Chapter 575: Weird? I Don’t Think So!

Chapter 575: Weird? I Don’t Think So!

Xia Jinyu didn’t believe it!

She didn’t believe anyone could calculate things to that extent. It was simply impossible—or at least impossible according to everything she knew. So before opening “Xia Jinyu 04,” she came up with a new theory: Wu Chen might be trying to mislead her.

He had only hinted at what note 04 contained without saying it outright, so she had every reason to suspect that its contents would be something that seemed unexpected but made sense in retrospect.

What could it be?

Xia Jinyu didn’t want to guess anymore. She would just look.

She turned her attention to the phone and, unwilling to endure any more suspense, opened “Xia Jinyu 04” at once. The contents read: Rock, paper, scissors, rock, paper…

That’s right. It was the sequence of throws Xia Jinyu had just improvised while playing rock-paper-scissors with Wu Chen.

All twenty rounds were recorded, in perfect order.

Not a single one was wrong!

Even the last one was correct. Wu Chen had written down rock!

In other words, Wu Chen had known Xia Jinyu would throw rock in the twentieth round, yet he had still deliberately thrown scissors. He had intentionally lost that round to make her happy. Xia Jinyu had won the last round, but in reality, she had been defeated completely.

Every win and every loss had been within Wu Chen’s predictions.

Even setting aside the fact that he had predicted every throw in advance, the mere fact that he had completely anticipated her thought process made this young man surnamed Wu seem terrifying to Xia Jinyu. He had even predicted that after reading the first three notes, she would choose to play rock-paper-scissors with him, and so he had written the sequence into note 04.

In psychological terms, that was an extremely dangerous prediction to make.

As a psychologist and psychotherapist, Xia Jinyu would never have used a similar trick while treating a patient. It was far too risky.

If she got it wrong, the authority and trust she had established would collapse completely.

There would be no way to recover them.

For example, if Xia Jinyu hadn’t chosen to play rock-paper-scissors and had simply continued reading note 04, its contents would have looked utterly ridiculous and inexplicable. Mr. Wu would have seemed like someone whose cleverness had backfired, someone who had overthought everything. Even the smile he had maintained all along would have looked ridiculous.

After that, whether the contents of notes 05 and the later notes were right or wrong would no longer matter.

Mr. Wu would have become nothing more than someone who played petty little tricks.

It would no longer matter how he had made the phone unlock when Xia Jinyu entered any passcode she liked. If things had gone that way, Xia Jinyu might not even have bothered to think about it. She would have lost interest in everything about him. This was an incredibly risky move!

If he got it wrong, there would be no coming back from it.

But if he’d got it right… Xia Jinyu felt as if her brain hurt. Her mind buzzed. She was astonished by how well Wu Chen understood her thoughts and guided her choices from one stage to the next. Even more astonishing was that he had chosen such an extreme method. The shock sent a shiver across her scalp.

Yet those feelings were only a small part of it.

The greater part came from his having predicted all twenty rounds of rock-paper-scissors.

Was this even scientific?!

Was this psychology?!

“How did you do it?” Xia Jinyu looked up at Wu Chen, a little stiffly. Her expression was utterly blank, and her whole state seemed completely wrong. She was a world-renowned psychologist and a psychotherapist with a long-established reputation, after all.

One prominent trait of a psychotherapist was the ability to control their own emotions.

It was a basic professional requirement. They had to present different kinds of warmth when dealing with different patients—for example, people with depression, bipolar disorder, or suicidal tendencies. They needed to understand the patient’s state of mind and show the side of themselves that would put the patient at ease and help them lower their guard.

A psychotherapist often had “only one chance.”

If they couldn’t earn a patient’s trust at the first meeting, establishing it afterward would be many times harder.

So Xia Jinyu had exceptional self-control. It was part of her basic professional competence.

But Li Ruobing was now beginning to feel that Xia Jinyu’s composure had collapsed. It had happened far too quickly! It wasn’t reasonable. And it really wasn’t: Xia Jinyu hadn’t quite reached the point of losing control. She simply hadn’t made a special effort to hide her emotions. She had already gone so far as to ask for an explanation without shame; there was no need to keep acting.

At least, not yet.

Li Ruobing was practically crawling out of her skin with curiosity. This was torture! She even suspected Wu Chen was doing it on purpose. Wasn’t he good at talking? Why wasn’t he talking, instead making Xia Jinyu read things on his phone?!

In response to Xia Jinyu’s shameless request for an explanation, Wu Chen said nothing. He merely gestured toward the phone with his eyes.

Xia Jinyu understood.

So she was supposed to read “Xia Jinyu 05”?!

He had even anticipated what she would ask, and written the answer in advance!

Xia Jinyu opened note 05.

This time, the note was longer:

“As for how I did it, first I have to admit that although my understanding of human nature and psychology is currently better than yours, I’m not so exaggeratedly good that I can see the future. My conclusions are based on real circumstances and psychological deduction. As I’ve said, I know you better than you think. For example, I know you never make random throws when playing rock-paper-scissors. You have the kind of fixation unique to psychologists: you won’t give up trying to deduce what’s going on inside your opponent’s mind. That means your sequence of throws always follows an internal logic and can therefore be predicted—as long as someone knows you well enough!”

Xia Jinyu read this passage three times.

Two things about it made her very uncomfortable.

The first was Wu Chen’s claim that his understanding of human nature and psychology surpassed hers. For a twenty-two-year-old man to say something like that to a thirty-three-year-old professor of psychology was a serious provocation, no matter what astonishing things he had done.

And Xia Jinyu was unusually proud in this area.

The second thing that bothered her was… Wu Chen’s insistence that he knew her well enough.

Psychotherapists didn’t like feeling that someone had seen through them, just as magicians didn’t want others to discover the secrets behind their tricks. It made them look foolish.

“You’re making me uncomfortable on purpose, aren’t you?” While Xia Jinyu reread the note, Li Ruobing suddenly leaned close to Wu Chen’s ear and whispered angrily.

“No.” Wu Chen turned toward her and whispered back, “I’ll show you later.”

The movie was still playing. The eerie soundtrack drowned out their whispers, and Xia Jinyu, with her head lowered over the phone, didn’t hear a thing.

“What kind of bizarre… approach is this?” Li Ruobing asked.

“Weird? I don’t think so,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

He wouldn’t tell Li Ruobing that the reason he had chosen such an unusual way to communicate was, in fact, to lie!

Wu Chen never denied Xia Jinyu’s abilities, especially her talent for observing microexpressions. She was gifted—a true genius. Wu Chen wasn’t. His abilities had been built up over a long period of time, even though he had mastered the ability to wear a completely convincing “mask.”

But wearing a mask was itself a sign of a guilty conscience!

If he had been acting normally and suddenly began speaking with a stiff expression, what would he be hiding? It would be far too obvious.

Wu Chen wasn’t incapable of lying without being found out.

But doing so would be tiring.

So he had chosen the Notes app. If he didn’t speak, there would be no microexpressions to read while he was speaking!

He would let Xia Jinyu read the words for herself!

Wu Chen had prepared a huge surprise for Xia Jinyu.

“Mr. Wu, you really are arrogant,” Xia Jinyu said, looking up and giving him a false smile. “Then why don’t you try guessing what I’m about to do? Come on! Show me what you can do! You say you know me so well, so go ahead and work it out!”