"What to do When the Pretty Woman I Kissed is My Best Friend's Professor" - Chapter 123

“Grandma is being discharged tomorrow. I can come and help you.” Tan Ning brought up the matter as the two walked back to the hospital room.

The hospital corridor was not lit during the day, and the sunlight didn’t reach here, making it look somewhat dim.

“It’s okay, I can manage myself,” Shen Jinrong refused her offer.

Tan Ning suddenly chuckled. She patted Shen Jinrong’s shoulder, her voice filled with emotion: “You’ve truly changed.”

Shen Jinrong looked at her in surprise: “Me? I don’t think so?”

“One cannot perceive their own changes,” Tan Ning’s eyes were very gentle. Looking at Shen Jinrong, she suddenly thought of her own past: “Someone has to point it out.”

“My mom also said that I changed a lot before and after I found out about Jiang Qiang’s cheating.” Tan Ning’s smile, though gentle, was still resolute: “What’s the use of trying to cover it up? I clearly sensed something was wrong before.”

It was only recently that she understood the hints Shen Jinrong had given her before. Looking at the documents Shen Jinrong had provided, Tan Ning knew instantly that they could not have been gathered in a short time—certainly not in just a day or two. But she didn’t mind; she knew it was already difficult for Shen Jinrong to have done all this.

Tan Ning thought that she had been too immersed in the happiness Jiang Qiang created for her, to the point that she completely failed to notice his misbehavior.

“What’s different?” Shen Jinrong didn’t want to dwell on the question.

Tan Ning laughed and said, “Look, if this were before, and I said to you, ‘I’ll help you when Grandma is discharged,’ you would have said, ‘No need, thank you.’”

Shen Jinrong frowned: “What’s the difference?”

“The old Xiao Shen was very cool, never explaining the reason to anyone,” Tan Ning smiled. “When our Professor Shen cares about someone, she always likes to pretend to be cool.”

Shen Jinrong’s ear tips turned slightly red, making the small silver star earring on her ear look even brighter.

Tan Ning glanced at her crimson earlobe, thinking that if she teased her any more, she might get angry. So, her gaze naturally moved away, but she immediately spotted the necklace on Shen Jinrong’s collarbone and casually asked: “A new necklace? It’s lovely. Is that the World Tree?”

She had expected Shen Jinrong to give a cool, noncommittal “yes,” and that would be the end of it. But upon hearing her ask about the necklace, Shen Jinrong’s eyes suddenly lit up. She even deliberately picked it up for Tan Ning to see, with a hint of showing off in her tone: “Yes! Doesn’t it look good? I think the World Tree is very beautiful too!”

Tan Ning raised an eyebrow and smiled meaningfully: “Yes, it looks very good.” She even added a few comments: “Your skin is fair; rose gold suits you.”

A hint of joy appeared on Shen Jinrong’s face. Just as she was about to speak, she heard Tan Ning continue: “The person who gave it to you has good taste too.”

Professor Shen’s ears became even redder. She stuttered for a long time before asking: “…H-how did you know someone gave it to me?”

Seeing Shen Jinrong’s cheeks flush scarlet, Tan Ning burst out laughing.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Not only was it given by someone else, but that ‘someone else’ is your partner, right?” Tan Ning winked at her, smiling slyly. After saying this, she quickly walked ahead.

“Wait? How did you figure that out? Don’t run! Tell me how you figured it out!” Shen Jinrong froze where she stood, then quickly chased after her, relentlessly pressing her: “You can guess that too?”

Tan Ning just smiled without speaking.

The people sent to pick them up were standing right at the exit, holding a large sign written in Chinese. Yao Yao spotted their colleagues hidden in the crowd from afar and led the group, pushing the luggage cart, through the masses.

“There are too many people,” Yao Yao wiped her sweat. “We must have arrived right when other flights landed.”

Yan He looked around.

Three people came to meet them, mostly wearing jackets and casual clothes. The lead man had a square face and a full beard. Hearing Yao Yao’s complaint, he turned his head and laughed: “Old Yao, why don’t you ever get rid of that old habit of complaining about everything?”

Yao Yao ignored him, just lowering her voice to Yan He: “Don’t bother with him.”

They soon reached the parking lot, where two extended SUVs were parked near the exit. The lead man opened the trunks and helped them put the luggage inside.

“Hey? Is this a new recruit? I haven’t seen her before,” the man smiled kindly at Yan He: “Hello, I’m Wang Lushan, currently the person in charge of our station based in Sperato.”

“Hello, I’m Yan He, an intern.” Yan He shook his hand.

“A highly excellent kid,” Yao Yao laughed from behind.

“I can tell.” Wang Lushan smiled and nodded, gesturing for the group to get in the car. He then strode to the driver’s seat and got in, asking Yan He, who was sitting behind Yao Yao in the front passenger seat: “Yan He, can you drive?”

“No.”

“Find some time to let Old Yao teach you. She’s an old hand, and it might come in handy later,” Wang Lushan seemed very familiar with Yao Yao. They exchanged a few jokes, and Yao Yao said she would teach her when they had time.

“We’ll go grab a meal first, then you’ll have free time to rest up. We’ll have a meeting tomorrow morning to finalize the remaining details, and then officially start in the afternoon,” Wang Lushan said.

“No need to rush,” Yao Yao told him: “We’re mainly here for field research; the main team is following behind. We might be shooting a documentary or something.”

“Oh, that’s a big project,” Wang Lushan replied, “How about you look around after dinner? I’ll leave both cars with you. There’s a big market nearby.”

Yao Yao agreed.

After dinner, the others didn’t feel like moving, so Yao Yao asked Yan He: “Want to go? To the market?”

Yan He readily agreed: “Okay.”

“Going to the market is great. You can see the local customs and buy some trinkets for people,” Yao Yao mumbled, then turned to Yan He, as if seeking confirmation: “Right?”

Yan He smiled and nodded: “Right.”

“For young people like you, you can buy some little gifts for your partner. They don’t have to be expensive, just something that shows your heart,” Yao Yao said this, then added a complaint: “The internet and signal here aren’t great. Making phone calls might be a bit tricky.”

Yan He pulled out her phone, thinking: No wonder I haven’t received any messages from others since landing. The only message she received was a welcome text from the Sperato Tourism Board.

“Then how should we contact our families?”

“The mobile phone should work; find an area with higher elevation. If that fails, just borrow a satellite phone from Wang Lushan,” Yao Yao introduced skillfully to Yan He: “He’s decent, apart from being a bit poor in conversation.”

Yao Yao parked the car on the side of the road. When she got out to check, she realized the car was already covered with a thin layer of yellow dust, which made her cough.

“Is the dust this heavy even though we are near the sea?” Yao Yao muttered, and then she walked into the small souvenir shop next to her with Yan He.

The shop owner was a woman in her forties. Seeing two foreign faces, she greeted them in broken English.

“Look around, I’m going to check out some other things,” Yao Yao said, then lifted the bead curtain and walked further inside.

Yan He stood near the entrance, looking at the postcards neatly placed on a rack. They mostly depicted local scenery, which was unfamiliar and often in dull, earthy yellow tones, desolate as if in a desert. There were also photos of the sea, but they were mostly pictures of undeveloped coastlines, possessing a wild beauty.

Yan He turned around and saw the owner smiling kindly nearby. She hesitated for a moment, then reached out and took a postcard from the top. It was a photo taken in the desert, showing two irregular high towers seemingly formed naturally from sand.

“Where is this?” Yan He tentatively asked her in English.

The owner understood, pointed in a direction, and said “That.” Yan He nodded thoughtfully and asked again, “What is this?”

With the woman’s gestures and expressive description, Yan He roughly understood her meaning. The two towers were naturally formed, and no one knew when they first appeared. When the wind blew, they created strange sounds.

“I want this one, how much?” Yan He signaled to her with a paying motion.

While paying, she remembered to ask: “Do you have stamps?” She pointed to the area on the back of the postcard where a stamp would be placed.

The woman shook her head, then pointed in another direction, saying that she could buy stamps and mail the postcard there.

Yao Yao walked out at some point, holding a piece of handcrafted art. Hearing what the woman said, she explained to Yan He: “She’s saying there’s a post office over there, I think I saw it when we arrived. I’ll take you.”

So, the two walked towards the post office.

Yellow sand filled the sky, and Yan He squinted, struggling to see the path clearly.

“The area next to us is the desert,” Yao Yao spoke into the wind, but immediately got a mouthful of sand when she opened her mouth. Still, unable to stop until she finished her thought, she continued: “It wasn’t like this a few years ago; the environment was much better. Desertification is quite serious now.”

The two braved the wind and sand, and what should have been a five-minute walk stretched into more than ten minutes.

The staff at the post office spoke better English. Hearing that Yan He wanted to buy a stamp to send a postcard to China, he skillfully pulled out a box from under the counter, which was filled with neatly arranged stamps.

“For China, it should be this one,” he pointed to the selected stamp and said, “This denomination.”

Yan He quickly chose a stamp with a blue background and asked how to mail it. The man lazily pointed toward the door: “There’s a red mailbox at the entrance. Just drop it in.”

“How long will it take to reach China?”

The staff member thought for a moment: “…I’m not sure, maybe… it might take a month.”

Yan He nodded thoughtfully, planning to write the postcard and mail it to Shen Jinrong when she returned.

“I have a habit of always buying postcards to send to myself when I travel for work.”

—Older Sister said that.

Yan He thought, When she sees the postcard I sent her from Sperato, will she be happy?

She should be… right?