Chapter 166 - 131: Teacher Shen, I Like You (Part 2)
Jiang He thought for a moment, then double-checked, "Uh... how exactly are you planning to help me?"
"!!!"
Shen Yu finally realized how risqué her words had sounded. She waved her hands in a panic and stammered, "I... I didn’t mean it like that! I meant..."
Seeing her babbling incoherently, Jiang He smiled and decided to stop teasing her. "No need to help. I can handle it. You go to sleep first."
With that, he slipped into the bathroom.
A moment later, the sound of running water came from within.
Shen Yu stood where she was, covering her burning cheeks with both hands. She stomped her foot in mortification.
Then, she dove under the covers and wrapped herself up tightly like a cocoon.
’I’m going to be sleeping in the same room as a boy. So nervous!’
’Dr. Jiang isn’t going to just lose control and pounce on me, is he? He wouldn’t, right? He wouldn’t? Hmm... why am I a little excited about the idea?’
’Aaargh! No! That’s not allowed! Stop it, you stupid brain! Stop thinking such things!!!’
Shen Yu wriggled around in bed like a caterpillar, letting out the occasional muffled whimper.
The moment the sound of the water in the bathroom stopped, she instantly transformed into Sleeping Beauty, quickly arranging her features into the most beautiful sleeping expression and pretending to be sound asleep.
’Hehe, you dummy! Just try and resist this!’
After changing his clothes, Jiang He came out and glanced at the other bed.
Seeing his wife lying quietly under the covers, he couldn’t stop a huge grin from spreading across his face.
He knew exactly what she looked like when she was pretending to sleep.
And she was very obviously faking it right now! It was the kind of fake sleep where you intentionally strike a pose!
It was almost ridiculously cute.
Jiang He walked to the bedside and said softly, "Time to sleep."
A nasal reply came from under the covers. "Mmm, sleep time."
’She’s definitely still faking it!’
Jiang He’s expression softened. As he was about to get into his bed, he noticed several lights were still on in the room.
He froze for a second. He rarely stayed in such high-end hotels and was momentarily stumped by the wall of switches.
The lamp by the desk—he fumbled around until he turned it off.
Why was the light strip under the TV still on? He searched for a long time before finally turning it off.
The bathroom light... off.
Dammit, why is there still a light on in the entryway! This is ridiculous!
Under the covers, Shen Yu had been trying her best to maintain her serene and beautiful sleeping expression. But as she listened to the sound of him shuffling back and forth across the room, she quietly peeked her eyes open.
Seeing the back of Dr. Jiang leaning on his crutch, staring at the wall of switches in deep contemplation, she just couldn’t hold it in any longer.
"Pfft..."
She quickly buried her face in the covers and went back to playing dead.
After finally turning off all the lights, Jiang He fumbled his way back to bed.
He knew his wife didn’t like sleeping with any lights on, but she also didn’t like it to be pitch-black, so he had intentionally left a small gap in the curtains.
A little starlight trickled into the room, as if the Milky Way knew where something beautiful lay and had snuck in on its own.
Lying flat on his back, Jiang He felt wide awake.
His fingers traced the ring on his hand, then touched the Jingtai Lan necklace at his chest. He sighed to himself.
’She’s just too good to me.’
From the postcard album filled with her little notes and thoughts, to this handmade necklace she had traveled across the country for.
On this birthday night, when he should have been facing the loneliness of his new life all by himself, she had appeared out of nowhere and lit up his entire world.
By now, Jiang He was completely certain that Shen Yu had incredibly strong feelings for him—feelings that had developed far more fiercely and rapidly than in his previous life.
If this were just a typical case of an online relationship moving offline, how could a nineteen-year-old college student possibly develop such profound trust and attachment in just a month or so?
Perhaps it was just as he had initially suspected: though his wife had been reborn without her memories, her feelings for him had been miraculously preserved.
That was the only way to explain her behavior.
If that were true, it would prove a deeply romantic theory: even after time was crossed, the future rewritten, and memories erased, her love still remained.
’It’s like gravity—an apple will always fall to the ground.’
By the same token, if it had been Teacher Shen who was reborn with her memories, Jiang He was certain he would have fallen for her at first sight and loved her all over again without a moment’s hesitation.
In the darkness, Jiang He turned his head and looked toward Shen Yu in the adjacent bed.
He made a decision.
He couldn’t keep letting the girl be the one taking all the initiative and shouldering all the uncertainty in this relationship.
’I need to give you a definitive answer.’
"Teacher Shen, are you asleep?" Jiang He asked softly.
After a few seconds of silence, Shen Yu replied in a sleepy voice, "Not yet. What’s up?"
"I want to tell you something."
"Okay, go on."
Jiang He slowly exhaled and said, "Teacher Shen, the truth is... I like you. I’ve liked you since the first moment I saw you."
"?" This sudden, straightforward confession made Shen Yu’s already pounding heart nearly skip a beat.
Panic. Utter panic.
Alarm bells instantly went off in her head as she recalled a warning from her best friend, Liu Xiaotian: "If a guy takes you to a hotel and then suddenly confesses that he loves you, there’s a very high chance it’s for one reason only: he’s after your body and wants to sleep with you! You have to be careful!"
To put it in modern slang: ’I’m done for. He’s going to try and sleep with me tonight.’
Her hand tightened on the bedsheet.
First of all, she really, really liked Dr. Jiang. There was no denying that.
But they hadn’t even made their relationship official yet. If *that* were to really happen in a hotel tonight... she felt it was too fast. She wasn’t prepared at all.
With her mind in a complete tangle, Shen Yu didn’t know how to react.
She could only force down her pounding heart and reply in the calmest voice she could manage, "Okay... and then?"