1.
“Jiang Jin, when you unfolded your perfect math test today, you blocked the sunlight on my side of the room :)”
“Jiang Jin, the most smug peacock ever to grace No. 1 High School. The daily volume of love letters he receives is enough to keep the recycling shop by the school gate from going under.”
“Jiang Jin, if my nose ever gets flattened, I’m coming to you for the plastic surgery bill!”
...Seventeen-year-old Xia Wanzhi scrawled angrily on the anonymous letter.
So, in the month before summer arrived in her senior year, Xia Wanzhi threw herself into a math competition she wasn’t good at, hoping to earn extra points on the college entrance exam and outshine Jiang the Peacock.
But when she came back
“Must be nice to have a rich family. You can get away with anything, no matter how serious it is.”
“Master Jiang is a born winner. He’ll do just fine overseas, too.”
Xia Wanzhi glanced at her deskmate’s empty seat and gently rubbed the envelope hidden in her pocket.
2.
Years later, Xia Wanzhi, a psychologist serving as a defendant’s expert witness, and Jiang Jin, the defendant’s defense lawyer, meet at the police station during a major criminal case in City C.
Xia Wanzhi looked at the handsome, languid man on the sofa. “Jiang the Peacock?!”
The man lifted his long lashes and glanced over at her, utterly nonchalant. “Xia Wanzhi.”
Xia Wanzhi: “???”
3.
Later
After hearing that Jiang Jin had gone overseas to get treatment and still hadn’t been cured, Xia Wanzhi gave him a serious suggestion. “Jiang Jin, there’s nothing embarrassing about getting treatment if you’re sick. In honor of our not-that-close old schoolmate status, I’ll give you a package deal.”
The man raised his hand and, just like he had long ago, lightly tapped her nose with his fingertip. Half-lidded, he drawled, “I don’t want to be your patient.”
For the first time, Xia Wanzhi didn’t dodge. She looked back at him, chin raised, and asked with feigned bravado, “Then what do you want to be?”
At the end of the corridor, light and shadow divided the space. The man bent down, bracing his hands on his knees, his tender breath brushing the corner of her lips. In a lazy voice, he asked, “What do you think?”
#I don’t want to be your patient. I want to love you#
[Mutual pining / School to city life / Reunion after years apart / Sweet romance]
Scheming elite lawyer X capricious psychologist
One-on-one, happy ending, each other’s first love.
P.S. Professional ethics in psychological counseling: Once a therapist-client relationship is established, the two parties should, in principle, avoid becoming too close in their private lives.
Theme: Become a better version of myself, then run toward you
