After Rebirth, I Became My Ex's "White Moonlight" - Chapter 27.1

“Pfft.” Cheng Siyu couldn’t help herself. She had met many people in the industry, but Su Mingshu’s particular ambition was a first. Suddenly feeling a bit mischievous, she suggested, “I think the director is quite nice.”

“She’s not my type,” Su Mingshu shook his head.

“Looking for a sugar mommy and still having so many requirements,” Cheng Siyu remarked with a sigh.

Su Mingshu retorted, “I have to have some standards, alright? It’s not like I’m a gigolo.”

“Fine.”

At this point, the two parted ways to touch up their makeup in different areas. While fixing her makeup, Cheng Siyu caught a glimpse of Ji Yun out of the corner of her eye. Ji Yun was holding that gift bag, cradling it and staring at it intently, as if the slightest bit of pressure would break it.

Cheng Siyu remembered her past life—every birthday gift she had meticulously crafted for Ji Yun seemed to end up piled in a corner. There was only one time, during a cold war between them, when Ji Yun pulled one out to look at it, only to smash it to pieces right in front of her face.

Recalling that scene now, Cheng Siyu suddenly began to laugh. It wasn’t that Ji Yun was only angry with her; it was simply that she didn’t love her.

That night, Cheng Siyu didn’t sleep. She sat at her desk contemplating her plan, then used the cover of darkness to search online for the rival companies of the Ji Group. She sent an anonymous message she had prepared long ago.

Then, she lay on her hotel bed, quietly waiting for the situation to ferment.

Sure enough, early the next morning, the hashtag “Ji Group President Ji Wanli” trended. Cheng Siyu hadn’t expected it to happen so fast, but considering how long that rival company had held a grudge against the Ji family, it wasn’t exactly a surprise.

The trending topic wasn’t a good one; it was a massive bombshell. She remembered Ji Yun telling her that her mother had been imprisoned by Ji Wanli’s pathological possessiveness.

Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. Years ago, it was Yi Xuan who had pursued Ji Wanli, and she eventually got her wish by entering the halls of marriage. However, after the wedding, a surprise she had planned ahead of time led her to accidentally walk in on Ji Wanli and his male assistant in an “indescribable” situation at home.

Only then did she realize that Ji Wanli and that male assistant were childhood sweethearts who had confirmed their sexual orientation and relationship as early as high school. She was merely a fig leaf used by Ji Wanli to appease his family.

Having witnessed all of this, Yi Xuan wanted to flee, but she was caught and brought back by Ji Wanli. From then on, all her connections to the outside world were severed. It was also at this time that Yi Xuan discovered she was pregnant with Ji Yun, which tied her down for a lifetime of detention and resentment.

All of this wasn’t supposed to be discovered now. It was only a few years later that Ji Yun would find a suicide note written by her mother at home, leading to a massive blowout with Ji Wanli and making the matter public.

Cheng Siyu didn’t go that far. She simply composed a tip stating that Ji Wanli would be entering and exiting a hotel with a lover around a certain time.

The rival company probably initially thought that the news of Ji Wanli being with a lover less than a month after his wife’s death would be enough to cost him significant time to repair his reputation.

It wasn’t until they discovered that the person entering the hotel with Ji Wanli was a man—and that they were so practiced it seemed they had done it countless times—that they realized this was no simple matter.

In their haste to topple Ji Wanli, they simply posted the headline: Ji Wanli Frequently Enters and Exits Hotels with Male Mistress Less Than a Month After Wife’s Passing.

Cheng Siyu knew that even such a small headline would inevitably drive Ji Yun to confront Ji Wanli face-to-face, which would facilitate her plan. As for the specifics of that plan, Cheng Siyu only had a rough framework; she simply didn’t want Ji Yun to have an easy time during the days surrounding her own death anniversary.

Sure enough, after arriving at the set, Ji Yun was nowhere to be found. Everyone had to grit their teeth and film the later scenes first.

It wasn’t until the afternoon that the directing team received a call from Ji Yun saying she had business today and was taking a day off, offering to cover any losses. Even though the director was a thousand times unwilling, knowing Ji Yun’s background, they could only agree.

Almost everyone on set today had heard a bit of the Ji family gossip. Even if the matter was quickly suppressed by PR, it was inevitable that people would discuss it. At the very least, the fact that Ji Wanli was gay and had a male lover was now a solid fact.

“Tell me, how could a Movie Queen as great as Teacher Yi fall for a gay guy like President Ji?”

“But when I saw President Ji, I couldn’t tell he was gay at all. I always thought he was deeply devoted to Teacher Yi.”

While waiting for their scenes, Li Yexing and Lin Zhizhi were discussing this in hushed tones, only to—unsurprisingly—get a smack on the head from Zhao Xixi.

“Work hours. No gossiping, especially about the boss. One chicken leg deduction for each of you, starting tomorrow,” Zhao Xixi said quietly. Upon hearing this, Li Yexing and Lin Zhizhi shut their mouths and stopped chatting.

Cheng Siyu also received a call from Ji Wanli’s assistant after she finished filming.

“The young lady saw the news and had a huge falling out in President Ji’s office. Now we don’t know where she ran off to. President Ji said you understand her best; go find her, or keep an eye out to see if she goes to find you.”

The assistant’s voice didn’t sound as arrogant as before. Although no one had explicitly named him as the male lover caught by the paparazzi, he had clearly taken a significant hit.

“Understood,” Cheng Siyu replied. She had no right to refuse, and she didn’t want to.

“Send me a message when you find her. And… explain to her that those were just… rumors.”

“Okay.”

Cheng Siyu couldn’t help but admire—and feel a twinge of envy—that even while Ji Wanli was in the hot seat himself, he didn’t forget to worry about Ji Yun’s safety. If she were dead, Cheng Wuxing probably wouldn’t even ask a single question.

Just as Cheng Siyu ended the call with the assistant, she heard Zhao Xixi say she had to go back to the office to work overtime and told everyone to take taxis back to the hotel, keeping their receipts for reimbursement.

She agreed and walked out of the set to call a car. In her heart, she already had a good idea of where Ji Yun would go.

Watching the scenery along the way, she had seen it all in her previous life, but looking at it today, her state of mind was entirely different.

The car slowed to a stop in front of a bar. After getting out, Cheng Siyu hesitated at the entrance for a moment before finally holding her breath and walking inside.

Sure enough, it didn’t take long for Cheng Siyu to spot Ji Yun sitting in a corner, dead drunk, while several delinquent-looking youths nearby were watching her like wolves eyeing prey.

If this were the past, Cheng Siyu would have rushed in regardless of everything to pull Ji Yun out, completely ignoring her accusations and verbal abuse.

But now, she simply stood in place, turned her back, and lit a cigarette.

Watching the curling smoke, she seemed to return to the past.

That time, Ji Yun had quarreled with her again because she had accidentally moved the music box Ji Yan had given her, which happened to reveal a string of envelopes underneath. That was the first time she had seen Ji Yun fly into a shameful rage.

Even though she hadn’t opened or checked those letters at all, Ji Yun was furious. She frantically tore the letters to shreds and then questioned her manically, “Are you satisfied now? Like this?”

Cheng Siyu had been blank-faced then, not understanding what she had done wrong. She went to pick up the music box that had been thrown on the floor, only to hear the now-calm Ji Yun say, “Cheng Siyu, you are truly stupid.”

In the afternoon, Cheng Siyu had thought she had made her angry and felt guilty; for that reason, she even put on that dress Ji Yun had bought her that didn’t fit at all.

That night, Ji Yun pushed her down in that state, and it was a piercing, agonizing experience.

The dress was small and strangled Cheng Siyu uncomfortably.

But looking at Ji Yun, she still endured the discomfort to embrace her. Ji Yun had even leaned close to her ear and whispered, “I love you so much.”

Later, she found out that the dress was one Ji Yun had bought for Ji Yan. Because Ji Yan thought it was out of style, it had sat for many years until Ji Yun met her, and the dress finally saw the light of day.

Furthermore, that final sentence—”I love you so much”—wasn’t meant for Cheng Siyu. It was meant for the person she imagined her to be: Ji Yan.

After that day, because of the dress’s material causing an allergy and the experience of such rough, indulgent sex, Cheng Siyu was sent to the hospital.

And it wasn’t Ji Yun who sent her. Shen Moxu had been passing by and wanted to ask Cheng Siyu to dinner; seeing that her door wasn’t locked, she saw Cheng Siyu lying on the bed on the verge of death and hurriedly called an ambulance.

Ji Yun, meanwhile, had left the unconscious Cheng Siyu long ago as soon as it was over, even forgetting to lock the door.

When Cheng Siyu woke up, Shen Moxu couldn’t help but come to her bedside. She didn’t understand how the Cheng Siyu, who once had a bright future and great acting skills, could have become like this.

“Have you ever thought about it? If the person who walked in today wasn’t me, but someone with ill intentions, what would you have done?”

She questioned the Cheng Siyu on the hospital bed with some anger, but Cheng Siyu seemed indifferent. Enduring the physical pain, she said, “Isn’t it fine because you came?”

Seeing that Cheng Siyu was still so stubborn, Shen Moxu simply took out her phone to show her the gossip news. It turned out that after Ji Yun had abandoned her last night, she had gone to a bar and called several women to party until dawn, and at that very moment, no one knew where she was drunkenly hiding.

Cheng Siyu turned her head away in an act of escapism. She knew, but she couldn’t control herself.

Seeing her acting like an ostrich, Shen Moxu knew that persuasion was useless. She only looked at her and said, “If you think it’s worth it, then do it. If you’re wronged, find me! I’ll always be behind you.”

At that time, Cheng Siyu didn’t take those words to heart; she was still focused on using her sincerity to touch Ji Yun.

The cigarette was finished quickly. Cheng Siyu lit another. The air was a foul mix of alcohol, hormones, and cigarette smoke. The ear-piercing heavy metal music in the bar was unpleasant.

She slowly crouched down. At that moment, she heard a commotion from inside, followed by Ji Yun’s voice:

“Get lost!”

This was immediately followed by the sound of tables and chairs being overturned and glasses shattering.

Cheng Siyu had heard that “Get lost” countless times, but this was the only time it wasn’t directed at her. She felt almost unaccustomed to it. She wanted to stub out the cigarette and leave, pretending she had never appeared there.

But her body seemed to be beyond her control, remaining in place.

Finally, just as Cheng Siyu recalled the image of Ji Yun holding a lover and publicly showing affection in front of her, she stood up, wanting to flee.

As if by doing so, everything could have nothing to do with her.

She tried to convince herself she should be happy, but the tears that slid from the corners of her eyes at some unknown point betrayed her.

Ultimately, she still got up and walked in. Just like countless times before, she dragged the drunken Ji Yun out from the crowded, noisy throng.

“Siyu.”

At that moment, a single word from Ji Yun made her heart tremble violently. Tears fell down her cheeks, dripping onto Ji Yun’s hand.

“Mm.”

Cheng Siyu hailed a taxi. She and Ji Yun sat inside. After tossing out the hotel name, she turned her head away, refusing to let her gaze rest on Ji Yun.

But Ji Yun leaned her entire body against her, whispering softly, “Siyu, I only have you left. Don’t go.”

Cheng Siyu’s tears now fell like a broken string of pearls. She looked at the senseless Ji Yun.

I want to love you too, but it’s all too late, Cheng Siyu thought.

The car quickly reached the hotel. To avoid any lurking paparazzi, Cheng Siyu specifically had the driver stop in the basement parking lot and then took the elevator up.