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

Chapter 478 Step by Step, the Puppet on a String
The time now.

Based on the normal consultation time of forty minutes, there are still ten minutes left.

Based on a maximum consultation time of one hour, there is still half an hour left.

Nan Zhuren planned to use this time to let the visitor finish recounting his destructive experiences, as well as the changes in his life.

In fact, according to the normal procedure, Nan Zhuren should have listened to the experience first, and then taught the "grounding technique" to intervene.

However, this experience clearly had such a profound impact on the visitor that even retelling it would leave them in a state of mental stagnation.

Then we'll handle this as a special case.

Let's see if we can continue now.

Nan Zhuren thought for a moment and steered the conversation back on track: "Let's go back to your experience—you just mentioned that they used your private information to create some inappropriate videos, and then what?"

Then?

The visitor took a deep breath.

After the grounding technique was applied, his condition improved to some extent.

I noticed that the visitor changed their sitting posture. Instead of leaning forward with their elbows on their knees, they leaned back and brought their back close to the sofa, increasing the feeling of being enveloped by the sofa.

"Later, of course, they wanted me to transfer money, threatening to send the video to my contacts if I didn't."

“Now…they really have my weakness in their hands.” The visitor’s lips twitched downwards. “I’m starting to panic.”

Then, taking a deep breath, he said, "Luckily, I had already started running towards the police station. I was thinking of continuing to stall for time, but this time, I saved myself."

“I pretended to cry and played the victim on the other end, saying that I was a poor student, a veteran, and that I had left all my money to my family and had no money on me.”

"At this point, the person on the other end actually started comforting me, saying that they were also forced by life's circumstances, that I had a bright future, and that they only wanted money and didn't want to ruin others... To be honest, I suspect that the person on the other end was also a psychologist, because their voice was actually very gentle..."

At this point, the visitor paused: "Uh... teacher, what I mean is..."

He clearly felt that his words might offend Nam Joo-jen.

Nan Zhuren waved his hand and gave an encouraging smile: "It's okay, you can continue."

The visitor nodded: "They wanted five thousand this time. I told them I was a poor student and would need to take out an online loan to give them the money. They said they only wanted money and didn't want to ruin anyone, so they would give me whatever amount they had and I didn't need to take out a loan."

“I told them I would definitely lend them the money, I just hoped they wouldn’t spread the video. I pretended to be very scared, and my voice even started to tremble with tears. I thought—I’d give them a piece of my mind.”

“A few thousand yuan is within my means. I would rather they seek money than spread those fabricated stories.”

"Then I dawdled for more than ten minutes, and when I couldn't dawdle any longer, I split it into two payments, one for two thousand and the other for three thousand, and transferred them to the other party respectively."

At this point, the visitor raised his head and stretched his neck.

Many people make subtle movements when discussing topics that make them uncomfortable—just like the visitor in front of us. This is a spontaneous, unconscious physical movement, similar to "landing," and is a form of adjustment that occurs unconsciously.

Nan Zhuren knew that they had reached a rather crucial point.

"Then I made a stupid mistake. Although my crying was faked, I was actually very panicked and lost my judgment. I thought I had fooled them. But I didn't expect them to have a more elaborate scheme."

"After receiving the money, the other party pretended to be very satisfied and then told me that when I downloaded the app, they had installed a Trojan on my phone, which is why they were able to access my contacts."

"They even made a fake countdown video for me, saying they had a program that would send their composite video to my WeChat group once the countdown was over. Now that I've paid them, they're planning to delete it... Ha."

The visitor suddenly laughed, not a bitter laugh, but a wide, clenched-teeth laugh.

Like a certain Homelander draped in the Stars and Stripes. "Teacher, I told you before that they got access to my photos and contacts through the app's privacy policies, right?"

Nan Zhuren nodded: "Yes."

The visitor said, "But I only realized it when I reviewed it afterward. I didn't know at the time. I was very panicked. I thought there really was a Trojan horse that could do such a thing."

The visitor turned his head to one side and sighed deeply: "They said that implanting a Trojan is easy, but deleting it is troublesome. At this point, their tone became very urgent, saying that they did not want to make a big fuss, after all, they only wanted money, and hoped that they could help me delete the Trojan as soon as possible."

The visitor suddenly leaned back, staring blankly at the ceiling.

He let out a sigh that sounded like a wail: "Ah... I believe it."

"They guided me to start a video call on Tencent Video Conference, broadcasting my phone screen live, and 'instructed' me on how to operate the phone. They told me that I had to open the WeChat group chat interface and go to the group QR code interface so that they could help me delete the Trojan horse one group at a time."

"However, after hearing this, teacher, you should be able to tell what their real purpose is, right?"

Nan Zhuren sighed.

After thinking for a moment and organizing my thoughts, I finally spoke.

“I have a theory,” Nan Zhuren said. “They used a screenshot of your group QR code to gain access to your group chat and send videos to the group, and then used that to threaten you?”

The visitor grinned and nodded, each nod so forcefully that his chin touched his collar.

“Yes, there’s no Trojan horse... They originally only sent group messages to their contacts, which was just a few dozen people. But after I showed them the group chat QR code during the video call, they gained the ability to actually send group messages.”

"I'm showing you some of the group chats I've used most frequently recently..."

"In other words... I personally created conditions for them that could threaten me or even destroy me."

The visitor's eyes were vacant: "Like a silly marionette."

"Honestly, if someone else had told me this story, I would have laughed at how stupid that person was to actually do whatever the other person said. But when this happened to me... I actually followed his lead step by step."

“At this point, they completely dropped their masks, started laughing, and their tone became fierce. They demanded 100,000 from me. And because I was live-streaming my phone screen during a video conference, they could see every single thing I did on my phone.”

The visitor suddenly laughed, still that kind of grimacing grin.

After the smile lasted for two seconds, the curve of his lips gradually faded, leaving only the action of clenching his teeth and his staring eyes that seemed frozen.

“Video conference…this was a really clever move. They wanted me to show them all my balances and my loan limits on various apps, which exposed my lies about faking tears and acting pitiful as a poor student; I also couldn’t let my phone screen leave their control, so I couldn’t call the police.”

The visitor breathed a long sigh of relief: "Luckily, I left home early and was running towards the police station."

This is a fortunate statement.

However, Nan Zhuren did not see any micro-expressions on the other person's face that were associated with "joy".

"and then?"

The visitor smiled, but it was unclear whether he was laughing at the matter, at himself, or at something else.

"Then I went to the police station and gave the police the phone I was using to chat, but—there was no way to undo the damage."

"At the very least, there's no way to stop them from sending the videos to multiple people."

The visitor nodded: "Yes, they sent it to all groups. They sent it to my family group, class group, and all the other groups I've been using recently."

(End of this chapter)