Myopia Misconceptions

A guest arrived at the Golden Flower Inn, a thin man in his fifties, carrying a travel bag, moving his feet gently as if afraid to step on an ant.

When the guest entered room 121, the chambermaid, Ru Xiaohua, was cleaning the room with her back to the door and didn't notice until she suddenly felt a man's breath on the back of her neck. She turned her head and almost bumped noses with a stranger, which made her shrink back and nearly scream.

"Hello!" The guest greeted Ru Xiaohua with a strange smile on his face.

"You—" Ru Xiaohua hurriedly retreated to the corner of the room, panting and sizing up the new guest.

The guest took off his travel bag, and as he bent over, he suddenly shouted, "Cockroach!" He raised his foot and stomped, then ran forward and stomped again.

Ru Xiaohua saw that there was no cockroach; it was clearly a cigarette butt left by the previous guest the night before, rolling on the floor blown by the electric fan. The guest chased the cigarette butt for a few steps, finally stepping on it, and triumphantly shouted, "Where do you think you're going?"

This guest was too strange. An idea popped into Ru Xiaohua's mind: Could this person be mentally ill? Thinking this, Ru Xiaohua was scared and wanted to run away, but she couldn't leave before finishing her cleaning duties. So, she continued her work while secretly observing the guest's every move.

The guest placed his travel bag on the table, opened it, took out a teacup, and then pulled out a towel. Then he looked up at the room's wall. Ru Xiaohua thought he wanted to hang the towel and was about to remind him to use the wire when she saw the guest holding the towel, staring at a fly on the wall, and suddenly flicking the towel.

Ah? He was actually using the towel to swat a fly!

The guest missed the fly, and the towel fell to the floor along the wall. Instead of picking up the towel, the guest sat on the edge of the bed and started feeling around in his travel bag. Soon, he pulled out a bottle, unscrewed the cap, dipped a cotton ball into it, and the white cotton ball immediately turned black. He dabbed the black cotton ball on his face, and in the blink of an eye, he turned into a big smudged face.

Ru Xiaohua saw clearly that the guest was holding a bottle of carbon ink, and applying carbon ink to his face could only mean he was mentally ill! She couldn't stay any longer and ran out of room 121.

Ru Xiaohua found the landlady and gasped, "It's not good, a mentally ill person has arrived!"

The landlady was taken aback: "Mentally ill person? Where?"

Ru Xiaohua stammered, "The one who checked into room 121."

The landlady said suspiciously, "Are you sure? He seemed quite normal when he registered just now, not like a mentally ill person!"

"I'm sure!" Ru Xiaohua recounted how the guest mistook a cigarette butt for a cockroach, used a towel to swat a fly, and applied carbon ink to his face.

The landlady said hurriedly, "Really? Show me!"

Ru Xiaohua followed the landlady to the door of room 121. They were both shocked to see the guest standing in front of the window, splashing the half basin of water that Ru Xiaohua had used for cleaning onto the bed not far from the window, and also drenching himself. The guest's head and face were wet, and his clothes were soaked, his face smeared with carbon ink now black and messy.

"Heavens, he really is mentally ill!" The landlady was too scared to approach and whispered to Ru Xiaohua, "Watch him, I'm going to call the police!"

Ru Xiaohua slammed the door shut and held the doorknob tightly from the outside.

At this moment, the guest was trying to leave and pulled the door from the inside, but it wouldn't open. He shouted in the room, "What kind of a broken inn is this? The door won't open! Waitress, I want to go out, come and open the door!"

Soon, two policemen arrived. Ru Xiaohua let go, and the police saw a man with a black face and wet body inside the door. It was clear that something was not right, so they quickly restrained him.

The guest was startled and shouted loudly, "Why are you grabbing me? Are you kidnappers?"

"We are the police!"

The guest said, "Why are the police arresting me? I haven't broken the law!"

With the police by her side, Ru Xiaohua gained courage and said, "You have mental problems."

"Miss, don't talk nonsense. What mental problems do I have?"

The police asked the guest why he mistook a cigarette butt for a cockroach, why he used a towel to swat a fly, why he applied carbon ink to his face, and why he splashed a basin of dirty water on the bed.

The guest, with his big black eyes, was stunned for a while and said, "What are you talking about? I just saw a cockroach on the ground and stepped on it. How did you say it was a cigarette butt? Can a cigarette butt move? I saw a nail on the wall, so I hung the towel on it. When did I use a towel to swat a fly? I have acne on my face, so I'm applying medicine, of course, I also have a bottle of carbon ink in my bag, but that's for writing articles. Also, you said I splashed water on the bed. I was actually looking for a basin to wash my hands and wipe my body. I saw one on the floor and wanted to pour the dirty water out the window first, but I didn't expect the water to splash back..."

The police looked at the window, which was tightly closed, and asked, "Do you have vision problems?"

The guest rubbed his eyes and said, "Yes, I'm nearsighted. My glasses were knocked off when I got off the train just now. I finally found this inn, thinking I'd rest for a while before going out to buy glasses, but I didn't expect..."

Stay tuned for the next episode for more excitement.