My Superstar Ex-Husband is a Yandere
Translator: Fuyu
Chapter 9 - "Falling in love with someone from a different world won't end well."
In the first week after his vacation ended, Jiang Minyun went to Beijing to shoot a commercial.
When Li Shihui returned to an empty home and ate the spicy dishes that the aunty had cooked, she felt a pang of loneliness.
After dinner, she went to the study, opened WeChat, and tapped on "Super amazing, universally unparalleled, my one and only beloved hubby", but she didn't know what to write. She wrote and deleted her messages several times. When only the words "I miss you" were left on the screen, and as she was hesitating on hitting send, she got a message from Jiang Minyun.
Super amazing, universally unparalleled, my one and only beloved hubby: I miss you.
She felt like their hearts were linked.
Smiling, Li Shihui deleted her message and wrote: Me too.
Sent.
The next second, her phone vibrated, and there was a video call request on the screen.
Jiang Minyun was sitting in the dressing room. His hair had been dyed blond. He looked at her intently and asked, "What are you doing?"
Li Shihui simply reported her schedule. Due to her slight nearsightedness, she leaned closer to the screen. Captivated by his new hairstyle, she praised, "Your style looks so handsome!"
He looked like a 20 year old.
Su Jiao was right. Jiang Minyun hadn't aged at all in the past several years.
He started off in print modeling. Back then, he had to go through all sorts of crazy hairstyles. After he gained fame and had freedom over his appearance, he usually kept an ordinary hairstyle.
Li Shihui didn't have much of an aesthetic sense and thought his preferred short, black hair looked pretty good. When he wasn't going crazy, he could pass as a well-behaved student.
Jiang Minyun awkwardly touched his hair that had been styled with hairspray. "This is only temporary. Do you want me to dye my hair this color permanently?"
Li Shihui shook her head. "Isn't dyeing your hair bad for your scalp?"
She raised her hand and rubbed her nose. She had been rubbing her nose a lot lately. It was mid-April; the season when willow catkins were floating everywhere in the city. She suffered from hay fever and forgot to wear a mask today.
Through the screen, Jiang Minyun focused on her nose that had been rubbed red. "It's okay to do it occasionally. Has your nose been feeling uncomfortable lately?"
Back then, her nose had gotten infected from a botched surgery. Even after her nose was fixed, she would get hay fever in spring.
"It's nothing serious, just hay fever." Li Shihui placed the phone on a stand and checked her schedule. "I made an appointment at the hospital tomorrow morning for a check-up."
Jiang Minyun knew what she was talking about and felt antsy. "Didn't we agree that I would go with you?"
Li Shihui didn't want to bother him. Just as she was about to speak, the dressing room door behind Jiang Minyun was suddenly opened.
Assistant Fang came in, held out a phone, and said, "Jiang Minyun-ge, it's Xinyu-jie's call."
Li Shihui froze.
Jiang Minyun immediately hung up the video call and sent her a message: Something came up. I'll call you back later.
She wanted to reply okay, but she had only typed the first letter out when her fingertip twitched as if she had been electrocuted. She deleted the letter.
Did she mishear? Did Assistant Fang say Xinyu?
Jiang Minyun had stayed in touch with her?
Recalling how Jiang Minyun hid his meeting with Liang Xinyu, Li Shihui felt uneasy and clutched her phone.
A message suddenly popped up on WeChat.
SuSuSuMi: Hui-jie, major development! Zhicheng-ge is coming back this week for a meeting ^^.
Su Jiao was the only person that she knew that put a lot of thought towards romantic relationships.
As if she had seen her savior, she thought it over and sent: Can I ask your advice on a relationship problem?
Su Jiao instantly replied.
SuSuSuMi: Sure.
Hui: Do you think someone can yearn for another person for over a decade?
SuSuSuMi: Of course~
Li Shihui was about to write more, but before she could figure out how to ask, Su Jiao had sent another message.
SuSuSuMi: Do you know how I found out Zhicheng-ge is a virgin?
Hui: ?
The "SuSuSuMi is typing…" indicator lasted for over ten minutes, and Li Shihui stared at the screen for just as long.
SuSuSuMi: I asked around about him. His old PhD classmates from the US said he's still in love with someone that didn't return his feelings. It might be someone he met in college. He never got together with that person. Anyways, he's been single until now because of that person. He's infatuated, single-minded, and self-disciplined. Totally my type, hehe.
Hui: His heart has someone else, and you still like him?
After sending it, she felt her message was inappropriate. Wasn't this an exact description of herself?
She wanted to recall the message, but Su Jiao had already sent her a response with her fast typing.
SuSuSuMi: That was so long ago. Hui-jie, we have to be realistic. Most short, poor, ugly men also have someone else in their hearts. He's tall, rich, and handsome and only has this one flaw. I can totally accept it."
Hui: But what if one day, after the two of you are together, and the person that he can't forget comes looking for him. What will you do then?
SuSuSuMi: You're so pessimistic! They met over a decade ago. If she was going to seek him out, wouldn't she have done it sooner? Still, if that happened to me, I would slap him twice and then demand a huge sum from him as compensation for wasting my youth, hehe.
Yeah, it had been over a decade. If Liang Xinyu wanted to get back together with Jiang Minyun, shouldn't she have come back a long time ago?
She recalled that gloomy evening. She was late to their tutoring session because of a heavy downpour. When she walked into Jiang Minyun's cramped, run-down apartment, he looked at her, who was soaked to the bone, like he was looking at a clown.
Seemingly apropos of nothing, he derisively said, "Falling in love with someone from a different world won't end well."
Later on, she found out that Liang Xinyu had gone abroad that day.
Su Jiao sent her another message.
SuSuSuMi: Well, unless his first love was a stunning beauty like Liang Xinyu. Otherwise, if he doesn't choose me, then it's his vision that's the problem!
Her heart was like Prince Rupert's drop, and Su Jiao's words were like a hammer breaking its tail and turning it to dust.
—
She pulled herself together and finished her work. She planned on reading a book while waiting for Jiang Minyun's call, but she kept getting distracted with the urge to check her phone.
Seeing her phone flash with a news notification, she put the book down.
"Liang Xinyu's Domestic Debut! Beijing International Fashion Week Opening Highlights…"
Li Shihui swore that she didn't pay attention to entertainment news and normally closed the notifications. It was purely accidental that she clicked on the article. Seeing that first image and clicking on it to enlarge was also accidental.
She looked at Liang Xinyu's radiant and elegant face and her aloof expression; she had to admit that Su Jiao was right. Liang Xinyu was a stunning beauty.
She turned off her screen. She felt like she was 17 again and catching sight of those two figures walking across the playground from her seat by the window. Every time she saw them together, she would inexplicably be struck with envy and inferiority.
Li Shihui thought; she and Jiang Minyun had weathered through so much together. They had been together for so long. She should choose listening to his explanation first over doubting him.
Even if it was Liang Xinyu, there had to be exceptions sometimes, right?
She would wait until Jiang Minyun came home. They can sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk then.
Her screen lit up again.
She saw Lin Zhicheng's delayed response.
Lin Zhicheng: Let's meet and talk before deciding.
Lin Zhicheng: Or are you already pregnant?
She clicked on her message with Lin Zhicheng and opened the link that led to Professor Ramesh's personal academic homepage. This professor was a renown figure in the field of robotics and worked at MIT, which was Lin Zhicheng's alma mater for his PhD.
It was indeed a huge temptation.
Li Shihui laughed at herself. She used to only know how to study, but after experiencing setbacks, she gradually understood the murky area of connections, mentors, and platforms. The things that weren't taught in classrooms.
Why was one person chosen over another? The chosen one wasn't always the smartest and most talented. Internationally and domestically, the academic world was a complex network of relationships. Even if you pursued purity, there would always be someone purer than you.
She thought about the midterm assessments that would happen in a few months and about what she would do in the next three years. Joining Professor Ramesh's PhD team would definitely bring her better opportunities.
Li Shihui had a scale in her heart. On the left side, it was her family; their future child and Jiang Minyun. On the right side, it was work, her dreams, and pursuing her studies.
The day after marrying Jiang Minyun, she declined an offer for a fully funded PhD program at an Ivy League school. And now, once again, the scale was tilted overwhelmingly to the left. She closed Professor Ramesh's personal academic homepage.
She refused Lin Zhicheng again: Thank you, but that's really not necessary.
She thought; no need to meet, no need to talk. She would strive to obtain a tenured associate professor position. And then, when everything settled down, she could apply to go to the US for an academic visit.
There were so many paths to take, but she only wanted to be with Jiang Minyun.
As she started thinking about her hospital appointment the next day, her eyelids felt heavier and heavier.
She waited until she fell asleep, but Jiang Minyun didn't call her back.
—
(T/N: Rewind a bit)
When Su Jiao received Li Shihui's message about a serious relationship issue, she was quite curious. She viewed Li Shihui as someone who was purely-focused on scientific academics. She thought about it all night and still couldn't figure out why Li Shihui asked her those questions out of the blue.
Could it be that Hui-jie's husband's first love had come to see him? No way, right?
That thought kept her up all night. In her imagination, Hui-jie's husband was a domineering CEO that was frequently away from home for work. His salary allowed Hui-jie to dedicate herself to scientific research and live in an ivory tower for so many years without having to worry about daily life's mundane tasks.
But now, his first love, the one that got away, suddenly reappeared. She had only read about this sort of absurd, cliche, melodrama in novels.
As a romance expert, she had to protect Hui-jie's marriage!
—
The next day, Su Jiao was busy all morning with trivial administrative tasks. Once she was finally done, she pushed up non-existence glasses on the bridge of her nose with her middle finger and marched to Li Shihui's office with panda eyes.
—
Li Shihui looked haggard from insomnia too. Test results were spread out on her desk.
She had gone to the hospital for a check up this morning. The ultrasound, hormone testing, and angiogram didn't show any issues.
During her check up, the doctor had carefully studied the test results before asking her, "How long have you been trying to conceive? At 29, your ovarian function is still quite healthy."
"My husband and I haven't used any contraceptives since we got married eight years ago."
"Ah?" The doctor was incredulous.
Li Shihui racked her brains for reasons why she hadn't gotten pregnant yet. "My husband occasionally smokes. Could this have an effect?"
The doctor deliberated her words before answering, "That doesn' t have a big impact, but it would be best for him to quit smoking."
"How often does intercourse occur?"
Li Shihui blushed. "Three to four times a week."
"That's quite good. What about duration?"
After Li Shihui reported the length of time, the doctor paused while taking her notes.
"Everything looks fine. If possible, please have your husband come in for an examination. If a problem can't be found on his end, I would recommend you get injections for ovulation."
With a dark cloud above her head, Li Shihui sat in her office in low spirits. She called Jiang Minyun's number, but it was his assistant that answered her call.
"Hui-jie… Jiang Minyun-ge is still filming. I'll have him call you back later."
She was too preoccupied with her thoughts to notice the other party's nervous tone and just asked Assistant Fang to have Jiang Minyun call her back as soon as he finished filming.
Just before ending the call, Li Shihui hesitated and asked, "Yesterday, was it Liang…" Was it Liang Xinyu who called Jiang Minyun?
Just then, Su Jiao pushed open the door, saw Li Shihui on a call, and asked, "Hui-jie, are you busy right now?"
Seeing Su Jiao, Li Shihui said, "Never mind" to Assistant Fang and ended the call.
"What's the matter?"
Su Jiao saw the gloom on Li Shihui's face and cautiously glanced at the hospital report on the desk. She asked, "Hui-jie, are you okay?"
Li Shihui wanted to express how she felt, but she couldn't find a single word that could encapsulate how she felt.
Gloom, loneliness, sorrow, unease, suspicion - it felt like her emotions were being sucked into a whirlpool. She found it difficult to breathe.
"Not really." She rested her hand on her forehead. She couldn't express why she was feeling so bad.
Jiang Minyun had been in the entertainment industry for so long and had encountered many obsessive fans. Some of them sent explicit images and messages to his phone. There were even stalkers that found their home and laid in their bed naked.
Because of these incidents, Jiang Minyun had changed his phone number, and they had moved. He eventually hired a security team to protect his privacy.
Sometimes, Li Shihui would think that perhaps Jiang Minyun didn't love her as deeply as she loved him. However, they had known each other for over a decade. She knew he wasn't an irresponsible person and didn't believe he would cheat.
So why was she feeling upset?
Su Jiao pulled a chair over and sat down next to Li Shihui. "If you want, you can talk to me. My friends all call me a relationship expert…"
Can she tell her?
Li Shihui had never told anyone about her relationship with Jiang Minyun. He had been her one and only secret crush.
After struggling to come to a decision, she finally settled on describing her situation in a roundabout way.
"It's not me… It's about a friend of mine…"
Next to her, Su Jiao couldn't hold back her laughter.
Li Shihui sheepishly looked at Su Jiao.
Su Jiao suppressed her smile, waved her hand, and, "Okay, your friend's matter… I'm happy to help her too."