"What to do When the Pretty Woman I Kissed is My Best Friend's Professor" - Chapter 94

The croissant at the hotel was too sweet; the filling was yellow orange jam. Yan He leaned over to look at Shen Jinrong’s and saw that hers had a chocolate filling.

Yan He felt a little jealous: “Why is mine jam, and yours is chocolate!”

Shen Jinrong looked down at her croissant, then took another bite with a clear conscience: “The sign below clearly labeled them. It’s your fault for not choosing carefully.”

Yan He pouted, wiped her hands, and tugged on her Jiejie‘s sleeve: “I want a taste.”

Shen Jinrong replied calmly: “Keep wanting.”

Yan He looked around and saw that they had arrived too early. There was no one around except a young man drowsily behind the bar. She grew bold, leaned over and quickly kissed Shen Jinrong’s lips. She separated immediately and retreated, raising her cup to hide her nervousness.

Shen Jinrong was amused: “If you want to kiss, then kiss. Why run away after you do?”

Her candidness made Yan He blush.

She lowered her head, took a bite of her croissant, was hit by the sweetness again, and took a large gulp of coffee.

Seeing that Yan He wasn’t speaking, Shen Jinrong asked again, “Did you taste the chocolate?”

Yan He’s ears were red, and her eyes darted around.

While wiping away the crumbs that had fallen on her hand after finishing her meal, Yan He suddenly thought, “When did you buy the cigarettes yesterday?” She wondered if it was before they had dinner.

Shen Jinrong pressed her lips together, feeling a little embarrassed: “I suddenly wanted a cigarette last night, so I asked the young man at the front desk if he had any, and he sold me a pack.”

Yan He slightly raised an eyebrow, her gaze falling on the young man behind the bar not far away. He was still drowsy and showed no reaction to the slightly hostile glance directed at him.

“You’re definitely not allowed to smoke again,” Yan He wiped her mouth. “Yesterday was the last time.” She paused, as if she had just remembered—or perhaps it was a delightful probe: “Not ever again in the future, either.”

Shen Jinrong remained composed: “Mm, okay. I won’t smoke in the future.”

Yan He nodded in satisfaction. After the meal, Yan He went to retrieve the suitcases, while Shen Jinrong went up to the parking lot to bring the car down. They were about to depart for Bolzano.

Yan He held a suitcase in each hand, making it a bit difficult to open the hotel door. The young man from the lobby quickly walked over to push the door open for her and wished her a pleasant journey with a smile. Yan He thanked him and stood in the cold wind by the entrance, waiting for Shen Jinrong to drive over.

It was a bit cold.

She zipped up her down jacket, rubbed her nose, and let out a long breath, a plume of white mist appearing before her. The mist slowly rose, swirling and lifting like boiling steam.

She watched the SUV slowly drive closer, then walked two steps forward with the two suitcases. Having woken up so early, she still felt hazy. She focused her gaze on the car. The distance between them constantly shrank until Shen Jinrong brought the car to a smooth stop right in front of her.

Her Jiejie opened the trunk and then the car door, and together with Yan He, they loaded the luggage.

Seeing Yan He yawn in the passenger seat, Shen Jinrong smiled: “Waking up so early made you sleepy, didn’t it?”

“A little,” Yan He leaned against the car window, looking listless.

“Then take a nap,” Shen Jinrong suggested.

“I’ll keep you company and chat.” Yan He lifted her spirits, thinking that if she didn’t talk to her Jiejie, this part of the trip would be too dull. Even though they had already chatted extensively before, Yan He felt that she had already revealed all her experiences from childhood to adulthood to Shen Jinrong. She thought she probably had no secrets left from Shen Jinrong.

She could wait for her Jiejie to tell her about her own experiences.

Shen Jinrong looked at her and suddenly found her resemblance to a sleepy puppy amusing—one that forces itself to stay awake for its owner, its head nodding repeatedly, looking like it’s about to fall asleep but startling awake the next second, opening its round eyes to declare, “I’m not asleep!”

When Yan He said this for the second time, Shen Jinrong couldn’t hold back her laughter. After a long laugh, she turned up the air conditioning and gently said, “Get some sleep.”

In her ear, she heard Yan He’s deep, even breathing.

Shen Jinrong accelerated, pushing the gas pedal up to one hundred and twenty kilometers per hour, but the other cars on the highway still flew past her. Shen Jinrong wondered how fast they must be driving. Since she couldn’t catch up, she decided not to rush.

Mist was forming on the windshield in front of her. She turned on the vent below the glass to blow on it. The fog dissipated from the bottom up, and her visibility gradually cleared.

After leaving the seaside of Pisa, the weather seemed to become foggy. The scene before them was one of desolation. The trees on both sides of the road were just bare branches, reaching out toward the highway. It looked foggy ahead. The cars that had just driven past seemed to enter a cloud of mist and vanished at some point.

Shen Jinrong thought that in the eyes of the car behind them, she must also be one of those who drove into the fog.

Yan He, next to her, smacked her lips and seemed to say something, but Shen Jinrong didn’t hear clearly. She glanced at the navigation out of the corner of her eye and noticed that the further north they drove, the thicker the fog became. Fog in the morning might dissipate a little once the sun rose.

The warm air in the car blew softly. There was almost no sound inside the car, only the occasional whooshing of the wind outside caused by their speed. After driving a little further, they began to see piles of snow by the roadside. White snowdrifts appeared intermittently, mixed with some dust and fallen leaves, looking grayish-white.

Yan He woke up at some unknown point, a red patch visible on her face where she had been resting. She rubbed her face, subconsciously looked out the window, and seeing the recurring patches of white snow, she yawned and turned to ask Shen Jinrong, “Has it snowed?”

No snowflakes were falling from the sky. Shen Jinrong held the steering wheel and said, “No.” She paused, then added, “It must be old, accumulated snow.”

Yan He nodded blankly, seemingly not having fully processed the information. She looked at the navigation by her hand and realized they were already far from Pisa, approaching Reggio Emilia now, having covered a little less than half the distance. They had stayed on the highway, continuing straight along the SS62.

“How long did I sleep?”

Yan He rubbed her eyes and looked at Shen Jinrong.

Her Jiejie still looked calm and composed, and even driving quietly made her look incredibly beautiful. She said, “Not very long, maybe about an hour.”

Yan He wrinkled her nose, her mind feeling sluggish: “Are you tired? Should we take a break?” She looked at the navigation, which coincidentally displayed a yellow restaurant sign just ahead: “There’s a rest area up front.”

Shen Jinrong also took a glance: “We need to get gas anyway. Let’s go to the service area a bit further ahead.”

This entire stretch seemed unremarkable. Yan He could see the temperature along the way constantly dropping. The change was quite dramatic. She might have seen green plants the last time she looked out the window, but the next time she looked, she could only see a thin layer of snow.

She grew up in the north and had seen plenty of snow, but apart from the joy of childhood, she felt the snow scenes shared with Shen Jinrong were the most beautiful.

“If it snows, shall we have a snowball fight?” Yan He’s voice was soft.

Shen Jinrong smiled: “Sure,” she said, “Even if it doesn’t snow, we can go to a ski resort, and… have a snowball fight.”

Yan He smiled back: “But I’m not very good at skiing.”

“I’ll teach you,” Shen Jinrong said, as if it were the most natural thing. “I know how to ski.”

“The hand-in-hand kind?” Yan He’s eyes lit up.

Shen Jinrong was tickled and confirmed: “Yes, the hand-in-hand kind.”

Yan He turned her head to laugh. Her face was reflected in the car window, and Shen Jinrong glimpsed her squinted, laughing eyes.

“I remember the city centers here usually have ice-skating rinks,” Yan He said matter-of-factly. “I’m not very good at ice-skating, either.”

“Fine, I’ll teach you.”

Yan He pushed her luck: “The hotel we booked has hot springs. We have to take a hot spring bath together.”

Shen Jinrong was internally amused but kept her face composed: “But I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”

Yan He’s eyes widened: “Buy one! I’ll buy one for you! I’ve been paid for my internship!”

“Alright, alright,” Shen Jinrong humored her. “Our Yan He is amazing.”

After Verona, the road was entirely mountainous. The car wound back and forth through the mountains, making occasional sharp turns. Yan He felt a little motion sick and wanted to pull Shen Jinrong’s arm and suggest they stop and rest before driving again, but seeing the location on the navigation drawing closer to Bolzano, she gave up.

Motion sickness is motion sickness. At least they would arrive soon.

After an unknown amount of time, they finally saw the green road sign ahead, which read: “BOLZANO 20KM.”

“We’re almost there,” Shen Jinrong said.

Yan He sighed in relief: “Finally, almost there.” Thankfully, she hadn’t eaten too much this morning, or she might have thrown up by now.

“The road ahead is all mountain roads. I bought mints; they’re in the storage box in front of you,” Shen Jinrong suddenly remembered the mints she had bought and turned to remind Yan He.

Yan He opened the storage box and took out the mints in the tin. Just as she was about to close it, she saw something else underneath. She glanced at Shen Jinrong and reached in to pull out the item.

—It was the strawberry chocolate Shen Jinrong had bought in Siena.

“Found it?” Shen Jinrong caught sight of her taking out the strawberry chocolate and laughed. “I thought you would find it two days ago.”

Yan He held the chocolate, feeling a little flustered: “Is this for me?”

“Didn’t I say it was for you when I bought it?”

Yan He tried hard to recall, but couldn’t remember if she had actually said it was for her when she bought it. Nevertheless, she accepted it with a clear conscience.

“Thank you,” she said softly.

Shen Jinrong smiled, pointed to the road sign ahead, and said, “We’ve arrived.”

BOLZANO.

Bolzano.

At the foot of the Alps.

The journey of her and her love.