"What to do When the Pretty Woman I Kissed is My Best Friend's Professor" - Chapter 110

The car drove all the way off the highway. As the scenery became increasingly familiar, Shen Jinrong’s heart tightened even more.

The fundamental reason she had left with Yan He was that she wanted to escape this place. Yet now, she was forced to return to this very cage. The bustling traffic and towering buildings before her were like a gaping trap, waiting for her to step inside. And then what? What would happen? Would she be torn to shreds?

Shen Jinrong didn’t know. She instinctively grew nervous, her palms sweating. She clenched her fists, her entire body rigid.

Tan Ning glanced at her and said, “We’ll be there in… five minutes.”

Shen Jinrong nodded, but her words didn’t truly register.

The People’s Hospital.

When she saw the red lettering and the cross on the high-rise building ahead, she finally panicked, though she still maintained a composed look on her face.

“Grandma is fine, you don’t need to worry so much,” Tan Ning seemed to see through her thoughts.

Shen Jinrong smiled and nodded.

Tan Ning suddenly realized that she could no longer read much emotion from Shen Jinrong’s expression; this was different from before.

She parked the car carefully in a parking spot. Then, she and Shen Jinrong each opened a car door and headed toward the grandmother’s ward.

It was breakfast time. As soon as they entered the hospital, a waft of food aroma hit them. When they exited the elevator, they just caught sight of staff pushing a meal cart disappearing down the end of the corridor.

“Have you eaten yet?” Tan Ning suddenly thought of this and turned to ask Shen Jinrong, “Let’s go eat after we see Grandma.”

Shen Jinrong forced a smile and replied, “Okay. You haven’t eaten either, have you? Thank you for the trouble.”

Tan Ning just shook her head and said, “The elderly lady is quite fragile; let’s not give her any more cause for concern.”

Shen Jinrong wasn’t sure what the purpose of that remark was, so she just nodded to show she understood.

Before even entering the ward, she heard Granny Shen’s robust voice, seemingly talking to someone else in the same room.

Hearing her grandmother sound so hearty, Shen Jinrong felt relieved. She let out a sigh and pushed the door open.

Grandma, wearing a patient’s gown, broke into a wide smile when she saw her and Tan Ning enter together: “Oh, my? Weren’t you abroad for a meeting? Why are you back?” She then looked at Tan Ning: “Did Ning Ning go pick you up? Our Ning Ning has worked hard.”

“And you too!” Grandma’s eyes became mildly reproachful. Her gaze shifted from Tan Ning to Shen Jinrong, and she said softly, “…Why didn’t you let me know you were coming back?”

Having said that, she seemed to understand why Shen Jinrong had rushed back, and the smile on her face stiffened slightly. Shen Jinrong did not discuss family matters in front of the co-patients. She walked over, quietly explained a few things to her grandmother, then looked at the little girl lying on the neighboring bed and offered her a slight smile.

The little girl was about ten years old, with clear, round eyes. Seeing Shen Jinrong smile, she smiled back.

“I was just telling the little friend that my granddaughter was away on a business trip abroad,” Granny Shen said with a chuckle, introducing Shen Jinrong to the girl: “This is my granddaughter.”

Shen Jinrong offered a smile and said to the lying-down girl, “Hello. Thank you for keeping my Grandma company.”

The little girl’s mother, standing nearby, smiled and said, “It’s nothing, we’re simply fated to be here together.”

Shen Jinrong smiled politely again. After a while, when the grandmother finished eating, the little girl’s mother went out to wash the bowls, and the little girl had fallen asleep, Shen Jinrong sat down on the chair beside her grandmother and quietly asked her, “How did this happen?”

Granny Shen gave a wry smile, her expression turning serious. She cleared her throat and said, “The other day, Wang Dingyun came to see me. She told me she was pregnant and even showed me a hospital certificate.” Granny Shen sounded as if she had heard a joke: “She told me she was carrying your father’s child.”

Granny Shen’s eyes grew cold: “I asked her for proof, and she said it was frozen sperm. Does she really think I’m naive? What she’s doing is illegal! And that institution would also be breaking the law if they let her do it!”

It’s all about the inheritance, isn’t it? Granny Shen had felt from the beginning that having Shen Jinrong donate a large part of the estate was the right thing to do.

She narrowed her eyes, her expression instantly shifting to one of annoyance: “It was my fault too! As soon as she said it, I got angry. She then brought up some other nonsense, saying your father actually loved her very much—I hadn’t even responded when my vision went black, and I didn’t know anything else. The next time I opened my eyes, I was here at the hospital.”

She spread her hands, looking somewhat helpless: “I told them I was fine, but Ning Ning insisted on calling to notify you, and also insisted that I stay for a few more days. I told her there was no need; why should you come back when you’re so busy with work! I can handle this.”

Shen Jinrong interrupted her, her expression serious: “Tan Ning did the right thing. I will go and talk to Wang Dingyun.”

“Oh, goodness!” Granny Shen smacked her thigh, criticizing Shen Jinrong in a booming voice: “Why bother with her? It’s just more trouble!”

Shen Jinrong frowned: “Wouldn’t it be even more complicated if she gives birth to the child?” She lowered her voice to indicate the sleeping child nearby, and the two continued their conversation in hushed tones.

Tan Ning stood by, watching them discuss solutions in low voices, and suddenly smiled gently.

“I think you’ve… changed a bit,” Tan Ning suddenly remarked when the two left the hospital gate and were having breakfast at a nearby KFC.

Shen Jinrong paused with the hand holding her coffee, one eyebrow raised in surprise. She asked, “Why do you say that?”

“I just feel like you’re not quite the same as before…” Tan Ning didn’t say the rest of the sentence. She felt that Shen Jinrong had become more vibrant than before.

The former Shen Jinrong was like a delicate doll, with empty eyes and no vitality, focused only on striving toward a single goal. But the Shen Jinrong in front of her now seemed to have had a soul injected into her—or rather, her soul had returned.

“Is it the power of love?” Tan Ning asked in a half-joking manner.

Shen Jinrong smiled and said, “Yes, isn’t it?”

Yes, because of Yan He, she had also become braver, and she had begun to embrace the world.

Yan He woke up at five in the morning. She was drenched in sweat and abruptly sat up, gasping for breath.

She had had a nightmare. In the dream, Shen Jinrong looked at her decisively and told her, “This is wrong; we shouldn’t be together.”

Yan He’s hand went to her heart; it was beating rapidly. She then tremblingly touched her cheeks, feeling two distinct tear tracks on her face.

Yan He sat blankly on the bed for a moment, her eyes falling on the empty space beside her. Her hand gently brushed over it. Now, there wasn’t even a trace of warmth left, only coldness. Yan He held her head with both hands, closed her eyes, and felt that her entire body was soaked with sweat, uncomfortably clammy.

Why was this happening? She kept dreaming about Shen Jinrong, and she constantly felt that Shen Jinrong would abandon her at any moment—such a sense of insecurity. She shouldn’t think this way; Yan He knew Shen Jinrong wasn’t that kind of person.

—Yet, she had truly left.

She walked into the bathroom, leaned on the sink, and looked at herself in the mirror. Her face was pale, her eyes were red-rimmed, and even her eyes were bloodshot. Due to poor sleep quality, her forehead began to throb in waves.

After taking a shower, she was drying her hair, preparing to leave the bathroom, when she suddenly realized that the scent of Shen Jinrong in the air had slowly begun to disappear.

The particles belonging to Shen Jinrong in the air seemed to be slowly vanishing with the passage of time. And what after that? Would her traces completely disappear in a few more hours?

Yan He scanned her surroundings and suddenly realized that now, in this room where she and Shen Jinrong had made love, only she remained.

She walked to the bedside and looked down at the messages on her phone. The only light source in the room was the lamp still on in the bathroom; the phone’s blue light fell upon her face. She saw the message Shen Jinrong had sent her—”Already arrived.”

Had she arrived back in the country? Yan He felt a sense of relief.

When she saw Shen Jinrong send the message, the time displayed on her phone was in the early hours of the morning. It must be lunchtime in China now, right?

A layer of amusement welled up in Yan He’s eyes. Her previously insecure heart felt healed by these simple three words, like a warm current pouring into her core, transforming her already cracked earth back into fertile soil. In that soil, flowers were blooming one after another.

Yan He typed for a long time on her phone, but in the end, after much deleting and editing, she only sent a single sentence: “Are you alright?” She wanted to ask Shen Jinrong if everything went smoothly, and if she was doing well, but she worried about disturbing her Jie-Jie (older sister/term of endearment), so she only sent those simple words.

She hid all her little anxieties within these three words; Yan He knew Shen Jinrong would understand.

She held her phone and waited for a while, her eyes glued to the conversation box with Shen Jinrong. After a long wait with no reply, she simply put the phone aside and began packing her things. She also turned up the volume, afraid she might miss her Jie-Jie‘s message.

The flight to Naples was at eight in the morning. She should be getting up to pack now. It took over an hour to get to the airport from here, so leaving in half an hour would be just right.

Yan He finished packing. She stood by the door, leaning on her suitcase, scanning the room—this room that held deep memories for her and Shen Jinrong. Once the door was closed, perhaps none of this would belong to her anymore. But what did that matter? She and her Jie-Jie were already one; this no longer needed any other proof.

She thought that, if possible, next Christmas—they might be able to come back here to spend it again.

That’s how it would be, right? Yan He smiled. She thought that when she returned, she must make her Jie-Jie properly compensate her.

Then, she pulled her suitcase and closed the door.

The hallway lights illuminated the path ahead.

She did not look back.