"You not only barged yourself in the room you offered to me… but you almost barged yourself in my body, too."
Pan An felt like he was kicked in the face by a horse—the impact of it making his head throb more than he was already feeling with the hang over that he was having!
His lips turned into a tight line, not knowing what to say.
Shu Xian averted her gaze from him, already serving herself the egg fried rice that she made for breakfast. She put seaweed flakes on top of her serving, her hands slightly shaking as she remembered what had happened last night.
'This damned drunk professor! Why can't I put up a brave front in front of him when I should be angry at what he did to me last night!?'
"Shu Xian…"
"Y-yes?"
When Pan An suddenly called out to her, Shu Xian could not help but stammer as she replied. With what had happened last night even though Pan An had mistaken her for someone else, Shu Xian still felt the mixed feelings she had of both anger and embarrassment.
"Did I—what you said..."
Pan An trailed off, Shu Xian, calming down as she tried her best to muster up her bravery once more to mask her discomfort.
"Was it true?"
"Yes."
Shu Xian truthfully answered his question. Pan An sighed as he shook his head disappointingly at himself, feeling bad that he invaded Shu Xian's room.
But at the same time, he felt glad that he could not remember what had happened last night. Knowing what he had done was already embarrassing enough. What more if he remembered what he exactly did to her?
"I'm sorry," Pan An immediately apologized, wanting to snap away from his thoughts as he started to feel embarrassed by the second. "Whatever happened last night, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—I was drunk."
"Well," Shu Xian scoffed, "Obviously."
She put down her spoon for a while, cocking her head to the side as she propped a hand on the table for her cheek to rest on her fist, a smug grin appearing on her face as well.
"But you think I would let this slide?"
Pan An furrowed his brows, "What?"
Shu Xian grabbed Pan An by the necktie that he wore last night. Pan An's eyes widened when he was slightly pulled towards her, his face an inch away from hers.
He felt her breath fan over his lips, her eyes locked with his. He didn't know why, but his heart started to race when Shu Xian's eyes seemed to scan every inch of his face, making him feel uneasy with the attention she was giving him.
"Because you almost invaded my body last night, I want a compensation."
"What?"
Pan An didn't expect what she said. When he held her hand since he wanted to pull away from her, Shu Xian instead tightened her grip on his neck tie, not allowing him to move as she pulled him closer to her, their forehead against each other.
"Zip it!"
Her voice sounded firm, surprising Pan An as he did not expect Shu Xian to have this strong side to her.
"Imagine the sleepless night I got because of your drunk antics! I thought until sunrise to come up for this proposal!"
"Proposal?"
Pan An scoffed, a smile of disbelief showing on his face as he pulled away from Shu Xian's hold, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he raised a brow at her as if challenging her.
"What kind of proposal is this?" The professor narrowed his eyes at her, "And if you're doing this to blackmail me, then you are going to regret—"
Before Pan An could even finish his sentence, Shu Xian flashed her phone in front of the professor. It showed the call history she had with her mother at around 2 in the morning, Pan An's eyes, widening in shock, his jaw almost dropping on the floor.
"Y-you… you talked to mother?"
Shu Xian nodded, putting her phone down for a moment.
"Yup! She unexpectedly called last night after you drifted off to sleep."
Pan An's eyebrows creased, "What did you two talk about?"
Shu Xian shrugged, feigning ignorance as she cocked her head to the side. She even winked her eye at him as she said,
"It's a secret between me and 'mother-in-law.'"
Pan An closed his eyes as he clicked his tongue once. An annoyed smile appeared on his face as he puffed his cheeks in frustration, letting out the air slowly out of his mouth with each passing second as Shu Xian smiled triumphantly, picking up her spoon as she continued eating her bowl of egg fried rice.
Knowing his mother, Cai Li, she would have talked to Shu Xian about something personal—or worse—would even ask a favor from her when it comes to taking care of him or getting information from him!
He knew that his mom could pry into his privacy especially now that he claimed to have a girlfriend whom he's living with now! With her wanting to be close to Shu Xian, who knows what Cai Li could have said.
And in the middle of the night, too? That is something unusual for his mother to do since Pan An knew that his mother respected privacy and sleep!
What could they be talking about?
Pan An felt a vein bulging in his head. With the hangover going on as well, he couldn't help but think that the vein will pop at any second with all the guessing games he had been doing since the moment he woke up!
"Shu Xian…"
Pan An called out her name, Shu Xian, looking at him as she continued to chew her food.
"You better tell me what you have talked about with my mother or else I'll kick you out."
Shu Xian didn't reply for a while. She was still chewing her food so she put up her index finger, gesturing Pan An to wait until she swallowed her food.
She got the pitcher of water in front of her, serving herself a glass of water. She drank half of it, swallowing her food at the same time.
Shu Xian then cleared her throat, already replying to him with an answer Pan An wasn't expecting.
"Last night, you mistook me for Miss Ruo Xi, whoever that person is. You then crashed your lips on mine and had mistaken me for her, your hands—"
"Stop, stop, stop! That's not the answer to my question!"
Pan An immediately shut his eyes as he felt that Shu Xian knew a part of his life that he desperately wanted to let go. With his reaction, Shu Xian couldn't help but smirk as she got her spoon again, mixing her bowl to get better chances of eating the egg and the seaweed.
"If you don't want me to tell you in detail what had happened last night, and if you don't want me to rat you out to your mother that this was all fake…"
Shu Xian put the bowl down, her spoon at the side as well as she propped a hand under her chin. A cheeky grin appeared on her face as she spoke, Pan An's eyebrow, twitching with how shameless she could be!
"Listen to my demands, Professor Pan An."