After a Flash Marriage with a Professor - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Pearl Tears

Yan Mingshu’s lips hadn’t even had a chance to close. In the darkness, Professor Shen seemed like a different person. All her strength was concentrated on Mingshu’s lips, sucking and kissing them heavily.

In her extreme panic, she had forgotten how to breathe. She could only nervously feel Professor Shen’s slightly chaotic, hot breath on her face, like a very soft feather stroking her.

Yan Mingshu lay limp on the bed. Professor Shen was above her, like an unliftable metal cover. She was surrounded by Professor Shen from all sides. Her head felt a little dizzy, and the clearest feeling was that her lips were a little sore.

A contradictory feeling of both safety and danger enveloped her.

Yan Mingshu had never experienced anything like this. Her body instinctively trembled, and two streams of tears involuntarily flowed from her eyes.

The crystal tears glistened like pearls in the darkness. It was Shen Junlan’s first time kissing anyone. With her eyes closed, as she kissed Mingshu hard, she tasted slightly salty tears. She didn’t pull away immediately. Instead, she lightened the pressure and kissed the pearl-like tears that were flowing down Mingshu’s cheeks.

The gentle kiss on her cheeks was different from the suffocating feeling of the heavy kiss on her lips from before. Mingshu could finally make a sound. She began to sob and cry quietly.

The crying was so pitiful that anyone who heard it would feel their heart soften.

Shen Junlan kissed Mingshu’s lips again. The sobbing was instantly blocked. She successfully swallowed Mingshu’s sound, but the sound, with its vibrations of grievance and fear, traveled to her lips, through her mouth, down her throat, and all the way to her heart.

Even a strong heart filled with desire was softened.

Shen Junlan let go of Mingshu, sat up, and turned on the light.

The moment the light came on, Mingshu hid under the blanket. Shen Junlan saw that Mingshu had pulled the entire blanket over herself. It was a small, round lump, trembling.

Shen Junlan reached out her hand, wanting to comfort Mingshu, but then she stopped. Touching her now would only make Mingshu more afraid.

However, Shen Junlan didn’t regret her actions just now. The taste of a first kiss was indeed wonderful. If it weren’t for Mingshu’s special circumstances, she would have seen it through. But Mingshu’s condition obviously didn’t allow her to do so.

“Mingshu.” Shen Junlan adjusted her breathing, and her voice returned to its usual calm.

Mingshu didn’t hear her. She was quietly wiping away tears under the blanket. She knew she shouldn’t be crying, but she couldn’t control herself.

Professor Shen seemed to be different from what she had imagined, and Professor Shen had the right to be different from what she had imagined.

The person who didn’t have the right was her, because she was the one being helped. She had no reason to demand that the person who was willing to help her be kind and selfless.

Professor Shen had also clearly said before that she had to fulfill her obligations as a wife. Because there was no love, she had instinctively ignored a very important part of married life, only wanting to accept what she could bear. It was only because Professor Shen was gentle and respectable in her mind that she secretly hoped Professor Shen wouldn’t demand physical intimacy from her like Boss Huang.

But where in the world was there such a good thing? She couldn’t escape just by wanting to.

Yan Mingshu bit her lower lip hard. The more she thought about it, the sadder and guiltier she felt. She felt like a liar to Professor Shen, someone who wasn’t willing to fulfill her part of the agreement.

“Mingshu.” Shen Junlan’s hand finally rested on Mingshu’s body, through the blanket.

As expected, Mingshu fearfully moved away.

“Let’s talk, Mingshu.” Shen Junlan stared at the small lump beside her, her eyebrows furrowed, but her voice was still gentle.

After being a teacher for a long time, no matter how gentle you are at first, you can’t help but become strict and hysterical later on. There are very few teachers who can maintain a consistent attitude toward their students. Shen Junlan felt that the reason she had maintained her consistency was because she worked at a top university where the students were generally of high quality, willing to learn, and respectful of their teachers.

The first student who gave her a headache was Mingshu. It was true when she was on campus, and it was still true now that she was off campus.

It was true in the classroom, and it was still true in bed.

She also wanted to put on the air of a teacher or an elder, but Mingshu was already too pitiful. There was no need for her to scare her anymore. Mingshu needed patience and care. She had understood this a year ago. Unfortunately, Mingshu knew very little about her. She also guessed that her image in Mingshu’s mind was probably one without that kind of desire. Even her own friend, Lingyu, described her that way: overly ascetic, as if she had no desires.

Words were too pale, and this was a difficult subject to broach. After all, she had been Mingshu’s professor. She had no choice but to use her actions to make Mingshu understand this. Of course, the main factor was that she couldn’t hold back anymore.

If she could have been more patient, she would have thought of a gentler way, one that would have been more acceptable to Mingshu than the kiss she had just forced on her.

But what’s done is done. Shen Junlan licked her lips, which were stained with Mingshu’s taste, and quickly accepted this fact.

Mingshu didn’t speak, so she waited patiently, adjusting her sitting posture and leaning back against the headboard.

After a long while, Mingshu finally decided to speak. A very low, tearful “I’m sorry” came muffled through the blanket.

“It’s okay,” Shen Junlan said. “I’m also at fault. I didn’t consider how you would feel. It’s understandable that you were scared by my sudden kiss.”

Mingshu was stunned. She hadn’t expected Professor Shen to define her actions that way. She had just been reflecting on her own, thinking that Professor Shen was also just a mortal with emotions and desires, and it was normal for her to expect Mingshu to fulfill the obligations of a wife at night.

“Professor Shen, I…” Her mind was in a mess. Yan Mingshu couldn’t explain why she instinctively resisted that kind of intimacy. She could only say “I’m sorry” again.

Shen Junlan said, “You don’t need to apologize, Mingshu. Between a couple, if one person doesn’t want to, the other needs to respect that. That’s also an obligation that a couple needs to fulfill together.”

“But, we’re not…”

“A couple who came together because of love in the traditional sense?”

“…Mmm.”

“Do you think we’re more like a simple transaction?”

“Isn’t… that what it is?”

Yan Mingshu was hiding under the blanket, but she could see a little light from outside. She blinked her eyes, which had stopped crying but were still blurry, and wondered: Did Professor Shen have some kind of special feelings for her, other than just thinking she was a suitable wife?

Shen Junlan was silent for a long time. She was also stumped by her own question.

Both of them were silent for a long time. Finally, Shen Junlan spoke again.

“Mingshu, was that your first kiss just now?” Shen Junlan asked.

Yan Mingshu nodded, belatedly realizing that Professor Shen couldn’t see her movements under the blanket. She then hummed a response.

“Are you sad because your first kiss was taken away by a professor you have no feelings for?”

“…I can’t say for sure why. I’m just sad.”

Yan Mingshu suddenly remembered a question she had once heard her college roommates discuss: Can you be intimate with someone you’re not in love with? She remembered it very clearly. Several roommates said, “Of course!” There were so many people in the world who settled down and got married. Even without love, marriage meant you would have to be intimate. Yan Mingshu didn’t say anything at the time. Her roommates didn’t care what she thought. When she was walking by the school lake with Lingyu one night, she asked Lingyu the same question, and finally heard someone with the same answer as her: you just can’t be with someone you don’t like. Holding hands was not okay, kissing was not okay, and more intimate actions were even more not okay.

Now, Yan Mingshu no longer had the right to say no. She had already held hands with Professor Shen and kissed her. More would surely follow.

Yan Mingshu had always felt that her fate was not in her own hands, but this was the first time it had completely gone off the rails. Her actions were completely contrary to her true feelings.

Thinking of this, she let out a sad sigh. Professor Shen also sighed, and their sighs overlapped. Professor Shen’s sigh was a little longer.

Yan Mingshu, of course, knew that it had something to do with her. She thought of the million yuan that had been given to her brother. A strong sense of guilt wrapped around her heart like a ball of fire, burning fiercely, accusing her of betraying the trust Professor Shen had placed in her by choosing her.

She bit her lower lip hard, drawing a bead of blood, and a sharp pain shot through her heart. She crawled out from under the blanket. Her expression was timid, but her actions were very brave. She forced herself to move closer to Professor Shen. She didn’t know how to do anything else yet. Her gaze fixed on Professor Shen’s pale, thin lips. She closed her eyes and offered herself up like a sacrifice, taking the initiative to lean in.

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