Who would study psychology if they didn't have some kind of problem?

Chapter 197 Huang Xin: Do you really enjoy consulting that much?

Nan Zhuren was surprised to see the person who appeared before him.

Huang Xin.

Nan Zhuren never expected that he would appear in this place at this time.

Is this guy here to ambush me?

The more surprised Nan Zhuren was, the calmer his face became, and even his tone of voice remained unchanged.

"Huang Xin... what are you doing here?"

……

Xia Tian blinked after hearing Nan Zhuren's words.

She was startled at first, then her teeth gradually clenched.

She had previously been asked by Nan Zhuren to find out Huang Xin's whereabouts, so she knew that a person named "Huang Xin" was involved in Nan Zhuren's incident.

But Xia Tian had never met Huang Xin in person before, so this was their first meeting.

【But... why now of all times?!】

The little girl rubbed her white teeth together fiercely, as if she were biting something extremely hateful; if Nan Zhuren hadn't been there, there might already be the sound of sawing wood.

……

Huang Xin's posture was somewhat strange.

He had his head down and didn't see Xia Tian, ​​so he naturally didn't know what Xia Tian was thinking at that moment.

There are many red-lacquered wooden benches on the campus of Jiangnan University, usually scattered along the river, on the lawn, and near the teaching buildings.

With his head down, Huang Xin slowly rose from a posture reminiscent of a pirate admiral in the gradually darkening sky. The bench he had chosen was right next to a street lamp, so as he transitioned from sitting to standing, the shadows on his face and body shifted dramatically with his movements.

Honestly, it has an atmosphere that's almost like performance art.

Huang Xin said slowly, "You don't even call me 'senior brother' anymore?"

Nan Zhuren remained calm and took a half-step forward, shifting from standing shoulder to shoulder with Xia Tian to being half a body length ahead of the young girl: "Different occasions call you by different titles. Before, using 'Senior Brother' was either a pretense, a taunt, or a way of temporarily needing your help. But now it's different, so I'm switching back to a normal social title."

This earnest explanation made Huang Xin laugh in exasperation. He suddenly looked up, about to say something—

But what came into view was not just Nan Zhuren.

In the quiet evening, male and female college students walked side by side. They were close but not so close as to be touching, seemingly in the beautiful stage where their relationship was just beginning to become clear. The boy's composure and the girl's liveliness complemented each other, making even the air of late winter and early spring seem warmer.

I don't know why, but the girl's expression was a bit fierce.

Huang Xin paused for a moment, looked at the bench he had specially chosen, and suddenly felt a little disheartened—what was he here for again?

"So what are you doing here?" Nan Zhuren asked. "Were you waiting for me?"

Huang Xin quickly adjusted his mindset: "Yes, I came to find you."

"You even struck a pose?"

Nan Zhuren realized what was going on.

He looked at Huang Xin's reddened hands and nose: "Have you been waiting for a long time?"

Regardless of Huang Xin's purpose in coming here.

With just a few words, Nan Zhuren easily seized the initiative in the conversation.

Huang Xin paused for a moment and glanced at Xia Tian next to Nan Zhuren.

The little girl's nose wrinkled even more, like a cat about to scratch someone.

But then she looked up and met Nan Zhuren's eyes.

His expression softened again.

"Since you have something to attend to, Professor Nan, I'll be leaving now."

Nan Zhuren apologized, saying, "I have a consultation tonight, so could you please bring me some food later?"

...Watching summer's figure gradually fade into the distance.

Huang Xin suddenly said to Nan Zhuren, "You really are always unpredictable, yet always perfectly reasonable."

Nan Zhuren didn't reply: "How did you find me?"

Huang Xin suddenly chuckled, patted the bench behind him, and gestured for Nan Zhuren to sit down.

"Like I said, although it was unexpected, it was still within reason."

Nan Zhuren looked on with curiosity.

"You confronted Wang An during class for the sake of your visitor, and the incident was recorded by many students and circulated online. In other words—"

Huang Xin shook his head: "Many people in our school saw you in the video."

"Thanks to your highly... distinctive personal image," Huang Xin said tactfully. "Many people have been asking about you, and quite a few have learned that you used to be my junior. Recently, a lot of random senior and junior students have been adding me on WeChat."

"And today, coincidentally, someone on my contact list saw you when you came to the mental health center, and she asked me about your schedule—so I knew where you were."

Ok……

That was indeed an unexpected yet reasonable approach.

Nan Zhuren paused for a moment, then sat down on the bench side by side with Huang Xin.

The atmosphere was strangely harmonious, almost like two fellow disciples discussing a problem.

Nan Zhuren asked, "So what brings you here?"

Huang Xin, however, gave an irrelevant answer: "I heard you went back to the psychological center at 2 p.m., so I came here to wait for you."

"I thought you'd be out after your consultation, but I ended up waiting for four whole hours..."

His tone was incredibly melancholy, or rather, full of bitterness.

This astonishing perseverance even caught Nan Zhuren's attention.

Are you saying all this so I can make up for your long wait?

Huang Xin shook his head: "What I mean is—I've been sitting here all afternoon, thinking about a lot of things."

"I was thinking, Nan Zhuren, you're already a paid counselor outside, yet you're coming to the mental health center to do free counseling, and for four hours straight—"

He turned his head, his tone enigmatic: "Nan Zhuren, do you really value your clients that much, and do you really enjoy psychological counseling that much?"

Nan Zhuren blinked.

He didn't follow the other person's line of thought: "So you waited for me for four hours."

Then, with a thoughtful expression, he said, "When I called you just now, you had your head down. You weren't asleep, were you? And that deep-seated pose you were in, was your body actually frozen stiff?"

……

The lyrical atmosphere that Huang Xin had just created was instantly swept away.

Nan Zhuren smiled inwardly.

Pleasure.

Although the "emotional readjustment" eliminated the stress from counseling, ... well, you can never have too much variety in life.

But Nan Zhuren was able to distinguish between primary and secondary matters. After being slightly happy, she immediately brought the topic back: "What is it that made you wait here for me for so long?"

Huang Xin took a deep breath and pressed his throbbing temples.

"Two things."

"First and foremost, the first thing—"

Huang Xin wanted to stick out a finger, but because it was too cold, he thought about it and didn't take his hand out of his pocket.

"I told the teacher about you punching Liu Pan this morning."

Nan Zhuren immediately showed interest: "What was his reaction?"

(End of this chapter)