Girl, There's Something Wrong With You - Chapter 44

Cui Jinqi returned to the family.

Due to the sudden demise of the Emperor, the securities market in Jiankang City plummeted, causing the entire Qinghe Cui family to work tirelessly through the night.

Her father, Cui Taichong, hadn’t slept all night, preoccupied with various conference calls summoning directors.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Seeing Cui Jinqi return home with a normal expression, Cui Taichong inwardly exclaimed in alarm.

His youngest daughter had always been mischievous and playful, constantly smiling. When had she ever worn such a serious expression?

“What’s wrong, Dad?” Cui Jinqi asked curiously.

Cui Taichong hesitated for a moment.

He couldn’t possibly say, “You’re never serious, and now suddenly you are, which is unusual.” So, he chuckled awkwardly, picked up his teacup, and took a sip of water to cover his embarrassment.

“Nothing, I thought you had something to say.”

“I do have something to say, Dad.” Cui Jinqi walked up to him and said seriously, “I want to help with family affairs.”

Pfft!

Cui Taichong had just taken a sip of tea and suddenly choked on it, coughing violently afterwards.

“Family affairs? Why do you want to deal with family affairs?” he evaded, looking around.

Towards his youngest daughter, Cui Taichong naturally felt compassion and affection.

Not to mention, Cui Jinqi had been cherished like a pearl in the palm of the family since birth. That incident back then, no one had expected it to cause such a huge psychological shadow on her.

Medically, this is called “factitious disorder,” where the patient knows that lying is wrong but can’t suppress the tendency to lie.

In other words, the more things that Cui Jinqi didn’t want to answer, the more instinctively she would tend to lie. And as the number of truthful statements increased, this tendency to lie became stronger and stronger until she couldn’t control it.

This is a mental illness, and in the financial aristocracy, it is a very serious mental illness.

After all, trust is the cornerstone of finance, and a girl who always lies not only cannot gain the trust of investment clients but also cannot handle team work well in the highly collaborative financial workplace.

So it is absolutely impossible for Cui Jinqi to help with family affairs. Cui Taichong even felt that his youngest daughter was sick again, lying under the guise of “handling family affairs,” when in fact she wanted to slip out and play with that Taiyuan Wang family Miss.

So he smiled and said, “Well, haven’t you been playing outside all the time recently? It’s okay, no one is forcing you to stay at home…”

Cui Jinqi was speechless, but she was already mentally prepared for this and smiled, saying, “Dad, I think my illness should be better now.”

“Yeah, yeah, Dad doesn’t blame you. Back then, Mom and Dad didn’t do well.” Cui Taichong patiently reassured her.

Cui Jinqi: …………

“Dad, I want to see a psychologist and see how my condition is now,” she said seriously.

“Oh, okay.” Cui Taichong thought so too. Indeed, she hadn’t seen a doctor this month.

If the best trauma surgeon serves the Longxi Li family, then the best psychologist is mostly in business with the Qinghe Cui family, after all, the financial industry’s workplace pressure is too great.

Soon, the psychologist came to Cui Taichong’s home and began a psychological assessment of Cui Jinqi.

“Jinqi, I’ll need you to answer some questions next,” she said, taking out a case file from her bag and carefully flipping through it.

The case file contained a lot of private information about Cui Jinqi, presented in a question-and-answer format.

As the questions were gradually asked, Cui Jinqi also became more and more inclined to lie, and the psychologist could judge from Cui Jinqi’s progressive behavior whether her mental condition was deteriorating or improving.

“The first time scolded by your father?” the psychologist asked.

Since being asked the same questions every month, Cui Jinqi’s answers were also very fluent:

“Burning his business documents while playing with candles.”

“The most outrageous thing you’ve done to your brother?”

“Poking holes with needles in his tools.”

“What kind of person do you think your mother is?”

“She has high emotional intelligence, can handle things systematically, but sometimes has too strong a desire for control.”

……….

After about twenty minutes, the psychologist lifted her glasses with a surprised expression on her face.

“All correct.”

“Completely consistent with the answers.”

In other words, for every question, Cui Jinqi had told the truth.

Examining the imaging records of her brain waves again, scrolling through the images with a mouse, she finally had to admit to something unbelievable.

Even though she didn’t know why, there had been no sign of improvement just last month, yet today’s re-examination revealed…

… her compulsive lying disorder had improved?

“Really?!” Upon hearing this from the psychologist, Cui Taichong couldn’t contain his joy and immediately stood up.

“At the moment, we can’t find any abnormal areas of brain activity.” The psychologist smiled, “To be safe, we’ll still observe for a few more days.”

“Yes, we should observe for a few more days.” Cui Taichong nodded eagerly, “To make sure my daughter is alright.”

His beloved youngest daughter, afflicted with a compulsive lying illness that had caused her to be despised by others in their community, had been a burden on him as a father.

Now, after years of hoping, Cui Taichong felt an urge to visit a temple on Purple Mountain to give thanks.

“Jinqi!” Unable to hold back tears, he hugged his daughter and said, “You’ve been through so much these years!”

“I’m okay now, Dad.” Cui Jinqi was touched but quickly composed herself with determination, “Next, I want to live a life of my own choosing.”

“Dad promises, you will definitely live the life you choose.” Cui Taichong was now deeply moved, willing to hand over the entire world to her.

“Mm.” Cui Jinqi didn’t say more, but her thoughts suddenly returned to Xing Yuanzhi’s words.

“Do you like him too?”

In those six simple words lay immense weight, heavy enough that merely contemplating the question made it hard for her to breathe.

Out of self-preservation, her instinct urged her to immediately answer “no, I don’t”, as it would relieve her pressure.

Just as Wang Wanrou had said when they first met, lies were tools for maneuvering, and she feared the games played in interpersonal relationships.

Therefore, she had piled up numerous lies to shield her inner self and avoid opening up to anyone, thus protecting herself from harm.

But…

Cui Jinqi understood more than ever that denying now would be an invisible surrender in her rivalry with Xing Yuanzhi.

Her momentum, determination, and will… would all dissipate with her denial.

After all, if she lacked the courage to admit her feelings now, how could she convince herself that this emotion truly existed?

Therefore, instead of the subconscious habit of accumulating and deeply ingrained “lying to avoid harm,” a greater fear enveloped her. It was the fear of losing something, telling her that choosing to retreat here would lead to regret.

She would definitely regret it.

So, despite her instinctual habits still trying to interfere with her thoughts, causing a dull ache inside her skull, she eventually overcame the strong urge to lie and spoke out what she truly wanted to express:

“Yes.”

Pressing her temples in pain, she felt as if some protective shell binding her soul had shattered.

She had once used thick layers of lies to protect herself, but now, with someone stepping forward to shield her, she no longer needed that shell.

Turning her head, she looked at Xing Yuanzhi with a pale yet calm face:

“I like him too.”