Chapter 17 No. 17, Lipo Street

No. 17, Lipo Street.

A crooked sign bore the faded inscription: "Dream Weaver."

Following the narrow, cramped entrance, the view opened up after climbing the stairs. The office environment was surprisingly spacious and tidy. Upon entering, one could see a huge floor-to-ceiling window. The curtains were drawn back, and a long rosewood table sat in front of the window. On either side were separate, soundproofed rooms.

Noon sunlight streamed in.

Zhou Yexin, sitting at the table, frowned as she scrutinized the teenager holding a cat before her. She had been informed that her teacher would be sending a young intern to assist her, but she hadn't expected the assistant to be... so young.

"Name...?"

A familiar question, a familiar routine.

Gu Shen quickly pulled out a chair and sat down, readily rattling off his details: "Gu Shen, seventeen, male."

"Male... Of course, I know that." Zhou Yexin paused, her expression odd. "You're the intern recommended by the teacher? You look too young. Can you handle this job?"

Gu Shen sat up straight, the Dream Weaver's director's file slowly surfacing in his mind.

Zhou Yexin, twenty-nine years old.

An ordinary person without any supernatural abilities.

Admirable was the fact that she had gone to Central Continent alone at the age of eighteen to study psychology for seven years. After returning to East Continent, she became obsessed with dream research, traveling to many places before finally arriving in Dadao. With Tang Qingquan's financial support, she opened this consultation room.

Even more admirable was that, to this day, this Miss Zhou was completely unaware of the existence of "Adepts" but followed her intuition... exploring the secrets of the supernatural realm.

She looked young and approachable, not at all like she was almost thirty. When she smiled, she resembled a squirrel, revealing her white teeth and shallow dimples on both sides.

Such an image was well-suited for this line of work, at least giving people a sense of ease.

"Ms. Zhou... Actually, I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do." Gu Shen scratched his head and said sincerely, "But I learn very quickly. You can rest assured."

"Ms. Zhou makes me sound too old. Just call me Sister Xiaoxin. I heard about you from the teacher. He said you're smart, very talented, and self-taught."

After taking a few more glances at Gu Shen, Zhou Yexin found the teenager to be bright and handsome, increasingly pleasing to the eye.

She poured Gu Shen a cup of tea and said slowly, "I'm just a little worried... someone your age hasn't experienced hardship and tends to think things are too good. When you actually start doing things, you'll find that it's completely different from what you imagined."

"Our work isn't easy. Normal business hours are from nine in the morning to five in the evening. If there are special appointments, we'll work overtime."

Gu Shen held the tea, listening quietly to Sister Xiaoxin's words.

"In addition, we also have to regularly sort and organize experimental reports. But you don't have to worry about that. You only need to be responsible for organizing the reports and entering them into the database. You don't need to be responsible for the specific experiments."

At first, Gu Shen almost couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Nine to five?

"No problem..."

After listening, he quickly took a sip of tea to calm himself down, then said seriously, "I can handle this hardship..."

It was more than just handling it.

He was determined to do it.

……

……

Gu Shen had a fulfilling week.

He rented a one-bedroom apartment near Lipo Street and lived alone. The environment was much better than in the suburbs, but it was far from being comparable to the downtown apartment that Nan Jin had "gifted" him. In fact, Gu Shen was no longer short of money. From the moment he boarded the plane and confirmed that he was officially on a mission, the Tribunal would pay him a monthly living allowance of 100,000 yuan after tax.

Cui Zhongcheng explained the ranks within the Tribunal on the plane. After passing the assessment, new recruits were probationary adjudicators. They would be promoted after the total amount of completed missions that met the standards reached a certain number. The next stage was Adjudicator.

Next were probationary magistrate, then magistrate.

And finally... the Grand Magistrate, of which there was currently only one.

The patrol range of a probationary adjudicator was roughly one or a few streets... Gu Shen consciously included "Lipo Street" and the nearby streets in his monitoring range.

Cui Zhongcheng said his internship was an observation.

The most troublesome thing was this kind of silent observation. Gu Shen felt like he was sitting at a card table, but the other party hadn't made a move yet.

The best way, and the only way, was to wait and see.

So Gu Shen followed his own spiritual power cultivation plan in peace, completing his daily practice. Everything went smoothly. He would arrive at the consulting room at 8:30 a.m. sharp, sort and organize experimental data half an hour in advance, leave on the dot after work, and spend the rest of his time conducting supernatural trials in the deep water area and honing the Jingzhe Breathing Technique.

He knew that there was no shortcut on this path.

He could only work hard.

In addition to these trivial matters, Gu Shen also noticed something worth paying attention to... This small psychological clinic was quite famous in Lipo Street, perhaps due to Sister Xiaoxin's business operations over the past six months. Many customers would make appointments every week.

These customers came in all shapes and sizes, but they were all normal people. There were young people who were heartbroken, business owners who were bankrupt and decadent, and office workers who were under a lot of pressure... Before entering the clinic, they often looked gloomy, but when they left, their spirits were obviously much better. One could see that their complexion had significantly improved.

Was it hypnosis?

But... Zhou Yexin didn't have supernatural abilities. How did she do it?

This was his ninth day in Lipo Street. Gu Shen glanced at the clock while sorting through the files. 8:20 a.m. Um, there was a special appointment today... He should be off work in another forty minutes.

In these nine days, Sister Xiaoxin hadn't let him sit in on a session once.

What exactly was happening in the room... It was quite mysterious.

"Xiao Gu, please bring a glass of hot water in here."

A voice came from inside.

Gu Shen knew that the "psychological consultation" had ended.

He knocked on the door with the hot water and slowly pushed it open after receiving a response.

This time, the client was a flower-like girl who looked about his age. She looked haggard when she came, with obvious tear marks, but her expression was much more relaxed now, though her eyes were hazy, as if she had just woken up.

Zhou Yexin was adjusting her collar. Gu Shen noticed this detail... He saw Sister Xiaoxin putting a pocket watch into her inner pocket and felt a familiar aura in the room.

"It's a supernatural sealed item... But the aura is very weak..."

Compared to the sealed items brought by the five members of the assessment team, it was far too different. Like clouds and mud.

Sister Xiaoxin's secret seemed to be this pocket watch... If it was an object with supernatural power, then his suspicions could be explained.

Gu Shen's expression didn't change at all. He pretended not to see it and brought two glasses of hot water into the room, one for each person.

"Thank you..." The girl's expression was gentle, but her voice was hoarse. She took a small sip of the hot water and then said softly, "Thank you, Dr. Zhou, and thank you, Dr. Xiao Gu."

The customers who came here were used to calling Sister Xiaoxin "doctor"... This title was fine, after all, Zhou Yexin was a powerful person who had returned from studying in Central Continent.

And he, as an intern, had gotten a little credit and was also called "doctor."

Gu Shen was a little uncomfortable at first, but now he was used to it.

During this time, he had been honing his spiritual power and vaguely felt that his Chihuo (Scarlet Fire) power was gradually stabilizing. It shouldn't be long before he could use "spiritual hypnosis."

This was actually why Gu Shen could accept the title of "Dr. Xiao Gu" with peace of mind.

Who said that an intern psychologist couldn't be considered a doctor?