Beyond the Noisy World: The Long Lost Eight Sects Chapter 2: The Biggest Fortune in Life

After class, Ding Qi walked out of the university from the west gate to the Mental Health Center of the Affiliated Hospital of Jinghu University as a counselee had made an appointment for psychological counseling at 4:20 this afternoon. At the thought of that somewhat paranoid and difficult counselee, Ding Qi couldn’t help but force a smile, but then he realized that such mindset was wrong, so he adjusted his breath and attitude.

A qualified counselor should be professional with a solid emotional footing and welcome all counselee with sufficient patience and sincerity. If he himself had psychological repellence against a counselee, then how would it be possible to prevent his counselee from being psychologically resistant during counselling?

Right at this time, a sweet voice of a girl came from his rear side, “Mr. Xiao Ding (1), what a coincidence! Where are you going?”

Ding Qi turned around and saw Meng Huiyu, the girl who just answered his questions in class.

Outside the west gate of the university was frequented by many students as it was the delivery site of all express companies, many a tasty food stalls and several budget hotels providing hour rooms. However, judging from what Meng Huiyu looked like, the encounter was obviously not a coincidence because although she had already slowed down her pace, she was still slightly short of breath and the color of her face showed signs of elevated body temperature. This meant that even if she didn’t run all the way, she must have walked in a fast speed to catch up for a while.

Ding Qi saw through it all but didn’t bring it up to the open. He just answered with a smile, “Yes indeed. Do you come here to fetch your express package? I’m going to the Mental Health Center. Have an appointment this afternoon.”

Meng Huiyu said, “Mr. Xiao Ding, your lecture is so charming that all girls in my dormitory love it! Emm…how tall are you?”

This question was kind of abrupt and lacked logical connections with the words she said before, but no one could diagnose her as having messy thoughts or even splitting of thoughts.

Ding Qi answered leisurely, “Not too tall, just about 1.78 meters.”

“It’s already the standard height of a stylish man,” Meng Huiyu tried her best to adjust her pace and walked side by side with Ding Qi. Then she said rather shily, “Several girls in my dormitory are very interested in you and wondering if you have a girlfriend or not!”

Ding Qi smiled and answered, “Yeah, I do. She’s a first-year graduate of Peking University. And we’re planning to get married next year.” Actually, a simple “Yeah” should suffice, but he deliberately explained more.

Meng Huiyu, trying to cover some emotion of hers, said with a forced smile, “Wow, congratulations, Mr. Xiao Ding!......You also work as a psychologist at the school infirmary. How talented you are!”

Ding Qi replied, “To be exact, it’s psychological counselor. The relation between clients and us is counselee and help providers, not patients and doctors.” These were also the words he said frequently in his daily work.

Meng Huiyu seemingly ventured, “I also get lots on my mind and have many questions that need someone to enlighten upon, so can I make an appointment and seek your help?”

Ding Qi explained softly and professionally, “Actually, even if you really need a counselor, I’m not the right one because I’m already your teacher and psychological counselling should avoid dual identity. This means your counselor should have no other relations with you.”

Meng Huiyu laughed with hand covering her mouth, “I’m just joking with you, Mr. Xiao Ding. One counselling with you costs six hundred yuan, and a plain student like me definitely can’t afford it.”

Ding Qi also laughed, “Our school has counselling teachers and they provide almost free counselling and services to all students.”

Meng Huiyu asked again, “But Mr. Xiao Ding, why are you not providing free services for us?”

Ding Qi diverted the topic and explained like giving a lecture, “Psychological counselling is neither simple comforting nor educational guidance. Rather, it uses psychological techniques to assist counselee in solving psychological issues. As long as one can rightly understand and respond to reality, has the proper ability to adjust to and transform the environment and has a stable and healthy personality, a normal person who is physically and mentally healthy generally can regulate himself when running into problems. It’s the normal ability of man; otherwise, the whole world would already be in a mess.”

It was normal for people to have psychological issues and it didn’t mean that every one of them needed psychological counselling. On the other hand, everyone had some confusion and conflicts inwardly, but that also didn’t mean that they had psychological issues. Generally, people could adjust and regulate themselves.

Meng Huiyu slightly lowered her head and said, “Yeah, that’s true. And it relies on ourselves to regulate our mentality to get over most of the troublesome things. One counselling with Mr. Xiao Ding charges six hundred yuan and people like me can solve all issues just by adjusting my mindset. So, does that mean I have been saving myself a big fortune?”

Ding Qi smiled and said, “Yeah, a big fortune! Actually, a healthy body and mind is the biggest fortune of one’s life. These words can never be wrong…… Well, here is the delivery place. Go and get your package.”

Of course, Meng Huiyu was not coming for any packages but now she had no choice but to stop and wave her hand in a cute way, “See you, Mr. Xiao Ding!” Watching Ding Qi walking away, Meng Huiyu had disappointment or some other emotions buried deep in her eyes.

Ding Qi had already walked away and of course he knew that this sophomore took a shine to him or even liked him. It was a normal situation and since he had realized it, he wouldn’t let the emotion get any stronger and would try his best to avoid giving this girl any ambiguous hints.

Actually, one could get some clues since she always called him “Mr. Xiao Ding” in private. This was her way to purposely stress that their age difference was not big. Otherwise, she should call him Mr. Ding.

Ding Qi now was under 26, but he was not only a doctoral candidate, a university lecturer and a psychological counselor, but also a psychiatrist. When he was studying for his master’s degree, his major was Mental Health and his mentor was Liu Feng.

Strictly, psychological counsellor and psychiatrist were two different professions with crossovers and overlaps in their areas of expertise. But in practice, their identities inevitably overlapped one another. Many psychological counsellors were former psychiatrists or like Ding Qi, a psychological counsellor and a psychiatrist.

Ding Qi’s clinical practice in junior year started from Psychiatry Department of the hospital affiliated to the university. And when he graduated, Mental Health Center was established based on the Psychiatry Department. He chose psychological counsellor as his career and his mentor Liu Feng also supported his choice.

The reason why the medical institution independent from the school infirmary was not called "Psychiatric Treatment Center" but "Mental Health Center" was that they did not want people to associate it with negative things like "mental disorders" or "psychotic diseases". Although the center also treated neurotic patients and psychos, the new direction of business development was psychological treatment and psychological counseling, mainly facing the normal people.

This sounded like a “fashionable” or “trendy” new career and was more in line with the needs of contemporary society. Psychological counselors served a much wider range of clients than psychiatrist, and its social image was much better. But as for the current income, it was really hard to say.

Although Ding Qi held three positions, he only took one share of salary, the salary of the lecturer at Jinghu University. And his personnel and labor relations were also at Jinghu University. As for the positions as doctor and psychoanalysts at the school affiliated hospital, he only got monthly and yearly performance bonuses.

Ding Qi was not alone. His colleagues were almost the same as long as their personnel relations belonged to the faculty and staff of Jinghu University.

Over three years ago, when Ding Qi just graduated and was appointed as a teaching assistant, he had already obtained the qualification of a third-level counselor and also worked as an assistant physician in the Psychiatry Department of the school infirmary. At that time, his monthly take-home pay after deducting all kinds of fees was about 2000 yuan.

Feeling underpaid? But, in fact, a lot of people were willing to exchange the position with Ding Qi. Many undergraduates of that year were very envious of Ding Qi because there were many invisible benefits and interests for his job.

Relying on the platform of Jinghu University and its unique system, Ding Qi had incomparable advantages over his schoolmates working outside in getting in-job education, obtaining various titles and qualifications, and conducting research and getting results.

At that time, he just met his sophomore girlfriend, Jia Jia. They often hanged out together for dining, shopping and entertainment, and of course mostly Ding Qi paid the bills, so he was a member of the Moonlight Clan (2). Fortunately, he himself didn’t have to pay much for a living because the University offered him a dormitory and he could eat at the staff canteen.

It took Ding Qi two and half a years to get his master degree and then while working, he continued to study for a doctoral degree. And his mentor was still Liu Feng. About three months ago, Ding Qi was promoted from a teaching assistant to a lecturer. And about two months ago, he obtained the qualification of a second-level counselor.

When he first started his career three years ago, Ding Qi’s consulting fees were three hundred yuan per session, about the charge of a fitness instructor for a personal training class. His job was to help others maintain mental health. It was just two months ago that his fees rose to six hundred yuan per counselling. And the only explanation for Meng Huiyu to know so clear about it was that she must have checked about him on the website of the Mental Health Center.

Some must think that the income of a psychological counselor mainly came from the commission of consulting fees, and surely many psychological counseling agencies did make payrolls this way.

However, the performance bonus of the Mental Health Center of the school affiliated hospital seemed to be not totally calculated according to the commission of consulting fees. As for how it was calculated exactly, Ding Qi never figured it out, and there was no need to ask.

Now taking the salary of the university lecturer and the performance bonus of the Mental Health Center into account, every month he could get six thousand yuan, which didn’t include the annual bonus. In Jinghu City, a second-tier city in the country and a first-tier city in the province, his income was not too much, but for Ding Qi, it was totally enough and most importantly, his income was increasing steadily.

Having just graduated for three years, Ding Qi took one step at a time, and both his life and career planning were all bright and promising, which was progressing in an ideal state that had already been nicely planned out like the delicate gears and rack of a clock. Of course, all this was not unrelated to the appreciation and promotion of his mentor Liu Feng, and his girlfriend, Jia Jia, was his mentor Liu Feng’s daughter.

And on the other hand, Ding Qi also believed that his own excellent and hard work played an important role. He would continue working hard and taking precise and solid steps to achieve bigger successes. Since last year, Ding Qi had been saving money consciously. Even if he got sufficient money for daily use now, it was necessary to prepare for the future.

He had already obtained his driver's license during undergraduate years, but he hadn’t bought his own car because he didn't need it for now. However, car was needed sooner or later, and more importantly, he should buy a house. With his current income, it might be difficult for him to buy a decent house near Jinghu University, but Ding Qi believed that he could make it in a few years without reaching out to anyone for help.

This was self-confidence. People's judgments on economic conditions and living standards shouldn’t be confined to the current income, but should also include reasonable expectations for future growth. Professor Liu Feng’s daughter, Jia Jia, certainly did not lack a house, but Ding Qi still planned to buy one even if he might need some mortgage loans. The best timing was two years later when Jia Jia got her master degree.

The sun was shining brightly. And with a light heart, Ding Qi walked into the Mental Health Center of the Affiliated Hospital of Jinghu University. With a modest smile, he nodded to greet passing colleagues. Clock started to tick for this other job.

Translator Notes:

(1)   Mr. Xiao-Ding “小丁老师” literally means Teacher Xiao-Ding. It should be Mr. Ding as Ding is the family name of “丁齐”. But here the girl adds a “小”, which literally means “little” or “small”, as a gesture of intimacy to deliberately narrow the identity gap between students and teachers.

(2)   Moonlight Clan, or Yue Guang Zu (Chinese: 月光族) is a Chinese term used to describe a large group of people who expend their entire salary before the end of each month, especially young people

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