Who would study psychology unless they had some issues?!

"Most of the cases I handle are developmental issues of university students—academic anxiety, interpersonal conflicts, romantic troubles, and so on. There aren’t many serious cases, but I’ve encountered a couple of self-harm cases, though not as severe as this."

"I feel like this visitor just barely reached my upper limit a bit." The senior who naturally blends in nodded seriously, "It’s exactly the kind of visitor I wanted to encounter when I came here for my internship."

Seeing the other person’s demeanor, Nan Zhubin couldn’t help but slightly tug at the corners of his mouth.

This is the beginning of regaining confidence in oneself and anticipation for future work and life!

Without waiting for Nan Zhubin to respond or for the senior to continue speaking,

Director He in front suddenly turned back, "Did you understand?"

His voice was not loud, but it seemed exceptionally clear in the quiet consultation room.

It startled the senior, who thought Director He had heard what he had been muttering under his breath.

Only to see Director He, after finishing organizing the electronic medical records, didn’t hurriedly operate the system to call the next patient’s number but turned around to face Nan Zhubin and a few students who had just come from Normal University, with an evaluating look.

"What issue did the previous patient have, can you see it? What was the process when I asked her, can you understand it?" Director He slightly raised his chin, "Share your thoughts."

...

The room became quiet.

The consultants in training exchanged surprised glances between Director He and the master’s interns.

They knew that, according to past experiences, Director He would rarely carve out time during tight outpatient hours to conduct the current "examination" part.

Like them, these consultants, even if they had questions in their hearts, usually noted them down in their notebooks to discuss with their mentors later.

But today... Director He seemed to have suddenly become interested.

Unfortunately, the interest was in these master’s interns alone.

And Nan Zhubin, in contrast to his previous silent smiling state during conversations with the senior, now genuinely started to think seriously.

As his pupils slightly lost focus, his brain accelerated in thought while the scenes from the outpatient visit replayed in Nan Zhubin’s mind like slides.

From the previous consultation process, there are several clinical manifestations of the girl worth noting.

Firstly, is the location where she chooses to self-harm—the thigh, not the wrist. This indicates her self-harm behavior leans more towards emotional regulation and self-punishment, rather than seeking help, drawing attention, or the severe case of suicide.

Secondly, her emotional fluctuations are highly dependent on external conditions.

During the narration, the girl mentioned "wanting to play but not getting to, wanting to eat but not enjoying fully" leads her mood to worsen, indicating she lacks internal emotional regulation abilities, with all emotional stability built upon external satisfaction.

Thirdly, and the most alarming point—her notion of her "roommate getting a postgraduate recommendation".

On the surface, it’s merely an absurd logic based on rumor, but the fact this logic can be taken seriously by her shows her suicidal intent has found a pathway to "rationalization"—from "I want to die" to "my death benefits others". Such altruistic suicidal reasoning is far more dangerous than mere subjective intent as it bypasses the instinct of self-preservation, redefining death as a valuable choice.

As for the visitor’s rejection of medication and psychological consultation, the possibilities are numerous. Refusal of medication could be psychological or a simple physiological rejection.

After all, while Nan Zhubin hasn’t personally taken medication, he’s heard about it. Many psychiatric drugs are purposely made difficult to swallow to prevent addiction or patients overdosing to commit suicide.

The reasons for rejecting psychological consultation are even more varied—it could be defense mechanisms, mismatched consultants from previous consultations, or simply the lack of time for regular consultations due to school commitments.

Of course, the above issues are rather surface-level; perhaps she has deeper issues.

Such as more twisted faulty cognition patterns or significant traumatic experiences from early years.

But these couldn’t be fully revealed within a mere ten minutes of consultation, even in psychological consultation, it would take two or three, even four, sessions to gather complete relevant information.

Therefore, Nan Zhubin quickly shifted his thoughts back to Director He’s consultation approach.

Just in these few moments, Director He presented Nan Zhubin with an entirely different direction of psychological work logic.

...

Nan Zhubin organized his thoughts internally.

Although his mind had already sparked many ideas, under the effect of [Flow State·Intermediate], only a few breaths had passed externally.

Meanwhile, the senior sitting beside Nan Zhubin, for some reason, also felt his thinking become clear, and his memory sharp.

Many actions from Director He, which still felt half-understood before, now seemed to carry logic.

[Patients in the mental health center—really aren’t as difficult to handle as I imagined!]

For a moment, the senior felt a bit elated.

Compared to Nan Zhubin’s tightly knit logic, the senior seemed to be the kind who speaks wherever his thoughts lead. With thoughts emerging in his mind, he instinctively leaned forward, ready to speak.

"...Director He..."

——Knock, knock, knock!

The room suddenly echoed with knocking.

Through the small glass window coated with anti-spy film on the door, Nan Zhubin could faintly see a silhouette moving outside.

Director He immediately turned around, and the examination thought he had just risen dissipated.

"Come in."

The door opened, and a woman in her thirties entered, looking motherly. She was followed by a boy.

"Director He, I have the next number. This call system seems to be broken, it hasn’t called me..."

The call system didn’t produce sound because Director He hadn’t operated the computer, wishing for a slight gap between consultations.

However, the patients outside apparently had other ideas.

"Hmm." Director He said nothing further, instead opened the outpatient system, "How’s it been this week?"

It sounded like they were return patients.

Upon hearing Director He’s question, the two skillfully moved to the desk, the mother sitting opposite Director He while the child sat at the side, positioned between Director He and the mother.

It seemed the patient was this child.

Indeed, if it were adults, they typically wouldn’t bring kids to consultations; only minors need accompanying family members.

Nan Zhubin observed the boy. He appeared thirteen or fourteen, likely in middle school, wearing regular short sleeves and shorts, sneakers, hair neatly cut, overall looking quite tidy.

What caught Nan Zhubin’s attention was the boy’s smile.

A type of... affable?

The word popped into his head, and even Nan Zhubin found it surprising.

Then an even more surprising incident occurred for Nan Zhubin.

"—Snap!"

The boy clasped his hands together, raising them to his chin, facing Director He.

"Hey... Amitabha Buddha."

Voicing the phrase, he bowed!

This bow.

As if Director He wasn’t seated in front of the computer, but behind an incense burner somewhere.

"..."

Even Nan Zhubin couldn’t help but slightly widen his pupils.

Developmental delay? Autism?

The senior beside him was even more baffled. This kind of situation had never occurred in a psychological consultation room.

How should one consult a visitor like this? Or rather... can this be consulted?