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Became a National Couple with My Ex Side Story · Ye Cheng CP (Part 12): Should We Turn Our Fake Relationship into a Real One?

Cheng Nuo’s heart was racing fast, but her face stayed calm.

Her hand hanging by her side clenched the hem of her pajamas tightly. She looked at Duan Ye without showing any reaction, cleared her throat, and tilted her ear: "Huh? What did you say?"

Duan Ye turned his head away, like he was holding back a laugh. After a moment, he looked back and said, "I said, I came to chase you."

Cheng Nuo crossed her arms and snorted, eyeing him up and down: "So, Mr. Duan, did you spend a night at the repair shop, suffer from cold and hunger, regret moving out from my place, and now rush back to make it up to me?"

"Jiejie, tell me, did I move out by myself, or did you kick me out?"

"The process doesn’t matter," Cheng Nuo waved her hand, "the result is you didn’t seize the chance and just left. Tell me, are you regretting not clinging to me all night, begging me to be your grandpa?"

"No."

Cheng Nuo raised an eyebrow.

"Jiejie, if I really did cling to you and used all those sad tricks you think about to keep you, wouldn’t you just think I’m trying to scam your feelings for money?"

"..."

How does he know everything? Is he a worm living inside her?

"Then aren’t you the same?" Cheng Nuo lifted her chin and looked at him.

Duan Ye nodded toward the inner room, "Can we talk about this inside?"

Cheng Nuo was about to refuse, but suddenly she heard the door creak open — the neighbors, a family of three, came out of their apartment. The parents gave them strange looks.

If she didn’t go inside now, soon the whole building would know she’d been fooled emotionally.

Cheng Nuo cleared her throat and stepped aside.

Duan Ye carried the bag of food in and closed the door behind him.

"Go wash up first," Duan Ye, as if very familiar with the place, changed his slippers and nodded toward the bathroom, "Eat breakfast, then we can talk slowly."

"You’re even setting the tone? I want to clear things up now."

"Talking later won’t be cold, but breakfast will." Duan Ye glanced at her and spread out the food boxes on the table.

Cheng Nuo looked at the boxes and saw they were from a well-known brunch place in Nanhuai, where the average price was not cheap. She frowned.

Someone who counts money even when eating fried buns, why are they spending so much now?

Despite her doubts, seeing the fresh and tender Eggs Benedict, thin ham slices, and muffins in the boxes, Cheng Nuo swallowed her saliva, thinking food is innocent. She could eat first and judge Duan Ye later. After all, as the one supporting him all this time for food and lodging, she definitely wouldn’t let a meal cloud her judgment.

*

Cheng Nuo confidently held onto this rational thought, turned and went to the bathroom. After a quick wash, she came back to the table and started eating.

Duan Ye didn’t pick up a fork but watched her eat and asked, "Is it good?"

Cheng Nuo, mouth full, hummed four sounds: "Hmm hmm hmm hmm."

The tone said: It’s okay, I guess.

Though she said that, her plate was soon empty.

Rubbing her full stomach and taking a sip of water to soothe her throat, she suddenly saw Duan Ye raise his eyebrows and lift his eyelids: "Jiejie, you ate pretty clean. I bought two servings."

"..."

Cheng Nuo nearly choked on her water: "I’ve been drinking porridge all day yesterday, so I’m hungry, okay? When you once ate thirty fried buns in one meal, did I say anything?"

"Why are you so anxious? I’m not saying you eat too much."

"Then what do you mean by that?"

"You writers always want every sentence to have a hidden meaning?"

"If not, do you think you’re just filling space here?"

Duan Ye nodded: "Let me explain. What I mean is, your appetite suits me pretty well."

"..."

Who could ever afford to keep up with his appetite?

Cheng Nuo rolled her eyes. "So that’s the reason you picked my place to freeload food and housing?"

Duan Ye, who had been lazily leaning back in his chair, suddenly sat up straight. "Jiejie, after watching all those videos the other night, you still think I only came to you for free meals and a place to crash?"

Cheng Nuo instantly caught the key phrase in his words. "Not only for free meals and a place to stay? So that was part of it, huh?"

How could he deny that?

Duan Ye nodded. "Of course it was, at first. Back then I couldn’t even afford a proper meal or a place to sleep, let alone think about something like dating."

"And now you’re suddenly bold enough to start thinking about it?" she asked.

Duan Ye took out his phone, opened the text messages, and showed her the screen.

Cheng Nuo looked and saw a message from a bank's SMS service. It showed a transfer he received — the number started with a one, followed by... one, two, three, four, five, six zeros?

One million?!

"You… robbed someone?!" Cheng Nuo stared at him, wide-eyed.

"Check the time first," he said.

Cheng Nuo lowered her head to look again and saw that the transfer came the morning after he got sick — the day after he spent a night at her place.

No wonder the food he’d been bringing these past few days was so expensive…

Mouth agape, Cheng Nuo listened as Duan Ye explained what happened.

The night he came down with a fever, the brand they were working with posted on Weibo to explain the situation, saying that the guest change in the livestream was due to Duan Ye falling ill.

Not long after, Cheng Nuo also posted an update, telling her fans that Duan Ye had a cold and fever.

Both posts were seen by his family, who had been keeping tabs on him. For the first time, the previously united front of the Duan family started to show cracks. His mother, seeing how much her son was suffering, finally softened and transferred him a large sum of money, calling it "startup capital," telling him to take care of his health and pursue what he wanted.

His father hadn’t openly agreed, but he didn’t object either — essentially turning a blind eye to the whole thing.

So, Duan Ye had scored a partial victory in the standoff with his family.

Which meant that while he had originally come to her place out of desperation, it wasn’t long after moving in that he’d regained financial freedom.

Everything he did afterward clearly wasn’t about money anymore — he wasn’t faking affection to scam her.

"Wait a second..." Cheng Nuo rubbed her temples, piecing things together. "But you still lied to me!"

Duan Ye nodded. "Yeah, but not for money— I lied to chase you."

"…"

It was still a lie. But somehow, that did make her feel a little better.

"Then last night…" Cheng Nuo blinked quickly. "Why did you leave like that?"

"So I could come clean with you today."

Having lived and worked side by side with Cheng Nuo for over a month during the variety show recording, Duan Ye had come to understand her personality pretty well. He’d figured out her concerns.

She didn’t trust him. So he moved out — to prove he wasn’t after her money.

"Jiejie," Duan Ye sighed, "can you believe me now?"

An odd silence settled over the dining table.

Duan Ye stared at Cheng Nuo without blinking, like he was waiting for an answer.

Cheng Nuo knew the real question behind his words was— Can you believe that I truly like you now?

She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to act casual. "Oh."

"Oh" meant yes.

Duan Ye raised his eyebrows slightly and kept staring at her. "So what do you say?"

"Say about what…" Cheng Nuo’s eyes flickered as she looked away.

"Do you want to turn our fake relationship into a real one?"

Under the table, Cheng Nuo’s hands trembled.

She steadied one hand with the other, got up stiffly, and changed the subject. "Suddenly remembered I have a voice meeting later — need to go prep for that."

Duan Ye propped his chin on his hand, watching her flee the room.

He clicked his tongue softly.

*

When it comes to making excuses, women are just as skilled as men—if not better.

The entire day, Duan Ye had been doing her laundry, specifically the bedding she used while sick. Meanwhile, Cheng Nuo was tied up—first with a voice meeting, then outlining the next episode of her script. By dinnertime, she ate, then claimed she needed to watch a variety show to help digest.

And just like that, they dragged things out until after 10 p.m.—by which time Duan Ye had finished reassembling the freshly dried bedding and officially ran out of reasons to stay.

Cheng Nuo got up from the sofa and walked into the bedroom. Seeing that he was done, she prepared to send him off. "All set? Then head home early."

Duan Ye raised an eyebrow at her. "After working for you all day, you’re sending me home empty-handed?"

"If you’re hungry, the fridge has food. Help yourself," Cheng Nuo replied, deliberately changing the subject and pretending to be generous as she pointed toward the kitchen.

But Duan Ye brought it right back, lowering his gaze to look at her. "I don’t want food. I’ve been cooking for over twenty years. I’m sick of it. What I want now is a girlfriend."

"…"

Just because he didn’t say the whole thing out loud didn’t mean she couldn’t catch the subtext— "Now I want to do my girlfriend."

At that moment, Cheng Nuo realized that walking into the bedroom to see him off had been a huge mistake.

She hadn’t come to send him off — she’d basically delivered herself to his doorstep.

She turned quickly and headed for the door. Halfway there, an arm reached out in front of her and shut it.

Slowly, she turned her head to glare at him. "...I’m warning you. Don’t try anything."

"Jiejie, I tried talking to you nicely, and you’ve been avoiding me all day. If I don’t make a move, when am I ever going to get that girlfriend?"

"If you try anything, you’ll never get a girlfriend!" Cheng Nuo swallowed nervously. "Let me out first. We can talk properly in the living room."

"If we go to the living room, you won’t say anything," Duan Ye said with certainty.

She couldn’t even blame him for not trusting her. Cheng Nuo shut her eyes in frustration.

"Just say it here," Duan Ye said as he kept his hand pressed against the door and looked down at her. "Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Be your..." Cheng Nuo paused. "What’s in it for me?"

"I’ll double as your part-time male housekeeper. And I’ll help you act out every scene in your scripts. Deal?"

As he said this, Cheng Nuo suddenly remembered the final confession moment they’d shared on the variety show—

"What’s the benefit of being your co-driver?"

"Wherever you point, I’ll go. Deal?"

She looked up at him and realized even his expression was exactly the same as it was that night. She suddenly found it a bit funny and turned her head, trying to hide the smile creeping up.

Seeing her reaction— the same one she’d had that night— Duan Ye chuckled too.

"Well... I guess that’s fine," Cheng Nuo said, trying to suppress her smile and pretending to sound reluctant.

Duan Ye let out a short laugh.

When he didn’t follow up, Cheng Nuo recalled the final step from her own script. She held up a thumbs-up and squinted at him. "No stamp or signature?"

Duan Ye glanced at her thumb and shook his head. "Jiejie, isn’t that a bit outdated now?"

"?"

Duan Ye lifted her chin and quickly kissed her on the lips.

Cheng Nuo blinked in shock.

Smiling, Duan Ye looked at her and said, clearly and slowly, "Now that’s what I call a stamp. A signature. And a seal."