Rhodes Island's Psychologist

Ch 130: Believe In Yourself

"My apologies, Chef. He's new here. Um... I understand. I will let Amiya know tomorrow and deduct the cost from his paycheck."

...

Ten minutes later, Lin Yie is finally released from the enraged chef's grasp.

Ansel glares at Lin Yie.

"What can I say?" Ansel clenches his teeth, "I'm somewhat of a senior employee already, but I had never seen anyone who got in trouble for stealing sugar like you!"
Lin Yie lowers his head in embarrassment. He mutters, "I was trying to make pineapple buns."

"That's harder to understand, alright?!" Ansel rolls his eyes, "What the heck were you thinking?!"

Trying to explain would just make things worse, so Lin Yie just replies, "Thank you for coming. You really saved me there."

"I don't need your gratitude," Ansel says, "And don't think this matter will end like that. When this is reported to the higher-ups, well, good luck."

"Will I lose money?"

"Of course," Ansel says, "But you should hope that's the only punishment. Tsk, you're lucky that Ms. Kal'tsit is not here tonight. Otherwise, it would have gotten really tricky."

Even though Lin Yie looks sorry and seems ready to repent, he doesn't really care about his punishment. Losing money no longer means anything to him, since he's broke anyway. As the saying goes, when you have too much debt, you just forget about it.

Ansel takes Lin Yie's bread out of a plastic bag and asks, "Why does your bread look like this? Do you even know how to make bread? Tsk, let me try."

*Pfft*

"The heck is this?!" Ansel looks at Lin Yie incredulously, "Did you really make this? Who would want to eat this... crap?!"

Lin Yie looks down, muttering weakly, "Right, who would want to eat this..."

Ansel pauses his berating for a moment. Something doesn't feel right. He frowns slightly.

Did he actually hurt Lin Yie's feelings?

No way. Lin Yie's mind is not that weak.

Still, he has said enough for now.

Ansel sighs, "Hey, uh---"

Lin Yie cuts Ansel off, "Right, right, good night. I'm going back to sleep now." Then, he just walks away.

Ansel asks, "What about your bread?"

"Throw it away," Lin Yie waves his hand and says without looking back, "Nobody would eat that anyway."

...

Well, he said he was going to sleep, but...

Lin Yie hears Ansel grind his teeth again, and the sound is more obvious in the quiet room. It's like someone is drumming in his heart. No matter what he does, he keeps hearing that noise.

In the end, Lin Yie wakes up before the sun has even come up. After getting ready for the day, he leaves his dorm room quickly.

...

When Hibiscus opens the door, she's really surprised, "Dr. Lin? You're so early today."

Lin Yie asks, "Did Liz come back?"

"Yeah. She's sleeping right now," Hibiscus asks, "Do you need me to wake her up?"

Lin Yie shakes his head and follows Hibiscus to the living room. She pours him a cup of tea.

"Shining Onee-san and Nearl Onee-san hasn't come back yet," Hibiscus says, "Lava is still sleeping."

"There's no need to worry about me," Lin Yie says, "You should take a break."

"Are you going to watch over her?"

"If I can."

Hibiscus nods and leaves the room.

...

Suddenly, his phone rings.

Lin Yie takes the phone out of his pocket and sees a message from Ptilopsis, asking where he is. He sends her his location right away.

...

Soon after the phone call, Ptilopsis arrives at the nursing room.

"Good morning, Dr. Lin," Ptilopsis says.

Lin Yie nods.

"Based on Ptilopsis's analysis, the probability of you staying awake was 3 percent higher than falling asleep," Ptilopsis says, "Therefore, Ptilopsis has brought the relevant documents."

She turns on her laptop and hands it over to Lin Yie, "Ptilopsis had been simulating the optimal escape route in the past 57 minutes. In light of today being the final treatment session for Ms. Liz, Ptilopsis deemed it imperative to show this to you in advance."

Lin Yie inspects the map and gawks. It really is overwhelming.

He says, "There are too many steps."

"Adherence to these exact steps can effectively minimize 97 percent of the risks," Ptilopsis states, "Ptilopsis calculated a success rate of 92 percent from utilizing the planned escape route."

"Alright," Lin Yie nods, "I'll try."

"A wise choice," Ptilopsis adds, "There is an additional variable that Dr. Lin must be aware of."

"Um?"

"This plan is based on the premise that the dream world maintains the same state it had for the past 3 weeks," Ptilopsis says, "If the dream world is altered in any manner, then this plan is invalidated."

Lin Yie pauses, "What do you mean?"

"In the past 30 simulations, Ms. Liz's dream state remained relatively stable, but Ptilopsis has been unable to forecast the dream state of future attempts, due to uncertainty regarding whether or not the dream world will experience any mutations," Ptilopsis explains, "It's not the real world. Everything is based on Ms. Liz's beliefs. In other words, it's an illusion created by her subconscious, and the subconscious is unpredictable."

"What should I do when it changes then?"

Ptilopsis looks into his eyes, "Ptilopsis suggests that you abandon the plan and believe in yourself."

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Draft by Demosama

Proofread by PanzerComrade56