Chapter 59: Changes in the Invisible 2

After a brief follow-up consultation, Ji Yuenian managed to get some addresses of troublemakers from other schools out of Zhang Junfang -the so-called “Know-It-All”—before leaving quite satisfied.

“Take care on your way back, Junior Ji.”

Zhang Junfang waved as he watched Ji Yuenian’s figure, now carrying his medicine, gradually fade into the distance until it disappeared completely.

Retracting his gaze, he turned and sat back down in his office chair, picking up the follow-up form from earlier. His eyes lingered on it, his brow slightly furrowed as he murmured softly.

“Just as the cross-dressing tendencies were showing signs of improvement, now there’s a hint of psychological issues. Are students under so much pressure these days?”

“Teacher, teacher-“

Just as he was about to pull up similar case studies from the database, the little boy who had just finished cleaning the clinic came running over with a book in hand.

“Done cleaning?”

“Meow meow, all done.” 

Yan Qing bounced over to Zhang Junfang and handed him the book.

“Teacher, teacher, look, look.”

“I found this while cleaning, tucked away in a crevice.”

Zhang Junfang took it and looked down. 

The book was as good as new, still sealed in its packaging, though covered in dust. 

After wiping it clean with a tissue, the title became visible.

“Dreams: The Projection of Subconscious Reality, Vol. 1&2”

“Dreams?” 

A small head leaned in, resting on the man’s shoulder, golden eyes brimming with curiosity.

“Teacher, do dreams really have anything to do with reality?”

Zhang Junfang ruffled the boy’s black hair. 

“Of course they do. As the saying goes, ‘Thoughts by day, dreams by night.’ Pleasant dreams are just that things you can’t have in reality but easily obtain in dreams.”

“Some people with professional training can even control their dreams at will. Want Gulnazar? You get Gulnazar. Want Dilraba? You get Dilraba. Fulfilling any desire unattainable in the real world.”

“If pleasant dreams come from daytime thoughts, what about nightmares, meow?”

“They stem from fear, guilt, or addiction toward certain people or things, or they’re the aftermath of severe psychological trauma.”

Zhang Junfang paused before continuing, “I’ve treated several real estate tycoons who mostly made their fortunes through shady means early on and carried that guilt.”

“When they were young, it was fine. But once they hit middle age, they became anxious and insecure, developing insomnia and nightmares. In severe cases, they’d look haggard, their faces as pale as gold leaf, like the walking dead.”

“So are pleasant dreams and nightmares opposites?”

“They share the same root, two sides of the same coin. Dreams vary from person to person-what’s a perfect dream to one might be an absolute nightmare to another.”

“At the same time, dreams are the easiest way to reflect subconscious thoughts-what you like, what you love, what you resist, what you fear, or even complex emotions toward certain people or things…”

Zhang Junfang slipped into his professional mode, rattling off explanations like a seasoned expert, while the little boy, Yan Qing, scratched his head and nodded, half-understanding.

Meanwhile, what was our Ji Yuenian up to?

Answer: He was busy fighting.

With a steel pipe, Ji Yuenian knocked down the last thug. 

Glancing at the surrounding sea of groaning, yellow-haired delinquents sprawled on the ground, he spat disdainfully and checked the time. 

Lunch was still a while away, so he hoisted the pipe over his shoulder and headed toward another hotspot for troublemakers at Wanqing City’s Third High School.

Lately, for some reason, the violent impulses in Ji Yuenian’s blood had been off the charts!

Every time something pissed him off, he just wanted to unleash it!!

And so, after freeloading the general locations of other schools’ delinquents from Zhang Junfang, Ji Yuenian wasted no time in enforcing “love and peace”!

What? Someone accused him of using “love and peace” as a front to indulge his violent tendencies? 

That it was all just selfish desires and hypocrisy?

Hmph! Ji Yuenian couldn’t be bothered to argue. Instead, he swung his steel pipe at them!

In the end, action spoke louder than words.

*    *    *    *    *   *

The afternoon had two classes, both of them useless filler, but for once, Ji Yuenian didn’t skip. 

After scarfing down a mousse cake at a maid café outside school as a makeshift lunch, he slipped into the classroom right on time and joined his lackeys in slacking off at the back.

Countless tender branches and green leaves swayed gently in the breeze outside, their shadows dancing as sunlight filtered through the dense foliage and spilled into the classroom, scattering haphazardly across a desk.

Seated beside it was a boy of about sixteen or seventeen-black hair, blue eyes, wearing a mask that obscured his features.

This was Jiang Chi.

Yet, despite being hailed as the “school heartthrob” and “top student,” his gaze wasn’t fixed on the multimedia blackboard. Instead, like the slackers in the middle and back rows, his eyes were downcast, distant, as if lost in thought.

Take the initiative? Bear responsibility?

Jiang Chi mulled over the meaning of these seven words. 

He knew one thing for certain-knowledge from books was just surface-level. 

To truly grasp it, theory had to be combined with practice, mastered until it became second nature.

His gaze suddenly fell on the pale hand gripping a ballpoint pen on the desk.

Jiang Chi wasn’t wearing gloves today.

This was part of his self-imposed treatment plan-desensitization training.

Running away wouldn’t solve anything. 

It would only breed bigger problems. 

The only way forward was to face them head-on.

Besides, a “patient” couldn’t properly be in a relationship with her. 

Love wasn’t about one-sided sacrifice, and Jiang Chi didn’t want her to keep giving endlessly for his sake.

So, he needed to get better. The sooner, the better.

The sweetness of love wrapped tightly around the boy’s heart. 

Even if there was the slightest hint of pretense in it, it still gave the blue-eyed boy motivation-the strongest craving he’d ever felt in his seventeen years of life.

But at this very moment, unbeknownst to him, a pair of dark, suspicious eyes watched his every move from a corner behind him.

Him. Jiang Chi. This guy.

But he looked so frail, like one punch would take him down. Nothing like the deranged boy from the dream.

The thought made Ji Yuenian chuckle to himself.

Getting all worked up over a dream? 

Mentally exhausting himself like this? Since when had he become so sensitive? 

Acting like some delicate girl.

Besides, dreams were usually the opposite of reality. 

No matter how many nightmares he had, there was no way Jiang Chi would turn into that crazed version in the real world.

To take a step back, even if Jiang Chi truly became like that, thinking he could imprison me? 

Restrain me? Make me weep in despair? 

What a joke!

Has he ever faced the wrath of my fists, as hard as sandbags?!

“Brother Ji.”

Just then, a familiar voice sounded beside him. 

Ji Yuenian turned his head to see Su Tian looking at him with a peculiar expression.

“Did the school heartthrob offend you? You’ve been staring at him since class started.”

“Was I that obvious?” Ji Yuenian frowned.

“More than obvious,” Su Tian silently thought to himself. 

“One moment your brows relaxed, the next they furrowed. One moment your lips curled into a smirk, the next your expression darkened-like you were having a seizure.”

At that moment, Jiang Chi in the front row seemed to sense the gaze and turned to look their way.

Azure eyes met dark pupils midair. 

For some reason, Ji Yuenian’s mind conjured up those blood-red irises-domineering, wild, bordering on madness, as if stripped of all reason and restraint.

And then…

Ji Yuenian actually averted his gaze guiltily, as if unable to meet those eyes.

But that single glance away only sharpened the fragmented memories in his mind—the suffocating basement, the humiliating restraints, the cold torment, and that crimson-eyed, deranged youth.

Even as the bell rang and most students flooded out of the classroom, these images lingered in Ji Yuenian’s thoughts, leaving him unsettled.

And when Jiang Chi stood to leave, Ji Yuenian’s body seemed to move on its own. 

Under the bewildered stares of Su Tian and his other friends, he followed without hesitation.

In the sparsely populated hallway, their footsteps were light, yet starkly audible in the quiet.

At a corner, Jiang Chi stopped and turned to face him calmly.

“Something you need?”