Nan Yue heard the rustling sound of writing behind her stop. She raised an eyebrow and looked back at Jiang Siyan. "You've encountered it too."
Jiang Siyan gave a helpless smile. "If you live long enough, you'll encounter everything."
"Sit down. Let's just chat for a bit."
Jiang Siyan did not sit upright and formal; instead, he adopted a posture that was relaxed but not lazy.
Nan Yue sat opposite him, and after a moment of silence, she began to talk about Antswamp Village.
She didn't mention the mission, only the village itself.
The way the village looked, the appearance of the villagers, the river, the stone houses, and those fresh, tasty vegetables.
Later, she spoke of the village's curse and the fate that generations could not escape.
While in Antswamp Village, she had seen not only several male scavengers on the body of the Ant God, but also Luo Liu.
The image of him crying and pleading was etched into her heart.
"If he hadn't gone back, would he have avoided becoming the Ant God?"
Jiang Siyan rested his chin on his hand as he watched Nan Yue. His gaze was focused but not uncomfortable.
"I don't know."
"Perhaps not, but his return was an inevitable event in his destiny, so there is no point in dwelling on other hypotheses."
Nan Yue sighed softly. They all understood the logic; those were not real people, and the world had long been polluted and distorted.
But...
They were.
They were living, breathing people of flesh and blood, capable of feeling emotions.
"I noticed your team is missing someone this time."
Jiang Siyan keenly observed that Nan Yue's body stiffened slightly upon hearing this.
"She..."
"She was injured during the mission, so I didn't have her come along this time. We're letting her recover on her own first."
Nan Yue spoke quickly, turning her face toward the glass window.
Jiang Siyan nodded understandingly.
"If her state doesn't improve later on, bring her here. My ability should be able to help."
Nan Yue was curious. "You don't lack points, and the cost of using your ability is so low. What are you after?"
A strand of hair fell across Jiang Siyan's forehead. "To help more people, of course."
Nan Yue let out a burst of laughter.
Jiang Siyan was a bit surprised. Nan Yue had always been very proper and maintained a considerable distance from him.
"Did I say something funny?"
Nan Yue waved her hand. "Sorry, it's just that you're different from the person I perceived you to be."
"Oh?"
Jiang Siyan's glasses reflected the light slightly, obscuring his eyes. "What do I look like to you?"
Nan Yue didn't actually want to judge others casually, especially when it might touch upon their inner wounds.
But Jiang Siyan's constant air of being in control made her teeth itch with irritation. In a fleeting moment, she had seen his suffering soul too.
"I think you're the type who doesn't care about anything, but you also don't want to face your true self, so you force yourself to do things that make you look normal."
The smile on Jiang Siyan's lips vanished. He looked at Nan Yue quietly, his gaze no longer wrapped in kindness and gentleness but resembling the dark sea at night, unfathomable.
Nan Yue acted as if she didn't see the change in him, still smiling as she said, "It's okay. We're all like this."
"There's no such thing as a normal scavenger. We all have our base and malicious moments. We're all the same."
As Jiang Siyan heard the girl across from him say they were all the same, a voice inside him roared viciously.
Not the same!
No one can understand this kind of pain!
This feeling of the soul slowly rotting...
Jiang Siyan's daze lasted only an instant before he quickly tucked himself back into his shell of refined elegance.
"I'm surprised you'd say that," Jiang Siyan's words were gentle but carried a hint of friction. "Perhaps you haven't experienced enough despair to say such things."
Nan Yue looked at Jiang Siyan for a while. She wasn't sure if it was because he had once sincerely counseled her or because she glimpsed a pain similar to her own.
She reached out and placed her hand on Jiang Siyan's hand.
In that instant, Jiang Siyan felt as if he were dragged into an infinite darkness, surrounded by viscous, foul-smelling rot. He was encased within it, unable to struggle or even breathe.
The panic and despair that surged into his heart turned into physical pain, giving him an urge to just die.
The next moment, he was back in the bright, clean office. Nan Yue withdrew her hand and looked at him with a smile.
"Everyone is in despair and pain. You're not alone."
Nan Yue used to think it was unfair. Why was that thing clinging to her? Why was she the only one suffering?
But later, after entering the real mission worlds, she realized that all living beings suffer.
Wasn't Zhao Zhenzhen in pain? Wasn't Xie Roufen in pain? Weren't the people in those missions in pain?
Everyone was the same.
And although that thing made her feel more pain than others, it had also repaid her in some form during the missions.
Survive, keep moving forward, and maybe there will be a turning point.
Nan Yue patted Jiang Siyan. "I'll come back in a couple of days. Use your ability to help treat me then."
Nan Yue still felt that Wen Xiang Yuan's death had left a psychological shadow on her, so it was better to intervene.
She knew all too well what would happen if her mental stability became unstable.
Long after Nan Yue had left, Jiang Siyan remained sitting there motionless.
"Survive, keep moving forward, and maybe there will be a turning point..."
The man's low laughter echoed in the office, growing louder and gradually becoming manic.
"How can someone feel such pain and still say something like that..."
The frantic laughter stopped abruptly at its peak. A long time later, a faint sob escaped the room.
Nan Yue felt her mood had improved significantly. She thought she might even be able to be a psychologist in the future.
She thought happily to herself, feeling a great sense of achievement from having helped Jiang Siyan in return!
Gu Xiang Kai's treatment finished the fastest. A petite woman in a white coat handed the report to Nan Yue.
"Mr. Gu's indicators are very good. His psychological adjustment ability is very strong."
Nan Yue couldn't help but marvel at how tough Gu Xiang Kai's mental fortitude was.
The two of them waited a while before Zhu Xi Ning came out. She didn't actually have any issues with her mental stability, as she didn't even remember what happened toward the end.
She mainly wanted to ask about her alternate personality.
However, the doctors here hadn't dealt with it much, so they took Zhu Xi Ning to see Jiang Siyan.
No one knew what Dr. Jiang was doing, as it took a while before he opened the door to let Zhu Xi Ning in.
Jiang Siyan came out with Zhu Xi Ning later, having returned to his role as the elegant and refined psychologist.
He had one hand in his white coat pocket and held a report in the other.
"Miss Zhu's situation is quite special. I've consulted relevant materials and used a few methods to indeed draw out the alternate personality."
It was unexpected that even Jiang Siyan didn't know about dual personalities, but it also proved that what Wen Xiang Yuan had said was true; there was relevant literature, and it matched Zhu Xi Ning's condition.
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