Chapter 104: A Chance Encounter

It was still a while until the agreed time, but once again I felt the inconvenience of this body.

Before leaving, since I had no proper clothes to wear outside, I had no choice but to ‘borrow’ his daughter’s clothes again. It seemed his child was also quite fond of those anime things; the wardrobe, aside from school uniforms, was full of flashy outfits.

I struggled a bit and finally found a relatively casual-looking dress. It was a simple, elegant short-sleeved white dress with a ribbon-like sash at the waist. When I tightened it, my waist seemed surprisingly thin—it startled me at first.

I looked like a character just stepped out of an anime.

That was Chen Yunsong’s comment after seeing me change. It was also the reason a stranger pestered me after I arrived at this café.

“Hello there, young lady. Let me introduce myself. My surname is Lyu. English name—you can call me Lyu,” a man in a suit and sunglasses said as he sat down across from me uninvited. “I’ve been watching you from over there for a while. You really have an aura about you. Mind if we chat?”

“Eh?” This was the first time I’d encountered such a situation, so my mind froze for a moment. Was this… a pick-up line?

My momentary hesitation gave him a chance to continue.

“I recognize that outfit. It’s from some anime character, right? You’re obviously into the same stuff. You’ve got great potential. I mean, with your looks, you could shoot great pictures anywhere. Coincidentally, I’m into photography too. This is a new camera I just bought—I was planning to capture the scenery here, but now that I see you, aren’t you the best scenery?”

“You’re worried about my photography skills? Haha, don’t worry. I got into photography when I was in the States. Back then, I took artistic portraits for many alumni—all kinds of styles. And I just returned to China this year, and I’ve already received a few… I’m considering…”

It was clear that this guy was extremely outgoing. Given an opening, he launched into a ceaseless introduction of himself. Starting from anime and photography, then to studying abroad and returning, showing off his excellence and wealth. An ordinary young girl might have been dazzled by his spiel. But I was an old salted fish seasoned by years of wind and rain. After calmly listening to him, the first question I asked was:

“You just said you received an offer from a lab, right?”

“Right.”

“So what field are you researching at Stanford?”

His expression froze, as if he hadn’t expected me to ask that. After a moment’s hesitation, he said, “MSE.”

“MSE, huh?”

His brows furrowed involuntarily, clearly surprised that I knew a bit of foreign language. “Uh…”

“And your specialization? Metals, ceramics, nanomaterials, or semiconductors?” I pressed on.

“Met… metals,” he stammered.

I put on a friendly smile. “What a coincidence! I also research metals.”

“Uh…”

“Really. Remember that room-temperature superconductor a few Indians cooked up a few years ago? I tried to replicate it in the lab back then, and it turned out to be completely fake. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before he was exposed for academic fraud. Then a Korean professor claimed to have discovered one, and I tried again—no luck. In recent years, I haven’t had the chance to do research due to some unexpected events. Since you’ve returned from Stanford, you must be quite familiar with this field. How’s the academic community doing now? Any latest progress?”

Faced with my rapid-fire questions, the man fell into a long silence. Finally, he slowly stood up, wearing an awkward smile. “Sorry, actually I studied finance. Pardon me, pardon me…”

After being exposed, he seemed too ashamed to speak further and slunk away after apologizing.

Heh heh… I took a sip of coffee and thought to myself, ‘Just as I suspected. As I said, the students I knew back then were always disheveled after experiments. When did they have the time to dress so finely and hit on girls outside?’

Hey! Someone suddenly slapped my shoulder. When I turned around, a little girl’s face full of excitement appeared in my sight. “Wow~ it really is you! I saw you from behind just now and thought you looked familiar. What a coincidence!”

“Yu… Yuhuan?” I stared at her blankly. “What are you doing here?”

“Me? I’m out with my mom for a meal today~” Yuhuan sat down naturally opposite me, stretching her youthful body. Her delicate skin glowed with a healthy tint in the dim light. “Yeah~ but you! Weren’t you broke yesterday, no money for a cab, no phone, and all that? How come you’re here today?”

“I… I…”

“Oh, it’s okay, it’s okay. I’m sure you’ve made up with your family, right? That’s good. Everyone goes through that. When I was in middle school, I often threw tantrums and refused to go home…” As she spoke, Yuhuan suddenly waved toward the entrance. Her smile was extraordinarily bright at that moment. “Mom, Uncle Chen, over here!”

My heart suddenly tightened. An inexplicable panic shot through my body like an electric current.

No way… Could it be such a coincidence?

Slowly, mechanically, I turned my head, forcing my gaze behind me. At the entrance appeared a strikingly beautiful figure. It was a hot woman wearing sunglasses and a strappy dress. Her figure was slender, her skin taut, with no trace of childbirth visible anywhere.

Chen Yunsong led that woman to our table. Chen Yunsong and I sat on one side, while the woman sat with Yuhuan on the other.

After the woman casually took off her sunglasses, I finally saw that face I had dreamt of. Ten years ago, that face was full of worry, constantly radiating a tired exhaustion from hard work. Today, ten years later, looking at that face, it was plump and rosy, well-preserved and seemingly younger than before.

Staring at that face, I couldn’t help blurting out, “Shanshan…”

“Hmm?” That woman, my former wife, immediately noticed me and gave a very warm and gentle smile. “Oh my, Xiao Chen, is this the niece you mentioned? She’s really beautiful, just like the dolls in Xiaoyu’s anime shows!”

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Bound by Fate, Claimed by Love

BLDramaFantasy

Read Now →
Not interested