Placebo

Luo Yu is an avant-garde novelist whose latest work has just won a prestigious award, making him the talk of the international literary world.

He is a cool and distant person, yet the love stories he writes are fierce and turbulent, filled with a chilling blend of sickness and beauty.

Luo Yu has been searching for someone for as long as he can remember.

That person was once like the sun, illuminating Luo Yu's wretched, painful childhood and accompanying him as he pursued his dreams.

But everyone knows that person never existed. They were only a figment of Luo Yu's imagination.

After an accident, his friends finally lost patience and forced Luo Yu to visit a psychiatric clinic.

On a peaceful afternoon, in a warm, welcoming consultation room, the outstanding psychiatrist Shen Chuji stood in the bright sunlight with a smile and held out his hand to the young patient across from him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, author Luo Yu."

Bathed in the light, Luo Yu froze for a moment.

Then, slowly, he placed his hand in the warm palm of the person across from him.

"Hello, Dr. Shen."

Their palms touched, and the bones in Luo Yu's hand creaked with excitement.

The torrential rain that had shrouded his soul suddenly stopped.

Luo Yu knew then that the person had to be real.

*

Shen Chuji never read romance novels and didn't believe in love.

As a neurologist, he knew that phenylethylamine, the hormone that makes people lose control of their emotions, could maintain its peak level for no more than six months.

After a follow-up appointment, Luo Yu casually remarked, "When my serial novel is finished, if you have time, Dr. Shen, shall we go see the frozen sea in the north together?"

Shen Chuji hesitated for a moment. A desolate, uninhabited coastline flashed through his mind.

Desire, concealed beneath his gentleness, muddled his reason. In the seaside cottage of his imagination, damp iron chains wrapped around the young man's pale limbs. The sea wind howled of captivity and craving, making possession seem like a sweet surrender.

But Shen Chuji only gazed tenderly into Luo Yu's eyes. "Sure."

"It must be as beautiful as you are, author Luo Yu."

*

The body is honest. When it's hurt, it swells, bleeds, festers, and deteriorates into a ghastly sight.

But the heart likes to lie. No matter what kind of hurt it suffers, all it does is beat. It never says a thing.

◎ Obsessive, lovesick novelist x seemingly gentle but secretly dangerous psychiatrist

A placebo is a pill, tablet, or injection with no medicinal effect.

It can serve as a substitute and comfort for people who have suffered adverse effects from taking a drug over a long period. It has no therapeutic effect of its own, but a patient's trust in their doctor, self-suggestion, and expectations about a drug's effectiveness can give it the effect of relieving pain, tremors, or other symptoms. (Information quoted from the internet.)

◎ Reader's guide:

One-on-one romance / healing and salvation / the leads are each other's only partners, emotionally and physically

This story uses mental illness as the basis for its plot, but please do not use any treatments described in the story as a guide in real life.

The protagonist suffers from quiet phobia, fear of physical contact, and dissociative identity disorder caused by traumatic stress. Some readers may find this upsetting, so please decide for yourself whether to read.

◎ But at heart, this is still a romance novel (pay attention!)

"Don't lower your head to stare at the swamp trapping you. Look up at the beautiful stars in the sky."

"Mm, I'm looking at them, my star."

Theme: When night falls, the stars shine brilliantly.