Transmigrating As The Scummy Ex-Wife Of The Cold And Aloof Tycoon - Chapter 17

Xin Ning’s health had always been fragile; falling ill with a fever was a common occurrence. Ye Yichi remembered that just a few months ago, Xin Ning had suffered through a bout of illness that lasted an entire week. At that time, her jade-carved cheeks were flushed with a feverish glow, and a dense mist seemed to linger in the depths of her dark eyes.

She was beautiful, certainly, but she was also truly pitiable.

Ye Yichi opened her door. “I don’t have any here. Wait a moment, I’ll go ask around.”

When she returned with a thermometer and fever reducers, Xin Ning was sitting by the edge of the bed. The dim, yellowish light fell upon her thick eyelashes, casting shadows like small fans. She looked as dignified as the statue of Mary in St. Peter’s Basilica.

There was a trace of pity and depth in Xin Ning’s expression as she stared quietly at the table, as if the bouquet of wilting roses there were a precious treasure deserving of her mercy.

It’s all an act, Ye Yichi sighed inwardly.

If this compassionate, exquisite statue were to speak, the only things that would come out would be “wind, frost, swords, and shadows.”

Ye Yichi couldn’t figure out how Xin Ning had transformed from a tightly shut clam into someone so sharp and biting, but fortunately, she no longer needed to think about it.

“Go back to your room, take your temperature, and take the medicine.” Ye Yichi handed the borrowed items to Xin Ning. “We’re driving down the mountain first thing tomorrow morning. Have Lin Weilan take you to the hospital.”

“She’s busy. She doesn’t have time.”

“Then go by yourself.”

Xin Ning stared at Ye Yichi quietly for a moment before taking the items. “I can’t go by myself. You know that.”

And? Lin Weilan might not be able to go, but there were secretaries, assistants, and nannies. What did this have to do with her, the soon to be ex-wife? Ye Yichi held the door open, inviting Xin Ning out of the room. “That is your business.”

The door clicked shut. A moment later, the sound of Xin Ning’s footsteps faded down the hallway.

Perfect, Ye Yichi thought to herself.

Three years of entanglement, the grudge of being kicked out of the house on a rainy night, the resentment of having her peace charm thrown away let it all end with the sound of that closing door. Xin Ning might be cold-hearted and decisive, but in the grand scheme of things, she didn’t really owe Ye Yichi anything. If anything, Ye Yichi was the one who had played the role of the “villain” breaking up the young lovers.

Forget it. It’s in the past.

Ye Yichi pulled up Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune on her phone, deciding to let the music guide her into sleep.

A hazy, ethereal melody drifted, leaping and circling before returning to silence. A long while later, the phone rang.

Ye Yichi grabbed it in a daze. It was 3:00 AM.

It was Xin Ning again.

At this hour? Calling me? Ye Yichi suddenly jolted awake. “What’s wrong?”

“Do you have any clean clothes?” Xin Ning’s voice was different from her usual cold tone, it was soft and slightly hoarse. “My clothes are wet. I want to change.”

“Also,” Xin Ning gasped slightly, “can I take a shower at your place? I sweated a lot after taking the fever medicine. It’s very uncomfortable.”

No. We finally cut ties. I absolutely cannot. Say no, you idiot, Ye Yichi chanted to herself.

“Fine. Throw on a coat and come over. The wind in the hallway is strong, don’t catch a cold.” Ye Yichi said.

The bathroom was small, lit by a warm yellow light. Within seconds of turning on the hot water, a wave of steam billowed out from the crack in the door. Ye Yichi waited by the open door until Xin Ning arrived.

She was wrapped in a thin white blazer, her cheeks flushed.

“Go shower first. The water is already hot.” Ye Yichi closed the door and handed her a set of dry pajamas. “Change into these after you’re done. They’re clean.”

Xin Ning took the pajamas and pushed open the bathroom door.

The oncoming heat carried a mist of water. White and warmth intertwined, occasionally pierced by slivers of orange-yellow light, swallowing Xin Ning’s tall, slender figure.

After taking a few steps into the steaming warmth, Xin Ning shed her blazer and turned around.

The swirling steam drifted around her pale, clean skin. Under the blazer, she wore only a camisole dress, revealing her collarbones and above them, a ring-shaped pendant that swayed slightly with her movements.

“Thank you.” Xin Ning’s lips curved into a faint smile before she closed the door.

She really is beautiful, Ye Yichi thought. She had never seen anyone with a better figure than Xin Ning.

Long legs, a slender waist, and curves that looked like full water droplets. Her skin was like piled snow or congealed jade. When she had touched her for the first time, Ye Yichi’s fingertips had hesitated, afraid of offending a celestial being.

Wait, that’s not right. Ye Yichi began counting on her fingers.

Before meeting Xin Ning, she had lived outside the book with Old Man Ye for twenty-one years.

When she was a child, while other kids were in class, she was also in class. When other kids played after school, she caught up on sleep. She had to save her energy before the end of the school day so she could follow Old Man Ye to do business small jobs involving “feudal superstitions” that often didn’t start until midnight.

Following that routine, she never had the chance to make friends.

Let alone experiencing the first stirrings of love or carefully admiring someone’s body.

Later, as she grew older, she attended classes when she had them and helped Old Man Ye when she didn’t. She was so busy until she was twenty-one that she hadn’t even considered whether she liked men or women before she transmigrated into the book.

Then she met Xin Ning. An arranged marriage… better not to mention it.

Ye Yichi stared at the rain hitting the window for a while until Xin Ning turned off the water and pushed open the bathroom door.

The pajamas weren’t wrapped tightly, and the ring pendant trembled against her collarbone.

Don’t look, Ye Yichi warned herself. They were about to get a divorce; she couldn’t be seduced by appearances. She needed to burn away the obsession in her heart… To hell with that, beauty is human nature.

“President Xin, aren’t you afraid I might… do something?” Ye Yichi’s gaze fell upon Xin Ning’s neck.

Her cold-white skin was flushed a pale pink from the steam, like the bright petals of a Diana rose. Further down was the elegant, clear curve of her collarbone, and further still…

Ye Yichi licked her canine tooth. She couldn’t look anymore. Better to go back to watching the rain.

Xin Ning followed Ye Yichi’s gaze downward, then looked toward the window.

“Is the rain more beautiful than me?” Xin Ning asked.

Am I hallucinating? Ye Yichi wondered. How could the cold and arrogant Miss Xin say something like that?

“You’d rather look at the rain than me?” Xin Ning spoke again, her clear voice carrying a ripple of emotion, like a spring breeze ruffling a cold, vast body of water. “You used to say I was beautiful. You said that when you saw me, there was no one else in your heart or eyes.”

What is going on? Ye Yichi secretly pinched her arm. It hurt. It wasn’t a dream.

Why was she hearing sleep-talk while awake? Ye Yichi grew more confused. “President Xin, has the fever turned your brain to mush?”

Xin Ning paused for a moment. “Do you really not understand what I mean?”

Understand my foot.

Ye Yichi stared intently at the window. Back when they lived together, she hadn’t even dared to fantasize about such an explosive scene. Now, on the night before their divorce, the jade-carved beauty arrives through the mist, half-hidden and speaking softly. What was she trying to do? Test her willpower?

Heaven knows, if she didn’t know the beauty already had a childhood sweetheart, any normal person wouldn’t be able to resist.

Right..the beauty already has her sweetheart.

“President Xin, please have some self-respect.” Ye Yichi took a deep breath.

She accepted being the “villain” Ye and the “meddling spouse,” as that was ignorance. But to make a mistake now would be knowingly becoming “the other woman” even if, from a legal standpoint, she was the original wife.

Forget it, it’s a mess. Better to cut losses now.

“Go back to your room now that you’ve showered. I’m going to sleep.” Ye Yichi said.

The shimmering light in Xin Ning’s eyes froze. The pink on her cheeks and neck deepened into a vivid, dripping red.

“It’s too far. It’s cold outside.” Xin Ning pursed her lips and stood her ground for a few seconds before whispering, “I want to sleep in your room.”

“No.”

“Why not? It’s not like we haven’t slept together before,” Xin Ning asked.

“Before was before. Now we are getting a divorce.” Ye Yichi’s eyes reflected the fine raindrops on the window, gathering and merging as they wound their way down. So ugly, Ye Yichi thought. A good crying scene should be like the ones Qiong Yao described tears held back until the words are finished, then falling one by one.

Xin Ning stared at Ye Yichi’s back for a long time.

“Do you have to be like this?” Wrapping the blazer she came in tightly around herself, Xin Ning lowered her eyes and asked coldly, “Is this divorce absolutely necessary?”

“You’re the one who brought up the divorce, and now you’re questioning me?” Ye Yichi was almost amused.

Was the jade-carved beauty’s logic really this bizarre? Or was this “unreasonable yet confident” attitude the legendary “protagonist aura”?

“Not only did you bring it up before, but even if you hadn’t, I would have.”

The Ye family was full of integrity. Ye Yichi couldn’t bring herself to be “the other woman.”

“Is that so?” Xin Ning’s voice sank even lower, carrying an undetectable huskiness. “Knowing you’re so determined to divorce… then I’m relieved.”

The rain gradually stopped toward dawn. By morning, a great sun had come out, and by noon, the road had dried, revealing mottled asphalt under a thin layer of soil.

Ye Yichi said her goodbyes to the film crew and got into Xin Ning’s car.

The white Bentley drove slowly along the winding mountain road. Ye Yichi leaned lazily in the passenger seat, her eyes half-closed. To be honest, she was exhausted. But she couldn’t be blamed; anyone who stayed up at 3:00 AM watching the rain until dawn would be tired.

It wasn’t exactly insomnia; she had spent those hours thinking: What did Xin Ning mean by saying she was “relieved”?

Was she afraid Ye Yichi still had designs on her? Was that whole act last night just to test her sincerity about the divorce? Was that necessary? She had already waited for her at the Civil Affairs Bureau.

And what was that about “rather look at the rain than me”?

Why didn’t she just say: “If you would just open your eyes and look at me, I don’t believe your eyes would be empty”?

How did that song go? Ye Yichi hummed under her breath: “Talk not of royalty or riches, fear not the rules or the precepts…”

Xin Ning caught a glimpse of Ye Yichi from the corner of her eye.

“Quietly ask the holy monk, is the daughter beautiful? Is the daughter beautiful…” Ye Yichi’s murmuring faded, and a moment later, her breathing became long and steady.

In her dream, Xin Ning was draped in light gauze, with sparkling rubies hanging from her earlobes.

Slender fingers like jade, with pale pink nails, pressed against the flowing gauze, tugging… and tugging again.

Don’t tug anymore, Ye Yichi thought. If you keep tugging, I’m going to see something I shouldn’t. She wasn’t a saint she had done her best to resist once already. She couldn’t be blamed, right? Biological attraction what was she supposed to do?

This is a dream, right? Yes, a dream. The Xin Ning outside the dream would never act like this.

Damn it, why couldn’t she even have peace in her dreams?

Wake up, hurry and wake up.

The cold scent of her skin mixed with the sweetness of roses seemed to possess a magical power. Her eyelids fluttered open slightly, only to close again. Forget it, let nature take its course, Ye Yichi gave up the struggle.

After an unknown amount of sleep, the car slowly came to a stop.

“Still smiling in your sleep while on the way to a divorce. You really are something.” Xin Ning snorted coldly.

Ye Yichi slowly opened her eyes. Outside the window was not the Civil Affairs Bureau where she had once waited for twenty minutes, nor was it the Xin Corporation, or any other place Ye Yichi was familiar with.

“Where is this?” Ye Yichi asked. “You drove to the wrong place, didn’t you?”