"What to do When the Pretty Woman I Kissed is My Best Friend's Professor" - Chapter 61

The south wind still blew fiercely in the North in December. The cold wind roared, unrelenting from the moment Yan He left her house. The temperature today already required a down jacket, but Yan He was only focused on escaping home when she came out and hadn’t thought much about it.

She had just called Li Xiuxi. She didn’t tell her that she knew about her parents’ divorce and was out for a walk to clear her mind. Instead, she casually made up an excuse, asking Li Xiuxi not to reveal anything if Ms. He called to ask about her.

Li Xiuxi didn’t ask further, and Yan He was very grateful for her silence at the moment.

She just wanted to be alone.

The black cashmere coat looked thick, but it couldn’t ward off the wind blowing from all directions. Yan He tightly wrapped her coat around herself, dutifully buttoning the one over her abdomen, and walked into the wind.

She had no destination, only wanting to find a quiet place away from people. Her house was in the city center, and since it was the weekend, people were everywhere. She couldn’t find a place to shelter from the wind. So, she simply walked to the park.

Yan He touched her pocket. She had only brought her phone and keys. The phone was in the right coat pocket, and the keys were in the left, feeling hard and poking her hand. She felt the outline of the keys through the pocket until she felt the tip before relaxing.

The cold wind whistled past her ears, almost forming a barrier that cruelly separated her from the world. With the augmentation of the wind, all the sounds around her reached her ears as if through a wall—dull yet with a strange sharpness. When such signals reached her brain, it became yet another sensation.

Yan He raised her eyes and looked around. Perhaps because it was winter, there were fewer people on the street than at other times. Some were alone, hurrying along wrapped in heavy clothes; others were happy families, walking and laughing with their loved ones or children.

It was nothing more than these two types of people.

Yan He thought that she only just now realized that standing here, she was utterly alone.

She remembered ten years ago, when this street was not as prosperous as it was now. At that time, city appearance maintenance hadn’t begun, and sometimes there were vendors pushing carts to set up stalls on both sides of the road.

Yan He looked at the fork in the road outside that bank—the place where the Older Woman often parked her car. Ten years ago, there was a vendor selling iron-plate squid there that she really loved to eat.

Her school was near her home. Sometimes Ms. He or Mr. Yan would pick her up from school. Whenever her parents picked her up, Yan He would always find an opportunity to be willful, pulling her mom and dad and saying she wanted grilled squid. Mr. Yan was more straightforward, while Ms. He would complain about the hygiene being poor while still pulling out money to buy it for her.

But now, there was no iron-plate squid there, nor was the Older Woman’s car. It was empty and lonely, keeping company only with a tree planted on the sidewalk.

Yan He didn’t know why she was beginning to reminisce about the past. She had always thought of herself as a forward-looking person, having forgotten many things that happened in the past. When she occasionally recalled the past, it was like watching a black-and-white movie in her mind; such memories lacked color.

Standing at this familiar intersection, she suddenly realized that there were many things she hadn’t forgotten at all. Those memories she thought she had forgotten were actually always sealed in her mind, like heavy boxes stored there, covered in dust.

And when a certain moment—or a certain catalyst—arrived, the heavy lids of these boxes would slowly lift, and memories of the past would rush forth.

Yan He closed her eyes. She stood in front of the bus stop not far from the intersection. After briefly losing her sight, her other senses were heightened—the sounds around her gradually became clearer, and she smelled the familiar scent of car exhaust.

Yan He suddenly felt unsteady. She abruptly opened her eyes and instinctively grasped the nearby bus stop sign. She felt a bit disheveled now, her hair scattered across her eyes. After straightening up, it slumped back onto her shoulders.

She looked around. Some people around her cast concerned looks her way. Yan He stood up straight and nodded to that person.

Memories were everywhere. She didn’t want to sink into them anymore; she had to escape this place.

She helplessly looked ahead, unsure for a moment how to escape this place. Should she run? Or—she felt the icy touch on her right hand. Looking up, the LED light on the bus stop sign emitted a pale red glow. Yan He felt inexplicably reassured. She thought, No matter which route the next bus is, I have to get on it.

Staying here only made her feel suppressed.

She squinted to see the traffic light not far away and saw a bus heading in this direction steadily stopped at the red light. Yan He breathed a sigh of relief. When the bus stopped in front of her and opened its door, she walked straight in without overthinking.

The bus seemed to have the heater on; it was a bit stuffy but warm enough. Yan He scanned her code to pay, held onto the railing, and randomly found a window seat. She neatly adjusted her clothes and then leaned back against the seat, as if losing all her strength.

The traffic outside was heavy and colorful, but she didn’t want to look anymore. Closing her eyes, she could only hear the not-so-noisy human voices around her and the bus’s announcement tone. She again felt disconnected from this world.

Yan He dozed off in the warm bus. She didn’t know how much time had passed. The human voices nearby gradually died away, leaving only the sound of the bus engine and the occasional machine announcement.

The bus driver stopped the bus. Seeing that there was still one passenger, he walked over and called Yan He: “Girl? Girl? Wake up! We’re at the terminal!”

Yan He opened her eyes groggily. She blinked a few times before her vision cleared again. She then met the bus driver’s concerned gaze: “Girl, are you alright? Are you feeling unwell?”

Yan He shook her head, holding onto the seat in front to stand up: “I’m fine, thank you!”

After getting off the bus, she looked around and realized she had arrived at the lakeside park where she had gone for a walk to clear her mind during the New Year. When she saw the characters carved into the huge rock, she suddenly smiled.

Is this fate? The last time she came here was also because of her parents’ issues.

The bus terminal was directly across from the lakeside park. There wasn’t much traffic in the suburbs. Yan He crossed the crosswalk and reached the opposite side. The park was a bit livelier now than during the New Year, but Yan He didn’t come here often, so she didn’t know if the park was usually crowded.

She thought of the elderly woman she met the last time she was here and the words of comfort the woman had given her.

Adults have their reasons, but so do grown-up children.

She slowly walked to the lake. Looking at the unfrozen water, she wondered, What is the difference between the temperature in December and January? When will it be the coldest? When will the lake freeze over?

She looked up and saw a couple sitting on the opposite side of the river. She suddenly missed Shen Jinrong terribly, but she didn’t want to find her right now. Negative emotions were useless garbage. Yan He didn’t want to convey her negative emotions to the Older Woman. She preferred to endure it and digest it alone, unwilling to let the person she liked suffer the same sadness as her.

She walked halfway around the lake and found that the park’s lake was larger than she had imagined. Does every park have a lake? This lake must have witnessed many things too, right?

It was now 1:40 p.m. The sky was gradually clearing, the dark clouds retreating, and the sunlight was casting down through the thin clouds. Yan He sat alone by the lake for a while. When she unintentionally looked up, she saw two kites hanging high in the sky.

Do people fly kites in this life too?

She vaguely remembered flying a kite before, but too much time had passed, and she couldn’t recall the details. At that time—Mr. Yan had flown it for her. She still remembered the high-voltage wires nearby, with a few unfortunate kites wrapped around them.

It seemed very dangerous now, but Yan He wondered, Why didn’t I sense the danger back then? Perhaps it was because her parents were both by her side.

She didn’t want to continue reminiscing and lowered her head, no longer looking at the two kites. She wanted to walk around aimlessly, seeing whatever, meeting whomever. She didn’t want to be alone.

As she walked, she reached the place where she had seen the kites flying earlier. The two kites had fallen to the ground at some point, and a few people were gathered, examining them. Yan He glanced from a distance and realized that the lines of the two kites must have gotten tangled and caused them to fall.

Somehow, she couldn’t bear to look anymore, so she turned and left.

The scenery in the lakeside park made her feel both strange and familiar. Returning here after nearly a year, she had a sense that things had changed, though the people remained the same—It shouldn’t be that things have changed, she thought, after all, the signs of her parents’ divorce were already there back then.

Yan He sat down randomly on a swing. With a forceful push of her feet, she swung up.

Did she really not know they were incompatible? The whistling wind in her ears gave her the answer—she was just unwilling to admit it.

Her parents’ behavior before was a bit off. She hadn’t thought about it before, and later, she became afraid to think about it.

Yan He swung hard, suddenly very envious of the two kites flying in the sky earlier. If the kite next to her was the Older Woman, then even if they got tangled and fell to the ground together—it would still be forever together.

She didn’t know how much time passed. She stopped, breathless. A thin layer of sweat broke out on her body. She stood up, let out a long breath, vigorously rubbed her face, which was stiff from the cold, and wanted to find a warmer place to stay.

Suddenly, a somewhat familiar, elderly, and hesitant voice came from beside her: “Girl?”