Chapter 353: The Bright Side

"You're right. Not only am I Professor Zhong's student, I'm also a good friend of Xiaoyu's, so I don't understand..." Lv Dandan looked at Zhong Kui, who was standing not far away with an air of indifference.

Just as Qi Fei was about to explain, Jiang Tianyi stepped forward and said, "Let me explain about Xiaoyu. After all, as fellow psychology majors, it will be easier to explain."

After a brief exchange, Lv Dandan walked toward Zhong Kui with reddened eyes, reaching out to touch her face with palpable heartache, but Zhong Kui dodged her.

She retracted her hand in dismay. Jiang Tianyi gently comforted her from the side, "I understand. The person before you right now is not Xiaoyu."

Lv Dandan shook her head: "Every year, I go to great lengths to buy Xiaoyu's favorite irises from the distant south to bring here. I want her to be well; such a kind and upright girl should not have met such a cruel fate."

"If I may ask, you were already in your thirties ten years ago. If you were Professor Zhong's student, it seems you have known each other for quite some time," Qi Fei said.

Lv Dandan nodded: "That's right. I followed Professor Zhong for my bachelor's, master's, and doctorate. Xiaoyu—I could say I watched her grow up. She really was an extremely intelligent girl. I still remember when she was little, Professor Zhong would have her fill out psychological assessment questionnaires, then send them to us anonymously for evaluation. She saw through the professor's intentions and filled them out randomly on purpose. As a result, the class had all sorts of answers, listing almost every mental illness imaginable, leaving the professor both amused and frustrated."

"Professor Zhong had students all over the world, but I always felt his most satisfied student was Xiaoyu. She perfectly inherited the professor's gifts. No, it should be that the student surpassed the master. I don't know when it started, but she could engage in debates with Professor Zhong regarding psychological theories. I heard their debates a few times; Xiaoyu was young, after all, and more radical in her theories, while the professor often had to correct her and remind her to pay attention to the ethics of academic research. Sigh, thinking about it now, if Xiaoyu had listened to the professor back then, those things wouldn't have happened later. I heard she encountered a very extreme patient, which led to everything that followed."

As Lv Dandan spoke, she looked at the burnt ruins, and her eyes unexpectedly met Zhong Kui's, causing her to step back in fright.

At some point, Zhong Kui had begun staring at her intently, a direct, unblinking gaze—not the kind of look a normal person would have.

"Don't be afraid. I'm just curious about Zhong Xiaoyu's past." Zhong Kui walked up to Lv Dandan and flashed a wanton smile. "Is it possible that she wasn't messing around back then, but was filling out the questionnaire seriously, and it was just that none of you, including Zhong Huaiting, noticed?"

"Impossible. Professor Zhong was one of the best psychology professors at the time," Lv Dandan denied flatly.

Zhong Kui didn't argue with her, only sneered: "Forget it. People only accept things that fit their own beliefs. It's as if that book, *The Split Illusion*, wasn't written by Zhong Xiaoyu's own hand."

Jiang Tianyi looked at Zhong Kui in surprise: "You actually knew about the existence of this book?"

"Ha? Why wouldn't I know?" Zhong Kui said, as if it were a ridiculous question.

Jiang Tianyi said: "Although I haven't practiced this theory of Xiaoyu's, logically speaking, if you knew the principle of autonomous personality splitting, it would trigger your defense mechanism, and it would be very difficult for Xiaoyu to control you."

Upon hearing this, Zhong Kui's eyes lit up: "There's such a good thing? I only knew the book existed, but I haven't read the content. Dr. Jiang, do you have it here?" She looked at Jiang Tianyi as innocently as a child craving candy, making Jiang Tianyi's ears turn red.

"Zhong Kui, tone it down!" Qi Fei grabbed her.

Zhong Kui smirked: "What, jealous?"

Lv Dandan watched their interaction warily and asked, "Are you and Xiaoyu—oh, no, this Ms. Zhong Kui—just friends?"

"He is my boyfriend," Zhong Kui admitted generously.

Qi Fei, however, understood the subtlety in Lv Dandan's words.

"She and Zhong Xiaoyu are two completely different people, so..." Qi Fei tried to explain.

"I know." Lv Dandan interrupted Qi Fei and said with concern, "I don't mean to condemn you. I'm just worried that, given Xiaoyu's currently unstable state, I don't know if Ms. Zhong Kui can handle high-emotional-load events like being in a relationship. Before Xiaoyu's incident, I once suspected she was in love. That was a girl's intuition, but I never knew who her other half was. It's just that for these ten years, because the murderer was never found in this case, I've always been troubled by the person she admired. I wish so much that it was Xiaoyu standing before me now, letting her tell me the answer."

Zhong Kui seemed used to others expressing their longing for Zhong Xiaoyu in front of her and wasn't angry; instead, she was very interested in the meaning behind Lv Dandan's words: "You say that high-emotional-load events like love would affect me. What you're actually trying to say is that you knew back then that Zhong Xiaoyu had mental problems; otherwise, you wouldn't have linked her potential relationship to this case."

Lv Dandan froze. Zhong Kui's sharpness was something she hadn't seen in Zhong Xiaoyu. This sharpness stung her nerves like a knife's edge.

The reason it hurt was because Zhong Kui was right.

Even after all these years, she hadn't realized it herself.

Looking at the stunned Lv Dandan, Zhong Kui smiled: "It's okay. You can slowly reminisce about the time you spent with Zhong Xiaoyu back then. You must have had such thoughts for a reason; you were just too embarrassed to say it out loud because of your feelings for Zhong Xiaoyu and her father."

Lv Dandan fell silent. After a long while, her gaze fell on the bouquet of irises in Zhong Kui's hand, and she said: "You're right. I know I have repressed feelings regarding Xiaoyu. For ten years, I've often had the same dream, which, come to think of it, is so close to the scene right now. Xiaoyu stands right here, in the ruins of the villa, holding these irises, looking at me just as directly as you are. It's just that, next, she starts picking these flowers and eating them one by one. Every time I wake up, I remember the scene in the dream clearly. I've come year after year, bringing these irises, hoping that Professor Zhong's soul would manifest and tell me the meaning of this dream."

Zhong Kui was clearly very interested in this: "Irises—aren't they the symbol of Zhong Xiaoyu in your heart? That is her bright side. In your subconscious, you believe Zhong Xiaoyu ate her own bright side." ===== CHAPTER 354 =====