IHWL – Chapter 90.1

Chapter 90: Fanwai Falling Off a Horse ②

    In the critical moment, Su Jishi’s three consecutive categorical denials did play a very important role.

    Dean Zhang was confused by her calm tone. He looked around but didn’t find the hidden cameras he expected. Then he looked at Su Jishi standing upright in front of him.

    “…” Dean Zhang thought: Could it really be that my eyes are getting blurry, ah? No way, he had seen Su Jin twice. Just a few months ago, they also shot a movie together.

    This face, this body type, those eyes, no matter where you look at it, she was Su Jin!

    Dean Zhang asked suspiciously: “… You just said your surname is also Su, right?”

    Su Jishi: “No, you misheard. My last name is Pan.”

    Dean Zhang: “???”

    Su Jisi: “My name is Panda Su.”

    Dean Zhang: “??????”

    Su Ji Shi calmly stopped her senior brother who was passing by and asked him, “What’s my name?”

    The senior brother gave her an odd look and said exaggeratedly, “Your name is Panda Su, ah!”

    Because Asian names were difficult to pronounce, people kindly gave everyone a nickname that was convenient to utter. For example, Su Jishi had a Japanese schoolmate who was known as Sakura.

    Su Jishi had been in the university for ten years, and was called Panda Su for all throughout. Even when she went to work as a teaching assistant for undergraduates, she introduced herself as Panda Su. Over time, her classmates all acquiesced to her name. When she submitted her paper, the instructor saw her original name and froze for a moment to confirm that Su Jishi was his student.

    With the witness testifying, Dean Zhang was bewildered. Poor Zhang, he was old and could not easily remember his grandson’s idol’s face, but now he was fooled by her words and began to doubt his memory.

    Seeing that he kept struggling with ‘Xiao Pan’ and ‘Xiao Su’, the other professors in the delegation asked, “Elder Zhang, who is the Su Jin you are talking about?”

    Dean Zhang replied, “The actress! She even went to our school to shoot a movie before!”

    “Ohhhh, her. I know, I know.” A professor from the same school narrowed his eyes and recalled, “A particularly polite actress. She came to film, and her assistant also gave each professor a small gift.”

    Su Jishi: “…”

    Something like that happened? She actually did not know!

    She asked, “What kind of gifts?”

    The professor with a bald head replied, “A gift box with her studio logo on it. When I opened it, it was a shampoo kit that she endorsed.”

    Su Jishi: “…”

    Giving shampoo to a bald head; this kind of thing was indeed something that Xiao Xia could do.

    That professor looked at Su Jishi seriously several times and waved his hand: “Not alike, not alike! That shampoo bottle has Su Jin’s picture printed on it. Where does she look like Student Pan?”

    They were indeed not alike.

    The advertisement printed on the shampoo bottle was taken by Su Jishi at the beginning of the year. Even she didn’t recognize herself, with big eyes, red lips and chin, and a slender and supple waist of not even close to 35”; and now she, under the bombardment of pizza, donuts and Starbucks, had a rounded face, and was already as fat as double of her then.

    Su Jishi smiled and said, “I’ve been in America for ten years, so I don’t know what’s popular in the country. If I really resemble that actress, maybe we are long lost twin sisters.”

    Poor Dean Zhang, who had obviously touched the truth, was easily fooled.

    When Su Jishi toured them around the campus, Dean Zhang was distracted and stared at Su Jishi’s face frequently. She even deliberately threw out a few professional questions to ‘confirm’ whether she was really a student or not.

    Su Jishi not only answered the questions perfectly, but also went deeper and asked several other professors some serious questions about their work and study.

    All of them praised her, and some even took the initiative to offer her an olive branch, saying that they could introduce her to excellent research teams in China.

    Su Jishi politely declined with a smile, saying that she had already decided her direction after graduation.

    While everyone was chatting happily, Dean Zhang made a phone call to his grandson who was far away in China.

    His grandson was a fan of Su Jin, and his cell phone screen and computer wallpaper were all about Su Jin. His grandson brought home two boxes of yogurt, which was endorsed by Su Jin; opened an account on a certain video site for eight years because it was endorsed by Su Jin; and gave all his aunts, uncles, cousins and other cousins in the family a lipstick, which was endorsed by Su Jin!

    Dean Zhang once got up at night and saw a figure on the balcony at 3 a.m. It scared him so much that he almost had a heart attack. When the police arrived to lift the curtain and take a look —— it was actually Su Jin’s standee display!

    Dean Zhang thought, It seems that only my grandson can identify whether Panda Su is Su Jin or not.

    He secretly made a video call to his grandson in China.

    There was a time difference between the two sides, so when the call went through, it was nighttime in China.

    The video was crowded, and his grandson had his head tilted high, like a fish struggling to take in oxygen.

    “Grandpa!” His grandson said, “You’re in America!”

    “Grandson!” Grandpa said, “You’re out there?”

    Grandson: “Yes. Today, Jinjin is going to record a show, so I grabbed a ticket at her Fan Club and came to support Jinjin!”

    While saying that, he shook the LED sign and banner in his hand.

    “Su Jin?” Dean Zhang asked in surprise, “Have you seen her?”

    “I saw her!” His grandson turned his phone lens frontward, and on the stage, a small beautiful girl who was not as big as a fingernail was being interviewed by the host.

    Dean Zhang looked for a long time, but really couldn’t make out if that person was Su Jin.

    Dean Zhang stretched out his hand and gestured, “Are you sure that’s Su Jin?”

    “Yes, ah. Who else could she be if not Su Jin?”

    Dean Zhang thought, I can only see a tiny image of her, like Thumbelina.

    But since his grandson said she was, so be it.

    Dean Zhang: “You’re so far from the stage!”

    Grandson: “It can’t be helped. It’s a ‘hilltop’ ticket((Hilltop ticket – the ticket farthest from the stage. I don’t know if there’s an exact term for it))!”

    Hilltop Ticket?

    Dean Zhang was bewildered: I’ve climbed so many mountains with my students all my life, but I’ve never bought a ticket with my work permit. I never thought that my grandson would have to buy a ticket to go to the top of the mountain now.

    The grandson asked his grandfather if there was anything else he wanted to ask.

    Dean Zhang thought for a moment and asked cautiously, “Does Su Jin have a twin sister?”

    “No!” The grandson blew up in flattery, “Jinjin’s beauty is a treasure from heaven, and just one of these rare treasures is enough!!! The pearl is here. All others are fish eyes!!!”

    “A few days ago, a marketing account published an expose that someone saw a staff member who was very similar to Su Jin in a park in Australia where birds don’t shit at the end of last year! There’s no picture as evidence, and it just relied on one mouth! I can make up eight such gossip in a minute!” The grandson shouted excitedly: “Our Jinjin is beautiful alone! Reject any marketing account disinformation bundles!”

    “…” Dean Zhang thought, You win.

    He felt that he was possibly too old and thought too much.