On the Wedding Night, I Transmigrated to After the Divorce – Chapter 20
by Little PandaHer Name Is Ran Ling
I really want to go over and call her jiejie
“Very nice, lots of brokenness1. May I ask if anyone can come help her resolve her pain?”
Not long after posting the video, Lu Yu returned.
She was carrying a small cake, something her company boss had provided for afternoon tea. She wasn’t particularly fond of sweets, so she brought it back for the Young Miss to sample — and to judge exactly what kind of cheap cream this was.
The packaging looked decent enough. Yu Yan was willing to try it, but after two bites, the richness overwhelmed her. Lu Yu didn’t want to waste it, so she finished the rest herself.
They chatted for a while. Lu Yu went to wash up. With nothing to do, Yu Yan picked up her phone again and opened Douyin to check if anyone had liked the video she’d just posted.
She nearly jumped out of her skin.
A flood of notifications burst across the screen so fast they blurred together. She couldn’t make out any of it. She tapped into the 【Messages】 tab — new followers, likes, and shares all showed 99+. Her private messages scrolled on endlessly. Yu Yan’s eyes went wide.
Was she… going viral?
She opened the video. In less than two hours, it already had over two thousand likes.
Yu Yan knew she was drop-dead gorgeous, but she still felt caught off guard. She’d just posted it casually, without doing anything special.
She opened a few private messages. Some praised her, some wanted to get to know her, some offered to help resolve her pain. Then there were messages whose text alone made the sender’s gender obvious — those, Yu Yan blocked without hesitation.
She didn’t understand. It was tagged #le#2. Why were there still men?
Lu Yu came out after her shower, towel-drying her hair. Seeing Yu Yan so absorbed in her phone, she asked, “What are you looking at?”
“Come here, quick.”
Lu Yu walked over, puzzled. Yu Yan held out her phone. “The video I posted seems to be going viral.”
Lu Yu looked at the video, then at her. Yu Yan had already removed her makeup. Lu Yu was surprised. “When did you post this?”
“While you were out.”
Lu Yu wiped her hands, took the phone, and scrolled through. She exclaimed with genuine delight, “Yan-jie, your luck really isn’t normal. A random video goes viral just like that. You know what? You could go all in on becoming an influencer. If you turn into an internet celebrity, would you still worry about money?”
“Livestreaming sales makes serious money these days. One night and you can sell hundreds of millions worth — earn more than your mother ever did.”
Yu Yan bristled at the suggestion. “I’m not doing product livestreams. That’s exhausting. Shouting yourself hoarse every night, having to broadcast daily.”
Fair point. She’d heard that product livestreamers had to sign contracts with agencies, streaming every night from seven or eight until dawn, screaming themselves hoarse like they were fighting for their lives. The pressure to hit targets wasn’t something a spoiled young miss was built for.
“Then be a beauty streamer3.”
Lu Yu knew her well — she knew exactly what would interest her. “Being a beauty streamer is pretty relaxed. You can stream from anywhere, even lying in bed. No contract, no one tying you down. You’re a lesbian, so tag it #le and you’ve got a built-in audience. With a face like yours, you could go live without saying a word and rich older women would still send you gifts. Add in your humor and cuteness — you’d have those rich jiejies wrapped around your finger in no time, gifts flooding in.”
“You might even meet some big shot. There are plenty of women in Yuncheng richer than your mother. Get yourself a sugar mommy and climb back to the top.”
Yu Yan had never been shy about her dream of being kept by a super-rich Yuncheng businesswoman so she’d never have to live under Yu Lan’s thumb again.
Lu Yu’s words struck a chord. Yu Yan fell into thought.
Was that so?
A big shot? A rich jiejie? If she was really beautiful and would give her lots of money…
Lu Yu saw her interest and pressed on. “You’re bored at home anyway. Give it a try. If it doesn’t feel right, just stop.”
Lu Yu wasn’t someone who cared much about money. As long as she could eat, she was fine. But she knew the Young Miss was different. The Young Miss was only happy when she had money to spend. She wanted her to be a little happier.
“Mm.” Yu Yan’s lips curled up. “I know.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Watching the numbers climb in her backend dashboard, Yu Yan felt, for once, not so lost about her future.
She wouldn’t be ruined. She was born for wealth and luxury. Even if she’d fallen on hard times now, she’d be rich again. With this face, she’d succeed whether she became an influencer or went into acting as a celebrity or idol.
She slept peacefully.
The next morning, she woke and checked Douyin. The video had already climbed to over a hundred thousand likes. Her follower count had broken ten thousand. Her private messages were overwhelming — even brands and entertainment companies had reached out.
Yu Yan was pleased but felt none of that overwhelmed gratitude or urgency. She didn’t reply to a single message, taking her time getting out of bed.
Today was Lu Yu’s day off. Instead of ordering takeout, she made breakfast herself — egg noodle soup, perfectly seasoned, fragrant and appetizing. Yu Yan ate with quiet satisfaction.
At nine in the morning, though the living room had no windows, the weather outside was fine. Lu Yu picked a movie to watch. Yu Yan half-listened to the background audio while scrolling her phone, watching her numbers climb in real time.
This was the most pleasant morning she’d had since crossing over.
Lu Yu didn’t ask how her thinking about livestreaming was going. Yu Yan would start when she felt like it. As long as she was in a good mood, that was enough.
By the time the movie reached a boring stretch, Lu Yu turned to look at her. “Want to go out for a bit?”
“Where?” Yu Yan asked without looking up.
“Where do you want to go?”
Yu Yan said, “I want to go buy every new item from Hermès.”
Lu Yu: “…”
Ha-ha. Very funny.
Honestly, Yu Yan had been cooped up for days. Her mood had finally improved a little — she really should get some fresh air. Even if she couldn’t afford Hermès right now.
But what to do?
An idea struck Yu Yan. “Lu Yu, let’s go out drinking tonight.”
Lu Yu had never been to a bar. She couldn’t tell the difference between a quiet bar, a dance bar, or a lesbian bar4. The responsibility of choosing a place naturally fell to the more experienced Yu Yan. Three years had passed, and Yuncheng had changed. Some old bars had closed; new ones had opened. She wanted somewhere she’d never been, somewhere unlikely to run into acquaintances.
Her requirements: lesbian bar, live singing, affordable alcohol.
She quickly settled on a bar called hear.
Xiaohongshu5 had many posts about it. They all praised the atmosphere, said the alcohol wasn’t expensive, the singers were beautiful and could make people cry with their voices, and the two owners were an incredibly loving couple — so stunning they left people speechless.
Wow.
That successfully caught Yu Yan’s attention. She checked the location — about a dozen kilometers away. Not too far.
hear opened at eight in the evening and stayed open until four in the morning. It was very popular, packed on weekends. Even though the bar was fairly large, sometimes seats were hard to get.
Yu Yan planned to arrive around nine.
Dinner was, again, made by Lu Yu. She’d gone to the supermarket for ingredients. When she got home, Yu Yan was already digging through her wardrobe, complaining that everything was too cheap, nothing worth wearing outside. Nothing to be done — Lu Yu tried her best to make the food delicious, barely managing to quell the Young Miss’s temper.
Not long after dinner, Yu Yan started on her makeup. Lu Yu sat on the couch watching a movie while she waited. Yu Yan occasionally called her over — to fetch something, or to ask if she looked good.
The scab on Yu Yan’s forehead had healed and fallen off, but the scar hadn’t fully faded. The pinkish mark at her temple was fairly visible — it was new skin, and Yu Yan didn’t want makeup touching it, so she covered it with her bangs.
“Want me to do your makeup too? Going to a bar bare-faced is too plain.” Yu Yan was lining her eyes in the mirror and asked casually.
Lu Yu responded, “No thanks. I’m not used to it.”
Lu Yu’s style was as clean as her personality. Blue wide-leg jeans, white T-shirt, knit cardigan, long hair simply tied in a low ponytail with a hair tie, uncut bangs framing both sides of her forehead. Unlike Yu Yan, who’d been wearing makeup since high school, Lu Yu had always gone bare-faced. But her skin was fair and clean, her features refined. Without makeup, she looked fresh and elegant; with makeup, she’d look tacky.
Yu Yan glanced at her. “Fine. You look good like this anyway.”
Yu Yan rummaged through her wardrobe. Finally, under Lu Yu’s praise (nagging), she chose a white miniskirt. It was late October; Yuncheng was sliding into autumn, the weather turning cool. Yu Yan pulled on a matching fuzzy jacket and nude stockings.
By the time they went out, it was dark. This was Yu Yan’s first time leaving the apartment in over ten days since crossing over. Facing the wide road outside the rental building felt strange. Lu Yu was about to take her somewhere even stranger — the subway.
“You’re so cheap,” Yu Yan complained.
Lu Yu drawled, “Taxis in Yuncheng are expensive. You want a business car? That’s enough for both of us to eat for a day.”
Yu Yan: “…” She pinched Lu Yu, hard.
Complaints aside, Yu Yan followed Lu Yu dutifully onto the subway. She already had the app installed on her phone. Clearly, she’d been taking it plenty lately.
Hard to imagine.
The station near Lu Yu’s place wasn’t crowded. They got seats. But transferring to another line, it became packed. Lu Yu pulled Yu Yan into a corner, keeping distance from the crowd.
Lu Yu was over 170 centimeters tall. Shielding Yu Yan like that, she gave off a real sense of security — back in school, classmates had always joked she was the Young Miss’s bodyguard.
Actually, back then Lu Yu had been a young miss too. She just kept it low-key. Yu Yan suddenly realized: when Lu Yu ran away from home, she’d felt sorry for her, thinking she’d never live a life of luxury again. She never imagined she’d end up in the same position.
Taking the subway to a bar. Just thinking about it was humiliating.
Just like online reviews said, hear was popular. Barely past eight, before the live singing even started, most seats were already taken. Yu Yan looked around. Nice environment, stylish decor, atmosphere on point. And a sign prohibiting males from entering. Good.
Yu Yan picked a booth near the stage. As soon as she sat down, a server came to take their order, informing them that booths required a separate table fee.
“How much?” Lu Yu asked.
The server smiled. “Table fee is 300. Minimum spend is 1,800.”
Wow, that’s really cheap, Yu Yan thought without a hint of irony. Muscle memory kicked in — she was already looking at the drink menu. But Lu Yu’s expression hesitated. “Um…”
Three women sat at the neighboring table. One of them seemed to notice Lu Yu’s awkwardness. She turned around with an enthusiastic smile. “You can come share with us! There are three of us, and three empty seats.”
The server nodded. “Yes, for just two people, sharing would be better.”
“Let’s share?” Lu Yu looked at Yu Yan. Yu Yan turned to see the woman who’d waved them over — a blonde beauty in heavy makeup, clearly the extroverted ‘e’6 type who’d be fun to chat and drink with. But she was still annoyed. Annoyed because she hadn’t been the one to suggest sharing — someone else had seen right through their financial desperation and offered out of pity.
So humiliating Yu Yan wanted to disappear on the spot.
“Fine, let’s share,” Lu Yu said, pulling her over to the next table.
“…Hello, everyone.”
Annoyed as she was, once she was seated, Yu Yan put on a sweet smile and greeted the three women across from her.
“Hey hey, pretty girls! Wow, you’re both so pretty.” The blonde woman responded brightly, looking at Yu Yan, then Lu Yu, her gaze finally settling on Yu Yan’s face.
“You’re gorgeous too, so cool.” Sitting closer, Yu Yan noticed she had piercings — nose, lip, eyebrow — and her makeup was gothic ghost-style. But her personality was the complete opposite: her smile was pure sunshine.
She was good at keeping the energy up. The other two were quieter, both with shoulder-length short hair, their sexuality obvious at a glance.
Yu Yan and Lu Yu each ordered a drink. Lu Yu didn’t go to bars much, but she kept alcohol at home and drank occasionally, so her tolerance wasn’t any worse than Yu Yan’s.
Sipping their drinks and chatting with the women across from them, Yu Yan learned the blonde was named Jiang Xuan. She was still a university student, also a regular at hear. Hearing this was Yu Yan’s first time, she explained, “You picked the right place. It won’t be boring here. Singing starts in about ten minutes, and a lot more people will show up. So many beautiful women — too many to even look at.”
She said she was in a band, had even brought her band here to audition once, but didn’t pass. She complained that the owners’ standards were too high — she could sing ballads too, not just rock, so why didn’t she fit?
Even though she was unconvinced, the two owners were so beautiful, so cool, so stunning — she kept coming back to spend money.
Fine, Yu Yan thought. A kindred spirit. A woman’s beauty could make her forgive anything.
“Are they really that beautiful?” Yu Yan asked. “I didn’t see any photos when I searched.”
Jiang Xuan said, “Really. Too many people were taking photos, so they don’t allow them online anymore. Hard to find.”
“Will they come tonight?”
“Don’t know. No news in the group chat. If you don’t see them, you never know. Pure luck. They might show up later.”
“Interesting,” Yu Yan said. “Very mysterious.”
“Hahahaha, yeah, a little bit. But actually, if you meet them in person, you can talk to them. One has a great temper, super gentle — she listens to everything you say. The other looks a bit cold, but she’s fine too.”
One super gentle, the other looks cold but is actually fine? Yu Yan couldn’t quite picture it. Right now, her only association with “gentle” was Fu Yunqing — and immediately she remembered they were past tense. Just thinking about it made her heart ache. She couldn’t dwell on it.
So she turned her attention to Jiang Xuan’s enthusiastic stories about the owners’ sweet moments. Jiang Xuan said the two of them were basically dog-jie literature7 come to life. Rumor had it someone saw one of them doing accounts at the front desk while the other stood beside her, watching — reaching over to touch her face with one hand while she calculated, like casually petting a dog for entertainment. The one being touched looked like she was enjoying it, staring until the accounts were done, then leaning in for a kiss — only to be denied. Just a sniff instead.
“The one being touched works out, amazing body. Standing alone, she’s totally a jie — super cool, commanding vibe. But in front of the other jie, she’s completely obedient. The two of them together have insane sexual tension8.”
Yu Yan sipped her wine, thinking, wow.
Right now, the “jie” in Jiang Xuan’s stories was still a blur in Yu Yan’s mind. But could anyone deny Yu Yan’s luck? The jie rarely came to check on the shop, and she’d actually run into her.
Yu Yan didn’t know who spotted her first, but Jiang Xuan looked toward the stairs and waved frantically. “Look, look! The jie is here! The one in the long dress with the blazer!”
Yu Yan snapped her eyes open.
A woman in a black-and-gold V-neck dress descended from the second floor, a blazer draped over her shoulders, high heels clicking. Her pace was elegant, unhurried. One hand held a bag; the other rested on the railing. She was slender, black hair loose, skin slightly pale. She was turned to the side, talking to a manager-type woman walking beside her.
Yu Yan couldn’t tell if she was wearing makeup. She only knew she was beautiful. Her faint smile was gentle, completely unthreatening, soft — yet at the same time, she radiated an unspoken authority, something unfathomable beneath the surface.
Gentle, but like a bad woman.
So beautiful…
She really looks like a master…
The woman walked behind the bar counter, continuing her conversation with the manager. Yu Yan stared, unable to look away.
“Right? Right? Super beautiful, isn’t she?” Jiang Xuan asked excitedly.
Yu Yan’s lips parted, then closed again. “Deadly beautiful…”
Jiang Xuan said her name was Ran Ling.
Even her name was beautiful.
Yu Yan understood why the other jie would obediently be a dog. One look, and she was already a puppy.
She grabbed Lu Yu’s wrist and kept shaking it. Lu Yu asked what she wanted.
Yu Yan’s eyes were sparkling, her voice coquettish. “I really want to go over and call her jiejie… I really, really want to…”
Yu Yan thought: if that woman smiled at her, she was certain — completely certain — her soul would be stolen, and she’d forget her own name.
Footnotes
- 'Pòsuì gǎn' (sense of brokenness) is a popular Chinese internet aesthetic describing a specific kind of vulnerable, fragile beauty — often used to praise someone who looks emotionally wounded or delicately tragic.
- 'Le' is Chinese internet slang for lesbian, derived from the pronunciation of 'lǎzi' (lesbian).
- 'Yánzhí zhǔbō' refers to a livestreamer whose primary draw is their physical attractiveness rather than talent or content.
- 'Lā bā' is modern Chinese slang for a lesbian bar. The 'lā' comes from 'lāzi' (slang for lesbian), and 'bā' is a transliteration of the English word 'bar'.
- Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) is a popular Chinese social media platform focused on lifestyle content, product recommendations, and user reviews — similar to a blend of Instagram and Pinterest.
- In modern Chinese internet slang, 'e' refers to the 'Extrovert' (E) personality type in the MBTI assessment. It describes someone highly outgoing and social.
- 'Dog-jie' (gǒu jiě) is Chinese internet slang describing a specific lesbian relationship dynamic where one partner is puppy-like, devoted, and obedient ('dog') while the other is the cool, authoritative 'jie' (older sister figure).
- 'Xìng zhānglì' (sexual tension) — the palpable sense of attraction and chemistry between two people.
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