On Her Wedding Night, She Transmigrated To The Aftermath Of Her Divorce - Chapter 1

Yu Yan lay flat on the hospital bed, her eyes clamped shut and her face a ghostly pale. A milky white liquid dripped steadily from a glass IV bottle, rhythmically matching the ticking of the wall clock as it wound through a clear tube and into her vein. A gauze bandage was wrapped around her forehead, covering a gash on her temple that seeped faint traces of blood.

Her senses returned before her consciousness did. Instinctively, Yu Yan tilted her head, her nose brushing against the bedsheets. The hospital linen reeked of heavy disinfectant, was damp and unfamiliar, and was utterly repulsive.

Knitting her brows, she struggled to move, to force herself up, but her limbs and eyelids felt leaden. It was as if she were trapped in the crushing depths of the ocean, wrapped in dark, briny water that made every breath a battle.

The door creaked open. Lu Yu stepped inside, and an elderly woman in the neighboring bed whispered, “Dear, I think your friend is waking up.”

Lu Yu looked toward the center bed. “Waking up?”

She set down the takeout containers she’d brought from downstairs and pulled a stool up to the bedside. Seeing Yu Yan’s face pinched in discomfort, she reached out and poked her cheek. “Are you awake?”

“Mmm…” A raspy, hollow sound escaped Yu Yan’s throat.

She was awake, or close enough.

Lu Yu pulled the small over-bed table into place and began unpacking the food. “I bought you dinner,” she chattered. “Get up and eat once you’re steady. The doctor said you collapsed yesterday because of low blood sugar. What’s going on with you? Why aren’t you eating? You’ve made a total mess of yourself.”

“You even hit your head, though it’s not a deep wound. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine in no time.”

Yu Yan’s mind began to breach the surface of that dark sea. The suffocating weight of being unable to breathe slowly lifted as Lu Yu’s grounding chatter pulled her upward. The hazy, sharp ringing in her ears abruptly stopped, and the sensation of sleep paralysis finally snapped.

She forced her eyes open. The sterile, blinding glare of the hospital lights made her wince. Her chest heaved as if she had just clawed her way out of a grueling nightmare.

After a moment, she blinked vacantly, focusing on the fresh-faced girl in front of her. After a heartbeat of strange detachment, a wave of familiarity crashed over her. Yu Yan froze, her eyes widening as she sat up. She was convinced she was dreaming.

“…Lu Yu?”

What was she doing here?

“Yeah?” Lu Yu glanced at her. “What’s with that look? Did you knock the brains out of your head? Don’t tell me you don’t recognize me.”

“I…” It had been years since they’d seen each other, but how could she not know her? Yu Yan swallowed hard, her voice painfully hoarse. “Didn’t you say you weren’t coming?”

As the containers were opened, the savory aroma of braised ribs and rice wafted through the air. Lu Yu found it appetizing enough. “Coming where?”

“…”

Yu Yan realized there was a much more serious problem at hand.

She stared at the plastic containers on the tray, then looked around the room. Her eyes met those of the elderly woman in the next bed, leaving Yu Yan utterly bewildered.

“Does your head still hurt, little girl?”

The old woman’s voice was kind, her eyes crinkling into a smile. Yu Yan stammered, “Ah… yes, Grandma. It… it hurts a little.”

Was she still asleep?

She was in a ward that was ordinary to the point of being dilapidated. The walls were covered in old, peeling white paint and marred with scuffs. The bed was incredibly hard, likely lacking a proper mattress. Worst of all, it wasn’t a private suite—it was a four-person ward.

Yu Yan felt a surge of panic. This was the first time in her life she had ever stayed in a shared room.

In the next bed, the elderly woman with the broken arm was being fed by her daughter. The smell of the food mixed with an underlying, sour stench, perhaps drifting in from the communal restroom, making Yu Yan’s stomach turn.

Where was she? Had she returned home? Wasn’t she in Ireland, where she was getting married to Fu Yunqing? How was she back in China? And why was Lu Yu here?

Hadn’t Lu Yu said she didn’t have time to attend the wedding?

Questions swirled in her mind. She vividly remembered being in the bridal suite with Fu Yunqing at the estate right after the ceremony. They were just about to… and then everything had gone black. How could she wake up here?

Was she that ill? Even if she needed treatment back home, it shouldn’t be in a place like this. Who had sent her here? Her mother, Yu Lan? Or Fu Yunqing?

This was absurd.

Could it have been Lu Yu?

Cradling herself under a blanket that had likely covered a thousand strangers and breathing in the stale air, Yu Yan couldn’t take it anymore. She wanted to bolt, but she didn’t dare pull the IV needle from the back of her hand. Instead, she just shoved the blanket aside in disgust.

She reached up to touch her throbbing temple, but as soon as her fingers brushed the gauze, she winced and recoiled.

She was terrified of pain, and even more terrified of dying.

“What are you doing?” Lu Yu pulled the blanket back over her. “Eat your food.”

Yu Yan immediately flicked the edge of the blanket away as if it were trash.

“What’s your problem?” Lu Yu asked.

“I want a different room,” Yu Yan snapped.

“A different room?”

“I don’t want to stay with other people. If you can’t get me a private room, transfer me to another hospital. Where is my mother? Why did she put me in a place like this? What was she thinking?”

Lu Yu looked even more baffled. “Your mother put you here?”

Yu Yan froze. “Wait, was it you?”

“Uh… yeah,” Lu Yu said.

“Who recommended this hospital to you?” Yu Yan was both speechless and fuming. “Lu Yu, I know you’re struggling for cash right now, but you don’t have to pay for this. My mother will reimburse you. Why would you bring me here? Where is she? And where is Fu Yunqing?” Yu Yan truly couldn’t fathom why Yu Lan would leave her in the hands of someone as unreliable as Lu Yu.

Lu Yu was stunned. “Your mother? Fu Yunqing?”

Looking at the cheap plastic container on the table, Yu Yan’s irritation spiked. “And why did you buy this kind of boxed lunch? I’m not eating that.”

“It’s only been a few years, Lu Yu. Is this what you think of me? You…”

“…A few years?”

Lu Yu’s heart skipped a beat.

“How many years has it been since we saw each other?”

“Since you left for college! It’s been three or four years, hasn’t it? Have you lost your mind? Why are you acting so strange?”

“…” Lu Yu looked at her with growing trepidation.

The Yu Yan standing before her radiated a long-lost familiarity. From the moment she woke up, every look, every word, and even the cadence of her voice was brimming with life. She had a temper, she had opinions, and she was naturally vibrant—and, as expected, incredibly spoiled. She hated the ward, hated the food, and looked down on Lu Yu, acting exactly like a pampered heiress.

She was exactly like Yu Yan from three years ago.

“Princess…” Lu Yu let the old nickname slip. “Did you… lose your memory?”

Yu Yan thought Lu Yu had gone mad, but it turned out she was the one whose world was ending.

“The number you have dialed is not in service…”

She didn’t know how many times she had dialed. The cold, mechanical voice repeated the same message. She couldn’t reach her mother, and her messages went completely ignored. This had never happened before.

Lu Yu told her it was 2025. She said their family had gone bankrupt and her mother was currently on the run from creditors. She didn’t have time to answer the phone.

What kind of sick joke was this? 2025? Bankrupt and on the run? Impossible. Absolutely impossible.

Yu Yan refused to believe it. She wouldn’t.

The key fumbled in the lock of the dim hallway until a sharp click signaled the door opening. As Lu Yu walked into the apartment, the familiar face framed by this completely alien world sent a fresh wave of panic through Yu Yan. Lu Yu’s abstract explanations were beginning to take a very concrete, very grim shape.

She was actually living in a dump like this.

It was a cramped, dilapidated apartment under fifty square meters. There was no elevator, and the hallway lights had been dead for ages. Inside the living room, the flickering light revealed yellowed walls covered in cracks and peeling paint. Living on the third floor meant every conversation from the street below drifted in as noise.

Lu Yu flopped onto the sofa and set a bag on the coffee table. Yu Yan recognized the pink packaging as roast goose from one of her favorite restaurants. She felt a tiny spark of comfort.

See? It’s not that bad, right?

The living room was too small for a dining table, so they had to sit on small stools around the coffee table. Knowing Yu Yan had forgotten the routine, Lu Yu pulled out a stool and patted it. “Since you’re sick and pitying yourself over this memory loss, I’ll indulge you a little.”

“Do you feel like your world has collapsed?” Lu Yu asked with a small smile.

“You’d better get used to this life fast. At our current spending level, we can only afford this once every three months.”

“This cost me more than a fifth of my salary.”

Yu Yan’s heart sank even further.

Of course she felt wronged. She felt like her life was over.

Her injuries were minor, so she had been discharged that afternoon.

The “memory loss” had nearly scared Lu Yu to death, but a second brain scan showed nothing more than a mild concussion.

Yu Yan had refused to spend another second in that ward. The doctor said she could recover at home, though “home” wasn’t much better than the hospital.

Fortunately, Lu Yu kept the place clean and tidy. It felt warm enough that Yu Yan didn’t have the same visceral reaction she had at the hospital.

What was their “spending level”? Lu Yu had quit her stable teaching job in the northwest to return to Yuncheng. She now worked at a travel agency, making just over ten thousand a month. In a city where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, she spent nearly forty percent of that on this tiny apartment, and she was covering the living expenses for Yu Yan, a “useless” socialite who had nothing without her mother’s money.

Yu Yan took back what she’d thought earlier. Lu Yu wasn’t crazy or stupid; she was the most loyal friend a girl could ask for.

But that didn’t stop Yu Yan from feeling hopeless. The shock of it all was too much. She leaned against Lu Yu, sighing deeply, her eyes brimming with tears. Even her favorite roast goose had lost its flavor.

Lu Yu was patient, unpacking the food while calmly trying to comfort her.

But Yu Yan couldn’t accept it. No one on earth could accept such a tragic turn of events.

With a surge of defiance, she unlocked her phone again and scrolled through her WeChat contacts. Luckily, her passcode was the same as it was three years ago, and FaceID still worked.

“Who are you looking for?” Lu Yu asked, glancing over. “Fu Yunqing. What’s her WeChat? I can’t find it…” Yu Yan scrolled through the list,  then typed the name into the search bar. Nothing. She tried different nicknames: Sister Fu, Wife, Sister, My Darling. Still nothing. Not a single trace.

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