My Ex-Girlfriend Said She Was A Fairy - Chapter 4

What’s the use of apologizing? Ji Qingyi thought, but she didn’t want to prolong this atmosphere. Continuing like this might lead to a conversation about the reasons for their breakup, and she wasn’t interested in that right now.

What good would understanding do? Ji Qingyi wasn’t the kind of person who needed to cling to something to survive. She should completely let go of the past, not keep revisiting it and drowning in awkward emotions.

She just wanted to put some distance between them.

So Ji Qingyi cut through the tension. She sidestepped Wen Yuchuan and kept walking, leaving Wen Yuchuan no choice but to follow silently beside her.

However, it turned out Wen Yuchuan wasn’t actually following Ji Qingyi—it was just an absurd coincidence that they lived in the same neighborhood.

The two had already reached the entrance of the complex. The moment Ji Qingyi saw Wen Yuchuan step inside, her heart sank violently. Wasn’t this reality just a little too despairing? she thought, her face ashen. But in the end, she could only sigh softly and accept this unfortunate fact.

“You live here too?” Wen Yuchuan asked in surprise when she noticed Ji Qingyi had stopped walking.

“……”

“Let’s walk together, then.”

Wen Yuchuan smiled, taking Ji Qingyi’s silence as agreement.

“No, you go ahead.”

After a pause, Ji Qingyi spoke up. She kept her tone as neutral as possible, betraying no emotion, hoping to make it seem like her sudden stop had nothing to do with the other woman.

They had only just entered the gate, not yet climbing the steps.

Walking back together had been unavoidable—after all, the road didn’t belong to her. But now that Wen Yuchuan had reached her residence, she shouldn’t keep tagging along, right?

Wen Yuchuan watched Ji Qingyi, whose lowered head hid her expression. She didn’t move, standing right in front of her. Lingering any longer would just be one-sided pestering.

Disgusting. That’s how Wen Yuchuan viewed her own behavior. She could tell something was off about Ji Qingyi. Even though she was the cause of the other’s distress, she couldn’t just walk away now.

The shadow looming over her didn’t dissipate. Ji Qingyi, still staring at the ground, couldn’t see the other’s expression. A flicker of irritation rose in her. It was Wen Yuchuan who had initiated the breakup—shouldn’t she be the one avoiding Ji Qingyi? Why was it now Ji Qingyi who couldn’t bring herself to look up?

She thought about how she should act as she’d once imagined: lifting her head, flashing a careless smirk, tossing out a few flippant remarks to show how little she cared.

But would putting on such an act even help now? Ji Qingyi had kept her head down for so long her neck was starting to ache. She lamented how weak she must seem already. If she suddenly switched attitudes now and failed to pull it off, wouldn’t that just make things even more humiliating?

Better to let it go. Ji Qingyi sighed helplessly. She couldn’t be bothered to put in the effort, so she just exhaled softly.

“I’m… going to the convenience store,” Ji Qingyi said slowly, her gaze shifting to the side. “You go ahead.”

Another blunt dismissal. At this point, refusing to leave would just be tactless. Unfortunately, Wen Yuchuan had never been one for tact.

“Then I’ll wait here for you.”

Wen Yuchuan smiled, her eyes curving. And so, Ji Qingyi heard that light laugh again—just as infuriating as ever.

Ji Qingyi turned and walked out, heading to the convenience store next to the complex.

She didn’t really want to buy anything—it was just an excuse to get away from the other person. Perhaps she should have been more forceful; that might have driven Wen Yuchuan away. But it was precisely because she didn’t want to appear as though their reunion had unsettled her that she had tolerated the other’s presence until now.

Should she just tear off the facade? It seemed like the only way Wen Yuchuan would stop following her so naturally. Ji Qingyi stood in front of the shelves, exhausted, her mind wandering. Her eyes skimmed over the various drinks, but her thoughts remained tangled with questions about Wen Yuchuan.

Ji Qingyi suddenly felt the urge to smoke.

She rarely smoked, only occasionally lighting one up when work stress became overwhelming. Now, her frustration and gloom had reached a level comparable to her worst workdays. The thought made her click her tongue in irritation. Impatiently, she scanned the drinks again before finally grabbing a bottle of lemon tea and heading to the checkout.

Ji Qingyi didn’t enter the residential complex.

Wen Yuchuan was standing on the steps inside the gate, and she didn’t want to go in, didn’t want to see her.

Though the behavior was inexplicable and foolish, Ji Qingyi still chose to squat by the roadside, letting the cold wind whip past her as she stared at the reflections of light in the puddles on the street. She pulled out a lighter and the cigarette she had just tucked into her pocket.

She crushed the strawberry-flavored bead, and the artificial fruit scent filled the air. Lighting up, the chemical sweetness mingled with the slightly acrid tobacco smoke.

Ji Qingyi wasn’t much of a smoker—she didn’t inhale the smoke into her lungs, instead letting it drift out from her lips.

The smoke rings layered upon each other, merging before being scattered by the wind. The tobacco scent was faint, leaving behind only the synthetic fruit fragrance of the crushed bead.

Enveloped in the white haze, Ji Qingyi watched as the smoke dispersed and gathered again with each slow inhale and exhale. She didn’t know what she was doing—whether she was pointlessly wasting her life or using the tobacco to calm herself.

Wen Yuchuan waited at the steps, but no one came. Her black combat boots tapped heavily against the first step three times before she finally gave up and went out to look for her.

Before she even reached the convenience store, she spotted a small, dark figure wrapped in swirling white smoke from afar.

“Ji Qingyi.”

The words drifted over softly from behind. Ji Qingyi didn’t turn around. The voice was distant, muffled by the wind, but even though it was indistinct, she didn’t need to think to know who it belonged to. She felt a pang of irony—she had been lost in thought, her mind a mess, yet just hearing that faint call snapped her back to reality instantly, and with an unsettling familiarity.

“Ji Qingyi.”

The voice was closer now. Wen Yuchuan had walked up behind her. Ji Qingyi heard the sound of her boots and could almost picture how those black soles struck the ground.

“You’ve switched to strawberry now.”

Wen Yuchuan stopped beside her, commenting on the artificial fruit scent carried by the wind.

The dark shadow loomed over her again, making the reflections in the street puddles seem even harsher to Ji Qingyi’s eyes.

Wen Yuchuan leaned down to look at her, her long black hair cascading forward. When Ji Qingyi lifted her head, the strands brushed against her eyes. She blinked, shifting away from the hair, and when she opened her eyes again, she met those dark, crescent-shaped eyes.

“You can go back first.”

Ji Qingyi had regained her usual composure, her tone indifferent as she spoke, the words of dismissal slipping out along with the white smoke.

“Then you just sit here in the cold wind?”

Wen Yuchuan also crouched down. The dim streetlight made it hard to see clearly, but a quick comparison showed the other person’s face was paler than hers. Ji Qingyi wore a shirt underneath, with only a thin coat over it—completely inadequate against the damp, chilly air, let alone the gusts of wind.

Hearing those words, Ji Qingyi suddenly shivered. The cold wind blew, and she couldn’t suppress the physiological reaction. Now she couldn’t even muster a retort.

“But that has nothing to do with you.”

In the end, Ji Qingyi spoke those words.

An indisputable fact. Ji Qingyi had finally shut Wen Yuchuan up. But the implication of that statement was too obvious—it would immediately make people think of the romantic relationship they once had. Though both were well aware of it, it was better not to say such things outright.

But Ji Qingyi didn’t know what else to say. She had wanted to say something more cutting, but after struggling for a moment, she swallowed those words back. She still didn’t want to seem like she cared too much—cared about something that had ended a year ago.

“You’ll get sick. Having a fever is miserable.”

Wen Yuchuan leaned a little closer. The wind blew from her direction, and she blocked some of it, but the pervasive cold air still relentlessly assaulted Ji Qingyi, who shivered again.

Ji Qingyi suspected Wen Yuchuan was deliberately bringing up the past, but getting sick and having a fever were such ordinary things. She couldn’t be sure if the other person was alluding to their shared history.

I’m being so strange. After a moment of thought, Ji Qingyi snapped out of it and cut off her own train of thought. Maybe Wen Yuchuan was just speaking casually, but she couldn’t help following that thread and reminiscing about the past.

“True.”

Ji Qingyi finally stopped arguing. Sitting in the cold wind like this really did carry the risk of catching a fever, and fevers were indeed miserable. She replied softly and then stood up.

“Let’s go back.”

Wen Yuchuan also stood up, her shadow once again enveloping Ji Qingyi. The cold wind she had felt upon standing was now partially blocked.

Ji Qingyi didn’t respond. She simply picked up the lemon tea from the ground and walked into the residential area on her own. She didn’t want this person shielding her from the wind. She didn’t want to rely on her, didn’t want to depend on anyone—not even for something so trivial.

Humans shouldn’t be social animals. Ji Qingyi thought. Though navigating society inevitably required interacting with others, she disliked socializing.

Integrating into society meant adhering to rules set by people other than herself. After all, everyone was an individual, each with their own differences. The slightest misstep could lead to conflict, and conflict brought trouble. She didn’t like inviting trouble, so she should avoid unnecessary interactions and limit communication to work-related matters.

Like Wen Yuchuan—someone whose mere presence stirred her emotions, someone who was clearly causing her trouble.

“You should go home.”

Ji Qingyi reached the entrance of her building and heard footsteps still following behind her. She finally halted her hurried pace, stopped, and turned to look at Wen Yuchuan.

“I am going home.”

Ji Qingyi’s pupils constricted for a moment. She couldn’t believe it. Could someone really be this unlucky? She bit her lower lip, her expression too strained to maintain its usual composure.

“I live here. Just moved in.”

Wen Yuchuan smiled and spoke again, seemingly oblivious to Ji Qingyi’s expression, casually pointing at the apartment building in front of them.

“…I see.”

Ji Qingyi fell silent for a moment before finally responding weakly, then turned and walked into the building.

She felt uneasy. Wen Yuchuan had just moved in… which made her think of the neighbor who had just moved out. Logically, it shouldn’t be such a coincidence, but Wen Yuchuan not only lived in the same complex but also the same building. The string of coincidences left her unsettled.

Have I really been cursed by something unlucky…? Ji Qingyi thought, her face paling as she noticed Wen Yuchuan didn’t press the elevator button—just glanced at the lit-up panel before turning back to flash her a smile.