After the Breakup, the Crazy Movie Queen Clings to Me Every Day (GL) - Chapter 25.2

The cold night wind carried the frosty scent of withered leaves, dispersing the misty haze from Tan You’s distant eyes, revealing their chilling indifference.

Suddenly, the elegant and refined woman set down her guqin and strolled over to Lan Jingli with the leisurely grace of a stroll through a garden. She gazed at the massive scientific illustration and Lan Jingli’s dejected, defeated face.

“What are you going to give me, Li Li?”

“What am I to you?” Lan Jingli snapped, her lips trembling as she retreated a step, recoiling from the woman’s icy intimacy.

A vibrator?

A convenient, disposable, cheap prostitute—male or female?

Tan You looked down at Lan Jingli from her elevated position, backlit by the dim light. The beautiful, ethereal glow in her eyes seemed to drown Lan Jingli in pity.

“Li Li, I thought you could play the game.”

Play the game?

Of course she couldn’t. Lan Jingli simply didn’t have the resources to play love games with these wealthy heiresses.

She wanted to feel angrier, but it seemed she didn’t even have the right to anger. The pity in the woman’s eyes continued to drown her, making her want to flee in terror.

Tan You crouched down, gently stroking Lan Jingli’s hair as if she were petting a stray cat.

“Li Li, be good. Even if it wasn’t Xueyin, it would have been someone else.”

Lan Jingli gazed at the woman’s elegant, jade-like face, the fiery red mole at the tip of her ear still impossibly beautiful.

She understood the unspoken meaning in Tan You’s words: anyone but Lan Jingli.

“If your engagement ceremony is already this extravagant, your wedding will be even more… more magnificent, right? The whole world will celebrate you. You’ll wear that wedding dress and bask in everyone’s blessings, standing under the spotlight with her. If only you’d told me sooner… if only you’d told me sooner.”

Intense emotions swirled in Lan Jingli’s eyes, her gaze burning like molten gold.

Why? Why did it have to be this way?

Why did Tan You casually scatter seeds of affection, letting them take root and blossom, consuming every corner of Lan Jingli’s heart? It was so beautiful, yet so cruel.

The love Lan Jingli had yearned for, believing it to be something profound and meaningful, turned out to be nothing more than discarded trash, carelessly tossed aside by the other woman.

How pathetic. What Lan Jingli had thought was steadfast and unwavering was, in Tan You’s eyes, utterly worthless.

How foolish she had been, clinging to Tan You, recounting every cherished memory from their past.

She was like a stray cat, picked up on a whim, pestering its owner to retell the story of how they were brought home that day.

Why did it have to be this way?

Lan Jingli’s life was like an endless, gloomy downpour, pierced by Tan You’s radiant light.

But this light wasn’t meant to illuminate the darkness; it was meant to let her die of thirst.

In truth, she wasn’t some desperate, clingy person. She wouldn’t have clung to Tan You for life, wouldn’t have made a scene or refused to let go. If only Tan You had been honest sooner.

If only she had told me sooner!

It was a destined fall, yet because it had lasted so long, this fool had mistaken it for flight!

Tan You remained composed, still looking down at Lan Jingli with a condescending gaze, interrupting her rambling. “What more do you want?”

Lan Jingli dropped the scientific illustration and stumbled backward, her vision blurring. Her joints ached unbearably from the long walk.

“I made that wedding dress for you…” she murmured, as if the surrounding light had been suddenly drained away, leaving her in a vast, cold darkness.

Tan You, wearing the black cumin-embroidered wedding gown, stood beside Wei Xueyin, posing for a photo beneath a dazzling fireworks display.

The camera zoomed in, and a series of images flashed through Lan Jingli’s mind like lightning: black cumin petals blooming like ocean waves, blossoming and withering in an instant, then burning to ash.

A distant, radiant voice echoed in her mind, slow yet resolute: Tan You, be with Wei Xueyin. She will make you happy for the rest of your life…

Lan Jingli couldn’t comprehend how Tan You could have posed for photos with Wei Xueyin while wearing the wedding dress she had personally made.

Ever since Tan You learned that Lan Jingli was studying fashion design in college, she had relentlessly pestered her to teach her how to design clothes.

Yet this woman, who seemed capable of anything, proved utterly inept at drawing. Her design sketches were always out of proportion, and she would spend three hours just conceptualizing the collar of a single garment.

Lan Jingli had no choice but to teach Tan You again and again, explaining how to judge proportions, choose colors, and coordinate designs. But Tan You still couldn’t grasp it.

Finally, the woman leaned against Lan Jingli, her breath as fragrant as orchids, and asked her to make a wedding gown embroidered with nigella flowers.

Lan Jingli wondered how Tan You had caressed the clothes she had painstakingly stitched, thread by thread, brushstroke by brushstroke. How she had worn them, lifted the hem of her skirt, and run toward another person without looking back, surrounded by a chorus of heartfelt blessings.

“Tan You, be with Wei Xueyin. She’ll make you happy for the rest of your life,” the respected veteran artist declared, setting down her teacup with a resounding thud, her voice full of conviction.
“Tan You, be with Wei Xueyin. She’ll make you happy for the rest of your life,” the silver-haired idol, a top star in the industry, clenched his fist with unwavering determination, his handsome face radiating a dreamlike, romantic aura.

“Tan You, be with Wei Xueyin. She’ll make you happy for the rest of your life,” the celestial diva sang, her voice as beautiful and resonant as ever, as if already foreseeing the eternal devotion of this love.

“Tan You, be with Wei Xueyin. She’ll make you happy for the rest of your life.”

Look at all these people endorsing their love, so certain they’ll find happiness together.

How wonderful.

But what if it were Lan Jingli instead? What if it were Lan Jingli and Tan You?

How many people would genuinely believe Lan Jingli could make Tan You happy?

Right. After saving up for so long, she could still only afford fried rice. How could she dare dream Tan You would love someone like her, who could only offer fried rice?

So shameless, to even yearn for such love.

She didn’t deserve it. Lan Jingli didn’t deserve it.

Yet she had personally made that wedding dress for Tan You, and she had personally helped Tan You put it on.

Looking back now, it was all so futile.

Lan Jingli gazed at Tan You. The woman was composed and serene, yet so cold… a beauty that chilled the heart, like frost flowers—icy, beautiful, and strangely alive.

She lowered her eyes again. Wei Yixi was right. A perfect woman like Tan You deserved to be with someone equally exceptional.

They were both righteous and well-matched. If she tried to interfere, she’d only confirm her image as a malevolent monster with ulterior motives.

Monsters are inherently evil. To avoid being destroyed, it’s best to quietly remain a guest at the wedding, content to applaud the Golden Couple.

Even if a monster risked everything, it would never win.

In truth, all the signs had been there from the start, hadn’t they?

Am I just too dense? Or too foolish?

In every scene, she had always played the villainous monster.

The “reunited after separation” trope in novels paled in comparison to the real-life drama between Tan You and Wei Xueyin.

Even in the bustling crowd, they could always find each other’s eyes, the surrounding noise fading into mere background noise.

Their private world was impenetrable, so quiet you could almost see the seeds they had lost years ago now sprouting anew between them.

When she helped Tan You into her wedding gown, her heart swelled with joy, so overwhelmed with happiness she nearly fainted. Meanwhile, Tan You was probably thinking how romantic it would be to take wedding photos with Wei Xueyin against a backdrop of fireworks.

Lan Jingli almost laughed. How could I have missed it? When Tan You asked her to look after Wei Xueyin after she joined Yunshu Entertainment, she had mistaken it for trust.

At the company’s annual gala, they performed onstage while Tan You applauded from the audience. Their eyes met, lingering with unspoken affection, and Lan Jingli mistakenly believed Tan You was looking at her.

No one noticed the tender glances exchanged between Tan You and Wei Xueyin. Though their expressions remained calm in the crowded room, a turbulent undercurrent flowed beneath the surface.

Rumor had it their relationship was a tangled web of love and hate, but in truth, love always outweighed hate by a fraction.

And what role did Lan Jingli play in all this?

A clueless seamstress and a jealous demon.

She was a demon.

Without realizing it, she had been a demon for so long.

Tan You and Wei Xueyin were a perfect match. Their families were of equal standing, and they shared a deep history.
They had fallen in love in their youth, defying family opposition and enduring misunderstandings.

To have a lover who would defy the world for you—what more could one ask for in life?

Yet Lan Jingli still wanted to say “but.”

As she whispered “but” in her heart, tears inexplicably welled up.

But I really do love Tan You.

But why would the person who brought me light push me into an even darker world?

But what does it matter?

What am I, anyway?

Why had the rain outside suddenly stopped?

Hadn’t it been pouring relentlessly for days?

It seemed the storm in her heart had finally run its course.

Just moments ago, she’d thought her life wasn’t so worthless. But no, it was utterly worthless.

Tan You and Wei Xueyin’s world had long since invaded her own, and she was too foolish to escape, even in her terror.

There was no escape.

She desperately wanted to scream and rage, but she lacked both the reason and the strength. Besides, what good would it do?

“I’m sorry. If only you’d explained sooner,” Lan Jingli chuckled, her laughter sounding like the writhing of a worm with a broken spine as she crawled on her knees, trying to salvage her dignity from the floor.

“Li Li, I adore this scientific illustration,” Tan You said, personally unwrapping the gift Lan Jingli had brought, seemingly oblivious to Lan Jingli’s words.

In the shifting shadows of pale light, the beauty was subtle, profound, and bone-chillingly cold.

Tan You had always been like this—calm, composed, and utterly self-assured, as if the world held no interest for her. It left Lan Jingli with the unsettling feeling of being seen through.
Lan Jingli continued to laugh silently, her fallen dignity seemingly impossible to retrieve under Tan You’s casual, dismissive tone.

From the moment Lan Jingli first met Tan You, she had been someone who drew with withered leaves. Even now, she still only knew how to paint, completely oblivious to the complexities of human hearts.

Lan Jingli felt her smile looked like that of an idiot, yet she couldn’t think of a better expression to wear.

The woman sighed softly. Lan Jingli saw the pity and sympathy in Tan You’s eyes, like someone tossing a stray cat a pitiful piece of chicken br3ast.

I should have realized this sooner. When she met Tan You, she had imagined herself walking a narrow bridge of love, a path where two souls were destined to meet. But to Tan You, she was merely a patch of mud to be stepped over.

Lan Jingli had believed herself special, but she had been living in her own delusion.

She now understood that even the sweetest joys had an expiration date. When fate took them back, clinging to them only brought bitterness.

Giving everything for someone required a certain qualification, and she was worth barely more than a plastic bag fluttering in the wind.

She felt like flat soda, leaving only a dull bitterness and cloying sweetness in her mouth.

Why did I lose everything, even without being greedy?

She remembered that day, after trying on wedding dresses, when they walked down a short, unremarkable path.

The evening breeze rustled through the plane trees lining the path, their leaves whispering overhead. Lan Jingli deliberately walked behind Tan You, her hands clasped behind her back, watching the woman’s retreating figure. The path seemed endless, stretching out like a lifetime’s journey.

The pitch-black path felt impossibly long. Knowing Lan Jingli’s night blindness, Tan You reached out and took her hand. Lan Jingli’s heart leaped with joy, unaware that this gesture marked the beginning of the end.

Looking back now, Lan Jingli remembered the first sight that greeted her after choosing her wedding dress: Tan You and Wei Xueyin sitting together.
Wei Xueyin was carefully peeling lychees for Tan You, her eyes brimming with tenderness, like a spring rain, each drop etching itself into Lan Jingli’s youthful memories.

What more could be said? They were a match made in heaven, a broken mirror restored. Where did a monster like her fit into their story?

Forget it…

Forget it.

Lan Jingli stilled her trembling body, her gaze falling on her shattered pride, clinging stubbornly to the ground—a consequence of her own foolishness and naivety.

“I understand. I was intruding. Congratulations on your engagement.”

“Thank you,” Tan You replied, standing motionless, her smile flawless, cold, and utterly unassailable, possessing the clinical beauty of a dissected specimen.

Lan Jingli turned and stepped over withered petals, waving farewell to the light that had betrayed her.

In the pitch-black night, where the moon had fallen and flowers lay broken, a pure and untainted young woman stepped into the thin veil of darkness. Dressed in white and black, she walked away without a backward glance, her resolve unwavering.

Aunt Wan stood outside the door for a long time, holding a bowl of dark, medicinal tonic. As Lan Jingli passed by, she wanted to persuade her to stay the night, but hesitated when she saw Tan You’s indifferent expression.

After a moment, Aunt Wan sighed. “In this darkness, Miss Lan’s night blindness will make it difficult for her to travel safely.”

She placed the bowl of medicine before Tan You, who was idly plucking at her zither strings, seemingly in high spirits.

“Miss, aren’t you going to chase after her?”

Tan You untied her long hair, letting the three thousand strands cascade down like a waterfall. “Why would I?”

She watched Lan Jingli leave with an air of absolute certainty, confident that given time, the young woman would come to her senses and return obediently.

“But,” Aunt Wan ventured cautiously, “if you don’t care for her, why not simply dismiss her? Why create such a bitter parting? It’s better to part amicably.”

Aunt Wan found Tan You increasingly incomprehensible. If she truly cared for Lan Jingli, how could she bear to treat her this way?

Besides a morbidly twisted nature, she thought, I can’t find another word to describe Tan You.

“Are you truly going to marry Miss Wei Xueyin?”

Tan You rose gracefully, draining the bitter medicinal brew in one gulp. Her eyes, cold as mist, betrayed no emotion. “Isn’t she my best choice?”

“But what about your illness?” Aunt Wan sighed silently. Even if Lan Jingli is just a medicinal ingredient, wouldn’t it be right to treat her kindly?

“It’s nothing. Let Li Li calm down.”

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