On the Wedding Night, I Transmigrated to After the Divorce – Chapter 31
by Little PandaEven If She Hates Her
Send me your location
Her tone was not gentle in the slightest.
It didn’t matter. Yu Yan didn’t mind.
“Dizzy… I miss you, I want to talk to you…” Her voice was soft and clingy, expressing difficult longing with grievance, very childish.
Only a drunk Yu Yan would speak like this. She knew that this version of herself would make people uneasy enough to think that any random woman saying a few sweet words could trick her away.
Immediately, she heard Fu Yunqing draw a sharp breath. “Where are you?”
“On the street… I don’t know where…” She turned her face to look around, trying to find some landmark building.
By the side of a main road, not even knowing where she was—Fu Yunqing’s brows furrowed tightly. “How long do you plan to squat here? Do you know how dangerous this is?”
“I didn’t mean to,” Yu Yan mumbled, saying a whole bunch of things, roughly describing how she was so drunk she couldn’t stand up or tell north from south, and that she wasn’t deliberately squatting on the roadside.
“Didn’t I tell you before—” Fu Yunqing stopped mid-sentence.
“What did you tell me?” Yu Yan didn’t know. She really didn’t know.
“…” Fu Yunqing pressed her lips together tightly.
She stopped talking, and Yu Yan went silent too, lowering her eyes as if about to fall asleep. The silence, neither long nor short, seemed as if she had suffered endless grievances. Fu Yunqing’s heart felt unsettled, and she was even more afraid that Yu Yan would really fall asleep. Just as she was about to speak, Yu Yan suddenly said, “I understand now…”
“Don’t be angry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. I’ll call a taxi and go home right now.”
Yu Yan pouted, looking very guilty, knowing she was being a disturbance, and hung up the phone.
Beep—
The call ended.
Fu Yunqing froze, the screen jumping back to the cold chat interface, unreal, like waking from a dream—a dream that lasted less than two minutes.
She had vanished from before her eyes.
She had appeared before her once more, then quickly vanished again. Fu Yunqing would never know, could never know, whether Yu Yan who hung up the phone really intended to go home. She couldn’t see how Yu Yan, drunk like that, would fumblingly operate the ride-hailing interface. How much longer would she have to stay on the roadside? Would she successfully hail a safe car? Would she encounter danger? Or would she do something foolish out of spite? Drunk people had no rationality—especially Yu Yan. Fu Yunqing knew her too well.
Fu Yunqing would know nothing, just like every day and night of this past year since they separated—unable to see, unable to touch.
Fu Yunqing snapped out of her daze. Immediately, her heart felt as if a knife had slashed it open, flooding with intense pain and unease.
The Long Island Iced Tea1 had a powerful aftereffect. Yu Yan was getting more and more uncomfortable. The price she paid to win Fu Yunqing’s concern was steep enough—the dizziness was real, the blurred vision was real, and being stranded on the street alone was real too. She felt a bit nauseous but couldn’t find a trash can. She dry-heaved over a flower bed, coughing hard but bringing nothing up, without a single person nearby to lend her a hand.
Ahhhhh…
Yu Yan broke down.
“Lu Yu, I can’t take it anymore. Get me a car, quick.”
“Alright, my ancestor2, how much did you drink?”
“Wait… I’m not at hear…”
“Not at hear? Then where are you? Send me your location. Can you still send it? You absolutely cannot sleep on the street. Quite a few people in Yuncheng know you.”
Yu Yan squatted by the roadside, clutching her phone, Lu Yu still on the line. She crossed her arms on her knees, truly uncomfortable, resting her forehead against her arms with her eyes closed. One look and anyone could tell she was a drunk.
The aftereffect was too strong… Had this body not drunk alcohol in a long time? Her tolerance these past few times was so much worse than before. Yu Yan complained to herself. If she’d known, she wouldn’t have ordered such a strong drink. Seriously, why did she have to get drunk for real? It wasn’t like she didn’t know how to fake it.
It was all Fu Yunqing’s fault, all Fu Yunqing’s fault!
In the past, Ran Ling had been frail and always suffered from insomnia. To live longer and stay with Yu Ting longer, after they settled down, they had developed habits of avoiding tobacco and alcohol and going to bed early every day. They would change into sleepwear and get into bed early. Ten-thirty—by rights, it should already be the time to sleep after making love.
But today was the first day of Ran Ling’s period. She still got cramps during her period. Though not as severe as before, it was still uncomfortable. Painkillers didn’t help much. Her considerate partner would soak her feet with medicinal herbs, then after the foot soak, carry her to bed and hold her in her arms to rub her stomach. That made it comfortable.
Half-asleep, half-awake, the phone on the pillow vibrated. Yu Ting reached for it to turn on sleep mode, but Ran Ling opened her eyes as if remembering something and said softly, “Let me see…”
“What’s wrong?” Yu Ting asked quietly. Ran Ling had become increasingly relaxed lately. Aside from Yu Ting, whether work or social matters, when she was comfortable enough to sleep, she generally wouldn’t bother with anything. What made her care so much?
“It might be about Yunqing.”
Because of a moment of kindness, Ran Ling seemed to have been thoroughly pulled into the emotional dispute between the two of them—one asking her for the other’s WeChat, the other asking her to pass along messages.
【Fu Yunqing: Help me ask if Yu Yan got home safely】
Ran Ling was puzzled. “She still hasn’t accepted Yanyan’s friend request?”
Yu Ting smiled. “Not accepted, but still this concerned?”
Ran Ling sent a message to Yu Yan and said with a smile, “Maybe like someone from the past, she’s just too tsundere3, won’t admit to anything.”
She brought up the past again. She seemed to have no shame about it. Yu Ting propped herself up, looking down at her. Ran Ling put down her phone and raised her hand to cup her face, saying with a smile, “It was also very cute. Back then, I didn’t dislike that side of you at all—I was just laughing in my heart at how adorable you were.”
Ran Ling even dared to admit that she had secretly laughed at Yu Ting back then. Should she be ashamed? Yu Ting gave a cold laugh and leaned close to her. “Ling-jiejie just treats me like a fool, treats me like a pug.” Her tone was quite cutting, but clearly she was being coquettish. Who else but Ran Ling could understand that?
“Baby, my good baby.”
Ran Ling lifted her chin and kissed her, telling her not to belittle herself, saying that Tingting was a wonderful, loyal Doberman. Her manner was too gentle yet proud, somehow striking right at Yu Ting’s heart. She closed her eyes and leaned down to kiss her. Ran Ling turned her face away. “Wait a moment.”
Ran Ling held her phone and waited a while, then sent a message to Fu Yunqing: 【Asked, no reply yet】
On the empty street, a black commercial vehicle stopped beside Yu Yan.
The driver got out and helped the girl squatting by the roadside into the back seat, fastening her seatbelt. The car started. Yu Yan stared at her with bleary eyes for a while, then inexplicably asked, “Jiejie, will you abduct me?”
“What kind of talk is that? How could that happen? We have cameras in the car. If we deviate from the navigation or something happens, it automatically calls the police.”
“Then can I sleep?” She was just like a child in kindergarten asking the teacher if she could go to the bathroom.
The driver glanced back at her and nodded. “Go ahead and sleep. Sleep peacefully. Once you’re in my car, just treat it like you’re home. Sleep soundly.”
She was indeed very professional. After seeing Yu Yan close her eyes, she didn’t speak anymore, didn’t play any messy music, and drove very steadily. Yu Yan, drunk as a skunk, actually managed to sleep peacefully the whole way.
The car drove into the residential complex. Lu Yu had been waiting downstairs early and helped Yu Yan out of the car. “How did you get this drunk? Was it necessary? Just because she was a little harsh with you?”
“What do you know… This is, this is my scheme!” Yu Yan hooked one arm through Lu Yu’s arm and grabbed her wrist with the other hand. Even so, she was still swaying. She shouted at the pitch-black sky, “I just wanted her to worry herself sick over me! Hmph… Lu Yu, I’m super, super smart. You didn’t know that? My IQ is really high. Yu Lan took me to get it tested once—one hundred and twenty plus. Super smart! I just know how to enjoy life better than you all. I’m not going to waste my time on studying. Big dummy, so stupid, hmph. People are born to enjoy life!”
“One twenty plus? For real? How come you never told me that?”
“You’re actually doubting me? I was just afraid you’d feel unbalanced if I said it! Your IQ isn’t as high as mine, is it?!”
Lu Yu laughed. “That’s true, it isn’t.”
“Hmph, big dummy. From now on, your Yan-jie will look out for you. No one will dare call you dumb.”
“Mother Heavens, my Yan-jie is too amazing!”
When Yu Yan was drunk enough to start rambling about everything under the sun and all of history, you had to go along with what she said. No matter how outrageous or unrealistic, you couldn’t contradict her—this was something Lu Yu had known for a long time. That is, unless you wanted her to throw a drunken tantrum at you.
The first thing after getting home was to make her drink honey water. Yu Yan fussed about wanting to shower. Lu Yu couldn’t stop her, but was afraid she’d die in the bathroom, so she turned off the water heater. Yu Yan fiddled with it for ages but couldn’t get hot water. She would never shower with cold water, so she got anxious and told Lu Yu to turn it on quickly. Lu Yu said she hadn’t paid the electricity bill so the landlord had cut the power. Yu Yan cursed her for being useless—if she had no money, why didn’t she ask her jiejie for some?—and had to give up on the idea of showering, using wet wipes to simply clean her body.
After finishing up in the bathroom, Yu Yan, dizzy as death, threw herself onto the bed. Lu Yu stood by the door. “Alright, go to sleep quickly. I’m turning off the light.”
Click—the room fell into pitch darkness and silence, so dark you couldn’t see your own hand in front of your face.
Yu Yan hugged the pillow and closed her eyes, unable to resist. Her thoughts soon began to wander. Suddenly, she felt something vibrating.
It kept vibrating, kept vibrating, making so much noise she couldn’t have any peace. Yu Yan frowned and fumbled for the source of the noise. The moment she grasped her phone, the vibration stopped.
She opened her eyes and, following the notification of the missed call, tapped into Fu Yunqing’s chat interface—
9:50 【Fu Yunqing: Send me your location】
9:53 【Fu Yunqing: Video call cancelled】
10:11 【Fu Yunqing: Video call cancelled】
11:02 【Fu Yunqing: Video call cancelled】
Yu Yan stared blankly. The next second, a new message popped up in the chat: 【Yu Yan, are you doing this on purpose?】
Yu Yan sobered up by more than half.
Fu Yunqing was looking for her. She had actually made three video calls. Yu Yan had completely forgotten about this. Was she really that worried about her?
Without thinking, Yu Yan propped herself up, turned on the night light by the bedside table, then quickly flopped back onto the bed and picked up her phone to video call Fu Yunqing.
This time, the call was answered in less than two seconds—
Fu Yunqing didn’t have time to hide her camera like last time. Her entire face appeared before Yu Yan’s eyes. She seemed to be sitting in a car, brows tightly knit, looking exhausted and anxious.
“Where are you?” she asked immediately.
“I’m home.” Yu Yan hurriedly explained, “I didn’t mean to not reply to your messages. I fell asleep in the car. I didn’t know you were looking for me. I just finished washing up and saw them.”
She whispered, “Don’t be angry.”
The other end went silent. Looking at her silent face in the dim light, Yu Yan buried half her face into the bedding and rubbed it against the fabric. Those eyes, still hazy with drunkenness, peeked out to look at her as she softly called out, “Fu-jiejie.”
“Are you going to hang up?” she asked cautiously.
Fu Yunqing: “What else do you need to do?”
Her tone still wasn’t very good, because her worry had been excessive. Those excessive emotions had transformed into irritation—at herself and at Yu Yan.
But Yu Yan didn’t throw a tantrum over Fu Yunqing’s lack of gentleness like before. She wanted to see Fu Yunqing more clearly, so she brought the phone closer, clumsily pressing forward. “I want to talk to Fu-jiejie. Wait a bit before hanging up, okay?”
“What do you want to say?”
“Wu… I don’t know… Um… Are you still mad at me?”
Fu Yunqing was cold: “Mad about what?”
Yu Yan made a few whimpering sounds: “You’re definitely still mad. Don’t… I already know I was wrong.”
Was she aggrieved?
What right did she have to be aggrieved?
Fu Yunqing asked, “What do you know you did wrong?”
“My tolerance got worse… I shouldn’t have hung up on jiejie’s call. I didn’t want to steal Honey.”
Steal Honey?
Yu Yan clutched a corner of the pillow and kneaded it, her mouth puckering up. She lowered her eyes as if afraid to look at Fu Yunqing. “I know Honey is now Fu-jiejie’s kitten alone. I didn’t want to steal it.”
Did she think the reason Fu Yunqing was angry was that she was afraid Yu Yan would snatch the cat from her? Fu Yunqing almost wanted to laugh from anger. She knew that talking to a drunk was meaningless.
“Then what do you want to do?”
“I want Fu-jiejie to accept my friend request. I was using Honey. Wuwuwu, I know I was wrong. I shouldn’t use the kitten. You’ll be even more angry. I know I was wrong.”
Using the kitten—how could she even say that. Fu Yunqing: “You’re using her, so you actually don’t miss her at all, right?”
“Mm~ No, I miss her very much. I miss her even in my dreams,” Yu Yan immediately denied with a frown. She had removed her makeup. Even without eye makeup, her eyes were still beautiful. Slightly narrowed, revealing the slight puff beneath her eyes4, her hazy gaze carried an unconscious allure. At some point she had turned onto her side on the bed, her bangs messily slanted to one side, the image pressed very close.
She said, “I really want to pet her belly, want to hold her, want to feed her canned food, want to hear her purr. Mm… want to see her meow at me, then play with a feather wand with her.”
“Mm…”
Yu Yan felt her eyelids growing heavy. They kept dropping uncontrollably. Before long, she couldn’t resist anymore and closed them completely. Her long black lashes hung down like a small fan, one hand still holding the phone.
She had said so many things she imagined she would do with her kitten. She didn’t know if Fu-jiejie had said anything like “What right do you have.”
“How did you get that injury on your forehead?”
The silent woman suddenly spoke. Yu Yan was almost asleep and didn’t hear clearly. “Mm?”
“There’s a scar on your temple. How?” Fu Yunqing asked again, her voice holding barely concealed urgency. There was a scar on Yu Yan’s temple, about a finger joint in length. Because the video call had some beauty filter effects, Fu Yunqing couldn’t tell how deep the scar was.
Yu Yan opened her eyes to a slit, raised her hand in a daze to touch it, and covered it with her bangs. She mumbled vaguely, “Bumped it.”
“Bumped it where?”
“Mm… I don’t remember…” Her words were slurred. Her thoughts were already shrouded by sleepiness. She couldn’t even open her eyes.
Fu Yunqing looked at her, brows knitting. “…Does it hurt?”
Yu Yan seemed to have fallen asleep, eyes closed, motionless. After a while, as if talking in her sleep, she nuzzled against the pillow and said, “It hurts.”
Having received the expected answer, Fu Yunqing’s heart felt as if a piece of flesh had been torn away. It hurt very much.
She knew Yu Yan was most afraid of pain. Because she knew how afraid of pain she was, no matter what, no matter what wrong things Yu Yan had done, wherever she went, even if not by her side or by anyone else’s side, wherever she fell or bumped or whatever other bad things happened—it always felt like a piece of flesh being torn from Fu Yunqing’s heart. This had become, she didn’t know when, a feeling that seemed to exist naturally in Fu Yunqing, impossible to remove, impossible to ignore. It existed in her body, like a maternal instinct.
Even if Fu Yunqing hated her, even if she planned to never want her again.
Footnotes
- 'Long Island Iced Tea' (Chángdǎo bīngchá) is a cocktail known for its high alcohol content and delayed intoxicating effect.
- 'My ancestor' (zǔzōng) is used sarcastically or exasperatedly to describe someone who is extremely demanding or high-maintenance, as if they must be served like an honored ancestor.
- 'Àojiāo' (tsundere) describes someone who is outwardly cold or aloof but actually cares deeply, refusing to admit their true feelings.
- 'Wòcán' (lying silkworm) refers to the slight puff of flesh beneath the eyes, considered an attractive feature that makes a smile appear sweeter and more charming.
0 Comments