Transmigrating As The Scummy Ex-Wife Of The Cold And Aloof Tycoon - Chapter 23

When she was in elementary school, Ye Yichi learned an idiom: “The lingering ghost of a deceased person that refuses to disperse.”

Her teacher explained that in a sentence, it usually functions as an adjective, describing a state of entanglement so persistent that one cannot break free. Old Man Ye’s explanation differed slightly from the teacher’s; he told Ye Yichi that in their line of work, encountering “lingering ghosts” was an inevitability. If you wanted them to vanish, you had to use specific methods.

Did Xin Ning’s current state count as a lingering ghost? Ye Yichi estimated that it probably did.

What kind of “method” could make a lingering ghost like Xin Ning vanish?

On her way back to Hua Wan, Ye Yichi tried hard to recall Old Man Ye’s words, but she couldn’t remember the specifics. Back then, while her hands were busy with feudal superstitious activities, her heart was firmly planted in the camp of materialism. Had she known she would transmigrate into a book, she really should have learned more from Old Man Ye.

On second thought, Ye Yichi found it amusing even if she had learned it, it would be useless. Xin Ning wasn’t an actual ghost.

Xin Ning was simply used to being pursued by her. Now that she had suddenly stopped, Xin Ning couldn’t adjust.

It was time to lay all the cards on the table.

As she approached Hua Wan, Ye Yichi saw Xin Ning standing outside the courtyard gate from a distance. With the light behind her, Xin Ning’s expression was unclear, but from her posture, she seemed to be looking over.

Walking a few steps closer, Ye Yichi saw it clearly: Xin Ning was indeed watching her.

Those pitch-black eyes were like bottomless pools. As a breeze brushed past, ripples formed in the water, growing from tiny disturbances into a surging tide. At a glance, it looked as if her eyes were brimming with tears.

“What are you doing here?” Ye Yichi asked.

“Delivering something to you. Granny Su said you weren’t in.” Xin Ning raised her hand, showing a thick folder. “The lead actress contract. Sign it; filming starts next year.”

When did she ever say she agreed to be the lead? She just brought the contract over on her own? The protagonist was as overbearing as ever.

Ye Yichi withdrew her gaze from the folder and looked directly into Xin Ning’s dark eyes. “Xin Ning, do you understand the situation? We are divorced.”

“Does being divorced mean we can’t sign a contract? There’s no such law.” Xin Ning narrowed her eyes slightly, her lips quickly pulling into a straight line.

Based on Ye Yichi’s understanding of her, she was preparing to let out a cold snort.

With her lips pulled completely tight, Xin Ning remained silent for a few seconds before gradually relaxing her tension and looking away. “Sorry, I didn’t come here to argue with you.”

“I understand,” Ye Yichi said with a smile.

She wasn’t a masochist. Over the past three years, despite the many arguments and sharp words, if Xin Ning had constantly faced her with icy hostility, Ye Yichi could never have held onto her fantasies regardless of any physical attraction.

The hand that gently patted her back when she was drunk, the faint smile on those cold lips during a warm afternoon, the flush on Xin Ning’s ears when she was allowed to climb into bed… Stop. She was supposed to be exorcising a ghost. Ye Yichi cleared her throat.

“You don’t want to argue, you just hate the Ye family, hate Ye Shijin, and hate me.”

Thinking about this used to make her heart ache, but now she could analyze the problem calmly. Great job, Ye Yichi thought, mentally giving herself a thumbs-up.

“The Xin Corporation was held in our hands. You had to marry into the family to reach the core. The Ye family wanted to legitimately swallow all of the Xin Corporation’s assets, so they also needed the marriage. Both families were in total agreement. With that premise, you would never love me. Never.” Withdrawing her gaze from the corner of Xin Ning’s mouth, Ye Yichi turned to look at the courtyard.

It was autumn. The trees had dropped some leaves, and fluffy chickens were running around on the fallen foliage. Their chirping mixed with the slight crunch of dry leaves it was incredibly cute.

Unfortunately, humans are not plants, nor are they carefree little animals. Having faced each other day and night for three years, Xin Ning couldn’t simply ignore her existence.

She couldn’t fall in love, yet she couldn’t ignore her either. This stubborn, cold girl was struggling in a state of hesitation one moment thinking she was a “Ye” and deserved her fate, the next moment pitying her for falling from the clouds.

“I originally thought that if I just showed you my sincerity, you would eventually set aside my family background and accept me for who I am. Later, I realized that standing between the two of us is also Lin Weilan.”

It wasn’t that Ye Yichi hadn’t thought about revealing the fact that she was in a book; she literally couldn’t say it.

Perhaps it was a restriction within the book?

It made sense. If someone suddenly told her that the world she lived in was fake that she, Old Man Ye, her classmates, the lady selling apples downstairs, and the smiling security guard at the school gate were all just cold strings of text her psyche would probably collapse, too.

“What does this have to do with Weilan?” Xin Ning frowned.

Childhood sweethearts, the author certified official couple how could it not have anything to do with her? Ye Yichi glanced at Xin Ning. Forget it, these weren’t things an ex-wife should be concerned about.

“Fine, let’s not mention Lin Weilan. Let’s just talk about us,” Ye Yichi said. “The three-year prison sentence is over. Stop letting your sympathy get the better of you or thinking about charity, and I’ll stop feeling indignant about unrequited love. Let’s just let each other go.”

Xin Ning’s brow furrowed even tighter.

“You just said you loved me.” She looked at Ye Yichi, lowered her eyes, and pursed her lips.

What kind of focus pulling ability was this? She had just poured her heart out, and all this woman heard was the word “love”?

“I said we should let each other go.” Ye Yichi felt she should be angry, but she couldn’t actually muster the emotion. After three years of struggle, of wanting what she couldn’t have, of loving and suffering now that the past had scattered like dust, those intense emotions seemed to have drifted away with the wind as well.

What was Xin Ning to her now?

Ye Yichi squinted slightly, carefully examining that face that looked as though it were carved from ice and jade. A stranger, perhaps? The most familiar of strangers.

“I don’t want to be entangled with you anymore. Please stop disrupting my life. You don’t need to pity me or worry about me starving. If I want to play a lead role, I’ll fight for it myself,” Ye Yichi stated. “You should know clearly that if I truly want something, I can get it.”

“Yes.” Xin Ning let out a soft sigh, her gaze falling on the folder. “I know your methods better than anyone.”

Methods? What methods did she have? During a break from binge watching her show, Ye Yichi puzzled over the thought.

Did poaching a rival company’s core team with the money from selling her car count? Or using her “transmigration cheat code” to make predictive acquisitions of several companies? Hiring people to rig a bid probably counted too, right?

But Xin Ning didn’t know about that last one it was illegal. At the time, Ye Yichi had calculated everything: if things went south, she would take the fall so that Xin Ning could come out of it completely clean and unscathed.

“Ah! Why is it over already? I have to wait a whole day for the next episode!” As the ending theme song began, Su Fanxing wailed at the top of her lungs. “Sis, just tell me when is this heartbreaker finally going to wake up and realize she loves you?”

“Just keep watching.” Ye Yichi reached out and gently tapped Su Fanxing’s nose. “It’s late. Go wash up; you have school tomorrow.”

The next day was quiet, and Ye Yichi slept until she woke up naturally.

When she crawled out of bed, the fat chickens downstairs were in the middle of a quarrel paired off in teams, flapping their wings and arching their necks, looking ready to fight at the slightest provocation.

“Granny, what’s wrong with them?”

“Little Yellow stole Little Black’s nesting spot. Little Black had nowhere to go, so she laid her egg in Little Flowery’s nest. Little Flowery wasn’t having it and chased Little White to Peck her. Little White couldn’t win, so she pecked Little Yellow, and now Little Black is protecting Little Yellow by beating up Little Flowery.”

“This relationship web is way too messy,” Ye Yichi remarked, clicking her tongue.

“Eh, it’s just a four way love affair, just like humans,” Granny Su said sagely. “Back then, didn’t you love that Ye Shijin to death? Then Ye Shijin was chasing Liang Yan all over the place, while Liang Yan insisted on marrying Xin Wanxia. How did that turn out? Better to just raise chickens and collect eggs. Speaking of which, want me to make you some steamed egg custard for lunch? We’ll use this one Little Black just laid.”

“…Sure.”

Once the egg was taken away, Little Black left the nest, Little Flowery stopped chasing Little White, and Little White made up with Little Yellow.

The four plump chickens returned to the underside of the tree, making the fallen leaves crunch beneath their feet.

“If only human entanglements could be resolved that quickly,” Ye Yichi smiled to herself, sitting down in her rocking chair.

While waiting for the custard, she drifted back into a nap.

In her dream, Old Man Ye tapped her nose, laughing and calling her a “sleepy cat.” I’m not a sleepy cat, Ye Yichi grumbled in her mind. She had only developed the habit of falling asleep and waking up instantly so she could help him out at night since she was a kid.

She’d nap after class, or even nap while the teacher was writing on the chalkboard. Oh, right to complement this habit, Ye Yichi had specifically practiced shorthand and memorization. She couldn’t claim to have a photographic memory, but she could remember at least seventy to eighty percent of what she read seriously.

Xin Wanxia. Liang Yan.

Coincidentally, Ye Yichi had read those two names very carefully.

At the Xin family cemetery, there were two joined headstones. The left was engraved with “Xin Wanxia,” and the right with “Liang Yan.”

A girl, cold and stubborn like a white plum blossom in the winter chill, knelt before the graves and whispered. Large tears slid down her jaw, hitting the ground, shattering, and dissolving.

“Dad, Mom, I’m sorry. I’ve entered a political marriage with Ye Shijin’s niece.” The girl’s voice was extremely faint, carried away by the whistling, bleak wind. “I will definitely take back everything that belongs to the Xin family. Believe me… Ye Yichi?”

Wait, that last part wasn’t there at the time, was it? Ye Yichi thought dizzily.

That was the first and only time she had gone to the cemetery with Xin Ning. Hidden behind the lush green pines and cypresses, she had quietly listened to Xin Ning’s murmurs. Did she feel guilty? No. She wasn’t the original owner of this body; the terrible things her “cheap” aunt had done couldn’t be pinned on her.

Did her heart ache for her? A little.

But mostly, she felt they were kindred spirits. She had just transmigrated into the book with no relatives, and Xin Ning had lost her parents and was struggling. Look at that a match made in heaven.

The perfect setup for a “salvation” novel.

“Ye Yichi?” The cold, clear voice rang out again.

No, no, that definitely wasn’t said back then. Ye Yichi opened her eyes.

The girl who had been weeping in her dream was now standing silently before her in high heels. Her eyes were slightly downcast, the dark depths reflecting Ye Yichi’s curled-up sleeping posture.

Ye Yichi pinched her thigh.

It hurt. Not a dream.

“Why are you here again?” She sighed and sat up straight. “Didn’t we make everything clear yesterday? Can’t you just be a good person and live your life as the protagonist in peace?”

“What protagonist?” Xin Ning asked.

“The protagonist of your own life,” Ye Yichi said vaguely. “Grab hold of your life and the Xin Corporation isn’t that what you’ve always wanted? Now that you’ve got your wish, instead of thinking about leading the company to bigger and better things, you’re running over here every other day? Xin Ning, has your brain gone soft?”

“I went back and thought about it for a long time yesterday. There is one thing I must make clear to you.” Xin Ning pursed her lips and said in a small voice, “You might have misunderstood. There is nothing else between Lin Weilan and me. We are just friends who have known each other for a long time.”