Became a National Couple with My Ex Chapter 44: Delicate

Liang Yixuan was left speechless by his comment. She glanced around and pulled the blanket tightly around herself again— as if to say: Well, at least the blanket is mine.

Bian Xu couldn’t help but chuckle and looked away. When he turned back, his face was serious again. He noticed the tear stains at the corner of her eyes, so he gently pulled two cleansing wipes from the tissue box on the nightstand.

Lifting his eyelids slightly, he said, "You had a dream and cried over it? Since when did you get this soft?"

Liang Yixuan kept her head down and didn’t respond.

"Oh," Bian Xu paused mid-motion, remembering something. He muttered under his breath, "Not like I haven’t seen that before."

But it hadn’t been over a dream.

It was during... something else.

Liang Yixuan looked up, puzzled, and saw Bian Xu glancing downward with a faint smile on his lips, clearly lost in thought.

"What are you mumbling about?"

"Nothing." Bian Xu’s smile faded as he resumed wiping her tears carefully.

Once he was done, he crumpled the wipe in his hand, gave it a quick squeeze, and tossed it into the nearby trash bin.

"So what did you dream about? Tell me."

Liang Yixuan frowned and gave him an annoyed look. "Did you drag me all the way here just to interrogate me?"

"Yes," Bian Xu replied without hesitation.

Liang Yixuan rolled her eyes and glanced toward the floor, searching for her slippers. When she didn’t see them, she got ready to climb off the bed barefoot.

Bian Xu reached out to steady her. "It’s more like letting you interrogate me."

She froze mid-motion.

"Just wait here a minute." Bian Xu stood up and walked out. From the sound of his footsteps, he seemed to be heading downstairs.

Wrapped in the blanket, Liang Yixuan lowered her head, resting her chin on her knees, her eyes tracing the subtle pattern of the fabric absentmindedly.

Two minutes later, Bian Xu returned to the room carrying a suitcase. He opened it right in front of her.

Liang Yixuan glanced over.

He had plenty of clothes and daily essentials back on the island. The suitcase only held a couple of spare jackets to deal with changes in weather, some documents—and a sleek black gift box.

He opened the lid quickly, took out a portable audio player and a pair of headphones, and walked over. He gently placed the earbuds into her ears, one on each side, then stood beside her, operating the device.

Liang Yixuan looked at him, confused, and waited.

A moment later, the sound of waves crashing against rocks entered her ears. The ocean surged in and out, ebbing and flowing, brushing gently across her eardrums.

The vivid, immersive sound made her feel like she was right there on the sea.

She looked up at Bian Xu, dazed.

He swiped across the touch screen again.

Suddenly, the scene changed. It became the soft patter of rain against a glass window, as if it was happening just inches away.

Another swipe—and now it was the sound of a fireplace crackling on a winter night, tiny sparks popping in the heat, tickling her ears.

Then came a windy forest, a cozy kitchen with soup bubbling on the stove, an empty music room where instruments echoed softly...

Like a gentle current, the sounds smoothed away the panic and tension left over from her nightmare, calming her mind.

Bian Xu sat back down at the edge of the bed and removed the headphones from her ears.

"Did you hear it clearly?"

Liang Yixuan nodded. "What is it?"

"Custom-made white noise—for you."

Her eyelashes fluttered slightly. "So you went back to the island for…"

"To find a way to help you sleep better."

Liang Yixuan avoided using medication—she was wary of developing dependency, possible side effects, or anything that could interfere with her hormones or physical coordination while dancing.

So he found a gentler, non-invasive method.

There are definitely a lot of white noise sources online, but ordinary white noise can’t compare to recordings made with top-of-the-line global equipment for capturing, mixing, and tuning sound— and it certainly can’t be customized to match an individual’s sleep patterns.

"This is a professional-grade sleep headset," Bian Xu weighed the headphones in his palm and explained to her. "You can set a timer on the player before bed. It’s best to take them off when it stops, but even if you don’t, they won’t hurt your ears."

Bian Xu, who rarely spoke so patiently and seriously, was actually explaining something properly—but Liang Yixuan wasn’t listening at all.

She was staring at him, only now noticing the red veins in his tired eyes.

It looked like he hadn’t rested in quite some time.

"Did you… record all of this yourself?" she asked softly.

"Well, what do you think I did—go on vacation?"

"I mean… you did all of this by yourself?"

"When I was drafting the plan, there was a specialist doctor involved. Then I had four assistants for the sound collection and editing."

"And how long were you working on it?"

Bian Xu thought for a moment. "Forty or fifty hours, give or take."

A lump formed in Liang Yixuan’s throat.

She remembered that Cheng Nuo had casually mentioned her insomnia on Monday night.

Bian Xu left early Tuesday morning.

That meant he probably worked through the night to prepare the plan, then endured a long-haul flight, crossed the sea, and arrived on the island.

By that calculation, he’d barely closed his eyes after landing. From Tuesday morning until this early Friday morning, his only real sleep had been during the two flights.

Liang Yixuan frowned.

"It’s not like I’m in critical condition. Why did you rush like that…"

Bian Xu raised an eyebrow. "Because it was urgent. Wasn’t someone crying into their pillow behind my back?"

"I…" Liang Yixuan dropped her eyes. "I told you—it was just a dream."

Bian Xu let out a quiet sigh.

Liang Yixuan had never been this clingy before.

Even though he now understood that she often said the opposite of what she felt, he used to think that, given how focused she was on her career, she wouldn’t be the kind of girl to miss a man like crazy after just a day or two—not even if that man was him.

So just informing her of his travel plans should’ve been enough.

If he’d known this girl had such a dual nature, he wouldn’t have bothered trying to surprise her.

He’d have spelled everything out clearly before leaving.

Seeing her eyes still downcast, clearly still shaken from the dream, Bian Xu frowned slightly.

She was clearly worried about him.

By all logic, that should have made him happy.

But hearing her finally admit her tears were because of him didn’t bring him any joy.

Instead, it felt like someone had hit him hard on the head.

Because the real takeaway wasn’t that he had won anything from Liang Yixuan.

It was a harsh reminder: if she was this affected now, what must she have gone through in the past?

There was no way Bian Xu could see this as a victory.

Any "victory" built on her suffering felt disgraceful— cheap and shameful.

Something clogged in his chest, making his ribcage ache with a dull pressure.

He let out a long breath and, without saying a word, scooped Liang Yixuan up—blanket and all—into his lap.

Liang Yixuan wobbled slightly and instinctively grabbed onto the front of his shirt.

Bian Xu adjusted his posture, holding her securely, then looked at her and said, "Back then…"

Liang Yixuan tightened her grip on his shirt.

Her heart seized painfully.

It was a familiar pose from the past, yet after over two months, it somehow felt hard to breathe.

"I was wrong," Bian Xu continued.

That drew her attention. She looked at him seriously.

Bian Xu chose his words carefully— phrases that were deeply unfamiliar to him, ones he’d never said out loud before.

Slowly, and with effort, he said, "I thought you didn’t care about me. So I forced myself not to care about you."

Liang Yixuan frowned.

"Since when did I not care about you…"

Bian Xu ground out the words, almost through gritted teeth: "You didn’t. I was just blind."

"……"

"Liang Yixuan, I can’t undo what’s already happened. But if I could go back—not just to last December—I’d go all the way back to New Year’s Eve four years ago, and steal you away from the start."

"……"

"But there's no changing the past, is there? The only thing I can do is what comes next. If you think you were wronged too badly before, then come make it up with me. However you want, for as long as you want."

Liang Yixuan looked at him.

"What if I want to see you stay single for the next ten years?"

"…"

Bian Xu reached out and gently pinched her nose.

"You really know how to hit where it hurts. You're so clever—how come you ended up being the one who got hurt before?"

"You still didn’t answer me."

Bian Xu thought for a moment.

"I’ll be thirty-four in ten years, you’ll be thirty-one. That’s not impossible. Anyway, my older brother takes all the pressure from our family, no one’s going to push me to get married. Even if they try, no one can actually make me do anything—I promise."

He was clearly already planning way into the future, and knew exactly how to keep the upper hand.

Liang Yixuan gave him a shove, but lost her balance—then remembered that both she and her blanket were sitting on his lap.

Bian Xu quickly caught her.

"Does this look like something a single guy would do?"

"Nope."

"Is that your blanket?"

"…"

With smooth, practiced ease, Liang Yixuan slipped out of his arms and tossed the blanket back at him.

"Don’t catch a cold," Bian Xu laughed as he tucked the blanket back over her.

"Alright, I’ll stop teasing. If you’re not upset anymore, go to sleep."

Liang Yixuan turned her head to check the time.

The clock on the nightstand read 3:30 AM.

"When I went downstairs to get your suitcase, your roommate had already gone to bed," Bian Xu reminded her.

Liang Yixuan hesitated.

"She worked overtime until 2:30, just fell asleep and then got woken up again," Bian Xu shook his head, sounding regretful.

Funny how he never seemed this considerate before.

Liang Yixuan looked around and spotted the couch nearby.

"Then I’ll go sleep—"

"Don’t even think about it." Bian Xu pushed her back down onto the bed.

"I’ll take the couch, you sleep here."

"With your build?"

"Liang Yixuan," Bian Xu raised a hand and cut her off, wearing a serious expression, "My advice to you: take advantage of my single status while you can. Later on, getting me to sleep on the couch won’t be so easy."

"…"

Liang Yixuan had thought it would take her a while to adjust to sleeping in a new place again, especially with Bian Xu only a few meters away.

But somehow, whether it was exhaustion, the comfort of Bian Xu’s words, or the faint, familiar scent of cedar on the sheets, her mind and body quickly relaxed.

As soon as she lay back down, drowsiness washed over her like a wave and swept everything else away.

She was out the moment her head hit the pillow.

She slept dreamlessly. When she woke again, it was to the sound of the alarm clock on the nightstand.

It was the one she had set herself the night before.

The room was still dark. The unfamiliar beeping made her momentarily confused—she lay there staring at the ceiling in a daze.

As for Bian Xu, whose sleep schedule was always chaotic, it was even worse. He’d never used an alarm clock in his life. So when the noise startled him awake, the grumpiness hit instantly. Cramped on the narrow sofa, he shifted uncomfortably.

Hearing him stir, Liang Yixuan finally came to her senses. She reached for the alarm and shut it off, then got out of bed quietly in the dark and neatly folded the blanket.

Just as she was about to leave, she remembered something.

She turned on the bedside lamp, walked over to the sofa, and gently patted Bian Xu on the back.

He was lying with his back to her and didn’t respond.

She tried shaking his arm a little.

Bian Xu took a deep breath and was just about to say something— when suddenly, a soft voice whispered by his ear: "I’m up."

Bian Xu’s eyes flew open. He turned around and saw Liang Yixuan’s face.

He blinked slowly, fully waking up, then threw off the blanket and sat up.

Liang Yixuan frowned, studying his expression.

"Were you about to yell at me just now?"

"No," Bian Xu still hadn’t adjusted to the time zone.

Even on the island, he had only managed a few naps on the studio couch.

It took him a second to remember he was back in the country.

"I thought you were Lu Yuan."

Liang Yixuan gave him a look, then pointed toward the bed.

"I’m going downstairs to wash up. Don’t stay here—go sleep properly in the bed."

Bian Xu rolled his stiff neck and stood up.

"Give me the blanket. I’ll walk you down."

"No need—"

"Liang Yixuan, I already got labeled a ‘bad guy’ last night. If I let you walk out of my room alone this morning, what are people going to think—that I’m a total scumbag?"

"…"

Bian Xu grabbed her blanket without another word and walked out of the suite.

He looked both ways down the hallway and gave her a quick nod.

Liang Yixuan followed nervously.

"Don’t let the production team air this part…"

"I know," Bian Xu smiled at her, carrying the blanket down to the second floor. "Just focus on your job— I’ll be the bad guy if I have to, alright?"

"You already are the bad guy," Liang Yixuan muttered.

Just as they reached the second-floor hallway, they ran into Zhao Meng’en, who had just stepped out of her room and quickly shut the door behind her.

At this hour, most people weren’t awake yet.

Liang Yixuan had only been worried about the cameras— she never expected to actually run into someone. Panicking, she instinctively turned around, ready to flee back upstairs.

Too late. Zhao Meng’en had already spotted them.

"Oh, Teacher Bian, you’re back! Wait… Teacher Liang, what are you two…"

She looked at the two of them—and the blanket—with a confused expression, her messy hair only adding to the chaos.

"Drying out a blanket," Bian Xu said calmly.

Liang Yixuan froze in place, then quickly pointed at the blanket in Bian Xu’s arms.

"Right. I was airing it out on the terrace. Teacher Bian helped me bring it down."

"Oh, I see." Zhao Meng’en had only just woken up and was still groggy.

She smiled sleepily and headed downstairs.

"I need to hurry to my early class."

Liang Yixuan had just waved goodbye— when Zhao Meng’en suddenly paused two steps down, looked back, and asked, "Huh? The sun’s not even out yet. Why would you be airing a blanket?"

"…" Liang Yixuan stiffly glanced at Bian Xu.

Bian Xu raised an eyebrow.

"Didn’t you know? You can air it under the moon too."