Chapter 291: Chapter 291: Was I Really Wrong?

Su Zhaozhao looked at the anxious woman before her.

From what the woman said, Su Zhaozhao gathered she was probably the mother of the girl Zhou Xiaoyun had mentioned.

"Ma’am, please don’t worry. Take your time and tell me what’s wrong," Su Zhaozhao said, soothing Li Lianxin.

It was clear Li Lianxin hadn’t slept well in a long time. Her eyes were red and swollen—whether from crying every day or something else, Su Zhaozhao couldn’t tell. She looked to be in a terrible state, almost depressed.

Li Lianxin clutched Su Zhaozhao’s hand as if it were a lifeline.

"You’re Camp Commander Xie’s wife. Can you please help me talk some sense into my daughter? She’s stopped going to school and just stays home all day reading and writing novels. Even after I threw her books out, she keeps on writing. I really don’t know what to do. And even when I force her to go to school, she doesn’t pay attention in class. She just writes novels whenever she gets a spare moment. It’s like she’s possessed. You tell me, how many of those writers actually make any money?"

Su Zhaozhao knew that writing really wasn’t a profitable career in this era. The only outlets were magazines and publishing houses. You had to finish a manuscript and mail it in, and the payment cycle was incredibly long. Unless you were already a famous author, it was nearly impossible to make a living from writing.

Seeing Li Lianxin’s worried and exasperated expression, Su Zhaozhao quickly reassured her, "Ma’am, I understand your daughter’s situation is very serious. With the college entrance exams just around the corner, it’s certainly not good for her to suddenly stop studying."

"I know. Yanyan was always so well-behaved before. Nothing like this has ever happened." Li Lianxin was truly at her wit’s end; otherwise, she wouldn’t have swallowed her pride and come to Su Zhaozhao for help.

After all, even though they were neighbors, they didn’t really know each other.

But she had heard that Chairman Li’s son had improved so much thanks to Su Zhaozhao. He would even greet acquaintances now, a world of difference from his previous self, who was completely closed off in his own world.

That was why Li Lianxin had finally resolved to seek her out.

"Actually, there were probably some warning signs. You just might not have noticed them." After a moment’s thought, Su Zhaozhao opened her door wider and invited Li Lianxin into her home.

She brought Li Lianxin a cup of hot water, then took out a notebook and a pen. "Can you tell me," she asked, "when did she start getting obsessed with novels and refusing to go to school?"

"I think... It was about two months ago?"

"Two months ago? So, in September, right when the school year began?"

"Yes. SIGH. I have no idea where she gets all these novels. She attends high school in the city, so I guess there are a lot of bookstores there. Some of the street stalls probably sell them, too."

At this, Li Lianxin sighed deeply.

"And I can’t possibly keep an eye on her when she’s so far away."

"What’s the schedule like for seniors these days?" Su Zhaozhao inquired. "Do they have to take supplementary classes over the summer? And is there an exam right when school starts?"

"They do. Their summer classes usually run until about two weeks before the semester starts. Then there’s an exam in the very first week to gauge their academic level."

Su Zhaozhao jotted this down, then asked, "How did she rank on that exam?"

"Her rank dropped by over ten spots. Especially in math. Her math was already poor, and this exam was particularly difficult, so her score dropped significantly." Li Lianxin let out a long sigh.

"I’m sure she’d already started reading novels back then and wasn’t focusing on her studies, otherwise she wouldn’t have slipped so much. I confronted her about it, but she just denied it."

Su Zhaozhao frowned as she listened to Li Lianxin’s words.

"No wonder your daughter is obsessed with novels. With actions like that, aren’t you just forcing her to escape from reality?"

"What?"

"From what you’ve described, your daughter is under an immense amount of pressure. Senior year is inherently stressful, and because she has good grades, she feels even more pressure to keep up." Su Zhaozhao looked at the notes she had taken. "On top of that, you’re putting even more pressure on her, and you don’t believe what she says, choosing to trust only what you see."

Li Lianxin’s face grew paler and paler as she listened to Su Zhaozhao’s analysis.

"How can you say that? I care about her so much! I’m considerate of her feelings in every aspect of her life, from her studies to her daily needs. I make her favorite foods, and since girls her age like to look nice, I buy her pretty clothes whenever I see them. How is that not taking care of her?"

Su Zhaozhao listened to Li Lianxin and shook her head with a smile.

"That’s not quite it," she said with a helpless sigh. "What you’re describing is providing for her material needs, but you aren’t doing enough for her emotionally. You yourself said that as a teenage girl, she likes pretty things. That shows she has strong emotional and aesthetic needs as well. Just satisfying her material wants is far from enough. It’s precisely because you can’t satisfy her emotional needs that she’s seeking an outlet in novels."

Many people who get addicted to video games or novels are, at their core, doing so because the pressure of real life has become too much to bear. So, they use these things as a way to escape.

So, the more strictly you forbid your daughter from reading and writing novels, the more she will want to do it.

"Zhaozhao, you’re not that much older than my daughter. You’re practically peers. Maybe you could try to talk some sense into her?"

Li Lianxin was at a complete loss.

"I won’t try to talk her out of it. In fact, I might even encourage her," Su Zhaozhao told Li Lianxin.

Li Lianxin was shocked. "You can’t do that! You can’t encourage her! It’s affecting her studies!"

"Of course I know it’s affecting them. But look, you’ve been adamantly trying to stop her and it hasn’t worked. Do you really think she’ll listen to me, a complete stranger?"

Li Lianxin fell silent.

"The principle is actually quite simple." Su Zhaozhao casually picked up a piece of string and placed it in front of Li Lianxin.

"Think of Yanyan as this string. She’s a senior under immense pressure to study and get high marks. All of that makes her nerves stretch tighter and tighter. Like this, see?"

Su Zhaozhao pulled the string taut.

Li Lianxin stared at the taut string. For some reason, she felt herself growing tense as well.

"Do you know what happens in the end?" Su Zhaozhao asked.

Li Lianxin shook her head.

"It will snap."

Su Zhaozhao’s calm delivery of those words made Li Lianxin’s heart seize.

Snap!

Li Lianxin’s pupils trembled. It felt as if her own heart had just snapped in two.

She couldn’t help but think back on everything she had done recently, finally muttering, "Could it be... that I was really wrong?"

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