"Did the hypnosis bring up something unpleasant for you?"
Hearing Shangguan Meng's question, Mo Xuan looked at her in a daze. The moment their eyes met, Shangguan Meng felt her face flush.
Mo Xuan's eyes were still as captivating as ever. Unable to resist, she turned her head away, not wanting him to see the change in her expression.
"It's not exactly something unpleasant," Mo Xuan sighed softly. "How should I put it? It's just that some things I had forgotten recently suddenly resurfaced in my mind."
"Is it... related to them?" Shangguan Meng asked curiously. "But haven't you been together all this time? How could you forget something recent?"
Mo Xuan didn't answer, instead falling into a thoughtful silence. Shangguan Meng glanced at the empty chair between them, just like the desk that had separated them when they sat in front of each other in class.
So close, yet so far.
"Actually, I've known them for a long time, but I forgot about them after I got injured," Mo Xuan explained slowly. "All these years, they never forgot me..."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Shangguan Meng was surprised, never having imagined that Mo Xuan and the Luo sisters had such a complicated history. "So, when you were with Su Yanran, you had forgotten about them too?"
"Yes, that's about right," Mo Xuan nodded. "I really want to remember what happened back then, but... I found out some other things..."
"Did they... also hide something from you that they feel guilty about?"
"No, it's quite the opposite," Mo Xuan couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh at Shangguan Meng's question. "Or in a way, you could say they did wrong by me..."
After all, drugging him, and not just once—thinking about it that way, it wasn't entirely wrong.
"Can you tell me about it?" Shangguan Meng suddenly looked at Mo Xuan. "Even though I'm still in my internship, I am a psychologist. Maybe... maybe I can help you?"
Mo Xuan was taken aback as he looked at Shangguan Meng. She avoided his gaze, not letting him see through her mask.
"Forget it, you're the professor's assistant now. I probably can't hide it from you."
Mo Xuan briefly recounted what he had just remembered, and Shangguan Meng was so shocked that she forgot her usual habit of avoiding eye contact, staring at him in disbelief.
If she hadn't seen Luo Shiya and Luo Muqi, if Mo Xuan hadn't come here for hypnosis, if he had told her this somewhere else...
Even though he was someone she had secretly loved for years, Shangguan Meng would have thought either he was crazy, or she was.
After a long pause, Shangguan Meng finally composed herself, her face red as she lowered her head. "I'm sorry, I... I was just too shocked."
Mo Xuan let out another bitter laugh. Indeed, not just Shangguan Meng, even he was still in a daze.
"Don't you think they might have felt insecure?" Shangguan Meng thought for a moment and spoke earnestly. "I think they were deeply affected by your memory loss. Their emotions changed because they were afraid of losing you again, which is why they resorted to such extreme measures."
"And you might have become their obsession, unknowingly putting pressure on them..."
Shangguan Meng trailed off, falling silent. It seemed that the saying "love can drive people mad" wasn't just a joke.
If all of this was true, then the problem wasn't with Mo Xuan, who had lost his memory, but with Luo Shiya and Luo Muqi. They were sick, suffering from a disease called "Mo Xuan."
Shangguan Meng looked at the boy she had kept in her heart all this time, feeling more at ease than she had the last time they met.
"I understand how you feel, Mo Xuan. This love feels too heavy, and it's making you confused. You don't know how to face it. But even if it's heavy, they love you. Otherwise, they wouldn't have done all this," Shangguan Meng said with a gentle smile. "Maybe she knew that once you underwent hypnosis, you'd remember everything, but she still brought you here."
Shangguan Meng paused, then gathered her courage and moved a little closer to Mo Xuan. "You should talk to them. No matter what, they did all this because they care about you. Even if their methods were wrong, it was just because they felt too insecure."
"After all, they lost you once, and that kind of loss is more cruel than death. You forgot them, forgot all the memories you shared. That pain made them obsessive and extreme."
For some reason, Shangguan Meng suddenly felt she could understand Luo Shiya and Luo Muqi's feelings.
Mo Xuan had completely forgotten the past due to an accident, leaving them alone with their memories. Every time they thought of the beautiful moments they had shared, only to face a Mo Xuan who was a stranger to it all, the pain must have been worse than if he had died.
He had forgotten everything, leaving them stranded in a desolate wasteland of memories. That pain and longing eventually turned into a pathological possessiveness. Thinking about it this way, everything Luo Shiya and Luo Muqi did seemed almost reasonable.
"Are you afraid of them?"
Shangguan Meng looked up at Mo Xuan and cautiously asked the question. Mo Xuan was momentarily stunned, then nodded, but quickly shook his head.
Mo Xuan knew very well that he couldn't leave them now. Whether it was psychological suggestion or hypnosis, he couldn't deny that he loved Luo Shiya and Luo Muqi. He was certain of that.
Moreover, they had done so much for him. His fear wasn't of them, but of whether he could bear the weight of their intense love.
"I really should talk to them," Mo Xuan said softly, as if answering Shangguan Meng, or perhaps just talking to himself. "I want to know exactly what they've done..."
Deep down, Shangguan Meng felt a voice telling her that she should try to dissuade Mo Xuan.
She wasn't sure if it was her own selfish feelings for him or if she truly believed it was wrong.
But instead, she smiled and said to Mo Xuan, "I don't know what the future holds, but Mo Xuan, I really hope you can find happiness."
Even if the person who makes you happy will never be me...
Mo Xuan looked at Shangguan Meng and suddenly smiled. "Thank you, Shangguan. I know what I need to do now."
"Xiao Xuan, I've got the medicine."
Luo Shiya walked over, waving the bag in her hand. Mo Xuan thanked Shangguan Meng, then stood up and walked toward Luo Shiya.
Shangguan Meng sat there, watching the two of them walk away hand in hand, but strangely, she didn't feel much pain.
"Maybe love doesn't always mean being together..."
Shangguan Meng leaned her head against the wall, the coffee in her hand now cold. This unspoken, unrequited love seemed to have finally come to an end today.
She finished the cold coffee in one gulp, stood up, and walked out of the hospital. As she passed a girl getting an IV drip, the girl was scrolling through short videos on her phone.
"Not disturbing you is my way of being gentle..."
Hearing the song playing from the phone, Shangguan Meng felt even more at peace.
Even if, in the end, Mo Xuan never knew that someone had secretly loved him for so long, it didn't matter anymore.
She couldn't fully understand Luo Shiya and Luo Muqi, couldn't comprehend why they did what they did.
But the look in Mo Xuan's eyes when he saw Luo Shiya, even after learning everything, was something she would never forget.
It was a sense of belonging, like a lost migratory bird finally finding its resting place.
Shangguan Meng took a deep breath, patted her cheeks, then took out her phone, found Mo Xuan's WeChat, blocked him, and deleted his contact.
"Goodbye, the one I loved the most..."
"I hope... you can be happy..."