After Faking My Death, My Iceberg Ex-Wife Went Crazy for Me - Chapter 40

The villa had been rented for only two days and one night, and since it wasn’t far from home, Pu Mengyu and the others hadn’t packed many changes of clothes. Given the height difference, Wendy ultimately contributed a clean set of pajamas for Ye Ling to wear first.

After helping Ye Ling into the bathroom, Pu Mengyu thoughtfully brought in a chair.

She pointed to various spots: “Here are disposable towels, the hairdryer and spare clothes are over there, and Yunnan Baiyao is outside. Since you just twisted your ankle, use the red bottle first.”

“Got it,” Ye Ling said earnestly, “Thank you.”

“No problem. I’ll leave you to it. Just call out if you need anything—the soundproofing isn’t great, we’ll hear you.”

Feeling she’d covered everything, Pu Mengyu closed the bathroom door and turned to leave the bedroom. She immediately came face-to-face with a pair of resentful green eyes.

Wendy materialized like a vengeful spirit, her voice dripping with bitterness: “Who is she?”

“She said her name is Ye Ling, but I don’t know which characters,” Pu Mengyu replied, pulling out her phone to send a message. “Anyway, she’s here to see Lan Xiao.”

“So… are they a couple?” Wendy pressed.

“I don’t know.”

Pu Mengyu shrugged, noticing Wendy’s sudden dejection. She quickly reassured her, “Don’t worry, they’re probably just exes. You still have a chance.”

“Really?” Wendy blinked her green eyes, looking utterly crestfallen. It was no wonder Lan Xiao rejected other suitors so decisively, yet couldn’t bring herself to do the same with this one.

Completely forgetting that Wendy never gave anyone a chance to be rejected in the first place, Pu Mengyu said, “Absolutely! We have a saying where I’m from: ‘A good ex should be like they’re dead.’ Besides, we don’t even know what their relationship is.”

As she spoke, a reply came through on her phone. Pu Mengyu waved goodbye to Wendy and headed upstairs. “She sprained her ankle and can’t move around easily. Keep an ear out for her, okay? I’m going to find Xiaoxiao. I’ll be back soon.”

Wendy gave an “OK” sign and waited a few moments. When she felt the time was right, she pushed open the door in front of her and stepped inside.

Click. The frosted bathroom door slid open. Their eyes met. Wendy’s green eyes narrowed, all traces of her usual harmlessness vanishing.

Pressing her hand against the door to hold it shut, Wendy smirked provocatively. “Lan is my girlfriend.”

“You kissed her, and you’re saying you don’t know her?”

In a room on the third floor, Pu Mengyu, still reeling from shock, pecked at Lan Xiao’s face with her fingers. “Besides, the moment she opened her eyes, she said she’d found you. If you don’t know her, why did you run?”

“…I was inexplicably kissed against my will. Why shouldn’t I run?”

After mulling it over, Lan Xiao decided to maintain her cover.

Judging by Xiao Jiu’s words, he had temporarily entrusted Ye Ling to her care for some unknown reason. Once he returned from his business, he might take Ye Ling away again.

Reverting to her “Geng Xiaoxiao” identity would only invite more trouble.

Moreover, she genuinely didn’t want to get entangled in any more inexplicable situations. She truly, truly didn’t want to live under someone else’s identity or forge new relationships based on false pretenses.

Therefore, Lan Xiao had no intention of revealing her true identity to Ye Ling.

Although System 823 was gone, the fabrication of her “Lan Xiao” identity had been completed three years ago.

Furthermore, she had left no biological samples like bl00d in the country. Theoretically, Ye Ling should have no concrete evidence to prove that Lan Xiao was actually Geng Xiaoxiao.

Just deny everything and improvise as needed.

She rested her hand on the back of the chair, propped her chin on it, and puffed out her cheeks. “Anyway, if I don’t know her, I don’t know her. Maybe she just mistook me for someone else?”

Hearing this, Pu Mengyu frowned. “If she mistook you for someone else, how would she know your name?”

“Did she say my full name?” Lan Xiao asked deliberately.

“Hmm… now that you mention it, I don’t think she did. She just called you Xiaoxiao.”

“Exactly!” Lan Xiao quickly concluded. “Maybe she overheard someone calling me that.”

“…That’s not entirely unreasonable.”

Seeing Pu Mengyu lost in thought, Lan Xiao worried she might uncover something suspicious and quickly changed the subject. “Did she say anything else to you?”

Pu Mengyu thought for a moment. “She just asked what we were all doing here. I told her we were preparing for a party…”

“Oh, she also mentioned her name—Ye Ling. I’m not sure which ‘ling’ it is, but it sounds vaguely familiar… Does that ring a bell for you?”

Lan Xiao remained silent.

At that moment, she felt immensely grateful that Ye Ling had kept her personal life so private, never promoting her private affairs online.

While many people recognized Mo Yuan, most wouldn’t know the boss’s name unless they specifically searched for it.

As for Pu Mengyu’s vague impression, it was likely because she had glanced at Ye Ling’s name while searching for news about Mo Yuan these past few days.

Lan Xiao had no intention of enlightening Pu Mengyu. She replied vaguely, “It does sound a bit familiar. Maybe we’ve met someone with the same name before.”

To prevent further probing, Lan Xiao stood up and gently steered Pu Mengyu toward the door. “It’s almost time for dinner. Let’s go change out of our swimsuits.”

Then, she would have to think carefully about how to resolve the “trouble” Xiao Jiu had thrown her way.

She would help look after Ye Ling and ensure her safety, but she absolutely refused to get personally involved again.

On the first floor, Ye Ling showed no reaction to Wendy’s words, as she had no idea who “Lan” was.

Recognizing the blonde girl as the one who had given her the clothes, Ye Ling offered her congratulations before limping over to a chair and applying medicine to her ankle.

She had deliberately injured her ankle as part of an experiment.

Judging by her physical condition, time hadn’t reversed this time; instead, her spatial location had been altered.

But Ye Ling hadn’t anticipated meeting Xiaoxiao so directly.

She had only wanted to create another opportunity for negotiation.

Having no time to prepare properly, she wondered if her disheveled appearance had frightened Xiaoxiao.

And then there was…

Ye Ling turned to Wendy and politely asked, “Could you tell me the current time and date?”

Wendy glanced at her phone and replied.

Ye Ling thanked her again, then sank back into her thoughts amidst the unpleasant medicinal odors.

When she had arrived, it had been dawn, but here it was noon. Could there be a time difference between the two worlds?

Since most of the faces she had seen were Asian, and the only white person she had encountered was struggling to speak Chinese, Ye Ling hadn’t yet grasped the implications of national borders.

Wendy ground her teeth, annoyed at being ignored.

She deliberately cleared her throat. The woman across from her looked up, her eyebrows twitching slightly in acknowledgment.

This woman’s air of effortless composure only fueled Wendy’s irritation.

This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. The woman should be angry, giving Wendy the chance to claim she’d misunderstood the Chinese terms for “female friend” and “girlfriend.”

If she were Lan’s ex, Lan would definitely hate her interfering in her friendships.

But how could anyone remain indifferent to the fact that their crush—or even their “ex”—had a girlfriend?

And to actually offer blessings? What was she even blessing?!

Was it because she was so confident, believing Lan’s girlfriend posed no threat, that she deliberately said that?

Damn it!

Wendy snarled, “I’ll definitely surpass you!”

“?”

Though she didn’t understand what Wendy was saying…

Ye Ling tilted her head and replied, “Yes?”

Wendy: “……”

She’s completely looking down on me!

When Lan Xiao came downstairs, she found the living room on the first floor was at least half again as crowded as before.

Originally, only she, Pu Mengyu, Wendy, and two friends who happened to be free were there. Now, all those lazybones who had claimed to be busy had suddenly shown up.

At the center of the group, surrounded by attention like a star, was an East Asian woman wearing bear-print pajamas. Her long hair was secured with a slender object. Lan Xiao squinted closer and realized it was a chopstick.

This simple act seemed to have sparked immense interest. Lan Xiao saw another long-haired girl approach her, offering a chopstick.

The woman readily accepted and swiftly coiled her hair up. Two other girls sat nearby, one in front of the other, meticulously trying to replicate her movements.

Soon, other girls gathered around, asking for instructions. She patiently taught them, and when they struggled, she personally helped them.

If Lan Xiao hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she would never have believed it was Ye Ling.

When had the decisive, cold-faced President Ye, the ruthless “King of Hell,” developed the patience to indulge in such frivolous antics with a crowd of girls?

Lan Xiao closed her eyes briefly, then opened them, trying to reset the scene before her.

This proved futile, as Pu Mengyu nudged her and remarked, “I can’t believe even ABCs are doing their hair in buns now! I don’t even know how.”

Lan Xiao realized a blind spot. “ABCs? Are you talking about Ye Ling?”

“Yeah, her…”

Before she could finish, the crowd below noticed them. A cacophony of voices erupted, calling out “Lan,” “Xiaoxiao,” “Mengyu,” and other names.

The only uniformity was in their eyes, each pair gleaming brighter than the last, all flashing with the same two words:

Drama time.

Lan Xiao glanced darkly at Pu Mengyu, who raised her hands in mock surrender. “You two were clearly up to no good under everyone’s noses! The news is all over the group chat, but I didn’t say a word!”

“…”

Fine. She couldn’t blame anyone but…

Lan Xiao descended the steps, one by one, until she stood before the true culprit.

“Xiaoxiao.”

Ye Ling pushed herself up from the sofa, her pajama collar slipping to reveal rows of ribs beneath her collarbone—she was alarmingly thin. Her entire body seemed skeletal, except for her injured foot, which was swollen and inflamed.

Ye Ling noticed this too. She tugged at her collar and awkwardly tucked her injured foot behind her.

Under Lan Xiao’s unreadable gaze, the surprise on Ye Ling’s face gradually faded, replaced by a deep sense of helplessness, like a child punished for misbehaving. Even her voice lowered.

“Xiaoxiao, it’s been so long.”

“I don’t know you.”

Lan Xiao looked at her, her expression calm and unwavering. “I don’t know how you know my name, but I’m certain we’ve never met.”

Ye Ling stared at her blankly, as if unable to comprehend the words.

“You’re Geng Xiaoxiao. I… we…”

She wanted to talk about their past, about their four years together, but seeing Lan Xiao’s gaze, Ye Ling couldn’t bring herself to say anything.

“You’re blaming me, aren’t you?”

The pink-haired girl didn’t respond. Instead, she lowered her head and pulled out her identification documents one by one from her bag.

ID card, passport, student ID—she spread them out in her hand like a deck of cards.

“My name is Lan Xiao.”

“Do you believe me now? I don’t know you.”

Whispers rippled through the crowd, but Ye Ling couldn’t hear a single word.

She blinked in confusion, her gaze wavering before finally settling on the character “蘭” (Lan).

Lan.

“Is it because of her?”

She raised her hand, pointing precisely at the blonde girl on the sofa.

“Your target has become her, hasn’t it?”