Because Cheng Xi’s father was drunk, he slept very well through the first half of the night. But after that, he started making a big fuss, and grumbled about his head hurting for so long that Cheng Xi was forced to run out, buy him medicine, and then give him a massage. Only then was he able to sleep again.

So she woke up in the late morning, and the first thing she saw was her mother sitting by her bedside, holding her phone, and chatting endlessly with someone unknown.

And she must have been feeling pretty good, as there wasn’t even a trace of the evil stepmother’s face that she had worn until finally meeting Lu Chenzhou yesterday. She even greeted Cheng Xi particularly warmly. “Good morning, daughter.”

Cheng Xi was caught by surprise, speechless. 

She felt as if the mother in front of her was a fake. Her father’s behavior last night had made her mom deathly angry, but in the morning, she wasn’t even lecturing her husband, and instead even felt good enough to be waiting by her daughter’s bedside…… What was going on?

Cheng Xi rubbed her temples. “Good morning. How’s Dad doing?”

“Sleeping like a pig. I can’t be bothered to deal with him.”

Cheng Xi stilled for a moment before climbing out of bed to check on her father. Good, his temperature was normal, his heart rate was normal, and his face was normal⁠—despite causing a big fuss last night, he at least hadn’t damaged his body with his drinking.

Cheng Xi went into the restroom to clean her face and wash up, but she didn’t have a change of clothes prepared. So, she had to wear her old clothes from yesterday, though she was able to wash her hair, which was feeling gross and sticky.

When she came out, she saw that her mother was still chatting with someone on her phone. Cheng Xi found it strange, and sat down by her mother’s side as she dried her hair. “Mom, who’re you talking with……” When Cheng Xi glanced at the phone screen and saw that the nickname of the person in the chat was Sister Feng, one of her mother’s best friends, she relaxed. But then she heard a snippet of their conversation and became speechless again. “Why are you telling her about all this?”

Her mother was bragging to her close friend. “Ah, my daughter has a boyfriend now. He’s a really, really handsome lad, who even has a good family background……”

What happened to not rushing and taking things slowly?

Her mother fiercely responded, “What do you know? Your Auntie Yang said that it’d be very hard for you to get married because you’re too well educated and your job’s too good. So, I just wanted to provoke her a little.” She pushed Cheng Xi aside. “If you’re done packing, then head back first. Go home and dress up. Aren’t you going to go on a date with Lu Chenzhou later?”

Cheng Xi was shocked. “How did you know that?”

“He told me. Look.” She handed Cheng Xi her phone and tapped on another conversation.

Cheng Xi’s mother: Good morning, thanks for coming yesterday.

The other person: It was nothing.

Are you busy today?

Yes, I’m going on a date with Cheng Xi in the afternoon.

The nickname that Cheng Xi’s mother had given this other person was ‘Daughter’s Boyfriend, Lu Chenzhou’.

Cheng Xi caressed her forehead in distress. She didn’t even know that the two of them had added each other on WeChat, and this gave her a bad premonition.

In truth, her premonitions were startlingly accurate, because in the future, Cheng Xi’s mother and ‘Daughter’s Boyfriend, Lu Chenzhou’ would have many conversations, each of them simple and short, just like the following example:

On a certain day, Cheng Xi’s mother asked: Did the two of you not go out today?

Lu Chenzhou: We did.

On another day, Cheng Xi’s mother asked: No plans today?

Lu Chenzhou: I’m accompanying her to look at her patients.

And on yet another day, Cheng Xi’s mother asked: The two of you aren’t together?

Lu Chenzhou: We had a fight, and she’s ignoring me.

He always responded very quickly and never hid anything from her. Cheng Xi’s mother felt that he was far more honest than her daughter!

But all this would happen in the future, and even if Cheng Xi felt a bad premonition from this, she couldn’t simply ask her mother to unfriend Lu Chenzhou. All she could do was say, “Don’t bother him too much. He’s a very busy person.”

Cheng Xi’s mother quickly responded, “Do you think that I don’t know that?” She looked at her daughter superciliously. “Worry about yourself! Quickly go home and change your clothes. How can you go out and meet anyone like that?”

And so Cheng Xi was chased out of the door heartlessly.

At least Cheng Xi was able to take solace in her father being all right. Cheng Xi then called Cheng Yang, had him pick the two of them up, and then returned home as her mother had commanded.

But instead of going home right away, she instead went to the hospital first. On the sixth day of the new year, the psychiatry department normally wouldn’t have been very busy, but this year, there was a big commotion in the department. On the third, they had accepted a new patient who was suffering from an emotional impediment. When she first entered the hospital, she was only a little depressed. But on the morning of the sixth, as the doctor on duty, Dr. Ceng, was performing psychotherapy on her, that child had suddenly exploded, saying that the doctor had teased her with vulgar words……

Because the girl hadn’t been exhibiting any serious symptoms when she first entered the hospital, she had been assigned to an unrestricted ward. And since her family was worried that she wouldn’t acclimate to her new surroundings well, they visited her daily.

And they had been present on the morning she had made her allegations. When they saw her make such a big fuss and repeat those hurtful words that were incongruous with what a teenager would say, they immediately believed her. In their anger, they rushed into the therapy room and started making a big fuss too.

When Cheng Xi arrived, the fight was still going strong. The patient’s family did admit that their child was mentally ill, but they had never heard her say anything akin to those words before, and what’s more, would a teenager even understand what they meant? So, it could only have been the doctor who did something to the girl, and the hospital had to provide them with an explanation.

Ceng Xing was red-faced from arguing with the patient’s family while the nurses were trying to placate the other patients and their family members. Because it was still a holiday, there weren’t many doctors on duty, and as the accused party, he was clearly waning in strength as he tried to argue against three people alone.

His only piece of evidence was the security footage, but that didn’t contain any audio. In the end, Ceng Xing had no way to prove his innocence despite his desires.

As the argument continued to grow more and more heated, the nurses even wanted to call the department head over. It was at the point that Cheng Xi finally stepped in. She walked over and authoritatively said, “I have a method to definitely prove whether or not Dr. Ceng actually said those words.”

Upon hearing this, Ceng Xing’s eyes lit up and as he wiped the sweat from his forehead, he ignored his earlier feud with her and called out to her. “Dr. Cheng!” It was a rare sight to behold, him looking at her like a savior.

Cheng Xi smiled at him while the patient’s family members looked at her suspiciously. “You? What if you can’t prove it?”

Cheng Xi obstinately replied, “If I can’t do it, then I’ll stop being a doctor. How about that?”

Ceng Xing became flustered and discomfited. “Dr. Cheng!”

Cheng Xi ignored him, continuing to look at the patient’s family. “Give me two minutes, alright?”

Of course that was fine. And with the patient’s family’s approval, Cheng Xi put on her doctor’s coat and went into the ward with the family and Ceng Xing.

Because of the earlier commotion, the patient was currently staying in a room with a single bed. She was sitting on it, and her face revealed traces of unease.

Judging just by her outer appearance, she was a beautiful girl, with an oval face in the shape of a goose egg and elegant eyebrows like willow leaves. Her skin was a pale white and her eyes were big, giving her look a delicate and refined look.

Cheng Xi made Ceng Xing and the patient’s family members wait outside. “You guys can all wait for me out here.” And then she pushed open the door and entered alone.

Ceng Xing saw Cheng Xi walk in front of the girl, spread her palms, and say something he couldn’t make out. Then, the girl became angry and yelled at Cheng Xi. “I’m not ill! I want to go home! Why won’t any of you believe that I’m fine? Would a mentally ill person know how to frame a doctor, to think as clearly as I have?”

Everyone understood everything now, because the door to the ward wasn’t completely closed tightly, so the girl’s words reached those standing outside.

Cheng Xi was even able to pacify the girl after that. In just two minutes, she calmly came back out, as if nothing had happened inside.

It was almost fantastical.

Ceng Xing’s face was red in embarrassment. It seemed like he finally understood the difference between him and Cheng Xi, and that perhaps it wasn’t just those extra few years that he had spent as a doctoral student.

After resolving this affair, Cheng Xi went to check on her own patient. Ceng Xing wasn’t thick-skinned enough to ask Cheng Xi what she had done, and it was one of the nurses on duty who ended up doing so. “Dr. Cheng, how did you do it?”

Cheng Xi casually replied, “It was very easy. I just showed her some pills, and then I told her that I was her new doctor, here to give her medicine.”

“Just like that?”

“Yes, just like that.”

“Then how did you calm her down?”

“Oh, I told her that if she calmed down, then I would tell her the quickest way for her to go home.”

“It was that easy?”

“Yes, that easy.” Actually, was it really that easy? No. It was just that Cheng Xi’s luck was pretty good, and that the patient’s mental illness wasn’t too serious. She knew what she was doing, and she was very clearheaded; it was just that she couldn’t control herself.

Cheng Xi was suddenly reminded of Lu Chenzhou. He also knew what he was doing, and he was also very clear-headed, but he had always been able to control himself very well.

If…… he didn’t control himself so strictly, and lost control even slightly…… What would happen?