"What to do When the Pretty Woman I Kissed is My Best Friend's Professor" - Chapter 8

Yan He woke up at three in the morning. Lying in bed, she opened her eyes and subconsciously sat up to check the time, but instead of the familiar curtained window, she was facing a wall.

The wallpaper in front of her flickered with faint, irregular points of light, just as she remembered. Dazed, she turned her head. Only when she saw the pale blue curtains on the left did she realize she wasn’t in her house in Rome, but in her own home.

She had crashed immediately upon returning and hadn’t had time to charge her phone, which now wouldn’t turn on. Yan He got out of bed barefoot, rummaged through her suitcase for her charging cable, and after plugging it in, she pulled open the curtains and sat by the bed, staring blankly out at the night.

The weather was lovely tonight, and the moonlight was bright.

Yan He remembered that when she left home, the cherry blossom tree outside the window hadn’t been so lush, but now it was just able to block the moonlight.

The bright moonlight slipped past the bare branches and scattered onto the floor. Shadows swayed in time with the wind blowing through the branches. The moonlight was clear, the only light source in the room, and it faintly fell on Yan He, drawing her shadow long.

A sudden sense of loneliness welled up in her heart. Tonight was completely different from, even the exact opposite of, the night before last. On that night, the warm, yellow light and the gentle woman sitting on the sofa were imprinted on her heart as if branded by a hot iron. A scene she had only seen briefly became something she constantly dreamed of.

Yan He wondered if she had lost her soul in Vienna—lost it to that woman?

A piece of her soul had been willingly stripped away and cast upon Halley’s Comet, which is only seen once every 75 years. That comet, trailing its long tail across the Earth, was like a beautiful encounter that happens only once in a lifetime, briefly yet permanently stunning her life.

The various moments she shared with her Jiejie kept flashing through Yan He’s mind. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. She opened her phone and started searching for flights that departed from Vienna and arrived in China around noon the day before yesterday.

Could one of the flights have landed in Beijing? If so, wouldn’t my chances of seeing her again be greater?

The vine of joy blossomed in her heart, its dark green tendrils quietly extending to every part of her body. She felt as if she were standing on a barren plateau, watching the morning sun slowly rise above the horizon and then watching the sparkling stars fill the night sky.

Flight C2659, which departed from Vienna International Airport at 12:30 PM the day before yesterday and arrived in Jing City at 7:00 AM yesterday—this was the flight that best fit the characteristics.

Yan He rolled happily on the bed, burying her face in the quilt and letting out a silent scream.

She actually found her Jiejie’s flight!

After confirming her Jiejie’s flight, Yan He finally felt hungry. She placed her phone on the desk to continue charging and tip-toed out of the room.

To avoid disturbing her parents, Yan He didn’t turn on the lights. She walked barefoot to the refrigerator. The floor wasn’t cold because the radiant floor heating was on. The upper shelf of the refrigerator contained several plates of food neatly wrapped in plastic cling wrap. Yan He randomly took out one plate and walked to the kitchen, peeled off the wrap, and set the timer for the food in the microwave.

She wandered around the kitchen, opened the rice cooker, and saw the steaming hot rice inside. Yan He’s vision blurred. She pulled up a chair, turned its back forward, and rested her face on the chair back. She just sat there in a daze in front of the microwave, staring blankly at the yellow light inside the microwave shining on the constantly rotating plate.

—Until she heard a “ding.”

She pulled open the microwave. The scrambled eggs with tomatoes on the plate steamed with mist.

The steaming hot scrambled eggs with tomatoes sat side-by-side with the freshly scooped rice from the rice cooker. The light in the kitchen wasn’t as bright as she remembered. Yan He looked up and realized two small bulbs were out.

The whole world seemed to return to its proper place with that single “ding.”

This is the reality now.

—The misty steam, the red and yellow scrambled eggs with tomatoes, the clearly separated grains of rice in the bowl, the familiar light overhead.

As Yan He ate, her eyes turned red.

The next morning, He You, who was about to leave, was startled to see Yan He with her backpack, neatly dressed: “Do you have class today?”

Yan He casually picked up a piece of bread from the table, took a bite, and nodded vaguely.

“Should I give you a ride?” Ms. He asked Yan He while putting on her bag and high heels.

Yan He shook her head, swallowed with difficulty, and said: “It’s fine, I’ll just take the subway myself.”

Ms. He raised her eyebrow: “I’ll drive you to the subway station. You can eat your breakfast in the car.” With that, Ms. He opened the door while muttering: “Why does she have class so early? They should let the child sleep a bit longer.”

Yan He bit her bread and didn’t dare to speak up. She was going to class for Li Xiuxi, and she couldn’t let Ms. He know that.

Sitting in the car, Yan He munched on her bread and mumbled to Ms. He: “Where’s my dad? I haven’t seen him.”

He You turned the steering wheel without batting an eye, glancing at Yan He: “Don’t drop your bread crumbs on my car.” She paused, then answered Yan He’s question: “Your dad? He has a meeting today. He left early.”

Yan He finished her bread, wiped her hands with a wet wipe, and cleaned up the crumbs she had dropped. Already sensing her birth mother’s disdain, she complained a little wistfully to He You: “Mom, I just got back. Be a little gentler with me.”

Ms. He briefly took time out of her busy schedule to humor her: “You eat out by yourself today. I’m negotiating a big project recently and don’t have time to accompany you.”

Yan He pouted miserably. Just then, they arrived at the subway station, and she experienced the feeling of being watched off into the cold wind.

Standing next to the turnstile at the subway entrance, she fumbled for a long time before successfully linking a transit card to her phone. Taking advantage of the wait for the subway, Yan He sent a message to Li Xiuxi: “On the subway [Image]” Li Xiuxi quickly replied: “Thanks, thanks! I’m already at school! Waiting for Professor Zhang.”

Yan He asked her: “Lunch together?”

Li Xiuxi: “Sure, sure! I’ll treat you, I’ll treat you! Oh right! When you go to class, sit in the back and be low-key! Everyone in my department knows you.”

Yan He: “??? [Confused cat emoji]” Li Xiuxi: “[Duck head, your little thoughts are showing]” Li Xiuxi: “Gotta go, gotta go! Professor Zhang is here! I’m out! Message me after class!”

Yan He: “[OK]” Walking into the third teaching building, Yan He first bought a bottle of water from the vending machine downstairs. The bread was too dry, and Yan He had been thirsty the whole way.

As she was drinking her water, a girl hesitantly approached her: “Is the Business School class here today?”

Yan He looked at her strangely: “Yes.” Don’t Business School students know where their own class is? Is she here substituting too?

Yan He blinked, and holding the mineral water bottle, she sat in the second-to-last row by the aisle, as requested by Li Xiuxi.

“You startled me. I just saw Yan He from the Journalism Department. I thought I was in the wrong place,” the girl who just spoke to Yan He sat in front, chatting with her roommate: “But she really is beautiful! So full of youthful vigor!”

Another guy turned his head to look at Yan He sitting in the back row, already used to it: “She’s been here before. She’s probably substituting for Li Xiuxi.”

“Speaking of which, I haven’t seen her and Li Xiuxi in a long time. Didn’t they go to Italy? Are they just back?”

“I guess so.”

“Have you met the new Professor Shen? Professor Zhao taught for over half a semester, and then suddenly the instructor changed,” someone asked about Shen Jinrong.

“No. I saw on the official website that she has a Ph.D. from a Top 5 university.”

“Wow, I wonder if her hair is still okay? I feel like I’m losing hair just from my undergraduate studies.”

They joked and laughed with each other. Just as they were chatting, the class bell rang. Everyone took out their notebooks, ready for class. Some people craned their necks, ready to see what the new teacher looked like.

A woman in a black overcoat walked in quickly, right as the bell rang. She began with a concise and quick self-introduction: “Hello everyone, I am Shen Jinrong. Due to some private matters, the previous classes were covered by Professor Zhao.”

“Alright, we’ll continue with what we covered in the last class.”

From the moment Shen Jinrong began to speak, Yan He snapped her head up.