too deeply immersed in a role."

  Pausing for a moment, the human behavior expert continued, "In Tang Xiaosheng's personal file, I found that he had participated in the filming of the TV series 'The Legend of the Condor Hero' four months ago and played the role of Yang Guo. Although it was just a martial arts stunt double, it is entirely possible that he became too deeply immersed in the character."

  Upon hearing this, the psychiatrist asked: "Even if Tang Xiaosheng was able to enter the role so deeply that he subconsciously thought of himself as Yang Guo, doesn't this also imply that his mind indeed has problems?"

  Human behavior expert slowly said: "You think the problem is too simple, it should be deeper. Tang Xiaosheng's mental state has a problem, I agree with that. However, if Tang Xiaosheng's acting skills are good enough, he may have intentionally let himself get too deep into character, causing some mental problems, and thus use this to escape legal punishment. In other words, I suspect his mental issues are also achieved through performance, it's premeditated."

  The other four identification experts did not dare to agree with the statement of this human behavior expert, feeling that he had said too much about the actor's acting skills and was a bit out of touch with reality. However, this human behavior expert is an old man in his fifties, who is quite stubborn and insists on his own views.

  Helpless, the appraisal team had to conduct the fourth project's appraisal on Tang Xiaosheng. This time, the appraisal was presided over by a human behavior expert, and his appraisal method was called "non-standard stimulation appraisal method".

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