Became a National Couple with My Ex Chapter 35: #Forget Yixuan, Time For Xu#

When Liang Yixuan returned to the bedroom after washing the dishes, Cheng Nuo was sitting at the vanity patting toner on her face. As soon as she saw Yixuan walk in, she looked up expectantly, like she was waiting for some juicy, freshly baked gossip.

"What is it?" Liang Yixuan asked.

Cheng Nuo glanced toward the door behind Yixuan. "Nothing happened just now?"

Yixuan shut the door behind her, lowered her head, and pressed her lips together.

Seeing that conflicted expression, Cheng Nuo screwed the cap back onto her toner, patted the sofa beside her, and said, "Come sit and tell me."

Yixuan sat down and frowned slightly. "Nothing really happened. It’s not like I had to be the one to bring the medicine."

Cheng Nuo blinked. "Medicine? Is Shen Ji not feeling well?"

Yixuan paused too, then shook her head. "No, I mean… wait, weren’t you asking about that?"

Cheng Nuo was momentarily confused by all the "no’s" and "yes’s," then pieced it together and figured out whose name Yixuan had left unsaid.

"Oh—so it’s Teacher Bian who’s not feeling well? And that’s what you’re hung up on?"

Yixuan hesitated, nodded, then shook her head. "I’m not hung up on it. Someone already brought the medicine, so it’s fine."

Cheng Nuo nodded, and decided there was no need to ask if anything happened between her and Shen Ji. Clearly, Yixuan’s mind wasn’t on him at all.

Cheng Nuo eyed her. "So... you and Teacher Bian—are things starting to rekindle?"

Yixuan quickly shook her head, then after a pause said, "He just helped my grandma with something last week, so I…"

"So you’re just returning the favor? Saw him looking all miserable, so you chose to pair up with him for the barbecue."

Yixuan nodded.

"Then are you going to return the favor tonight too, and send him a text?"

Remembering how smug Bian Xu looked when teasing her about not being up to date, Yixuan pressed her lips into a flat line and shook her head.

"No."

"So you’ll send it to Shen Ji then?"

Yixuan hesitated. She glanced down at her phone, staring into the dark screen, and blinked slowly.

"While I was gone this past week, how did the texts go?"

The official show edits hadn’t revealed the full text message history, so she genuinely didn’t know the details.

"The producers thought it was a bit much to send texts to someone who wasn’t even here, so the guys weren’t allowed to pick you. Duan Ye ended up sending one to me, and I think Xiao Sheng sent his to Sister Pan. Shen Ji sent messages to both me and Xiao Zhao, but it was mostly polite stuff—since we all hung out during the group date that weekend. Probably just playing it safe. He likely guessed I’d message Duan Ye, and Xiao Zhao would send hers to Bian Xu, so there wouldn’t be any awkward double arrows."

"What about Bian Xu…"

"Oh, who could he even send it to? He didn’t even show up to film the texting segment. And it’s not like the production team can do anything about it."

Liang Yixuan nodded thoughtfully.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed and lit up. It was a message from the crew reminding the cast to submit their text messages.

Liang Yixuan slowly started typing, frowning as she pressed the send button.

Fifteen minutes later, the production team announced that it was time to film the message-sending segment.

Liang Yixuan and Cheng Nuo left their bedroom and headed toward the second-floor lounge. From the hallway, they could already hear Zhao Meng'en asking Pan Yu from a distance:

"How’s Teacher Bian? Was he okay when you brought him the medicine earlier?"

"He was fine, just that the room was a total mess," Pan Yu said with a light laugh. "I was going to tidy up a bit, but since he wasn’t feeling well, I just poured him a glass of water and left."

"What? He let you into his room? I brought him fruit a couple of days ago, and he didn’t even take it—just slammed the door in my face."

"Really?"

Cheng Nuo glanced over at Liang Yixuan.

Liang Yixuan looked back at Cheng Nuo and touched her nose awkwardly.

The two of them turned the corner.

Pan Yu immediately saw Liang Yixuan and her expression flickered for a second—almost like she was flustered. "Oh, you’re here! You walk so quietly."

"Did we?" Cheng Nuo replied innocently. "Maybe you were just too into your story to hear us."

"It’s not much of a story," Pan Yu smiled. "I just gave Teacher Bian a glass of water."

"Oh, come on, Pan-jie, don’t be so modest," Cheng Nuo teased. "Teacher Bian isn’t just anyone. Getting into his room and bringing him water… sounds like girlfriend privileges already."

Zhao Meng'en, sitting nearby, nervously bit her finger, glancing at both Liang Yixuan and Pan Yu.

Just then, four phones buzzed at once. A message from the production team came in, urging everyone to take their positions—cutting off what could’ve turned into a serious catfight.

Liang Yixuan pulled Cheng Nuo to sit down, let out a small breath, and stared blankly at her phone.

Half a minute later, her phone buzzed in her hand with a new message:「You heartless brat.」

Meanwhile, in the third-floor lounge, the four male guests were sitting around the coffee table.

Bian Xu frowned as he held his phone. The first buzz finally came:「Teacher Bian, I heard you had a stomachache...」

The screen filled with words, but after reading just the first eight characters, Bian Xu locked the screen without finishing.

A little later, the phone buzzed again:「Don’t forget to take your medicine.」

His frown deepened, and again, he locked the screen without replying.

But the third buzz never came.

Next to him, Duan Ye yawned—he’d probably finished reading his messages.

Lin Xiao Sheng had his phone flipped over on his lap, pouting a little—he likely didn’t get a message at all.

Across from them, Shen Ji sat quietly, still reading his message on the screen.

Bian Xu looked away, shook his head, and stood up from the couch to leave the lounge.

The next day, Friday, 8:30 p.m.

In the third-floor suite, Bian Xu came out of the bathroom after a shower. Just then, there was a knock on the door—three taps, hesitant, almost testing the waters.

Knowing that Liang Yixuan was training late at the dance center that night, he didn’t bother answering. Whoever it was now probably wasn’t someone he wanted to see. He let out a sigh and sat down on the sofa.

Heartless girl. She didn’t visit him last night and left early again this morning.

Yet all these irrelevant people kept showing up at his door.

He frowned as a cramp twisted through his upper stomach. Pouring himself a glass of water from the pitcher, he swallowed two antacid tablets. Then he opened his tablet and pulled up Episode 8 of the show, dragging the progress bar all the way to the end—the text message segment—while he started drying his hair with a towel.

After a few seconds of buffering, the video loaded and began playing footage from the moment Bian Xu had left the lounge the night before.

Duan Ye and Lin Xiao Sheng sat around for a bit, then eventually got up and left one after the other.

On the long sofa in the lounge, only Shen Ji remained, sitting motionless with his phone in hand.

As time passed second by second, viewers began posting comments on the video:「What’s going on? Isn’t there only one message from Liang Yixuan left? It has to be for Shen Ji, right? Why are they dragging this out for suspense? Just padding the episode length?」

「I don’t think the production team would be that obvious… unless—」

Bian Xu’s hand slowly stopped moving as he dried his hair.

Onscreen, Shen Ji’s blank phone screen was zoomed in for a close-up.

Moments later, he finally locked the phone and got up to head back to his room.

Bian Xu slowly lowered his hand and tossed the towel aside.

On the screen, a split second of silence passed before the comment section exploded——

「...Is my favorite couple really over just like that qaq」

「Ahhh! Teacher Liang didn’t vote! Which basically means she voted for Teacher Bian if you think about it!」

「Liang × Bian forever!」

「Teacher Bian, did you see that? You can totally #ForgetYixuan,TimeForXu# now!」

Knock knock knock — there was another round of cautious knocking on the door. Liu Peng’s careful voice followed: "Teacher Bian, are you in?"

Bian Xu casually replied, "Nope."

"It’s about Teacher Liang. Are you sure you’re not in?"

Bian Xu raised an eyebrow and walked over to open the door. He glanced toward the staircase. "She’s back?"

"Oh, not yet," Liu Peng chuckled. "Her dance troupe has a performance tomorrow. Teacher Liang’s not performing, but she still had to go to tonight’s rehearsal, so she took the night off and said she’d be back late."

"I came to talk about the episode. There’s a clip we debated over a lot. We ended up not including it in the final cut to avoid unnecessary drama, but you might want to see it."

He held up his phone and handed it over to Bian Xu.

On the screen, footage played from last night in the second-floor lounge— a conversation between Pan Yu and Zhao Meng’en:

"I thought about tidying up a bit for him. He wasn’t feeling well, so I poured him a glass of water and left."

"Oh? He let you into his room? A few days ago I brought him fruit and he didn’t even take it — just slammed the door shut."

Bian Xu pointed at the screen. "Does this woman have delusions?"

Liu Peng gave an awkward cough.

There were no cameras inside Bian Xu’s room. At first, the production team wasn’t sure if Pan Yu was telling the truth because she sounded so confident. But after reviewing hallway footage, they realized the time she spent upstairs wasn’t even long enough to go in and pour water. They figured she made it up and cut the segment out of the episode.

With only a few episodes left, the production team wanted to end on a peaceful note, happily matching two couples — not stir up more drama.

"Please don’t be mad, Teacher Bian. Keep watching — the important part is coming."

The footage switched to when Liang Yixuan and Cheng Nuo entered the lounge. Cheng Nuo made a few passive-aggressive remarks toward Pan Yu, then Liang Yixuan pulled her down to sit and spaced out while holding her phone.

"You see Teacher Liang’s expression? Doesn’t she look kind of upset?"

Bian Xu stared at Liang Yixuan’s face on the screen for a few seconds. Then he turned away, walked into his room, and opened the wardrobe.

10 PM, Dance Center.

Liang Yixuan changed out of her costume in the dressing room, said goodbye to a few cast members, and stepped into the elevator.

Tomorrow afternoon, the Nanba troupe would be restaging《By the Wine Urn》, an original piece from last winter, at the Nanhua Dance Center.

She was originally cast as the lead soloist (Role A), but after missing rehearsals for physical therapy, the understudy (Role B) was assigned tomorrow’s performance. The troupe had also arranged for a backup (Role C) just in case.

Worried the new girl might not be fully ready, Liang Yixuan stayed late to watch the rehearsal.

As the elevator descended to the first floor, she rubbed her sore neck and shoulders. When the doors opened, she was startled.

Standing outside, slightly out of breath, was Bian Xu.

He had one hand pressed to his upper abdomen, his brow furrowed — clearly he'd rushed over from somewhere. When he saw her, it looked like he finally let out a breath of relief.

They locked eyes in surprise.

The elevator doors began to close automatically.

A slender hand shot out and stopped the doors from shutting.

Liang Yixuan was pulled out by force and stumbled into Bian Xu’s shoulder, barely regaining her balance.

Completely confused, she looked up at him. "What are you doing...?"

Bian Xu looked down at her. "I didn’t let that Pan-whatever-her-name-is into my room last night."

Liang Yixuan’s breath caught in her throat.

"I’d never let her touch anything in my room either."

"You…" she looked away from his eyes. "You came all the way here at night just to say that?"

"What do you mean just to say that?" Bian Xu’s Adam’s apple moved slightly. "Liang Yixuan, I’m not making the same mistake twice."