Lin Wanxing’s psychologist runs a well-known clinic in Han Ling.

She chose Han Ling because there were too many acquaintances in the industry in Yongchuan, small cities didn’t have enough resources, and the neighboring provincial capital was the best choice.

For convenient access to medical care, Lin Wanxing lived in a private residence next to Guangming Cinema in Han Ling.

According to the financially well-off Teacher Lin, she had purchased the house.

When she first came to Han Ling for psychological treatment, she rented this place. Later, when the landlady wanted to sell the house, she simply purchased it with her savings.

Although it was “old, rundown, and small,” only about twenty square meters, she liked it very much. It was as if this way she could say goodbye to her parents and the past, having a home completely her own.

So on the night, Wang Fa drove Lin Wanxing back to Han Ling, he pushed open the door for the first time and truly entered the small world that completely belonged to Lin Wanxing.

Peaceful wisteria, unopened hydrangeas. Lights were on inside, and a small black cat pressed against the glass, gazing expectantly at them.

Wang Fa squatted in the yard, greeting the small black cat through the glass door.

“It does seem like a perfect substitute for the little black cat we used to feed,” Wang Fa carefully observed and concluded.

“Right? It’s super similar!” Lin Wanxing smiled happily.

—

The first visit, the second visit, and every visit afterward, the feelings were completely different.

Qiu Qiu was a cat that was free in every sense. She would roll around freely as if no one was watching, and would also force humans to get up when she wanted freeze-dried treats.

That night, Wang Fa slept on Lin Wanxing’s sofa.

Qiu Qiu knocked over Lin Wanxing’s water-cultivated plant on the shelf. Half asleep, Wang Fa heard the sound of the bedroom door opening.

He quickly turned on the light.

Lin Wanxing was wearing her pajamas, picking up a delicate pothos plant from the floor. She wore slippers, her gaze clear, obviously not having slept at all.

So Wang Fa got up and joined her in cleaning up the broken glass on the floor, sweeping and mopping, checking if there were any remaining shards.

After cleaning up, Lin Wanxing picked up the small cat. With the cat’s four legs pointing skyward, she pressed it against the sofa and kissed it fiercely for a while, which was supposedly punishment.

Later they sat on the sofa and unconsciously began chatting.

Lin Wanxing said when she first came to this house, it was very old and dirty, but she thought it was quite nice.

Sorting things, cleaning the house, tidying the yard, there were many things to do every day.

Yesterday was different from today, daily repairs, and new progress every day, gave her something to look forward to.

When she came back the second time, she discovered that issues she thought were in the past resurfaced, and she actually couldn’t handle them well at all.

When she tried to break free from restraints and think calmly, the whole world pressed down on her even more heavily.

But even so, she made what was the best choice for her at that time—she returned here again.

“My doctor told me, it’s okay, short-term changes are good for me. It’s okay, I can escape.”

That night, Qiu Qiu ran into her yard meowing.

She walked over, and amid the overgrown weeds, the little cat didn’t run away at all, so she decided to keep a cat.

“So you see, life still has many surprises.”

Lin Wanxing stroked the small black cat in her arms and yawned.

She talked for a while longer, then unconsciously leaned against his shoulder and fell into a deep sleep.

The third time.

Wang Fa thought that actually, he was also a stray cat picked up by Lin Wanxing.

Teacher Lin’s life was bitter and long, but she could always grasp a small reason, and even if she had to force herself, she would keep going.

—

For Wang Fa, he could accept Lin Wanxing staying in Han Ling and continuing a peaceful life.

But on the morning after sending Lin Wanxing back to Han Ling, when he accompanied her to Guangming Cinema, he heard her decision.

“I’m sorry, Manager, but I need to go back to my hometown.”

At that time, Wang Fa stood beside Lin Wanxing, thinking he was simply accompanying her to work, not realizing she was going to resign.

“Is it because your boyfriend came to take you back?” The manager glanced at them, seeming to suddenly understand. “Is this the young man who kept booking the entire theater?”

Lin Wanxing was a bit embarrassed but still nodded seriously.

She went to the office to pack her things, while Wang Fa waited at the ticket counter. Looking at the constantly changing movie schedule, he realized he had never watched a movie with Lin Wanxing.

“What are you looking at?” Lin Wanxing soon came out, carrying a plastic bag, which should be the things she needed to take from her office.

“Checking the movie schedule.”

“Do you want to watch a movie with me?”

“Yes.”

“But you’ve already shown me the best movie I’ve seen here,” Lin Wanxing said.

Wang Fa turned to look at her, suddenly thinking that actually, there was still plenty of time. Besides movies, there were many things they could do together.

When they walked out of the cinema, the sun was shining brightly.

“Shouldn’t you explain how you knew I was in Han Ling?” she asked.

“It’s a long story.”

“How long?”

“I have to start with my grandmother.”

Lin Wanxing took him to a small shop, reportedly the most famous seafood noodle place in Han Ling, where you could pick your favorite seafood as toppings.

The shop was small, so they could only sit at wooden tables and chairs by the roadside. The dense shade of the phoenix trees covered them, and the condiment boxes on the table were wiped clean.

While waiting for breakfast, Wang Fa told her that his family was part of a large clan.

The old lady had a capable daughter, his grandmother, and his grandmother had a youngest sister.

Because the two sisters were so far apart in age, he had a young uncle who liked to bully him since childhood.

Fortunately, family relationships were distant, so they rarely met. If he hadn’t been truly desperate, he wouldn’t have sought help from his young uncle.

But he was too worried and couldn’t control himself.

—

Wang Fa stopped the car at the Han Ling seaside.

This was his third visit to Han Ling with Lin Wanxing, continuing their weekly psychological therapy.

The students expressed their dissatisfaction at not being taken along on their third trip. Lin Wanxing promised to bring back the freshest crabs, which finally appeased the children preparing for their physical education college entrance exams.

The adults who had escaped, previously always in a hurry, hadn’t formally visited the Han Ling seaside, so they could take this opportunity to appreciate Han Ling’s distinctive coastline.

On the return journey, Teacher Lin chose a famous fishing port, undeveloped and retaining much of its original flavor.

Lin Wanxing wrapped a piece of warm plum cake in oil paper and handed it to him after getting out of the car, letting him eat while walking.

She opened the navigation app herself, planning their walking route.

The beach was permeated with a fishy smell; Han Ling’s sea was different from others.

Here, the seawater was yellowish, but the beach was white and fine, giving it a desolate beauty compared to other places’ azure seas and blue skies.

Lin Wanxing took off her shoes and socks to step onto the beach; the sand warmed by a day of sunshine was warm, soft, and fine under her feet.

“The heavy responsibility of picking seafood later falls to you since you said you worked at a seafood dock before.”

“I was a dock porter,” Wang Fa said.

“How pitiful?” Lin Wanxing ran back a couple of steps, squeezed his arm, and then released her hand as if it were hot.

Wang Fa took the opportunity to hold her fingers, leading her as they walked.

Teacher Lin’s fingertips and sides had calluses, but they were still supple and slender.

Lin Wanxing naturally slowed her pace.

Wang Fa told her that the dock porter earned good money. The problem was that foreigners organized strikes now and then, which wasn’t friendly to him who wanted to earn foreign currency.

Unlike many families with numerous expectations for their children, in his family, regardless of gender, at 16 they were “kicked out” to fend for themselves. So he had gone through many difficult days, but the benefit was that the children could do many things they wanted to do.

Lin Wanxing felt deeply moved and said that even so, his family had given him enough confidence. Even if they both ended up on the streets, he knew what he could do, which was completely different from any 16-year-old child from a poor family who came out to work.

Herself, after witnessing Shu Yong’s suicide scene and breaking ties with her parents, she also knew that seeing a psychologist to treat her illness was a top priority. Not only because she had saved some money during her university years, but also because she knew that if things didn’t work out, she still had her grandparents’ inheritance.

This was probably the first time Lin Wanxing actively mentioned Shu Yong.

The sea breeze was gentle, and in the distance stood the viewing platform towering over the sea, with the cross-sea highway stretching like a ribbon across both shores.

Unconsciously, Wang Fa tightened his grip on her hand.

“Actually, at first, I didn’t realize I had a problem. Because I was a psychology student, witnessing a suicide scene, I just needed psychological intervention. But the complexity of human psychology exceeded my imagination.”

Standing by the shore, Lin Wanxing naturally began to narrate.

“At the beginning, I thought Shu Yong’s suicide was simply due to delusional schizophrenia. He had fantasized about the relationship between us. Back then, I foolishly examined myself—had I not intentionally ignored something? If I had discovered the professor’s problem earlier, would it have been possible for him not to have had an accident?

“At that time, rumors were already spreading around the school, and I didn’t even want to explain the professor’s death. On one hand, it was difficult to explain; on the other, I stupidly wanted to protect the deceased’s privacy. But the appearance of Xiang Zi’s email changed everything.”

Lin Wanxing’s hair by her temples was tousled by the sea breeze; the beach was desolate, the sea surface ethereal.

“The key additional evidence in the email was the variable name in the thesis. But only I knew that it was Shu Yong who told me to change it. It turned out that Shu Yong might not have had delusional schizophrenia; he had arranged everything from early on.

I had to think about many things every day.

Sometimes I would feel like I was a sculpture, being constantly, constantly stared at. Every day, every day, until I gradually stiffened, losing vitality; at other times, I felt it was a struggle, a struggle between the living and the dead. He was so bad, so I couldn’t lose, I had to live well, live more strongly and freely.

But later I discovered that my problem was different from those stories of brave women fighting that I had read before. The person was already dead, what more could I do? No one would believe me, not even my parents.

So I gradually couldn’t understand, why are people like this. What meaning did my discipline and my faith have?

But at the same time, I knew that I shouldn’t doubt human nature because that way I would lose; I also couldn’t end my life, because that way I would also lose.”

Unconsciously, Lin Wanxing walked closer and closer to the sea.

Wang Fa followed her there, allowing the seawater to lick his feet.

Their steps became heavier and heavier.

“Until one day, these conflicting emotions completely tore me apart, and I realized the seriousness of the problem,” Lin Wanxing said. “I knew I had to give up some relatively unimportant things, and it didn’t matter if I lost.”

“Then you came to Han Ling?”

“No, I came to Han Ling because my grandparents wanted a sea burial; they wanted ‘Lonely sail, distant shadow, azure sky ends; only see the Yangtze River flowing to the horizon.’ But my father didn’t care about these things at all; he thought there needed to be a grave. So that day, I found that viewing platform.”

Lin Wanxing looked toward the steel and concrete structure standing alone in the distance.

The water had already risen above their ankles. Lin Wanxing said, “After my grandparents passed away, my mental state deteriorated significantly. At that time, I felt that release wouldn’t be bad, I was just too tired. Many thoughts don’t disappear forever just because they subside momentarily; they will pop up from time to time, tempting me.

It was cold that day, and the wind was strong. I carried my grandparents’ belongings up to the viewing platform. But suddenly I wondered, would I see something?

Like gentle sunlight, parents holding a baby or even a flying seagull. Would there be a scene up there that could make me discover the beauty of the world, make me pause?

But I discovered that actually, there wasn’t. Han Ling’s sea was always so vast, with murky waves, and endless fog.

Heaven and earth were boundless; there were none of those imagined moving scenes. In this world, there was only myself.”

Unconsciously, Lin Wanxing’s fingers also tightly gripped his.

Though it was a sunny afternoon now, Wang Fa felt as if he had returned to the viewing platform.

The sky was cold, sea fog pervaded, and the world was desolate and lonely.

“Did you bring coins that time?” Wang Fa lowered his head and asked her.

Lin Wanxing started to laugh, as if blowing away clouds and fog: “No. But at that time I discovered that the world is vast and boundless, and I am just a very small person. This seemed like the worst-case scenario, but there was nothing unacceptable about it.”

Previously, Wang Fa thought Lin Wanxing would need a lot of time before she would talk about this story.

But it seemed that when she started to speak, it happened naturally. The painful tears were still vivid, and it’s hard to say they’ve passed; she was just slowly accepting and processing them.

On the beach, a small crab struggled to emerge from an air hole.

Lin Wanxing squatted down to help it by digging around the surrounding sand, but the crab retreated in.

Only then did they notice someone carrying a bucket and shovel on the beach, sprinkling something into the air holes.

Shortly after, a razor clam surfaced, and the person shoveled a few times, directly pulling one out. Lin Wanxing was stunned.

Wang Fa exchanged a glance with her.

Lin Wanxing swallowed: “I think…”

“A life of excessive comfort is not conducive to student growth?” Wang Fa asked.

“No, it’s that adults should set an example, being self-reliant for food and clothing.”

In any case, they immediately left the beach and bought a bucket and shovel from a roadside vendor. The shop owner, familiar with the beach-combing industry, also sold them salt. She pointed out a section of the beach, saying it was rich in seafood, and under the seaweed by the beach edge, there might even be sea cucumbers if they were lucky.

Wang Fa carried the bucket, holding Lin Wanxing’s hand, and returned to the beach.

The woman held the shovel, ready for a big undertaking.

The sea breeze was gentle and warm. No matter how they changed angles, the distant sea-viewing platform still stood tall in the distance.

But today the sun shone everywhere, and seabirds flew high.

Wang Fa suddenly recalled what his doctor had told him during psychological treatment—

There is no true “cure”; pain will leave scars on the heart. You need to hear the most correct voice in your heart amid confusion and bewilderment. It will help you overcome difficulties and accompany you through the long journey of life.