It’s Okay to Divorce - Chapter 01

Chapter 01

“Winning a Qian Hua Best Actress Award at thirty—she’s really had a tough journey.”

Yun Pei stared straight into the makeup mirror, cooperating with the makeup artist by lifting her chin and lowering her head.

A thought struck her, and she looked up to ask, “Cienna, how does my skin compare to Mu Mian’s?”

Cienna pinched her jaw, her expression gentle. “You can’t fight getting older. A thirty-year-old face will always differ from a twenty-year-old one. With all that collagen in your skin, it’s enough to make anyone jealous.”

Yun Pei smirked, her words laced with sarcasm. “Mu Mian is the same age as my little Zou male god, yet Feng Weijian cast her as the female lead. Looks like she’s perfect for playing an old woman.”

Cienna smiled and shut her mouth, refusing to engage further.

Mu Mian, the Best Actress Yun Pei mentioned, had flawless skin, untouched by time—truly enviable. But saying something admiring like that to Yun Pei would just offend her.

By midsummer in July, the scorching sun had turned Xia City into a furnace, stifling and unbearable.

Mu Mian was so hot she felt dizzy and ended up in the wrong dressing room.

She had just cracked the door open a sliver when the sarcastic words from inside slipped perfectly into her ears.

It had been a while since she’d heard such blatant mockery.

Ming Wei stepped out of the elevator and spotted Mu Mian with her ear pressed to the door. She hurried over in a few strides, grabbed her ear, and yanked her into the adjacent dressing room.

“Ow, ow, ow…” The door shut behind them, and Mu Mian clutched her reddened ear, hissing, “Ming the Great Agent, could you be a little gentler with your queen?”

Ming Wei looked at her with exasperation, scanning her up and down. “Your Majesty, what kind of outfit is this? How many times have I told you to maintain your image when you’re out in public?”

Mu Mian was barefaced, her skin plump and translucent, her eyes like pools of warm water. Ming Wei had worked with her daily for eight years, yet she still couldn’t ignore her beauty.

Mu Mian was a standard nine-head-proportioned beauty, standing at 1.75 meters with a perfect figure and features that gave her an innate queenly aura.

Just standing there, she could fully embody the imperial sister vibe.

From her debut, the company had deliberately crafted a “cool queen” persona for her—the entertainment industry’s infamous ice beauty.

Her image was deeply ingrained in fans’ minds, and aside from her management team, few knew her real personality.

Right now, Mu Mian was dressed casually: two playful little braids, a black tank top paired with denim shorts, exposing her long, slender, fair legs, and on her feet, a pair of trendy black strappy flat sandals.

This cute, lively look was entirely at odds with her usual queenly style.

“What’s wrong with my outfit?” Mu Mian plopped onto the sofa, comfortably crossing her long legs. “Can’t a queen have a girly heart and act young once in a while? You know what people say about me behind my back? They call me an old woman! Oh, and after working with Zou Tingshen for so many years, why did Feng Weijian cast me as a wife five years older than him this time? Hah, what the hell is the director thinking?”

“It’s just the character’s setup in the script—you’re not actually five years older than him,” Ming Wei comforted her. “Besides, Zou Tingshen is playing a timid little husband this time. Doesn’t he have it worse? In fans’ eyes, Zou Best Actor has always been the cool male god. Playing a role with such a personality contrast is tough—if he doesn’t nail it, can his fans handle it?”

That was true.

Mu Mian had no pressure playing a strong woman; after all, she’d always projected that image on screen.

Zou Tingshen was different. On screen, he usually went for steady roles, with a cool image that was challenging to make relatable.

This time, playing a yes-man little husband—if he slipped up even a bit, his long-built persona could crumble, which would be bad for him. It was a whole new challenge.

Last year, Feng Weijian’s urban drama It’s Okay To Get Married exploded in popularity, with ratings breaking 6—the only urban family light comedy in film history to surpass Mary Sue romances.

This year, riding the wave, they shot the sequel It’s Okay To Divorce. The leads were the original cast, with supporting roles filled by newcomers from Xia City Film Academy.

It’s Okay To Divorce told the story of a thirty-year-old wife’s married life with her twenty-five-year-old little husband.

The strong-woman wife, seven months pregnant, was so domineering that it led to repeated clashes with her little husband, escalating conflicts until she proposed divorce.

Though the plot centered on divorce, it still followed the urban family light comedy route.

Mu Mian had worked with Zou Tingshen multiple times and knew his personality well—outside of filming scenes, he barely said a word. He rarely attended gatherings, kept a low profile, and had few scandals.

They shared a common issue: neither could film kissing or passionate scenes.

Mu Mian’s family was upright and traditional, so due to family pressure, she avoided kissing and intimate scenes.

Like Zou Tingshen, most of his roles were in well-funded, high-rating serious dramas, where kiss scenes were faked with angles.

When filming It’s Okay To Get Married, there was a kiss scene, and Feng Weijian demanded a real kiss—no angles.

Mu Mian gritted her teeth, grabbed Zou Tingshen’s ears, stood on tiptoe, held her breath, and kissed him.

Under the director’s pressure, Zou Tingshen had to cooperate, pressing her head down and kissing back forcefully.

Their kiss was as awkward as Mars colliding with Earth.

Zou Tingshen had a strong physical aversion to kissing the opposite s3x and eventually couldn’t hold it in—he vomited right in front of Mu Mian.

They tried several times: kiss once, vomit once. That was the root reason Zou Tingshen couldn’t do kiss scenes.

To this day, Mu Mian still believed Zou Tingshen had done it on purpose to gross her out.

That’s how the grudge started.

Afterward, Mu Mian shaded Zou Best Actor on Weibo, and Zou Tingshen’s agent cleverly shaded back using his account.

Mu Mian’s shade was pure impulse; the agent’s response was purely for hype.

Unexpectedly, it backfired positively—fans didn’t mind; instead, they cheered:

“Best Actor and Best Actress are like oil and water, but they have to work together—this is enemies-to-lovers vibes? So cute!”

Fans’ tastes were hard to predict. They were probably tired of male-female stars being bundled into CP marketing and found this rival’s dynamic fresh, calling the Best Actor and Best Actress’s banter adorable.

After that, the two agents simply bundled them as rivals for marketing, occasionally releasing banter tweets for fans to tease.

Makeup artist Su Tina pushed in her makeup case and started on Mu Mian’s makeup.

Ming Wei scrolled through Mu Mian’s Weibo nearby, teasing, “These fans love watching you and Zou Best Actor go at each other. They know you’re like fire and water, with no chance of sweet moments, but they eat it up. What’s the appeal?”

There were plenty of comics on Weibo about the Best Actor and Best Actress’s banter routines—cute art style, high reposts, and comments.

“Don’t even get the fans started; I love it too,” Su Tina chimed in, analyzing like a fangirl. “Watching the Best Actor and Best Actress who’ve collaborated countless times banter is like following a bittersweet romance drama. We’re all waiting desperately for some resolution—either happily ever after or a bad end. As a fan waiting for more banter updates, the process is super suspenseful.”

Mu Mian leaned back in the chair and scoffed. “If they knew the daily banter on Weibo between the Best Actor and Best Actress was actually their agents, they’d unfollow in a heartbeat, right?”

The makeup brush swept her cheekbones, instantly brightening her complexion. The eyeliner flicked up at the corners, paired with red bitten-lip makeup, and her strong-woman aura burst forth.

The stylists and assistants filed in, each getting to work.

Ming Wei fell silent and kept scrolling Weibo.

—

In the afternoon, Mu Mian and Yun Pei shared a car to Chun Xi Street.

The pedestrians had been cleared out, leaving the street eerily empty. Crew members bustled with equipment, while the director lectured the male lead nearby.

Yun Pei got out first, blocking the door with no intention of yielding to Mu Mian.

The sun blazed overhead, the air sweltering. She fanned herself with her hand, rolling her eyes. “I’m dying of heat, dying— what the hell? Making us shoot exteriors in this weather?”

She glanced toward Zou Tingshen, her face flushing with anger. “And making my Zou male god stand in the blazing sun? Who’s responsible if he gets tanned?”

After complaining about the crew, Yun Pei strode straight into the shaded tent prepared for the female lead.

It had an air-conditioning fan behind the chair—sitting there with the breeze was refreshingly comfortable.

Assistant Li Wen held a sun umbrella for Mu Mian, fuming, “A newbie, acting so arrogant? Doesn’t she know that’s our spot?”

“She’s got backing—the investor shoved her in.” A crew member handed them iced lemon water and led them to the shade under a tree, whispering as they walked. “Yun Hao Dong’s little princess.”

The drama was invested in by Dong Hua Film and Television Media, with Yun Hao Dong as the big boss.

“Mr. Yun’s daughter?” Li Wen glanced at the pampered little princess and felt indignant for Mu Mian. “No wonder she’s so full of herself.”

“It’s fine—don’t stoop to a kid’s level. Let’s sit over there.” Mu Mian’s tone was mild, her face expressionless.

She stepped out from the umbrella’s shadow, gripping her iced lemon, and quickly sat in the tree’s shade.

She bit the straw and sucked hard a few times, cooling off a bit, then looked up at Feng Weijian and Zou Tingshen standing in the rolling heat.

Next to Zou Tingshen, Feng Weijian looked like a squat winter melon.

Zou Tingshen was 1.9 meters tall, with sharp, toned shoulders and arms that made his white shirt look crisp. He wore a dark red patterned tie, black suit pants, and brown leather shoes—a professional look, very steady.

Zou Tingshen was the first to arrive on set; even as a top-tier star, he remained dedicated.

With his long legs, he bent slightly, flipping through the script while listening attentively to the director. His expression was focused, brows serious—his professionalism made Mu Mian sigh inwardly.

In this drama, the wife, Ren Li, was a high-level executive at a listed company, with a ten-million annual salary. The little husband, Mo Shao, was a tech supervisor at a company, with a salary just over a million, barely middle-class in a first-tier city like Wei Hai.

The little husband had a gentle personality, loved his wife dearly, tolerated her tantrums, and handled all the housework.

Ren Li was a classic workaholic, hopeless at chores, and extremely arrogant. Seven months pregnant, she ignored her husband’s pleas and frequently traveled for work, which finally made the good-tempered Mr. Mo explode, kicking off the divorce plot.

The male second lead was an obstetrician and Ren Li’s old classmate, who had pursued her unsuccessfully years ago and still couldn’t forget her.

The female second lead was a scheming girl who admired and secretly loved Mr. Mo.

This deeply in-love couple sought divorce but faced endless obstacles—their divorce journey was hilariously absurd.

The supporting characters kept causing trouble, leading Mr. Mo to misunderstand Ms. Ren and grow disheartened. Ms. Ren gradually realized no one loved her more than her husband, so she decided to change her ways, take their son, and win him back.

Today’s shoot was the exterior scene where Mr. Mo accompanies the seven-months-pregnant Ms. Ren shopping.

Feng Weijian pointed to a section of the script, instructing Zou Tingshen: “You have to immerse yourself as the little husband, the ultimate good guy—obedient to your wife in everything. Even if she slaps you, you smile and coax her. Nail that personality, got it?”

“Yeah.” Zou Tingshen frowned and nodded.

There really was a slap scene today.

With crew help, Mu Mian stuffed her belly to look seven months pregnant.

The clapperboard snapped, and everyone’s eyes focused on the sun-baked street.

Pedestrians milled about.

Ms. Ren, belly protruding, linked arms with her husband while shopping, arguing over maternity leave.

When Ms. Ren’s tantrum hit, she started acting unreasonably, shoving her rock-solid husband—who didn’t budge. Unable to vent her anger, she raised her hand in full view and slapped his cheek.

Mu Mian’s slap landed hard.

Her expression, gestures, and tantrum moves were spot-on, capturing Ms. Ren’s shrewishness.

Everyone held their breath, waiting for Zou Tingshen’s performance.

Suddenly slapped by his wife, Mr. Mo rubbed his face in a daze, staring incredulously at his utterly unreasonable wife.

Ms. Ren’s stubbornness was etched in her eyes, with no sign of apology.

In the end, Mr. Mo gave in, pulling his wife into his arms, grinning playfully to coax her: “Okay, okay, you’re right about everything. P&A has a new bag—little Mr. Mo will buy it for you?”

Zou Tingshen’s eye shift was natural—anger mixed with tender reluctance to blame his wife. It contrasted sharply with his real personality but felt seamless, as if he were truly this ever-smiling, good-tempered man.

Ms. Ren rested her chin on his shoulder, her mood settling, her puffed cheeks deflating.

She hugged his firm waist. “Good, hubby is the best.”

Zou Tingshen cupped the back of Mu Mian’s head, leaned down, and kissed her forehead.

He was supposed to face Mu Mian with full tenderness, but suddenly reverted to his usual cool demeanor, breaking character with a furrowed brow.

“Cut—” Feng Weijian called a halt. “Little Zou, take a break, sort your emotions, then come back.”

Clearly, Zou Best Actor’s old “kiss-and-vomit” habit had struck again.

Zou Tingshen went to lean on a tree nearby, vomiting with a depressed look.

Mu Mian handed him a bottle of water to rinse his mouth.

He thought she was being genuinely kind and was about to thank her when this Mu Best Actress, belly out, arms crossed, sneered at him: “Can you handle this or not? You vomit kissing anyone? Can you even get a wife?”

Zou Tingshen took a sip, swished it around, his cheeks bulging rhythmically.

He spat it out clean, then coldly lifted his gaze to scan her.

Mu Mian: “What’s that look?”

Zou Tingshen said nothing, shoved the bottle back into her arms, turned, and left, giving her the back of his head.

Mu Mian looked down at the bottle in her arms, feeling down.

Zou Tingshen took two steps, stopped, then approached her again, bending close to her ear: “Ms. Mu, can you come to my room at eight tonight?”

—

Author’s Note

New book, fantasy urban romance.

As per the synopsis, the female lead suddenly gets a big belly, and the male lead becomes a father. The female lead is an old virgin in the entertainment circle, not really pregnant.

Don’t ask why her belly suddenly grows… because it’s a fantasy架空 romance.

This story is completely fictional—don’t nitpick logic, and don’t apply real life. Thanks, everyone.