Chapter 625 - 374: Going Home, Part 2

"I don’t know."

He Yimeng said uncertainly, "Your suggestion..."

Before finishing her sentence and seeing Lin Dan raise an eyebrow, she immediately corrected herself, "Help me with an analysis."

Lin Dan responded with a hum, picked up a pen and paper, indicating she was ready to take notes, "Go ahead."

A truly professional psychological counselor never offers so-called advice or helps the client to make a yes or no choice. They only intervene in emergencies if the client is about to engage in potentially criminal or illegal behavior.

Otherwise, when faced with normal life dilemmas, they simply help the client see their own inner thoughts amidst confusion, correct faulty logic, and let the client make any final judgments themselves. Life is the client’s own, and they are the masters of their own life. The counselor is merely a mirror.

That’s why He Yimeng quickly changed her request for advice to analysis with Lin Dan, knowing it would be pointless to ask for answers she wouldn’t get, and it would make her look unprofessional!

The so-called analysis posed no problem. With Lin Dan’s help recording, it guided He Yimeng to conduct an absolutely rational dialectical analysis of this relationship herself. After the analysis, the answer naturally emerged in her heart.

First, what are the man’s advantages and what benefits has this relationship brought to He Yimeng? Second, what are the man’s shortcomings and what harm has this relationship brought to He Yimeng?

After more than twenty minutes, Lin Dan looked at the paper in front of her and fell into contemplation.

[Advantages; handsome, very handsome. Good figure, very good. Wealthy, and probably will get wealthier. Strong, passionate, happy, joyful, relaxed when together, same frequency, beneficial to her career.]

[Shortcomings; unfaithful, very unfaithful, extremely unfaithful. Maintaining the relationship requires enduring his infidelity, even if he breaks up and chooses to be with her, he might still cheat in the future.]

Oh dear, these young people these days!

Lin Dan clicked her tongue inwardly. In fact, through several supervisions with He Yimeng, even without the name being mentioned, she could guess who ’he’ was based on the information.

He Yimeng’s social circle wasn’t complicated, and that young man was very famous on campus... who knew things were so messy in private? Then who were the four other girls outside of Yimeng?

"Ahem."

Lin Dan cleared her throat, forcing herself to clear her mind, and handed the paper to He Yimeng. After Yimeng finished reading, she said, "Do you have an answer now? It seems the advantages outweigh the disadvantages."

"..."

He Yimeng didn’t answer.

Lin Dan calmly said, "Don’t rush. Your self-system is very complete, and you will understand eventually. For now, I need to give a reminder."

"Love is equivalent to desire, and desire is equivalent to lack. Once desires are fulfilled, love ends, and happiness is merely a temporary pause in desire... But if love is based on self-sufficiency and a calm state of mind without external needs, one will feel content and happy, thereby naturally reducing desire and a sense of lack."

"However, self-sufficiency is a very paradoxical thing and clearly something easier said than found. But it’s not impossible, it just requires countless trial and error. Resisting temptation and being content are very challenging life tasks..."

He Yimeng pondered, "I think I understand."

"Oh? So what do you want to do?"

"Balance my desires. If I want to continue, I’ll continue. If it’s too exhausting, I’ll give it up."

Lin Dan nodded slightly, with an expression as if praising, "Right, at this stage there’s no need to think too far ahead. Your career is just starting, and you can put the relationship on hold. Plus, you realized that you’ll never obtain what you want regardless, so you can approach this relationship more relaxedly... And you can also express your demands to him to see what kind of response he’ll give you."

He Yimeng exhaled a long breath, "The less one relies on others to meet their needs, the more they will live in peace and contentment. No one can completely fulfill another person’s needs; the only solution is to let oneself stop at the right point!"

...

"Mengmeng, what do you mean by telling me all this?"

Li Peifeng asked cautiously, flipping the pan while cooking. He was a bit puzzled as he had been hearing He Yimeng reiterate the entire process of her supervision when he arrived at her place, as if pouring beans from a bamboo tube.

"I’m telling you that I spent so much time and energy, and paid a high supervision fee of ten thousand per hour to cultivate my strong personality and principles. My self won’t change a bit because of you!"

He Yimeng reached out a finger to poke Li Peifeng’s chest and smiled, "So for now, you’re still my little toy. Don’t think that I talked to you on WeChat because I’m thinking about you. I was just expressing dissatisfaction with your ingratitude, got it?"

Li Peifeng couldn’t help but laugh, "Whatever you say. There’s no need to emphasize it. But I don’t quite understand—why didn’t Dean Lin advise you to break up with me? Most people would have..."

He Yimeng shook her head and interrupted, "Counseling isn’t the same as chatting with friends, saying whatever comes to mind out of empathy. It’s about letting the client understand their true self so they can solve the fundamental problem... By the way, my advisor strongly recommended you to try counseling there, you’d get half off."

"Five thousand?"

"Four thousand; her supervision fee is ten thousand per hour, counseling is eight thousand per hour."