Time Travel Begins the Moment I Divorce My Wife - Chapter 21

It was Saturday, a beautiful day with clear skies, pleasant air, and an easygoing mood.

Ji Xunchi hummed a tune as she washed the fruit she had bought the day before, arranging it neatly and inviting Grandma Ji to eat.

“This must have cost quite a bit, right?” Grandma Ji said, her heart aching for the expense. “Even if you have earned some money, you should still be frugal. The two of us cannot finish all this. Oh dear, will this not go to waste?”

Ji Xunchi placed the peeled oranges in front of her, smiling sweetly to reassure her. “Don’t worry, Grandma. We have a refrigerator, so what is there to worry about?”

Grandma Ji looked at her outfit and asked, “Are you going out again this afternoon?”

Although she felt her granddaughter’s attire was a bit too flashy and mature, she figured that girls at this age were just like that, so she refrained from sounding like an old fuddy-duddy.

“Yes, I have plans with a friend,” Ji Xunchi said with a grin. “Grandma, I will be back to have dinner with you tonight.”

Grandma Ji chuckled happily. “That is good, that is good.”

After chatting with her grandmother for a while longer, Ji Xunchi returned to her room to put on her chest and hip pads.

Today, she did not wear the red dress. Instead, she chose a rather sultry, modified black qipao. Worried about the wind, she draped a shawl over her shoulders. With her waist cinched in, she looked absolutely stunning.

She checked herself in the mirror twice and ran her fingers through her real hair. She sighed, thinking that the original version was still better; at least it would not risk the social suicide of having her wig blown off by the wind.

Playing the role of a mature woman for the past two days, she found herself actually missing her original body. At the very least, those curves were real: the beauty of a mature woman, natural and effortless.

When she bought this qipao, she had not thought much about it, instinctively acting as if she were her former self. But since she had already bought it and still had to play the role of the mature yujie, she figured she might as well wear it and not let it go to waste.

Looking at the full, rounded silhouette of her hips in the mirror, Ji Xunchi felt a slight blur before her eyes, as if something had just flashed past.

Her throat felt a little dry. She cleared it, acted as if nothing were wrong, took a sip of cold water from the cup on her nightstand, picked up her handbag containing the necklace, changed into high heels, and headed out.

“Strawberry Tips” had arranged to meet her at a well-known entertainment venue in the city. Ji Xunchi took a taxi and arrived early, heading to the fifth floor and finding a window seat in the reserved café.

“I arrived.”

Hua Jiangyu looked down at the message from “Paradise” and told the driver, “Please, drive faster.”

She did not have the habit of letting people wait, even if it was still early.

The driver complied and sped up.

She was wearing a pearl-white dress today, her hair carefully styled to lie flat behind her, which downplayed her student aura and made her look elegant and reserved.

Ten minutes later, Hua Jiangyu arrived on the fifth floor.

She kept her head down, typing a message: “I arrived, too.”

Ji Xunchi, here I come.

Hua Jiangyu put her phone away and walked confidently toward the destination.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

Ji Xunchi, who had just raised the coffee to her lips, set it down instantly before she could even taste it, grabbing her bag with lightning speed, ready to leave.

She was not wearing sunglasses today!

“Ji Xunchi.”

Hua Jiangyu blocked her path, slowly calling out her name.

Ji Xunchi’s body stiffened, then slowly relaxed. She forced a natural smile and sat back down.

The smile, however, did not last more than two seconds before it completely froze and withered away.

“Paradise.”

Hua Jiangyu’s voice rose, her eyes locked onto her, calling out the name slowly. Her English pronunciation was perfect, elegant, melodious, and very pleasant to the ear.

It would have been much better if she had not been saying that specific English word.

Ji Xunchi, who felt absolutely zero pleasantness and was instead terrified, stuttered, “Strawberry… Tips?”

Hua Jiangyu sneered.

This silent sneer felt like a thunderstorm crashing beside her ears, hammering in the unbelievable truth.

Ji Xunchi’s brain crashed for a few seconds, her internal circuits flickering violently.

“How could this happen?”

How could it be like this?!

Suddenly, Ji Xunchi’s beautiful eyebrows knit together. Her pitch-black eyes stared at Hua Jiangyu, and in an instant, she regained the initiative.

She did not want to be outdone and let out an identical sneer. “A university student?”

Hua Jiangyu’s expression shifted slightly; she had just remembered this detail. For the past two days, she had been so troubled by Paradise and Ji Xunchi being the same person that she had completely forgotten the lie she had told.

Hua Jiangyu replied, “So what? It is not as ridiculous as you: a high schooler boldly playing the part of a mature, thirty-year-old yujie.”

When saying the words “mature yujie,” Hua Jiangyu pointedly looked at her outfit: the off-white tassel shawl and the black slit qipao, revealing slender, white calves.

Hua Jiangyu’s face flushed slightly. “You are really a pervert, wearing these things out again!”

“I am a pervert?”

Ji Xunchi looked down at her own attire, her view partially blocked by her proud chest. She checked herself again; there was nothing inappropriate.

Suddenly, seeing Hua Jiangyu’s flushed face, she realized something. She raised an eyebrow and countered, “You are calling me a pervert, but why are you blushing?”

She did not purposely lower her voice. It was no longer the magnetic tone she used through the headphones, but her clear, bright voice still acted like a little hook, tugging at people’s souls. Or perhaps, not a hook, but a deceptive spiderweb.

Hua Jiangyu was no match for the current Ji Xunchi. That one sentence alone deepened the crimson on her face.

With her peach-blossom cheeks, she was a breathtaking sight.

Ji Xunchi looked away, feeling uncomfortable, only then realizing her words were a bit suggestive. But since she had already said it, taking it back would feel too deliberate.

She feigned seriousness. “So, you knew last night? And you still asked me out today just to tear off my mask and yell at me?”

Must admit, she had quite the hidden agenda. But internally, Ji Xunchi felt relieved, even thinking to herself that it would be good if she kept this cleverness up to avoid being scammed in the future.

Thinking about it, out of genuine concern, Ji Xunchi let it go and even offered some advice: “But next time, if you feel wronged and want to confront someone, it is best to have a reliable friend with you and take safety measures. In case the other person gets angry and embarrassed, you will have backup. You should be prepared so you do not end up in danger.”

After all, in novels, the protagonist has the innate talent to win these confrontations, but in reality, there is no such luck. If you want to vent your anger, you should be prepared.

Hua Jiangyu replied, “…”

She stared at Ji Xunchi, bewildered. Although she felt an ill-timed touch of being moved, Hua Jiangyu held it in, but could not help but raise her voice to retort.

“Who said I came here to yell at you?”

“Oh, is that not so?” Ji Xunchi asked, confused. “Then why did you ask me to meet you?”

“Oh, I remember,” Ji Xunchi said, looking down. She found the necklace in her bag and pushed it toward her. “This is the necklace I am returning today.”

Hua Jiangyu’s gaze shifted to the exquisite gift box. This must be the thing she saw Ji Xunchi carrying in that bag outside the luxury store the other day. She had been puzzled by the contradictions in Ji Xunchi’s behavior. Zhou Qingyi said Ji Xunchi came from a poor family and was using her looks to scam people online by pretending to be a mature woman. That logic held up. But what kind of scammer returns the money they scammed?

Is that not self-contradictory?

Hua Jiangyu opened the box, looked at the identical necklace, and raised her head to ask, “You do not need money anymore?”

Ji Xunchi replied, “Need it. Of course, I do.”

Her newly arrived writing fees and part-time wages had all gone toward paying off debts. Aside from basic living expenses, Ji Xunchi was broke again.

Hua Jiangyu stared at her face, which had been carefully made up to look mature and alluring. The thought that had been budding since last night grew stronger.

“I have a way for you to make money. Do you want to do it?” she heard herself say calmly.

Ji Xunchi was suspicious: “Do what?”

Is she not here for a confrontation? Why is she offering me a job?

Hua Jiangyu said, “Be my girlfriend.”

“…”

Ji Xunchi was stunned. “Hua Jiangyu, has something gone wrong with your brain?”

Hua Jiangyu’s expression turned gloomy for a second upon hearing that. Now that the words were out, she no longer cared about her pride.

“Do not use personal attacks; my brain is perfectly clear. Be my girlfriend. For one month, I will give you more money than you could ever spend.”

This CEO-like declaration, combined with her cold expression, made Ji Xunchi wonder if she had accidentally walked onto the set of a cheesy, brainless idol drama. Otherwise, why would she be hearing Hua Jiangyu say such a thing in this lifetime?

She took a deep breath, her expression peculiar. “Are you… trying to keep me?”

She is so young and already playing such dangerous games? Was Hua Jiangyu this dramatic when she was younger?

Hua Jiangyu’s earlobes turned red as she glared at her. “What nonsense are you talking about!”

Keeping her? What ‘keeping’! She had not even thought about it that way!

Ji Xunchi glanced at her, deciding not to provoke her further.

“I refuse,” Ji Xunchi said flatly. “Whether you are trying to keep this young and beautiful high schooler or not, I will not agree. You had better kill this evil thought of yours.”

When it comes to evil, who could be more evil than Ji Xunchi?

Hua Jiangyu was irritated by her heartless rejection. Her mind was filled with the thought of how she had been scammed out of her feelings twice by the same person.

She had fallen for the same liar twice.

Looking at her parted lips, plump and moist, like cherries waiting to be picked, exuding an alluring aura…

“Find a real-life girlfriend, someone you can see, someone you can touch.”

“Someone you can see, someone you can touch.”

“Someone you can touch.”

Hua Jiangyu tried hard to calm herself down. She looked away from her face and shifted the topic coldly: “Ji Xunchi, your chest pad is crooked.”

Compared to the surging emotions in her heart, her expression was incomparably calm. “The quality of those pads really is not that great. They can fool people in photos, but when you actually wear them out, a crooked, uneven chest looks hideous.”

She did not stop there. “You should check your butt, too. It is uncomfortable to sit on pads, right? I saw you shift a few times earlier; I bet your hip pads are crooked too.”

She was actually attacking her budget-friendly pads! Ji Xunchi gave her a light glare and looked down to quickly check the situation. Fortunately, it was only slightly crooked.

Ji Xunchi reached out and adjusted it without any self-consciousness. As for her butt? Forget it; she was still sitting down.

When she looked up, a magnified, soul-stirringly beautiful face appeared before her. Ji Xunchi was startled by Hua Jiangyu, who was standing right in front of her.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

In the next second, Ji Xunchi felt her chin being gripped.

As her chin was lifted, Ji Xunchi was forced to look up at the owner of those flawless hands.

Hua Jiangyu was staring at her, her gaze unfocused.

Suddenly, without warning, she said, “I just put the money in your bag.”

Huh? What money?

Before Ji Xunchi could struggle or ask, that flawless face pressed down, and two moist, soft lips were imprinted onto hers.

The question of confusion was crushed and defeated by the attacker. Before Ji Xunchi could regain her senses, the instincts burned into her brain subconsciously responded in her stead.

Like a soldier, long-trained to react, meeting the enemy.

Ji Xunchi subconsciously grabbed the back of Hua Jiangyu’s head, pressing it down. The veins on the back of her hand bulged slightly, full of a beauty defined by control.

Her teeth grazed the moist lips; her tongue hooked around that clumsy, reckless fish that did not know how to leap over the dragon gate. Ji Xunchi exerted a little force, instinctively giving the other a lingering, passionate, and wet kiss.

A suffocating, heart-palpitating, and dizzying sensation slowly crept up.

Her heart was pounding wildly, her eardrums ringing, her pupils glazing over in a dizzy, hazy stupor. Hua Jiangyu felt her soul trembling.

The person who controlled her heart and soul finally took mercy on the pitiful fish, allowing her to breathe fresh air.

As her consciousness drifted back from the bliss, Ji Xunchi finally realized what she had just done.

…She had just subconsciously responded to Hua Jiangyu.

Looking at Hua Jiangyu, who was limp in her arms, Ji Xunchi said with a complicated expression, “I—”

The air shifted slightly. Just as she began to speak, her arms were instantly empty.

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