Don’t Want a Divorce (4)
“There’s nothing that can’t be solved with a meal.”
“Qingyu, are you up? Come quickly and try this salted egg yolk bun. It’s a specialty of the new pastry chef. The filling inside is soft and fragrant. You should eat it while it’s hot.”
Morning.
Feng Qingyu, who hadn’t slept well all night, had just finished washing up. As she walked downstairs, she saw Shi Weiya beckoning her over for breakfast, praising the morning meal repeatedly.
Feng Qingyu was about to walk over and sit down when she noticed that Shi Weiya had pulled out the chair next to Xu Jiao, making it clear she wanted to improve their relationship.
Just as she took a step forward, she changed direction towards the door. Her lips, thin as peach blossoms, pressed together flatly, and her demeanor naturally exuded a sense of coldness and aloofness. Yet, her every move was exceptionally elegant, making even her gesture of refusal pleasing to the eye.
“No need, Mom. I have a commercial to shoot, and I’ve already scheduled the time with the studio. I won’t be having breakfast. Enjoy your meal.” Feng Qingyu declined Shi Weiya’s suggestion. She then glanced casually in Xu Jiao’s direction, noticing that, as usual, Xu Jiao’s gaze was fixed on her. Resisting the urge to frown, Feng Qingyu gave her a slight nod in greeting.
Xu Jiao was actually looking at her outfit today.
A scarf with vintage patterns was tied in a floral knot around her neck, its long ends hanging loosely. The vibrant peach color not only complemented Feng Qingyu’s complexion perfectly but also served as a splendid accent to her attire, matching flawlessly with the bag in her hand.
Just by looking at this popular top-tier actress and just a glance at her outfit, Xu Jiao felt as though her entire world had suddenly brightened. The sunlight streaming in from outside seemed to have more layers, all to highlight this person’s extraordinary beauty.
It seemed that wherever she appeared, that place became a stage. All the spotlights, all the gazes, should be on her. Xu Jiao saw this dazzling star and could already imagine the splendor of the entire galaxy.
The starlight of the entertainment circle sparkles, adorned with jewels and glamour. That dazzling brilliance, which could bewilder anyone, only opened a small crack in the curtain for Xu Jiao.
—Yet it exuded a unique, fatal charm.
Before Xu Jiao could react, Feng Qingyu had already headed towards the door, leaving behind only a faint, very faint fragrance in the air.
Shi Weiya stared blankly at her swift departure, and belatedly added, “This child… Her work already messes up her schedule day and night, and now she’s skipping breakfast too. How can this be?”
Last night, Xu Jiao had received the original owner’s memories and knew that since coming to the Feng family, she had been well taken care of by Shi Weiya. Now, seeing her gaze in the direction of Feng Qingyu’s departure, filled with concern, Xu Jiao suddenly felt that the bun in her hand didn’t seem as appetizing.
She was about to rack her brains to say something comforting, but suddenly noticed Shi Weiya twitch her nose, catching the much stronger scent of bitter orange blossom in the air than usual.
All at once, Shi Weiya realized something, looked down at Xu Jiao, and when their eyes met, she smiled and winked her right eye at Xu Jiao with a subtle hint, pointing towards the direction Feng Qingyu had left. She said to Xu Jiao:
“How about this? I’ll have the maid pack her breakfast while it’s still hot. Jiaojiao, could you take it to her for me?”
While speaking, Shi Weiya immediately headed towards the kitchen. When Feng Qingyu was at the door changing her shoes, she had already come back with a small thermos, pushed it towards Xu Jiao, and urged her with a smile, “Go on.”
Xu Jiao hadn’t realized what was happening. Even though she was the one who wrote this ABO setting, being in the situation herself made her less quick to react like a native. At that moment, she simply mimicked the original owner’s behavior, obediently responded, and then quickly picked up the thermos and chased in the direction Feng Qingyu had left.
……
“Feng Qingyu.”
In order to complete the task given by Shi Weiya, Xu Jiao didn’t even have time to change her shoes. She chased out wearing slippers, holding a thermos in her hand, and called out to Feng Qingyu before the car door closed.
This was the nanny car sent by the company to pick her up. Inside the car sat Feng Qingyu’s assistant, as well as her accompanying agent, bodyguard, and others. From the outside, the car windows were pitch black with anti-exposure glass, making it impossible to see the interior, but those inside could see everything happening outside clearly.
Feng Qingyu’s team all knew that this was her wife, Xu Jiao, whom she had been married to for half a year.
Seeing Xu Jiao chasing after them, Feng Qingyu’s assistant, Luo Bo, immediately observed Feng Qingyu’s expression. Although she looked calm, hearing Xu Jiao’s voice made her close her eyes, clearly not wanting to deal with it. Sensing this, Luo Bo tactfully suggested:
“Sister Yu, how about I go down for you?”
Feng Qingyu neither nodded nor shook her head, but with her silent consent, Luo Bo already knew what to do. She opened the car window in the front and gave Xu Jiao a flawless polite smile:
“Miss Xu, this is…?”
Xu Jiao recognized that this was Feng Qingyu’s personal assistant. Just by seeing the car door closed so tightly, with only the assistant showing her face, she knew how unwelcome she was to Feng Qingyu.
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Pretending not to notice anything, she raised her hand to pass the thermos towards the assistant. Only after the assistant took it with a puzzled expression and stepped back slightly did she speak: “This is the breakfast Auntie Shi asked me to bring over.”
Luo Bo laughed again and responded to her politely, “Okay, thank you, Miss Xu. I will remember to remind Sister Yu to eat it while it’s hot.”
Xu Jiao nodded, then decisively turned around and walked towards the house, leaving Luo Bo momentarily stunned—
When she had rolled down the car window earlier, she had already prepared several sets of solutions in her mind for Xu Jiao’s potential insistence on entangling with Feng Qingyu. For example, if Xu Jiao insisted on following them or forced Feng Qingyu to get out of the car, and then dragged Feng Qingyu into some kind of drawn-out, lovey-dovey drama…
But it turned out none of that was necessary.
For a moment, her bewilderment and disappointment were as if she had painstakingly gone through three to five hundred sets of past college entrance exam questions, confidently walked into the exam hall, only to find out that the test was just a simple multiplication table.
Only after Xu Jiao had disappeared from sight did Luo Bo react. She turned her head to look at Feng Qingyu beside her and saw that she had opened her eyes at some point. Luo Bo instinctively pointed in the direction outside.
“Sister Yu,” she said, “she’s gone.”
Feng Qingyu responded with a faint “Hmm” and said, “Let’s go.”
This was Feng Qingyu’s way of telling Luo Bo to notify the driver in the front to start the car. Luo Bo complied, and after the car smoothly drove off the small hill, Luo Bo mentioned the thermos she had just received, “Sister Yu, this breakfast…”
Feng Qingyu casually grabbed a steam eye mask from beside her, tore open the packaging, and placed it over her eyes, preparing to get some more sleep. Her tone was completely calm:
“I don’t have an appetite for now.”
“Inside are salted egg yolk buns. You all should eat them while they’re hot.”
Luo Bo exchanged a glance with the others. She gently opened the thermos. Before Feng Qingyu could fall asleep again, she quickly whispered, “Then I’ll order another breakfast to be delivered to the studio later. Sister Yu, you can eat a bit before getting your makeup done, okay?”
After Feng Qingyu agreed, Luo Bo picked up a plump, white round bun from the thermos, blew on it, and then handed the thermos to the others in the back.
The phone on her lap vibrated.
After she opened it, she found it was the gossip chat group where the team usually chatted idly. The group’s name was “Eating Melon, Eating Melon (8).”
Several messages popped up inside—
“Why didn’t she cling to her with her usual whining today? It’s making me feel quite off.”
“Who says it isn’t? I even checked if she brought her phone, especially since last time she insisted on sneaking into Sister Yu’s dressing room before the show and took a photo of her sleeping to post on Weibo. Her paparazzi-like style really keeps me on edge…”
“Don’t even mention it. The time before last, didn’t she wear Sister Yu’s clothes to attend an interview and show off their affection? The most outrageous thing was, three times ago, she went on that gossip show and crazily spread fake rumors about her and Sister Yu’s ambiguous relationship. It trended for three days, ruining Sister Yu’s ‘Pure and Noble’ and ‘Flower Atop a High Mountain’ image from her previous movie. Now, all netizens remember is ‘Feng Seven Times.'”
Luo Bo glanced at that eye-searing “Feng Seven Times” and recalled the previous conversation between Xu Jiao and the host on that gossip show.
The host of that show was known for asking very bold questions, and seeing that Xu Jiao was quite cooperative on the topic of relationships, mischievously asked:
“Your relationship is so good, can you often see each other during work?”
“Of course we can’t see each other during work, but Qingyu is very family-oriented. Unless she’s with the crew, no matter how late it is, she always comes home to spend the night.”
The host exaggeratedly responded: “So enviable. By the way, can I be curious for a moment? How many times a week do you two… you know? Show me with your fingers so we can all be a bit envious. After all, even in the entertainment industry, Alphas are quite rare!”
The person on the show lifted her right hand and struck a pose, thumb and index finger forming a gesture while the other fingers were tucked in. She pressed her chin between her thumb and index finger, looking like a pretentious attempt at being cool, but in reality, it already conveyed the answer.
The host raised an eyebrow: “What, only seven times a week? It seems our Sister Yu is quite moderate.”
Xu Jiao smiled and curved her lips, lowering her hand. Her voice came through the microphone clipped to her ear: “I meant in a day.”
Host: “…!”
A show that wasn’t very popular initially was picked out by netizens, who edited this small segment into a widely circulated short video. Especially the last question and answer were processed into double speed and repeated playback, accompanied by a catchy background tune—
“What, only seven times a week?”
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“In a day, a day, a day…”
With the spread of this magical short video, the term “Feng Seven Times” topped the trending searches, and later this nickname gradually spread both inside and outside the circle.
……
Luo Bo recalled that video and felt a sweetness in her throat. She quickly shook her head, bit into a steaming hot bun, inhaled cool air, and freed her hands to type.
“Stop! Is this group meant to discuss Sister Yu’s scandals? Everyone, cut it out! Only complaints about Xu Sajiao are allowed!”
“Xu Sajiao” was a nickname they had privately given Xu Jiao because this person would always act pretentiously in front of the camera, speak in a cutesy voice, and desperately create an image of a sweet, pampered little wife. They felt that this Omega was good for nothing except acting coy.
Seeing Luo Bo speak out, the group members became more alert, recalling the group rules that emphasized, “You can gossip about anyone and complain about Xu Sajiao, but you must never speak ill of Sister Yu here!”
Everyone straightened up in response, feeling the warm filling of the bun spread in their mouths, and a strong sense of happiness filled their hearts. They genuinely hoped that someone as kind and beautiful as Feng Qingyu could remain popular forever. For this—
“Daily check-in, beep, have Sister Yu and Xu Sajiao divorced today?”
“Report, no, there are still 161 days left until they can file for divorce.”
“[Crying emoji]”
……
“Why did Jiaojiao come back so soon?”
Inside the Feng family villa, Shi Weiya looked at Xu Jiao, who had just gone out not long ago and came back empty-handed. Her expression couldn’t hide the surprise. She had originally planned to change the bouquet in the vase in the living room, but she stopped halfway.
Xu Jiao didn’t understand Shi Weiya’s hint just now, so her answer sounded somewhat confused: “When I went out, she hadn’t left yet, so the breakfast was delivered.”
Shi Weiya: “…”
Seeing that Xu Jiao really didn’t understand her previous hint, Shi Weiya couldn’t help but smile and shake her head helplessly: “Oh dear, oh dear, you child… you really are…”
She took two steps closer to Xu Jiao and lowered her voice to remind her: “I used to think you were quite sharp. How come you didn’t catch on today? Qingyu’s susceptible period has arrived. How could you not seize this opportunity? Mom even specifically asked you to bring breakfast over. Didn’t you smell it when you were so close to her?”
Xu Jiao slowly blinked.
The term “susceptible period” sounded familiar. In the setting, it referred to the time when an Alpha, every once in a while or when triggered by some stimulus, would suddenly feel empty, lonely, and cold, desperately wanting an Omega to comfort them. Some single Alphas would even secretly cry in their rooms during their susceptible period.
Her thoughts drifted for a second, and she suddenly imagined Feng Qingyu avoiding everyone and secretly wiping away tears.
It seemed quite interesting when she thought about it.
Seeing that Shi Weiya was anxiously trying to give her more advice, Xu Jiao immediately came back to her senses, linked arms with Shi Weiya, and headed to the living room where the scissors, tools, and fresh bouquet were already set up. She smiled and said: “She has work to do. It’s not good for me to cling to her all the time. Auntie, are you going to arrange flowers? May I learn from you and experience the art’s influence?”
……
Xu Jiao spent over an hour with Shi Weiya in the living room learning the art of flower arrangement.
After returning to her room, her expression reverted to its usual calm demeanor. She looked through the contents of her bookshelf and stopped in front of a book titled 《The Rules of the Lens》. Just as she raised her hand to take it down, she received a phone call.
The caller was her manager, Ni Hong.
Xu Jiao answered, but before she could speak, the other side laughed and asked, “Jiaojiao, your Weibo has been inactive for five days. What’s going on? Didn’t you promise me before that you would definitely post some content related to Feng Qingyu recently? You have to understand, you don’t have any works being released right now, and you can’t get any significant endorsements. If you keep being absent, people will forget about you.”
“By the way, have you mentioned the script for 《The Palace Wall Willows》 to Feng Qingyu? This drama is invested by Yantian Entertainment and has invited several top-tier stars for a major production. Feng Qingyu’s role has already been decided. Has she helped introduce you to the production team?”
Upon hearing the content, Xu Jiao remembered that this manager had taken notice of her when she first entered the entertainment industry. When she approached her to self-recommend, she was very honest—
“You are a minor, obscure celebrity, and I am an amateur manager. We are like a broken pot with a cracked lid, already at the bottom. Things can’t get any worse. There is a saying that extreme adversity will be followed by good fortune. From now on, we can only go up. How about it? Do you want to consider working with me?”
Because she was the first manager to actively seek her out, the original owner believed she had great foresight. The two struggled together on the fringes, taking any advertisement they could get. The original owner worked as a car model, a Taobao model, and even acted in those extremely bad films that required no acting skills, just the ability to glare and squeeze eye drops to get on TV. She even shot niche underwear advertisements.
Until…
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The original owner turned 19 years old and was matched with Feng Qingyu, a top-tier popular celebrity, in the national database.
This giant pie that fell from the sky hit the original owner, and it also hit the manager, Ni Hong. The two hit it off immediately, sharing the same bad taste, and jointly came up with the strategy of “extracting as many marriage benefits as possible within a year.”
The specific measures were: never miss any opportunity to latch onto Feng Qingyu’s popularity, and constantly remind netizens that she is Feng Qingyu’s wife, never missing a single topic where Feng Qingyu could be mentioned.
For this, the original owner even named her super topic fan club “Feng Jiao Day Warm” (風嬌日暖, a combination of Feng Qingyu’s and Xu Jiao’s names, implying a warm and harmonious relationship),” firmly determined to ride the wave of popularity.
After sorting through her memories a bit, Xu Jiao’s fingertips were still resting on that book, not moving away. After pondering for two seconds, she chose the latter topic to respond, “The production crew hasn’t replied yet.”
It seemed that the production crew Feng Qingyu mentioned during that awkward moment last night was this one, 《The Palace Wall Willows》, a major costume drama that male lead Shangguan Yan invested in, which became a hit for more than half a year after its broadcast.
Regarding the previous question…
To be honest.
Whether it is to maintain a good relationship with Feng Qingyu or out of her own principles of doing things, Xu Jiao knows that this kind of frenzied topic-churning around Feng Qingyu cannot continue.
The problem is—
Her current identity is that of an actress, and regardless of whether the original owner was professional enough, the fact is that the current Xu Jiao is truly a novice in the entertainment industry. If you place her on a filming set, she wouldn’t even know where to find the camera.
What if Feng Qingyu really suddenly helps her secure this opportunity? Should she go or not?