My Superstar Ex-Husband is a Yandere
Translator: Fuyu
Chapter 3 - Compared to Liang Xinyu's honest hostility, she disliked Lin Zhicheng's smug attitude far more.
Su Jiao's alcohol tolerance was average. After two glasses of red wine and halfway through the meal, her face already had a touch of rosiness.
After finishing the prepared topics, Li Shihui felt that she had fulfilled her role as a tool and quietly ate.
French food portions were small. She felt each dish could be eaten in a single bite, but after seeing Lin Zhicheng's strange gaze, she didn't dare to look up again and meet his eyes. After coating a lettuce leaf in dressing, she slowly ate it to prolong time.
Since the moment she met Lin Zhicheng, she had found him mysterious and never understood him.
Back then, she heard that he had scored the highest in Mingcheng's high school entrance exam. He was a promising talent that was aggressively recruited by top high schools. And yet, he strangely stayed in their private, mediocre high school and was the undisputed top student.
In their senior year of high school, Lin Zhicheng was the only student from their school to enter the national math competition team and win the gold medal in the International Mathematics Olympiad. He set a new school record.
What puzzled Li Shihui even more at the time was that Lin Zhicheng, who was rewarded with automatic admission into the top two universities for winning the gold medal, gave up that opportunity and took the college entrance examination instead.
However, Li Shihui never asked why Lin Zhicheng made those choices. They were deskmates for three years, and their relationship remained as ordinary as water.
Later on, Lin Zhicheng still went to Tsinghua University in Beijing. Jiang Minyun received advanced notice that he was admitted to the local drama academy, so she gave up on going to Tsinghua University to study medicine. She applied to study automation at F University in Mingcheng and had no further contact with Lin Zhicheng.
(T/N: Tsinghua is one of the top two universities in China.)
It wasn't until a few months ago at a class reunion that she talked to Lin Zhicheng. He had returned to China and saved everyone's contact information. Afterwards, he sent her a text.
Lin Zhicheng: I heard you're teaching at Mingcheng University's School of Control Science and Engineering. What's your research area?
She imagined his tone was seemingly familiar, calm, and disdainful.
In her memory, Lin Zhicheng rarely spoke to her, and his tone always carried disdain that she couldn't understand.
The last time they spoke was probably after the college entrance examination.
At the high school's coming-of-age ceremony, everyone put down their bags and reconnected one last time.
"Are you dating Jiang Minyun?" Lin Zhicheng walked over. His directness made her blush.
"Not yet…"
Back then, Jiang Minyun was very poor. After he and Liang Xinyu broke up, he said he would ask her out if he got into a university. Perhaps, he did this out of gratitude for her free tutoring, or he simply wanted to find someone to heal his heartbreak over Liang Xinyu.
However, after Jiang Minyun passed the college entrance examination, he didn't mention this again for a long time.
"Do you like him?"
Li Shihui gulped.
"Li Shihui, you have terrible taste."
—
"And then, what happened?"
That once cold and arrogant voice blended into the current deep, amiable voice. Li Shihui returned to her senses.
Su Jiao was already chattering away and gossiping with Lin Zhicheng.
The combination of Lin Zhicheng and gossip felt awkward no matter how she put them together.
"Guess who I met at the restaurant tonight?" Su Jiao was truly drunk. Her beautiful eyes were sparkling, and she looked very proud of herself.
Now that they were no longer talking about challenging topics like scientific research, Su Jiao was much more relaxed. Seeing Su Jiao swirling the wine in her glass, Li Shihui thought her friend looked radiant and captivating.
Li Shihui asked, "Who?"
Su Jiao was originally going to blurt it out, but when the words reached her lips, she hesitated.
"You can't tell anyone, can't tell, can't tell." Su Jiao repeatedly urged and waved her rhinestone-studded manicured hands in front of Li Shihui.
Li Shihui and Lin Zhicheng weren't gossipy people. In high school, their classmates considered them the quietest of desk-mates. Their corner was devoid of gossip.
Hearing Su Jiao's hesitation, they politely nodded. One of them lowered her head to drink lobster soup, and the other began to cut his steak.
Faced with these two clueless people, Su Jiao lost interest in hyping up her secret. She propped her chin on her hand and slowly revealed the secret.
"I saw Jiang Minyun and Liang Xinyu having dinner together. You should know them, right? The superstar actor and the supermodel." She mysteriously smiled. "And, it was just the two of them~!"
"Pfft, ack…" Li Shihui choked on the lobster soup. She coughed incessantly, and her eyes turned red.
She felt a large hand pat her back gently, and Su Jiao handed her a tissue.
"Hui-jie, are you okay? Drink slowly."
"I'm okay." Looking quite awful, Li Shihui waved her hand, took the tissue, and wiped the soup from her face. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention and choked…"
Lin Zhicheng elegantly sat back in the chair across from her and gave her an excuse, "Were you too excited because you heard Little Su say that Jiang Minyun and Liang Xinyu are having dinner here?"
Su Jiao suddenly realized. "Oh! I forgot. Hui-jie, you also like Jiang Minyun, right?"
The first time she struck up a conversation with Li Shihui was when she went into her office to pick something up and saw that Li Shihui's monitor screensaver was a photo from Jiang Minyun's drama.
Su Jiao held a stereotypical idea about science and engineering students. She thought they could only be anime fans, have extremely rigid personalities, or a combination of both. She was shocked when she discovered that Li Shihui, who wasn't that much older than her, was a fan of a real person, and that person was one of her male idols.
That was how they started chatting.
Li Shihui cleared her throat. "No…” She raised her head and looked at Lin Zhicheng.
Lin Zhicheng looked at her in amusement, as if to say; see, Li Shihui, you have terrible taste.
Su Jiao had said those words unknowingly, but Lin Zhicheng had said those words deliberately. He knew that she and Jiang Minyun were married and that Liang Xinyu was her husband's ex-girlfriend.
Utterly clueless, Su Jiao showed them the beautiful ring and said, "Liang Xinyu gave me this. Jiang Minyun refused to take a photo with me, so she gave me this ring. It's from one of Tiffany's new collections. It costs almost ten thousand yuan. She asked me to not tell anyone that I saw them here."
After saying that, she laughed and covered her mouth. "Could I have stumbled onto some big news?"
"Jiang Minyun is married, right?" Lin Zhicheng slowly wiped his mouth with a napkin, like a fox that had finished eating. He smiled and suggested, "It could just be a dinner between two friends."
His words gave Su Jiao a new idea. Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she said, "But they've never collaborated before! Liang Xinyu has been developing her career abroad. Although Jiang Minyun is married, he's never disclosed the name of his partner. Could it be…"
… that his wife was Liang Xinyu?
"Excuse me," Li Shihui couldn't bear to keep listening and interrupted Su Jiao's reasonable speculation. She hastily got up. "I'm going to the restroom."
"Okay, go ahead." Su Jiao was in high spirits and continued her train of thought with Lin Zhicheng. He lowered his head and drank a spoonful of soup. Indifference flashed across his eyes.
Li Shihui didn't know why she left the room. Su Jiao's words and Lin Zhicheng's gaze made her heart feel like a tangled ball of string. It felt hard to breathe.
Liang Xinyu came back? And she was having dinner alone with Jiang Minyun?
The members-only restaurant did an excellent job with soundproofing and privacy. After asking a waiter for directions, Li Shihui went to the restroom.
The lighting and mirror in the restroom were a perfect combination, and yet, she could clearly see the lines around the corner of her eyes and her terribly crooked nose.
In a few months, she would turn 30.
Eight years had already passed since she and Jiang Minyun got married. The ups and downs of these years had almost made her forget why she and Jiang Mingyun started dating.
Was it her perseverance, or was it her obsessive delusion?
Suddenly, another face appeared in the mirror. That radiant face was so captivating, making it impossible for anyone to look away.
"Li Shihui?" Even when that woman asked a question, she exuded confidence.
Seeing Liang Xinyu in the mirror, Li Shihui realized this kind of lighting wasn't designed for an ordinary person like herself. Moreover, when she thought of her botched nose job, she felt that she couldn't even be considered average-looking.
Li Shihui did her best to put on a gracious smile. "Liang Xinyu, it's been a while."
Liang Xinyu walked to the sink next to her and elegantly touched up her makeup.
She was a head taller than Li Shihui and had a supermodel figure with perfect proportions. Her movements combined beauty and elegance.
They were very close, and Li Shihui could smell her sweet perfume. Coco Mademoiselle.
It was a perfume that was no longer suitable for their age, and it was also the only perfume that Li Shuhui could identify by smell.
The smell evoked a memory from many years ago that she didn't want to recall.
Liang Xinyu got straight to the point.
"Why are you here? Having dinner? Or, catching an adulterer?" Her voice was laced with sarcasm when she said the last syllable.
She was practically flaunting that she was having dinner with Jiang Minyun.
Liang Xinyu had the same personality as before. Fiery and impulsive, outspoken, and determined to win.
They looked at each other in the mirror. Liang Xinyu smiled.
"It's been so many years. Even when you're dressed in luxury brands, they can't hide your rustic nature. You have money, but you don't know how to spend it. Aren't you afraid that Jiang Minyun won't be able to bear loneliness?"
Her tone was extremely suggestive as if something had already happened between them.
"Is it ugly?" Li Shihui looked over her clothing. Her logoless khaki double-breasted trench coat was indeed not as good as Liang Xinyu's outfit. "But all of my clothes were bought by him."
Li Shihui didn't have much interest in dressing up.
Jiang Minyun had also mocked her for having an unsophisticated style, and he took on the task of buying her clothes. Every season, he would buy new clothes for both of them and have the clothes delivered to their home. However, she couldn't tell the difference between the clothes he bought and the ones she had before.
It was merely that the material was more comfortable, and the quality was quite good. As for the colors and styles, they weren't particularly fashionable.
Li Shihui didn't mind and wore what her husband bought. If Su Jiao hadn't pointed out the brands and release dates of her clothes, she wouldn't have known these ordinary-looking clothes were outrageously expensive.
Liang Xinyu quirked her lips. "You don't need to show off in front of me. You came rushing here when you heard he was here, which means your marriage isn't going well."
Li Shihui was speechless and didn't bother explaining.
The course of events that led her here was too complicated and messy. Besides, it would be pointless to explain. A desire to prove that her marriage was happy was inherently a form of unhappiness.
Thinking of Jiang Minyun's coldness and concealment, Li Shihui felt a bit tired. She went with the flow and nodded. Besides, she didn't want Liang Xinyu to know she was having dinner with Lin Zhicheng.
"I have something to do. I'll leave first."
Liang Xinyu didn't respond to Li Shihui's goodbye. She stood there in place, looking at Li Shihui’s departing form in the mirror with her sharp and alluring eyes. She flicked her nails and sneered, "Big Brother, there's a new show to watch.
When Li Shihui returned to the private room, Su Jiao and Lin Zhicheng's lively conversation had come to an end. They were quietly eating.
Not long after, the dinner ended, and Lin Zhicheng courteously drove them home.
Su Jiao, who sat in the passenger seat, got out first because her home was in the city center. After getting out, she meaningfully winked at Li Shihui and waved her phone.
Two minutes later, Li Shihui received a WeChat message.
SuSuSuMi: Hui-jie! Help me gather information about him! For example, what's his type? What does he think of me?!
Li Shihui was baffled.
Hui: Isn't he your blind date?
Su Jiao didn't reply.
Lin Zhicheng suddenly stopped the car on the side of a street.
"Li Shihui, do you have a habit of treating people like they're your chauffeur?" Lin Zhicheng looked up and looked at her in the rearview mirror.
Li Shihui had been comfortably nestled in the back. Hearing these words, her good-student instincts kicked in, and she sat up straight. "No, what's wrong?"
As soon as she got in the car, she silently sat in the back seat and listened to Lin Zhicheng and Su Jiao chatting. Later on, she was distracted by Su Jiao's WeChat message.
"Come sit in the front." This sentence was said in the same exact tone as when he had said, "you have terrible taste". This was the Lin Zhicheng that she was familiar with.
"Oh… okay." She instinctively obeyed. It was only when she sat down that she realized how strange the situation was.
Logically speaking, Lin Zhicheng's S600 Mercedes-Maybach should be spacious. However, his hand was casually resting on the armrest, and his arm crossed over the middle of the car. She would often accidentally touch his elbow, but it wouldn't be good to point it out, so she could only lean against the door window.
"Your relationship with Jiang Minyun is in a terrible state." Lin Zhicheng suddenly declared. His statement was like a sword stabbing through her.
Compared to Liang Xinyu's honest hostility, she disliked Lin Zhicheng's smug attitude far more. He acted as if he knew everything about her. He seemed satisfied that his predictions back then about her life's trajectory had come true.
Lin Zhicheng really hadn't changed at all over the years.
"If I remember correctly, we've only met twice in the past ten years. Where do you get off saying such a thing?" It was only after Li Shihui said those words that she realized how terrible her tone was.
Her husband had been giving her the cold shoulder for two months and then secretly had dinner with his first love. She was already exhausted and sad tonight, and now, Lin Zhicheng deliberately added fuel to the fire.
"A normal man wouldn't hide having dinner with his ex-girlfriend from his wife and be so wary of a classmate that his wife hadn't seen in over ten years." Lin Zhicheng's tone was indifferent. "After you blocked my number two months ago, he still sent me a text message. Did you know?"
"What?!" Li Shihui didn't know Jiang Minyun had done something behind her back. She didn't care that she was indirectly admitting that she had blocked Lin Zhicheng. She was more interested in finding out what Jiang Minyun had said to Lin Zhicheng.
Two months ago, after the class reunion, Lin Zhicheng had started texting her. His messages were all about the latest international academic developments, so she was very earnest with her replies.
Although she only viewed Lin Zhicheng as a colleague in the same field and former classmate, she still hesitated and ultimately refused to add him on WeChat.
Jiang Minyun had a habit of checking her WeChat anytime and anywhere.
Over the years, Li Shihui didn't have any male peers in her contact list, except for the ones related to school or work. It was because Jiang Minyun could always find a reason to nitpick, and she eventually didn't want to do anything to cause unnecessary trouble.
She deleted her chat records with Lin Zhicheng every time, but he unexpectedly sent her a message in the middle of the night after she had fallen asleep and asked her for a private meeting.
And this message was seen by Jiang Minyun when he was going through her phone. He shook her awake.
What followed was a nightmare that lasted two months.
That night, Jiang Minyun held up the phone and asked her to block Lin Zhicheng. She wasn't fully awake, so her reaction time was delayed. It was just one second of delay, but Jiang Minyun deleted her from his WeChat contact list.
When she saw that, her sleepiness vanished, and she immediately blocked Lin Zhicheng. She hugged Jiang Minyun and rubbed his back like she was soothing a pet. In the end, she didn't sleep well all night.
The next day, she woke up with dark circles under her eyes. She wanted to explain, but the other half of the bed was already empty.
Jiang Minyun left for the filming without saying goodbye and treated her with indifference.
In her eyes, the past two months were no different from a cold war.
Lin Zhicheng didn't mention the content of the message and only said, "He's a big star, but he has no trust in you. Is it because he has a guilty conscience, or is it because you've done something in the past?"
"No… Neither." Li Shihui felt the beginning of a headache. Her temples twitched. She supported herself against the car window. "I apologize for his behavior."
Lin Zhicheng slowly drove his Mercedes-Maybach into her neighborhood.
"You don't need to apologize for that sort of scum."
Li Shihui remained silent. She recalled her fawning, one-way communication over the past two months. Who would believe that she and Jiang Minyu had been married for eight years?
"Do you remember what I said? That waiting for the perfect moment will lead to ending up with nothing?"
Li Shihui turned to look at him. Her eyes were filled with confusion.
"I've had that moment."Lin Zhicheng smiled, revealing a gentle expression that was unfamiliar to her. "I won't repeat that mistake."
The car stopped. Li Shihui opened the car door and got out.
She wasn't in the mood to analyze Lin Zhicheng's deliberately mysterious words. She nodded in a dejected manner, turned around, and headed towards her home. The passenger window behind her rolled down.
"Li Shihui!" Lin Zhicheng called out. "If you truly feel apologetic towards me, then treat me to a meal."