Became a National Couple with My Ex Chapter 32: Me and My Dog Miss You

In the end, Liang Yixuan lost right at the starting line—she learned how to argue too late.

Going up against someone like Bian Xu, who had been verbally sparring for over twenty years, she got tongue-tied if she wasn’t careful.

She wasn’t sure whether it was because she was angry or because something in Bian Xu’s words hit a nerve, but even though the November wind was cold against her cheeks, her face felt strangely hot.

She rubbed her forehead where he had flicked her and realized she had completely missed the point. What was she even saying about "being aware in public"? Like it would suddenly be okay for him to touch her like that if they weren’t in public?

Just as she was about to rephrase and question him properly, Bian Xu spoke first, finishing his thought: Liang Yixuan, have a little more confidence. Don’t underestimate your appeal to men. I was already trying my best to hold back."

"…"

Liang Yixuan started questioning her life choices.

Why did she come downstairs in the middle of a freezing winter night, instead of staying warm in bed? Just to get a confidence boost from him?

She snapped back: "Well then, how about you have a little confidence too? Don’t underestimate how noticeable you are in a crowd. Maybe stop getting yourself caught on trending searches again and again."

The phrase "again and again" was a jab at the time he and Bei Ying got secretly photographed by paparazzi.

"You think you’re not noticeable?" Bian Xu looked at her seriously. "Last time was all on me. But this time, the blame’s fifty-fifty."

"…"

Liang Yixuan choked again, unsure whether he was complimenting her, mocking Bei Ying, or just trying to win the argument.

Bian Xu also realized he was getting carried away with his words—this wasn’t why he came here tonight.

To be fair, it wasn’t easy for someone like him who’d been sarcastic for over twenty years to suddenly start speaking sweetly. Even when he tried to compliment someone, his words came out a little sharp.

But still—if you don’t know what to say, then shut up, or at least change your tone.

That was the advice Lu Yuan had given him recently after reading a whole book called《The Art of Speaking》.

Bian Xu cleared his throat, then casually opened the car door behind him: "Tired of arguing? Want to sit in the car and warm up with the heater?"

"Do you think my room doesn’t have heating?" Liang Yixuan narrowed her eyes.

"Yeah, but your room doesn’t have me—" He quickly corrected himself before she could be offended. "—to vent your anger on."

Liang Yixuan paused.

Seeing her eye the car door suspiciously, Bian Xu stepped to the side generously and waved his hands: "Here, take the driver’s seat. That way you won’t think I’m trying to kidnap you."

In the end, Liang Yixuan got into the driver’s seat of Bian Xu’s car.

She had thought that if she didn’t at least argue with him a little, coming downstairs in the cold would’ve been a total waste.

But once she sat behind the wheel—seeing the brake pedal, gas, and steering wheel at her feet, and Bian Xu sitting quietly in the passenger seat, looking a bit like the underdog—a strange feeling slowly replaced her irritation.

Although all she had done was switch seats, and even though Liang Yixuan didn’t actually know how to use the brake, gas, or steering wheel, she somehow had the vague feeling that Bian Xu had handed her something that used to be firmly in his control.

Still spacing out and unsure what exactly that "something" was, she was jolted back by Bian Xu’s urging: "Didn’t you say you had something to say? Why so quiet now?"

She came back to her senses and put on a stern face to reason with him: "Let’s set aside the whole video thing—you’re kind of a victim in that too. But what you did back there… you shouldn’t have done that. Imagine if some random girl on the subway fell asleep and accidentally leaned on your shoulder—if you reacted like that, you might end up at the police station."

Bian Xu paused and looked at her with a complicated expression.

"I don’t take the subway."

"…"

"And I wouldn’t let a stranger lean on me anyway," he added, frowning seriously. "Even if they weren’t strangers, still no."

"Men either."

Bian Xu ruled out every possibility, then raised an eyebrow: "I’ve just gotten used to doing that with you. You can’t expect someone to break a habit overnight."

Liang Yixuan’s eyes flickered, and she stared at the steering wheel, not daring to ask any further.

She didn’t have the courage to ask when and how he had developed this so-called habit.

She changed the subject randomly: "So, did you get any DMs from netizens tonight?"

"No idea," Bian Xu replied. He didn’t have a personal Weibo account. The show’s team knew he’d never come down from his pedestal to interact personally, so whenever they needed to tag someone in promotions, they just tagged his studio account instead.

Although he didn’t quite understand why Liang Yixuan was curious about this, he still pulled out his phone, made a call, and put it on speaker: I’ll ask the studio."

Liang Yixuan had just asked out of convenience and was about to say "never mind," but the call had already connected.

His assistant Qi Yuan answered quickly: "Boss, do we have a new project?"

Bian Xu: "…"

Liang Yixuan knew: Lu Yuan was Bian Xu’s personal assistant, while Qi Yuan was his professional assistant.

The two were complete opposites.

Lu Yuan was down-to-earth, a little snarky and unreliable at times, but mostly a cheerful kiss-up.

Qi Yuan, on the other hand, was extremely by-the-book. His entire life revolved around work, work, and more work.

Based on what Liang Yixuan could tell, ever since Bian Xu had joined the variety show, he hadn’t done any music work.

First, the villa lacked high-end equipment.

Second, his process required long, uninterrupted blocks of time—and all he had recently was fragmented chunks, far too short to get into the zone.

So it made sense that Qi Yuan responded like that.

Bian Xu didn’t seem too happy: "So I can only contact you when I have work?"

There was a short silence on the speaker before Qi Yuan answered again: "Boss, we’ve already been idle for many days now."

"Have I not still been paying your salary?"

"That’s not the issue, boss. We’re just worried about your current... lack of focus on your main profession."

"And now I need you to tell me what counts as ‘main profession’?"

"Understood. So... is this a work-related matter or something else?"

Liang Yixuan tugged on Bian Xu’s shirt sleeve and silently mouthed to him: "Stop asking."

The assistant was clearly too dedicated to his job, and this kind of question was starting to feel embarrassing.

But Bian Xu didn’t care in the slightest. He went ahead and asked directly: "Can you check if the studio account received any private messages from netizens tonight?"

There was a brief hesitation on the other end.

"Just tonight?"

"What else?"

"Since you joined the variety show, the studio account gets tens of thousands of DMs every day. Do you want me to single out just tonight’s?"

Liang Yixuan and Bian Xu: "…"

Bian Xu looked at her.

Liang Yixuan quickly shook her head.

"No need," Bian Xu frowned. "What kinds of messages are people sending?"

"Please hold on, I’ll read a few examples," Qi Yuan replied. The sound of typing came through the phone, and a moment later, he started reading in a robotic tone:

"Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh—imagine a hundred more ‘ah’s here—I’m fully shipping it! Zai Xu Liang Yuan is the ultimate couple!"

"…"

"The revolution isn’t over yet, my son still needs to work hard. Don’t get cocky—keep going! Mama believes in you!"

"…"

"Right now I’m just a screaming chicken, and I just want to yell into the sky: Bian Xu—yyds!"

"…"

Bian Xu and Liang Yixuan stared at each other as they listened to the robotic delivery.

After hanging up, the air in the car felt as stiff and awkward as Qi Yuan’s monotone voice.

After a long pause, Bian Xu finally asked, "What does yyds mean?"

Liang Yixuan tried to guess based on the letters: "Forever… single… maybe?"

"…"

Before Bian Xu could explode with whatever "dangerous aura" he was giving off, Liang Yixuan quickly jumped out of the car. She didn’t even look back when he chased after her yelling things like, "It means ‘one vs. ten’!" or "It means ‘one vs. three’!" She just walked straight into the courtyard and shut the front door behind her.

The door closed with a loud clack, and she could hear Bian Xu laughing in frustration outside.

Leaning against the thin door, struggling not to laugh, Liang Yixuan turned her head and said loudly and seriously through the door, "I’ve vented my frustration. You can go home now."

The door of the old house was thin—sounds passed through easily.

Bian Xu sighed outside: "Alright. You asked me earlier about the DMs—did someone say something nasty to you?"

It wasn’t exactly nasty.

The messages Liang Yixuan got tonight fell into three main categories:

1. Fans who supported her previous CP (with Shen Ji), sobbing and asking if she and Shen Ji were officially "BE" (broken up).
2. Fans of Zai Xu Liang Yuan (her and Bian Xu) who were speaking up in Bian Xu’s defense.
3. People who supported her alone, saying things like, "We don’t know what happened between you and Bian Xu in the past, so if people are suddenly supporting him just because of some sweet moments, don’t be swayed. Do what feels right for you."

After reading them, Liang Yixuan mostly just felt overwhelmed—so many voices, too much noise. Her head was spinning.

"No one said anything nasty," she replied.

"Doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad—you don’t need to listen to any of it," Bian Xu said through the door. "If I listened to every voice out there, would I even have time to do anything else?"

To be fair, when it came to handling pressure, Liang Yixuan really did feel she could learn a thing or two from him.

"Also, don’t worry about the production team. You don’t need to go back to filming this week."

"Taking that long of a break feels a little irresponsible…"

"It’s just ratings," Bian Xu snorted. "I’ll handle it, okay?"

Her grandma’s stitches hadn’t even been removed yet—Liang Yixuan really wasn’t comfortable leaving her. Considering most of the show's popularity probably came from Bian Xu anyway, and since he said he’d cover for her, she decided not to worry about it anymore.

That weekend, Liang Yixuan stayed in the southern suburbs, focused on taking care of her grandma.

On Monday morning, she went back to the dance center for training. After work, she returned to the suburbs to make dinner.

Busy and focused, three days passed in a blink—and just like that, it was time for the seventh episode of the variety show to air.

She hadn’t appeared in a single scene this time. Since she didn’t have any of the other cast’s contact info, she had no idea what had happened lately. Suddenly, she found herself missing the chaotic, chatty energy of being with everyone. That night, she climbed into bed early and opened the full episode to watch.

Just as the intro finished playing, she got a message from Xiao Jie:「Just finished watching at 2x speed. The key part is here—check it out [link] [link].」

Liang Yixuan clicked on the first link.

It opened to a trending topic titled: #LonelyXuAllAlone#.

"…"

She clicked into the highlighted clips from the episode and saw that the production team had organized a group date over the weekend. That morning, the three guys and three girls—everyone except Bian Xu—had paired up and gone out.

Meanwhile, Bian Xu slept in alone and didn’t get up until noon.

Then, the footage was edited by fans into two side-by-side frames——

On the left side of the screen, the six other cast members were having a picnic on the grass by the lake, with a delicious spread of food in front of them.
On the right side, inside the villa, Bian Xu walked in from the entryway holding a bag of takeout.

Left: the six guests were laughing and chatting happily.
Right: Bian Xu took a few bites of his meal, then sighed with no appetite.

Left: three pairs—one man and one woman each—rode tandem bikes together, full of laughter.
Right: Bian Xu was walking Peach in the cold winter wind.

Left: the six guests sat by the lake, watching leaves fall and admiring the red maple trees.
Right: Bian Xu wandered around the living room holding a water glass.

Left: the group was gathered watching a light show projected over the water, cheerful and loud.
Right: Bian Xu sat down alone at the Steinway grand piano and began playing a Chopin nocturne.

「Who made this side-by-side video? Does our dear Mr. Bian not care about his dignity?」

「Bian Xu: The path of art is always lonely.」

「Bian Xu: A man who embodies emptiness, loneliness, and cold.」

「Bian Xu: If I’ve done something wrong, let Liang Yixuan punish me—not this, not even hearing her scold me hurts more.」

「I feel bad now… @LiangYixuan, Teacher Liang, what about you?」

「@LiangYixuan @LiangYixuan @LiangYixuan」

"…." Liang Yixuan quietly exited the video.

After calming down a bit, she tapped on the second link Xiao Jie had sent.

It was another video—this time just a solo clip of Bian Xu inside the villa.

It seemed to be filmed around midday. He was in the third-floor guest lounge feeding dog food to Peach.

After he poured one regular portion, Peach immediately dove in and crunched it all down.

Bian Xu glanced at the empty bowl, thought for a moment, and poured in more.

Watching through the screen, Liang Yixuan’s heart jumped.

That first portion was already a full meal—any more and Peach would be overfed!

She was just about to get annoyed when she saw Peach look at the bowl, realize there was too much, and obediently walk away.

Now it was Bian Xu on the screen who looked annoyed.

He picked up the dog and scratched its belly: "What, you don’t want it just because I gave it to you?"

Peach barked once, as if to say yes.

"So you’ll only eat if it’s from Liang Yixuan?"

Peach stuck out its tongue and wagged its tail—just hearing the name seemed to make it happy.

Watching this, a small smile tugged at Liang Yixuan’s lips.

On screen, Bian Xu also let out a soft laugh: "Miss her?"

Peach wagged its tail and barked excitedly.

Bian Xu went quiet for a second, then lifted his head.

The camera cut to a close-up of his face.

It looked like he had found and faced a camera directly on purpose.

Normally, dating shows aim to keep things natural, and wouldn’t include a shot so deliberately posed.

Liang Yixuan was still a little stunned when Bian Xu suddenly looked straight into the lens—straight at her, watching the screen—and raised an eyebrow with a half-smile: "What a coincidence. I miss you too."