Who would study psychology unless they had some issues?! Chapter 941 741: A Place Absent From Memory (2)

Chen Lizhou suddenly felt a sensation of soreness and swelling filling his chest.

His hand instinctively reached into the inner pocket of his suit, as if to jot sothing down.

But after thinking it over, he put it down.

The voice of Shen Xuecheng in front of him grew quieter, his head lowered, barely daring to et Chen Lizhou's gaze: "I know it must still be hard for you now... If you feel uncomfortable, we can stop here..."

"Yanyan is doing well, during the day she's looked after by teachers at school." Chen Lizhou interrupted Shen Xuecheng.

But after answering about his daughter's current situation, he avoided questions about himself: "You don't need to be so formal, since you're Fangfang's student, just... don't be so distant."

Shen Xuecheng blinked his eyes and suddenly raised his head.

He let out a sigh of relief, a smile finally lifting the tension from his face: "Thank you, Mr. Chen, it's just... Teacher Su was always very good to , and I felt really bad when I heard about her, I always wanted to offer my condolences but was afraid it might be inappropriate at the ti."

"Teacher Su was really a very, very good teacher..."

A nostalgic expression appeared on Shen Xuecheng's face: "I don't know if Teacher Su ever ntioned it to you, but I was among the first batch of students she taught. She was only in her early twenties then, but she was so dedicated and gentle with us. We were quite naughty back then, often upsetting her, yet she never truly scolded us..."

This student inexplicably started talking about the past.

Clearly, he had co to "console" Chen Lizhou, but instead began recounting his own mories, as if venting his own regrets to Chen Lizhou to ease his feelings.

You could say he was very inconsiderate.

But for Chen Lizhou, this was an experience he hadn't had in a long ti.

Those around him had always avoided the topic of his wife in various ways; even his daughter had sensibly stopped saying she "missed mommy."

Only during psychological consultations did he talk to Nan Zhubin about his wife.

It felt as if he was the only person in the world still mourning his wife—though Chen Lizhou knew this wasn't true.

After a few seconds of silence, Chen Lizhou softly responded to Shen Xuecheng: "She was quite dedicated back then."

...

The agreent was brief.

However, after receiving Chen Lizhou's response, Shen Xuecheng beca even more at ease.

The nostalgia in his eyes deepened: "Yeah, Teacher Su was truly, truly, truly responsible back then."

Shen Xuecheng used three identical adjectives consecutively.

"I rember once, I wrote an essay that was so poor it embarrassed even , and I didn't dare to submit it. She called to her office and taught to revise it sentence by sentence, and she told that as long as I was serious, there was no essay I couldn't write well..."

"Speaking of which, Teacher Su actually made misunderstand, made think that perhaps language teachers were gentler than math teachers or others, and made believe all language teachers were like that..."

Shen Xuecheng's words were likely sincere, but they stirred no emotion in Chen Lizhou.

At least, Chen Lizhou felt no waves of emotion himself.

He didn't speak, only picked up his chopsticks and began to play with the rice in front of him.

This action was taken by Shen Xuecheng as a friendly signal, and he beca even more relaxed, picking up his chopsticks, taking a bite of rice, and placing it in his mouth.

anwhile, Chen Lizhou only played with the rice without eating, because the canteen's food didn't look appealing, and the taste was even less so.

Shen Xuecheng seed to enjoy it, and after swallowing, he sighed: "Back then, we didn't know any better; we didn't understand Teacher Su's hard work. We knew she graduated from a school in Beidu, so we always teased her—asking why she didn't stay in Beidu but ca back ho to teach instead."

Chen Lizhou's hand paused as he played with his food.

"She often said back then that she liked the quiet life back ho, enjoying the tranquility. She also said that once things settled down, she wanted to buy a small courtyard near our school, as our elentary school was built by the mountains, with a good environnt."

"But recently, the housing prices in our area have gone up a lot... I heard that you and Teacher Su bought a house in Beidu, it's impressive..."

...

After the initial mourning and rembrance, the conversation now seed to have naturally turned into casual alti chatter.

However, gradually, Shen Xuecheng's movents stopped.

The person in front of him was almost rigid.

"Quiet life... buy a courtyard?" Chen Lizhou softly repeated the words.

He thought of before he got married, his wife was a teacher back ho.

Back then, because of the long-distance relationship, their parents had opinions about their relationship. His wife once tried to persuade him to go back ho together for a "quiet life," planning to "buy a courtyard once they had money in the future."

These two sentences were exactly what his wife had once said to him.

But Chen Lizhou himself was unwilling to leave; he felt that since he had managed to enter a school in Beidu, experienced the bustling life there, he ought to stay and plant roots in Beidu.

He took the initiative to join a company in Beidu, first working in technology to accumulate experience; then switched from technology to sales for quicker profit, climbing step by step.

In this process, he finally secured a teaching position for his wife in Beidu, so they could marry and settle there.

And so, topics like "quiet life" and "buying a courtyard" were never discussed again.

However, his wife's initial thought was indeed to stay back ho, not to co to Beidu. Her life planning could be said to have been adjusted for him.

So, in their subsequent life together, did his wife's thoughts remain the sa as before?

["Actually, if you insisted on staying in Beidu and your career didn't progress smoothly... maybe we'd have broken up, not gotten married, and wouldn't have had Yanyan."

"Oh co on, don't get mad, just kidding..."]

"Tsk..." Suddenly a wave of soreness washed over Chen Lizhou's head, making him press his temples.

These were all small matters, trivialities that shouldn't weigh on his mind.

They shouldn't evoke physical reactions, shouldn't be thoughts that he repeatedly dwells on, shouldn't haunt him.

Yet, Chen Lizhou suddenly realized a problem—

After his wife's death, people who ca to comfort him seed to only say good things.

And his mories of his wife over the past years seed to reflect only sweet aspects of their life.

Yet... were there tis his wife was unhappy, were there conflicts between them?

Even more—did his wife's departure truly leave him with nothing but grief, pure grief?

"Mr. Chen, what's wrong?" Shen Xuecheng was startled by Chen Lizhou's actions.

"I'm thinking about dissociation," Chen Lizhou said.

He vaguely recalled Teacher Nan once saying during a consultation that previously, at work, he had mild, covert dissociation, which was only completely reinforced after his wife's death.

What was his work like before?

Chen Lizhou strained to recall.

The higher the position, the busier the work beca, and he returned ho later and later, sotis not coming ho for days on end.

The communication between him and his wife grew less and less. During als, they sat at the sa table, yet had little to say, making the atmosphere at ho feel rigid and stiff, like it was filled with glue.

He still rembered coming ho late one night, seeing his wife waiting for him on the couch, seemingly wanting to argue but eventually just smiled.

It was around that ti—before or after, he couldn't rember exactly, just around then—he felt himself "floating."

Sotis when his wife spoke beside him, it felt like watching a movie, the images clear but the sound distant, unable to genuinely imrse himself, unable to feel her emotions. Sotis, he even forgot who he was, lost in the chanical repetition of daily tasks, etings, and negotiations.