CHAPTER 692: CHAPTER 424: EVERYTHING BECOMES CLEAR GRADUALLY

Outside the floor-to-ceiling window were dense, haloed neon lights, various colors shining down on the commercial street below. The halo emanating from the neon lights seemed to have a layer of warm mist, combined with the vehicles and pedestrians constantly passing below, making the street feel extraordinarily bustling.

"Hello."

Uesugi Sakura stood by the floor-to-ceiling window and answered the phone.

On the other end of the phone was Dr. Nakamura Keiko, the psychologist whom Uesugi Sakura recently took Hanabi to see.

"Mr. Uesugi, how is your wife doing recently?" Her voice was calm and unhurried, asking deliberately.

"It’s... okay, I guess... I’m not really sure." Uesugi Sakura looked at the view outside the window at home and answered somewhat hesitantly.

"Could you tell me about what has happened recently? Since your wife is unwilling to come see me, I can roughly infer her current condition based on these. I already have some thoughts about your wife’s situation, and I need your information to verify my ideas."

"Recently, she mentioned an agreement to me."

"An agreement?"

"It’s an agreement to separate for ten days. According to her, it’s because we’ve been together too long and she wants to use this ten-day separation to add a bit of freshness."

"Hmm... can you tell me the details about this matter?"

Uesugi Sakura felt she seemed to understand something, thought for a moment, and answered: "At first... she suddenly told me this, initially saying a year of separation, then hesitated and said a month, and finally ten days. When she was about to leave, she kept saying ten days would be enough."

"It seems your wife really cares about you." Dr. Nakamura on the other end of the phone seemed to be smiling.

"Is... is there something wrong with that?" Uesugi Sakura held the phone, pushing open the balcony’s glass door.

The outdoor noise immediately flooded in, the sound of the wind, the sounds of passing cars.

He stood on the balcony, while taking a deep breath, looking at the street scene below.

"Mr. Uesugi, you need to know that for a person to achieve a goal, it often starts with ’wishing to do,’ because of ’hope,’ one takes action.

"Under normal circumstances, this urgency is generally called ’desire.’ With desire, people have the motivation to move forward."

"In that case, Mr. Uesugi, what do you think is the fundamental reason your wife suddenly proposed such a condition?"

The fundamental reason.....

Without rushing to answer, Uesugi Sakura silently pondered the meaning of this phrase.

Hanabi suddenly proposed separating for ten days, and even showed reluctance... even looking back at him when she left.

She seemed not to really want to do it.

Uesugi Sakura replied to Dr. Nakamura on the phone: "Is it another personality of hers guiding her to do this?"

"Correct, but not completely correct."

Not completely correct?

Uesugi Sakura had no clue.

"Let’s analyze this, Mr. Uesugi."

"Your wife has a second personality, what are the traits of this personality?"

Uesugi Sakura looked at the city’s night view below the balcony. The gusts of cold wind cooled his brain. After thinking for a while, he slowly spoke a few words towards the other end of the phone:

"Possessive, confident, controlling."

"And your wife’s personality?"

"Timid, considerate, tolerant...?"

Saying this, Uesugi Sakura suddenly realized.

The second personality of Hanabi is completely opposite to Hanamaru Hanabi’s personality.

"Doesn’t it feel completely opposite to your wife’s original personality?"

"Yes."

"Alright, with this understanding, let’s further analyze why these two opposing personalities suddenly appeared."

Uesugi Sakura looked at the incessant flow of traffic below from a high vantage, listening carefully to the voice on the other end of the phone.

"I have treated many patients with psychological disorders before, including a 64-year-old taxi driver who maintained the title of best-quality driver for thirty years in the company. During those thirty years, zero complaints, zero accidents, he encountered all kinds of strange guests from all walks of life.

"Some people were never friendly, usually those young people wearing jackets with tattoos, they would pick bones with him, cursing because the fare was too expensive, even though they knew the fare was not controlled by the driver.

"They had no other reason, just venting emotions on him.

"Faced with such unreasonable blame, the driver only endured, continually bowing and apologizing.

"Thirty years of patience made the driver immune to passengers’ accusations. Customers cursed, he apologized; customers hit him, he repeatedly apologized, just to make no mistakes, to strive for the company’s year-end outstanding driver award.

"In his 63rd working year, that is, the year he kept the thirty-year record, the company’s executives absconded with money, causing the taxi company to be unable to function, with a broken financial chain. Therefore, the driver naturally lost his job.

"He was too old, and no other company was willing to accept him, being overly dedicated to his work for decades, he also had no spouse or children.

"Thirty years of being an outstanding driver, Mr. Uesugi, what do you think he eventually became personality-wise?"

In response to Dr. Nakamura’s inquiry, Uesugi Sakura paused momentarily before answering:

"He might have become self-destructive, after all, he lost everything."

"He didn’t lose everything. Relying on the savings he accumulated over thirty years, he bought a detached house in Shibuya, Tokyo, and had no financial worries for the rest of his life."