Transmigrating As The Scummy Ex-Wife Of The Cold And Aloof Tycoon - Chapter 15

“Fine, just fine. What a perfect breakup performance every step of the process handled thoroughly.”

Ye Yichi hopped onto the resort shuttle and slowly covered her eyes. The familiar chill was gone. Let it be, she thought. Let it be. She’d order her coffin as soon as she got back. She was done with this wretched book.

Wait.

The chill? The ring… Pushing her sorrow aside, Ye Yichi lowered her hand and stared at her empty finger, realizing belatedly if she had the coffin but no ring, could she still go back?

But then again, she’d had both the coffin and the ring before, and she hadn’t gone back then either, had she?

What if she really couldn’t go back? She couldn’t spend the rest of her days selling bags, those were all limited editions; her heart would break to lose a single one.

She spent the whole ride lost in a daze until the bus entered the city. Ye Yichi made up her mind: once the divorce was finalized, she’d go out for auditions. She didn’t need to be a superstar; she just needed one or two supporting roles a year to cover her living expenses.

She was a “salted fish,” after all she didn’t have many grand ambitions.

Monday was a bright, sunny day.

Ye Yichi took a Didi and got out at the entrance of the Civil Affairs Bureau at exactly 8:25 AM.

To be honest, her mood had been quite complicated on the way there, but after getting out of the car, she finally felt at peace. Partings and reunions, divorces and marriages, all the great affairs of the world were just like this. She was just a “cannon fodder” side character who had broken up a pair of lovebirds; getting a divorce was perfectly ordinary.

No wonder Old Man Ye always said she had a good mindset.

At 8:30 AM sharp, the doors of the Civil Affairs Bureau opened, but Xin Ning didn’t show up.

Ye Yichi waited another ten minutes. By 8:40 AM, there was still no sign of the white Bentley. Xin Ning rarely ran late. In the three years they lived together, Ye Yichi only remembered her being late once.

Back then, they had an appointment with a partner to discuss a quote. They waited and waited, but Xin Ning didn’t arrive. Ye Yichi made several calls, and finally, Xin Ning answered.

There was only the sound of rapid breathing on the other end of the line.

Ye Yichi found out later that the elevator had malfunctioned that day and Xin Ning had been trapped inside. It was then that Ye Yichi learned Xin Ning suffered from hyperventilation anxiety, panic, or even drinking too much could trigger it.

Could she have been so happy the night before that she had a hyperventilation episode? If so, she deserved it.

Ye Yichi gripped her phone and waited another ten minutes.

By 8:50 AM, being this late was truly unlike Xin Ning. Even if it was an episode, wouldn’t she be better after a whole day? Hesitating for a few seconds with pursed lips, Ye Yichi dialed Xin Ning’s number.

The call connected quickly.

“Who is this?” Xin Ning’s voice was as cold and clear as ever.

Oh, so she wasn’t gasping for air and unable to get up? Ye Yichi exhaled a sigh of relief and snorted in dissatisfaction. “Where are you?”

There was no response from the other end.

“We agreed to meet at the Civil Affairs Bureau at 8:30. Where are you?” Ye Yichi asked again.

“I’m in another province for a meeting,” Xin Ning’s cold voice rang out again, her tone half a beat slower than usual.

There were no ice crystals hitting a lake, nor the wind before a mountain storm. Was it because they were separated by a screen? Or was it the loss during the transmission of radio waves? Ye Yichi wasn’t sure.

“We’ll handle your business another day. I’m hanging up.” Xin Ning paused for a moment before speaking again. “Is this your new number? Don’t change it again. I’ll contact you in a few days.”

The line went dead with a series of beeps.

Fine. The noble protagonist was back in power and busy with a thousand things a small matter like a divorce couldn’t squeeze into the mogul’s schedule. Whatever, she’d just wait her turn. If the other woman wasn’t in a hurry after missing three years, why should she be?

How annoying.

If she’d known Xin Ning wasn’t coming, she wouldn’t have dragged herself out of bed so early.

She’d even gone through the trouble of putting on a full face of makeup.

On her way back to the apartment, Ye Yichi called Director Li. Hearing that Ye Yichi was looking for an audition, Director Li mentioned a director she had met before.

“I don’t want to work with that company,” Ye Yichi sighed. Her mindset wasn’t that good filming a drama at her ex-wife’s company after the divorce was too much.

“I see.” Director Li thought for a moment. “It’s fine. I know other directors. Let me ask around.”

Two days later, Ye Yichi landed a supporting role in a period drama. With Director Li’s help, she didn’t even need to audition and went straight to the set.

The crew was in a mountainous area in the neighboring city.

The living conditions were poor, and the roads were bad. When it rained, cars couldn’t get in. Ye Yichi stayed at the foot of the mountain for one night and only took an off-road vehicle into the mountains the next day when the weather cleared.

“Teacher Ye, the conditions are so tough and it’s just a supporting role. I really didn’t expect you to take it,” the director praised Ye Yichi when they met and arranged for a staff member to take her to the lodging area.

It was a prefab house a freezer in winter and an oven in summer.

The only consolation was that they were all single rooms.

Ye Yichi was among the last to join the crew, so she was assigned the very last room. It had a clothes rack welded from iron pipes and a 1.2-meter folding bed. It was a bit crude, but luckily, she wasn’t Xin Ning.

After two days of costume fittings, table reads, and rehearsals, followed by several days of filming from dawn to dusk, Ye Yichi’s scenes wrapped up on Saturday night. This time a week ago, she was sitting in a bar playing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and a week later, she was taking group photos with other supporting actors who had wrapped.

Life was just that mysterious.

What was even more mysterious was that the meeting Xin Ning was attending in another province hadn’t finished in a whole week. Before her final scene, Ye Yichi sent Xin Ning a message asking when they could get divorced.

Xin Ning replied quickly.

– Still out of town.

Four words and a period. She certainly had a sense of grammar.

After the wrap-up photo, she was supposed to leave the set, but unfortunately, the rain made the roads difficult to drive on, so Ye Yichi had to stay one more night. On Sunday morning, it was still raining. Feeling bored, Ye Yichi stood with several other actors who had finished their scenes and watched the director film.

After a while, her phone rang. It was Xin Ning.

Ye Yichi hung up and went back to her room to return the call.

Xin Ning picked up quickly: “Why did you hang up on me?”

There was a slight ripple in that cold voice, like the drizzling rain of early winter in the south. She was dissatisfied just because a call was hung up? How overbearing. Ye Yichi hadn’t said a word after being stood up for twenty minutes.

Ye Yichi rolled her eyes. “Are you done? When are we going for the divorce?”

“Are you at the apartment?” Xin Ning asked. “I’ll come pick you up.”

Wow, the busy protagonist finally found time for the divorce. How wonderful, how moving. However…

“It’s Sunday, we can’t do it today. Let’s do it tomorrow morning,” Ye Yichi yawned lazily and sat on the folding bed.

The bed frame creaked twice, like a listless cicada clinging to the end of summer, flapping its wings in vain.

“Are you at the apartment?” Xin Ning stubbornly asked again. “I have something to see you about.”

The verbal sparring was over, and the donation agreement was signed. How could the protagonist still have other things that required her? Could it be that the remnants of her cheap aunt’s faction were making trouble again?

“What is it?” Ye Yichi asked.

“I want to pick a gift for Lin Weilan. Help me choose,” Xin Ning said.

What… on earth? Taking your soon to be ex-wife to buy a gift for your current love? Can a protagonist really be this creative?

Meow.

And to think she was actually worried the other woman was being given a hard time.

Ye Yichi bit her teeth in hatred. “I’m not going.”

Setting aside the fact that she was filming in the mountains and couldn’t go, she wouldn’t go even if she could. After hanging up, Ye Yichi still felt frustrated and kicked the leg of the bed.

The creaking sound intensified, like a small rodent working hard to gnaw on wood.

When she was a child, Ye Yichi had lived in a stilt house.

In the dead of night, the sound of mice creaking always came from the roof beams.

Ye Yichi was annoyed by the noise and suggested catching the mice, but Old Man Ye shook his head with a smile, telling her that mice were much smarter than she imagined. That night, Old Man Ye spent a long time “talking” to the roof beams. The next day, the creaking sound disappeared.

Ye Yichi only found out later that what Old Man Ye said to the mice that night was: “If you’re going to squeak, go squeak at someone else’s house. I only have this one precious daughter. If anyone dares to make her angry, I’ll wipe them out.”

How was Old Man Ye doing now? Ye Yichi lowered her eyes and stared at her empty finger for a long time.

In the afternoon, the rain gradually stopped.

Worried that the mountain roads would be slippery and dangerous, the director arranged for Ye Yichi and the others to stay one more night. Ye Yichi had to send Xin Ning another message.

Can’t make it tomorrow morning. Meet at the Civil Affairs Bureau in the afternoon.

Xin Ning replied quickly.

You’re the one who was in a hurry to divorce, and you’re the one who keeps pushing back the time. Do you actually want a divorce?

Of course she did, more than anything. Ye Yichi gnashed her teeth while typing. Halfway through, her phone rang. It was Xin Ning.

Ye Yichi took a slow breath and answered.

“If you don’t want to divorce, you can just say so.” On the other end of the line, Xin Ning’s voice was light, and the sound of singing could be heard faintly in the background.

It was quite melodious, with a tune very similar to the song “Feng Yue Wu” she had heard in the bar. So, she’d finished picking out the gift and gone back to the bar to reminisce? How romantic. Ye Yichi scoffed. “Who doesn’t want to divorce? I’m just busy and can’t make it back.”

“What are you busy with?” Xin Ning asked.

Ye Yichi: “I’m stuck on a mountain.”

“Which mountain? I can come pick you up,” Xin Ning snorted. “What? Can’t say? If you don’t want to divorce, just say it. Don’t make up these ridiculous excuses. Ye Yichi, you really are full of surprises.”

“Surprises” my foot. Ye Yichi gave her the address and hung up crossly.

Who was it that said marriage is the tomb of love?

According to Ye Yichi’s experience, that statement was biased marriage was simply a gunpowder factory. A girl who was as stubborn and cold as a winter plum three years ago had, after three years of tempering, evolved into a great demon king who could choke someone to death with her words.

She wondered if Xin Ning would still be like this after marrying the great beauty Lin.

Probably not, Ye Yichi lowered her eyes and tossed her phone aside.

They were childhood sweethearts, in love with each other. One played the piano and the other sang. Debussy, “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair” they could talk about anything and everything and would be nothing but happy.

Hmph.

So what if she knew a pianist? What did that count for? Ye Yichi pulled her phone back in a huff and typed in “Debussy.”

307 tracks. That was quite a lot.

She flipped through them casually and found a very distinctive name “Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune” (Afternoon of a Faun).

“This is the one. My nap music for today.”

In her dream, there was a hazy, drifting mass, sometimes jumping, sometimes ethereal. It looped countless times until it suddenly became noisy. Strange, there hadn’t been this rhythm before? Ye Yichi turned over and covered her ears.

A ringing sound lasted for a short while, stopped, and then started again.

Ye Yichi reluctantly opened her eyes. It was a phone call.

From Xin Ning.

“Hello?” Ye Yichi yawned and asked lazily, “What is it now?”

“I’ve arrived at the place you mentioned,” Xin Ning said. “The staff won’t let me in. Come out and get me.”