Everyone Has a Touch of Neurosis

Also known as Everyone Has Anxiety and When Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Meets Neurosis

As a mediation counselor, Yuan Xican meets all kinds of clients every day, including housewives whose husbands have affairs, young white-collar workers with ambiguous relationships with their bosses, and company managers harassed by same-sex employees... Her job is to answer their questions, help them through their troubles, and settle their problems, all free of charge!

But after she meets her mysterious, unspeakable landlord, her life becomes like this:

Getting up in the morning: The alarm mustn't ring for too long.

Using the bathroom: No more than fifteen minutes.

Washing up and showering: No more than forty-five minutes.

Washing and drying clothes: No underwear or other intimate garments on the balcony.

Using the internet: Keep the volume down.

Warning: Break the rules and pay a fine!

He (smiling): I'm the landlord. What I say goes.

She (gritting her teeth): ...

It seems her work as a mediator is cut out for her. She has to solve not only her clients' problems, but also treat the landlord's "heartache" properly. Only... by the end, it's anyone's guess who will treat whom, or who will save whom!

In short, this is an unusual story about a compulsive mediation counselor and a neurotic designer who has returned from abroad, as they match wits, love and hate each other, and save one another.

Reader's note:

1. The female lead is not a professional psychological counselor, but a mediator. She simply uses psychological knowledge to resolve everyday conflicts and disputes, which is different from counseling. Please keep this in mind as you read.

2. The female lead's profession is based on a mediation center where the author once worked. Though the story is fictional, it also reflects the author's expectations and imagination about the development of society in the future.

3. Most importantly, the author is not a psychology professional. This novel was written purely out of an interest in psychology and anxiety about modern society and people of the author's age. There are inevitably many errors and implausibilities, and the author hopes readers will be understanding and point them out.

Theme: Exploring love and other problems through psychology