Chapter 51 Ashes and Rebirth

——She stood on the ashes of the nightmare, and he stayed with her all the time.

The previous stage of treatment was like a long operation - Professor Klein used the most cruel method to cut open the most festering wound in Ruan Xingchen's memory, carving out the rotten fear, humiliation, and despair bit by bit.

The iron cage, the flames, the ashes... She once collapsed and lost her voice in Mo Xiaohan's arms, but in the end, she survived.

Professor Klein closed the assessment report and tapped the tip of his pen lightly on the paper.

"The memory reconstruction is very complete." She looked at Ruan Xingchen who was sitting across from her, "But there's still one last step."

Ruan Xingchen's fingers caressed the rim of the teacup, the tea already cold, the chill of the porcelain walls seeping up through her fingers. She knew what the professor was referring to—the reality of the situation being exposed, which meant she had to personally enter the "Dark Night" auction house, the physical venue where this traumatic event took place.

The place that was the core traumatic scene and dragged her into the hell of despair has now been razed to the ground by Mo Xiaohan, leaving only charred ruins.

"When are we going?" she asked, her voice soft but without trembling.

Mo Xiaohan stood by the window with his back to them, his shoulders tense.

"Tomorrow." Professor Klein pushed up his glasses. "If you're ready."

Ruan Xingchen looked up, his gaze passing over the professor and falling on Mo Xiaohan's back.

"I'm ready."

As the helicopter landed in the wasteland outside the city, the setting sun was dyeing the skyline blood red. The former site of the Dark Night Auction House was even more desolate than expected, with charred steel bars piercing from the concrete like a charred skeleton.

The wind blew the ashes and scraps of paper, swirling them in the air, occasionally revealing the remaining words on the pieces of paper - "Auction", "Inspection", and "Deal".

Ruan Xingchen stood in the center of the ruins, stepping on a piece of broken marble with gilded patterns still remaining on it. That was where the auction table was. She had been pressed here and displayed like a commodity.

Mo Xiaohan stood half a step behind her, without touching her, but like a silent barrier, isolating her from all possible dangers.

"Here..." Ruan Xingchen's voice was a little hoarse, "It's quieter than I thought."

There were no screams, no bidding, only the whimpering of the wind through the ruins.

"You stand here," he said, crushing a piece of coke. "You are not a commodity, you are the owner."

She bent down and picked up a twisted piece of metal from the ashes—the remains of an auction hammer. Holding it in her palm, it felt cold and heavy, but it could no longer hurt her.

"It's over," she whispered, throwing the piece of metal back into the rubble.

Mo Xiaohan finally reached out and placed his palm on the back of her neck, his body temperature transmitting through her skin.

"Well, it's over."

On the return helicopter flight, the hum of the propellers made the cabin exceptionally quiet. Ruan Xingchen looked out the window. The ruins on the ground gradually shrank into a blurry black spot. In the distance, the city lights lit up, like broken diamonds scattered on black velvet.

"I want to see Lin Miaomiao." She suddenly spoke, her voice very light due to the air flow.

Mo Xiaohan's fingers tightened slightly on his knees, and his voice lowered: "No."

Lin Miaomiao - the woman who was once regarded as Ruan Xingchen's best friend, but was tricked into coming to Bangkok due to gambling debts and sold at an auction, is now living a life worse than death in the "Red House".

The "Red House" is the dirtiest and most terrifying den of vengeance in Mo Xiaohan's hands. It is used exclusively for the amusement of powerful people with special fetishes. No one who is sent in can walk out intact. Human life is the least valuable thing there.

"I'm not trying to save her." Ruan Xingchen turned her head and looked directly into Mo Xiaohan's eyes. "I just... want to see what she looks like now."

Mo Xiaohan's eyes were filled with violence, but in the end, he closed his eyes: "Does Professor Klein know?"

"Know."

"She agrees?"

"She said..." Ruan Xingchen paused, "This is the last 'knot in my heart' that I need to cut with my own hands."

The helicopter passed through a thick layer of clouds, and the light inside the cabin suddenly dimmed. Mo Xiaohan was silent for a long time, so long that the sky outside the window was completely dark, with only the wing indicator lights flashing regularly in the darkness.

"Okay," he finally said, his voice so low it was barely audible, "but I want to be there."

That evening, Professor Klein wrote his final assessment in his treatment log: "The patient has completed the core of exposure therapy, the real-life exposure—with safe support, actively entering the site of the trauma. By staying there and touching key markers, he alleviated anxiety and broke the "scene-fear" reflex. His tolerance for the source of fear has significantly improved, and he can now distinguish between "past threats" and "current safety."

Actively facing traumatic scenes marks the transition from "avoidance" to "coping" and is the key to the transformation from "victim" to "survivor."

While requesting to meet with Lin Miaomiao carries emotional risks, it is the final link in the recovery loop. As the core person involved in this secondary trauma of "betrayal," confronting her directly is an active exposure of the last unprocessed traumatic elements, helping the patient close the trauma narrative and meeting the ultimate requirement of exposure therapy: "systematically processing all associated stimuli."

She closed the notebook, tapped the cover lightly with her fingertips, looked out the window at the inky night, and said softly, "At this point, the treatment has entered its final stage."