"What to do When the Pretty Woman I Kissed is My Best Friend's Professor" - Chapter 1

Before entering the theater, there was a long hallway. The lighting was slightly dim, but a few more steps forward led to a bright and open area. The floor was covered in a carpet patterned with dark, intricate, and delicate designs that seemed related to Eastern European mythology.

Yan He had no knowledge of this and gave it only a cursory glance. Yet, she could sense the historical gravity of the place, an indescribable mystery, integrated with the surroundings, born from the sedimentation of time.

People nearby were conversing softly, their voices too low for Yan He to catch what they were saying. The indoor theater was quite warm. Yan He unbuttoned her overcoat and instinctively gathered her clothes to fan herself.

Her friend Li Xiuxi saw this and laughed at her: “You wear such thin clothes in the middle of winter, and then you feel hot once you come inside.”

Yan He fanned herself with the ticket in her hand. Although the room was warm, it still felt stuffy to her. She did not respond to Li Xiuxi’s joke, instead looking down at the number marked on the seat: “We’re at our seats.”

Tickets for this opera were very tight. Li Xiuxi had managed to snatch two seats next to each other in the same row, though she heard she’d been scammed out of quite a bit of money by a scalper.

“As expected, there are so many people. No wonder that gypsy woman told me these tickets were hard to buy,” Li Xiuxi sat down, adjusted her posture, and turned her head to speak quietly to Yan He. “With the semester over, everyone really is free.”

Yan He had little reaction. She looked down at the information on her ticket stub. Li Xiuxi continued to ask, “Have you finished all your paperwork?”

Both of them were exchange students and could return home after the semester ended.

Startled by the sudden question, Yan He looked up, scanning the entire venue with a somewhat bewildered look: “It’s done, but I have to start class three days after getting back.”

“That’s great!” Li Xiuxi expressed her envy. She picked up her phone to check her course schedule, scanned it, then widened her eyes and turned up the brightness to confirm her department’s arrangements, letting out a wail: “No way! I’m doomed! I have to start class the very next day after I get back! Look, look!”

Yan He leaned in to see. Li Xiuxi had only one class that day, with a name written above it: “Shen Jinrong,” followed by the two characters for “Professor.” Yan He mused for a moment and asked: “Is she a new professor in your department? Send her an email explaining the situation; asking for a leave shouldn’t be too difficult, right?”

There weren’t many full professors in the Business School; she hadn’t heard of this name.

“Huh? That’s true, it’s strange. I’m almost graduating and I haven’t heard of her. I’ll check the official website to see if they have her email address!” Li Xiuxi sat upright, looking down at her phone to search for information.

“Excuse me, coming through.” Just as Yan He was lost in thought, a woman’s voice sounded by her ear. The woman’s voice was not particularly clear but rather low and magnetic, and her Mandarin was perfectly standard.

Yan He moved to let her pass. The woman slightly nodded in thanks. She walked past Yan He and took the seat immediately to Yan He’s right.

Li Xiuxi turned her head again to speak to Yan He, but froze the moment she saw the woman next to her. The words she was about to say caught in her throat, and she stammered out a polite: “H-Hello.”

Yan He hadn’t looked closely at the woman’s face out of courtesy earlier. Seeing Li Xiuxi’s exaggerated reaction, she turned her head out of curiosity and unexpectedly met the woman’s eyes. Yan He clearly saw the woman’s pupil tremble, as if she were very surprised by the eye contact.

Yan He knew she had been rude and quickly turned her head away as if nothing had happened. But her turning motion was too deliberate and clumsy; she heard the woman chuckle softly.

The woman’s figure was tall and straight; simply sitting there gave her a gentle, sophisticated, yet distantly polite aura. Her pupils were as bright and clear as obsidian, pulling one into them with a single glance. Catching some unseen light, her eyes sparkled, seemingly full of laughter.

But Yan He felt that was only a disguise, as if the gentle surface concealed a deeper coldness.

So beautiful.

Yan He could clearly see the tear mole beneath the woman’s left eye; it was a shimmering red, like a bright red dot of cinnabar. But she only glanced once and quickly turned back, afraid to look again.

The moment she met the woman’s eyes, Yan He heard only her own heartbeat. Amidst the noisy, unfamiliar voices, her heart beat faster and faster, as if rushing to catch up with the fleeting time.

With a beautiful older woman sitting beside them, Li Xiuxi felt embarrassed to continue the previous topic. She typed for a long time, turned her head, and handed her phone to Yan He, lowering her voice for fear of disturbing the beautiful woman: “I finished writing. Take a look for me. If it’s okay, I’ll send it to Professor Shen—Shen Jinrong. Oh god, I absolutely must not send it to the wrong person; there are so many teachers named Shen in our department!”

Yan He took her phone but noticed that Li Xiuxi kept sneaking glances at the beautiful older woman next to her. However, neither of them noticed the flash of interest in the woman’s eyes when she heard the name “Shen Jinrong.”

“No problem.” Yan He checked the message carefully, confirmed it was fine, and handed the phone back to her: “Go ahead and send it.”

Yan He was feigning composure. Only now did she notice the scent of the woman’s perfume. Initially, it was a subtle orange-tinted fragrance, very light, yet it lingered in the air with her movements.

In addition to that, there was a faint, slight woody sweetness on her body. But after this weak wood aroma, the light citrus scent seemed to blend and merge with all her other.

It was strange and marvelous, like the bracing cedar of a high mountain peak, yet tinged with a gentle, worldly breath—a scent that held a near-fatal attraction for mortals. Her fragrance was clearly a cool tone, yet it carried a lingering tenderness, as if a distant deity sighed and leaned down to kiss her lover in the mortal world.

“Okay! I’m sending it!” Li Xiuxi took a deep breath and hit send.

Then, the phone of the woman next to them rang.

Both girls were startled and looked over simultaneously, only to see the woman silently switch her phone to silent mode. She glanced at the message and put the phone away, saying gently, “I apologize, I forgot to set it to silent.”

What were the odds of meeting a beautiful stranger who just happened to be your future professor? Yan He and Li Xiuxi did not believe in such a coincidence. Just then, the lights near their seats dimmed, and the large lights above came on, illuminating the dark red curtain.

The conductor of the orchestra below the stage gave a slight bow. A round of applause erupted. Yan He adjusted her sitting posture, subtly moving a little further away from the woman beside her.

Yan He had seen this opera many times, almost able to recite every line. She was a person who easily immersed herself, but today, she didn’t know why—perhaps because the woman’s perfume next to her was too captivating—she felt her heart couldn’t settle down, and she couldn’t focus at all.

The music gradually became passionate; the delicate sound of a violin rose, and the main curtain slowly ascended.

“Esteemed lady, this is Alfredo; he deeply admires you.”

Yan He’s heart trembled, and she subconsciously looked to her right. The woman next to her was concentrating on the opera, fiddling with the ticket stub in her hand. Yan He followed her hand with her eyes: it was fair and slender, with overly neat, trimmed nails.

In a momentary daze, Yan He just felt that the tear mole at the corner of the woman’s eye was too vibrant, a brilliant red like the golden sunset of an evening, hanging vaguely beside a crimson cloud.

“Alfredo has only you in his heart.”

“When you were sick, he lingered outside your door every day,” the woman seemed to notice something and turned to look at Yan He. Just then, the female protagonist on stage, wearing an intricate long dress, laughed and stepped back: “Say no more. Please tell him not to take it seriously!”

Yan He’s heart sank instantly. The music ringing in her ears no longer felt like a gentle pleasure. The urgent drumbeats struck her heart repeatedly, like a forceful urging. Time continued ceaselessly, this flow having no end. She felt as though she had entered a void space, a space containing only her and the woman beside her.

“Ah! Let us toast! Let us hide our affection in the wine glass!”

“This is the joy of love!”

Suddenly, the woman also turned to look at her. Yan He felt as if God had seized her breath; breathing again would be a betrayal of this beautiful moment. Her emotions temporarily ceased; this was the numbness following extreme shock.

The woman smiled at her.

“…Will you care for me? Will you love me?”

Surging emotions crashed upon her like a tsunami. Yan He looked into the woman’s eyes, looking at the small tear mole beneath her eye, and a sudden impulse welled up in her heart. She felt her cheeks burning, the temperature rising higher and higher, as if she were at the mouth of a volcanic eruption, standing on a precarious cliff with boiling magma below.

Meeting those fervent eyes, the woman paused, subconsciously wanting to raise her hand to do something, but ultimately, she merely brushed against Yan He’s hand on the armrest by accident.

“You are my joy, my vague and ethereal love.”

“The moment you flashed past me, I had already fallen deeply in love with you.”

“That pulsating love, mysterious yet ethereal.” ① The woman’s hand seemed to possess a magical power. Yan He felt that from the place where she was touched, burning hot blood spread through her veins. Hot, fervent, hidden beneath the thin skin, concealed within the blue veins, as if it were about to burst forth the next second.

Her hand was fair, even pale; the blue veins were more distinct on the back of her hand, and the joints were clearly visible. Yet, the touch was fleeting, having arrived and departed in just a moment. Yan He stared blankly at the burning spot on the back of her hand.

“Is it beautiful?”

The woman spoke. The first act ended, the curtain fell, and the lead actors came out to bow in thanks. Amidst the thunderous applause, Yan He still clearly heard the woman’s words. She was startled and could even feel the woman’s breath as she spoke, along with her suppressed laughter.

Was she commenting on the opera… or asking about her?

Yan He was confused for a moment. She turned her head blankly, meeting a pair of obsidian eyes.