Huang Xin stood at the door of the research group office and took a deep breath.
He took out his campus card and swiped it across the smart lock at the door.
Accompanied by a "beep," came the sound of mechanical operations.
For teachers, there are generally two fixed locations within the university: one is the faculty’s professional office, and the other is the teacher’s personal research group office.
The former is arranged by the college, similar to the office structure in elementary or high schools, with only teachers inside.
The latter is applied for by senior professors based on their research needs, used as a workplace for themselves and their students.
Generally speaking, young lecturers and associate professors will stay in the college office; once they have their own research group office, they basically remain there.
At the same time, professors set up "workstations" for students in the research group office, treating it as the student’s office. If a student has a good workstation, they can use it for self-study without competing for space in the library.
Huang Xin is in his third year of master’s studies, and ever since he got a workstation, he has come to the office almost every day.
If he had problems, he would discuss them with his teacher; if not, he would just self-study. Whether genuinely learning or just putting on a show in front of the teacher, it didn’t matter.
Huang Xin really wanted to improve.
Having persevered from the first to the third year of his master’s, by now, Huang Xin was already considered the "chief disciple" among all of Lin Lulin’s graduate students.
Although Lin Lulin hadn’t let Huang Xin work at his psychology clinic at first, he had handed over other errands, like accounting, student paper review, classroom reservations, and organizing collaborations, to Huang Xin.
More than a "chief disciple," Huang Xin was more like a "chief steward."
Because of this, Huang Xin visited the research group office even more frequently, spending more time there than in classrooms, libraries, cafeterias, or dormitories combined.
However, today, facing the familiar office door, Huang Xin suddenly hesitated.
The door opened, and as expected, no one was inside.
Huang Xin had deliberately chosen an empty time slot in this familiar office.
Closing the door, Huang Xin took a deep breath to gather courage, then quickly rushed to Lin Lulin’s desk.
He glanced at the small safe in the corner and then focused on the desk in front of him.
His hands moved rapidly, first flipping through the notebooks on the desk, then the file folders on the bookshelf, then drawers, storage boxes, and shelves...
Huang Xin’s breathing became rapid and erratic, his hands trembling uncontrollably. He was ostensibly looking for a schedule but gradually seemed to forget his purpose, rummaging fanatically through everything in sight.
His fingers touched a locked drawer.
Huang Xin ignored it; instead of switching targets, he started tugging at the lock, making continuous "thud" and "click" sounds.
His strength grew, more and more, until he nearly went hysterical, as if determined to yank the lock off and see what was inside the drawer.
At that moment, the smart lock suddenly sounded the alert for successful recognition.
Liu Pan walked in and immediately saw Huang Xin.
"Senior brother, what are you doing here?"
Huang Xin silently placed a stack of disposable cups back on Lin Lulin’s desk and pulled a black pen and two refills from the pen holder.
His expression was far from calm, rather showing a discomfort of forcibly suppressing some emotion.
It also carried a sense of guilt for being caught doing something wrong.
"I, uh... forget it, don’t tell the teacher."
Liu Pan immediately showed an understanding, "Having trouble with experiments? You look unwell, senior brother."
Huang Xin nodded, stuffed the pen and refills into his pocket, then went to the water dispenser, filling three-quarters of a cup with cold water and the rest with hot water.
"I encountered a particularly difficult subject, felt like my brain was about to explode."
Liu Pan knowingly nodded, carrying a folder, he walked familiarly to Lin Lulin’s desk and slotted the folder into the book stand.
Then he glanced into the pen holder on Lin Lulin’s desk and smoothly took a pen, putting it in his pocket.
Huang Xin kept watching Liu Pan’s actions.
"Oh, oh, this..." Liu Pan noticed and misunderstood immediately.
He pointed to the folder, explaining, "The teacher restarted the Li Minglu case, the one previously handed to Nan Zhubin, so I have to start organizing the case materials for the teacher again."
Huang Xin nodded, "Oh, at the school, when?"
"The day after tomorrow, in the afternoon, upstairs in the consultation room."
Benefiting from Lin Lulin’s status in the industry, when the college approved an office for him, they gave him an extra personal consultation room, right next to his research group’s office.
Huang Xin suddenly realized: if he wanted to know the consultation time and place for Li Minglu, he just had to ask Liu Pan.
So why was his first reaction to rummage through Lin Lulin’s desk and drawers?
Huang Xin didn’t dwell on this question. He quickly said goodbye to Liu Pan, found a secluded spot, and took out his phone.
"Okay, okay." Nan Zhubin nodded, "Tomorrow afternoon?"
Nan Zhubin didn’t hang up immediately, sensing that the person on the other side, Huang Xin, seemed hesitant to say something.
But ultimately, the other party said nothing, and soon there was the busy tone "beep beep beep beep—."
Nan Zhubin began to contemplate.
"Mr. Nan." Seeing Nan Zhubin come out from the consultation room, Xia Tian, who had just put down the phone, quickly called him.
"Another student just scheduled an appointment. Shall I put it down for tomorrow afternoon?"
Nan Zhubin shook his head, "Schedule it for tomorrow morning."
"Ah, tomorrow morning is already full."
Nan Zhubin said, "Then please decline and hand it to another teacher."
The teachers in the office couldn’t help but look up at these words.
This consultation machine, who fills up the consultation hours every day, was finally going to rest?
"There shouldn’t be any consultation tomorrow afternoon, right? If there is, can you see if it can be moved to the evening or transferred to another teacher? And let’s not accept new consultations for now either."
Xia Tian blinked, instinctively feeling that something was about to happen.
Nan Zhubin did not explain further, as what followed was not suitable for the young girl to be involved in.
He slowly went back to his office, lay down, and fell asleep.
Entering the dreamscape psychology center.