Became a National Couple with My Ex Chapter 5: "You Might’ve Been Cheated On!"

One month later.

In Jiangnan, September came with endless rain, more than half the days were soaked in the sound of drizzle. When October rolled in, a cold front swept down from the north, and just like that, Nanhuai said goodbye to summer.

On a rare sunny day, after a half-day of basic training at the dance center, Liang Yixuan headed alone to the filming location of a reality dating show.

After breaking up with Bian Xu a month earlier, she hadn’t planned to jump into anything new. But Qin He had persuaded her, saying, "Even if you’re not looking for love, it’s still a nice change of pace." With her Achilles tendonitis forcing her to take a break from performing and no clear idea when her rehab would end, she finally decided to join the show as a way to relax and reset.

In the end, her recovery went more smoothly than expected. By late September, she was already back to basic training. But by then, the contract for the show had been signed, it was a done deal.

The afternoon sun had dried out the damp air, making it feel crisp and fresh. Starting from downtown, Liang Yixuan rested with her eyes closed in the backseat of the taxi, until the sweet scent of osmanthus flowers drifted in and caught her attention.

She opened her eyes and saw they had entered a quiet wooded area in the northern suburbs.

Early-flowering silver osmanthus trees lined the road, their tiny yellow blossoms catching the golden sunlight filtering through the leaves. Patches of dappled light danced across the asphalt.

A pale yellow petal floated in through the open window and landed gently on the hem of her white dress.

Liang Yixuan picked it up and twirled it between her fingers, feeling for a moment like she had stepped into another lifetime.

This time last year, when the osmanthus trees were blooming in Nanhuai, she had been single, living a quiet, predictable life just bouncing between her apartment and the rehearsal studio, nine to five every day.

Now, a year later, the same flowers were falling again, and she had just pulled herself out of a hopeless, all-consuming relationship, only to find herself single again. It felt like a new cycle, starting all over.

As the taxi drove deeper into the forest, a cluster of villas came into view. Built in a modern take on classical Jiangnan architecture, the homes featured white walls, dark tiles, arched bridges, and flowing water, quaint and picturesque.

This was the main filming location for the show.

Starting today, six strangers, three men and three women, would live together here for over a month.

During the day, they would go about their regular lives—working or studying—and each night, they'd return to the villa where the cameras would follow their lives and interactions.

Over time, they’d try to form connections and pursue someone they were interested in.

To keep things entertaining, the producers had set a few rules:

For example, each weekday dinner had to be cooked by one male and one female guest working as a team. On weekends, guests would be randomly paired up for dates.

They weren’t allowed to exchange contact info privately, and no confessions of love were permitted before the final episode. Instead, each night, guests could send one anonymous message to their crush.

Dragging out the ambiguity naturally created more tension and surprises. With these rules in place, viewers would never know which would come first, a sweet love story or an explosive drama.

The taxi pulled up in front of the villa courtyard. Liang Yixuan checked her hair and makeup in the side mirror.

The show's first-day outfits matched their promo photos, each one styled by the crew to suit the guest’s profession and image.

After making sure everything was in place, she stepped out of the car, rolled her suitcase across a small wooden bridge spanning an artificial pond, and entered the foyer of the villa.

To avoid putting too much pressure on the non-celebrity guests, there were no camera crews inside, just hidden cameras quietly recording everything.

At the moment, only three other people were in the living room, two men and one woman. The atmosphere was calm, maybe even a little awkward.

Liang Yixuan was the second female guest to arrive on the show, code-named "F2."

As the sound of suitcase wheels echoed across the floor, the three people on the couch turned to look.

"Hi," Liang Yixuan gave a slight bow and greeted them politely.

But no one responded right away.

All three stared straight at her. The girl in overalls had the most dramatic reaction, her mouth forming a silent "whoa" as she muttered, "Where’d they find such a gorgeous contestant?"

Liang Yixuan didn’t catch what she said. A bit confused, she looked down at herself, wondering if something was off.

The man in the gray suit was the first to snap out of it. He stood up, casually fastening his blazer with one hand as he walked over and gave her a warm smile. "Hello."

The other two quickly followed suit, scrambling to stand. "Hi, hi—hello!"

Liang Yixuan gave them a polite nod, then bent down to undo the buckle on her sandals. She was looking around for a pair of slippers when a hand wearing a silver business-style watch opened the shoe cabinet for her.

"They’re over here."

She looked up and met a pair of gentle eyes.

It was the man who’d first greeted her. He wore silver-rimmed glasses, his business attire giving him a clean, bookish air.

"Thanks," she said.

After changing into the slippers, she reached for her suitcase but someone had already picked it up.

A man in a hoodie smiled at her as he lifted it and carried it inside. "I’ve got it."

Caught off guard, Liang Yixuan offered another formal "thank you." She hadn’t interacted with any man besides Bian Xu in a long time, so she felt a little awkward. When she walked to the sofa area, she deliberately chose the seat next to the girl.

But on a dating show where "the flirting starts from first sight", avoiding male attention wasn’t going to be that easy.

The moment she sat down, a glass of warm water and a bottle of mineral water appeared in front of her.

Both men had reached out with a gesture of kindness, offering her a drink.

Her hand froze mid-air.

The girl beside her shot her an excited, knowing look.

"Oh, right," the warm-voiced man added, "The boiled water might still be a little hot, better to take the bottled water."

In the span of three minutes, this man had already helped her out three times.

Relieved, Liang Yixuan accepted the bottle of water from the guy in the hoodie.

"Let me introduce myself," the man with glasses withdrew the not-so-hot glass of water. "My name’s Shen Ji. That’s Shen as in ‘three drops of water,’ and Ji as in ‘clear skies after rain.’"

His name really suited him, Liang Yixuan thought.

At 30,000 feet in the air, in a plane cabin——

"Shen Ji? The Shen Ji from Linsen Capital’s Risk Control Department?" a surprised male voice suddenly rang out, "Isn’t he called the ‘savior of Linsen’? Why would he leave a cushy job to join a dating show for fun?"

Another man responded, "Ordinary people become successful by using coffee time to work. But geniuses? They have time for coffee and work. It’s just a month or so of filming, nothing to worry about. Besides, I heard he’s related to Linsen’s CEO."

The voices came from a few rows back in first class, muffled but audible to Bian Xu, sitting in the front.

Even with 30dB noise-cancelling headphones, he couldn’t block out the chatter. Eyes closed, he frowned. Then frowned again.

By the third frown, his neighbor, Lu Yuan, called over the flight attendant and asked her to remind the two men to keep it down.

Unexpectedly, one of them came walking up instead.

"What a coincidence, Brother Xu! You’re heading to Nanhuai too?"

Bian Xu opened his eyes and removed his headphones.

The man pointed to himself with a grin. "It’s me, bro Guo Hao, from Huning Tech in North City. Don’t you remember me?"

Bian Xu looked at him knowingly. "It’s Hao, not noise."

"…Oops," Guo Hao scratched his head sheepishly. "Sorry, I got too excited. We were just talking investments."

Bian Xu turned on the reading light and flipped open a magazine without saying anything.

Guo Hao leaned on the back of Bian Xu’s seat and lowered his voice, "Hey, bro, I actually had a question I wanted to ask you. Since we bumped into each other like this…"

"I don’t handle business," Bian Xu interrupted without looking up.

When Guo Hao called him "big bro," he was actually referring to Bian Xu’s older brother, the heir to the Bian family business empire.

The Bian family was one of the most well-known elite families in North City. The elder son followed their father into business, and the younger, Bian Xu, followed their grandfather into the arts. The two brothers had clear paths and respected each other’s choices.

Unlike most powerful families where drama runs deep, the Bian household was unusually peaceful.

"But I can’t get a hold of your brother right now," Guo Hao insisted. "Come on, just help me take a look." He pulled out a tablet. "It’s this dating show, I wanted to assess whether it’s a good investment…"

Bian Xu glanced at the promo text on the screen: "High-budget real-time filming, live CP chemistry, the most thrilling love show ever…"

"Cheap gimmicks," he said coldly, looking away before he finished reading.

"I thought so too at first! But now that Shen Ji, the director of risk control at Linsen, is in it? That’s gotta mean something! And the guest lineup is impressive, this one girl is drop-dead gorgeous. Seriously, she’s on another level compared to regular people. Look, bro, she’s even a ballet dancer…"

"No need," Bian Xu waved two fingers. "Don’t show me any ballet dancers."

Guo Hao withdrew the tablet, stunned. He exchanged a confused glance with Lu Yuan. What’s with the shade? Is he actually biased against ballet?

But Lu Yuan knew the whole story.

Just over a month ago, the elegant ballet dancer Miss Liang Yixuan had told their boss to "shut up" and Bian Xu had been in a bad mood for three straight days.

During that time, this man, who never allowed clutter near his studio, carried his phone with him constantly, probably hoping to see a message or call from Liang Yixuan, waiting for her to reach out first.

But all was quiet from across the ocean.

Three days later, he tossed the phone aside and hadn’t touched it in a month.

It was Lu Yuan, like a devoted caretaker, who made sure to keep it charged every day, just in case.

Everyone who knew Bian Xu was used to his lone-wolf style. Anyone with something important to say would just contact Lu Yuan directly, it didn’t cause any issues.

But even Lu Yuan hadn’t received a call from Liang Yixuan.

He figured, this had to be the most emotionally restrained romance in the world.

They were both acting like the other didn’t exist.

And not even burning paper for the funeral on day seven.

Lu Yuan snapped out of his thoughts and dragged Guo Hao away. "He’s in a bad mood. Don’t ask. Just assume we made a terrible investment."

That afternoon, the plane landed at Xijiao Airport in Nanhua City. The driver was already waiting to pick up Bian Xu.

From the front passenger seat, Lu Yuan turned and asked, "Where to, boss? Lanchen Tianfu or the dance center?"

Bian Xu kept his eyes closed and didn’t respond.

"I think the dance center makes sense," Lu Yuan suggested. As his assistant, he was also in charge of smoothing out his boss’s love life. He figured it was time to step in as a mediator for this cold war that had lasted over a month.

"Look, it’s 3:30 now. It takes about an hour to get from here to the center. I checked Nanhua Ballet’s schedule, Miss Liang isn’t performing tonight, so she should be off work by five. If you stop by a flower shop on the way, you’ll be there right on time!"

That finally got a reaction. Bian Xu opened his eyes and said coolly, "What would I buy flowers for?"

Lu Yuan was caught off guard, was the question too simple, or too deep? He fumbled for words. "Boss, I mean, I’ve never been in a relationship myself, but... isn’t buying flowers for a girl kind of... standard?"

Bian Xu held up a hand in a time-out gesture. "Say that again."

"Huh? The part about never being in a relationship?"

"You don’t get it?" Bian Xu raised his eyebrows. "Try repeating it again."

"I’ve never been in a relationship..."

Lu Yuan trailed off, slowly chewing on the words and suddenly got it.

Oh. So who gave me the confidence to lecture him on romance?

"…Got it," Lu Yuan straightened his seatbelt. "Then where are we going?"

Bian Xu didn’t answer right away. He switched off airplane mode on his phone and scrolled through a month’s worth of missed calls.

Nothing from Liang Yixuan.

Her last call dated all the way back to late August, the day she wrapped up her Europe tour.

He’d been in the studio that day and missed the call. She’d ended up contacting Lu Yuan instead, asking him to get her to the island.

Bian Xu glanced at the red date stamp and suddenly felt something was off.

That night, Liang Yixuan had said she was on her period. He hadn’t thought much about it then, but now that he did the math, her cycle was clearly mid-month, not the end.

So what was that lie about? Why pick a fight?

Now interested, Bian Xu knocked lightly on the armrest. "The day Liang Yixuan came to the island, did she say why she came?"

Lu Yuan couldn’t believe it took over a month for his boss to circle back to something from August.

"My guess is it was because of those rumors about you and Miss Bei. But she claimed she didn’t know anything about that before coming."

Bian Xu frowned.

Wait, what had Liang Yixuan said that night?

Oh, right. She said she came to say goodbye… to the dog.

Now Lu Yuan also started to realize something was off. "Hold on, doesn’t that sound a little too convenient? Like she was trying to cover up her real reason? What if she did come because of the rumors, but ran into a wall like, you shut her down without letting her explain and just walked into the studio…"

"If that’s the case, then honestly, she was totally justified in telling you to shut up."

Bian Xu shot him a cold glare.

"I mean," Lu Yuan laughed nervously, "she only got upset because she cares about you. Girls get jealous. The more they like you, the harsher they sound... But trust me, if you just go talk to her nicely now, she’ll let it go."

After a moment of silence, Bian Xu sighed and motioned to the driver. "Dance center."

He still looked reluctant, but at least he had the car stop near a flower shop.

Lu Yuan got out to pick up the flowers and asked if he should get lilies like he used to.

Bian Xu thought for a moment. "No. Get roses. Better suited for girls who come with thorns."

They spent fifteen minutes at the flower shop and arrived at the dance center at exactly five minutes to six.

Leaning back in his seat, eyes closed, Bian Xu tilted his chin slightly and motioned for Lu Yuan to go inside and pick her up.

The quiet in the car made time feel blurry. By the time Bian Xu realized how long he'd been waiting, he glanced at his watch, it was already 6:15.

His limited patience had run out. He picked up his phone, ready to make a call.

Right then, his phone buzzed with a new email.

It was from that persistent Guo family kid again, still obsessing over that silly dating reality show and asking for his professional opinion.

Bian Xu casually opened the attached PDF. Seeing it was a proper investment proposal, he was about to forward it to Bian Chen, when suddenly, a familiar face flashed across the screen.

His finger paused mid-swipe. He blinked slowly, then started scrolling back up through the attachment.

A full promotional photo gradually came into view.

The woman in the photo wore soft, natural makeup and a form-fitting, white chiffon dress with mid-length sleeves that reached her knees. Her hair was styled in a loose high bun, showing off a smooth, radiant forehead. Her dark eyes shimmered like water, curling into crescent moons as she gave a bright smile to the camera.

The female cast lineup really popped out.

She looked like a beauty from another dimension compared to regular people.

With that elegant vibe... she probably danced ballet.

"…"

Bian Xu stared at the photo of Liang Yixuan for a full thirty seconds, then calmly closed the document. He put on his glasses, reopened the attachment, and scrolled back to the same spot.

She was still there.

He nodded slightly, returned to the email body, and read the tagline again—— "A high-budget real-time filming, ‘live CP chemistry’ dating show, get ready for the most thrilling love show ever!"

"...?"

Suddenly, someone banged urgently on the back window.

The driver rolled it down. A gust of cold wind rushed in, tossing the white roses in the backseat around miserably.

Lu Yuan stood outside the car, face going pale then red. "Boss, Miss Liang isn’t at the dance center. The folks at Nanhua Ballet said she went to…" His voice trailed off, growing quieter. "She went to join a dating reality show…"

The wind howled. A heavy silence fell.

Bian Xu closed his eyes and pressed his index finger to his temple. "Say that again."

Lu Yuan’s lips trembled. He stomped his foot and raised his voice: "I said, Miss Liang went on a dating show! Boss, I think... I think you just got dumped on national TV!"