Cheng Ying was completely stunned, as if he did not expect that Yue Ran would make such a suggestion. His breathing suddenly became a little more rapid, and his face seemed to change.

    "It is okay. If you do not want to do it, you can just sit back and listen. It is okay. Everything is okay," Yue Ran said softly to gently calm down the young man''s quite intense emotions.

    However, what she really did not expect was for Cheng Ying to actually agree to her suggestion. After all, the action of lying down on one''s lap was a relatively intimate physical contact.

    She only wanted to give Cheng Ying a psychological precaution today, like a threshold effect. It is generally difficult for people to accept a large request made to others at once, but it is easier for them to accept it if the request made is gradually becoming easier compared to the one from before and that the gap between the two requests is continuously narrowed.

    "Hm," Cheng Ying hummed softly, so softly that Yue Ran might not have heard it if she had not been paying attention to him. She was a little surprised when she saw the young man slowly approach her like a stealthy yet shy little cat.

    The young man seemed to have made a lot of determination, and every move he made was full of hesitation, but the distance between himself and Yue Ran was closing to only one or two meters at most. With the continuous movements, Cheng Ying''s proximity to her was instantly narrowed in the blink of an eye.

    Then he smelled something.

    Yue Ran has a nice scent on her, like the smell of rain or nature itself with a hint of floral scent, which gave Cheng Ying a sense of security. It was pleasant and calming.

    "Just lie down and relax," Yue Ran said. "I will keep on reading to you until you do not want to hear it anymore, okay?"

    The last word Yue Ran said was simply too gentle, like a devil''s whisper, full of seduction and natural enchantment. Cheng Ying''s heart could not help but beat a little faster.

    The young man lay down obediently and nervously, with his head lying on her legs. He suppressed the discomfort in his heart and hugged his curled legs in his arms. Fortunately, Yue Ran soon started reading the next sentence of the fairy tale, and the young man gradually relaxed in this new position.

    Yue Ran read the story for almost an hour. Perhaps because she spoke too softly and too gently, Cheng Ying now felt a little sleepy.

    The last line of consciousness that he had struggled to grasp in his hands seemed to easily slip out of his hold as Yue Ran gently stoked his hair and said "sleep" with that pleasantly soft voice of hers. And so, Cheng Ying fell asleep in a daze.

    It was strange. This was strange.

    It was usually very difficult for him to fall asleep, whether during the day or at night. But today, it was not hard for him to fall asleep. At all. And today, his heart does not feel as empty as before. Why?

    Cheng Ying did not know when he had already fallen asleep.

    Yue Ran slowly blinked her eyes as she looked down at the young man sleeping with his head on her lap. Her long and naturally curled eyelashes fluttered with her movements, like the gentle flap of a butterfly''s wings.

    Generally, psychiatrists will establish friendship relationships with their patients, but they will not have any deeper emotions or connections beyond this. This was because their patients could easily become dependent on them and then grow increasingly attached to them.

    Once the patients regard their psychiatrists as a pillar of support, these patients will not become truly independent, and it will also affect the doctor''s personal life. It is true that this method may be an effective way to cure the patient''s mental illness, but it may also have more serious consequences.

    Yue Ran thought of these in her head, and a beautiful smile appeared at the corner of her lips.

    "It seems that I may have charmed the male protagonist unconsciously," Yue Ran said as she softly ran her fingers through Cheng Ying''s soft hair.

    Yue Ran: Ah, I am just too charming. My charm is unbeatable.

    Ruan Ruan: My Master is the best!

    And she just wants to be the male protagonist''s pillar of support.

    She just wants herself to be the male protagonist''s world.

    She wants to be his everything.

    The female protagonist may have to step aside for her to stand on the stage. Then again, she might as well push the female protagonist off the stage permanently. After all, there was a humongous hole in this world.

    This was because the plot in this world has an open ending.

    And Yue Ran would not let this opportunity go to waste.

    …

    Cheng Ying had a very long dream, but it seemed to end in just a few breaths. Bizarre colors of black, white, and gray filled his vision.

    He dreamt that someone was standing in front of him, not far away, in a school uniform, and that someone wanted to choke him alive. And thus, Cheng Ying turned around from that person and wanted to run away, as far away as he could, but the surrounding street lights, the telephone poles, the pine trees, the buildings around, the bicycles, and even the shadows and darkened sky itself all turned into hands that were trying to catch him and trap him alive.

    All those hands wanted to choke him.

    Too many hands. Too many hands wanted to catch him and trap him. Alive. Choke him. Alive.

    Trapped, trapped, trapped.

    He was almost trapped. Sёarch* The N?vel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Then, by some miracle, he was able to successfully run back to his house, and the first thing he saw was his parents waiting in front of the door. Were they waiting for him?