Transmigrating As The Scummy Ex-Wife Of The Cold And Aloof Tycoon - Chapter 30

Finally squeezing through the crowd, Ye Yichi reached the very front, where several of Ye Shijin’s former subordinates recognized her.

“Little President Ye, Little President Ye is here.”

Xin Ning came to a sudden halt and turned her gaze over. Her thin lips were painted with a pale lipstick, unlike the deathly pallor she’d had in the hospital earlier, she now looked somewhat sharp.

“Why are you here?” Her voice was equally sharp.

Ye Yichi strode over in two steps and tightly gripped Xin Ning’s waist. This was likely a form of PTSD the moment she saw Xin Ning open her mouth, she assumed nothing good would come out. It was fine to bicker in private, but in front of the media, it would be hard to spin.

“Shh, don’t say anything reckless,” Ye Yichi leaned down and whispered into Xin Ning’s ear. “Don’t worry, I’m here to help you.”

The tips of Xin Ning’s ears turned a faint red, and the fingers clutching the microphone trembled slightly.

Ye Yichi gave Xin Ning’s waist a reassuring squeeze. She had lost a lot of weight, her waist was almost small enough to be held in one hand. In the past, many times when Ye Yichi had approached her despite her cold face, her hand would rest in this same spot. It had been slender then, but never to the point where one could so clearly feel the bone.

With her status as Ye Shijin’s niece, handling the press conference wasn’t difficult. The remaining members of the Ye family faction found it hard to say anything more now that Ye Yichi had intervened.

Twenty minutes later, the noisy conference room returned to silence.

Ye Yichi released her hand from Xin Ning’s waist and instructed her assistant, “Escort everyone downstairs properly. Coordinate with the PR department, buy trending searches where needed, hire internet trolls where needed.”

“Understood, President Ye,” the assistant nodded repeatedly.

“Stop calling me President Ye from now on.” Ye Yichi waved her hand and turned to observe Xin Ning. During those twenty minutes, Xin Ning hadn’t spoken into the microphone once, nor had she turned her head to give her a cold glare.

It was quite unusual.

Over the past three years, whenever they disagreed, even if Xin Ning didn’t say anything during a meeting, her gaze would at least crash into Ye Yichi cold, frozen, and filled with hidden daggers.

“Does this mean you actually agreed with everything I said for once?” Ye Yichi raised an eyebrow.

“Not necessarily.” Xin Ning kept her head lowered, pressing her hand to her chest as she coughed for a long while.

When she spoke again, her voice was much lower, carrying a slight wheeze amidst the dark raspiness: “I was just… waiting for you to make your move against me.”

Make a move? Could she be like the assistant, suspecting that today’s chaos was her doing?

That really was… treating good intentions like dirt.

“If I’d known, I shouldn’t have come,” Ye Yichi snorted. “You seemed to be handling things quite well with your sharp tongue earlier.”

Xin Ning looked up at Ye Yichi, the corners of her eyes flushed red, her gaze churning with emotion.

“Sorry, I wronged you. It was my fault,” Xin Ning said. “Thank you for coming to help, and thank you for staying with me at the hospital this morning.”

Well, well. The mouth that usually spat wind-blades and snow-swords had suddenly learned how to speak properly?

Ye Yichi licked her canine tooth, feeling quite surprised.

“Can you do me one more favor?” Xin Ning asked softly. “Can you drive me home? In my current state, I’m not fit to drive.”

The “home” Xin Ning referred to was the place next door to Hua Wan.

Since it was on the way anyway, Ye Yichi didn’t refuse. The security guard who had let her in earlier saw her driving out in the Bentley and gave a smiling salute. Ye Yichi smiled back, experiencing a fleeting illusion that she had returned to the days before the divorce.

On the way, Xin Ning kept her face toward the window, coughing occasionally.

“Do you have medicine at home?” Ye Yichi reminded her. “If not, buy some on the way. It’s not easy to buy medicine in the ancient town at night.”

She waited a few seconds but received no response. See? Just as she’d learned to talk, she’d closed her shell like a silent clam again.

And she’d previously mentioned chasing a wife like in the TV dramas, there wasn’t a single “mute” in those dramas who ever succeeded.

The car slowly pulled into the ancient town parking lot. Ye Yichi found an empty spot. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of red, a red sports car was parked not far away. Looking at the model, it had butterfly doors.

She wondered which tourist had such good taste?

After a few more glances, Ye Yichi withdrew her gaze and parked the car. “We’re here.”

The clam remained tightly shut.

Ye Yichi reached out and nudged Xin Ning. “Hey, we’re at the town. You didn’t fall asleep, did you?”

Heat radiated through the tightly buttoned coat. Ye Yichi hurriedly turned her head toward the passenger seat.

Xin Ning’s eyes were tightly shut, her cheeks flushed crimson.

“Xin Ning, wake up.” Ye Yichi patted Xin Ning’s cheek. Seeing Xin Ning slowly open her eyes, she let out a sigh of relief. “You scared me. I thought you’d fainted.”

“Sorry.” Xin Ning covered her mouth and coughed a few times. “We’re here, right? You go back first, I’ll rest for a bit.”

Leaving someone in the car risked legal liability if something happened. Ye Yichi forced Xin Ning out of the car. Before walking out of the parking lot with her arm around Xin Ning’s shoulder, she thought for a moment and pulled out a mask to cover her own face.

“When I was sick before, you were never this disgusted,” Xin Ning muttered with downcast eyes. The coldness in her voice could no longer mask the hoarseness; it was like countless grains of sand thrown into a freezing stream in early winter. “When she is sick, you definitely wouldn’t be disgusted, right?”

Was this “substitute” chapter never going to end? Ye Yichi frowned inwardly.

“How did you take care of her? Tell me,” Xin Ning coughed. “So I can better cooperate with you and play the role of the sick substitute.”

“She doesn’t get sick.” Ye Yichi had completely lost her temper to the protagonist’s persistence.

Feeling huffy, she brought the woman back to the house next door, took off her coat, and tucked her into bed. Ye Yichi’s fingertips accidentally brushed against the duvet cover; it wasn’t the fuzzy material Xin Ning usually used.

It wasn’t silk either.

It was soft and cottony, feeling strangely familiar. Ye Yichi studied the duvet cover closely.

Grey and pink stripes, Jersey cotton… was it the same style she used to have? No, that wasn’t right. Staring at a corner of the cover, Ye Yichi’s eyes narrowed slightly. On a corner of the grey-pink stripes, there was a patch in the shape of a cat’s head.

It was the size of a fingernail, a snowy white cat head with round, amber eyes.

Old Man Ye had once said that pure white cats could purify magnetic fields and attract pure, beautiful destiny.

Unfortunately, the patch wasn’t a real cat; it could only attract resentment.

Ye Yichi gently poked the cat head with her finger and smiled silently. How childish. And surprisingly diligent. This “salted fish” version of herself, blinded by longing and pursuit, had once spent hours hunched over, sewing white cat head patches onto every single one of her duvet covers.

If Old Man Ye knew, he’d definitely give her a thumbs-up with a chuckle.

Wait, no…a duvet cover with a cat-head patch… This wasn’t just the “same style.” This person, Xin Ning, had actually brought her old bedding set to use.

They were already divorced, weren’t they? What on earth did this woman want?

Ye Yichi turned her gaze to look at Xin Ning.

Xin Ning’s lower face was almost completely buried in the duvet, leaving only the tip of her small, rounded nose and her watery eyes visible.

“Thank you for bringing me back.” The hoarse voice was muffled by the duvet, sounding like the rain on a summer evening that refused to fall. “Go now. If you stay too long, you might catch it.”

Did leaving a feverish ex-wife alone count as being “unfriendly”? Ye Yichi pondered this question while checking for updates.

“Sis, when is this heartbreaker ever going to win her wife back?” Su Fanxing pointed at the screen and called out to Ye Yichi several times. “The more I watch, the more I feel there’s some hidden story behind what happened before.”

“What hidden story?” Ye Yichi asked casually.

“Hard to say, but it’s definitely not because she’s cold blooded, heartless, or naturally evil. Let me think, how do melodramas usually set it up?” Su Fanxing counted on her fingers for a while, then suddenly jumped up and ran to the kitchen. “Ah! I almost forgot, there’s porridge simmering on the stove!”

“You’re making porridge this late?” Ye Yichi followed her.

“Luckily it didn’t boil over.” Su Fanxing turned off the fire and sighed at the bubbling clay pot. “It wasn’t me, it was Grandma. Her memory is getting worse; she mistook 6:00 PM for 6:00 AM. Sigh, she made a huge pot of porridge at night. It won’t taste good if we leave it until tomorrow.”

A few minutes later, Ye Yichi carried the porridge and entered the code for the door next door.

The lights in the room were off.

Setting down the porridge, Ye Yichi felt a pang of regret. Xin Ning was likely asleep. They were divorced; she shouldn’t be meddling in other people’s business. Xin Ning was already uncomfortable; if she kept meddling, it would only make things worse.

But what if?

If the new neighbor died of illness in her home, Hua Wan would be right next to a “haunted house.”

“Xin Ning? Are you asleep?” Ye Yichi called out softly. “Grandma made some porridge. I messaged you to ask if you wanted some, but you didn’t reply.”

No response.

After a moment’s thought, Ye Yichi walked into the bedroom. Moonlight spilled through the floor-to-ceiling windows, turning the grey-pink duvet into a hazy lump. At the very top of the lump, Xin Ning was in much the same position as she had been in the afternoon, with only a small part of her face showing.

Even her nose was covered wouldn’t that make it hard to breathe?

Ye Yichi approached and pulled the duvet down slightly. Xin Ning didn’t react.

Did she pass out from the fever?

Ye Yichi switched on the light and reached out to feel Xin Ning’s forehead. It was burning hot, as expected. Fortunately, Xin Ning frowned slightly and slowly opened her eyes.

They were dark and watery, with a small patch of redness at the corners.

“How high is your fever? Have you taken your temperature?” Ye Yichi switched to touching Xin Ning’s cheek; it was still scorchingly hot.

Xin Ning didn’t answer. She watched Ye Yichi quietly for a few seconds, then braced herself to reach for the bedside table drawer.

“Is the thermometer in the drawer?” Ye Yichi hurried to help.

After a soft click, the drawer was pulled open. Inside lay only a pack of masks.

Xin Ning pulled one out, opened it, and handed it to Ye Yichi: “Put it on.”

“Who’s asking you for a mask?” Ye Yichi almost laughed out of frustration. “Where’s the thermometer? And the fever medicine, have you taken it? The town hospital isn’t open 24 hours. It’ll be trouble if this turns into high-fever pneumonia.”

“I don’t have a thermometer, and I don’t have fever medicine.” Xin Ning clutched the mask, her gaze trembling slightly.

Who had invented the word “karmic entanglement”? Ye Yichi hadn’t researched it, but the term was truly fitting.

She huffed back to Hua Wan, grabbed a thermometer and medicine, and walked out the gate. After a moment’s thought, she turned back and poured a cup of hot water. Xin Ning’s place was like a hotel  decor and furniture were all there, but daily necessities were missing.

Returning to the house next door with the supplies, she found Xin Ning leaning half-propped against the headboard, looking out.

Ye Yichi tucked the thermometer under Xin Ning’s arm and handed her the porridge. After sitting for a while, the once scalding liquid had become lukewarm, perfect for eating.

“Eat something first, then you can take the medicine.”

“I feel sick, I can’t eat.” Xin Ning refused to reach out, her eyes, overflowing with waves of moisture, fixed unblinkingly on Ye Yichi.

“Not eating will only make you feel worse.” Ye Yichi forced the bowl into Xin Ning’s hands. As their gazes met, she gave a silent sigh.

In the past when she was sick, Xin Ning would use those same watery eyes to scan everything around her the thermometer, the food, the medicine but she would never look at her. Even if Ye Yichi smiled, acted cute, or tried every possible way to coax her.

Now, things were the other way around.