“Last Saturday, I sat across from a very charming man and pretended to be an escort, asking him for an iPhone 6s,” Wu Mangmang said while lying on a sofa that was perfectly balanced between soft and firm, comfortable and plush.
The psychologist Wu Yong across from her lowered his head and wrote a line on his paper. “And then?”
“Then he said: You’re not worth the price of a 6s,” Wu Mangmang said with some excitement. “What do you think? With my looks, wouldn’t one night really be worth the price of a 6s? I’m at least Miss Asia level, right?”
Wu Yong said nothing. He knew Wu Mangmang didn’t actually need him to speak.
“I heard that generally taking out a graceful, beautiful young female college student costs around two thousand. But I would be a first-timer,” Wu Mangmang argued.
Wu Yong lowered his head and wrote another line.
“Couldn’t he tell I’m still a virgin? Don’t they say experienced men can tell from a woman’s eyebrow shape and walking posture whether she’s a virgin or not?” Wu Mangmang sat up.
Wu Yong held his fist to his mouth and coughed lightly. “You’ve been reading too many novels, which isn’t good for your condition. Most novels are made up nonsense. Even if you read them, you should try to stay detached and not insert yourself into them.”
“But I can’t help it,” Wu Mangmang covered her chest with teary eyes.
Great, she was performing again.
Wu Yong lowered his head and wrote a few more sentences, then asked, “What happened next?”
“What?” Wu Mangmang was startled, instantly collecting her emotions. “You mean my reaction? Of course my self-esteem was damaged and I was angry. But you know me, I’m not good at fighting with people. Then, conveniently, the Limited Edition Gentleman’s female companion returned.”
“Why do you use the term ‘female companion’?” Wu Yong interjected.
“Because the way he looked at that woman clearly didn’t have the delicate emotions of a boyfriend looking at his girlfriend,” Wu Mangmang explained convincingly.
“Mm, and then?” Wu Yong continued asking.
“You know me, in situations like this I usually use acting to get revenge. So, in front of his female companion, I said to the Limited Edition Gentleman…”
Wu Mangmang’s expression was perfectly in place at that time, her emotions brewed just right. Tears dropped one by one from her eyes. She had practiced this technique for a long time—probably only Aunt Liu Xuehua, the actress favored by romance novelist Qiong Yao, could match her crying skills.
At that time…
Wu Mangmang covered her lower abdomen with one hand, tears rolling down at a rate of one drop per second, her silent weeping exceptionally poignant. “Please, I’m begging you. If my parents find out, they’ll definitely beat me to death. I won’t bother you anymore. Could you please go to the hospital and sign for me?”
After Wu Mangmang finished this sentence, she “belatedly” discovered that the Limited Edition Gentleman’s female companion had walked to her side. She stood up, looked at the lady companion, then at the Limited Edition Gentleman, with exaggerated and obvious grief and despair on her face, covering her face as she was about to rush out.
Ready to slip away with greased soles, but unexpectedly the Limited Edition Gentleman caught her wrist in one swift motion. “Want to leave, hmm?”
“Miss Wu?!” At this moment, Wu Mangmang’s blind date partner Mr. Gao also appeared.
What chaos it was.
Wu Yong looked up at Wu Mangmang, seeing her fall into strange silence, becoming even more curious about what happened next. Although Mangmang was his patient, Wu Yong had to admit that Wu Mangmang’s stories brought tremendous entertainment to his work.
“What happened next?” Wu Yong asked.
What happened next? Wu Mangmang excitedly sat up again. “Dr. Wu, why do you think the Limited Edition Gentleman has no sense of humor at all? It was just a joke, why did he take it so seriously?”
Wu Yong asked, “What did he do?”
“He sent me a lawyer’s letter, saying I had damaged his reputation in a public place.” Wu Mangmang laughed twice with a “heh heh.” “Such a trivial matter, and he actually sent me a lawyer’s letter. Do you know who his lawyer is?”
Wu Yong didn’t know. He was never familiar with the legal profession.
“Lawyer Jiang!” Wu Mangmang spat out the name heavily. “The top lawyer in this city who charges a thousand dollars an hour, and he used him to send me a lawyer’s letter.”
Quite an expensive hourly rate. It seemed Wu Mangmang had provoked someone she shouldn’t have this time.
Wu Yong looked at Wu Mangmang, and she indeed collapsed back onto the sofa dejectedly. “My parents already know about this. My allowance for the next three years has been cancelled. The compensation is a bit high. When it goes to court, I might need you, Dr. Wu, to testify that I’m a genuine lunatic.”
Wu Yong frowned. “How did it get to court? Can’t you settle?”
“The other party won’t accept it! My parents are using connections to find relationships.” Wu Mangmang said listlessly.
“Are you hiding something from me?” Wu Yong asked. “Mangmang, if you can’t open your heart to me, it’s very difficult for me to reach your inner self.”
Wu Mangmang dejectedly pouted. “It’s just that after my dad found out I’d provoked Lawyer Jiang, he scolded me half to death. When we finally managed to sit down and talk with Lawyer Jiang, I couldn’t help but perform a sequel, and I also hinted about it on my Weibo.”
“Still about the child?” Wu Yong sighed.
“Mm.” Wu Mangmang lowered her head. “Sigh, you know I’m somewhat of a Weibo celebrity. I’m not a big V, but I have several hundred thousand followers. So the matter became big. My parents believed it was real and staged a forced marriage battle, which angered the Limited Edition Gentleman, making settlement impossible and adding to my crimes.”
After a long silence, Wu Mangmang spoke again. “Dr. Wu, you don’t read entertainment news, do you? Don’t you use Weibo?”
“Sigh.” Wu Mangmang said, “When you’re unlucky, even drinking cold water gets stuck in your teeth. I only glanced at the Limited Edition Gentleman’s female companion at that time, felt she looked familiar but couldn’t recognize her immediately. Do you know she turned out to be Dong Keke?”
“She looks so different in movies compared to real life. With lighting versus without lighting, the difference is huge. I really didn’t recognize her then, and I don’t like her anyway. But somehow the paparazzi found out about this later, saying Dong Keke was abandoned by the Limited Edition Gentleman, and that the Limited Edition Gentleman’s new love was me.” Wu Mangmang pointed at her own nose. “They said I was secretly pregnant and trying to use the child to climb the social ladder.” Wu Mangmang spread her hands. “You know, things really got big.”
“My Weibo followers swelled from over 300,000 to over 900,000, though most came to fight with me.” Wu Mangmang irritably scratched her hair. She had only been showing off wealth online, posting pretty photos, sharing travel experiences or food, with occasional arguments, but had never encountered such a powerful fighting group.
“Although the media suppressed it, Weibo is impossible to prevent, and there’s the damn WeChat Moments. Although everything was deleted later, traces were still left.” Wu Mangmang looked at her nails in pain, spacing out. Her nails had grown long, revealing new nail bed not covered by the gel polish. She couldn’t stand this imperfection, but thinking of her wallet—she only had a few thousand yuan a month, and after paying the mandatory monthly property management fees, parking fees, utilities, mobile data fees, internet fees, and the cleaning lady’s salary, she only had enough left to buy women’s monthly necessities. The future days were truly worrying.
“Dr. Wu, my father has cancelled all my entertainment activities, and all my supplementary credit cards have been confiscated. This place is probably my only entertainment for the next year. Please tell me, my father will pay your bills, right?” Wu Mangmang asked pitifully.
Wu Yong put away his paper and pen. “Alright, today’s time is up. I have another appointment next. I’ll have Nurse Bai escort you down.”
When Wu Mangmang reached the door, she turned back to look at Wu Yong helplessly. Wu Yong knew this young lady was still acting, but could only resign himself to fate. “Schedule an appointment for next week. Even if your father doesn’t pay your bills, I can let you pay on credit.”
Wu Mangmang made a “tsk” sound. “I thought you were going to give me a free session.”
The same time next week, Wu Mangmang came to Wu Yong’s office as scheduled. She casually tossed the small purse in her hand, kicked off her high heels into the air without any regard for image, then threw herself onto the sofa.
Seeing Wu Mangmang in this state, Wu Yong picked up his pen and wrote a few sentences. “Why are you so listless today? Hasn’t last time’s matter been resolved?”
“It’s been resolved. My parents used connections everywhere and finally reached a settlement with the Limited Edition Gentleman, settling with money. My dad sold my car to pay the compensation.” Wu Mangmang became even more dispirited talking about this, tears coming instantly. “My poor Hummer.”
“Selling it is actually good. Hummers aren’t suitable for city driving—they waste too much gas,” Wu Yong said conscientiously.
“But I’m not short of money,” Wu Mangmang said in an extremely exaggerated, pained, theatrical tone.
“Dr. Wu, you can’t imagine how interesting the expressions on people’s faces are when they see the tough, wild Hummer, then see charming, delicate me sitting in the driver’s seat. That extreme contrast and comparison—every time I see those looks, I get all excited and thrilled.”
The memory excited Wu Mangmang for a second, then she fell into even deeper depression. “But now there’s nothing left.” Wu Mangmang’s voice was so low it sounded like crying.
“So what are your inner feelings recently?” Wu Yong asked.
“Bored, totally bored. Ever since I received that lawyer’s letter from the Limited Edition Gentleman, every time I want to act, I develop a psychological barrier that prevents me from performing freely.” Wu Mangmang looked somewhat sad, reaching out to Wu Yong like grasping at a lifeline. “Dr. Wu, what do you think I should do? If I lose my only hobby, what will I become in the future?”
Wu Yong was about to speak when Wu Mangmang waved her hand to interrupt. “I know, I know everything. I have extreme need for attention-seeking syndrome, severe social media addiction, serious vanity that’s completely outside normal human範圍, plus I sleep around, and I’m also a chatterbox…” Wu Mangmang said somewhat confused and helpless, “So I can’t possibly get any worse, right?”
Wu Yong sighed. “It’s not like that, Mangmang. These aren’t your fault. You just haven’t learned how to organize your emotions yet. I’ve noticed that in every role-play you choose, the roles are either escort girls, mistresses, hysterical wives catching cheaters, or tragic drama heroines—all negative roles. You use this to vent your previously accumulated emotions, which is actually not a bad outlet. These are all caused by shadows from your childhood. Have you tried communicating with your parents about this?”
Wu Mangmang looked at Wu Yong with a ‘you’re boring’ expression. “My father pays you such high treatment fees every week, is it just so you can persuade me to go back and blame them? Dr. Wu!”
“I’ve told you all my stories. In my childhood, my parents each had affairs, and only nannies took care of me at home. Every time they came home, they would give me various series of Barbie dolls. When I missed them, I would play house with the Barbie dolls, singing and acting by myself. Each of my Barbie dolls had their own name, and I even created wonderful scripts for them. Because I was too obsessed and couldn’t break character, I became what I am now, with an abnormal performance addiction.”
“I could indeed blame my parents, but what’s the use? Can I be reborn back to my childhood and make my father and mother not have affairs, not abandon me, not buy me Barbie dolls?”
Wu Mangmang’s emotions began to get agitated, tears streaming uncontrollably. “But actually they’re doing very well now. They’ve both reformed, and going round and round, they discovered they were each other’s true love. Every day at home they’re so sickeningly sweet you want to vomit. They love me very much now, but what about me? When I needed them most, they weren’t there. Now that I’ve grown up and want to have my own life, they won’t stop managing me. Do you know how many blind dates I have to go on each week? Do you know how many times I’ve been dumped because of this problem?”
Wu Mangmang began to cry loudly. “But what should I do, what should I do? Everyone has become so good, only me, only I’m getting worse and worse, disappointing them, making them feel I’m a burden, a trouble…”
For the rest of the time, Wu Mangmang was completely unable to have normal conversation, so today’s expensive psychological consultation fee was all spent on her tears.