Chapter 37

Liu Yifan closed the notebook, pressed his fingertips on the cover for a moment, then reopened it and turned to the most recently written pages. His eyes fell on the last line:

[Scene Record: Parallel Lines in Public Space (Supermarket)]

- Keywords: efficiency collaboration, meaningless social avoidance, daily performance, being spied on (paparazzi)

- Performance Tips: Focus on the split between maintaining a superficially normal appearance and inner detachment under the pressure of being watched. The subject's indifference to this is a key consideration.

"Look," a voice in her heart said calmly, "the so-called daily routine is nothing more than a carefully designed route. I have even measured the distance between us when we walk side by side."

Flip forward:

Key Finding: Master Bedroom Visual Anchor (Historical Video Data)

- Keywords: Youthful symbolic projection (college period), long-term one-way gaze, frank admission, stripping behavior (removed upon request)

Performance Tip: This anchor reveals the original model of the subject's aesthetic system and emotional projection. Understanding how it separates "symbolic beauty" from "concrete people" is key to understanding the logic of its behavior. Perhaps the praise of Si Si to King You of Zhou was also originally a symbol.

Her gaze lingered on the page for a few seconds longer. Those carefully peeled and rolled-up yellowed posters were like a cold probe, piercing the most vulnerable part of the subject's heart. That was the starting point of his emotional map.

"Was my heart moved? Maybe for a moment. But that was curiosity about a paranoid aesthetic, not emotion towards a person. I have to make the distinction."

Turn forward again:

[Contact Point Analysis: Stress Response to the “Old Residence” Narrative]

- Keywords: Childhood trauma (parents’ divorce), emotional anchor (real estate left by mother), property disposal pattern (mansion given to ex-girlfriend)

Performance Tip: This narrative reveals the deep-seated roots of the subject's emotional pattern—their dependence on and abandonment of a "stable carrier." Bao Si's "coldness" may stem from her utter disappointment with this "carrier" (the court/King You of Zhou).

"His tenderness towards his family serves as a stark contrast to his impenetrable defenses against the outside world. And I, after all, am part of that 'outside world.' That's my role."

She flipped back page by page, her eyes scanning the calm titles and keywords:

[Behavior sample: A brief conversation during a work break (Content: Curtain color)]

- Keywords: authority transfer, functional recognition ("bright"), no aesthetic judgment

- ...

Initial Environmental Assessment: Main Residential Spaces (Units in Old Residential Residential Areas)

- Keywords: minimalism, functionality, time stagnation (old decoration), space waste (purchased upstairs and left unused)

Performance Tip: This environment is an externalization of the subject's inner world. Understanding how they construct vast capital and a spiritual world within this "scarce" physical space is key to understanding the logic of their power.

From environmental assessments, to exploring childhood traumas, to discovering the emotional projections of adolescence (posters), to documenting behavioral patterns in public spaces, and finally to recent interactions involving blood relatives, this continuous, icy review, like a basin of ice water, completely extinguished the lingering sense of "homely warmth" brought by Zhou Anan's visit.

She once again clearly realized that all this closeness, coexistence, and even the scenes that were interpreted by the outside world as "living together" were, in essence, purposeful "experiences" and "observations" she conducted to fulfill her role. Even the poster itself was merely a "key discovery" that needed to be analyzed and understood.

She is not living, she is working. The core of her work is to maintain this detached, analytical perspective.

"Bao Si must not fall in love with King You." An extremely clear voice rang out in the depths of her mind, "Once she falls in love, her indifference will become a fit of anger, and her tragedy will become the cliché of infatuated men and resentful women.

She had to be completely 'non-attachment' to complete that shocking sacrifice to power itself. And if I had any real attachment to him, I would no longer be able to act out that pure, cold despair.

A near-cruel lucidity gripped her. She had to completely suppress the subtle ripples that occasionally surfaced during her observations—like the subconscious tenderness he showed when he defended his sister, the fleeting touch of emotion when she noticed his tacit approval of her living room renovation, and even the complex, indescribable shock she felt when she discovered the poster.

These are impurities, noise that detract from the purity of her ultimate performance.

She took a deep breath, as if to completely filter out the impurities called "wavering" from her blood. Then, she picked up the pen and wrote the next title on a new page with force and clarity, the tip of the pen almost scratching the back of the paper:

How to Become Bao Si: On the Aesthetics of Absolute Alienation

The title, cold and abstract, brims with an academic sense of distance. It acts like a barrier, separating her from the living man she's dissecting bit by bit. She must be even colder than him to portray the image of depravity. This isn't a retreat; it's the ultimate accumulation of strength before attacking.

Under the light, her silhouette is sharp, devoid of any tenderness, yet possessing a focus and resolve bordering on a martyr's. Only by remaining isolated can one reach the ultimate. She chooses to walk soberly into the flames destined to consume her.

However, while fire can forge the ultimate beauty, it also inevitably leaves indelible burn marks. She knew better than anyone the heights of praise the outside world had placed on her—the accolades of "top-tier," "equally matched," and "winner in life" had already firmly welded her to the identity of "Zhou Ping'an's girlfriend."

This grand performance will eventually come to an end. When the destined ending comes, when the name "Zhou Ping'an" completely disappears from her life script, the higher she is praised at this moment, the more shattered she will be at that time.

That would no longer be an ordinary breakup, but an uncontrollable avalanche that would devour her current career. Praise would instantly turn into a backlash, questioning whether all her achievements were just illusions created by others.

She is personally putting herself at the greatest risk in the future in exchange for the most extreme performance fuel in the present.

This was a gamble with her entire career at stake, and she put all her chips on the line just for that moment of absolute light.

The night deepened outside the window. In the study, the halo of the desk lamp cast Liu Yifan's focused silhouette against the wall. She closed her notebook, her fingertips lingering on the cover for a moment, as if digesting the almost resolute self-warning she had just issued.

She needed a moment to let the cold analysis sink in. She stood up, gently stretched her stiff neck and shoulders, and decided to go to the living room to get a glass of water and change her thoughts.

A single floor lamp lit the living room, providing a soft glow. The television was playing an evening financial news program, the volume low, serving as background noise. Zhou Ping'an sat on the single sofa, his laptop open on his lap. The dim light from the screen illuminated his focused profile, his fingertips occasionally tapping on the keyboard.

When Liu Yifan walked in, he didn't look up, completely immersed in his own data stream. She was used to this mode of coexistence without disturbing each other, so she went straight to the kitchen to pour a glass of water.

As she returned to the living room with her glass of water and sat down at one end of the sofa, the host's tone seemed to rise subtly as he mentioned a name that couldn't be ignored: "...and it's worth noting that this usually low-key young tycoon's private life has unexpectedly entered the public eye due to rumors of his relationship with the famous movie star Ms. Liu Yifan..."

The slender fingers tapping on the keyboard paused almost imperceptibly. Zhou Ping'an didn't look up, but the typing stopped.

Liu Yifan raised his eyes from the water cup and glanced at him quickly.

The host's voice continued to emanate from the TV, offering a hint of intriguing analysis: "... Whether judging by their career achievements or their appearance and temperament, the combination of Mr. Zhou Ping'an and Ms. Liu Yifan has been described by many netizens as 'a top-tier combination that breaks the dimensional barrier'..."

At this moment, perhaps in order to support the program's point of view on "appearance and temperament", a very slight sound of photo switching came from the background.

He subconsciously raised his eyes from the code and glanced at the TV screen.

The screen showed a blurry candid photo of a supermarket.

Just then, the production crew dug up a rare old photo—perhaps a snapshot from an event during his college days. Zhou Ping'an was younger in the photo, wearing a simple shirt and gazing intently at the stage.

The performer on the stage with a charming smile and radiant energy was none other than Liu Yifan, who was in her teens and had already amazed everyone when she first started performing.

The two photos were cleverly collaged together by technical means, spanning time and space, but creating a strange harmony and... sense of fate.

His eyes were suddenly locked, and his breathing was almost imperceptibly stopped.

At this moment, the noisy noise from the outside world, which he had originally ignored, seemed to penetrate the thick barriers and directly hit his cognition for the first time.

"Top-tier configuration"... "Sapiosexual ceiling"... "Breaking the dimensional wall"...

These superficial words that he had never cared about were like a precise key that suddenly opened a door in his heart that had never been open to him.

An extremely clear thought that he had never had before, like a stone thrown into still water, created ripples in the lake of his heart, bringing with it a slight trance and... a strange sense of satisfaction.

Yes. They do seem to be a good match.

It wasn't just about appearances; it was an inexplicable connection, a connection that existed at the level of aura and core. This thought was so natural, it even brought a faint warmth—it wasn't a bad feeling, even... a good one. Perhaps, this seemingly absurd arrangement of the outside world wasn't entirely without reason. Perhaps...

However, before this warmth could spread, a deeper, more instinctive alarm sounded silently and sharply in the depths of his consciousness.

It was as if a forbidden zone in the brain that absolutely could not be touched was accidentally brushed over by this sudden and overly intimate thought.

There was no specific image or reason, only a cold, reflexive feeling of discomfort and a desire to block out. His thoughts seemed to have hit an invisible, absolutely smooth wall, unable to climb or penetrate, and could only be forcibly rebounded.

cannot.

He didn't even know what he was rejecting, he just knew that he had to stop thinking in that direction immediately.

“Pah.”

He almost subconsciously reached for the remote and turned off the TV. His movements were a little faster than usual, revealing a sense of determination to cut off something.

The living room fell into silence, with only the gentle hum of the laptop fan as the only sound.

He took a deep breath, his gaze returning to the data stream on the screen, trying to refocus his mind, but his fingertips felt sluggish. The momentary trance and the inexplicable yet resolute resistance that followed were like an icy gate suddenly closing, cutting off all warmth and leaving only an empty, uncomfortable silence.

He subconsciously avoided any possible gaze from Liu Yifan.

Liu Yifan had indeed been looking at him.

From the concentration on his eyes when they were fixed on the TV to the extremely subtle freeze in his expression at that moment, she caught the trance and recognition in that moment, and even felt her heart moved.

Then there was the way he suddenly turned off the TV, as if he'd been burned, and the sudden cooling, tense feeling that emanated from his body as if he were trying to close himself off again...

All the changes may seem insignificant to ordinary people, but in the eyes of Liu Yifan, a top "experiential" actor, they are like a silent storm.

He was scared again.

After a brief moment of close proximity, he suddenly and without warning retreated back into his shell, even faster and more decisive than any previous retreat, with a kind of... self-defensive disgust?

Liu Yifan's heart suddenly tightened. She didn't understand what had triggered it, but she was absolutely certain that in those brief seconds, a fierce, unknown war had taken place within Zhou Ping'an's heart. The result was retreat and blockade.

The mystery in Zhou Ping'an's heart, the core fear that made him approach and escape again and again, seemed to have just revealed a clearer outline than ever before.

But what exactly is it?