The Young master's fake bride and her lucky system

"I don't think we have been introduced yet but it looks like you recognize me." The professor stood up and moved closer so that she could shake Alix's hand from across the desk. "I am professor He, a doctor of clinical psychology. I would give you a full list of my credentials but I have a feeling that you already have it."

Alix shook the woman's hand flipped it over and looked at her palms. They were smooth and soft, probably meaning their owner had never done any hard labor in her life.

She looked at her outfit, a blue suit with a white turtleneck sweater, a thick blue coat and scarf. Her boots were white too, matching her sweater.

Then she inhaled deeply and drew in the scent of her perfume. It was strong but not sharp. It was fruity, however light and not overwhelming but pleasant.

The only jewelry on her person was a necklace with a cross. While she looked great and simply well put together effortlessly it did make Alix wonder. Expensive clothes, expensive perfume but no earrings, shouting necklace or expensive hair pins.

Professor He smiled and made an observation as well. Alix was more like her husband in some ways than even she realized.

Alix let go of the professor's hand and she sat down. "No recording, take that thing out of your pocket."

The system had detected something in her pocket and informed Alix about the recording device immediately.

Professor He laughed softly. She took out the small recorder, held it up and put if down on the table. "It's not recording, I just carry it around because it's my habit. I signed a very strict NDA which will see to it that I am bled dry and my reputation is left in shambles should I record or expose anything you say to me during our sessions."

"So, is this a session?" Alix asked her.

"When I am with you, it's always a session. I have been around many busy people to know that you don't have much time to spare in talking about your feelings so I use every opportunity I get to interact, poke, ask questions and assign some homework."

Alix frowned. Who was going to be given homework at this age?

"Yes, homework." Professor He assured her. "It's called working on yourself. You admit that something is a problem and I will ask you to do something particular to deal with it.

For example I am going to ask you a question that I asked your husband. Why don't you have any pictures of each other in your offices? His office is just like yours, absent of personal items. I see music instruments, textbooks on music, cat toys, a cat bed, snacks and other items but none of these speak to you personally."

Alix pointed to all the music instruments and she said, "Wrong, music is my life. Those instruments are the personal things in my office."

"Hmmm." Professor responded.

She bent her head and scribbled in her notebook.

"Do you have to continue with that?" Alix asked her.

"It reminds me of what issues need working on. I could also be writing down what I want for lunch, you don't need to stress yourself with what I write in my notebook." she answered with her head still lowered.

"So, what needs working on in my classroom? You kept writing down things, even now when I was talking to Wangshu and Jia Yi. What did you observe?" She came out from behind her desk and sat down in one of the sofas opposite the professor.

Professor He flipped her notebook open to a page Alix couldn't read and she said, "Your best celloists are Qing Ru An and Mu Dafu, Ye Susu is the best pianist and the best violinists are Wangshu and Jia Yi."

"Yes, and?" Alix responded.

This was not news in the school, everyone knew who the top students in the different departments were. That information was not hard to find. It could even be found on the Songbird music academy forum.

"You have picked them out and made them form a separate group, keeping them from competing with the other students for positions of first chair or lead celloist in the festival you are preparing. Why do this?"

Alix moved her eyes from side. She wondered what this had to do with anything. How was it going to help her personal life? She was under the assumption that they would be discussing her fears and nightmares.

She took a deep breath and replied anyway. "If the best students are involved in the competition then other students will not get a chance to prove themselves. You saw and heard it yourself in class. All of them did not dare to compete with Wangshu. Only Jia Yi did and if she takes the spot, it will be the same because nobody will challenge her. I am simply leveling the playing field for the others and giving them a chance to shine."

"Just as I expected." Professor He mumbled.

"What did you expect?" Alix asked her.

She smiled and shook her head. "I cannot just give you all the answers miss Alix. I can only lead you to them and drop a few hints and advise along the way. However, what this tells me is that you are a good teacher that seems to care about the progress of all your students."

Alix smiled. That was a positive review which she liked hearing.

"However you also seem to be worried about how your students will do come that day. That's why you are preparing a separate performance under your guidance. You want this group to make up for what the others might be lacking. Am I wrong?"

"Wrong." Alix answered without skipping a beat.

"Will your husband and his family be attending this event?" Professor He asked.

"Yes." answered stiffly.

"Do you feel the need to impress your husband and his family?" Professor asked her.

"No." Alix spat out, quite displeased.

She didn't know where the professor was getting this idea from but she was not a people pleaser in anyway. She treated them as one would family but that was it.

Professor He didn't even react to Alix's annoyed voice and she went on.

"You are not happy with what I just said, why is that?"

Through gritted teeth, Alix answered. "Because trying to please people is how you end up with everyone walking all over you. I am not anybody's doormat, not anymore."

Professor He nodded and scribbled something in her notebook.

"Empathetic and soft." Professor He thought. She crossed that soft and replaced it with too soft perhaps.

Then she raised her head and said in a soft voice, "You have just said that you will not be anyone's doormat anymore. Is this something that happened in your life?"

Alix clammed up and folded her arms across her chest.

"So she is the defensive kind." Professor He noted. She scribbled that down and added the words coping mechanism with a question mark.