Wucheng, September.

In a detached house at the end of an alley, a unique psychological therapy session was underway.

Lu Mian sat casually on the sofa, her index finger twirling a strand of hair, smiling slightly as she looked across the room.

She took a sip of water, and as she put the cup down, she casually picked up a pen from the table.

The ordinary ballpoint pen, as if alive, wound around her long, fair fingers, circle after circle.

"Let's begin," she said, her tone light.

The young man opposite chuckled; it felt as if their roles had been reversed.

He was clearly the psychologist, yet the patient had taken the lead.

Immediately, he lowered his gaze to the case file in his hand.

"Lu Mian, female, 19 years old, the last victim of the AorB major kidnapping case, rescued safely half a month ago."

He had already memorized this information by heart.

But—

It was hard to imagine that the calm, unconcerned girl in front of him was the victim herself.

"Lu Mian, can we talk like friends? Your family is very worried about you, and they hope that through me, they can understand you better."

Lu Mian seemed uninterested; her right hand continued to twirl the pen, while her left hand idly pulled out her phone to pass the time.

She was doing other things, multitasking, and didn't forget to occasionally wink at the person opposite her, coupled with the faint red mole on her left ear's cartilage, making her appear cold, beautiful, and alluring.

But deep within her calm, smiling, clear eyes, there was no warmth, only a rebellious and mischievous air that seemed to say, 'Don't bother me.'

Psychologist Ye Jinwen frowned slightly.

This was definitely the second person he had encountered who was so difficult to approach!

The first, of course, was... but he was getting sidetracked.

Ye Jinwen patiently continued his one-sided attack.

"Can you tell me what happened during the two years you were kidnapped?"

"I forgot."

"Do you remember the mysterious person who rescued you? Do you know that person?"

"No, I don't."

"How do you view your parents and sister?"

"They're fine."

...Ye Jinwen felt he had hit a bottleneck in his psychology career.

The patient remained unhurried, but he was getting restless with frustration.

This was already the fourth session!

Each time, the answers were the same!

No matter how he guided or tried to reason with her, she remained unshaken, and there was no trace of lying in her expression.

But his intuition told him that even if Lu Mian wasn't suffering from PTSD, there was definitely something wrong!

He couldn't help but recall Lu Mian's mother's words: Lu Mian has been a liar since childhood; you can't trust her words!

Could it be that he would have to resort to forceful methods to make her tell the truth... Time quickly passed.

After finishing her twentieth game, Lu Mian stood up from the sofa.

Her beautiful eyes, curved in a smile, swept over the surveillance camera, and she returned the ballpoint pen to Ye Jinwen.

As if completing a task, the therapy session was over, and it was time for her to leave.

"Lu Mian!"

Ye Jinwen hurriedly took two steps to catch up, blurting out to her slender, cool back: "I mean no harm; I just want to help you!"

Lu Mian turned her head, a soft "Heh" escaping her lips, and she laughed unreservedly.

"Dr. Ye, aren't you tired of pretending to care about your patients?"

...Her words were too choking!

Ye Jinwen returned to the adjacent office with a sense of defeat.

The moment he pushed open the door, he saw a pleasing sight on the custom-made sofa, and his mood immediately brightened.

A man sat on the sofa, propping his single hand on his knees, leaning over to look at the surveillance footage on the coffee table.

Because of his leaning posture, the collar of his gray shirt was slightly open, revealing a patch of cool, fair skin.

Above it was that perfect profile, seemingly refined but so cold that no one dared to look directly at it.

And the icy eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses were intently and patiently fixed on the surveillance screen.

The focus of the screen was Lu Mian.

—

Female lead Lu Mian 【beautiful, strong, alluring, cool, and sassy young lady, with many hidden identities】

Male lead Xiao Qimo 【scheming, alluring, hidden big shot, a refined scoundrel】.

Ye Jinwen sighed and tossed the folder onto the coffee table.

“See? We can’t get anything out of her. If you want to find the whereabouts of the mysterious person through Lu Mian, I’m afraid it won’t be that easy.”

He knew that the man had witnessed his entire treatment process with Lu Mian.

“Hmph…”

Like the sound of a high-quality violin, the man chuckled with a low voice, leaned back, and rested one hand on the back of the sofa.

Every movement was exquisitely elegant.

Every frame was perfect enough to be used as a screensaver.

Ye Jinwen inwardly cursed him as a “refined scoundrel.” This elegant and composed face had undoubtedly deceived countless men and women, yet he had never given any of them a glance.

This was the most unapproachable big shot, Xiao Qimo, ranked number one.

He was the sole heir of the prestigious Xiao family in the capital.

Born into nobility, his actions were enigmatic.

No one had ever seen him make a move, but no one dared to ignore him.

“Seventh Brother, don’t worry. If we can’t get information from Lu Mian, we can look for the other four victims. They were all rescued by the mysterious person, so we should be able to find something out from them.”

“Useless.” A hand with distinct knuckles pushed up his glasses, his tone indifferent: “This mysterious person, codenamed Thirteen, has erased all information about the other four victims, changing their status to deceased. Their new identities are untraceable.”

“That amazing?! What about Lu Mian?”

“Thirteen probably didn’t have time to erase her information before my people discovered her.”

“So you came to Wucheng for nothing?”

“Not entirely.” Xiao Qimo looked at the display screen and slightly raised his chin: “There’s also her.”

Ye Jinwen understood. It seemed Lu Mian was their only clue to finding the mysterious person, Thirteen.

But he was out of options. He wondered if Xiao Qimo, the micro-expression expert sought after by police forces worldwide, had made any new discoveries.

“Seventh Brother, you’ve been watching the surveillance for so long, have you found anything?”

Xiao Qimo tilted his head slightly, his elegant and noble face thinking seriously for a moment before he curved his lips.

“Pleasing to the eye.”

???

Ye Jinwen let out a loud “Ah,” then saw the man opposite him lean forward again, continuing to watch the surveillance footage.

So… after watching for so long, that’s all you found?

Even stranger was—

The legendary heterosexual-averse, twenty-two-year-old virgin, Master Mo, praising a woman?

Ye Jinwen felt a chill and quickly banished the unimaginable scene from his mind.

“Actually, I can understand Lu Mian. The more outwardly frivolous a person is, the more wounded their heart is. Seemingly cynical and carefree, they are actually highly guarded. She was the last one rescued, which means she was controlled by those deranged people for two years. What she went through, none of us know…”

Thinking of this, Ye Jinwen’s handsome, baby-like face was tinged with disgust.

Two years ago, on July 26th, kidnappers abducted people across the country.

They simultaneously kidnapped two blood relatives. Families raised money for ransom—five million for one person, ten million for two.

The victim’s families were all quite well-off and capable of affording or borrowing this money.

There were no instances of families directly giving up. Some families quickly raised ten million, and their entire family was reunited.

The remaining were families who had raised five million but not enough for ten million.

They could only face the choice between A or B.

Either they would go bankrupt to continue raising money, or they would heartlessly abandon one person. There was no other way.

Such a twisted kidnapping case was unprecedented.

In the end, five victims were abandoned and subsequently taken away by the kidnappers, as if they had vanished without a trace. No one could find their whereabouts. Even some underground forces were mobilized at the time, but yielded no results… And this distinguished Master Mo of the Empire also began to walk on the edge of danger and darkness, searching for the truth behind it all.

Of course, these kidnapping details were only known to a select few.

The truth had long been sealed away; what the public knew was merely that five people were kidnapped and then gradually rescued a year later.

He couldn't treat the other four, leaving only Lu Mian.

Thinking of this, Ye Jinwen’s gaze became even more resolute.

No matter what, he had to help Lu Mian emerge from this shadow; he had to save her!

"Seventh Brother, when Lu Mian returns home, how will she face the parents who abandoned her, and the sister who was kidnapped with her? But there's nothing that can be done; if they could have saved her back then, her parents surely would have..."

As he said this, Xiao Qimo happened to stand up, elegantly brushing off non-existent creases on his clothes, then turned and left.

This attitude of leaving without a word was exactly like Lu Mian just now!

Ye Jinwen’s gaze followed Xiao Qimo to the doorway, only to hear the other party let out a low, slow chuckle.

"You don't need to worry about it."

..."Ah?" The psychologist Ye Jinwen always felt that this sentence had several meanings.

Then, he heard Xiao Qimo's voice drift over.

"A word of advice," the man said, refined and elegant, with an amused smile, "Next time, don't watch her spin her pen."

Spinning a pen?!

Almost at the same instant, a cold sweat broke out on Ye Jinwen's back.

If at first he only thought Lu Mian was bored, then recalling it now, the other party was completely consciously plotting!

No wonder he felt a bit annoyed and disoriented during the conversation.

It turned out that even before he planned to use conscious hypnosis on Lu Mian, Lu Mian had already gotten to him first!

He was probably the first psychologist to be controlled by a patient!

His grand ambitions from just now immediately deflated; how would he dare face Lu Mian again!

——

Lu Mian left the psychological clinic, looked back at the sign again, and a beautiful, captivating face showed an inscrutable smile.

She probably wouldn't come again.

Even if Dr. Ye didn't notice, the person behind the surveillance should have.

She just didn't know who was behind that surveillance.

As if shedding a burden, she left with light steps... the Lu family's old mansion.

Lu Mian bypassed the grand main building and walked a considerable distance before finding an annex.

Along the way, servants from the main building saw her, greeted her respectfully, and then all ran far away like a gust of wind, hiding in corners and whispering.

“Look, Eldest Miss Lu! Stay away from her, I always feel she has very serious psychological problems...”

“Madam is afraid of her and specifically found a psychologist to treat her!”

“What a waste of her face... She’s beautiful, but too sinister. I still prefer the gentle, lovely, and talented Second Miss!”

“I think Eldest Miss Lu is quite pitiful. If Madam had been willing to lend more money back then, she wouldn’t have been taken away! To put it bluntly, the eldest branch was afraid of being overwhelmed by debt and wasn’t willing to save her. Look at their family, they’re still living in the annex. If our master hadn’t taken them in, they wouldn’t even have a place to live...”

“Shh! These words are taboo in the Lu family and must not be heard by Eldest Miss Lu! Let’s go, let’s go...”

The northwest annex of the Lu family's old mansion.

By the time she reached this area, there were no more servants.

Lu Mian passed through the living room without seeing anyone and went straight back to her room.

The sound of her closing the door came from upstairs, and Lu Mian's mother, Fu Man, tiptoed out of the kitchen.

Her complexion was not good; she glanced upstairs, her brows furrowed into a knot.

The small building was eerily quiet, leaving only her heavy, resentful sigh.

It wasn't until a young girl appeared in the living room that the atmosphere became slightly livelier.