Me After Meeting You

Amber couldn’t help but shiver, feeling like a bolt of electricity had run through her entire body. Her face was entirely red, how on earth could she think properly under such a stressful situation? Finally unable to bear it any longer, she buried her head in his shoulder, and sullenly said, “How can I answer when you’re acting like this? It’s too much to ask from me!”

Ian made an ‘Oh’ sound.

Amber seriously said, “There are too many people around, and your handsomeness is distracting me, so I can’t answer you.”

Ian unexpectedly actually released her, looked at her, and then suddenly said, “Tomorrow’s the sixth.”

“Hmm?”

And then … there wasn’t an ‘and then’ after that. He waved in the air, and a car that was parked nearby slowly drove over. Before he got into the car, he lightly pinched her cheek one last time. “Alright, you should head back now. Your face is so hot that I could cook an egg on it.”

“….”

She very much wanted to curse at him; who was the one who had made her face red in the first place? But she could only choke her words down and watch as Ian got into the car and left.

Only when she went upstairs into the hotel room did Amber finally realize what Ian had meant when he had suddenly stated tomorrow’s date.

Tomorrow was the sixth, the day of their planned date.

So what was he trying to do by mentioning it so solemnly?

Amber had a feeling that Ian was going to try something big tomorrow, and she was also very curious about what it would be. It was only now that she started to slightly understand Nancy’s motivation for setting research as her career and her entire life, and Amber also suddenly understood Einstein’s words, “I’m not particularly intelligent, just particularly curious.”

Curiosity was a major driving force behind the progress of humanity.

Amber’s self-indulgent flights of fancy stopped in their tracks when she saw her mother. Her father had drunk himself to sleep, and Amber was worried that her mother wouldn’t be able to handle him herself, so she had offered to sleep with her mother tonight.

Ian had booked a suite, so there was no concern about the space.Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

It was already quite late at night, but Amber’s mother was still awake, as if she were waiting specially for her.

Amber obediently sat down in front of her mother.

Her mother looked at Amber, her daughter who was almost thirty years old. In her memories, she still seemed like the little girl who followed shyly behind her grandmother, the little girl who sobbed and begged them to send her grandmother to the hospital when she had a mental breakdown.

But who would have known that, in the blink of an eye, that same little girl would grow up, become a doctor, form her own opinions, and move out of her parents’ place.

As Amber’s mother reminisced on the past, her heart softened, and even the anger that she had originally harbored about Amber’s outwardly compliant but inwardly unruly behavior dissipated. She tenderly asked, “It’s going to be him, isn’t it?”

Amber truthfully replied, “I’m not sure.”

Amber’s mother was stunned by this reply.

Her gentle mien broke down, and she stared at Amber with eyes wide open in disbelief. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

When she had said that she would prefer for Amber to not marry than to suffer, that was only if Amber would actually suffer; otherwise, Amber’s parents very much wanted her to quickly get married.

It was a bother for them to have such old children at home.

Amber smiled and lovingly grasped her mother’s wrists. “Mom, can you not be in so much of a hurry? I know that it gets harder and harder for a girl to find a suitor when she’s older, but suitors also don’t just drop down from the sky. So, rather than marry unhappily, I’d rather not marry at all….”

But when Amber glanced up, she saw her mother’s murderous expression, prompting her to quickly change her tone. “Although I saw this, I’m seriously looking to get married. I can promise you this, I won’t insist on remaining single like my professor. But will you also promise me not to be in such a rush? Something like marriage needs to go through the proper process, and who knows if something will go wrong during this process?”

And, in this time and age, marriage was hardly a permanent thing-though Amber didn’t dare say something like that to her mother’s face.

Amber’s mother had heard what she wanted to hear, and thinking that Amber’s logic was sound, said, “That’s true. It seems like all the rich kids tend to lead a somewhat chaotic life, so it’s better for you to understand what you’re getting yourself into.”

But then she cautioned, “As a woman, you have to take pride in yourself, and not just casually promise yourself to anyone. As a doctor, you shouldn’t need me to repeat this.”

After her word of caution, she looked Amber up and down, and her expression started to turn to disdain. “You should also dress up a little, and buy some beautiful clothes to wear. Look at this drab attire of yours! Those who don’t know you might even think that you’re a country bumpkin from who knows where, but you have a doctorate, and you’re even a doctor at a famous hospital….”

Her mother’s nagging made Amber want to fall asleep, and she propped up her lower jaw to keep herself awake as she thought about how Ian had actually noticed that she was still treating him like a patient… Then had he also noticed that she was a little moved by his wooing attempts?

If they continued down this road, Amber felt that it would become very dangerous for her. If their doctor-patient relationship were to veer from the professional and to the personal, its failure would be extremely hurtful to both of them.

But she didn’t actually resist the change in their relationship, perhaps because Ian’s beauty was just too alluring. At this moment in time, Amber was treating Ian just like a normal man, trying to love him and be loved by him.