Accommodating

Translator: Cinder Translations

--------

After the lead woman finished speaking, the other women approached one by one, expressing their gratitude to the doctor. It was clear that they were sincere, and their eyes betrayed no signs of dishonesty.

The fatty stood quietly in the corner, eyes wide open. It seemed that these women were the mothers of the girls from last night.

There were four girls in the car, and now four women stood before them.

The numbers matched.

"Ms. Qin," Jiang Cheng set his coffee cup down, turned his head, and for the first time looked directly at the elegant women, "From my observation of Yuan Yuan, she's not quite what you described."

The lead woman paused for a moment, then cautiously asked, "Doctor Jiang, you mean..."

"It's obvious," Jiang Cheng continued, "Although she appeared happy in the nightclub, that was just a façade. As the environment grew noisier, she unconsciously showed micro-expressions and movements like furrowing her brows or adjusting her glasses."

He paused briefly, then added, "The nightclub environment makes her uneasy."

"She doesn't like it there. She's just trying to accommodate herself in an unfamiliar environment, trying to blend in."

"What she really needs is companionship," Jiang Cheng said, "She's very lonely."

The woman's expression became strange for a moment, and she raised her head, seemingly about to argue. However, she was interrupted by Jiang Cheng.

He stared into her eyes, his tone calm, "Having breakfast with her two or three times a week isn't companionship."

"It's more like charity," Jiang Cheng's voice remained steady, "It's like a passerby tossing some leftovers to a stray dog just to avoid unnecessary trouble."

"But you're not an irrelevant passerby, and she's not a begging stray dog," he paused, then continued, "You are her mother."

The woman's expression darkened further upon hearing this.

She had grown accustomed to a life of privilege, and the comparisons to charity, leftovers, stray dogs, and entanglements felt far too foreign to her—so foreign that it stung.

But her feelings, evidently, were not Jiang Cheng's concern.

As the two women exchanged glances, Jiang Cheng turned to another woman, "Ms. Lu," he said calmly, "Compared to Yuan Yuan, your daughter's situation is a little more complex."

"She's overly sensitive, and any change in her environment can trigger her anxiety and unease. She's used to sitting in the same place, walking the same route, and only drinking one brand of alcohol."

"When she's out of her familiar surroundings, she becomes easily irritable and anxious."

"Even small changes, like a shift in her friends' positions, can make her feel uneasy," Jiang Cheng observed as the woman's face subtly changed. "What she lacks is a sense of security."

"This behavior can be traced back to her childhood. I suspect something happened when she was very young," he mused, "Perhaps in elementary school, or even earlier."

"In our sessions, she consciously blurred that period of memory."

"Yet she clearly remembers earlier events."

"Selective amnesia," Jiang Cheng said. "This is common among extreme idealists and those with trauma-related disorders."

Unlike the first woman's reaction, the woman Jiang Cheng was addressing nodded slightly, acknowledging his insight. "When she was seven, I separated from her father, and we even went to court over asset distribution. During that time, we were too preoccupied with ourselves to care for her, so we had to send her to a boarding school."

The woman didn't hold back on her past. The three other women in the room were her close friends, and they all knew about her misfortunes.

They all shared a common goal: their daughters.

Thanks to the mothers' influence, the four girls had formed a small group. Although their relationship had its ups and downs, it was solid.

Given the woman's status, the school she had chosen for her daughter was certainly an expensive private institution. But not everything can be solved with money.

During the critical period when children need their parents' company, when their character is developing, the girl likely felt emotionally abandoned, which could have led her to feel like she was being neglected or was a burden.

One could imagine, on quiet nights, the girl lying in bed, curled up under the thick blanket, feeling the loneliness and helplessness at that moment.

In her earlier conversations with Jiang Cheng, the woman had mentioned how her daughter often lost her temper for no reason, never allowing her to enter her room. They had many arguments because of this.

After a housekeeper helped her pick up the clothes scattered on the floor, the girl locked herself in her room and didn't come out all day.

She refused to even see the visiting psychologist.

Through her professional connections, the woman met Pi Ruan, who highly recommended Jiang Cheng, and it turned out that Pi Ruan's recommendation was trustworthy.

Although most people in her circle looked down on Jiang Cheng.

The doctor then went on to share his thoughts on the other two women's daughters, and the atmosphere in the room shifted subtly.

Jiang Cheng's analysis was logical and easy to understand. Even the fatty seemed to understand, his eyes widening as he felt as if he were stepping into the minds of each girl with the doctor's explanations.

The lead woman's daughter was named Yuan Yuan, and due to a lack of companionship, she felt deeply lonely.

She had a habit of trying to please everyone she met, attempting to fit into every person's life, even if she didn't like that life.

She was just afraid of being alone.

So, she tried to accommodate.

The second girl was named Shi Jia. Due to her parents' neglect in childhood, she lacked a sense of security.

Any change in her life caused her anxiety and unease, from moving to a new place, meeting new people, to doing unfamiliar things.

Her room was her sanctuary, a continuation of the cold, narrow bed from the boarding school she once attended.

Anyone who entered her domain threatened her sense of safety.

The housekeeper, who helped pick up her clothes, and the psychologist, who stood at her bedroom door uninvited, were both intrusions.

Compared to them, the young man with an impeccable appearance, who chose to meet them at the bar they were most familiar with, and introduced himself as Jiang Pan'an instead of Dr. Jiang, seemed especially likable.

What was even more admirable was that he only drank his one preferred brand of alcohol.

He appeared to be accustomed to silence. Unless someone started a conversation, he would never speak.

With a playful look in his eyes and measured gestures.

He sat alone in a corner, distant yet charming, gently swirling the wine in his glass. The soft red light reflected from the wine illuminated the girls' tipsy faces, creating a disjointed, fragmented reflection.

(End of the Chapter)

---

Read (NS) on Pa.treon@CinderTL - c328.

Early Access at $1.

Translated (4) Series, (1.8K+) Chapters, (2.25M+) Words.