Lu Chenzhou’s voice was far too placid, so much so that Baldy felt a chill run down his spine, and even his excitement to see what would happen when the two of them met was quickly snuffed out. He nudged Xu Po with his elbow, wanting to pass the problem onto someone else. “Go fetch them.”

But Xu Po reacted even faster than him; he’d already retreated to one side long ago. “Weren’t you the one who called them over? You’re also more familiar with them.”

“……”

The two of them stared daggers at each other until Baldy finally relented and went downstairs to fetch Tian Rou and Cheng Xi. On the way up, he kept nervously repeating, “We really didn’t do much tonight. We’re only here to eat some food and play mahjong.”

But he repeated it so much that Tian Rou became suspicious. “Did you do something bad?”

“Peh, what bad thing could I have done?”

Tian Rou calmly replied, “If not, then why are you so nervous?”

Baldy didn’t have a reply to Tian Rou’s rejoinder, and Cheng Xi couldn’t help but smile slightly at his comical reaction. Tian Rou narrowed her eyes and then gently placed her hand on the back of Baldy’s neck as she calmly said with a hint of anger, “What’ve you done now? Come, let Cheng Xi go up by herself. We’ll have a little talk on the side.”

With that, she dragged Baldy to the side without even giving him a chance to resist as she said that she’d be lenient if he told the truth. But before he was dragged away, all Baldy managed to say to Cheng Xi was, “Zhou’s in the room right in front of you. If you walk a bit more, you’ll be able to see it……”

Then, Cheng Xi saw the two vanish into another corridor. She knew that this was Tian Rou’s way of excusing her and Baldy so that she could have a one-on-one conversation with Lu Chenzhou.

After thinking about it a little, Cheng Xi walked forward as Baldy instructed. There were no rooms along the straight and narrow open corridor, but at the end, she could see a standalone two-story bungalow.

The door to the room was open, and she could see lamplight and a few faint shadows spilling from it.

When Cheng Xi walked a bit more forward, she recognized one of the shadows as Lu Chenzhou’s. He was wearing a bathrobe as he sat in front of a desk and expressionlessly played with the tea set on the table. Besides him was a young girl, and opposite him, Xu Po. Xu Po was gazing outside, and he seemed to relax significantly when he saw Cheng Xi, as he quickly turned around and said something to Lu Chenzhou.

Lu Chenzhou nodded, and Xu Po stood up to greet her, waiting at the door for her to come closer. “Dr. Cheng, long time no see.”

Cheng Xi smiled back warmly. “Long time no see.”

“Have you eaten?”

“Yup.”

“Then please enter.”

Cheng Xi entered without further ado. Lu Chenzhou was still lazily playing with the tea set by him, but the girl by his side raised her head and looked at Cheng Xi curiously.

Cheng Xi smiled kindly at her as well. She walked in front of the table, looked straight at Lu Chenzhou, and asked, “Can we talk?”

Lu Chenzhou stopped playing with the tea set, but he still didn’t respond. Luckily, Xu Po understood his thoughts, and he brought the girl away. “Let’s go. We’ll wait at the door for the others.” The girl hesitated slightly, but when Lu Chenzhou didn’t object, she obediently followed Xu Po’s lead out.

And then, the two of them were the only ones left in the room.

But the door wasn’t closed, and Cheng Xi could still voices drifting in from outside. It was that girl, and she asked, “Mr. Xu, who is that person?”

Neither Cheng Xi nor Lu Chenzhou paid any attention to Xu Po’s answer. Cheng Xi sat down in front of Lu Chenzhou and asked, “You’re back from your business trip?”

Lu Chenzhou didn’t intend on exchanging pleasantries with her, and he directly asked, “What’s the matter?”

His tone was cold, as if he had returned to that same indifferent Mr. Lu that Cheng Xi had first seen. He was aloof, reserved, and regarded other people as if they were mere specks of dust.

Cheng Xi knew that she didn’t have to beat around the bush. In fact, she didn’t want to either, because she was in a sour mood. She bluntly responded, “If I asked you to help me transfer Chen Jiaman out of my professor’s laboratory, would you do so?”

Lu Chenzhou raised his gaze to look at her face, his expression still calm and unmoving. He mockingly asked, “Are all doctors as naive as you?” Then, he smiled slightly as he answered, “You seem to have forgotten that Donglai’s mine.”

“Yet I seem to recall that you once told me you didn’t care that much about Donglai.” But Cheng Xi didn’t want to encourage him to destroy Donglai, so she mollified her tone and changed tack, instead earnestly saying, “Lu Chenzhou, a single Chen Jiaman can’t change anything. On the other hand, she herself will be the only one who’s changed, and maybe even destroyed. I’m not making baseless accusations here. I just came back from my professor’s place. Her psyche was already very weak, and without careful care and attention, any sort of forceful or harsh treatment will only exacerbate her condition. The standardized treatment that my professor’s working to establish won’t benefit from Chen Jiaman’s case……”

Lu Chenzhou raised his eyebrows questioningly. “Are you calling Cai Yi’s knowledge into question? I seem to recall that her reputation in the field of psychiatry is far more established than yours.”

Cheng Xi’s expression was serious as she replied, “Having an established reputation doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re always right, and our dispute is simply ideological in nature. I’m not disputing her knowledge. My professor’s taking the whole future of the world into perspective, while I’m just focusing on a single person in front of me. Lu Chenzhou, help me, please.”

He looked at her. The Cheng Xi in front of her seemed to merge with his first impression of Cheng Xi, that petite doctor filled with naivete who had rejected her professor’s offer with a smile.

After being together for so long, he had almost forgotten that she was a doctor as well.

And in some sense, only a doctor.

Lu Chenzhou smirked coolly. “Help you? Cheng Xi, I almost killed you. Even now, when you sit in front of me like this, I really want to do something bad to you……” He despised her identity as a doctor, and despised her personality that would sacrifice and give up anything to fulfill her duties as a doctor…… but these same parts of her that he despised, he was also deeply attracted to.

Malicious emotions boiled over in his heart, and he warned her in a low voice, “For your own benefit, you shouldn’t look for me ever again.”

“Lu Chenzhou……” She could sense his abnormal mood, and she reached out towards him.

Lu Chenzhou continued speaking as if she hadn’t said anything. “What’s more, don’t ask anyone about my affairs in the future either. Do you remember what I asked you in the past? I asked if you’d ever get into bed with your patients, and you said no. So don’t try to “fix” me anymore. I’m no longer your patient, and you’ve long since lost any right to be my doctor.”

“I’m doing quite well for myself right now.” His eyes drooped, and his gaze fell to his hands, almost as if he was replaying the scene of when he had strangled her in his mind. He frowned. “But I have to admit that what you’ve done to me isn’t completely useless. At the very least, my restraint has improved, and I can like females now. Not just you, but others too.”

As he said this last sentence, he tilted his head, shifting his gaze. When Cheng Xi followed it, she ended up looking at the girl standing outside. She was standing a bit far from the door, but was attentively looking at the two of them. When she saw them look over, she began to smile.

“She’s my new girlfriend, and perhaps soon, my new fiancé.”

“……Should I congratulate you?”

“If you wish.”

Cheng Xi forced a smile onto her face as she said, “Alright. It seems like this conversation stops here. I’ll leave now, then. Sorry to have bothered you.”

She briskly got up and left.

But she was only able to take two steps before Lu Chenzhou called out to her. “Wait.” She turned around, and he withdrew a piece of paper from his wallet. “Can you tell me what the answer to this is?”

Honestly, his OCD was the only part of him that she could count on without fail. Cheng Xi had only thought to write that note because she had such a good grasp of his personality; she knew that he’d fixate on what seemed like a brainless question.

If it were anyone else, they might have just laughed upon seeing it, but Lu Chenzhou…… He would ruminate on it over and over, endlessly trying to find an answer, and if he weren’t able to do so, then he would undoubtedly find her.

And now, he had found her, but why did it have to be in these circumstances, in this situation? 

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