Chapter 4 — The Fluffy-Haired Vixen and the Cold-Faced Professor

It is over! He has recognized me! My breath catches in my throat, my heart hammers wildly against my ribs like a beating war drum, and I am consumed by such overwhelming panic that I have no idea what to do next. Should I go to him or run away? This is genuinely a grave existential question! But then again, he is my university lecturer; no matter how desperately I might want to evade him, there is simply no escaping his grasp. Trying to hide now would be utterly futile. The moment I recall our very last encounter, my hands curl into tight fists and I draw in a long, shuddering breath. Oh well... whatever happens, I will just have to face him and clear the air.

Since it is currently the lunch hour, the vast majority of the students have already flocked to the cafeteria, leaving the faculty lounge completely deserted without a single soul in sight. I drag my feet forward, taking each step as if my shoes were made of lead, until I finally reach the designated spot. Catching sight of my approach, Shen Yizhou is already standing there waiting, his gaze fixed on me carrying an expression that is split evenly between smoldering anger and irrepressible amusement. As I meander slowly into his personal space, he grits out every single syllable of my name: "To – Nien!"

I squeak out in a tiny voice: "Present... present and accounted for."

The corners of his lips tilt upward into a chilling smirk, and he steps forward, backing me relentlessly until my spine presses flat against the wall. His tall frame completely eclipses me, casting a shadow that blankets my entire body.

"Well now... Professor... you must have... you must have mistaken me for someone else..." I desperately attempt one last, pathetic bid to salvage the situation.

He raises a single eyebrow, each word falling like a sharp nail driven straight into my heart: "Forty-five years old? The mother of two children? And yet you decided to enroll as an undergraduate student?"

"..."

Trembling from head to toe, I stutter incoherently: "Professor... I swear to you, you really do have the wrong person..."

A flash of dangerous amusement dances in Shen Yizhou's eyes, and his smile grows even more terrifying: "Sister Liu, you know, I always did prefer hearing you speak with that charming local accent."

Covering my face with both hands, I whine in total defeat: "Oh heavens above, Professor, just please make sure you don't fail me for this course~"

Shortly after that exchange, Shen Yizhou practically frog-marched me out of the campus grounds.

"I checked your course schedule already; you don't have any classes this afternoon," he states with icy composure.

We end up at a quiet restaurant. Once he places the order with the waiter, he looks across the table with a stern expression and commands: "Eat. Once you finish your meal, you are going to give me a thorough and logical explanation — how on earth did a forty-five-year-old woman suddenly transform back into a twenty-year-old girl?"

"..."

Eating feels precisely like chewing on dry cardboard; I cannot taste a single morsel of the food. He, on the other hand, refuses to touch a single bite, keeping his intense gaze locked onto me the entire time as if terrified that I might sprout wings and fly away. Finally, unable to bear the suffocating tension a second longer, I lay my chopsticks down with a soft click.

"Professor... the truth of the matter is actually like this..."

I proceed to spill every single detail from beginning to end—starting from my family's desperate financial struggles that left us unable to afford my tuition fees, down to borrowing my mother's identity documents to secure a job as a live-in nanny, and finally resorting to the elaborate forty-five-year-old persona purely out of terror that my true identity would be exposed.

When my confession finally trails off, Shen Yizhou asks with a frigid tone: "Is there anything else you haven't told me yet?"

I shake my head frantically like a rattle-drum, answering without a moment's hesitation: "No! I've told you everything! Honest to goodness, absolutely everything!"

He lets out a long, heavy sigh, and after a prolonged silence, speaks in a deep, resonant voice: "Do you have any earthly idea what I went through... how I felt during that entire period?"

"I have no idea..."

"You saw it yourself, didn't you? Just how completely unhinged and distressed I was back then..."

"I really don't know..."

"To Nien, exactly how do you plan to compensate me for all this?"

Compensate him? I mutter in a voice barely above a whisper: "Truthfully... it isn't as though you suffered any actual losses, Professor... Besides, the work I did was just as good as my mother's, and honestly, my cooking tasted even better..."

Shen Yizhou's brows furrow deeply, his tone relentlessly even: "That was outright fraud and deception. If I were to report you to the authorities, do you think your mother would ever be able to find honest employment again?"

I immediately throw my hands up in total surrender: "I was wrong, Professor! You can demand whatever compensation you want, and I will gladly accept it!"

A sudden, brilliant spark illuminates Shen Yizhou's eyes, and with absolute sincerity, he states his terms: "Be my girlfriend."

"..."

This marks the very first time in my life that anyone has ever confessed their romantic feelings to me. It is also the single most nerve-wracking and emotionally turbulent moment I have ever experienced.

"This... this really doesn't seem quite right..."

Shen Yizhou arches an eyebrow, challenging me: "What, do you have some objection to paying off your debt?"

I wave my hands about frantically in denial: "That is not it at all! It's just that... well, the timing is genuinely inconvenient..."

He counters my argument with a question of his own: "Are you already married?"

I shake my head.

"Do you actually have two children?"

Of course not.

Shen Yizhou presses his lips into a thin line, then says with deliberate slowness: "Even back when I thought you were a forty-five-year-old mother of two, I found myself completely falling for you. Therefore, at this point in time, absolutely nothing on earth can stand between us." He pauses for a brief second, his voice dropping an octave lower: "Unless... you simply don't like me."

Before I even have a fraction of a second to process his words, he leans in close, invading my personal space as he murmurs in a hypnotic, seductive tone: "Do you like me?"

Do I like him? Well, I suppose... I definitely do.

The very second I open my mouth to form a reply, he cuts me off by capturing my lips with his own. What begins as a gentle, hesitant brush of lips gradually deepens into a passionate, breathless embrace. By the time he finally pulls back slightly, leaving us both gasping for air, he wraps his arms tightly around my waist and rasps against my skin: "Let's be together."

Overwhelmed by the fierce intensity of his affection, every ounce of resistance melts away, leaving me with no choice but to follow the dictates of my own heart.

Ever since that pivotal day, we embark on a secret romance, keeping our relationship strictly under wraps. Truth be told, Shen Yizhou initially wanted to make things official and announce it to the world right from the start, arguing quite logically: "We are both completely single consenting adults; loving one another is a matter of personal freedom."

However, I am far more acutely conscious of his professional standing and academic reputation.

"You are a university lecturer, after all. Inside the campus environment... making this public is simply too complicated."

University students these days possess minds like lightning and eyes as sharp as hawks. If our romance were ever dragged into the open, malicious tongues would inevitably accuse him of showing me unwarranted favoritism or awarding me high grades out of romantic partiality, which would instantly trigger a massive scandal. Furthermore, I want our relationship to stand on equal footing, untainted by whispers of academic corruption. Considering that modern college students have been known to draft twenty-page PowerPoint presentations just to expose faculty misconduct while boldly naming names, he naturally has to exercise the utmost caution.

After listening to my careful breakdown of the situation, Shen Yizhou concedes with a resigned sigh and agrees to play along. Yet as it turns out... carrying on a clandestine romance actually carries its own unique brand of thrilling excitement!

During lectures, he will occasionally flash a secret, knowing wink in my direction amidst the sea of seated students. Whispers immediately ripple through the surrounding desks: "Have you noticed how the professor has been smiling a lot more frequently lately?!"

I put on an elaborate display of innocent ignorance: "Huh? Really? I didn't notice anything unusual; he looks completely normal to me?"

The classmate sitting directly beside me leans over to hiss in my ear: "He has literally smiled directly at your row at least three or four times this hour alone!"

Me: "..."

Outside of class hours, our dates take place either safely off-campus or within the cozy confines of his private residence. Whenever the topic of my brief stint as a nanny resurfaces, Shen Yizhou invariably adopts a comically aggrieved expression: "My appetite was ruined and I couldn't sleep a wink; I missed you desperately every single day. But I didn't dare reach out to you because I genuinely believed you had a 'family' of your own. There were moments when I was ready to throw caution to the wind and just storm over to find you no matter the cost."

"Age, profession, social status... none of those trivial things hold any weight when stacked against genuine feelings."

Though deeply touched by his words, I cannot resist teasing him with a soft chuckle: "Are you perhaps suffering from some sort of unresolved maternal fixation?"

Even though I am generally confident in my looks, the fact that he fell head over heels for me back when I was buried beneath that utterly aged, frumpy disguise means his taste in women is, frankly speaking, a little bit... eccentric!

Shen Yizhou: "!"

A sudden surge of mock outrage flashes across his features, and he lunges forward, shoving me backward onto the softness of the sofa: "Oh, you are feeling awfully brave today, aren't you? Daring to tease me like this?!"

With those words, he begins mercilessly tickling my ribs. Shrieking with laughter, I writhe beneath him, gasping out pleas for mercy until he finally takes pity on me, letting up just enough to lean down and press a deeply tender kiss against my lips. I eagerly return the gesture, winding my arms tightly around his neck. Two people whose hearts beat as one, perfectly attuned to each other. Being able to share this kind of love... is truly the greatest happiness imaginable.

Yet all too soon... halfway through the new semester, a bombshell post suddenly materializes on the university's online forum, ruthlessly ripping the lid off our secret romance and exposing us to the public eye!

"This female student goes by the name To Nien, majoring in Subject XX. The moment she stepped onto campus, she styled herself as the departmental belle while openly flirting with multiple male students at the exact same time—she is nothing more than a master-level flirt!"

"Word on the street is that her family background is dirt poor, and she has always harbored ambitions of hooking a wealthy sugar daddy. Her most impressive achievement yet is successfully sinking her claws into our campus's most popular heartthrob and eye-candy lecturer—Professor Shen! These two have officially started dating, and they are constantly spotted holding hands in secluded corners of the residential blocks, and she even spends the night at Professor Shen's apartment! Absolutely disgusting behavior! Is the university administration simply going to sit back and refuse to discipline this kind of shameless, brazen student?!"

Attached to the bottom of the inflammatory post are several blurry photographs—obviously snapped on the sly using mobile phones from obscured angles, capturing intimate moments of myself and Shen Yizhou walking hand-in-hand through the quiet paths of the residential neighborhood.

By the time the notification flashes across my screen and I discover the post, it has already amassed hundreds of enraged comments.

"No way?! Professor Shen is my ultimate campus god! Dating a fresh-faced freshman? That is utterly depraved!"

"This has got to be a dirty flesh-for-favors transaction! He hands out high grades while she provides physical services... sickening beyond words!"

"Oh, come on now, both of them are single adults, isn't dating completely legal? To be fair, I wouldn't mind dating Professor Shen myself if I had the chance!"

"Exactly! Professor Shen is brilliant, completed his graduate studies abroad ahead of schedule, and is only twenty-six or twenty-seven years old right now—the age gap between him and the students isn't even that wide. Sure, hearing about it feels a bit jarring at first. But falling in love is a basic human right!"

"Who even knows what the real story behind closed doors is? For all we know, this could just be a case of a professor 'keeping a student mistress'! Female university students these days are certainly not as innocent as they used to be!"

Voices offering even a shred of defense are few and far between, while vicious, venomous condemnation floods the comment section like a broken dam during a torrential storm.