ALL NOVEL Chapter 15 - Brain Death
Only then did Jiang Hui realize how foolish she had been and nearly made a stupid mistake. If she had gone ahead with using the spatial button, she would have had to buy the hospital gown to take it with her or wait until the next day to be discharged.
“Did you bring any clothes with you?” Xu Jia asked again.
Jiang Hui nodded. The original body’s memories were quite clear in this regard, as she had brought a few commonly used personal items from the inner star system. Most of her immovable belongings were left at the home her parents had given her in the inner star system, and she had already applied for and received permission to temporarily seal it.
This spatial button was one of the two she had brought with her. The original body had used it since childhood and vaguely remembered it contained quite a few daily necessities, so she was sure there were clothes inside. She could just dig something out to wear later.
“That’s good. Then there shouldn’t be any issues. You’ll be able to handle your discharge procedures and go home soon. Remember to take your medication, and if there are any problems, report to the hospital immediately,” Xu Jia patiently reminded her.
As the conversation was coming to a close, Jiang Hui planned to stand up and see Xu Jia off. After all, she wasn’t really so ill that she couldn’t get up.
“You… I see you—” Xu Jia walked a few steps, then suddenly paused. “What were you wanting to ask earlier?”
Although it wasn’t very obvious, someone being in a state of wanting to speak but holding back was still quite different, and she could easily tell. The girl seemed troubled by a certain issue, even a bit distressed.
With that question, Jiang Hui instinctively touched her face. Was it really that obvious? She had tried hard to hold back, only to be seen through.
“What are you worried about? Is there something uncomfortable with your body? If there is, you need to tell me immediately. You can’t hide anything. The ingredients in the stabilizing agent are special, and the leading medication is the foundation for taking the medicine. If your body or nerves can’t adapt to the subsequent intake, it will lead to big problems,” Xu Jia said very seriously to Jiang Hui.
Of course, it wasn’t that, Jiang Hui thought to herself. If it were, she would have said something earlier instead of feeling so troubled. She was still hesitating about whether to voice her doubts, as it seemed very inappropriate in the broader context. She was afraid that something like the day when Frey screamed “Help!” in terror would happen again. That scene was far from pleasant.
“When I fainted from excessive blood loss that day, I briefly felt a disconnect between my spiritual power and my body. It felt… like my soul had left my body,” Jiang Hui seemed to be making a great effort to describe that state.
“Now that I’ve woken up, I don’t have that feeling, but why do I still have a sense of disconnection between my spiritual power and my body? It always feels like something else is stuck in there, and it’s quite uncomfortable,” Jiang Hui said, half-truthfully.
The sensation of pressure in her head was indeed pulsating, but more importantly, she wanted to probe deeper into certain things, which were the things she most wanted to know right now.
Xu Jia listened quietly and didn’t respond immediately, but her hands had already stopped moving, and she was unconsciously facing the girl on the bed.
“Soul? That term is quite old-fashioned. Have you considered majoring in classical Chinese language and literature in the future? But people don’t really say it that way anymore; you must be referring to brainwaves,” Xu Jia said. Oh, thank you for the guidance. If it’s that level of classical Chinese, she felt she could manage it.
“I’m not quite sure how to answer that either. In today’s world, where we can study every internal organ of the human body down to minute details, the brain domain remains an area that humans still cannot fully comprehend.”
“Take your injury as an example. You injured two lobes of your brain, suspected of causing functional damage, but such physical injuries to the brain can still be relatively easily repaired through surgery combined with treatment chambers. However, we cannot confirm whether your brain domain has also been affected just by looking at the condition of your brain organs. This is because a person’s brain domain refers not only to the brain itself but also includes the magnetic field created by all the electrical waves emitted by the brain’s tissues, which is constantly changing.”
“After treating your brain injury, we started assessing your brain domain through monitoring your vital signs and brainwaves, determining that your brain domain was not affected. Who would have thought…”
Who would have thought that she was a time traveler? She truly had no idea where this place was or what had happened, and she didn’t even realize she had traveled through time. Jiang Hui silently added in her mind.
“…Later, we continued with the treatment and essentially adjusted your disordered brain domain functions.” From the way Xu Jia spoke, it seemed they diagnosed her condition as a brain domain dysfunction, where the chaotic brainwaves affected the magnetic field of her brain domain, leading to temporary memory loss.
“However, the effects caused by the chaotic brainwaves cannot heal on their own in a short time, which is why you need to take the stabilizing agents. Otherwise, your brain domain and your mental capacity will also be affected.”
Xu Jia had returned to Jiang Hui’s side at some point, retrieving a stack of documents from a storage compartment behind her. She flipped through several pages, frowning as she glanced at the contents, then handed it to Jiang Hui. Unfortunately, much of the data and terminology were too specialized and mixed with a lot of interstellar jargon, making her eyes hurt and leaving her unable to understand, so she had no choice but to give up.
“According to reports, chaotic brainwaves are one of the most difficult types of disorders to define accurately, and they can also lead to various complications. When you say you feel your mental capacity separating, it should be due to the excessive fluctuation of brainwaves at that time, causing your mental capacity to slightly exceed the range of the brainwaves, which is what you describe as if your soul has separated.”
Jiang Hui was taken aback: “If the mental capacity escapes from the brainwaves and cannot return to the body, then wouldn’t that mean the person cannot wake up?” If that were the case, the original owner might have lost her mental capacity and been unable to return to her body, and somehow she drifted in here. Wouldn’t that mean she could have taken over someone else’s body?
However, Xu Jia denied her thoughts a moment later: “Theoretically, there is that possibility. But there’s one thing where you might have made a common-sense error: although the mental capacity depends on the brain domain, it is not a necessary condition for a person to live. A person without mental capacity can still survive normally. As long as the brain is functioning properly and the brainwaves are still present, even if the mental capacity is extinguished, a person’s consciousness can still be maintained.”
“Only those whose brainwaves have completely extinguished can be considered brain dead.”
“…”