After Rebirth, I Became My Ex's "White Moonlight" - Chapter 9

“Someone I dislike.”

After saying this, to prevent her from asking further, Cheng Siyu asked her to take out the milk tea menu. Under Ji Yun’s gaze, she casually pointed to a drink. “This one will do.”

“Alright.”

However, Ji Yun remained in a squatting position, motionless.

“What’s wrong?” Out of concern between friends, Cheng Siyu spoke up to ask.

“My legs are numb,” Ji Yun said.

“…I’ll help you up.”

With that, Cheng Siyu stood up to support the frozen Ji Yun from the floor. This inevitably involved a lot of physical contact, but Cheng Siyu held her breath and helped Ji Yun stand. She didn’t even notice that the places on her body where Ji Yun had touched were flushing a faint red.

Soon, the milk tea arrived. Cheng Hanyi performed the actions a little fangirl should, circling around Ji Yun and asking questions. Shen Moxu naturally joined them, while Cheng Siyu continued flipping through the script.

“Siyu?”

“Hmm?”

“Have you ever been in love?” Shen Moxu’s question came out abruptly. The gazes of Cheng Hanyi and Ji Yun followed immediately.

Cheng Siyu thought for a moment. In her previous life, before meeting Ji Yun, she truly knew nothing about romance. It wasn’t because no one pursued her, but because she always felt it was too superficial. Although her eventual relationship with Ji Yun wasn’t much better, that was at least the only relationship she had ever had.

“Yes.”

“For real?” The astonished voices of Shen Moxu and Cheng Hanyi came at the same time.

“Hey, I’m already in university; what would it be like if I’d never been in love?” Cheng Siyu looked up, pretending to reminisce, trying her best to avoid Ji Yun’s gaze. She didn’t want to see her reaction. She could never find the right way to face Ji Yun—was she the abandoned ex? Or a woman who, upon meeting you for the first time, said she’d been toyed with by you for ten years?

“Then why haven’t we heard you mention it?” Shen Moxu and Cheng Hanyi, two faces—one large and one small—stared at Cheng Siyu side-by-side.

“That relationship left me with a bad impression, so I won’t talk about it,” Cheng Siyu said. Could she tell them that this was how she died in her past life?

At that moment, she suddenly thought of the Ji Yun from her previous life. Upon knowing she was dead, would she celebrate that no one was finally controlling her anymore? Or would she regret that the stand-in for her lover was gone? But now, it seemed none of that had anything to do with her.

“Is it possible that the reason you aren’t dating now is because of that relationship?”

“Maybe.”

After finishing a meal with Ji Yan, Ji Yun received a phone call. The caller only said they were from a courier company and didn’t explain what the item was.

After she returned home and signed for it, she discovered that the name written on it was Cheng Siyu. After hesitating repeatedly, she chose to open it.

But the contents inside touched her deeply. It was a restored family portrait—one she had taken with her father and mother when she was a child. The last time she had quarreled with her father, Ji Wanli, she had smashed it in front of Cheng Siyu.

It seemed Cheng Siyu had cleaned it up later. Attached to the back of the photo frame was a note that read: “A birthday gift for Ji Yun.” Looking at this note, Ji Yun suddenly squatted down, feeling at a loss. In this world, aside from her mother and Cheng Siyu, it seemed no one knew her real birthday was today—or perhaps someone knew, but no one cared.

In this moment, she seemed to feel, for the first time, a sense of losing the entire world. Tears slowly soaked into her pants, but there was no one in the house to respond to her.

“Cheng Hanyi! Stop right there!”

“Sister! Just let me go take a look! I definitely won’t cause trouble.”

After filming ended, Cheng Hanyi had heard from Shen Moxu that there were movie tickets for Qin Xiangqing. Having never seen a real-life celebrity before, she began to plead frantically with Cheng Siyu. After trying to persuade her for a long time to no effect, Cheng Siyu reluctantly agreed.

She originally wanted to ask Ji Yun if she could buy the ticket Ji Yun had requested earlier, but Ji Yun, as if by magic, produced another one from her bag.

“I originally intended to sell this,” Ji Yun scratched her head and continued, “Since it worked out perfectly, I won’t sell it.”

At this, Cheng Siyu looked at Ji Yun for a long time before taking the ticket from her hand. She looked at Ji Yun, but her gaze was like she was looking at someone else.

“Oh yeah! Ji Yun, I love you! I’m going to follow your Weibo when I get back and vote for you every day.” After getting the ticket, Cheng Hanyi began to let loose again. She even took out her phone to add Shen Moxu on WeChat, preparing for the two of them to vote for Ji Yun together.

Cheng Siyu looked at the two lively characters, not knowing what to say. However, with Cheng Hanyi around, Shen Moxu had found a kindred spirit and stopped gossiping about her and Ji Yun.

“Xiaoyi, are you sure you aren’t a biological sister my mom had outside without telling me?”

“Oh, Sister Xu, I think we might be biological sisters with different fathers and mothers.”

Amidst the laughter and banter, the group walked to the cinema. At this time, a circle of reporters, media, and fans had already gathered in front of the cinema entrance. For a big star like Qin Xiangqing, this kind of display was considered small; by the actual showtime, there would likely be even more people.

Shen Moxu found a gap and led Cheng Siyu and the others to squeeze inside. When they got in, many people were already seated. The four of them arrived at their seats only to find that the four tickets were separated into two pairs, one in the front row and one in the back.

Because Cheng Hanyi insisted on sitting with her “sister” Shen Moxu, Cheng Siyu could only sit side-by-side with Ji Yun.

The movie was a typical action film, likely a cops-and-robbers theme, and Qin Xiangqing played a policewoman in the movie, responsible for chasing the male lead, a robber.

Just as she sat down, Cheng Siyu felt a hint of regret. It seemed… she was sitting a bit too close to Ji Yun. The fragrance from Ji Yun’s body kept wafting toward her.

Just as Cheng Siyu was thinking about how to avoid such close contact, the phone in her bag rang.

The caller ID showed “Dad.” Cheng Siyu said a quick “sorry” to Ji Yun and went outside with her phone.

“Xiaoyu, have you had dinner?”

As soon as the call connected, Cheng Wuxing’s voice came through. The background noise seemed to include the stepmother’s voice as well.

“I’ve eaten.”

“Eaten, that’s good then. I’m calling to tell you: don’t take Xiaoyi to those messy, disorganized places.”

“I know,” Cheng Siyu answered, though the most sensitive part of her heart was stung. In their eyes, was she the kind of person who frequently visited “messy” places?

“I heard Xiaoyi went to see a movie tonight. You must be careful not to let her run around, and bring her back to the hotel early.”

The voice on the other end continued. Cheng Siyu gave perfunctory agreements; she desperately hoped this call would end quickly.

“Alright, F City has many bad people. Neither you nor Xiaoyi should run around.”

A long list of instructions followed, all related to Cheng Hanyi, with her only being mentioned briefly at the very end.

“I understand. If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.”

Not until the busy signal came from the other end did Cheng Siyu turn off the phone and prepare to go back inside, only to see a familiar figure at the door.

Ji Yun’s face was deathly pale, her forehead was covered in sweat, and her whole body was leaning against the wall.

“What’s wrong?”

Seeing Cheng Siyu, Ji Yun revealed a rare smile, gasping for breath as she spoke, “It’s nothing… what you said… the confinement.”

Cheng Siyu froze. Afterward, she still pulled Ji Yun to a nearby coffee shop to sit down and asked the waiter for a cup of hot water.

“You don’t have to push yourself so hard for Shen Moxu’s sake,” Cheng Siyu used a wet wipe to clear the sweat from Ji Yun’s face.

“Is there a possibility… that I didn’t do it for her?” Ji Yun continued to breathe heavily.

“Hmm?” Cheng Siyu looked up. Ji Yun looked into her eyes, hesitated for a few seconds, and then said, “I like Qin Xiangqing too.”

“Then you could have just waited until the movie was over and the lights were on before going in.”

Cheng Siyu didn’t sense anything unusual. Instead, she sat back in her seat and sent a message to Shen Moxu, telling her to take care of Cheng Hanyi. Soon, Shen Moxu replied with a “sisters united can break gold” emoji, and only then did she put her phone away with peace of mind.

“Siyu-jie, I want to hear the story of your ex,” Ji Yun, who had recovered her strength, suddenly said.

“What’s there to listen to?” Cheng Siyu froze for a moment before speaking.

“I want to know what the person you dislike is like. I want to make sure I don’t become that kind of person.”

Looking at that face, Cheng Siyu really wanted to say, “Exactly like you,” but she held it back in the end. Instead, she picked out a few incidents involving her and Ji Yun.

The story about the little dog “Little Rascal,” the time she bought a cake and went home only to find her with someone else, and the fact that she was treated as a substitute.

“That is way too much.” After listening to the ups and downs of Cheng Siyu’s previous relationship, Ji Yun couldn’t help but speak up.

And Cheng Siyu, looking into her eyes, merely echoed, “Yes, it is.”

For some reason, looking at the indignant Ji Yun, Cheng Siyu felt a sense of the absurd. She would subconsciously have the illusion that the person in front of her wasn’t Ji Yun, but had been possessed by someone else.

“So, it’s because I look very much like that person that you dislike me, right?” Ji Yun said.

Listening to Ji Yun’s words, Cheng Siyu became dazed for a moment. The exact same words had been asked of Ji Yun in her previous life.

It was when she discovered a photo of Ji Yan hidden deep in Ji Yun’s backpack, with several lines of love poetry written eloquently on it. That kind of plot, straight out of a TV drama, had appeared before her eyes without warning.

In the photo, Ji Yan wore a scarf of a similar style to the one Ji Yun had given her, and she looked seventy to eighty percent similar to Cheng Siyu.

“Can’t find it? Then better not look for it.” Ji Yun had walked in. She originally thought Cheng Siyu was looking for keys, but when she saw the photo in Cheng Siyu’s hands, she stood frozen on the spot. Only after a long time did she speak coldly, “Who gave you permission to touch my things?”

“Is it because I look like her that you liked me?” Cheng Siyu had asked. Her expression turned sour; it was the first time Ji Yun had seen her angry.

“No, it’s just a photo. I forgot when I even put it in the bag.” Ji Yun still wanted to brush it off, but Cheng Siyu spoke up relentlessly,

“So that’s why you dared to show me that family portrait back then, right? Because your relationship is something that no one would ever suspect? If that’s the case, why did you come to provoke me?” Cheng Siyu’s voice gradually became shrill.