Who would study psychology unless they had some issues?!-Chapter 171 - 169: His toddling steps were even somewhat adorable.

Chapter 171: Chapter 169: His toddling steps were even somewhat adorable.

Huang Xin was in the back, watching the whole tug-of-war with Liu Pan over these three issues with Nan Zhubin—

No, there was no tug-of-war. Strictly speaking, it was Nan Zhubin who was pulling and dragging by sheer force.

Huang Xin opened his mouth.

But then, as if he thought of something, he swallowed his words. He slowly sat back down in his chair and showed a nonchalant expression.

...

"You just said you wanted to talk to me. What do you want to talk about?"

Nan Zhubin said, as if in thought, slowly taking two steps to adjust his position so that he could keep both Huang Xin and Liu Pan in his line of sight.

He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. Now his main attention was on Liu Pan, while always keeping an eye on Huang Xin.

But Liu Pan was completely unaware of this.

"Senior Brother Nan, regarding this matter, I’ve actually wanted to find an opportunity to talk to you for a long time. Even if you didn’t come to see Senior Brother Huang Xin today, I might have visited you some other day."

Although Liu Pan’s rhythm in speaking was disrupted by Nan Zhubin, he, as he said, might indeed have planned to reach out to Nan Zhubin for some time now.

He had long rehearsed countless times in his mind how to face Nan Zhubin.

Therefore, he quickly returned to his initial posture when speaking with Nan Zhubin.

"It’s like this, Senior Brother. I’ve already learned about your past matter, that incident case—here I must apologize to you, because this definitely has something to do with me, but I’ve only come to know now."

His words were polite and courteous.

"So I can particularly understand how you feel now, Senior Brother, as well as the behavior you displayed before. If the same thing happened to me, I definitely wouldn’t have been any calmer than you."

Nan Zhubin pressed his lips together.

[Using empathy? And self-exposure, hoping to get closer to me through it, hmm...]

[A very standard negotiation technique.]

[But it’s quite stiff... and somewhat immature.]

Nan Zhubin quietly watched the other’s performance.

"But since the problem has happened, it certainly needs to be solved. And ’Liu Lin Psychological Clinic,’ no matter what, is my family’s, almost making us family."

Liu Pan blinked, trying his best to appear sincere: "So, I’m thinking of whether we can make up for you properly, Senior Brother."

Nan Zhubin noticed in his peripheral vision that Huang Xin seemed to slightly straighten his posture, taking a breath.

Nan Zhubin considered and played along: "How do you plan to make up for it? Can you do something Huang Xin can’t, like get hold of the archived materials for me?"

Liu Pan waved his hands repeatedly: "No, no, hasn’t that incident already passed?"

"...Passed?"

"Yes." Liu Pan nodded, "I know, as a consultant, how difficult it was for you, Senior Brother, to accept what happened; it was even worse that Mr. Lin pushed all the blame onto you afterward and fired you. That was definitely Mr. Lin’s fault, but my father was entirely unaware at the time."

Are you conveniently cutting it off righteously?

Nan Zhubin saw Huang Xin open his mouth at the back, but he once more refrained from speaking.

Liu Pan continued, "When I initially saw you and Mr. Weng give lectures at the school, I was quite happy you were able to move on. But now it doesn’t seem so."

"Of course—even if you’ve moved on, we’re still in the wrong, and we must think of a way to compensate you, Senior Brother Nan."

"Luckily, I heard that Senior Brother Nan, your company isn’t doing well financially lately? Switching to emotional consultation? It must be troubling for you as a consultant to do that, right?"

[All pre-planned words, it feels recited when spoken.]

[He indeed prepared it beforehand, planning to approach me.]

[But—]

Nan Zhubin narrowed his eyes: "How did you know about the situation at ’Yan Nuo Center’?"

Liu Pan displayed a confident smile: "The psychological consultation circle in Jiangdu is small. Whenever the teachers go out for meetings, they often take me with them, and I’ve run into your boss a few times; I heard it during their chats."

Nan Zhubin saw Huang Xin show a look of envy and then lower his head, obviously not having the opportunity to attend such meetings normally.

"You think I’d be troubled?"

"Of course." Listening to Nan Zhubin’s question, Liu Pan nodded.

"What is emotional consultation? It’s something even lower than psychological consultation!"

When he said this, Liu Pan slightly raised his head.

[Spoken a bit faster, and the words were more fluent.]

[It seems the things he’s talking about now aren’t pre-prepared words.]

"Truly joining a company like that, there’s no way to take on many proper psychological consultation cases. Even with abilities like yours, Senior Brother, you can’t further hone proper consultation skills in such a situation; you might even regress."

Liu Pan was confident: "So my proposal is—to invite you to join our clinic, Senior Brother!"

Nan Zhubin raised an eyebrow.

Meanwhile, he saw Huang Xin lean completely back, showing a defensive posture that refused to take in any outside information.

...

Liu Pan was still reciting, and Nan Zhubin thought he must have prepared for a long time.

"A psychological clinic ranks a level higher than a consultation center. Our family clinic deals with real psychological disorders, even mental illnesses—which would be a more advanced platform for someone like you, Senior Brother."

"This means you can access more, also higher-level cases, as well as earn more consultation fees."

Liu Pan was confident: "And if you wish to further your studies, our clinic also has master’s mentors from reputable schools working as consultants, and you could enroll under them for a graduate degree, even a doctorate..."

Nan Zhubin quietly waited for him to finish speaking.

When a longer pause appeared, Liu Pan started looking at Nan Zhubin with hopeful eyes, waiting for a response.

Only then did Nan Zhubin calmly say: "And then?"

Liu Pan blinked. His facial expression seemed a bit stiff: "...And then?"

"Hmm, the things you just said were very impressive; it’s evident you prepared them well in advance."

"However, my reaction now has obviously exceeded your projections, in simple terms, it wasn’t in your plan."

Nan Zhubin circled his forefinger in the air toward Liu Pan’s face: "Your current expression is called [panicked]—somewhat like during a thesis defense when asked a question by the teacher but not knowing how to answer."

Nan Zhubin looked at Liu Pan: "You just said a lot, offering me a job, letting me study again. But aren’t these all things I was supposed to have in the first place? Returning my original life to me, is this the proposal you pondered so hard to think would persuade me?"

"Moreover, you only addressed the part concerning ’me’ just now; what about other people?"

Nan Zhubin asked, "For example—Chen Jie. What about her?"

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l