Chapter 1234 - 1206: Almost Believed It (Bonus - for 2,600 Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 1234: Chapter 1206: Almost Believed It (Bonus Chapter for 2,600 Monthly Tickets)

After chatting idly with the director for a while, Qio Yu Xuan got up with Qian. It looked like the preparations over there were taking a bit longer, so he took Qian for a stroll around the maternity ward.

Yu Minglang had only managed to accompany Qian for one of her previous checkups; when his work was insanely busy, his mother would come with her instead. This time they weren’t wandering the maternity ward for any medical exam, and she was walking alongside her future teacher, which made the atmosphere feel a bit strange—but not awkward.

"Every time I take this route, I feel like I’m walking down a corridor of time. Do you get that kind of image in your head? The further we walk, the more time flows backward. You grow younger, from your twenties now back to your teens, then to a few years old, and bit by bit you turn into a tiny baby..."

Qio Yu Xuan spoke as he walked. Qian understood what he was doing and found it a little funny.

Wasn’t this one of her own go-to tricks? Guided association therapy. Qio Yu Xuan was trying to untie that knot in her heart about her father?

"Don’t waste your effort. I’m not as resistant to therapy as Xiaoqiang, but I know every trick you’re using. It’s very hard to drag me into that kind of experiential scene."

A healer finds it hardest to heal herself.

"I’m not treating you. I’m trying to comfort myself. Ah, life doesn’t give you a do-over. I’m just daydreaming. Time flies so fast—you turned into a grown girl in the blink of an eye, and I’m still stuck on how you looked right after you were born, all red in my arms. Your first cry shot straight through the clouds. I asked Sisi next to me, I said they say unusual people are born amid unusual signs—did my girl have any?"

Qio Yu Xuan stopped in front of the delivery room door. He spoke with real feeling, and Qian seemed to be pulled into that scene from years ago. Outside the delivery room a family happened to be waiting anxiously: a young man and a young woman keeping watch. Judging by their looks, they were probably siblings, and it fit the moment perfectly.

"Who’s Sisi?"

"You should call her your senior aunt. She’s a bit younger than me, my sister. She’s best at reading this kind of fortune. I was holding you right after you were born and asked her, did my daughter’s birth come with any unusual signs? She was too busy being happy to pay attention, just casually said there might’ve been, but she hadn’t looked closely."

As Qio Yu Xuan and Qian were talking, the delivery room door opened. A doctor came out holding a baby and handed it to the child’s father. The father received the baby with joy, and his sister beside him kept offering congratulations, praising how good-looking the baby was and how promising he’d be.

Honestly, what can you tell from a newborn? They all look scrunched-up and ugly. But at a time like this, who doesn’t want to hear a few auspicious words for good luck?

The scene before their eyes matched almost exactly what Qio Yu Xuan had described, like the past replaying itself. Qian was swept into the emotion of it.

"You really could cry when you were little." Before Qio Yu Xuan finished the sentence, the baby in front of them seemed to cooperate on cue, bursting into loud wails, crying like he was about to blow the roof off. His father fumbled, panicked, trying to soothe him.

Listening to Qio Yu Xuan and seeing this scene, Qian suddenly had a strange thought—like she really had walked through a corridor and turned into a newborn, cradled by a kind father like Qio Yu Xuan, his clumsy voice coaxing by her ear: Don’t cry, don’t cry.

"I don’t know if other people look forward to their child’s arrival, but I really did. Your arrival brought hope to our whole family, carried so much beauty. So don’t let yourself be trapped by the false picture in front of you. That man is not your father at all. I am. You are a child who carried all my hope from the moment you were born, not some bastard in his eyes who ’can’t carry on the family line.’"

He turned his head to look at Qian, and saw her eyes red, gazing at him, brimming with tears.

"Silly girl. Just now you were talking tough, saying my therapy doesn’t work on you. Look at you! My scene-setting worked, didn’t it? You actually bought into it!" Qio Yu Xuan gave Qian a little shove. The tears that had just welled up in Qian’s eyes were forced back down, and she couldn’t help breaking into a teary smile.

"You’re good. I almost believed it."

She knew full well that Qio Yu Xuan’s touching words were just guided ’scene-setting,’ but after he said them, the agitation in her heart miraculously smoothed out quite a bit. The resentment toward her father that she’d been suppressing seemed to fade as well. It showed that the best way to heal inner wounds is still to make up for them with love.

After walking a loop, her mood had improved a lot. Qio Yu Xuan’s phone rang; the director informed him everything was ready.

"Let’s go. What you just saw was the past. Now I’ll show you the future!" He waved at Qian, who was thoroughly confused.

"The future?"

"You’ll see when we get there."

Qio Yu Xuan led Qian through the hospital to a conference room. As he pushed the door open, Qian froze in surprise. This was...?

"Surprised? Your future’s right there. Go on!"

The conference room had been converted. All the tables and chairs were gone, the floor covered with bright, colorful foam mats. All the blinds were raised, and warm sunlight poured in. What astonished Qian were the little babies all over the floor in different poses.

The spacious conference room of dozens of square meters had been "occupied" by a bunch of diaper-clad little ones.

Behind each baby stood either their father or their mother. The oldest ones could only just stand and walk unsteadily; the younger ones were held in their parents’ arms. She counted—there were over ten of them.

"What did you bring me here for?" Qian didn’t understand.

"To show you your future—Qian, how’s that part of infant psychology you studied? Do you think you could run simple parent–child games for these parents and babies?"

"I only minored in that area. I’m still a ways off from being an authority. Almost no babies ever come to me."

Qian’s work had always been with adults’ psychological issues. She had some understanding of infants’ mental states, but couldn’t call herself proficient.

"Then I’ll demonstrate a class first. Later, if you have time, you can come play with them. How about one session a week?"

"Is it paid?"

"Twenty thousand per session. Just twenty minutes."

The moment she heard there was money involved, Qian’s eyes lit up, and she felt instantly revived.

Seeing her happy, Qio Yu Xuan’s eyes curved in satisfaction. He thought to himself that paying out of pocket to cheer her up was worth it.

Qian was miserable staying home. Yu Minglang, worried that work would exhaust her, had told her to pause taking clients. Now that the situation with Chen Lin was weighing heavily on her, Qio Yu Xuan had come up with this job for her.

Qian had no idea that Qio Yu Xuan was paying from his own pocket. Hearing there was money, she was all smiles, found a spot to sit, and watched as Qio Yu Xuan interacted with the parents.

Once she started watching, she was hooked. Many people think infants have no psychological activity, but Qio Yu Xuan’s demonstration had everyone fascinated. So babies have inner worlds like this too!

For example, when he had parents make a crying face at their babies, the babies’ expressions would turn aggrieved as well. If the parents smiled, the babies would smile. His humorous, playful interaction games not only gave parents a new way to understand their babies, but also opened up an entirely new knowledge framework for Qian. The twenty minutes flew by as she watched, completely absorbed, and her scumbag dad was thrown to the back of her mind.