"You were expelled from the family? Why? How is that possible? You're the heir!"
James gave a rueful smile and kept eating.
"What right does an heir have to inherit the family after losing half its assets? So he can stick around and lose the other half?"
"That's what my father wrote in his reply."
"But—but that's not what they said. They told everyone you had disappeared. I moved heaven and earth to find out what really happened, and when I learned you'd been taken prisoner, I came looking for you."
"Elodie, you're far too reckless. Did you stop to think about who might have captured me? What if they'd been savages?"
"I—I—I…"
"James, I… I love you."
"Elodie, go home. I'm no longer the family heir. I'm just a university lecturer now. I'm not worthy of you."
"James, I'm a girl from romantic Paris. I have money of my own—I don't need a rich man to take care of me!"
"Elodie, I'm not the man you imagine me to be. I have an illegitimate child. That's part of the reason my father gave up on me—he found out about the child."
At those words, Elodie went still.
She had chased him all this way, which meant she was the kind of girl who could sacrifice a great deal for love.
But now love itself had betrayed her.
"I'm sorry, Elodie. I'm not good enough for you. Forgive me."
"Let me think." Elodie rose and walked away in a daze.
James sat alone for a while, then reached over and picked up the little pork chop Elodie hadn't touched and began to eat it.
A look of contentment crossed his face.
Yet behind his eyes lay a quiet desolation.
The next day, James went to class as though nothing had happened.
After his last lesson, he was walking back to his quarters when a figure suddenly stepped into his path.
He looked up and saw someone dressed in the style so popular among the younger students—fresh-faced and radiant with youth.
"Hello, Professor James. I'm Elodie, a female student from romantic Paris, France. It's a pleasure to meet you."
James stared for a long moment, then broke into a devastatingly charming smile.
"The pleasure is entirely mine, mademoiselle. I wonder whether I might have the honor of inviting you to dinner?"
"That could be arranged—but I should warn you upfront: I have no patience for fickle men."
"Oh, mademoiselle, your instincts are impeccable. I happen to be exactly the sort of man who is constant and devoted. So then—may I invite you to dinner now?"
"Hmm, all right, I suppose I'll consider it."
"Come along then. Let me show you my place first—a generous three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment the university assigned me, filled with books and lavender."
James and Elodie walked off together, laughing and talking.
Neither of them noticed the two male students frozen in astonishment behind the nearby wall.
"That—that's Professor James from the Foreign Languages Department, isn't it?"
"It is. Who knew foreigners could be so… uninhibited."
"I'm so jealous. When are we going to get another foreign female student here? I'd love to try that myself."
"Did you catch all of that dialogue just now? Come on, let's practice."
"Hold on—my French isn't great. Let me jot down some notes first, so I don't forget."
"France really is a wonderful place. I suddenly feel incredibly motivated. I want to graduate as fast as possible and get posted overseas for work."
By the next day, word had begun spreading in small circles that the foreign teacher James was quite the scoundrel.
Someone had even reconstructed the dialogue scene by scene from memory and written it all down in a notebook.
It fired up so many Foreign Languages students to want to graduate sooner that James was delighted, convinced it was a testament to his teaching.
He was even mulling over whether to go report his results to Principal Wen.
Then the notebook made its way to him.
He was dumbstruck.
And Elodie, now living with him, laughed until she nearly fell over—her cheeks flushing a pretty shade of red.
Stories, after all, are born from the most wonderful misunderstandings.