Nan Zhubin waited quietly, waiting for the students around him to calm down their emotions.
At the moment, if he wants to start the intervention, Nan Zhubin actually has an unresolved issue.
Although he now presented himself with the demeanor of a Psychological Consultation and indeed began to prepare to explore and unearth the information he wanted using the techniques of a Psychological Consultation.
However, their current situation wasn’t the "psychological consultation" scenario.
The student in front of him wasn’t a proactive visitor seeking help.
On this thought, Nan Zhubin couldn’t help but think of Li Mingchen whom he had met before. In their brief conversation, Li Mingchen maintained an "as it should be" attitude towards everything happening to him.
This situation could very likely occur with the big-headed student in front of him as well.
If he now adopts a "helpful" stance and shows curiosity about the other party’s situation, it might instead provoke a strong defense, even scaring the person away.
Therefore, the conversation needed to take a more roundabout approach at first.
With this in mind, Nan Zhubin looked around, took a sealed bottle of mineral water, opened it, and handed it over.
"Take a break first—are you okay?"
The big-headed student raised his head upon hearing this, startled by Nan Zhubin’s concerned gesture, and three seconds later, with a gesture sharply contrasting to his physique, he awkwardly reached out to accept the water offered by Nan Zhubin.
Then, like a large animal drinking from a natural water source, he took a small sip.
Nan Zhubin estimated that this amount of water might not even be enough to moisten his lips.
"Sorry, teacher," the big-headed student fidgeted in his seat, "about this experiment... should we do it again?"
"No need to do it again," Nan Zhubin replied with a smile.
Upon hearing Nan Zhubin’s words, the big-headed student was momentarily stunned, then panicked.
Even with Nan Zhubin’s unique voice capable of Emotion Soothing, paired with a smile, it couldn’t calm the big-headed student at this time.
Fortunately, Nan Zhubin immediately added, "The one just now can be considered a set of valid experimental data, and it’s quite rare. In a way, this is the most meaningful set of data I’ve collected today."
"You really helped me a lot."
Seeing the student calm down again, Nan Zhubin smiled and attempted to steer the conversation in the right direction: "And because of this, I have some questions I want to ask you, which can help explain this set of data—can you help me with this?"
Faced with the scenario where "the teacher asks a favor of himself," the big-headed student seemed to regain a sense of familiarity, becoming increasingly quiet, and the anxiety on him finally decreased to a low point.
Nan Zhubin also nodded inwardly; the topic could now get on track.
"By the way, I still don’t know your name?"
"My name is Xu Pengcheng, teacher," the big-headed student replied.
"Alright, Pengcheng," Nan Zhubin emphatically nodded, "My last name is Nan, you can call me Mr. Nan."
Nan Zhubin glanced at the computer screen: "Our little psychology experiment just now seemed to evoke quite a reaction in you, psychology is fascinating, isn’t it?"
Using what just happened as an entry point for the conversation was also to lay the groundwork for subsequent questions.
Xu Pengcheng smiled bashfully and took another sip of water.
"Do you guys rarely have psychology classes, and you also rarely come here—" Nan Zhubin gestured with his finger to indicate the surrounding environment, "—to the psychological consultation room?"
This was the first real question Nan Zhubin wanted to know.
Xu Pengcheng nodded, recalling seemingly: "We had psychology classes when we were in sophomore year, one per week, but now there’s none. As for here..."
The big-sized student smiled awkwardly, "...It was because the teacher asked me to do this experiment that I knew where our school’s psychological consultation room was."
Seeing Xu Pengcheng smile, Nan Zhubin also cooperatively smiled a little.
He noted this answer silently in his mind. Facing students who have little contact with psychological consultation, not hastily suggesting "you have a problem, let me help you" was indeed the right choice.
Then Nan Zhubin continued to question: "Let’s bring the topic back to our experiment—"
"Our experiment is an Emotion Induction experiment, aimed at observing the natural responses of students when faced with emotional induction materials."
"Apart from ’expressing’ emotions, I also value ’explaining’ emotions."
Nan Zhubin tried as much as possible to align his operations with the experimental procedure.
He sorted out a few images during the presentation that Xu Pengcheng reacted to quite differently than other students.
After thinking about it, instead of following the previous display order, he rearranged them according to the needs of his subsequent conversation and asked Xu Pengcheng in sequence.
The first one presented was the "Cream Cake" image.
As expected, when Xu Pengcheng swallowed this time, his neck slightly leaned back simultaneously.
A conflicting state of Desire and Repulsion coexisting.
When Xu Pengcheng had just entered, Nan Zhubin felt that his lethargic appearance was somewhat similar to Li Mingchen’s reaction to Anorexia Nervosa. However, after this image appeared, Nan Zhubin overturned his thought.
——Because Xu Pengcheng showed Desire towards the cake.
Severe Anorexia Nervosa, although still maintaining a sense of hunger, the physiological appetite would drop to an extreme point. It’s not that anorexia patients have no appetite, but they generally wouldn’t have such an obvious desire to eat just from seeing an image.
Xu Pengcheng’s "craving" was too apparent.
Nan Zhubin thus found Xu Pengcheng’s simultaneous manifestation of Desire and Repulsion very interesting.
The young consultant asked, "When you saw this image, what emotions did you have? Or, how did you feel?"
Then he saw Xu Pengcheng lower his head the next second, no longer looking at the screen.
"I can’t touch cake, I really hate cake."
Nan Zhubin raised an eyebrow.
Xu Pengcheng’s reaction and wording were quite intriguing.
Firstly, Xu Pengcheng ignored the Desire part and only expressed the Repulsion part.
But precisely, when Xu Pengcheng expressed his opinion, he used "I really hate cake" in his words.
One should know, when one is passively discussing something they truly dislike, unless necessary, they generally use pronouns—such as "it," such as "that thing."
Because detailed names, which have specific pointers, can project concrete images in the mind, and even trigger synchronized responses in other senses.
For people who love or hate "cake" extremely, just seeing the word "cake," the nose might be filled with the scent of milk, the tongue may begin to taste sweetness, and the brain might start to recall the corresponding cake images...
If Xu Pengcheng really disliked cake, this would be something he would try his best to avoid.
In "Harry Potter," the infamous noseless Dark Lord, ultimately referred to only as "you know who," can actually be seen as an extreme demonstration of this psychological phenomenon.
Similarly, there’s the Indian Berserker honored as "that man" in the "Assassin’s Creed" series.
This was the second interesting point in Xu Pengcheng’s words.
Nan Zhubin paused, repeating Xu Pengcheng’s words as if to emphasize them.
"You said you ’can’t’ touch cake?"