“Alright, Mom, Dad. As long as you can take care of yourselves, I can truly rest easy.”

Her greatest worries in this world were her family and friends.

She also brought Xie Huaizheng to meet her maternal grandparents. Her grandparents were thrilled to see Xie Huaizheng.

“What a handsome young man! And so well-built. Oh, our Zhaozhao is truly blessed.”

At times like this, Xie Huaizheng would smile bashfully. “Not at all, Grandpa, Grandma. I’m the lucky one. Being with Zhaozhao… it’s a blessing I must have earned over three lifetimes.”

Xie Huaizheng felt that it wasn’t a matter of him choosing Su Zhaozhao; rather, he should be grateful that Su Zhaozhao had chosen him.

Otherwise, he would probably still be single even now.

Now, his life with Su Zhaozhao was as sweet as honey.

Aside from their busy careers, they spent their free time raising their child together.

His official rank rose bit by bit, and Su Zhaozhao’s career flourished as well. Her psychotherapy had helped a great many people.

And her public education efforts had also greatly increased people’s awareness of mental illness.

This was the outcome Su Zhaozhao had wanted.

She hoped to help more people with mental health issues. Only when society realized that depression wasn’t a joke or just someone being dramatic would those suffering from mental illness finally have room to breathe.

Fortunately, through her efforts, patients with these kinds of illnesses no longer had to worry about being discriminated against for seeking a doctor’s help.

The hospital where she worked was the best in all of Beijing, and the number of people coming to the psychiatric counseling office was steadily increasing.

Su Zhaozhao even had a plan to establish her own private practice in the future and recruit a new generation of talent from universities to join the field.

Of course, that was a story for another time.

For now, Xie Huaizheng had started complaining that she was too busy with work, sometimes flying to other cities for conferences on weekends and abandoning him and their daughter.

In response, Su Zhaozhao could only apologize.

“I’ll do my best to come home whenever I’m free, okay?”

Xie Siyuan chimed in, “Mom, don’t be so busy! My school’s parent-teacher conference is in a few days, and I need you and Dad to both be there.”

“Okay.”

She would never refuse something like that.

To her, work was work, but being there for her child’s growth was also her duty.

She looked up at Xie Huaizheng, whose dark eyes gazed back at her, full of deep affection.

…

Xie Siyuan grew up day by day, changing from a little girl into a young woman.

Her appearance became more and more beautiful.

The little girl had blossomed into a young lady.

At fifteen, Xie Siyuan was now attending a top-tier high school.

She was very pretty, with snow-white skin, a thick mane of long, jet-black hair, and delicate features.

Even in her drab blue-and-white school uniform, she still stood out in a crowd.

The hearts of the teenage boys and girls around her were beginning to stir.

Xie Siyuan, for her part, received countless love letters.

But she wasn’t interested in any of them. Whenever she received a love letter, she would find a private place to throw it away.

After all, if her parents found out she was dating early, she’d be toast!

Although the atmosphere at home was relatively relaxed and easygoing, when it came to her education, her parents were united in their strictness.

They said she was not allowed to date before she was an adult.

Even if someone pursued her, she had to turn them down.

If they found out she was dating, they’d break her legs!

Besides, Xie Siyuan wasn’t the least bit interested in those boys. She thought they were all incredibly immature.

That is, until a transfer student arrived in her class.

The transfer student’s parents had reportedly both been police officers, but they had died in the line of duty. His paternal and maternal grandparents had also passed away. Because of this, the state had taken him under its care, transferring him from his small town to the best school in Beijing.

Many people noticed him the moment he arrived.

The teacher assigned him to the desk next to Xie Siyuan, making them deskmates.

“Si Yuan, you’re the class president. From now on, if your classmate Lu Xunyu runs into any problems, please help him out.”

“Okay, Teacher,” Xie Siyuan said.

The teacher then resumed the lesson. Xie Siyuan turned to look at the boy beside her, her eyes filled with curiosity.

He was very handsome, with skin so fair it was almost pale. His frame was thin, and in his school uniform, he had an air of inexplicable fragility.

He took his textbook out of his bag and listened intently to the lecture without saying a word.

Sunlight from the window danced in his pupils, casting a warm, golden glow.

‘So beautiful,’ Xie Siyuan marveled inwardly.

She had seen handsome men before—her father, for example, was the ruggedly masculine type.

She had also seen plenty of “cool” guys, like the boys at school her age who were always trying to act tough.

But she had never seen a boy like Lu Xunyu.

He was too beautiful, like a porcelain doll.

And yet, he wasn’t effeminate at all. He just had a youthful, boyish quality.

Perhaps it was because of his background, but Xie Siyuan could sense a profound sadness about him.

It was as if he belonged to a different world from them.

Xie Siyuan couldn’t help but whisper to Lu Xunyu, “Hi, I’m Xie Siyuan. It’s nice to meet you. Let’s get along well this coming year, okay?”

Lu Xunyu glanced at her, nodded, then immediately looked away and went back to his book.

Xie Siyuan couldn’t help but think, ‘This Lu Xunyu is way too cold and distant, isn’t he?’

She was snapped out of her daze only when the teacher called on her to answer a question, and she quickly averted her gaze.

But unexpectedly, just as she looked away, the boy’s gaze fell upon her and lingered for a moment.

He watched as the girl answered the teacher’s question with a bright smile.

After school, Xie Siyuan packed her things and left the classroom with her friends. As she was leaving, she glanced back and saw Lu Xunyu quietly packing up by himself.

He moved slowly, seemingly in no hurry to go home.

Xie Siyuan thought for a moment. ‘That makes sense. Lu Xunyu’s parents are gone, and he has no relatives. I wonder where he’s living now?’

‘He’s probably living alone, right?’

Materially, he was surely well taken care of; there probably wouldn’t be any issues on that front.

But what about his inner world?

Who could possibly provide for that?

Xie Siyuan couldn’t quite understand. She had grown up in a world surrounded by love and couldn’t imagine what it was like for Lu Xunyu to have no one to rely on.

But they weren’t close. ‘Oh well,’ she thought. ‘No point in worrying about it.’

Xie Siyuan put the matter out of her mind and headed home.

During dinner, she mentioned it to Su Zhaozhao and Xie Huaizheng.

“Mom, Dad, don’t you think my new deskmate is kind of pitiful?”

Su Zhaozhao’s heart tightened.

She was nearly forty years old now, but her face remained youthful, as if she were still in her twenties.

She was still beautiful, just with an added touch of mature, feminine charm.

She also carried the scholarly air of someone steeped in knowledge.

“He certainly is. Is his mental state poor?” Su Zhaozhao felt a pang of concern as she listened to Xie Siyuan’s description.

Her psychologist’s intuition told her this was no simple matter.

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