“The only thing I can be certain of right now is that she must have suffered a great deal of trauma before, which caused severe psychological damage, resulting in traumatic amnesia, or what you could call selective amnesia.
“Then, by coincidence or perhaps deliberately—no one can say for sure—she was left with a kind of anchor, a stable point, a hint to cling to. She uses this behavior repeatedly to stabilize herself, to persevere until it becomes a habit and numbs her own pain. You can think of this as a self-protection mechanism.”
“As for the rest, it’s not so simple, and we’ve only had a short time together. I can only tell you to focus on stabilizing your emotions. I wouldn’t dare promise that solving this trauma is something that can be done easily.”
Xu Nian listened quietly. He leaned against the wall, furrowing his brows as he digested all the information.
He glanced over slightly—Yang Shuli was nearby, still waiting for his ice cream to be ready.
Yang Shuli’s situation was far more complicated than he had imagined, and for some reason, Xu Nian didn’t know where the root cause lay, so he had no way to approach it.
“Thank you, doctor.” Xu Nian finally came back to his senses and gave a slight nod to the man before him.
“No problem, no problem. You can ask for my help anytime, don’t be so formal.”
The psychologist paused, then added, “One more thing I should warn you: if possible, it’s best not to try to fully resolve this matter. To put it simply, don’t dig up her old wounds.”
Xu Nian raised his eyebrows, clearly not quite understanding.
“This isn’t like the usual thinking that if someone’s sick, you treat the illness. When a certain symptom becomes a person’s protective mechanism to avoid collapse, removing that symptom—like taking away a load-bearing wall—is when the whole structure is at risk of falling.”
“She’s been relying on this self-numbing and self-hypnosis to hold on until now. The real ‘her’ has long since been lost or forgotten somewhere. Because we don’t know the full circumstances, we can’t say when she began depending on this one pillar. The deeper you go, the harder it becomes to cure.”
“If handled well, and this pillar made of symptoms can be replaced, then it’s a happy ending for everyone. But even the slightest imbalance…”
The psychologist made a gesture mimicking a building collapsing.
“I understand.” Xu Nian’s tightly furrowed brows made his mood seem even more complicated. “I’ll be careful.”
“Of course, this is just my suggestion. How you interact with her ultimately depends on you. After all, love is something I’ve never experienced. Maybe a miracle will happen?”
“That’s all I have to say. I wish you the best of luck.” The psychologist smiled and waved his hand at Xu Nian as a parting gesture.
“Thank you.” Xu Nian expressed his gratitude one last time and watched as the psychologist he had hired left toward the exit.
Then, he looked over at Yang Shuli, who was hopping in place, being teased by the staff with the ice cream. For once, a look of confusion crossed his face.
He couldn’t give up on Yang Shuli, but right now, he didn’t know what to do.
He even began to wonder if this was the price he had to pay for having such a good friend in Yang Shuli.
At this moment, he even wanted to find a cigarette and take a long-awaited drag.
But he had quit smoking long ago, after that first encounter with Yang Shuli when he casually offered him a cigarette.
Back then, Yang Shuli had asked if it tasted good, and Xu Nian had blankly nodded without thinking.
Fortunately, Yang Shuli didn’t try to swallow the whole thing. Instead, he mimicked what he’d seen on TV and took a cautious puff.
Then he choked, coughing for a long time after just one puff.
The first thing Yang Shuli said after recovering was: “It tastes awful. I hate this stuff.”
So, as their friendship grew uncontrollably closer, Xu Nian chose to quit smoking and succeeded remarkably. Now, he only thought about smoking when he was really troubled.
Clearly, this counted as one of those troubling times. He was at a loss, not knowing where to start or how to deal with it.
But he also knew that selective amnesia and hiding memories didn’t mean the pain truly disappeared.
Taking a deep breath, Xu Nian pulled out a lollipop from his pocket—he always carried candies or snacks for Yang Shuli.
He used to think this kind of male character trope, who always had sweets for the female lead, was something that only appeared in cheesy romance dramas and could never apply to him.
Yet, countless times when Yang Shuli had called out wanting food, Xu Nian found himself compromising on this unappealing role.
Now, besides candy, he also carried small bread rolls and biscuits.
He popped the lollipop into his mouth, treating it as a cigarette substitute, and walked over to Yang Shuli.
“How’s it going?” Xu Nian ruffled Yang Shuli’s hair and glanced at the ice cream cone in his hand. “Why haven’t you gotten any ice cream yet?”
“Don’t rush, Old Xu. I’ve figured out the secret here.” Yang Shuli stared seriously at the Turkish ice cream swirling before them. “He keeps teasing me by never giving me the ice cream, like he’s toying with me. But I’ve also noticed he always leaves me an empty cone.”
Xu Nian took a closer look at the cone in Yang Shuli’s hand. It looked like three or four cones had been stacked together.
He looked again at the staff member, who now had bulging veins and a flushed face.
Quickly, Xu Nian snatched the ice cream the staff member was about to hand over and added it to the pile of cones in Yang Shuli’s hand.
Yang Shuli looked a bit dissatisfied but chose not to keep freeloading out of respect for Xu Nian.
“Hey, Old Xu, what about that, uh… your friend?” Yang Shuli asked.
“Not really a friend.” Xu Nian smiled gently, lollipop between his lips. “He had to leave for something.”
“Left? That’s fine.” Yang Shuli stood on tiptoe. Xu Nian bent slightly, intuitively listening to what Yang Shuli was about to say next.
“I actually felt that guy was a little weird, always staring at me.” Yang Shuli paused. “I suspect he wanted to steal my food. If you weren’t here, I would have gone into battle mode.”
Xu Nian just laughed and rubbed Yang Shuli’s head.
Yang Shuli jumped up like Super Mario and bumped Xu Nian’s palms twice.
Suddenly, she froze and looked at Xu Nian.
“My stomach suddenly hurts a bit. What should I do?” Yang Shuli looked scared. “I feel like something is about to come out uncontrollably? I don’t think I ate Wallace’s food, right?”
Xu Nian frowned and pressed lightly on Yang Shuli’s stomach. “Is it here?”
“Yes.” Yang Shuli obediently answered.
After a quick search, Xu Nian pulled out a sanitary pad. “Do you know how to use this?”
Yang Shuli asked back, “Is it some kind of cloud cake?”
Xu Nian took a deep breath, catching a faint metallic scent of blood from Yang Shuli, then lifted her up and led her to an empty stairwell near the emergency exit, closing the door behind them.
He crouched down in front of her, his expression calm.
“Lift up your skirt.”
“Oh.”
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Scandalous! /j
Yeah, all of their period really are synchronized together huh