It was very rare for a patient to strike Cheng Xi speechless, because she believed that even the weirdest patients had some sort of a consistent thought pattern that she could a.n.a.lyze and understand them through. But trying to understand someone like Meng Qingyang was…… quite difficult.
Cheng Xi asked, “Are you sure that you want my help? After all, in a certain sense, we"re love rivals.”
Meng Qingyang"s expression was as innocent as a pure white bunny"s. “Then are you going to hit me? I"m not afraid of fighting or shouting.”
Cheng Xi thought to herself, ……I can see that.
“Furthermore, when I s.n.a.t.c.hed him away, I asked you what you felt and you said that you were happy for me.”
Cheng Xi thought for a while, but couldn"t remember ever saying anything like that to her, but it didn"t matter anymore. She picked up the questionnaire that Meng Qingyang had filled out. There were twelve questions, and Meng Qingyang had marked “No” for ten of them.
Cheng Xi then asked, “What does your insecurity stem from?”
“Lin Fan. I feel like he doesn"t truly love me. Everyone else says that he treats me very well, but I know that he doesn"t love me. He"s just taking care of me, like the nanny that my family hired.”
“What do you think about when you can"t sleep due to your insomnia?”
“Him. I want to have a big fight with him. I want to shock him awake and force him to talk to me.”
Cheng Xi continued asking a series of similar questions, and all of Meng Qingyang"s answers showed that all of her fretfulness, restlessness, and negative emotions had to do, in some form or another, with Lin Fan. Cheng Xi then asked her two final questions. “What would you consider true love to be?”
Meng Qingyang unhesitatingly answered, “To be willing to live and die for the other party, and to give the other party everything that you have.”
“And you? What will you leave for yourself?”
Meng Qingyang stared stubbornly at Cheng Xi, as if she were really willing to give her whole body and soul up for love.
Cheng Xi had to admit: Lin Fan"s mother"s eyes were really sharp. She had wanted to give Lin Fan a helpful wife, and this woman in front of Cheng Xi was willing to give everything she had to Lin Fan.
And, more importantly, she had the power and leverage to help him.
Cheng Xi sighed, not wanting to discuss what love was with her anymore. “But I feel like love can only be established between two independent people. If one person has to carry too much of the weight, then even if they love the other party with all their heart, it may be too much for them to bear. More importantly, if a person loses sight of themselves because they fell in love with someone else, then they"ll be nothing in that person"s eyes. And how could that person love them back? The only way true love can exist is if, no matter what, two people remain independent ent.i.ties. The only thing that can"t be replicated is you yourself.”
This therapy session left her unusually exhausted. As Meng Qingyang left, Cheng Xi asked, “Do you know Shu Ting"s A Delicate Oak?” Meng Qingyang nodded, and Cheng Xi became relieved. “Copy it down ten times every day. Whenever you feel like he doesn"t love you, copy it down. If you can"t sit still for too long, then recite it silently.”
“When you find yourself and when you regain your independence, you"ll know if he truly loves you.”
When Meng Qingyang went back home, she sent Cheng Xi a picture of her collection of Shu Ting"s poetry, as well as a handwritten copy of A Delicate Oak, leaving Cheng Xi uncertain if she should be happy or not that Meng Qingyang trusted her word so much.
Meanwhile, Cheng Xi"s students asked her, “Professor, will this really help her?”
Cheng Xi could only say, “We"ll wait and see.”
In the end, it turned out to be quite effective; otherwise, Lin Fan"s mother wouldn"t also have come looking for Cheng Xi. On the day that Lin Fan"s mother showed up, Tian Rou was also searching for Cheng Xi. In the bright and early morning, Tian Rou ignored Lu Chenzhou"s sideways glance and shamelessly pushed her way into Cheng Xi"s apartment. When she arrived, she even feigned ignorance, saying, “My goodness! Why do you have two apartments, Dr. Cheng?”
She had knocked so hard that she even woke Lu Chenzhou up. He was walking around in a thin morning gown and stared coldly at Tang Rou from the bedroom door as he unhappily said to Cheng Xi, “Make her leave!”
This guy was indeed cranky in the morning.
But something big must have happened to Tian Rou, because she was gutsy enough to bicker back against Lu Chenzhou. “I"m not going to scram! I won"t, so what"re you going to do about it?” She clung to Cheng Xi so tightly that Lu Chenzhou couldn"t separate them even if he tried.
Black streaks marred Cheng Xi"s forehead, and she felt like the green veins on Lu Chenzhou"s forehead were about to explode. She quickly brought Tian Rou next door and asked her, “What"s the matter with you? Why"re you here so early in the morning?”
Tian Rou looked at her pitifully, and then dropped a bomb on her. “I got together with Baldy last night.”
“Hmm?” Cheng Xi yawned unresponsively. She"d stayed up too late last night, and she wasn"t completely awake yet. Her head was still slightly muddled, and her thoughts weren"t clear yet.
Tian Rou slapped the table out of frustration. “What"re you yawning for? What I mean is that I slept with him last night!”
Cheng Xi slowly said, “……Oh.” Her mouth formed an “O” shape, and then slowly morphed into a “__” shape. She then asked, “Is that strange?”
Tian Rou stopped smiling. “No. He only treated me as a replacement for someone else, so I beat him up.”
Cheng Xi"s mouth turned into an “O” again. “Did you beat him up…… badly?”
She wouldn"t have run here otherwise, right?
Tian Rou innocently replied, “Hmm, I don"t think it was that serious? I just smashed his body with a beer bottle, and there was quite a bit of blood.”
“……”
Cheng Xi had figured out very early on that Rou was a very fierce sister figure; however, she never really knew just how fierce.
“Then where is he right now?”
“Lying down in his house.”
Cheng Xi"s eyes bulged wide open. “He fainted?! And you just left him lying there?!”
Rou"s eyes opened even wider than Cheng Xi"s. “What else should I have done? I even wanted to castrate him! It"s not like it matters whether or not he has one or not anymore!”
Cheng Xi felt a sudden weariness rise in her heart.
And with that, she left Tian Rou behind and went home to find Lu Chenzhou. Lu Chenzhou"s reaction was even calmer than Tian Rou"s. “Oh, not bad.”
Cheng Xi"s weariness only intensified, and she started pulling on Lu Chenzhou"s sleeve, hugging him, and kissing him until he was finally willing to bring her over to Baldy"s house. Didn"t Tian Rou come here precisely to get her to take a look at Baldy?
Luckily, Baldy didn"t seem like he was doing too badly; Tian Rou hadn"t smashed his head with the gla.s.s bottle, but rather his hand. The only fallout was that his wrist was slightly injured.
And the reason why Tian Rou had run over to find Cheng Xi was because she had been scared off by the sight of the blood on his body. She had wanted to bring Baldy to the hospital, but he had refused to go. So, she had no other choice but to find Cheng Xi.
Before she left, she even knew to clean and bandage his wound.
When they arrived at Baldy"s place, he was lying paralyzed in bed, spread-eagle. The blood had dyed half of the sheets a deep red, and he was lying on the b.l.o.o.d.y half, his gaze unfocused as he thought about something.
Lu Chenzhou walked over and pinched Baldy"s crudely bandaged wrist. “It"s not broken.” He pinched him again, causing Baldy to almost jump up, turned around, and then said to Cheng Xi, “Let"s go home.”
He wasn"t done sleeping yet.
Cheng Xi was speechless. “……”
At the very least, Baldy listened to her advice this time, or perhaps he did it just to mess with Lu Chenzhou. + _ +
Either way, when Cheng Xi mentioned it, he finally got up and went to the hospital with them.
Cheng Xi brought him to Renyi. On the way there, she asked Baldy, “Were you intentionally trying to scare Tian Rou?”
Baldy begrudgingly admitted, “Yes.” He gritted his teeth as he continued to say, “That wench, I have to teach her that she can"t just hit people like that. What if she gets addicted to it in the future?”
He had even mentioned “the future,” which was clear evidence that Baldy wasn"t actually involved with another woman, like Tian Rou thought. Thus, Cheng Xi relaxed, casually directed Baldy to the appropriate section of the hospital, and then called Tian Rou. “Baldy"s in the hospital. You should come over.” She then decided to spice things up and frightened Rou a little as well. “Did you know that your bottle ended up piercing one of his major arteries? If we were any later, he would"ve died! He"s not looking too good right now, so you"d better come immediately.”
It was an obvious lie, but Rou actually fell for it and rushed over in a mess.
Cheng Xi left without waiting for Tian Rou to arrive; there was still a sleep-deprived Mr. Lu waiting outside in the car after all.
But when she stepped out of the hospital, the first thing she saw was Lin Fan"s mother. At that time, Cheng Xi didn"t know that Lin Fan"s mother had seen Lu Chenzhou and talked to him. And when Cheng Xi walked up to her, Lin Fan"s mother said that she was here to visit Chen Jiaman. Thus, Cheng Xi had to walk over and apologetically say to Lu Chenzhou, “I"m sorry, but some things came up. Why don"t you go home and get some rest first?”
Lu Chenzhou had woken up with a grouchy expression in the morning, and it got even grouchier now. He coldly replied, “If I say no, will you still stay here?”
Cheng Xi smiled and pinched his face playfully. “Don"t mess around. I have to go to work anyway.”
Lu Chenzhou pridefully turned away. Cheng Xi smiled, stood up on her tiptoes, and kissed the side of his face before returning to the hospital. As she walked inside, she turned around, only to see that Lu Chenzhou"s car had already driven away. By then, she could barely see its shadow off in the distance.