Fancy Me, Professor!

[This chapter is dedicated to Queenebunoluwa15 for being my reader in The Soul Eater's Possession and now here. ^^ Thanks so much for the support!]

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With Professor Pan An already agreeing to the demands of the young lady he saved, Shu Xian exclaimed excitedly as she clapped her hands, her eyes, twinkling as if it were stars in a night sky.

"Thank you, Pan An! You won't go back on your word, right?"

"I won't…" Pan An rolled his eyes at her, "It is one thing that I don't like. Once I agreed with it already, I won't back down."

"Alright!"

Shu Xian then quickly stood up, got another spoon and gave it to Pan An.

"Now eat your soup—you're about to go to the university, right? Don't forget to vouch for me!"

Pan An narrowed his eyes at her, getting the spoon from her as he ate the mushroom soup Shu Xian had prepared for him.

"Cheeky… you better tell me what you and mother had talked about during that dinner if she wanted to talk to you privately," he said, Shu Xian, nodding as she continued eating her bowl of egg fried rice.

"Okay. But if it is something private—only between me and her, I won't tell."

Hearing this, Pan An scoffed.

"What? You have to tell me even though it was serious and only between you and her!"

Shu Xian furrowed her brows, uncomfortable of the thought.

"I have to be honest—I don't like the idea. With Ma'am Cai Li calling in the middle of the night with such a serious tone in asking me out on a dinner without you around, I don't know…"

Pan An narrowed his eyes at her once more, "Do you think you can be comfortable being with my mother alone after only meeting her once?"

Shu Xian blinked her eyes a few times. With Pan An now asking this from her, it had only occurred to her now that she did not think of this through.

'He's right… would I be okay?'

Shu Xian was quiet for a while. She remembered the phone call she had with his mother, remembering how sad and serious the tone of her voice was—which made it difficult for her to refuse her even though she wanted to respectfully decline.

She actually wanted to tell Pan An that her mother was almost crying when she called her, but with her favor of telling her to not tell her son about the call with her sad tone of voice, she said she wouldn't want her son to worry.

Shu Xian sighed, snapping herself out of her thoughts as a small smile appeared on her face.

"I'll be alright. Your mother seems to be nice," she answered, another scoff coming from Pan An.

"You see my mother nice? Let me tell you… the pressure she had always been giving around women who were around me—when Ruo Xi—"

Pan An suddenly stopped when he mentioned his ex-fiancée's name. Shu Xian cocked her head to the side, raising a brow at him at the same time as she grew curious of what he was about to say.

"About…"

Remembering the threat Pan An told her about not mentioning Ruo Xi's name, only one word came from Shu Xian. She expectantly waited for Pan An to answer, the man only sighing as he shook his head, continuing to eat the mushroom soup prepared for his hangover.

"Never mind."

"Oh." Shu Xian's eyebrows slightly creased, "Alright then… but I was wondering what you were meaning to say about what your mother was giving to the women around you," she added, removing the Ruo Xi part so she would not irritate him.

Although, she was now curious than ever about Ruo Xi—making her want to ask more about her from Wang Lei, Pan An's best friend.

Prying into other people's lives was something Shu Xian didn't like. However, with him being involved with a mysterious man such as Pan An, she couldn't help but be drawn towards him and what she could possibly have in store by being involved in such a deal with him—being his fake lover.

"Well..." Pan An trailed off, snapping Shu Xian out of her thoughts. "My mother—even though I was not interested in dating before, she knew I had a lot of suitors. She would usually have set up blind dates by the women's parents and every time it would happen, she would not hesitate to show them of her disapproval."

"Oh! Like… a typical, cruel, future-mother-in-law?" she jokingly commented, Pan An, not minding it as a little chuckle sounded from him.

"Yes. And believe me, I appreciated her doing that before when I was younger. Until I met…"

He did not continue his sentence and his smile slowly faded away.

With that, it was enough for Shu Xian to understand that he met Ruo Xi afterward.

But would his hesitation mean that even Cai Li was cruel to his son's ex-fiancée, knowing that she was the first girl he was serious about?

"Anyway, I met someone and compared to the hatred my mother showed to the ones I wasn't involved much with, she showed this much hatred to this woman who I was first serious with."

'Ah,' Shu Xian thought, 'I knew it—I was right.'

Pan An then turned his head to the side to look at Shu Xian who was seated beside him. A small smile then appeared on his face, asking Shu Xian a question that he also asked a moment ago.

"Do you think you can be comfortable being alone with my mother?"

Shu Xian was quiet for a while.

Pan An did not go into much detail about what she did to the previous women who were setting themselves up with Pan An. He did not go into much detail of how she treated Ruo Xi, but somehow, Shu Xian could not grasp the fear of being alone with Cai Li.

Shu Xian shrugged, "No."

Pan An raised a brow at her, "No?"

"Well..."

Shu Xian trailed off, her reply, surprising Pan An.

"I'm different from them. If your mother was clearly the one who reached out to me in such a welcoming manner, then it would mean that she saw something in me, right?"

Pan An couldn't help but slightly chuckle at her reply. He continued eating his soup, Shu Xian, wondering why he reacted that way.

Pan An then drank the bowl of soup in one go instead, leaving no drop behind as he put the bowl back down on the table.

"Yes, you may be different," he said, already standing up from the table as he spoke one last time before heading back to his room to groom himself.

"But with the fake relationship that we have, it wouldn't be much of a big difference."