38. Baby, can we be the best in the world again?
Dr. Cheng, a psychiatrist, boasts that he has seen all kinds of patients in his more than 20 years of practicing psychiatry.
Of course, there are also those who are reluctant to seek medical help, ashamed to speak up, and insist in front of doctors that "I have a friend".
For example, right now, there's this young male patient across from me.
Old Cheng pushed up his glasses and, in a way that was characteristic of professional medical staff—one that wouldn't overly draw the other person's attention or make them uncomfortable—secretly observed him for a few moments.
The young man was impeccably dressed and quite handsome. From the moment he entered the consultation room until now, his speech and demeanor have been appropriate, his arguments clear, and his words substantial—unlikely…
Unlike people who stubbornly cling to their pride and suffer in silence.
In reality, many patients with severe psychological problems don't appear to be ill at all. Furthermore, since the other person was a friend of the hospital's partner's owner, he couldn't very well point it out.
The man, with his deep black eyes, glanced at him and said, "This person usually has a good personality and is generally quite stable emotionally towards others, but he is prone to losing control of his emotions when facing a certain person."
“Yeah, I understand,” Lao Cheng chuckled. “It’s what we in psychology often call the ‘kicking the cat effect.’”
"The kicking the cat effect?"
Old Cheng offered a friendly explanation: "It refers to a person accumulating negative emotions externally, such as stress and setbacks, but for various reasons, they dare not or are unable to vent them directly to the source. So they choose to vent to the person they subconsciously or psychologically consider to be the closest and safest person, or an 'emotional dumping ground.' Essentially, it is an abuse of the concept of a 'safe harbor.'"
"Do you consider that person the closest and safest person?" The man looked at him, seemingly lost in thought.
Old Cheng looked at him with some surprise. Wasn't this quite straightforward? Then why hide it on such a major issue?
I really don't understand young people these days.
Suddenly I heard him say, "Oh right, and also, pretending in front of almost everyone, pretending that you are happy."
"Are there any obvious triggers for these conditions? For example, has the patient recently experienced any major changes or setbacks? Or is there any lingering emotional distress that is difficult to resolve?"
"As for the trigger, relationship issues might be one. As for the others, I'm not quite sure yet..." The man's handsome eyebrows furrowed.
After he finished speaking, his handsome eyes lowered slightly.
The doctor across from him sighed inwardly. So, another one troubled by love. It seems that's how relationships are; no matter what kind of person you are, you can't escape the cliché of one thing subduing another.
This condition is the most difficult to treat.
The next second, he suddenly asked a somewhat offensive question: "Have you ever thought about dying?"
There was a moment of silence in the consultation room, followed by the man's clear voice, "When I sensed that the other person didn't love me, I thought about it."
The doctor paused for a moment, then didn't delve deeper into the issue. The two continued their conversation about the related symptoms for a while longer.
However, since the patient insists that he is only seeking medical advice on behalf of a friend and cannot see the actual patient in name, the procedure cannot be followed to conduct scale tests or prescribe relevant treatment drugs.
Based on the other party's description, as a doctor, Lao Cheng could only offer a reassuring assessment that "the current situation is still within a controllable range."
In addition, some common treatment methods were given for the related symptoms, such as talking to others and finding ways to vent.
Finally, he politely suggested again, "If possible, it would be better to have your friend come for a face-to-face consultation in person."
"Thank you, doctor." The man smiled, "But I think it's probably unnecessary."
Finally, she solemnly assured him, "I will pass on your suggestions."
"..."
Yuan Yubing drove in the front seat, while Mu Jia sat in the back.
It was the weekend, and she had nothing to do, but Yuan Yubing dragged her out of the house to go to the amusement park with him and their son, Shanshan.
Mu Jia glanced at the little boy beside her and suddenly couldn't help but ask, "Sister Yubing, what's wrong with Shanshan today? He doesn't seem very enthusiastic. He only rode the pirate ship, which he used to love, once before saying he didn't want to ride it anymore. And do you know what he said to me when we were queuing for the Ferris wheel just now?"
"say what?"
Mu Jia couldn't help but chuckle, deliberately drawing out her words and mimicking the child's nonchalant tone at the time, "Auntie, I think life is so meaningless."
Upon hearing this, Yuan Yubing suddenly chuckled, "It's nothing. It's just that when he came back from kindergarten yesterday, he suddenly told me that the girl in his class who was closest to him suddenly stopped being friends with him."
Huh? Mu Jia was speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say.
“Baby,” Yuan Yubing looked at her in the rearview mirror and said earnestly, “Children this age don’t understand these things. All they know is that whoever can make Li Zihan become their best friend again next Monday is a hero.”
After having a child a few years ago, Yuan Yubing became very gentle and often called everyone "baby." She showed no trace of the girl who liked to wear dark smoky makeup and go to bars a few years ago.
"..."
Seeing that she didn't speak, Yuan Yubing looked her over a few times and continued, "But I think that perhaps he really should learn from you."
"Huh? What are you going to learn from me?"
“You’ve known for a long time that your parents have always been estranged; recently you also discovered that your mother was secretly sick and getting treatment; you couldn’t accept the unspoken rules at work and were marginalized; you’ve been entangled with the same man for almost ten years, but in the end, you just broke up with him…” Yuan Yubing looked at her expression and concluded, “But you seem quite happy.”
"Ahem..." Mu Jia was a little helpless. Who said Yuan Yubing was gentle now? She's still as sharp-tongued as ever!
She suddenly regrets telling her everything all these years.
She coughed lightly and weakly reminded them, "Sister, isn't it a bit inappropriate to say these things in front of the children..."
Yuan Yubing glanced at Shanshan, who was fast asleep in Mu Jia's arms, and said, "That's why I waited until the child was asleep before telling you."
"..." When Yuan Yubing teased her, she didn't treat her like a cousin at all; she was practically her own sister.
She laughed in exasperation, then decided to throw caution to the wind: "Yeah, I'm happy, because whether I'm happy or not, it's still just another day, so what can I do? Go and kill myself?"
“At least I’m still healthy and have food and drink,” she said, glancing up ahead and deliberately speaking in a sweet, flattering tone, “and you, my dear sister.”
"Hiss..." Under her eager gaze, Yuan Yubing shrugged her well-developed right-angled shoulders and gave a very affected shiver.
Mu Jia chuckled for a moment, then lowered her head again. After a while, she suddenly heard a casual remark from the front row, "However, I don't think there's anything wrong with what you're doing."
Mu Jia paused for a moment, then smiled slightly, and suddenly felt less regretful.
As they were talking, Mu Jia's phone beeped again.
She glanced at it and saw that it was another message popping up in the background from that music app. She couldn't help but feel annoyed, so she raised her hand and pressed the button to put her phone on silent.
Hearing the sound, Yuan Yubing glanced at her in the rearview mirror and said with a hint of sarcasm, "It's him again? The baby's dead and he's already breastfeeding. Men really are all like this..."
Mu Jia sighed and remained silent.
The night she broke things off with Chu Chiyi, she went straight back to her grandmother's old house.
When I drew the curtains before going to bed that night, I saw Chu Chiyi's car parked downstairs.
It remained parked until the next morning.
For the next three days, from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. the following morning, that dark green GT Mustang would be parked in that spot.
However, he didn't come to her door directly, perhaps because he had overheard the gossip from the neighbors last time.
Mu Jia didn't know what he meant or what he wanted to do.
Just assume it's a withdrawal reaction and that he needs time to adjust to the change.
Yes, what change doesn't require adaptation?
Even the trash can downstairs from her office was moved to a different direction, and it took her almost a week to get used to it again.
Since it's only natural, let him adapt.
But in order to avoid running into him, she could only try not to go out, especially during the time when he would be there.
The car did not reappear on the fourth day.
She breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that his withdrawal symptoms had subsided.
But the next day, Chu Chiyi began trying every means to contact her online.
After she blocked him through phone, WeChat, and even Alipay, he found another way to contact her: by leaving a message in the background of the music app she frequently used.
That software can't block black people.
Mu Jia was speechless. She considered uninstalling the software, but she was reluctant to part with the thousands of songs she had saved on it...
A short while later, the car arrived at the restaurant where we were eating.
At the dinner table, in front of the child, the two of them couldn't talk about any "deep topics".
Mu Jia chatted with Shan Shan, laughing and joking, about the Transformer Autobot he took a picture with at the amusement park that morning.
They tried to alleviate the little boy's depressed mood as much as possible, so that he could temporarily stop missing his lovely classmate Li Zihan so much.
With all the dishes served, Mu Jia was helping Shan Shan cut the children's steak.
As I was chopping, I suddenly realized that the background music in the restaurant seemed to have changed.
It turned into a piano piece.
She paused for a moment, then recognized it as Schubert's "Serenade".
For some reason, her scalp suddenly tingled for a moment.
She didn't know why the background music suddenly changed to piano music, or whether the music was played on a program or played by a real person.
Does this Western restaurant have a piano? She hadn't noticed when she came in.
But at this moment, she suddenly dared not look up, nor did she dare to follow the sound to look or search for it.
Yuan Yubing, sitting opposite, was oblivious and was urging Shanshan to eat more broccoli.
It was Shanshan who noticed her sudden stop. "Auntie, what's wrong?"
"It's okay." She finally came to her senses, put the cut steak on the little boy's plate, and forced a smile. "Let's have a bite of meat."
A few minutes later, the music ended.
Mu Jia finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But then, a male waiter walked over to their table.
He stopped beside her, bent down, and placed a piece of cake on her table.
"Could you please take a look at the 'Yueyin' backend?"
For the first time in over a week, Mu Jia finally opened the background of that music software.
His gaze swept over the numbers on the red bubbles, and his eyes widened in disbelief.
How could there be 778 comments in just one week...?
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