The waiting time for an answer felt extremely long to Wang Fa.

But for Yan Ming, it was perhaps just the time it took to sip a cup of coffee.

Yan Ming: “If you’ve carefully looked at my resume, you should know that I studied psychology at Yongchuan University for my undergraduate degree.”

“So?” Wang Fa gripped his phone tightly.

“So, I do know Lin Wanxing,” Yan Ming said.

She didn’t even ask which “Lin” or which “Wanxing,” but directly acknowledged it.

Wang Fa pushed open the terrace door with one hand. Light flooded in, and the wind made his hoodie flutter loudly.

“How do you know her?” After Yan Ming’s acknowledgment, Wang Fa’s complex and chaotic mind calmed down. He controlled the many questions in his heart and asked, “You’re twelve years older than her. By the time she entered university, you had already graduated long ago.”

“Good attention to detail, Wang Fa.” Yan Ming paused, “But is it possible that I know her, but she doesn’t know me?”

This was like some carefully designed game. The nearby teachers Chen and Qian in Hongjing, and the psychologist far away in England—they all knew Lin Wanxing early on. But Lin Wanxing herself had no idea.

Yan Ming took a sip of coffee as if giving him time to think. “Winfred, you’re concerned about only two issues: first, what exactly happened to Lin Wanxing; second, what position you occupy in this whole affair.”

“You’re wrong. I don’t care about the second point at all, nor do I care what you’ve done,” Wang Fa said. “I only care about what I should do.”

On the other end of the phone, Yan Ming’s voice no longer had the laziness of early morning. She sat down at the dining table and opened her notebook. “I know Lin Wanxing because, for some time, she became a topic of conversation among alumni.”

“You mean what happened to her at the university?”

“You haven’t fully looked into her background, have you?” Yan Ming seemed somewhat incredulous.

“I want to date someone, and I need to investigate a woman’s background?” Wang Fa incredulously asked in return.

A silver spoon dropped into a cup. Yan Ming was almost silenced by his reaction. After a while, she commented with emotion: “So it could only be you, Winfred.”

“I’m not sure what the right thing to do is,” Wang Fa pondered for a moment, then honestly said, “I’ve searched for some information about her, but found nothing. Your Yongchuan University has too many issues.”

“First of all, the problems at our Yongchuan University are only slightly more than ordinary colleges. Genius and madness have always been separated by just a thin line. Secondly, not just you, even we don’t know what the truth is, let alone what the right thing to do is.”

“The truth about what?”

“You’re right, Lin Wanxing is my junior schoolmate. I’m exactly 12 classes ahead of her, so logically I shouldn’t know her.” Yan Ming walked to the window. “But have you heard of the distinguished alumni directory?”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a contact list that only the school has, with contact information for many distinguished alumni from our psychology department. One day last year, many of us received the same email.”

The content revealed in everyone’s words, including Lin Wanxing’s attitude of never speaking about it after leaving school, all proved that it was a malicious incident back then. Yan Ming had finished the coffee in her cup. She spoke slowly, obviously because this matter required finding an appropriate narrative angle.

“Who sent the mass email about Lin Wanxing?”

“We don’t know who sent it, but the content was terrifying,” Yan Ming sat up straight, her voice solemn. “It described the evil deeds committed by Lin Wanxing. The content had a complete logical chain, irrefutable evidence, and was sensational.”

Before this, Wang Fa had already mentally prepared himself. But when he heard the words “sensational,” he still felt a chill.

It was content that couldn’t be found through a simple internet search, yet was privately mass-emailed to school alumni. Judging from the attitude of Lin Wanxing’s parents, they must have also known about this and didn’t believe their daughter.

Like some inescapable cage, meant to sever all of Lin Wanxing’s social relationships.

Wang Fa couldn’t imagine what Lin Wanxing had gone through. “No matter how you look at it, I believe in her.”

“Anyone who saw that email would think there was something wrong with Lin Wanxing. But we’re not fools; we’d certainly remain skeptical about mass emails like this. Self-righteous justice can sometimes be evil itself.”

“Besides gossiping, judging, and remaining vigilant, what else did you ‘distinguished alumni’ do?”

“You know her, but we don’t,” Yan Ming was silent for a while, then said, “For various reasons, the truth of the incident is difficult to investigate, so all we could do was try to understand what kind of person Lin Wanxing is, to make our judgment.”

“After the funeral, when Coach Jiang’s son suddenly thought of Lin Wanxing, was that your idea?” Wang Fa asked.

Yan Ming was silent for a time, finally speaking as if having made a decision: “It was. You can understand it this way—besides the method of artificial intervention to control variables in psychological experiments, there’s also a natural observation method. Jiang Xun’s existence provided an opportunity. On one side was one of the most outstanding graduates in our school’s educational psychology history, and on the other side were students who needed education. We wanted to see what Lin Wanxing would do under natural conditions.”

A clever arrangement, perfect use of “curiosity,” minimal guidance without interference, trying to maintain natural observation.

The two teachers, Chen and Qian, indeed did a lot of work, but many things were clearly beyond their capabilities.

“What about me then, a coach with psychological issues—what did you want to observe about her through me?”

“I swear I only gave suggestions. I didn’t use any psychological suggestion techniques to make you go to her. You chose 17 Wutong Road yourself. When I heard you discussing the new address with your parents, I was stunned. We arranged so many deliberate encounters for her, but only you were the unexpected destiny in her life.”

Wang Fa stood in the biting wind on the rooftop, where traces of his life with Lin Wanxing were everywhere.

They chatted here, watched movies, and observed the distant stadium. Lin Wanxing would work here, record the students’ daily lives, and take care of plants while directing students to do various tasks. She had always planned to adopt a cat and a dog but never found suitable ones. Her laughter seemed to be carried in the wind.

No matter how much he heard from Yan Ming, Wang Fa’s mind was filled only with Lin Wanxing.

She wanted to escape from all this, but the vast web of social relationships had entangled her.

She was being observed, and guided to do many things.

Until she chose to leave, Wang Fa even felt relieved that she had finally gone.

“Although I don’t know exactly what happened, I can now understand why she had to leave,” Wang Fa said calmly.

“That’s the problem, Winfred.” Yan Ming changed her sitting posture and spoke gravely, “As a subject of natural observation, we understand Lin Wanxing and don’t believe she would just walk away. You can respect her choice and ask no more questions, or you can help her walk out of this.”

“I understand.”

Yan Ming sat at the dining table and opened her computer. Looking at the content on the screen, she again cautioned Wang Fa, “If you want to understand her story, you can open the email. But this is a dead end. The person involved chose suicide from the beginning, and no one knows the truth.”

This is what Yan Ming said before pressing the send button.