Chapter 3128 "Romantic" Wedding Season (12)

Shiller sat with his fingers interlaced on the table and analyzed social confidence for Reed.

This thing is actually simple when you get down to it, just like regular confidence. It falls under positive motivation, the more success you have, the more confident you become. The more benefits you gain from success, the more stable your confidence becomes.

For example, if there's something really difficult to accomplish and through your negotiation with a certain person, you reduce the difficulty of the task, or even manage to get it directly done, that counts as a social success.

Not just that, maintaining a relatively harmonious relationship with your roommate over a long period, having a voice in an interest group on the internet, and achieving positive outcomes when you communicate with strangers in emergency situations, all contribute to building social confidence.

It's generally better to build social confidence early on. If a child can be a group leader in kindergarten, become the 'King of Children' in their community, receive praise after speaking in public, or succeed in buying something on their own, they are accumulating social confidence.

In Northeastern dialect, that's to say children should be open and straightforward.

Studies have shown that many introverted people are not truly introverted but have low social confidence. Their lack of success in social interactions, throughout their growing process, leads to the belief that socializing is entirely useless or that they should reject social interactions in certain areas after repeated setbacks.

A prominent example is someone who is especially lively and cheerful online but clams up in reality. Someone who gets along well with their classmates at university, but turns into a wooden figure when they go home and meet relatives. Most of these are due to the social setbacks they've suffered in those areas, resulting in a lack of social confidence.

The setbacks Reed has suffered are comprehensive, making it incredibly difficult to build his social confidence—it's like trying to climb to the sky. If there was even a glimmer of hope, with his talent, he wouldn't be struggling socially like he is now.

After informing Reed of the specific theoretical and practical methods to build social confidence, he also felt it was unlikely to succeed. He's already this impressive, yet others don't even care to spare him any attention. When could such confidence possibly be built? By then, wouldn't all of Susan's kids be running around?

Since rapid methods were the only option, Shiller didn't play coy. He said outright, "Now let's change the scenario we just talked about. Your date isn't Susan but an unsolved cosmic mystery that you've never cracked."

"Ah?"

"Literally. Now think about how you would approach a date with a cosmic mystery which you've found very interesting, have not yet solved, but by solving it, you would grasp the truths of the universe."

Reed's eyes suddenly lit up, and he said, "Cosmic truths, is there really such a thing?"

"Just assume there is. You two are discussing where to go on your date, what would you say?"

Reed took out his phone and began to type and take notes as he asked, "How are you feeling right now? Can you manage to move to the date location and smoothly go through all the activities involved in the date? Have you been on dates before? How did you get to your date location? What kind of environment is the date location—what are the temperature, oxygen level, and lighting like?"

"Who is your date? What kind of reaction do you have with him? Is there any catalyst involved in the middle? How does the reaction process go? Is there any danger in the reaction? Are there any reaction products? Do the reaction products have any follow-up results?"

"Stop!" Shiller cut him off and then said, "Can you not ask everything all at once? Are you speedrunning this?"

"Efficiency is key in scientific research. Since this cosmic truth can talk, of course, I need to ask everything clearly. Should I leave the questions for Tony Stark?"

Shiller rubbed his forehead helplessly and said, "There isn't really such a truth, no one is competing with you... Alright, first question."

"Uh, how are you feeling right now?"

"Suppose your date has switched back to Susan. How would you ask that question?"

"Back to Susan?" Reed was still a bit slow to catch on, but after thinking it over he said, "It would be pretty weird if I suddenly asked her like that, wouldn't it?"

"Then don't be so abrupt. Be more tactful."

"Um... How are you?"

"I'm fine, what's up?"

Reed quickly caught on. He thought about the second question he had just asked and then transformed it in his mind before speaking.

"We mentioned that we were going to have a date; what do you think? Can you handle it?"

"Of course, I'm looking forward to it."

"Um... I don't have much experience with this kind of thing. What about you?"

"My last date was at a mall in Manhattan."

"Oh, how did you get there? Did he come to pick you up?"

"Yes, there was a bit of traffic that day."

"What did you think about the place? Was the mall's air conditioning a bit cold? How was the décor? Is the restaurant good?"

Reed seemed to have an epiphany. His speech sped up, and his eyes grew brighter.

"Actually, it was all quite nice."

"So... so the date—uh..."

At this moment, Reed started to stutter again, but seeing Shiller's encouraging look, he still plucked up the courage to say, "So it seems like the date went well too?"

"That depends on your performance. Where do you want to go?"

At this moment, Reed remembered the cosmic truth and subconsciously replied, "Of course, it's the machine in my lab... I mean, there's a nice restaurant near my lab. After eating, maybe we could even take a tour of the lab."

At this point, Reed suddenly clapped his hands and said, "Right, I should invite Susan to visit my lab. She hasn't been there yet, and she'd definitely be astonished by my experimental results. She's a scientist too, so she'd surely understand..."

"And how exactly are you two going to turn the conversation from experimental results to love and affection?"

"Uh..." This was clearly outside Reed's realm of understanding, as he said, "Isn't discussing experimental outcomes a form of expressing love?"

Very good, Shiller thought. Peter and Gwen were a bit too rushed with their wedding. They should have celebrated with you, a joint event that would be an unprecedented romantic... industrial exposition.

"I think I'm starting to understand," Reed said. "You mean I should treat Susan as one of my research subjects, right?"

"Yes, and she should be the kind of mystery that if you solve, you'd grasp the cosmic truth," Shiller said, then he added in his mind, "If you two got together and had Franklin, you really would grasp the cosmic truth."

Reed suddenly became excited. He clenched his fist and gently pounded the table, saying, "Right, why didn't I think of that sooner? I haven't dated, but I've always been doing research, and that's what I'm good at. I think the two aren't that different."

"But you must be careful," Shiller warned. "Remember to translate; don't let your inner thoughts slip out, or she might think you want to capture her for research."

"No, Susan's a scientist too; she gets it," Reed said, already rubbing his hands together. "She drank a lot last night, do you think I should make her a loving breakfast?"

"That's up to you. I'm just a psychiatrist, not a relationship advisor. Chasing the girl is your own business."

After saying this, Shiller picked up his own plate and left the island platform. Just as he reached the sink to start washing dishes, he saw Stark, clad in pajamas, hurriedly running downstairs.

Shiller turned back, somewhat surprised. Stark's hair was a mess from last night, definitely not having worn a sleeping cap like an explosive had hit it.

"Yesterday, I said I'd make Pepper a loving breakfast. Quick, quick, quick, Shiller, help me prepare the ingredients!"

Shiller rolled his eyes slightly and at this moment, Reed also came over to take ingredients from the fridge. Stark burst into the kitchen, bumping Reed aside, and took the egg tray out of the fridge.

"What are you doing?! I need eggs, give me the egg tray!"

"What do you need eggs for? Move aside, Pepper's been working hard taking care of Little Morgan, I need to make her a sumptuous breakfast!"

"Of course, I'm making breakfast for Susan. You lazy rich man, can't you even fry an egg without your Mecha's help? Move it, don't get in the way of my cooking!"

The two of them jostled each other in the restaurant, with Stark holding the egg tray and simply refusing to give it to Reed. When Reed reached out to snatch it, Stark raised his hands high. As a result, when he turned around, he bumped into the kitchen's chandelier. With a snap, the egg tray flew out.

Shiller gasped, thankfully a fog appeared below the egg tray, steadying it and catching everyone's sigh of relief.

Shiller didn't want to waste food, and Reed was afraid that if word got out about him fighting with Stark over a few eggs, Susan would laugh at him.

Stark was different; he knew very well that if those eggs had smashed onto the carpet in Shiller's house, they wouldn't just be a row of ordinary eggs anymore. Shiller would surely make this row of eggs top his annual list of the most expensive luxury items, where the unhatched chicks might be worth more than Little Morgan.

Luckily, Gray Mist saved Stark Group's annual financial report, steadily holding the row of eggs and returning them to the island platform.

The bad news, however, was that Gray Mist directly swallowed the eggs.

Stark and Reed looked at each other, then both turned to look at Shiller, who shook his head and said, "Gone, those were the last eggs of the day. The procurement department won't deliver new ingredients until tomorrow."

Stark sighed and, hands on his hips, looked at Reed and said, "What are you, crazy? Pepper is my fiancée, the mother of my child, what's your relationship with Susan that you want to make breakfast for her?"

"What does that have to do with you? You don't really believe you got your secretary on your own merit, do you? If you weren't the president of Stark Group, you wouldn't even have had the chance to meet your fiancée."

Shiller thought Reed would make a good psychology student, his broken mouth was a match for arrogance – not saying a word until he spoke, and when he did, it hit right where it hurts.

Stark has always been someone who overthinks things; "Do people love me for my money or for who I am?" was a perennial front-runner on his list of worries. The essence of this question is, "Stripped of everything I have now, am I still worthy of love?" and "What is truly me; what I have now or myself?"

All the above questions are herbicides for anxiety disorders.

Reed felt no guilt in hurting others with words; this is what they call invincibility in the face of shamelessness. Shiller had long seen that Stark simply couldn't out-argue Reed, and considering Stark's consultation fees, he decided it was time to weigh in.

"If you keep arguing like this, the ladies will be waking up soon, and the loving breakfast will surely be ruined…"

They both looked at Shiller simultaneously; Shiller said, "There's not much left in the fridge either. How about having your Mecha fly to Los Angeles for a quick restock?"

Stark immediately realized he was the only one who could appear in Los Angeles and get the shopping done in a matter of minutes, and return just as quickly. Reed was out of the question; he didn't bring any professional equipment this time, and being a normal person, he'd be helpless without the ingredients.

Stark immediately broke into a grin and, in front of Reed, called for his Mecha, but there's a saying, "Shamelessness is invincibility under heaven." As soon as the Mecha's doors opened, Reed darted inside.

By this time Stark had already set the program, and the Mecha had taken off. He hurriedly chased after it from the lobby, unable to get Reed back.

Stark could only shake his head and return to the lobby, cursing while adjusting the Mecha's life support data because, after all, he couldn't really let Reed die.