Became a National Couple with My Ex Chapter 48: Liang Yixuan, Is Someone Hiding in That Room?

The moment her forehead touched Bian Xu’s shoulder, Liang Yixuan was snapped back to reality by the intense gaze burning into her back.

Realizing they were still under her grandma’s watchful eyes, she quickly raised her hand to push Bian Xu away. When she turned her head, she saw her grandma in the kitchen had just looked away and was now quietly ladling out wontons.

Liang Yixuan’s face flushed hot with embarrassment, and she hurriedly stepped away from Bian Xu.

When the wontons were ready, Cao Guizhen acted as if she hadn’t seen a thing and casually called them to the table for lunch.

Liang Yixuan was still shaken by the phone call and sat at the table distractedly, her mind a mess. She didn’t even have the energy to look after the young master.

Fortunately, Bian Xu noticed her mood and didn’t stir up any extra trouble. In front of her grandma, he actually behaved pretty decently—he didn’t complain about the dishes or nitpick the utensils. He quietly finished a whole bowl of pork wontons.

After the meal, Cao Guizhen went back to the kitchen to clean up and asked Liang Yixuan to go upstairs and sort through the old stuff they’d just salvaged from the boxes. At the same time, she gave Bian Xu a meaningful glance, as if hinting at him to keep her company.

Once her grandma disappeared into the kitchen, Liang Yixuan led Bian Xu up the stairs. As they walked, she asked in a low voice, "Did you have a little secret chat with my grandma or something? You two keep exchanging looks."

"Did we?" Bian Xu replied casually.

Liang Yixuan didn’t let him dodge it. "You did, didn’t you? Was it back at the hospital, when I went to buy that foot warmer for her?"

"Oh," Bian Xu responded, "Then yeah, I guess we did."

Liang Yixuan frowned. "What kind of nonsense did you feed her?"

Bian Xu shook his head. "Nothing. She’s sharp and figured out what was going on between us."

"She figured out our ex relationship?"

"Of course not."

"…So she didn’t see ‘ex-boyfriend,’ she saw ‘boyfriend.’"

Which meant, back when her grandma was in the hospital, she already thought Liang Yixuan and Bian Xu were dating—and Bian Xu must’ve conveniently gone along with it.

No wonder he was getting along so well with her grandma.

Liang Yixuan turned to glare at him. "Shameless."

Bian Xu raised his eyebrows. "Isn’t it easier this way? Otherwise, we’d just have to correct it later."

"And who says we will need to?" Liang Yixuan turned back and kept climbing. "When the show ends, I’ll break up with you again—right in front of the whole nation."

"So fierce?" Bian Xu tugged at her sleeve from behind, watching her face to gauge whether she was serious.

Liang Yixuan ignored him and walked onto the second-floor hallway. When she reached the door to the storage room, she saw the place was full of old, messy stuff. She was just about to go in and start sorting when her eyes caught sight of a vinyl record on top of a cabinet—still in perfect condition in its original sleeve.

It was the limited-edition vinyl Bian Xu released four years ago.

Back then, he had arranged for South Ballet to get early access, and she’d secretly bought a copy while hiding among his fangirls.

On the show recently, she had lied to both Bian Xu and the cameras about it.

Liang Yixuan froze in the doorway, glancing around quickly. Just then, she heard footsteps getting closer behind her. She barely had time to slam the storage room door shut.

Bian Xu stopped, puzzled, and saw her standing with her back against the door, hand gripping the doorknob tightly. He looked past her toward the room and asked, "What is it—someone hiding in there?"

Liang Yixuan nodded vaguely. "Yeah."

Bian Xu had only been teasing her and didn’t expect a serious answer. He raised an eyebrow. "A man?"

"Why not?" Liang Yixuan lifted her chin, mimicking his usual self-righteous tone.

Bian Xu turned his head and chuckled. "Besides me, who else could you possibly be hiding?"

Seeing how smug he’d been lately, Liang Yixuan shot him a sharp glare. "Plenty of people—he’s way better than you."

"Oh, so the reason you’re planning to dump me on national television is because of this ‘way better than me’ guy?"

Liang Yixuan steadied herself and nodded again.

Bian Xu crossed his arms. "Alright then, tell me—how is he better than me?"

"He’s better looking, more talented, and doesn’t have your awful temper."

"That’s impossible," Bian Xu shook his head. "There’s no such man in the world."

Liang Yixuan gave him a speechless look, then turned and locked the storage room with the key still in the door. She pulled the key out and tucked it into her coat pocket before walking down the hallway.

Bian Xu saw she was being serious and followed with a mix of laughter and disbelief. "Seriously? There’s really such a guy?"

"Why would I lie to you?"

"When would you even have time to meet someone like that?"

"I’ve known him for years."

"Liang Yixuan—" Bian Xu suddenly grabbed her wrist. "I wasn’t your first love?"

"Don’t flatter yourself. Definitely not you."

With Bian Xu acting like a shadow, Liang Yixuan couldn’t get anything done in the storage room. She half-heartedly wandered through a few rooms upstairs pretending to organize stuff, but eventually gave up and kicked the nosy Bian Xu out of her grandma’s house.

She spent the rest of the weekend in the southern suburbs, keeping her grandma company.

While the other couples on the show were off filming romantic dates in various cities, Liang Yixuan and Bian Xu had already overdosed on sugar during their shopping trip. The production team didn’t push them for more footage, only reminded them that next Thursday would be the "Final Confession Day" and asked them to be prepared.

After receiving the notice, Liang Yixuan felt torn.

For her, Confession Day wasn’t about starting a new relationship—it was about deciding whether to restart one.

And she wasn’t sure she was truly ready for that.

She figured if the show hadn’t set this deadline, Bian Xu wouldn’t be rushing her for an answer either.

When Episode 11 aired Monday night, the two of them once again trended on social media. Public excitement about the final confession day surged, and fans seemed sure the two would officially get together then. But for Liang Yixuan, that only made her more anxious.

She felt like something was still missing between her and Bian Xu.

But she couldn’t quite say what it was.

On Wednesday night, the day before the final confession, Liang Yixuan left the dance center after work and got into a car headed back to the northern suburbs. As they passed through the city center, she suddenly told the driver to change routes and head to Xiao Jie’s coffee shop instead.

Xiao Jie was the only person who had witnessed the entire journey between her and Bian Xu.

At a moment like this, talking to Xiao Jie might help.

The driver turned the car around and headed toward Xijiang Huacheng.

Liang Yixuan gave Xiao Jie a call, but didn’t get an answer. Still, the car quickly arrived at the café.

She got out, pushed open the glass door, and looked toward the counter.

The girl at the counter recognized her and smiled, waving. "Sister Yixuan, here to see Sister Xiao?"

"Is she here? I called but she didn’t answer."

"She’s here," the girl pointed toward the kitchen. "Sister Xiao’s in the back experimenting with a new dessert. You can just go in."

"She alone?"

"Well, there’s a friend with her, but he seems close—he’s been coming by a lot lately. Don’t worry, it’s all good."

Liang Yixuan nodded, planning to just say hi and wait until Xiao Jie was done. She walked toward the kitchen.

Just as she stepped into the hallway and was about to lift the curtain to enter, she suddenly heard someone inside call out, "Sister Liang!"

Liang Yixuan froze in her tracks. The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it—until the rest of the conversation followed:

"She didn’t tell you anything? Is she planning to get back together with him tomorrow or not?"

"If you’re just here to sniff around for your buddy, you can forget it. I’ve got nothing to say to you."

"Come on, I’ve been blocked by Bian Xu for ages. I’m not snooping for him—I’m just curious if they’ve cleared up that misunderstanding."

Liang Yixuan suddenly remembered. That voice—it was Zhou Zirui.

But didn’t he just randomly drop by Xiao Jie’s café once before? Since when were they this close?

And what "misunderstanding" between her and Bian Xu?

Still in a daze, Liang Yixuan lifted the curtain and peeked in.

The two people standing at the dessert counter looked up at the same time, both clearly startled.

Xiao Jie accidentally squeezed out a huge blob of cream from the piping bag in her hand and blinked stiffly. "Yixuan, what brings you here all of a sudden?"

Liang Yixuan, who used to drop by often, didn’t think this timing was weird at all. She held up her phone. "You didn’t answer, so I just came by…"

Xiao Jie cursed herself internally for a second. "Ah, I didn’t have my phone on me. Come on in."

Liang Yixuan stepped inside and glanced at Zhou Zirui.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Long time no see, Sister Liang."

"Yeah, long time," she replied, sensing the weird tension in the room. Then she asked hesitantly, "Were you guys just talking about me and… Bian Xu?"

"Ah, well," Xiao Jie quickly jumped in with a smile, "Zhou Zirui just opened a bar-restaurant at Dong’an Plaza, so he dropped by to talk shop. Then he mentioned your show’s ending tomorrow and we got sidetracked."

"And the misunderstanding you mentioned…?"

Out of Liang Yixuan’s view, Xiao Jie lifted her foot and crushed Zhou Zirui’s shiny leather shoe with her heel.

Zhou Ziru winced in pain, his brows scrunching into a tortured knot.

"This guy never knows when to shut up," Xiao Jie glared at him. "Spouting nonsense like always. If you’ve got nothing better to do, go home."

Zhou Zirui yanked his foot free, smiled at Liang Yixuan, and waved. "Alright, you two chat. I’m heading out. Bye, Sister Liang."

"Bye," she replied with a nod.

After he left, Xiao Jie started cleaning up the ruined dessert and casually asked, "Why aren’t you on your way to the northern suburbs yet?"

"Are you hiding something from me?"

Knowing she couldn’t dodge it any longer, Xiao Jie gave one last attempt to stall. "I’ll tell you after the show finishes tomorrow."

"Why not now?"

Xiao Jie rubbed her brow. "I don’t want to influence your decision. Unless… you tell me first—are you planning to get back with Bian Xu tomorrow?"

That was exactly why Liang Yixuan had come—she had already prepared what to say. She pressed her lips together, then answered, "I haven’t decided yet. I mean, everything feels good on the show, but real life might be different. With our jobs, we could go right back to hardly seeing each other…"

She had already told her mom that she would take charge of her own life. She wouldn’t go against her feelings just because her mom disapproved. But by the same token, she also couldn’t ignore the practical side of things just because the audience wanted a happy ending.

Xiao Jie nodded thoughtfully. "If that’s the only thing holding you back… then maybe I should tell you now."

"Go ahead."

"Do you remember telling me a long time ago that the reason you got together with Bian Xu was because a teacher said experiencing real relationships could help with physical expression in dance?"

"Mhm, didn’t I tell you last time I just made that up to mess with you?"

Xiao Jie let out a sigh. "But Bian Xu believed it."

Liang Yixuan froze. "What?"

"You said that to me backstage at Nanba, remember? That day Bian Xu and Zhou Zirui came by to give you flowers, and they accidentally overheard our conversation."

Liang Yixuan gripped the edge of the dessert counter, stunned as if she’d been struck by lightning.

At 10 p.m., outside the villa in the northern suburbs, Liang Yixuan got out of the car but didn’t walk in right away.

She was still in shock. On the entire drive back from downtown, she’d been stuck in her thoughts, replaying all the moments from the eight months she’d spent with Bian Xu, trying to piece everything together.

The more she thought about it, the more she realized that a lot of the little details she used to interpret one way might look totally different from another perspective.

She used to think Bian Xu didn’t really care about her or their relationship, like he treated her as someone he had to keep in the shadows.

For example, shortly after they first became intimate, Zhou Zirui happened to visit their place, and Bian Xu introduced her as his girlfriend right in front of him.

Back then, after all the hurt and disappointment she'd gone through during those eight months, she had dismissed that moment as just an adult’s polite lie to save face.

But thinking about it now—realistically, from Bian Xu’s perspective—would someone like him, who always does whatever he wants, really care about saving face?

Clearly not.

So maybe he was doing it for her? Trying to protect her feelings?

That didn’t quite fit either. Given how self-centered he usually was, if he really saw her as just a secret lover, why would he go out of his way to consider her emotions?

So maybe that moment wasn’t as complicated as she’d made it out to be. Maybe when he called her his girlfriend, he truly meant it. Maybe he had no intention of hiding her at all. Maybe that was just his honest, straightforward way of acknowledging their relationship.

But not long after that moment, before she got the chance to meet more people around him, before they had the chance to really connect on a deeper level—he overheard that conversation backstage.

From that point on, everything changed for him.

And that misunderstanding, that warped view of their relationship, stayed with him—right up until she broke things off.

So what had he been thinking about these past eight months?

And what about now—ever since he followed her onto the variety show?

Her head spinning, Liang Yixuan finally pushed open the villa gate and stepped inside.

In the living room, Cheng Nuo and Zhao Meng’en were tidying up the couch and bookshelves.

Since the show was wrapping up the next day, everyone had started packing tonight.

They greeted her when they saw her come in.

She absentmindedly replied, then walked upstairs on shaky legs, passing the second floor without realizing and stopping outside Bian Xu’s suite on the third.

"Miss Liang, are you here to see the boss?" Lu Yuan stepped out from the open door.

She looked past him into the room. "He’s not here?"

"He’s probably with the director team right now. All the male cast members got pulled over there. I’m just helping him pack. We’re taking the big stuff out tonight to make tomorrow easier," Lu Yuan explained, pointing toward the room. "You can wait inside, Miss Liang."

Liang Yixuan nodded and stepped in.

The room was cluttered with all kinds of stuff, barely any space to walk. She carefully stepped around the luggage and sat down by the sofa. Watching Lu Yuan pack, she suddenly called out, "Assistant Lu."

"Yes?"

"Did Bian Xu ever mention to you…"

"What?"

But she stopped herself.

What was the point of asking Lu Yuan? She was just grasping at straws. There’s no way Bian Xu would’ve told his assistant something like that.

She shook her head to say never mind, then looked down—and noticed a book had fallen next to the couch. She bent down and picked it up.

The book was worn and loose from use. When she grabbed it, it happened to open right at a page marked by a bookmark.

She reached out to close it, but then noticed some pencil marks on the bookmarked page.

One sentence in English had been underlined.

She translated it silently in her head: "There is no greater torment in this world than to love while also feeling contempt."

And beside that quote, someone had scribbled a few bold lines of handwritten English—

Liang Yixuan frowned as she tried to make out the handwriting.

It read——

"I finally ended the torment that day—not because I stopped loving her, but because love had overcome the contempt.
From now on, I’m willing to accept her judgment, whatever it may be."