102: Forgetting

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Panson pondered for a moment, then exclaimed, “Did you do something to Xiyang last night?”

The other shot him a glance.

That look instantly made Panson think of a certain expletive, unsure whether to say it out loud or not.

What he just said was practically meaningless.

Yichen had already forgotten Xiyang; there was no way he could remember what happened last night.

But Yichen’s emotions always ran high whenever it came to Xiyang.

So something definitely happened between those two last night.

“Yichen, how about I call Xiyang over now and ask her? You may not remember what happened last night, but she does.”

“No,” Yichen immediately recalled the scene just now—she had grabbed at his clothes the moment she arrived. Just thinking about it irritated him. And that look she gave him made him feel uneasy. It’s better not to see it at all.

Yichen sank onto the sofa, his voice cold and distant. “I don’t want to see her now, and I don’t want her causing any more trouble. Right now, I feel nothing for her except estrangement.”

“Estrangement?” Panson muttered. “She’s Ye Xiyang, the girl you’ve liked for so many years. How can you just forget like that—say you don’t remember, say you feel estranged?”

It seemed this amnesia was more severe and unpredictable than he’d thought.

Panson’s muttering didn’t faze Yichen.

He only thought about how she had been so forward and reckless in broad daylight. Such a girl lacked any refinement.

How could he have liked someone so unrefined before?

But seeing the sadness in her eyes made him uncomfortable again.

Yichen rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

Noticing his exhaustion, Panson sat down beside him. “Yichen, you may have forgotten your childhood sweetheart and some classmates before, and you felt nothing, just unfamiliarity. But now, you seem to reject Xiyang strongly, very strongly. Could it be…”

Yichen looked at him silently, waiting for him to continue.

Panson offered his psychological theory. “Before your amnesia, you liked Xiyang intensely. Now, after losing your memory, you’re pushing her away just as fiercely. I suspect something happened before your amnesia that you couldn’t accept, so you subconsciously chose to forget her. In psychology, we call this self-protective suppression.”

Yichen gave him a sideways glance, thinking he was talking nonsense. “Dr. Panson, can someone deliberately forget a person?”

“That depends on the individual,” Panson replied instinctively. “You’re not exactly a normal person. For someone like you, deliberately forgetting someone is actually quite normal. So I can’t judge your abnormality with normal logic…”

Sensing a sharp gaze like a blade piercing him, Panson immediately shut up, stood, and stepped a few paces away. He quickly changed the subject. “Anyway, I’ll pull up your memory database for you to see.”

He grabbed the laptop on the table, placed it on the coffee table, opened it, entered the password, and accessed the memory files of Xiyang and Yichen.

But to his surprise, the files were gone.

“Why can’t you see your memory files with Xiyang anymore?”

This was a memory database Panson had specifically studied a year ago. Because Yichen rarely interacted with other women, this database was seldom used. Besides Joanna and Xiyang, there were no other females recorded.

He checked Joanna’s files and found they were missing as well.

“Could your amnesia have relapsed so severely that even this database is corrupted? But this is a computer, not your brain. How could it lose memory in sync with your mind?”

“Didn't you say this system wasn’t fully developed yet?” Yichen stood up, his tone indifferent. “Whether this thing fails or not doesn’t matter to me. I’ve had amnesia for years and managed just fine.”

With that, he walked out.

Panson’s phone rang—it was Fang Li. “Dr. Panson, bad news. Mr. Lin’s amnesia has…”

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“He just left my place.”

Hearing this, Fang Li immediately understood. Mr. Lin must have gone to see Dr. Panson. But she still voiced her concern. “Dr. Panson, I feel like Mr. Lin’s amnesia this time is different from before.”

Panson had sensed it too, just by looking at Yichen’s cold demeanor earlier.

“He looks like he did five years ago, right after Xiyang left—completely emotionless. Even when he spoke to me, his tone was ice-cold.”

Fang Li added, “I don’t know how Mr. Lin was after Xiyang left five years ago, but ever since Xiyang came back, his personality improved a lot—he became much more humane. No matter how angry he got, he never treated people around him so coldly. Oh, and…”

Fang Li recalled something she saw from her office window.

“Today, I saw Mr. Lin harshly drag Xiyang out of the car. He didn’t even glance at her before driving off. Even if he forgot Xiyang, he shouldn’t treat her so rudely and coldly. There’s no warmth at all.”

“Because he forgot Xiyang, he lost all sense of warmth?” Panson frowned, deep in thought. “This can’t continue. I have to figure out a way. If Yichen truly reverts to how he was before, the one who’ll suffer most is himself.”

After hanging up, Panson immediately called Xiyang.

She was lying on the bed, pondering why the signal device was embedded in her heart. That sapphire was indeed hers, but aside from the device, she wasn’t carrying the sapphire. So why did Earthlings have something belonging to her?

Perplexed, her phone rang. She answered, “Hello?”

Panson immediately invited her to dinner, but this time, Xiyang declined without hesitation.

Now Panson felt not only had Yichen changed, but Xiyang had changed too.

Those two really were a pair—changing personalities in sync, so suddenly and without warning.

But that wasn’t the main issue. Since she wouldn’t come, he decided to talk over the phone.

“Xiyang, Fang Li just told me he saw Yichen harshly drag you out of the car at the office. Are you hurt?”

Instantly, Xiyang felt Earthlings were mostly good people.

“Dr. Panson, do you think Mr. Lin is sick? Even if I’m not…” Her voice trailed off, but Panson spoke up.

“Yes, he is sick. And it’s serious.”

Hearing that, Xiyang immediately thought of Yichen’s mental illness. “Dr. Panson, do you mean his mental illness worsened?”

“No,” Panson cleared his throat. “Actually, it’s not a mental illness, but it’s similar. He has amnesia…”

Panson patiently explained Yichen’s condition word by word.

Xiyang didn’t suspect Panson of lying, but she couldn’t understand how he could have amnesia.

And if he had amnesia, why didn’t he just tell her?

If it were a mental illness, she could understand the hesitation.

But amnesia was not something shameful.

Panson offered an explanation: “You know him—proud and concerned about his image. Even if amnesia isn’t embarrassing, he can’t admit to someone he likes that he’s sick. Imagine how insecure he’d feel if the person he loves knew about his condition. He’d be afraid of losing you.”

Especially since you’re a repeat offender.

Xiyang instinctively replied, “But he doesn’t like me.”

…

Silence lingered over the phone for several seconds.

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Just as Xiyang tried to cover up her words, Panson said, “Xiyang, I know you’re angry he dragged you out of the car, but you’re still his girlfriend. You have to help him.”

Xiyang stroked the sleeping tail of her little white dog. “How should I help?”

“I’m asking—what happened between you two on the island yesterday? Did he get upset by something?”

Upset?

Xiyang thought carefully and suddenly remembered the scene. “Yesterday, when Lin Yichen saw Yiyang kiss me, he got really angry…”

“What? Yiyang kissed you?”

Panson’s voice almost shattered Xiyang’s eardrums. She pressed her ear and explained guiltily, “Dr. Chen said something I couldn’t understand. I asked Yiyang, and he said…”

She couldn’t say the two words. She roughly explained, “Anyway, I didn’t understand Yiyang’s explanation, so he used actions to explain. And coincidentally, Yichen saw it.”

Panson didn’t understand a word of what Xiyang said, but he didn’t have the heart to ask.

Yichen’s amnesia had relapsed, and he had even forgotten Xiyang.

Seeing Yiyang kiss Xiyang must have triggered him, causing him to subconsciously forget her.

This was a form of self-protection, an escape.

Panson asked, “During your days on the island, besides that, did anything else happen? Any problems between you and Yichen?”

Xiyang immediately recalled everything, angrily saying, “We’ve always had problems—nothing but problems.”

She listed Yichen’s offenses one by one.

“He wouldn’t let me resign, tortured me, then kicked me to Yiyang. What made me angriest was he forced me to write an IOU. I think he’s not only amnesiac, but also a pervert—he tortures his young female subordinates.”

“…”

Just as Panson was about to speak, Xiyang interrupted, “If he keeps torturing me like this, that mentally ill guy will soon be me.”

Panson wanted to say: ‘Beatings are affection, scolding is love.’

Or rather, torment is deep love.

But if he said that, Xiyang would definitely hang up.

Returning to the topic, Panson said, “Xiyang, I’m sure this time Yichen forgot you because you hurt him. He can’t accept it, so he escaped by subconsciously erasing you from his memory.”

That made it sound as if the amnesia was caused by her.

But when Yichen saw Yiyang kiss Xiyang, he really seemed very angry.

“So, how should I help him?”

Half an hour later, the call ended.

Xiyang lay back, staring at the white ceiling.

Dr. Panson said she had to cling to him every day, just like five years ago.

But I’m not Ye Xiyang…