Became a National Couple with My Ex Chapter 16: Even Breathing Was a Mistake

Liang Yixuan had been injured plenty of times from dancing—bumps, bruises, sprains, you name it. So when it came to treating wounds, she was pretty experienced.

After quickly bandaging up Lin Xiao Sheng, she tidied up the mess in the kitchen and told him to go get some rest.

Then, she went alone to the yoga room in the building next door to make up for the cardio she’d missed that morning. She started her usual solo training session.

In many ways, ballet is a cruel and tedious art.

No matter how many years you've danced, whether you've made it to soloist or even lead roles, no matter how many achievements you've racked up—every day, you still have to go back to the same basic training you started with as a beginner.

And you really can’t afford to skip a day.

The saying "Miss one day, you feel it yourself. Miss three days, the audience feels it too" isn’t an exaggeration in the ballet world.

Originally, she’d planned to hit the yoga room last night—but that got completely derailed thanks to Bian Xu.

To make up for lost time, she spent the whole afternoon training. By the time she showered and cleaned up, it was already close to evening.

Thinking Pan Yu must be up by now, Liang Yixuan picked up the souvenir she hadn’t managed to give her the night before and headed to her room.

She knocked, but there was no answer.

Holding the gift bag, she made her way downstairs. At the stairwell, she could faintly hear Shen Ji and Cheng Nuo chatting—it sounded like they had just returned from the supermarket and were sorting groceries in the kitchen.

Closer than those two voices, though, was Pan Yu saying: "Hi, I’m Pan Yu. May I ask your name?"

Liang Yixuan stopped walking. She could tell right away who Pan Yu was greeting.

Sure enough, the next second, that familiar, cool male voice drifted up: "Don’t look at trending topics?"

"……" Even from around the corner, Liang Yixuan could practically feel the awkwardness coming off Pan Yu.

"I prefer getting to know people in real life," Pan Yu replied smartly, giving him an easy out.

Unfortunately, that olive branch ran smack into a brick wall.

His only response was the sound of magazine pages being flipped, loud and clear.

Liang Yixuan turned the corner and saw Pan Yu standing stiffly beside the couch, holding a cup of water.

Bian Xu was lounging on the sofa, long legs crossed, casually flipping through a magazine.

When he heard footsteps, he glanced up lazily out of habit—but then something caught his attention. He lifted his eyes again.

Pan Yu, facing away from the stairs, noticed his odd reaction and turned to look.

Liang Yixuan walked over and handed her the gift bag.

"Sister Pan, this is a souvenir I brought back yesterday. It’s for you."

Pan Yu smiled in surprise, taking the bag and giving it a once-over.

"What made you think to bring me something?"

"Everyone got something. I just picked different ones for each person."

The one person clearly excluded from that "everyone" lowered his head again and went back to flipping his magazine.

"That’s thoughtful of you. Thanks."

Pan Yu smiled and gave the bag a little shake, then sat down next to Bian Xu on the long couch.

"You’re welcome."

Liang Yixuan headed for the kitchen. As she passed by Bian Xu, she caught a whiff of smoke and instinctively scrunched her nose, frowning as she glanced his way.

"Don’t like the smell of smoke?" Pan Yu asked.

It wasn’t that Liang Yixuan hated the smell itself. What bothered her was that Bian Xu had the nerve to smoke so freely in a shared space, with no consideration for others.

But she’d just spent the whole afternoon dancing and finally calmed her mind. She didn’t want to start another argument with him.

So she didn’t explain much—just said, "A bit," and headed into the kitchen to help Shen Ji and Cheng Nuo.

Bian Xu gave a soft snort through his nose, half amused, half bitter.

She used to kiss him without ever saying a word about the smoke on his breath.

Now, she just walked past him and had to show how much she disliked the scent clinging to him.

This woman had changed so much that now—It felt like not just smoking, but even breathing was a mistake.

Pan Yu, sharp as ever, picked up on Bian Xu’s sour mood. She smiled and said, "I actually like the smell," leaning in a little to catch the brand.

"Treasurer?" she asked, recognizing it right away.

Bian Xu turned his head slightly to glance at her.

"Not bad," he said, mildly impressed.

The way she leaned in to smell him—combined with how close they were—was starting to feel just a little flirtatious.

Cheng Nuo, who was standing by the fridge, noticed the vibe and was about to tug on Liang Yixuan’s sleeve to point it out—maybe there was something going on between those two?

But just then, Bian Xu snapped the magazine shut and said:

"What are you, a cigarette vendor?"

"……"

Pan Yu’s smile froze halfway.

Bian Xu stood up, bracing himself with one knee, tossed aside the magazine, picked up the glass on the coffee table, rubbed the back of his neck, and headed toward the kitchen.

At the kitchen island, Liang Yixuan was talking to Shen Ji.

"Xiao Sheng cut his hand, and you and Xiao Nuo have been working hard all afternoon—how about I cook dinner tonight?"

"What do you feel like making? If you don’t mind, I can be your sous-chef," Shen Ji offered with a smile.

"I saw you bought steak. How about Western food? Sister Pan mentioned last time she was craving it."

"Perfect. Just tell me what ingredients you need and I’ll help you prep."

The two of them leaned closer to discuss the plan. Halfway through their conversation, a long-fingered hand appeared in Liang Yixuan’s line of sight.

She looked up and saw Bian Xu on the other side of the island, dumping a full glass of water straight into the sink. Then he picked up the kettle and poured himself a fresh glass.

What did that poor glass of water ever do to deserve being wasted like that?

Just seeing Bian Xu in the kitchen again gave Liang Yixuan low-key PTSD. She forced herself to ignore him and went on talking with Shen Ji.

A moment later, there was a rustling sound—Bian Xu had come around to her side of the island and started rummaging through the grocery bags.

Liang Yixuan really couldn’t understand—this man didn’t even know what raw food looked like, so what was he even looking at with such curiosity?

She tried to keep ignoring him, but she needed to grab some ingredients from those same bags. Turning to him, she said, "Excuse me, could you move a bit?"

Bian Xu shifted aside slightly, holding up a box of frozen Argentine red shrimp, staring at it with confusion.

"Dead shrimp?"

"Deep-sea shrimp die as soon as they’re on the boat. If you want them alive, you’ll have to dive in and catch them yourself."

Bian Xu gave a fascinated little nod, like he’d just learned something incredible. He set the shrimp down and picked up a box of sashimi instead.

Liang Yixuan pressed her fingers to her temple and sighed.

"Mr. Bian, please do us all a favor and stay out of the kitchen. You’re only exposing how little you know."

"…"

Once Bian Xu finally left, Liang Yixuan could finally prep dinner in peace.

Now with just three people in the kitchen, Cheng Nuo glanced at Shen Ji washing vegetables, then quietly pulled Liang Yixuan aside.

"I have to ask," she whispered, "do you have some kind of grudge against Mr. Bian?"

Liang Yixuan froze for a second.

If she had to choose one person in the villa to confide in, it would probably be Cheng Nuo.

She had actually thought about telling her the truth last night, but hadn’t figured out how to say it.

Besides…

She glanced at the nearby camera—this was definitely not the moment for personal confessions.

After hesitating for a bit, Liang Yixuan chose a middle-ground response.

"Let’s just say… there’s some history."

"I knew it! You act like a totally different person whenever he’s around. So you two knew each other before the show?"

Liang Yixuan carefully chose her words.

"He used to work with South Ballet."

"Did things end badly back then?"

"I’ll tell you the details later, okay?" she said reluctantly.

Cheng Nuo gave her an "OK" sign and then tapped the camera lens in front of them.

"Director Liu, does that count as completing the mission?"

The camera tilted slightly—nodding at her.

Liang Yixuan was stunned.

Before she could say anything, Cheng Nuo pulled her toward the stairwell corner—out of the camera’s view—and grinned.

"Of course I wouldn’t talk about private stuff in front of the camera. That was a task from Director Liu. It’s probably going to be used in the final cut."

As Liang Yixuan was still processing all this, Cheng Nuo kept speculating: "My guess? Your attitude toward Bian Xu is so obviously hostile that no amount of editing can hide it. So they needed this little private chat between us to explain your behavior."

Liang Yixuan frowned slightly.

"Don’t be mad," Cheng Nuo patted her back. "They’re probably doing it for your own good. The production team knows how public opinion works. If there’s no good reason for your attitude, his fans would tear you apart. Just look at what happened to Bei Ying—she lost fans and got roasted online after offending him."

Liang Yixuan nodded slowly, thinking it over.

"But what you said earlier—was it all true?"

"Half true… more or less."

"Then you two are like a modern-day Pride and Prejudice! ‘Pride made me unable to love him, and prejudice made him unable to love me,’" Cheng Nuo quoted the classic line, "That’s literally you two!"

Liang Yixuan laughed and shook her head.

"Stop romanticizing me and him with your screenwriter brain."

Cheng Nuo was about to launch into a serious character comparison when they heard footsteps.

Shen Ji walked over to say Duan Ye had finally woken up, and the director wanted everyone to go film the reshoot of last night’s text message segment.

To keep continuity for the reshoot, Liang Yixuan and Cheng Nuo went back to their rooms to change into loungewear. After drafting and sending their messages to the crew, they went to the second-floor lounge to meet up with Pan Yu.

Liang Yixuan sat on the sofa, still wondering—was that task really Director Liu’s idea… or Bian Xu’s?

One minute later, her phone buzzed with the answer.

The message quoted a famous scene from《Pride and Prejudice》 , the conversation between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy:

「"At first, my beauty didn’t impress you, and my manners—well, I wasn’t particularly polite. Every time I spoke to you, I was trying to make you miserable. Be honest, did you actually like how rude I was?" "I liked how clever you are."」