The Paranoid Film Queen Doesn’t Want to Remarry - Chapter 34
Chapter 34
The elevator doors closed before Xu Weishuang’s eyes—she was trapped in the same confined space as Liu Yuebai.
Her expression turned even colder as she drew on the mask she learned from Yan Muyu, forcing her body to stop trembling. In the cramped elevator, Liu Yuebai’s presence seeped into every corner of her being.
Xu Weishuang was deeply familiar with her—and terrified. Not of Liu Yuebai herself, but of the memories—of that home—they once shared, resurfacing after six years that she’d worked so hard to outrun.
She finally understood: there’s no going back.
Xu Weishuang had resolved to cut ties—and seeing Liu Yuebai again threatened everything she’d tried to escape.
“Xiaoshuang, I want to talk to you,” Liu Yuebai began, having been gone too long. She noticed the icy calm behind Xu Weishuang’s mask and chose her words carefully.
Xu Weishuang snapped her head away, refusing with a cold, distant look. Her face, always pale due to poor health, looked even more ghostly next to Liu Yuebai’s presence.
Liu Yuebai furrowed her brow in concern: “Is she… treating you badly?”
That question wasn’t baseless. Liu Yuebai had glimpsed Xu Weishuang and Yan Muyu interacting once, and a source close to the Yan family confirmed rumors: Xu Weishuang was merely a replacement for someone else. Ever since then, every affectionate gesture Yan Muyu showed was suspect.
Xu Weishuang’s bl00d seemed to freeze—but she forced herself to look Liu Yuebai in the eye and said coldly, “I don’t want to see you.”
Liu Yuebai paused, her voice barely a whisper: “You can reject me now…”
She remembered the girl who once wouldn’t let go. Now, she was met with icy disdain.
She tried again: “Today is Mom’s death anniversary.”
That shattered Xu Weishuang’s resolve. Her eyes instantly reddened, her facade slipping. Sadness rose uncontrollably in her chest, making it hard to breathe.
Yet she fought back tears. She wouldn’t cry before her.
Liu Yuebai stepped closer. “Let’s go see her, together.”
The elevator doors opened onto the empty hotel corridor. Xu Weishuang stepped out. Liu Yuebai did not follow.
“I’ll be there,” she said quietly, watching the doors close and disappear.
Back in the dim room, Xu Weishuang closed the curtains violently, plunging the space into darkness before finally quieting her emotions.
Liu Yuebai’s words lingered—threatening to reopen wounds she’d bandaged long ago. Xu Weishuang lay on the bed, hugging herself, warmth fleeing her body.
It had been six years; she’d grown stronger than that. She didn’t need anyone.
…
On her mother’s death anniversary, Xu Weishuang dressed neatly—a light touch of makeup, chosen clothes to look composed and respectful. She wasn’t avoiding meeting Liu Yuebai; if not today, then tomorrow.
When she stepped outside, she saw the forecast: rain in Yucheng. She boarded a two-hour flight, then traveled to the cemetery, and the heavens wept as she arrived.
She held the umbrella above the grave’s black surface—raindrops tapping like a mournful dirge.
All her grief had been rehearsed—she would not show weakness.
The rain chilled her to the bone, but she steeled herself until she stood before her mother’s headstone and saw a lone figure in black: Liu Yuebai.
Despite the rain, Liu Yuebai stood tall in a dampened suit; her face was lifeless, lips pale. Xu Weishuang placed a chrysanthemum before the grave and shifted the umbrella over Liu Yuebai’s head, unable to look at her, though she could feel her presence.
They stood in silence, rain and wind sweeping around them. Then Liu Yuebai spoke—some personal victories, international treatments, directorial work—her voice grew raw, broken with emotion.
“…I’m sorry,” she choked out, rain soaking her and her apology into Xu Weishuang’s soul.
That apology had haunted their shared past—Liu Yuebai’s promise to protect her that had too often turned to violence, then remorse. Xu Weishuang had once accepted her apologies, desperate to keep the bond alive. Even as heartbreak raged within, she’d continued to comply.
Holding the black umbrella like a fragile shield, Xu Weishuang braced herself against both the storm and the resurgence of that toxic bond.
Liu Yuebai wouldn’t give up. And Xu Weishuang knew that this time, the storm wasn’t over yet.
They forced her to speak, to tear away the ridiculous façade the two had constructed—even at her mother’s gravesite.
“Xiaoshuang, I miss you.” Liu Yuebai’s tears slipped through the rain, her reddened eyes unshielded by the downpour.
The words stabbed Xu Weishuang’s heart; all the control she had maintained collapsed instantly.
“Then why did you leave me?” Xu Weishuang cried out, anger and pain tearing through her. She shook as she spoke, her umbrella nearly slipping from her grasp in the cold, pounding rain.
“You lashed out at me when you had episodes, choked me to death, forced me to admit I killed Mom!” She screamed, the rain flooding her lungs as tears mixed with mist.
“If you wanted me dead, why didn’t you kill me? Why didn’t you make us die together?” she demanded, fixating on Liu Yuebai through blurred sight.
Liu Yuebai, pale and torn, shook her head, voice trembling: “I want you alive. Xiaoshuang—I want you to live!”
She had seen Xu Weishuang standing under the spotlight, vibrant and full of potential. She couldn’t trap her in a broken home ending in decay. That was when Liu Yuebai painfully understood she had to let go.
But Xu Weishuang sobbed, “I can’t live.”
Liu Yuebai rushed forward and embraced her. “You did live,” she cried through rain and tears, holding Xu Weishuang tightly as her body trembled.
She clung to her, even as Xu Weishuang pushed away after a while and steadied herself with the umbrella again.
“I don’t need family,” Xu Weishuang said quietly, fixing her soaked hair. Then she left—stepping into the rain until she disappeared, burying her grief and rage in the downpour.
Yet inside, Xu Weishuang realized she wasn’t as resolute as she claimed. She had escaped the gravesite—but the memories and Liu Yuebai’s plea haunted her.
Back at her villa, she changed and flew back to the hotel, hoping to disappear in darkness. But fate intervened.
Down the hallway, she met Yan Muyu and Xu Xia. The sight of either was enough to break her already fragile state.
“Where are you coming from? Are you okay, Xiaoshuang? You look unwell.” Yan Muyu asked gently, noticing her pale face and stiff gait. She stepped close and took Xu Weishuang’s arm.
After a tense moment, Xu Weishuang whispered, “I want to go back to my room.”
They returned to the room together. As they entered and the lights flicked on, Xu Weishuang saw Yan Muyu’s face—tender and filled with genuine concern—and something inside her softened.
Without warning, she collapsed into her arms, them holding each other silently as the emotional walls she’d built cracked.
Then Xu Weishuang steeled herself again, pushed an impulse to kiss away, and thought—
Yan Muyu is not mine.
No matter how much warmth there was, no matter how much she wanted to belong—she was still only a “replacement” in that world.
And what if tomorrow someone new appeared—someone even more like “that person”?
Her heart ached at the thought:
“Yan Muyu, let’s divorce.”
It was the second time she said those words. She held Yan Muyu’s gaze unwaveringly.
Yan Muyu froze—but her face only remained serene. This was her true strength, honed by years of navigating crises within her family.
She controlled her sudden falter.
She released Xu Weishuang and paused—body tense, expression pained. A single tear glided down her cheek.
“I don’t want that.”
It was enough to show she meant it—and she stepped forward again and wrapped Xu Weishuang in her arms, walking the emotional tightrope between pleading and confession.
Her voice trembled:
“I love you, Xu Weishuang.”
It was a gamble. She’d fought to keep Xu Weishuang—using her body, their shared intimacy, her emotional reserve—as collateral.
But that night, everything faltered.
Xu Weishuang gasped and shoved her away violently. She stumbled against the door. When Yan Muyu regained consciousness of it all and looked up…
She saw horror in Xu Weishuang’s eyes.