Oops, I’m the Scumbag Ex in Her Storyline - Chapter 19
“I didn’t do anything. I was just standing there, and she started cursing at me.”
“No manners at all!”
“Not just rude—Lanlan, let me tell you—she got no principles either. If someone’s good-looking and catches her eye, she’ll chase them for a few days, a week at most. If she still can’t get them, she just moves on to someone else.”
“That kind of attitude toward relationships? So casual. So careless. People like that are just… they’re just—”
After struggling to find the right words, Xin Yan finally said,
“—Just plain no good!”
Lanlan: “……”
Xin Yan had been angrily ranting about Song Xizi for a full ten minutes. Lanlan sat there, completely lost—because she had no idea who Song Xizi even was.
A drunk Xin Yan had a particular grudge against Song Xizi. She never had a single good thing to say about her. But after listening for a while, Lanlan finally pieced together the main point:
Song Xizi was bad news, and Xin Yan didn’t want Lanlan getting too close to her.
Lanlan was exasperated. I’ve already said I don’t know her. How could I possibly get close to her?
An Zhiyuan had dropped them off and quickly left—he had to return to the party and clean up Xin Yan’s mess. Even if the people she offended didn’t have strong connections, business thrives on harmony. If they couldn’t be allies, at the very least, they shouldn’t become enemies.
Now that he was gone, Lanlan had to deal with Xin Yan alone.
After enduring another five minutes of ranting, Lanlan finally lost her patience.
“Alright, alright, I get it. Song Xizi is the biggest villain in the universe. I’ll run if I ever see her again. Satisfied?”
Xin Yan had just started a new sentence but was cut off abruptly. Her relentless flow of complaints finally came to a halt.
Lanlan let out a sigh of relief and was about to get up and send Xin Yan to bed when Xin Yan suddenly muttered,
“Song Xizi really is awful.”
Lanlan: “……”
Is this ever going to end?
She felt like groaning when Xin Yan added softly,
“But… the biggest villain in the universe isn’t her.”
Lanlan froze slightly and looked over at her.
Xin Yan sat slumped on the sofa, head bowed. The conviction in her voice had faded.
“The biggest villain in the universe… is me.”
She looked like a wilting plant. Just moments ago, she’d been all fired up. Now she’d deflated completely. Lanlan stared at her, unsure how to feel.
Xin Yan had apologized before, and back then Lanlan found it laughable. But now… the laugh wouldn’t come.
Suddenly, Lanlan remembered—some people don’t remember what they say when they’re drunk.
Lanlan said, “I’m not good at comforting people.”
Normally, Lanlan would never speak like this. They say alcohol gives courage to cowards—but she hadn’t been drinking, yet somehow, she found herself bold enough to say what she really felt.
She didn’t know what tomorrow would bring. But tonight, she just wanted to let it out.
“But to be honest, you’re not the biggest villain. You were only ever awful to me.”
Xin Yan slowly looked up and blinked, then smiled.
“Right. I’m your personal villain.”
All night, people kept telling Xin Yan she was drunk, but she insisted she was fine. It wasn’t until this moment that she finally realized—maybe she was a little drunk after all.
Because looking at Lanlan right now, she wasn’t sure anymore if this was reality.
With a soft sigh, she murmured,
“Lanlan, I really, really like you.”
Lanlan was still reeling from that last ambiguous line—and now the next, even more direct one, hit her like a wave. Her eyes widened.
“What… what did you just call me?”
Xin Yan usually didn’t address her by name when she said things like that.
Obediently, Xin Yan repeated,
“I called you Lanlan. You probably don’t believe me again, but I really do like you. You’re so beautiful, and so strong. It’s just the world has thrown so many obstacles at you, holding you back. Every time I saw you sad or hurting, my heart broke. And I kept thinking—if I had been by your side back then, I wouldn’t have let you go through any of that alone.”
Her confession was raw and heartfelt—because she truly meant it.
Xin Yan almost never read novels. But that night, she had stayed up all night to finish reading, her emotions rising and falling with the story. If she hadn’t ended up in this world, she probably would’ve read it again—twice, three times even.
She sighed again, almost to herself. Across from her, Lanlan sat frozen, her entire worldview on the verge of collapse.
She had no idea Xin Yan was talking about a book. Lanlan thought she was referring to what happened four years ago, when her mother first fell ill.
Back then, she was a wreck—juggling hospital visits, school, and part-time jobs. During the day, she kept it together. But at night, she cried herself to sleep.
She remembered one particular day, waiting for the bus outside school. She had failed to raise enough money for her mom’s treatment and sat at the stop, silently crying. When the bus arrived, she wiped her tears and stood up—only to glimpse, from the corner of her eye, Xin Yan’s sports car parked nearby.
Xin Yan hadn’t said anything that day. And Lanlan hadn’t wanted to deal with her either. She just walked away.
She never gave it a second thought.
But three days later, Xin Yan came back—with a prenuptial agreement. She said she will pay for Lanlan’s mom’s medical bills.
That day, Xin Yan had been just as cold and businesslike as always. No small talk—just straight to the point, then gone.
Most people would say she was heartless. But now… Lanlan wondered:
What if she wasn’t cold? What if she just didn’t know how to say more?
Looking back, during the first two years of their marriage, Xin Yan largely ignored her. And honestly, Lanlan had lived quite well. Her mom had been saved. She was living a life she never thought she’d have access to. She could go to school, hang out with friends.
The real nightmares didn’t start until after those first two years.
…
Could Xin Yan have been telling the truth all along? Was she really just trying to help from the start?
For Lanlan, whether Xin Yan liked her didn’t matter much. What mattered was Xin Yan’s original intention.
She hated to admit it, but Xin Yan had changed her life completely. Lanlan had always believed Xin Yan only ever used her—never saw her as an independent person. If that belief turned out to be false, Lanlan wasn’t sure she could handle it.
The silence stretched on.
Xin Yan, growing drowsy from the alcohol, began to nod off.
Suddenly, Lanlan stood up. She strode over to Xin Yan, her voice sharp and urgent.
“What did you mean just now? What do you mean, you like me? You think that kind of joke is funny?!”
She shouted right into Xin Yan’s ear, loud enough to make her head throb. Xin Yan startled and sobered slightly, clutching her head.
“Not so loud… my head hurts… What are you talking about? I wasn’t joking.”
Lanlan was on the verge of exploding. She doesn’t even remember what she just said.
Fresh anger stacked on old wounds. Lanlan couldn’t hold back anymore.
“You’re always like this, Xin Yan. Do you think messing with me is fun? Just like in the office today—if you didn’t want me in your circle, you could’ve just not brought it up. But don’t say it, and then pretend you never said anything at all!”
Xin Yan stared at her, stunned. It took a while before she remembered what she’d said.
“Jing Chu is still trending. I just didn’t want you caught in the gossip storm…”
Lanlan faltered. But only for a second. Then, more fury surged up.
“Then what about now? You said you like me—what the hell is that supposed to mean?!”
Xin Yan looked at her and quietly replied,
“I want you to like me too. Even just a little.”
Lanlan froze.
She stared at Xin Yan, who looked right back—earnest, serious, impossible to read.
“Just a little would be enough. Enough that you would feel free to say what you want in front of me. Do what you want to do. Lanlan, I’m not as complicated as you think. I just… want to see you become your true self again. That’s all.”