"Lаst Sаturdау, I sat aсrоss frоm а vеry charming mаn аnd pretеnded to bе а саll girl, аsking him fоr an iPhоne 6s." Wu Mangmang lay оn thе sofа, which wаs nеithеr tоo hаrd nоr tоо sоft, and sрoke up.
Тhе psуchologist sitting оppоsite her, Wu Yоng, lоwеrеd his hеаd аnd wrote а linе on his рарer. "Аnd then?"
"Тhеn he said: Yоu'rе not wоrth the pricе of an iPhоnе 6s." Wu Мangmаng grew somewhаt аgitаted аs shе sаid this. "Dо уоu think, with my lооks, I'm reаlly nоt worth the mеaslу рriсe оf аn iРhоne 6s for onе night? At the very leаst, I'm on the levеl of a Мiss Asiа сontеstant, right?"
Wu Yong didn't speak. He knew Wu Mangmang didn't actually need him to say anything.
"I've heard that taking out a slim and beautiful young female college student usually costs around two thousand. But this was my first time," Wu Mangmang argued.
Wu Yong lowered his head and wrote another line.
"Couldn't he tell I'm still a virgin?" Wu Mangmang sat up. "Isn't it said that experienced men can tell whether a woman is a virgin from the shape of her eyebrows or the way she walks?"
Wu Yong coughed lightly into his fist. "You read too many novels, and it's not good for your condition. Many novels are just made-up nonsense. Even if you read them, try to keep your distance and not immerse yourself in them."
"But I can't help it," Wu Mangmang said, clutching her chest with tears welling up in her eyes.
Here we go again, she's acting.
Wu Yong lowered his head and wrote a few more lines, then asked, "What happened next?"
"What?" Wu Mangmang was momentarily stunned before quickly regaining her composure. "You mean my reaction? Of course, my pride was hurt, and I was furious. But you know me—I'm not good at arguing with people. And as luck would have it, Mr. Limited Edition's companion came back."
"Why use the word 'companion'?" Wu Yong interjected.
"Because it was obvious from the way he looked at that woman that he didn't have the kind of tender feelings a boyfriend has for his girlfriend," Wu Mangmang explained matter-of-factly.
"Mhm, and then?" Wu Yong continued.
"You know me—in situations like this, I usually use my acting skills to get back at him. So, right in front of his companion, I said to Mr. Limited Edition..."
Wu Mangmang's expression at the time was spot-on, and her emotions were perfectly timed. Tears fell from her eyes one by one—a skill she had practiced for a long time. The only one who could rival her in crying technique was probably Liu Xuehua, the actress often cast in Qiong Yao's dramas.
At that moment...
Wu Mangmang clutched her lower abdomen, tears rolling down her face one by one, each drop falling silently and tragically. "Please, if my parents find out, they'll definitely beat me to death. I won't cling to you, just please sign for me at the hospital, okay?"
Only after saying this did Wu Mangmang "belatedly" notice that Mr. Limited Edition's companion had walked up beside her. She stood up, looked at the companion, then at Mr. Limited Edition, her face exaggeratedly and visibly filled with anguish. Covering her face, she made as if to run outside.
She was ready to slip away, but Mr. Limited Edition grabbed her wrist. "Trying to leave, huh?"
"Miss Wu?!" At that moment, Wu Mangmang's blind date, Mr. Gao, also appeared.
What a mess.Wu Yong looked up at Wu Mangmang, noticing she had fallen into an odd silence, which only made him more curious about what came next. Although Mangmang was his patient, Wu Yong had to admit that her stories brought considerable entertainment to his work.
"What happened next?" Wu Yong asked.
Next? Wu Mangmang sat up excitedly again. "Dr. Wu, how come Mr. Limited Edition has no sense of humor at all? It was just a joke—why did he take it so seriously?"
Wu Yong asked, "What did he do?"
"He sent me a lawyer's letter, saying I damaged his reputation in public." Wu Mangmang let out a dry laugh. "Such a trivial matter, and he actually sent a lawyer's letter. Do you know who his lawyer is?"
Wu Yong didn’t know; he had never been familiar with the legal profession.
"Lawyer Jiang!" Wu Mangmang spat out the name emphatically. "The top lawyer in this city, charging a thousand dollars an hour, and he actually used him to send me a lawyer's letter."
The hourly rate was indeed high. It seemed Wu Mangmang had provoked someone she shouldn’t have.
Wu Yong glanced at her. Sure enough, she slumped back onto the sofa dejectedly. "My parents already know about this, and they’ve canceled my allowance for the next three years. The compensation is quite high, and I might even need you to testify in court, Dr. Wu, to prove I’m a genuine nutcase."
Wu Yong frowned. "How did it escalate to a court case? Can’t it be settled out of court?"
"The other party refuses! My parents are trying to pull some strings." Wu Mangmang sounded utterly defeated.
"Is there something else you haven’t told me?" Wu Yong asked. "Mangmang, if you can’t open up to me, it’s hard for me to reach your inner self."
Wu Mangmang pouted in frustration. "After my dad found out I’d crossed Lawyer Jiang, he tore into me. When we finally sat down to negotiate with Lawyer Jiang, I couldn’t help but stage a sequel and even hinted at it on my Weibo."
"Still about the child?" Wu Yong sighed.
"Yeah." Wu Mangmang hung her head. "Well, you know, I’m somewhat of a Weibo celebrity—not a big V, but I do have hundreds of thousands of followers. So the situation blew up. My parents ended up believing it was true and launched a campaign to pressure me into marriage, which angered Mr. Limited Edition. The settlement fell through, and my offense was compounded."
After a long silence, Wu Mangmang spoke again. "Dr. Wu, you don’t follow entertainment news, do you? Or use Weibo?"
"Ah," Wu Mangmang sighed. "When you’re unlucky, even drinking cold water chokes you. I only glanced at Mr. Limited Edition’s companion that day and thought she looked familiar, but I didn’t recognize her at the time. Turns out, she was actually Dong Keke!"
"She looks so different in movies compared to real life—the difference with and without lighting is just too much. I really didn’t recognize her then, and I never liked her to begin with. Somehow, the paparazzi found out about this later and claimed Dong Keke had been dumped by Mr. Limited Edition, and that his new flame was me." Wu Mangmang pointed at her own nose. "They said I was pregnant and trying to leverage the child to secure my position." She spread her hands. "You know how it is—things really blew up.""My Weibo followers skyrocketed from over three hundred thousand to over nine hundred thousand, though most of them just came to pick fights with me." Wu Mangmang irritably ran her fingers through her hair. In the past, she had only flaunted her wealth online, posted some pretty photos, shared travel tips or food recommendations, and occasionally gotten into arguments, but she had never encountered such a massive group of trolls.
"Even though the media coverage was suppressed, Weibo is impossible to guard against completely, and then there's that damn WeChat Moments. Even though everything was deleted later, traces still remain." Wu Mangmang stared miserably at her nails, her mind drifting. Her nails had grown out, revealing new nail beds not covered by the gel polish—utterly intolerable in its imperfection. But then she thought about her wallet: with just a few thousand yuan a month, after paying for the mandatory property management fees, parking fees, utilities, phone data, internet, and the cleaning lady's wages, she only had enough left for feminine hygiene products each month. The future truly felt bleak.
"Dr. Wu, my father has canceled all my entertainment activities and confiscated all my credit card sub-cards. Your office is probably my only source of entertainment for the next year. Please tell me, will my dad pay your bills?" Wu Mangmang pleaded pitifully.
Wu Yong put away his paper and pen. "Alright, our time is up for today. I have another appointment later. I'll have Nurse Bai see you out."
As Wu Mangmang reached the door, she turned back and looked helplessly at Wu Yong. He knew this young lady was still putting on an act, but he had no choice. "Schedule another appointment for next week. Even if your father doesn't pay your bills, I can let you owe me."
Wu Mangmang scoffed. "I thought you were going to waive the fee."
At the same time the following week, Wu Mangmang returned to Wu Yong's office as scheduled. She casually tossed her small Chanel bag aside, kicked off her high heels into the air without a care for her image, and then flung herself onto the sofa.
Seeing her state, Wu Yong made a few notes. "Why are you so listless today? Haven't you resolved last week's issue?"
"It's resolved. My parents pulled all kinds of strings and finally reached a settlement with Mr. Limited Edition—paid him off. My dad sold my car to cover the compensation." Wu Mangmang grew even more despondent as she spoke, tears welling up instantly. "My poor Hummer."
"Maybe it's for the best. Honestly, a Hummer isn't suitable for city driving—it guzzles gas," Wu Yong said, speaking from his conscience.
"But I don't care about the money," Wu Mangmang replied in an exaggerated, dramatic tone of anguish.
"Dr. Wu, you can't even imagine how amusing it is to see the expressions on people's faces when they spot the rugged, wild Hummer and then see the delicate, charming me sitting in the driver's seat. That extreme contrast and comparison—every time I saw that look in their eyes, I'd get so excited and thrilled."
The memory briefly lifted Wu Mangmang's spirits for a second before she sank back into an even deeper gloom. "But now it's all gone." Her voice dropped so low it sounded like she was crying.
"So, how have you been feeling lately?" Wu Yong asked."Boring, utterly boring. Ever since receiving that cease-and-desist letter from Mr. Limited Edition, I've developed a psychological block every time I try to act, preventing me from fully immersing myself." Wu Mangmang sounded distressed, clutching at straws as she turned to Wu Yong for help. "Dr. Wu, what should I do? If I lose my only hobby, what will become of me in the future?"
Wu Yong was about to speak when Wu Mangmang waved him off. "I know, I know it all. I have an extreme need for attention, a severe craving for online social interaction, vanity that goes far beyond normal human bounds, I'm promiscuous, and I talk too much..." Wu Mangmang said with a sense of helpless confusion. "So I can't possibly get any worse, right?"
Wu Yong sighed. "That's not true, Mangmang. These aren't your fault; you just haven't learned how to sort through your emotions. I've noticed that in every role you choose to play, whether it's a call girl, a mistress, a hysterical wife catching her husband cheating, or a tragic heroine, they're all negative roles. You use them to vent the emotions you've accumulated over the years, which isn't necessarily a bad outlet. All of this stems from the shadows of your childhood. Have you tried communicating with your parents about this?"
Wu Mangmang looked at Wu Yong with an expression that said, "You're boring me." "My dad pays you such a high fee every week just so you can persuade me to go back and blame them? Dr. Wu!"
"I've told you all my stories. When I was a child, my parents cheated on each other, and only the nanny took care of me at home. Every time they came back, they'd give me Barbie dolls from various series. When I missed them, I'd play house with the Barbies, singing and acting out scenes by myself. Each of my Barbies had their own name, and I even came up with elaborate scripts for them. Because I got too immersed and couldn't snap out of it, I ended up like this—with a twisted obsession for performing."
"I could blame my parents, but what good would that do? Can I go back in time to my childhood and make my mom and dad not cheat, not abandon me, not buy me Barbie dolls?"
Wu Mangmang grew emotional, tears streaming uncontrollably. "But actually, they're doing much better now. They've both changed, and after all these years, they realized they were each other's true love. They're so lovey-dovey at home it makes you sick. They love me now, but what about me? When I needed them the most, they weren't there. Now that I'm grown up and want my own life, they won't stop controlling me. Do you know how many blind dates I have to go on every week? Because of this problem, do you know how many times I've been dumped?"
Wu Mangmang began to sob uncontrollably. "But what should I do? What should I do? Everyone else is getting better, only I, only I am getting worse, disappointing them, making them see me as a burden, a nuisance..."
For the rest of the session, Wu Mangmang was unable to carry on a normal conversation, so today's exorbitant psychotherapy fee was spent entirely on her tears.
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