Along with the release of the wheelchair’s brakes, Li Mingchen took his crutch to support himself and got up to lightly knock on the consulting room door in front of him.
The door to the consulting room opened, and Teacher Xiao Zhao felt a weight lift from her heart upon seeing Li Mingchen’s arrival, letting out a silent sigh of relief.
"You’re here — and Junkai too."
"Hello, Teacher." Lin Junkai turned the wheelchair around at the doorway, greeting Teacher Xiao Zhao politely.
Due to Li Mingchen’s mobility issues, he naturally couldn’t come to the consulting room alone to find Nan Zhubin; he needed help.
In the entire Class 3 (1), only Lin Junkai knew Li Mingchen, so it could be said they had the best relationship.
Hence, the task of "helping" fell on Lin Junkai’s shoulders.
Upon entering the consulting room, the first thing Lin Junkai said was, "Teacher, may I use your table?"
As he spoke, he pulled out a test paper folded into a palm-sized square from his pocket, which was evidently the just distributed "Mock Test Paper (Seventeen)" from the class.
Indeed, Lin Junkai had brought this test paper to the consulting room.
Judging by his demeanor, he intended to make full use of the time while Li Mingchen was consulting, seizing every second to practice questions.
Teacher Xiao Zhao wasn’t surprised by this situation at all and nodded in agreement. Li Mingchen even tried to persuade his partner to take this opportunity to relax a bit.
In his eyes, this behavior of "accompanying a classmate to see a doctor to get a chance to skip class" was nothing out of the ordinary.
"No way, what if there’s a question similar to this set on the college entrance exam?" Lin Junkai refused earnestly.
Li Mingchen showed a puzzled expression: "We’re not losing the paper. Won’t the teacher also go over it in class later?"
Lin Junkai just shook his head: "The teacher will only explain the hard questions or the ones that many people got wrong. What if she skips over the exact ones I don’t understand?"
"If I don’t do the questions, I won’t know what I might get wrong, and naturally, I can’t correct it. If I encounter a similar question in the college entrance exam, it would be a waste of points."
These words left Li Mingchen somewhat at a loss, though logically unassailable. He initially thought he had helped his good brother avoid a tedious task, but now it seemed he had become a burden himself.
Fortunately, Teacher Xiao Zhao spoke up in time.
"The environment here might even be quieter than the classroom, making it more efficient to do the questions." This sentence served as a rescue, and she then turned to Li Mingchen, "Mr. Nan is in that room."
Following Teacher Xiao Zhao’s gesture, Li Mingchen opened the door to the consulting room.
Something irregularly hit the ground, accompanied by slight creaking sounds, like rusty metal rubbing together noisily.
Watching Li Mingchen move laboriously with the aid of a crutch, Nan Zhubin hurriedly got up, stepping forward to help.
"It’s okay, teacher, I can..."
So Nan Zhubin refrained from approaching further, watching as Li Mingchen awkwardly moved himself onto a single-seater sofa before he sat down with Li Mingchen.
During this process, he observed and focused on him.
Compared to lying in bed, standing up, Li Mingchen appeared taller and larger-boned; but due to rapid weight loss, his skin exposed outside showed a kind of sagging texture, looking somewhat incongruous.
And not very healthy.
Moreover, there was still swelling on his thin body, making him look visually more unbalanced.
[Inner brows raised while outer brows pressed down, forming "twisted brows."]
[Corners of mouth pulled down, lips pressed. ]
[A mix of [disappointment] and [anger]?]
Nan Zhubin pondered for a moment, starting the conversation by referring to what he had just observed:
"We just met in the classroom, but you seem much more down now than you did then?"
Li Mingchen adjusted his sitting position in response to the words, showing some discomfort.
"Uh... not really. It’s just that my classmate helped me over here just now, after all, Mr. Nan can see I can’t get this far by myself right now."
He recounted what happened outside earlier, about Lin Junkai’s determination to do the test paper in the consulting room.
"I originally thought it was a good thing, considering the atmosphere in the class is too oppressive, and then the good evening study time turned into an exam."
"I initially thought of taking my brother out to catch a breath and rest, but who knew..."
Nan Zhubin maintained a smile without rashly giving an evaluation.
Then Li Mingchen lowered his voice: "I feel like... he’s a bit... obsessed? Hahaha..."
"Maybe it’s because I’m definitely repeating a year and don’t have to take the college entrance exam this year, so I can’t quite understand him, haha." After the last sentence of complaint, Li Mingchen quickly corrected himself.
Nan Zhubin scanned Li Mingchen up and down, noting the conflicted feelings his physique presented.
If you’re talking about being "obsessed," the two of you are actually quite evenly matched, my friend.
At most, there’s a bit of difference in the way it shows.
However, this narrative drawn out by Nan Zhubin not only bridged the relationship between the consultant and the visitor by letting Li Mingchen express himself but also allowed Nan Zhubin to notice a significant change in Li Mingchen — a sense of relaxation.
Compared with their last meeting, Li Mingchen’s body and spirit had both relaxed significantly.
The issue of [anxiety] had subsided to nearly invisible levels.
[Yet in terms of appearance, his problem of anorexia hasn’t been solved. Why might that be?]
Instinct told Nan Zhubin that the answer to this question was likely related to the "difference between Li Mingchen and Xu Pengcheng."
Once that answer was clear, everything would be easily resolved.
Nan Zhubin straightened his posture, preparing to formally start today’s consultation.
Although a brief conversation had already brought the two closer together.
Nan Zhubin knew that Li Mingchen still held a significant amount of [defense] towards the content of today’s discussion.
This defense was not only against the consultation itself but also certainly existed within the topics they were about to cover.
In response to this situation, Nan Zhubin had already prepared a consultation plan before today’s session.
He did not plan to start with "talk therapy," avoiding a process of triggering [defense] and then outmaneuvering it.
He planned to directly apply a technique.
Nan Zhubin pulled out a piece of paper, handing it to Li Mingchen as he spoke: "Although today is our first consultation, we’ve talked once before."
Li Mingchen nodded, taking the blank sheet from Nan Zhubin. It was as empty as Li Mingchen’s mind at the moment.
Nan Zhubin followed up by handing over a pen: "From that conversation, I gained a rough understanding of your thoughts. Now, I’d like to understand more about your ’body.’"
Nan Zhubin said, "Let’s draw a [Body Map] first."