After Failing To Tame The Scumbag - Chapter 26

“What do you take me for?”

“You know we broke up,” Yun Chuxiu said, prying away the fingers clutching the car window. Within seconds, they climbed back on. Ji Jin leaned against the window, seemingly oblivious to the rejection in her tone.

“It’s only temporary,” Ji Jin murmured, staring intently at the cigarette butt in Yun Chuxiu’s hand, her voice trailing off in a small pout. “Didn’t you already quit smoking, Axu? Why now…”

“Shut up.” Yun Chuxiu couldn’t stand this ghostly, pathetic tone. She pressed the cigarette butt down onto the hand that refused to let go, her movements slow and deliberate. “Don’t block my door.”

The sparks had long since died out; it didn’t hurt. Ji Jin froze for a moment, then, as if realizing something, a flicker of warmth gradually colored her dark pupils.

It was like an ember rising from the ash.

“Okay,” Ji Jin obeyed and moved aside. She didn’t brush away the faint smear of cold ash, instead, she stared at it as if studying a rare specimen until a breeze swept it away.

For a brief moment, Yun Chuxiu sensed a qualitative change in the person before her.

“Ji Jin… what are you doing?!”

Her voice of inquiry was cut short.

With a smile, Ji Jin bent down and hooked her arms under Yun Chuxiu’s legs. The evening gown she hadn’t yet changed out of became a burden, fluttering and dragging, even Yun Chuxiu’s struggle looked like a dance.

Yun Chuxiu was forcibly carried out of the car, and this time, she was truly furious. “Ji Jin! Let me go!”

“…Oh,” Ji Jin replied, still smiling. She obediently let go as if nothing had happened. Once Yun Chuxiu’s feet touched the ground, Ji Jin leaned in, fishing for a kind word. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I just didn’t want Axu to sprain her ankle.”

Yun Chuxiu glanced at her high heels. “…”

“What are you doing here?” Deciding to stop wasting words, she reached out her hand. “The GPS tracker again, right? Give me your phone.”

“Are you unwilling to give me even this small privilege now?”

Ji Jin was reluctant, muttering under her breath, “I never stopped you from looking into my things, Axu. Why can’t I do the same?”

Yun Chuxiu gave a cold laugh. She pulled up the deleted history on her phone and shoved it in front of Ji Jin’s face. “Before the breakup, I didn’t care what you did. But now, we have no relationship.”

“Ji Jin, where is your sanity?”

“I ate it along with the warm wind,” Ji Jin said, handing over her phone begrudgingly. Her gaze remained glued to the date on the deleted page. She tried to maintain a smile despite the bitterness in her heart, but failed.

She couldn’t look away, that string of numbers completely occupied her mind.

“Axu, did you decide to give up on me that long ago?” A familiar sense of dread seized her throat. Ji Jin’s expression darkened, her fingernails sinking into her palms. “You kept demanding an answer from me, but from the very beginning, you had already planned how to throw me away…”

“Ji Jin!” Yun Chuxiu frowned, realizing the conversation was taking a dark turn. She tried to explain: “I thought you didn’t like the feeling of being monitored. I just wanted…”

“Well, I don’t like you leaving me!”

Ji Jin’s eyes went red, the emotions she had been suppressing suddenly exploding. “I don’t like you talking to Jiang Fanyin, I don’t like other people standing by your side, and I don’t like you pushing me away with nonsensical reasons!”

“I can change anything I’ve done wrong, but you won’t accept it.”

“Yun Chuxiu,” Ji Jin took a deep breath, not daring to look at Yun Chuxiu’s shocked expression. “Is it the answer you don’t want, or… is it me?”

“Absurd and ridiculous.”

Yun Chuxiu suddenly calmed down. She looked at Ji Jin’s hysterical state with a sense of disbelief. “So this is what you really think.”

“Nonsensical reasons…?”

“So,” she paused, decisively cutting through the impending mutual destruction, “Ji Jin, do you think I’m just being unreasonable?”

The avoided proposal, being used as a target for “infamy,” the hidden dark history… did Ji Jin think that as long as she draped a pretty veil over these things, they would disappear or never have existed?

“…That’s not what I meant,” Ji Jin’s voice cracked. Her throat felt like it was on fire, and her head grew dizzy. She vaguely realized she had said something terrible and tried desperately to fix it. “How could I ever blame you, Axu… I’m just so damn heartbroken I’ve gone mad.”

“Oh,” Yun Chuxiu looked down, feeling more and more that every step she had taken these past few days was in vain. “Then you won’t have to be heartbroken over things you can’t understand anymore.”

“You just asked me what I didn’t want,” she smiled, her eyes devoid of warmth. “I can tell you now.”

Ji Jin’s heart skipped a beat. She rushed forward to stop her. “I won’t ask anymore, Axu… I won’t ask.”

Yun Chuxiu watched her calmly. The night wind howled, blowing away more than just the starlight.

“But I want to answer you now, Ji Jin,” she said. “I’m not stingy like you. Since we’ve come to this, I don’t want your answer, and I don’t want you.”

Some questions, once asked, are no longer multiple choice. This applies to the good and the bad.

“We really aren’t that compatible,” Yun Chuxiu quietly brushed away the hand trying to grip hers. Her tone wasn’t intense, she remained unruffled, speaking of leaving as casually as saying “good morning.”

She was always like this.

And that was exactly what Ji Jin hated most.

“It’s been seven years. We’ve been together for seven years!” Ji Jin wailed, as if venting all her grievances at once. “How can you discard me as easily as throwing away an object…”

“What exactly am I to you…?”

The outstretched hand fell limply. Ji Jin lowered her head, her already loose hairstyle falling completely apart, heavy on her shoulders. she stood frozen, unable to move.

“It’s my fault.” Yun Chuxiu wanted to reach out and wipe the tears from her face, but she felt she shouldn’t offer pointless tenderness. After a few seconds of silence, she pulled her hand back.

The wind grew stronger.

She exhaled and repeated: “It’s my fault, Ji Jin.”

“I didn’t realize these words would cause you so much distress. Seven years is indeed a long time. If you need to withdraw slowly, I won’t refuse your calls or requests to meet.” Yun Chuxiu sighed. All her anger and resentment crumbled at the sight of those swollen, tear filled eyes. She naturally couldn’t say anything harsh, but she also didn’t have the energy to keep entangling herself.

“Let’s get our relationship back on track. Whether we stay as friends who greet each other or ex-lovers who never meet… it’s up to you.”

“But I love you.”

Ji Jin looked at her deeply, as if she wanted to crush the person in front of her and swallow them whole. Her gaze was heavy, carrying a fatal longing.

“But I love you, Axu… give me one more chance. Don’t be so cruel to me.”

She pleaded, adopting a soft posture, like an injured cat stretching out to show its soft belly, trying its best to show its master how harmless it was.

Finally, after losing what she feared losing most, Ji Jin’s sanity returned.

Yun Chuxiu wanted to say it was unnecessary, that they were destined to repeat the same mistakes.

But those misty eyes were too broken, and she had always been soft-hearted toward Ji Jin.

“Whatever you want.”

The night wind swallowed the stars in an instant.

Leaving that sentence behind, Yun Chuxiu turned and walked toward the hotel.

Tonight was destined to be sleepless.

Yun Chuxiu lay on the bed, staring at the clean white ceiling. Her mind kept replaying everything that happened today, the more she thought, the clearer it became, and the less sleepy she felt.

Actually, it’s not that I couldn’t accept it… that ring.

Yun Chuxiu tried to question herself.

The future she once hoped for was right before her eyes. If she had just nodded, she could have kept everything. If she had strictly demanded it, Ji Jin would have complied.

What exactly was she dissatisfied with, to the point of ruining the relationship, turning them against each other, and burying all the peaceful love they had?

Drip.

A warm liquid fell from the corner of her eye, slowly eating away at the suffocating silence of the room.

Yun Chuxiu stood up barefoot. The moon outside was bright and clear, hanging far above the clouds, bestowing its light equally on everyone.

Looking at the moon, she thought of Ji Jin again.

The happy Ji Jin, the aggrieved Ji Jin, the spoiled Ji Jin…

The past was frozen in the moon, when she reached out to take it, it was still as vivid as ever.

So, how could she not love her?

Yun Chuxiu sat cross-legged on the carpet and reopened the phone she had been deliberately ignoring. As soon as the screen lit up, one message of concern after another quickly filled the dialog box.

Through the screen, Ji Jin seemed to have a temporary “buff,” speaking much more openly.

Seventeen missed calls. She must have been truly desperate to follow the GPS all this way.

Unfortunately, her warm face met a cold slap.

As her initial anger dissipated, Yun Chuxiu remembered those watery eyes. She felt both annoyed and amused. Her emotions brewed for a long time, finally escaping as a short sigh.

…Oh, Ji Jin.

Yun Chuxiu leaned against the cold wall, covering her eyes as she slumped down, only to be suddenly choked by the wind.

Every facade of calm completely collapsed in this moment.

Yun Chuxiu got up and opened a bottle of wine from the cabinet. In this moment, she chose to abandon the overly sober world and escape into that unsolvable tangle of yarn.

Just this once.

She leaned against the wall, as if touching another beating heart through a thick barrier, and tilted her head back to swallow the bright liquid.

A very unpleasant taste.

Yun Chuxiu frowned. She reached for a glass of cold water to neutralize it but accidentally knocked her phone off the table.

“Ugh… a bit dizzy.”

Try again.

Yun Chuxiu took another gulp.

It was still unpleasant, even worse than the chicken soup Ji Jin had burned.

Ah… Ji Jin again.

Yun Chuxiu closed her eyes and downed another mouthful.

Knock, knock, knock…

A sudden pounding came from the door.