Don’t Want a Divorce (24)
“In life, we shall return; in death, we shall long for each other.”
Qi Yunshang continuously swallowed, trying her best to gulp down the metallic taste, but the blood surging from her stomach was too much. Her voice was weak, intermittently uttering:
“Quick… go…”
Her movements were forceful, persistently pushing Rong Qing away. The emotion in her eyes was unprecedentedly resolute. Clearly, she was the one bidding farewell, yet Qi Yunshang dared not reveal a trace of reluctance because she feared that if she showed it, Rong Qing wouldn’t leave today.
She had long known that the Emperor never intended to let her leave the palace alive. The Emperor’s hatred for the Qi family… it was etched in his bones. Even if it meant perishing together with Qi Younian and her, he would never let the Qi family have their way.
As long as the last drop of the Qi family’s blood remained in the world, the Emperor couldn’t sleep peacefully at night. He never dared to stay overnight in the Chang Le Palace, nor did he ever privately spend time alone with Qi Yunshang because he couldn’t let his guard down around the Qi family, even if she was a frail woman without the strength to truss a chicken.
She had no attachment to this deep palace. If it weren’t for her father still harboring the last bit of hope for the Emperor back then, thinking that by marrying off his daughter and handing over leverage, he could awaken the Emperor’s last shred of kindness, Qi Yunshang wouldn’t have trapped herself in this deep palace.
Now…
Qi Yunshang resolutely pushed Rong Qing away. In her exertion, she even knocked off the ornate metal finger cover on her pinky, revealing the old, mottled traces of purple dye that had almost completely faded.
Rong Qing kept shaking her head, tears streaming down like a waterfall. In the camera, she was in unprecedented disarray. Always the most beautiful sight in the palace, she had never been seen in such a disheveled state, like a crabapple flower battered by rain, with petals scattered all over, as if her whole heart was slowly dying along with the person in her arms.
Qi Yunshang no longer had the strength to speak. She moved her lips, her eyes full of tears yet never shedding a drop. She focused intently on Rong Qing and silently, slowly said:
“Take care.”
……
“Cut!”
Such a long scene, with emotions brewing from start to finish and various transitions handled without any issues, Zhen Tiao gave this scene a single pass. Xu Jiao slowly exhaled, collected her tears, and politely extended her hand to Feng Qingyu, helping her up from the ground.
Both of them thought Zhen Tiao would come over to congratulate Feng Qingyu on wrapping up her part because the current script content no longer included Feng Qingyu’s scenes.
Feng Qingyu gently hugged Xu Jiao and said to her, “Take care for the rest of the scenes.”
The next part involved Rong Qing returning to the Jinxiu Palace, hearing an edict from the Emperor to thoroughly investigate the person who poisoned the Empress. She learned that the Empress had died, and Shui Lan had gone with her. It was also said that Doctor Duan prepared the Empress’s body for burial. When the eunuch announced the Empress’s death, Doctor Duan almost lost his footing and had to be supported by his apprentice.
After that, the Emperor devised a plan to have Consort Ping injured, thereby framing Rong Qing and sending her to the Cold Palace. However, even in the Cold Palace, Rong Qing never forgot her mission to avenge her sister.
Living in the Cold Palace, Rong Qing’s every move continued to affect both the imperial court and the inner palace. The Rong family, under the Emperor’s scrutiny, became increasingly cautious, avoiding any mistakes and lying low. Meanwhile, after realizing that the Emperor did not want her to conceive, Liu Ruyi devoted herself even more to raising the Empress’s child. She also constantly sought opportunities to let the child interact with Rong Qing, leveraging the influence of the Rong family and the remnants of the Qi faction to win the Emperor’s favor for herself and the Liu family in the court.
Rong Qing’s storyline still had a long, long way to go.
But for now, Qi Yunshang’s part had come to a temporary end.
Director Zhen walked over with a smile and said to Feng Qingyu, “You’ve worked hard during this period. I heard you’re heading to 《Border Pass City》 next, is that right?”
Feng Qingyu nodded and casually chatted with Zhen Tiao about the personnel of the next production crew. The team knew she was a drama enthusiast, so the jobs arranged for her were seamlessly connected. She had just finished with 《The Palace Wall Willows》 in the morning and had to go to another production crew in the afternoon.
Xu Jiao listened to their conversation and gained a bit of understanding about Feng Qingyu’s next production crew. In the original story, at this time, Feng Qingyu should have been preparing for her divorce from the original owner. After that, she was injured in her gland by someone arranged by Shangguan Yan, and then she was overwhelmed by scandalous rumors.
Her next famous work was much later. Calculating from the timeline in the book, Xu Jiao would have to wait another year and a half to encounter the plot she had written.
Now, Shangguan Yan had been forced to use a disgusting trick ahead of schedule, and it had even failed. They had to be on guard against the possibility of the person caught on the spot turning against them. The plot’s rhythm had already been disrupted. The two would have to separate, and even Xu Jiao didn’t know what would happen in the next year and a half.
After Zhen Tiao and Feng Qingyu finished their brief conversation, she suddenly asked, “Is the 《Border Pass City》 production crew nearby?”
In the previous two worlds, her identity was not too busy, so the system arranged for her to play the role of a hero temporarily saving a damsel in distress, and she was able to make it in time. But this time in 《Starlight》, Xu Jiao herself was an actress and already a rising star. To expect her to rush from one place to another at a moment’s notice was impossible, even if she had wings.
However, Zhen Tiao and Feng Qingyu didn’t know what she was thinking. Hearing her question, Zhen Tiao couldn’t help but smile and shake his head. He stepped back slightly to chat with Qiu Yongli about the next scene, leaving space for the two lovers.
Feng Qingyu’s face also showed a bit of pleasant surprise, as if she hadn’t expected Xu Jiao to be so concerned about her. Even her words carried a hint of reluctance and difficulty:
“It’s not close, but don’t worry, I’ll come to visit the set whenever I have time.”
Xu Jiao listened to the first part with some confusion, but by the end, she couldn’t help but smile. She wanted to tell Feng Qingyu not to be so self-indulgent, but the words that came out were:
“Mm, then you must remember to come often.”
If she wanted to save Feng Qingyu in time, it would be difficult to always rely on herself to run over; making Feng Qingyu come to her more often wasn’t a bad idea.
Hearing her words, Feng Qingyu’s face was filled with a honey-like tenderness, and she was reluctant to take her eyes off her for a long time.
Not far away.
Lu Xun, dressed in a dragon robe, looked over in this direction. His face still bore an indifferent smile, but there was a hint of gloom in his eyes.
……
“Wuwuwu, what’s the recent plot? I’m crying my eyes out! What kind of dog Emperor is this? I can’t handle it! Whoever breaks up my OTP will never have seasoning packets in their instant noodles again! When they buy groceries, they’ll be supercharged!”
“Sixth Master! Brother, how can you play such a bad character! Wuwah, I can’t ship Emperor and Consort Liu anymore! My mind is full of my concubines! My Seven Emotions! QAQ How could they end like this! It’s too tragic!”
“My tears are worthless! I’m going to cut my leg meat to give them a happy ending!”
“Wait a minute, every time a teacher wraps up filming, the crew usually releases a little behind-the-scenes clip, and the actors also repost something to say goodbye to everyone. Why didn’t Sister Yu do that? Could it be… she… I have a bold guess about a happy ending!”
“There’s already a madam on Bilibili who edited this drama! And it’s edited with a happy ending content! Kswksw! I’ll show you the way →”
“If I secretly shipped Consort Liu and Noble Consort Rong’s unconventional pairing, would you guys get mad at me? Our concubines are also very sweet, aren’t they? Think about it, Liu Ruyi was initially taken care of by the Empress when she entered the palace, so she was devoted to repaying the Empress. Now that the Empress is gone, for her own future, she has no choice but to cooperate with the person she used to hate the most. Isn’t this reluctant yet sweet cooperation between the concubines just adorable?”
“I don’t care! My Seven Emotions are the best! I’m going to stay in this pit forever! Next month, when I get engaged and buy a ring, I’m buying from the brand endorsed by those two!”
“Rong Qing in the Cold Palace also strikes me so much. Just a moment ago, I was crying over her and the Empress’s beautiful love, and the next moment, her cruelty gave me goosebumps. Every time the Emperor suffers a setback, or someone from his faction gets demoted, she slowly paints her nails red. That scene is both terrifying and heart-pounding, yet I can’t help but be drawn to her! What’s that saying? Beautiful flowers are all poisonous, and beautiful people are the same!”
“Agreed with the person above, Rong Qing has been a vicious villain from start to finish, but I’m still moved by her beauty and her love. When she’s happy, I’m happy too. When she’s sad, I’m sad too. Wuwuwu, there’s no saving me! I really love this kind of bad woman!”
……
(If you're not reading on littlepandatranslations.com, it means this has been stolen)
After the scene where the Empress voluntarily goes to her death was broadcast, the popularity of 《The Palace Wall Willows》 reached a new peak. Originally, after her scenes ended in the evening, Xu Jiao could happily visit the small street vendors outside the film and television city. But recently, whenever she went out, she would encounter crowds of onlookers.
It wasn’t just the onlookers; even the owner of the night snack stall would give her two extra skewers of chicken wings. The vendor, who was in his fifties and slightly looked his age, would wipe the corners of his eyes when he saw her and say:
“You’ve suffered too much, you all have suffered too much.”
The surrounding crowd would nod and shout at her loudly, “You and the Empress must be happy outside the show! I’ll always support you two!”
Xu Jiao was bewildered, thinking she had inadvertently activated the creator’s halo again, otherwise, she couldn’t explain this excessive enthusiasm.
But since then, she rarely went out. After all, if she wore sunglasses and a mask, going out late at night dressed like that would attract attention in itself. There were always a few sharp-eyed people who could immediately recognize who she was and the crowd would swarm around her. If she didn’t wear them, her striking aura would still attract attention sooner or later from the paparazzi outside the film and television city, who would snap their cameras, causing the crowd to turn their heads.
So Xu Jiao simply stayed in the hotel to continue honing her acting skills and took the opportunity to urge the script of 《Qingyu An》.
The previous screenwriter, knowing she was interested in that script, had responded very earnestly, saying that they had only sent most of the outline before because they hadn’t figured out how to handle the ending. They were currently working overtime to write the conclusion and would send it to her as soon as it was finished.
That evening.
Xu Jiao heard the special notification sound “ding-dong” on her phone indicating a message from the screenwriter with the script. Just as she was about to pick it up and read it, she suddenly heard someone knocking on her room door.
She looked up toward the door and asked the system in her mind, “Who is it?”
The system, which was getting accustomed to moonlighting as a monitor, replied, “…Lu Xun.”
Xu Jiao pinched the pages of the book in her hand and slowly leaned back against the chair, narrowing her eyes. She said coldly and indifferently, “It’s him.”
System: “Although I don’t have a side character affection detection device, based on previous behavior observations, Lu Xun seems to have a very high affection for you.”
Xu Jiao placed the book on the table beside her and said casually, “I know.”
She reverted to that calm demeanor, as if there wasn’t a person or a heart in this world that could move her. Even if someone presented a sincere, passionate heart to her, she would not be moved in the slightest.
Someone once earnestly taught her, “Jiaojiao, if someone likes you, you should reject them properly. You can’t just ignore people like that.”
Her response at the time was…
“I don’t like these people, so why should I pay attention to them?”
“Knock, knock, knock.” The knocking on the door was still restrained and polite, in stark contrast to the almost blatant emotions of the person outside.
Xu Jiao got up from the chair and walked towards the hotel door. As soon as she opened it, she sensed the other’s heavy, woody-scented pheromones coming at her, like a snake slithering towards the back of her neck.
Cold and annoying.
However, she did not show any obvious emotions of joy or anger, merely looking at the other person calmly: “Good evening, Teacher Lu.”
Lu Xun asked her with a smile, “You promised to have a late-night snack with me before. Today we both happen to be free; shall we go try it? I’ve already informed the driver. We won’t be taking the nanny car, and the license plate is new, the kind that the paparazzi haven’t recorded.”
Xu Jiao didn’t hurry to answer. She just looked at Lu Xun seriously, as if considering his proposal. After a while, just when Lu Xun thought she was going to agree, he heard Xu Jiao leisurely asking:
“Teacher Lu, do you know what it means for a single Alpha to invite a married Omega out late at night?”
“You seem very eager for me to cheat.”
“But I’m sorry, I have no interest in such things. You’re not my type either.”
Lu Xun didn’t seem to expect her to reject him so plainly and directly. Even her words were not pleasant to hear, causing his smile to freeze for two seconds before he continued:
“You don’t like Feng Qingyu, I can see that. Since that’s the case, why are you in such a hurry to reject me? Isn’t it good to try something new?”
Xu Jiao heard his words but focused on a different point: “You can tell that I don’t like Feng Qingyu?”
Did she really come off as that perfunctory?
No wonder since that first incident, she hadn’t seen any more of the signals she wanted from Feng Qingyu.
This won’t do.
Xu Jiao, lost in thoughts about Feng Qingyu, responded somewhat casually, “However, whether I like Feng Qingyu or not is my business and has little to do with you, Teacher Lu. You’d better shift your target early to avoid wasting time with me.”
Lu Xun smiled slightly: “It’s not over yet, how do you know I’m wasting my time?”
Xu Jiao looked at him seriously: “Because I don’t like men. Whether you’re an Alpha, Beta, or Omega, as long as you’re a man, I don’t like you. Understand?”
Lu Xun: “…”
This time he was genuinely a bit stunned.
He couldn’t quite comprehend how, in a world dominated by ABO gender roles, someone like Xu Jiao could exist. She didn’t dislike him because he was an Alpha, but because he was a man?
But looking at the expression of the person in front of him, it didn’t seem like she was faking it.
Lu Xun couldn’t quite describe what he was feeling at that moment. He just felt like a wanderer who had discovered a treasure. Clearly, he had already dug up the treasure chest, but he was helpless in front of the lock on it.
Because he hadn’t found the key.
It seemed he could only watch as this treasure slipped away from him.
Seeing that he understood her meaning, Xu Jiao was about to close the door. Her hand was halfway through the motion when she seemed to remember something and said to Lu Xun:
“By the way—”
“Could you do me a favor and pass a message to your boss?”
Lu Xun hadn’t yet recovered from the previous rejection and instinctively asked, “What?”
Xu Jiao, feeling a bit warm from staying indoors, instinctively gathered her hair up, inadvertently releasing the pheromones that had been accumulating around her neck. She slowly said:
“Just tell him that if he likes someone, he should openly and honestly pursue them. Engaging in sneaky and underhanded tactics only makes his love seem vile and dirty.”
(If you're not reading on littlepandatranslations.com, it means this has been stolen)
“If he really doesn’t know what type his sweetheart likes, he can come ask me. I don’t mind helping him.”
After saying this, Xu Jiao nodded politely to Lu Xun and then closed the door in front of him.
Outside the door, Lu Xun touched his nose, and it took him a long time to react to what had just happened. Thinking about the message Xu Jiao wanted him to convey to Shangguan Yan, a chill inexplicably ran down the back of his neck.
He couldn’t shake the feeling…
This Omega seemed quite different from the soft and easily bullied appearance on the surface. It seemed he had misjudged her.
The other party was no less dangerous than him.
Xu Jiao even knew some things about Shangguan Yan that he didn’t know.
Previously, Lu Xun only saw Xu Jiao as prey, treating her as a bit of amusement in his otherwise dull life on set. But now it seemed that she was clearly a higher-level hunter than him.
He didn’t know why, but he suddenly felt a bit of sympathy for Feng Qingyu—
Xu Jiao clearly belonged to the type of person who was cold-hearted and indifferent, not easily moved. Why would she be willing to put on such a big show of deep affection with Feng Qingyu?
Thinking of this, Lu Xun shivered.
……
Inside the room.
Xu Jiao was flipping through the subsequent content of 《Qingyu An》 sent to her by the screenwriter.
After the android responded to her with “I am not equipped with a romance mode,” Zhi Liao did not give up. She earnestly taught the android how to fall in love with her, teaching it to say “I love you,” teaching it what kind of days to give her gifts and buy flowers, and even teaching it how to propose and confess love to her.
The android always responded coldly, “Sorry, according to current laws, we cannot register a marriage with humans. I cannot fall in love with you.”
However, Zhi Liao pretended not to hear and did not give up.
Until…
After persisting for five years, it was time for the android to go back to the factory for maintenance. Its system always had various problems, the program was always chaotic, and even the power was unstable. Often, one moment Zhi Liao would be teaching it to spend Valentine’s Day with her, give her flowers, and watch movies with her. The next moment, the android would stutter as if stuck on a loop:
“Should give you flowers on Valentine’s Day… give you… flowers… flowers… Sorry, my memory seems to be chaotic due to too much data. Do you have any other requests?”
Zhi Liao opened her mouth but then said, “No more.”
She muttered, “I have no more requests of you…”
“You should send me back to the factory for maintenance. I believe that after upgrading my system, I will be able to serve you better than before,” the android sincerely suggested.
Zhi Liao shook her head sadly and forced a smile at it, “Stay with me a little longer, okay?”
It replied, “I have only one task left to complete—finding Miss Zhi Liao a lifelong love she can rely on. Even if I go back to the factory for maintenance, this original directive will be preserved, so you don’t need to worry.”
Zhi Liao asked, “What about the other things? The things I taught you, will you still remember them?”
The android responded without the slightest pause, politely, “I’m very sorry, but your requests conflict with my initial design program. I cannot allow you to violate the law, so these parts of your requests will be completely erased when I return to the factory.”
Hugging her knees, Zhi Liao sat beside it, silently shedding tears. She said, “I… I waited a long time for the law to recognize my love with Xia Weiyang. We waited for a very long time until marriage equality allowed us to marry. How is it that, a hundred years later… this world has become worse?”
She said, “Being with you doesn’t harm society, so why can’t I marry you?”
The android didn’t know how to respond and simply continued to fuss over her as usual, asking if she was feeling down and offering to sing her a song; then reminding her that sitting on the floor could give her a cold and suggesting she sit on the couch or bed; and then asking if she wanted some cake, since good food could lift her spirits.
Knowing full well that all of this was due to the android’s programming, Zhi Liao still couldn’t help but be moved to tears by its care, because a hundred years ago, when she was upset, Xia Weiyang would comfort her in the same way.
In the end, she cried herself to sleep.
The next day, Zhi Liao suddenly received a communication.
It was a call from the traffic police, and the message was: “Hello, Miss Zhi Liao. Your android had a program malfunction and collided with a self-driving car, causing a serious traffic accident. Could you come to the scene to handle it?”
Zhi Liao immediately grabbed a coat and left the house without looking back, even as the intelligent system in the living room was reporting the weather.
She hailed a self-driving public hovercar on the roadside and headed straight to the accident site. Upon arrival, before the car had even come to a complete stop, she jumped out and saw the android, which had lost half its body, exposing its internal components and wires, with small sparks still flickering from it.
For some reason, she felt an emptiness in her heart and paused by the roadside, as if she was hesitant to see the moment her dream was shattered. But eventually, she walked over.
“Xia… Weiyang.”
“4556 model android at your service… I apologize for any trouble caused due to a program malfunction… Hello, Miss Zhi Liao.” The android, having lost half its body, struggled to sit up and smiled at her in a way that resembled her lover.
Zhi Liao sat there, and the traffic police officer tried to come over and explain the dangers of using such an outdated model, but as he approached, he saw her uncontrollably burst into tears.
She cried so loudly, like someone who had lost a lover, and after a long time, she said intermittently, “4556, h-hello.”
“Detecting that you are feeling very bad, I just found a lost file in the database. I hope that listening to it will make you feel better.”
After saying this, it played the sound of cicadas chirping.
People around were curiously gathering, because in the world a hundred years later, even the original green trees had to be carefully protected and displayed for people to see. All the greenery by the roadside, and those flowers and birds, were fake, high-tech decorations.
Even the seasons were controlled.
So no one had ever heard the sound of cicadas.
After playing segment after segment, the android smiled and said to her, “This is a sound specially recorded for you by Miss Xia Weiyang. She wanted to tell you that the sound of cicadas heralds the arrival of summer. Wherever you are, that’s where summer is.”
Zhi Liao couldn’t stop her tears. She raised her hand to touch the face in front of her, a face identical to her lover’s, and cried so hard she was hiccupping, intermittently saying, “But… if summer leaves, the cicadas’ song will also end. Xia Weiyang, why did you leave me?”
With tears in her eyes, she loudly asked, “How can a cicada live without meeting summer?”
……
(If you're not reading on littlepandatranslations.com, it means this has been stolen)
At the end.
Zhi Liao’s overwhelming emotions finally calmed down a little. She followed the traffic police to handle the incident and sent the android back to the factory for repairs.
She accidentally fell asleep in the waiting area.
Halfway through, she vaguely woke up and saw Xia Weiyang walking through the crowd towards her. Xia Weiyang stopped in front of her with a smile, and Zhi Liao, in a daze, called out the name:
“Xia… Weiyang.”
……
Xia Weiyang.
Did summer really end? Did she leave her soul behind to accompany Zhi Liao a hundred years later? How could she bear to let her lover live alone in solitude a hundred years later?
The ending didn’t say, as if leaving it to the audience to imagine whether it was a happy ending (HE) or a bad ending (BE).
Xu Jiao put down the script, tapped her fingertips on the table, and suddenly recited a poem: “In life, we will return together. In death, we will be eternally wistful.”
After a long while, she suddenly asked the system, “Is Feng Qingyu’s birthday coming up soon?”
The system responded, “Yes, it’s in a week.”
Xu Jiao then looked down to search for cake shops. After a while, she made a phone call: “Hello, may I ask if you can customize cakes here? Yes, I would like to customize a cake, one with lots of fresh flowers. Please leave me a contact number, and I will send you the picture later.”
“…Alright, thank you.”
After hanging up, she casually picked up a blank piece of paper and found a pen in the room. She recalled for a moment, and the pen seemed to have a life of its own, slowly drawing the outline of a cake on the paper.
The cake was extraordinarily luxurious, adorned with many flower petals, romantic and beautiful, exactly like the one in her memory.
Xu Jiao looked at it for a long time, then threw away the pen in her hand and asked the system:
“The cake Shen Yelan gave me back then, it looked like this, right?”