Who would study psychology unless they had some issues?!
Chapter 294 - 292 Arrival at the Destination

Chapter 294: Chapter 292 Arrival at the Destination

To be candid.

Being able to see through someone’s expressions, and being able to hide one’s own expressions, at times, truly are not equal.

Besides, Nan Zhubin is indeed a straightforward person; seemingly, he has no intention of hiding his expressions.

Chonghui glanced at Nan Zhubin through the rearview mirror, almost losing grip on the steering wheel: "What you’re saying and what’s written on your face don’t match at all, hey!"

As a psychology Ph.D. holder, Chonghui’s own emotions are also in check.

He took a couple of deep breaths, trying to make sense: "It’s like how a consultant has to pretend not to recognize a client outside the consulting room—we have two projects that, while inherently related, are actually independent of each other, understand?"

Nan Zhubin pondered: "But, according to the report we submitted earlier, Director Chang mentioned that we should cooperate further. We might investigate other students and even teachers in the school, so they’ll definitely ask for our help, right? If we prepare in advance, it’ll be easier when the time comes, won’t it?"

Damn, what you said makes some sense.

His mentor was not swayed: "From the way Chang Ming was slacking off earlier, he doesn’t seem like someone who would do something later, right!"

"Speaking of which..."

Nan Zhubin suddenly leaned back against his seat — let me tell you, the seat chosen by Lu Jia is quite comfortable, I wonder if the interior was upgraded separately.

The young consultant reminisced: "That Director Chang... although he looked like he didn’t care about anything, he showed emotion upon seeing my report later."

"And it was relatively positive emotion, something like —[Expectation]?"

Discussing professional matters, Chonghui’s attention got drawn back involuntarily.

But he quickly collected himself again: "Then... let’s wait for Director Chang to reach out to you. At the very least, we shouldn’t act on subjective assumptions, understand?"

"I heard about some of your matters from my sister before, now I feel like you’ve been affected by that student. I must say—don’t bring the emotions from one project into the next project!"

Seeing that his mentor was almost amused and having indeed controlled the steering wheel.

Nan Zhubin pursed his lips.

[Emotion Rebalancing]

"Relax, Mentor. I don’t have any emotions."

Chonghui looked at Nan Zhubin’s expression through the rearview mirror, suddenly feeling the contrast in this junior’s demeanor.

His face unexpectedly shows nothing?

At that moment, Chonghui even doubted his own studies over the past few years.

...

All in all, the rest of the journey was rather smooth.

Following the navigation, the car slowly stopped at the gate of the school marked by the words "Jiangdu First Middle School".

Then, they were stopped by the security.

"The license plate isn’t registered, can’t let you in." The security guard, looking around fifty, said.

The security guard’s face didn’t show any negative emotion; his communication tone was also very gentle.

Understanding this conscientious behavior, Chonghui and Nan Zhubin expressed their appreciation for his work.

Chonghui quickly took out his phone to communicate with the liaison person, while Nan Zhubin opened the car door, gazing at the scenery inside the school.

Unlike universities, high schools have more variety in their names. For instance, private schools might be named "XX Public High School," public schools might take parts of idioms like "XX Seeking Truth High School," or add modifiers like "Experimental," "Foreign Language," etc., to their names, or straightforwardly transliterate foreign names like "XX Hank High School."

In addition, there’s a mix of identification incorporating local characteristics, making the names even more diverse.

The quality of education varies as well.

But public high schools with names structured like "City Name"+"No.X"+"High School" usually maintain a certain standard.

Especially the current school with "First" as its middle name surely holds some historical significance; it won’t be too inferior.

Nan Zhubin, looking through the school’s main gate, could only see a large square with a motto sculpture, the outermost office building, and the faint outline of teaching buildings.

The campus is massive, even beyond the view of dorms.

"What are you thinking?" After a simple conversation with the liaison person, Chonghui noticed that Nan Zhubin was quite engrossed in the scene and proactively asked.

"School is huge." Nan Zhubin indeed replied, "I was wondering how long it would take to collect data from the students here."

"At first, I thought there wouldn’t be many students here." Nan Zhubin shrugged, "I’m not from Jiangdu, but a small place. My previous school only had one teaching building and one dormitory building."

Chonghui expressed considerable understanding and was very experienced with such situations: "[Stratified Sampling] will work. Sample students from each grade across various score ranges, balance gender proportions and you should yield fairly reliable data."

"Sample a few hundred people, talk to each for about ten minutes." Chonghui gave his estimate, "Together, we should complete data sampling in a bit more than a week."

This is the most optimistic scenario.

Nan Zhubin nodded.

While they were talking, they saw a pot-bellied middle-aged man walking quickly toward them.

"Principal Ma." The security greeted the person.

"Eh." The middle-aged man nodded, smiled, waved his hand, completing a set of interactions with the security without eye contact within a second.

Then he looked at Nan Zhubin and Chonghui, his eyes naturally showing surprise at their appearances.

But his face maintained a fitting smile: "Is this Mr. Chong from Beidu? Coming all this way, you must be tired."

"Mr. Nan... It’s such a pleasure; those learning videos from Jiang University, we organized internally are also hindering study; students’ mental health is truly important."

He naturally initiated pleasantries and exchanged brief greetings.

"Principal Ma." The duo also followed the security’s cue to greet.

"Ah, Vice Principal." Vice Principal Ma emphasized, proceeding to shake hands with Chonghui, then Nan Zhubin, "I sincerely apologize. We were just having a meeting discussing your matters, and we’ve kept you waiting for so long."

Chonghui replied smoothly, skilled in pleasantries: "We arrived early. We thought the traffic would be bad, but who knew it would be fine..."

The two were guided by Vice Principal Ma inside. Nan Zhubin didn’t engage in small talk; instead, he observed the surroundings.

Soon, they came upon the playground.

There were students training inside.