Chapter 78: You're Still a Fetus
"Was that Agent Banner?"
Reid couldn't help but ask after seeing Chuck hang up after just a few words.
"No,"
Chuck shook his head, looking down at the chess pieces.
"..."
Reid was stunned.
It wasn't her?
Although he was still inexperienced and didn't know much about relationships, he enjoyed reading psychological theories and could still sense that this had been a conversation between a man and a woman.
This immediately reminded him of Agent Jane Banner, whom he had met in Wyoming.
Because of Chuck's connections, he had interacted with her more after Chuck left, and was surprised to discover she was now stationed in Las Vegas, his hometown.
While that place had left him with many painful memories, it also held some fond ones.
After all, he had lived there for twelve years before graduating high school.
He thought the beautiful and ambitious Agent Jane Banner was a perfect match for Chuck, so he subconsciously assumed the call was from her.
But it wasn't...
"How could it not be Agent Banner?"
Reid opened his mouth, unable to contain his curiosity, and finally asked.
"Why would it be her?"
Chuck looked at him curiously.
"Besides her, are there other women you're close to?"
Reid stared at him in disbelief.
"You're talking about intimate relationships, right?"
Chuck answered bluntly. "So far, I've had seven, and Jane isn't one of them."
"...Seven."
Reid didn't know what to say.
He'd always known Chuck was working to overcome social challenges, but only then did he truly understand that Elle's description of Chuck as an apex predator like Morgan wasn't just hyperbole.
Chuck's seven was even more impressive than Morgan's supposed dozens, not to mention the fact that the beautiful Agent Banner wasn't even among Chuck's close female acquaintances.
"How did you do it?"
Reid couldn't help but ask again.
"Yes,"
Gideon interrupted with a smile. "Share some wisdom with Reid. He needs this kind of guidance."
Reid's face flushed, and he looked away unconsciously.
He really did need this kind of experience, just one would be enough.
"It's simple. Learn to be receptive and practice,"
Chuck said casually.
"Be receptive, practice..."
Reid muttered, lost in thought.
"I think Reid's question is how to take the first step."
Gideon smiled after moving his chess piece.
"No need."
Chuck shook his head. "I'm talking about being receptive. No initiative required. It's the other person's job to make the first move."
"..."
Gideon's mouth twitched.
Is this how young people date these days?
Was he really that out of touch?
He remembered being much more proactive when he'd pursued women in his day, and he still was now.
"Spencer, times have changed,"
Chuck said, studying the chessboard. "The days when we were tormented by those jocks in school—when girls worshipped them and even joined in the bullying and humiliation—are over."
Indeed!
In American high schools, anyone who hadn't been bullied couldn't be called a genius, and anyone who hadn't endured truly creative forms of torment couldn't be called a super genius.
Like Reid, Chuck's past self was no exception.
He remembered one day, when he'd just started learning martial arts, his father drove him and his younger brother to confront the group of students who had been bullying him. After parking at a distance, his father asked him to choose: remain a victim or fight back!
After hesitating for a long time, he got out of the car and charged toward the bullies.
"Is it really over?"
Reid's face darkened, his eyes distant.
The curse of his eidetic memory resurfaced. He vividly remembered the moment when he was about to graduate from Las Vegas High after skipping grades, when he received a note from a pretty girl asking him to meet her while wearing a blindfold. In his naive romantic excitement, he had foolishly agreed. When he removed the blindfold to face the laughter and jeers of his entire class, that feeling...
"It's all over,"
Gideon reassured him with a sympathetic look.
Although he was also brilliant, he was from an older generation. Their era valued scientists highly, a time without participation trophies and, naturally, without the current culture of tormenting gifted students. Therefore, he didn't have the traumatic school experiences of Reid and Chuck.
Yet, he deeply understood what Reid and Chuck had endured.
They worked for the BAU, whose primary mission was to research and track serial killers. Almost all of their targets had experienced bullying in their school days, which had twisted their minds.
This was especially true for the highly intelligent serial killers, many of whom were geniuses who had been unable to withstand the torment and turned to darkness.
He had witnessed countless examples of this over the years.
The "past" Chuck was referring to was simply Reid's miserable school experience.
"Those days are over,"
Chuck said calmly. "Intelligence is attractive now. If you detach from your emotions and use your analytical mind to observe objectively, recognize the signals when someone's interested, then let things develop naturally and stay open to possibilities. Using systematic approaches and continuous practice, you can become completely different.
If you're willing to work out regularly and address this weakness, you could show Morgan what a scientific approach to meeting people looks like when you hit the bars."
"I don't want random hookups,"
Reid said, blushing and waving his hands. "I just want to connect with someone I actually like."
"Someone you like?"
Chuck frowned and looked over. "Are you serious?"
"Yes,"
Reid waved his hands.
Why would he joke about something like this? This wasn't April Fool's Day.
"Are you kidding me? How could you have such a dangerous idea?"
Chuck frowned at him.
"..."
Reid and Gideon stared at Chuck speechlessly.
How could this be dangerous?
"Actually liking someone is something only emotionally mature adults can handle. Maybe some well-adjusted teenagers can manage it too,"
Chuck said. "Using this analogy, people like us are at most babies crawling on the ground. I've been working constantly on self-improvement, and I can barely stand up and try to walk with support.
You're still just a fetus. You've been isolated for 23 years, and we can't even walk normally yet. Without extensive learning and training, how dare you want to skip crawling, toddling, and childhood to jump straight to adolescence and adulthood where you can genuinely love someone? Isn't that extremely dangerous?"
"That analogy isn't quite right."
Gideon shook his head. "Attraction is instinctive—it doesn't need to be that complicated."
"That's for normal people,"
Chuck countered. "People like Reid and me can't be judged by conventional standards. Meeting the wrong person at the right time isn't catastrophic. But if you meet the right person at the wrong time and lose them because of your own inadequacies, that kind of devastation isn't something people like us can handle psychologically."
(End of Chapter)
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