After a Flash Marriage with a Professor - Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Reluctant

Under Professor Shen’s aggressive yet gentle offense, Ming Shu quickly couldn’t resist. She melted in Professor Shen’s palm and against her lips. The only thought she desperately clung to was not to damage the cake she was bringing for Lingyu.

Initially, one hand held the cake’s red ribbon, and the other gently pushed Professor Shen away. Then, both hands were dedicated to protecting the cake.

Shen Junlan gradually felt Ming Shu stop resisting her. She relaxed for a moment, wanting to understand why, and saw Ming Shu fully focused on protecting the cake. A low fire sparked in her heart. She lost control of her strength for a moment, nearly biting through Ming Shu’s smooth and delicate little tongue, but she couldn’t bear to hurt her. She abruptly shifted and bit her own tongue instead.

Ming Shu felt a metallic sweetness spread in her mouth, but she didn’t feel pain; only her tongue felt numb.

It wasn’t me, so was it Professor Shen?

Ming Shu panicked, mistakenly thinking she had accidentally injured Professor Shen while in a daze. She quickly raised and pulled back her head, trying to see where Professor Shen was hurt, but Professor Shen kissed her even deeper.

It was deeper than any kiss before. Professor Shen seemed determined to complete an absolute exchange with her in this forceful kiss, striving for “you in me and me in you.”

Ming Shu was kissed until her eyelashes fluttered and her body went limp. Barely able to breathe, she allowed Professor Shen to fiercely kiss her. She didn’t respond, unclear whether she didn’t want to respond or didn’t dare to.

After a long time, Professor Shen finally let her go.

Ming Shu gasped for breath, and only when her breathing stabilized did she speak. “Professor Shen, I’m sorry. Did I bite you just now?”

Shen Junlan didn’t want to speak. She found Ming Shu’s voice, expressing concern about having offended her, a bit grating at the moment.

Ming Shu was so anxious that sweat broke out on her forehead. She painstakingly secured the cake in the back seat. She then leaned toward Professor Shen and asked, “Professor Shen, are you in pain?”

“Where are you asking about?” Shen Junlan retorted with a hint of anger.

Ming Shu was taken aback. Where else but the bleeding mouth?

“Does Professor Shen’s mouth still hurt? I think I tasted a metallic sweetness just now.” Ming Shu widened her eyes, trying to clearly discern every subtle expression on Professor Shen’s face in the dim car, but it was futile; the light was too poor.

“My mouth doesn’t hurt.”

Ming Shu sighed in relief.

“But here hurts. It hurts a lot.”

Ming Shu’s little heart leaped into her throat. She asked worriedly, “Where?”

Professor Shen didn’t speak. She grabbed Ming Shu’s hand, which had finally set down the cake, and pressed it against her own chest. Even through the shirt, Ming Shu felt a heart beating beneath her palm. It was fast, and it truly sounded as Professor Shen said—rapid and sorrowful.

Ming Shu also felt a little sad. “Professor Shen, what’s wrong? Did something happen to Jia Jia when you went to find her?”

Shen Junlan’s heart ached even more. Her little wife was a bit clueless about romance, but she was the one Shen Junlan chose.

“Professor Shen? I… Is there anything I can do for you?” Ming Shu asked sincerely, but this only made Shen Junlan’s heart sink further.

This is likely the bitter fruit of a marriage without a foundation in love. She had once fantasized that after registering their marriage, she and Ming Shu would be like other loving couples. But how could that be? Without the nurturing and accumulation of affection, the fruit of love could not grow.

Not everyone’s love was like hers like a beast trapped in a cage, ready to erupt at any moment.

“It’s nothing. Jia Jia is fine.”

“Did something happen to Professor Shen herself then?”

“I’m fine too.”

“Then…” Ming Shu didn’t know what to ask next, and her voice trailed off.

Shen Junlan suddenly smiled and raised a hand to wipe the sweat from Ming Shu’s forehead. “Go on. Lingyu is still waiting for you.”

Ming Shu glanced at the time on the car screen; it was 5 minutes before midnight, but she didn’t move. She just stared at Professor Shen in the darkness. She felt unsettled.

“Go,” Shen Junlan said again, gently patting Ming Shu’s shoulder.

“I came to bring you your slippers. You wore a pair of slippers home from Lingyu’s house last time. I found them, so I brought them to you.”

“Is that all?” Is that really all? Ming Shu was a little skeptical. She felt there must be another reason for Professor Shen’s strong emotions tonight.

“Mhm.” Shen Junlan didn’t want to say more, unwilling to reveal too much of her inner feelings. She should patiently wait for Ming Shu to adapt, not pressure her to quickly become the way she envisioned.

Ming Shu stepped out of the car, holding the slippers and the cake. After a few steps, she ran back and tapped on the car door.

“Professor Shen, I’m worried about you. How about this: you wait for me outside, and I’ll come back to you after Lingyu makes her wish.”

“…Come back to me?”

Ming Shu nodded. “I’ll go back with you.”

Shen Junlan laughed softly in the dark. “But the day isn’t even over yet.”

“But I feel like Professor Shen needs me, right?”

Shen Junlan pressed her lips tightly together. The coppery, metallic taste was still lingering in her mouth. If word got out that Professor Shen bit her own tongue while kissing her wife, it would be a laughingstock.

“Yes and no. I’ve managed all these years on my own. Two days won’t make a difference.”

“You go. Ming Shu, it’s 58 past.”

Ming Shu still stood by the car. Shen Junlan said, “You go accompany Lingyu to make her wish first. I’ll wait for you.” Only then did Ming Shu turn and run toward Jiang Lingyu’s house.

“Ma’am.” Old Liu greeted her at Lingyu’s doorstep. Ming Shu was too anxious to respond this time.

In a rush, she managed to complete all the preparations before midnight and urged Lingyu to make a wish.

Jiang Lingyu clasped her hands, closed her eyes, and didn’t know what to wish for. In her ears, she could hear Ming Shu’s delicate, breathless panting from moments ago. She silently prayed: I hope Ming Shu can find true happiness, and may suffering no longer find her.

The moment Jiang Lingyu opened her eyes, Ming Shu placed a foldable crown on her head. “Sorry, Lingyu, I didn’t have time just now.”

“It’s okay. It’s enough that I made the wish in time.”

“What did you wish for?” Ming Shu asked, then quickly pursed her lips and said, “Don’t mind me, Lingyu. If you say it, it won’t come true.”

“I would never tell,” Lingyu laughed, cutting the cake. She cut two large slices and handed them to Ming Shu. Her smile gradually faded, leaving only a hint of the practiced, professional smile firmly fixed at the corners of her mouth. “Professor Shen is waiting for you outside, isn’t she?”

Ming Shu was struggling with how to approach the subject with Lingyu, but Lingyu already knew.

“Go ahead, Ming Shu. Thank you for spending your birthday with me today.”

“Lingyu…”

“It’s okay, Ming Shu. Go on. If my wife acted this way, not to mention Professor Shen, I’d be jealous too.”

“Professor Shen… jealous?” Ming Shu found this hard to believe. Although she had once entertained the idea of Professor Shen being jealous, it didn’t fit Professor Shen’s image.

“Professor Shen is human too,” Jiang Lingyu said, scooping a bite of the cake Ming Shu bought for her into her mouth, closing her eyes to savor it.

“But I still feel like the word ‘jealous’ isn’t quite right,” Ming Shu said.

In Ming Shu’s understanding, jealousy required love as a prerequisite. Unless Professor Shen genuinely loved her, she wouldn’t be jealous.

During the blind date, Professor Shen only said Ming Shu was suitable to be a wife, though Ming Shu never quite figured out why she was suitable.

“Alright, stop thinking about it. Go quickly,” Jiang Lingyu pushed Ming Shu toward the door with a forced smile, not forgetting to remind her to take two servings of cake.

When they reached the door, there was no car and no one.

“Where is Professor Shen?” Jiang Lingyu asked blankly. She distinctly remembered that when she went out to look for Ming Shu earlier, Professor Shen’s driver told her that Professor Shen might need to take his wife back tonight and just wanted to let her know. Lingyu stood at the doorstep and saw the low-key luxury car hidden in the shadows, knowing Ming Shu got in. What were Ming Shu and Professor Shen doing in the car? She inevitably thought of the kiss she had accidentally witnessed earlier.

Putting herself in Professor Shen’s shoes, it would be difficult not to mind a wife having such an intimate best friend. She could understand Professor Shen’s torment, just as she, knowing she liked Ming Shu, still had to send Ming Shu back into Professor Shen’s arms. Professor Shen was dissatisfied with Ming Shu having such a close friend but was suppressing her dissatisfaction, choosing to respect and accept it, and maintaining Ming Shu’s friendship.

“Professor Shen left,” Ming Shu said blankly, holding the two paper plates of cake.

“It seems Professor Shen didn’t want to make things difficult for you and left first,” Jiang Lingyu smiled, hesitantly placing her hand on Ming Shu’s back shoulder and guiding her inside.

“Professor Shen really likes you, Ming Shu.”

Lingyu had said this several times, and it was taking root in Ming Shu’s heart, but she still found it hard to believe Professor Shen could truly like her.

“Professor Shen, what’s wrong with you?” Yu Le gently tapped the table with two fingers in the softly lit bar.

“Isn’t this supposed to be the honeymoon phase? Why do you look like you just got dumped?”

Shen Junlan remained silent, drinking her wine, the flickering, ever-changing lights of the bar flashing across her sharply defined face, alternating between bright and dim.

“Great. You call me out and then don’t talk. You want me to drink gloomily with you, is that it?” Yu Le still couldn’t handle Shen Junlan. She’d been like this for years. If Shen Junlan didn’t want to talk, prying her mouth open with a crowbar probably wouldn’t work.

The bar’s signature cocktail was slightly spicy. Shen Junlan’s self-inflicted tongue wound was repeatedly assaulted by the alcohol, providing a strange, masochistic pleasure.

“Hey, hey, hey, Professor Shen, if you won’t talk to me, at least give me a glance.”

Yu Le didn’t dare to drink much and sat guarding Shen Junlan. She had to admit, Professor Shen’s reserved, almost ascetic aura was unique. In this environment, with a touch of melancholy, it was strikingly eye-catching.

In the less than ten minutes she’d been sitting there, two or three women had already come over to chat her up. Yu Le smiled and shooed them away one by one.

“My dear ancestor, Shen Junlan, just make a sound! If I wasn’t crazy before, you’re going to drive me crazy now. I came out to accompany you, and you’re just going to make me anxious, is that it?”

Shen Junlan looked up, her eyes deep and cold like an abyss, chilling Yu Le, who immediately shut up.

After a while, Yu Le calmed down and asked gently, “Is it because of Ming Shu again?”

Got it. Silence meant agreement. After so many years, Yu Le was well-versed in the rules of communication with Shen Junlan.

“You haven’t gotten divorced so quickly, have you?”

“No.”

“Oh, you’re talking now, Professor Shen!” Yu Le was slightly excited and pressed on, “Then why are you so distressed, Professor Shen? Is Little Friend Ming Shu clueless about romance, or are there too many admirers?”

Shen Junlan frowned slightly.

Yu Le smiled. “Did I guess right again?”

Shen Junlan looked at her with an expression that conveyed, Go on, I’m listening.

Yu Le laughed. “Do you want me, a veteran of relationships, to give Professor Shen some advice?”

Shen Junlan subtly raised an eyebrow.

Yu Le continued, “Fighting fire with fire. The little one makes you jealous; you make the little one jealous too. Young people are often more emotionally unstable, so their jealousy tends to be stronger.”

“That’s not a good idea,” Shen Junlan immediately refused.

Yu Le was dumbfounded. “Professor Shen doesn’t want Ming Shu to be upset?”

“Mhm. I don’t want to upset her.”

“Why?” Yu Le asked curiously, pouring Shen Junlan another glass of wine to pry an answer out of her.

Shen Junlan emptied the glass by her hand, smiling somewhat bitterly. “I brought her home. I treat her like a treasure.”

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