Transmigrating As The Scummy Ex-Wife Of The Cold And Aloof Tycoon - Chapter 31

The thermometer read nearly 39. Ye Yichi watched Xin Ning struggle through half a small bowl of porridge before handing over the medicine and water. “If your temperature doesn’t go down after taking this, I’m driving you to the hospital.”

“I’m not going,” Xin Ning protested in a small voice.

“You don’t have a choice.” Ye Yichi waited for her to finish the medicine, took the glass, and placed it on the nightstand.

“I’m heading back now. Get some sleep. Set an alarm for an hour from now, if there’s no sign of the fever breaking, call me.” To Ye Yichi, the idea of staying for a bedside vigil felt too much like a cliché soap opera. She had done it two or three times back when they were married, but now that they were divorced, she truly couldn’t bring herself to do it nor did she feel it was necessary.

“Aren’t you going to stay with me?” Xin Ning looked up, the waves in her eyes steamed into a hazy mist by the fever. “Whenever I was sick before, you always stayed with me.”

Before? Back then when I stayed with you, all you did was glare at me with cold eyes, Ye Yichi thought to herself. But meeting Xin Ning’s mist-filled gaze, she let out a silent sigh. “Before was before. Now is now.”

Back at Huawan, Ye Yichi scrolled through her phone for an hour. There were no unread messages, nor any incoming video or voice calls.

Did the fever break?

“Sis?” Su Fanxing got up to use the bathroom and saw the lights in the hall were still on. “It’s so late, why aren’t you asleep yet? I’ve already finished one round of sleep.”

“I’m just playing around for a bit,” Ye Yichi said with a yawn.

To be honest, she was quite sleepy. Having not stayed up late in a long time, her biological clock was already protesting.

“What’s so fun that it’s worth staying up for? Didn’t you always tell me to use my phone less and sleep early so my skin stays good? You’ve gone and forgotten your own advice,” Su Fanxing grumbled.

“Go back to sleep,” Ye Yichi glanced at her and stood up, heading out toward the courtyard.

“In the middle of the night, are you going to see your ex-wife again?” Su Fanxing teased in a high-pitched voice. “Ooh, look at you! Aren’t you guys divorced? Why are you still so concerned about her?”

Concerned? Ye Yichi thought. Probably not. But Xin Ning was a living person; she couldn’t just leave her to pass out from a fever in bed.

Entering the neighboring courtyard via the passcode, she found the lights inside were on.

The living room was empty, as was the bedroom. Where did she go in the middle of the night? Listening intently for a few seconds, she heard a sound coming from the bathroom.

Is she showering?

Suddenly, Ye Yichi recalled that night in the mountains when Xin Ning asked her why she would rather look at the rain than look at her…

That cold voice carried a faint tremor, like a spring breeze suddenly rippling across a vast, frozen body of water. Snow-white skin, blurred by the mist, would flush with a faint pink resembling the bright, translucent petals of a Diana rose, or the delicate porcelain of the Yongzheng era.

It was awkward to be divorced and stumble upon your ex showering. Ye Yichi turned to leave.

The sound of the water was intermittent one moment it was blasting at full volume, the next it was abruptly shut off. Something felt… wrong. After a moment’s thought, Ye Yichi went back and knocked on the bathroom door.

Just as her fingers touched the wood, the door swung open silently.

Inside the bathroom, Xin Ning stood with her back to the door, hands gripping the edge of the sink.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize you hadn’t locked the door.” Ye Yichi studied Xin Ning’s back. She was wearing light beige pajamas, not the dark grey base layer from an hour ago. Did she change because she was sweating from the fever?

“How are you? Did the fever break?” Ye Yichi asked.

Receiving no response, she tentatively stepped further into the bathroom.

“Don’t come in,” Xin Ning spoke unclearly and turned on the faucet.

Amidst the rushing water, Xin Ning lowered her head slightly over the sink, it looked like she was about to vomit.

Ye Yichi rushed over to pat her back. Xin Ning hadn’t eaten much to begin with, and it looked like she had been retching for a while. After a few more dry heaves, she couldn’t bring anything else up.

“Rinse your mouth.” Ye Yichi filled a cup with water and held it to Xin Ning’s lips.

Xin Ning took a couple of sips from her hand to rinse, then looked up. Her cold-sweat-soaked hair clung messily to her forehead. Within her reddened, watery eyes, a flicker of frustration stirred beneath the mist. “I look terrible right now, don’t I? I told you not to come in.”

“What’s going on with you?” Ye Yichi set the cup down.

Xin Ning was in poor health and often had fevers, but vomiting was rare. The last time she had vomited this severely was at the engagement banquet back then, it was because she saw Ye Shijin and her together. Now, Ye Shijin was dead.

“Is this because of me?” Ye Yichi frowned. “If you really hate me this much, why did you move in next door to Huawan? Are you a masochist?”

“I have never hated you.” Xin Ning looked directly at Ye Yichi for a few seconds.

She turned her head away, her ears and cheeks flushing a deep, vivid red.

Neither hate nor love, unable to ignore yet unable to fall in love, what a tangled mess of a relationship, Ye Yichi thought. Fortunately, divorce was a sharp blade; she was glad she had once used it to cut through the Gordian knot.

The problem now was: what to do with this lonely, frail ex-wife?

Confirming that Xin Ning didn’t feel like vomiting anymore, Ye Yichi got her back into bed. “Take your temperature again. If it’s not better, we’re going to the hospital.”

Xin Ning lowered her eyes and let herself be handled.

She held the thermometer when given, drank the water when offered behaving as obediently as a clam stripped of its shell.

Why wasn’t she this obedient when she was sick before we divorced? Back then, trying to give her medicine made it feel like Ye Yichi was some villain trying to poison her. Ye Yichi curled her lip and, estimating that enough time had passed, pulled out the thermometer.

38 exactly. It had dropped nearly a degree.

It seemed the fever reducers were starting to work. Good..though she wondered how much Xin Ning had thrown up and if it would affect the medication’s efficacy. Should she give her another dose? That seemed like a risk for overdose.

“Do you still feel like vomiting?” Ye Yichi stared at the thermometer, thinking for a few seconds. “If not, lie down and sleep for a bit. I’ll…”

“Don’t go.” The “clam” reached out with her slender fingers and pulled at Ye Yichi’s hand.

Skin brushed against skin; her temperature was slightly lower than before, but a faint tremor remained.

“I wasn’t planning on leaving,” Ye Yichi pointed toward the living room. “I’m going to play on my phone on the sofa for a while.”

The next morning after 7:00 AM, Xin Ning’s temperature had mostly returned to normal. Ye Yichi went back to Huawan to freshen up, and when she returned, she brought breakfast made by Grandma Su.

Exquisite small pastries paired with white porridge were laid out one by one on the table.

Look at that talk about the tables turning. A few days ago, she was the one sitting at the table watching Xin Ning set things out now it was Xin Ning’s turn to sit there and watch her.

Back then, she had felt helpless; now, she still felt helpless. Why was it so hard to play a supporting role?

“Eat up. I need to go back and catch up on sleep once you’re done,” Ye Yichi said with a yawn.

“Thank you for staying with me all night,” Xin Ning said, picking up the bowl of porridge.

The woman, who usually looked as if she were carved from ice and snow, had just showered. Her coldness had thawed, the corners of her eyes and brows were damp with mist, and the tips of her half-dry hair carried a faint scent of roses. She had changed into another set of pajamas, which Ye Yichi found increasingly familiar, it was the set she had given her back in that color steel shack on the mountain.

I thought she’d thrown those in the trash. The protagonist is actually quite frugal? Ye Yichi looked at her a few more times in surprise.

“Aren’t you eating?” Xin Ning took a small sip of porridge and pushed the pastries toward Ye Yichi. “Thank you for coming to the rescue yesterday, bringing me back, and watching over me all night. And for last time, thank you for lending me the pajamas.”

Whoa, did the protagonist go to some language intensive training camp? How did she suddenly master the skill of speaking like a human?

Ye Yichi shifted to studying Xin Ning with genuine astonishment.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Xin Ning murmured softly. “I know… you’re only being good to me because I remind you of her. But thank you anyway. I’d rather be a substitute than watch you perform ‘kindness’ at me.”

Here we go again. Here she comes with that bizarre logic of hers.

Ye Yichi’s sleepiness was instantly shattered by speechlessness.

She stared at Xin Ning for a long time. “Why do you think I’m acting?”

She had asked Xin Ning the same question outside the ICU yesterday. At the time, Xin Ning had bitten her lower lip and countered, “What do you think?”

“You…” Xin Ning bit her lip again.

“I can’t say it,” Ye Yichi quickly interrupted the “spell.” If she could explain it, would she even need to ask?

“Is that so?” Xin Ning’s voice sank, sounding like an early winter stream clogged with sand and jagged shards of ice. “Then go back. Didn’t you say you needed to catch up on sleep?”

Fine then. The protagonist, who had briefly learned how to talk, had lost the skill once more.

Ye Yichi got up and left immediately.

Back at Huawan, Ye Yichi had been sleeping soundly for God knows how long when she was jolted awake by her ringtone. It was a director calling to say he had a script and wanted to see if she was interested.

After a brief chat, the character and plot seemed decent, but they needed to meet in person to discuss details.

Ye Yichi scheduled a meeting for tomorrow afternoon. As she hung up, she noticed several unread messages on her phone.

They were from Xin Ning.

A good horse shouldn’t just avoid eating old grass; it shouldn’t even look at it. Ye Yichi put her phone down, sauntered over to the fridge, took out some cake, and tossed the leftovers into the trash.

Ding. The phone chimed again.

Another one from Xin Ning. This time, it was a video.

Who wants to watch a video of “old grass”? Ye Yichi rolled her eyes and went to delete it, but her fingertip hovered over the screen, unable to press down.

The protagonist of the video was her, yet it wasn’t her.

For one simple reason: in her entire life, she had never worn such an explosive, midriff-baring top.

Could this be a video of the original owner of this body?

Ye Yichi clicked the video. It started in silence. The camera wobbled twice, revealing a glimpse of Ye Shijin’s face.

The background was decorated in dark red tones perhaps a hotel private room or a banquet hall? After some rustling sounds, the voice of her “cheap aunt” appeared.

“That ‘Sweet But Dumb’ Liang Yan actually thinks I’m madly in love with her. I wonder how she’d react if she knew it was all a lie and that I was the one who finished off Xin Wanxia.”

“How else could she react? She’d probably cry her eyes out,” another voice chimed in.

It was younger, familiar, yet unfamiliar.

The difference between a voice traveling through the air into one’s ears versus through bone conduction to the inner ear is significant, was that middle school or high school physics? Ye Yichi pinched her fingertips.

The voice in the video belonged to her more precisely, to the original Ye Yichi before she had transmigrated.

“I’ll be a dutiful actor just like you, Auntie,” the original Ye Yichi’s voice rang out again. “When I meet Liang Yan’s daughter, I’ll perform ‘love at first sight’ and pursue her relentlessly. I’ll make her fall in love with me, take everything she has, and then dump her cruelly. Heh, just thinking about it is quite entertaining.”

The audio cut off abruptly. The video ended.

Below the video was a voice message. Ye Yichi tapped it.

“Have you completely forgotten what you said seven years ago? Or did you change your strategy once you realized I look like Xiao Xiao? Ye Yichi, don’t try to talk your way out of this. This video isn’t a fake, nor could it be. This video… was filmed by my mother before she died.”