A Washed-up Movie Queen's Divorce Strategy [Rebirth] - Chapter 14

Ming Lang remained in the position she had been in when Xie Qinglan brushed past her, and she gave a soft nod. “Yes.”

At that, Han Xinyuan’s tears broke again. She slumped powerlessly into the sofa, covering her face as she wept bitterly. Her shoulders trembled, and a single question leaked through her fingers: “Why?”

Ming Lang did not answer. When Han Xinyuan had cried her fill, she sniffed and asked, “A-Lang, when you married Ji Chenli, I asked if you loved her. Do you remember what you said?”

Ming Lang was dazed for a moment. She narrowed her eyes, recollecting the memory before it came back to her. At that time, she had said “Impossible” with absolute certainty, leaving no room for negotiation. Then, Ming Lang thought of the words Ji Chenli had said to her a few months ago: “People change.”

Ming Lang repeated those words exactly back to Han Xinyuan.

Han Xinyuan let out a tragic laugh. “So you’re throwing me away for Ji Chenli? Ming Lang, do you remember what you promised my parents? You said you would take care of me! You said you would protect me! You said you’d be good to me for a lifetime!” With every sentence Han Xinyuan spoke, a flicker of anger grew in her eyes. By the end, her voice was almost shrill. “Have you forgotten the oath you swore before my parents’ ashes!”

Back then, Han Xinyuan’s father was Ming Guangwen’s right-hand man. Without Father Han, the Ming family could not have attained its current position, and Ming Lang could not have become the figure who ruled City C with an iron fist the moment she took over. During those years, while the Ming family’s momentum was at its peak, it attracted numerous open and hidden retaliations. Ming Lang had maintained Ming Guangwen’s tradition of being flanked by a massive entourage not for the sake of show, but for fear of accidents.

Despite all precautions, the hardest thief to guard against is the one inside the house. Unable to strike at Ming Guangwen, one of Ming Lang’s distant paternal uncles conspired with competitors to target Ming Lang. That year, Ming Lang was only ten years old. She was kidnapped right under her family’s nose. It was Father Han who risked his life to save Ming Lang from the kidnappers. Who knew that there was an accomplice hidden in the shadows? Seeing that the rescue was successful, the accomplice tried to kill Ming Lang to end the matter. In the end, Han Xinyuan’s mother shielded Ming Lang, taking the bullet that was meant to go through Ming Lang’s head.

The lives of both Han parents were the price for Ming Lang to grow up safely. At the time, Han Xinyuan was only seven. She was taken by a nanny to find her mother, only to find her in the morgue, where two bodies lay under white sheets, long since cold.

Han Xinyuan had thrown herself onto her mother’s body and wailed. Ming Lang stood to the side, just watching, without shedding a single tear.

This event caused a sensation in City C. Outsiders didn’t care who died; they only knew that because the eldest daughter of the Ming family was kidnapped, two of Ming Guangwen’s most trusted confidants had died for a mere little girl! They also whispered that Ming Guangwen’s eldest daughter likely had no heart—a couple died for her, yet she didn’t even cry. Tsk tsk, such a small child, born with a heart of stone.

At the funeral for the Han parents, Ming Guangwen personally took Ming Lang to kowtow to them. They were buried with the highest honors befitting a member of the Ming family. Their graves were built in the Ming family cemetery, at the same rank as Ming Guangwen’s own future plot—infinite glory. But what was the use? Dead is dead. No matter how luxurious the funeral, it couldn’t bring back two lives.

Han Xinyuan was too young; having suddenly lost her support, she only knew to hold Ming Lang’s hand and cry until her eyes were swollen shut. The guests could hardly bear to look. But when they looked at Ming Lang, whom Han Xinyuan was clutching, she still wore that same cold, thin expression. The guests shook their heads, secretly sighing that Ming Guangwen had raised a heartless “wolf-cub” of a daughter.

Han Xinyuan cried until all the guests were gone. Only the two children remained before the twin graves. Only then did Ming Lang speak her first words in days.

“Stop crying. I will protect you from now on.”

She had been a child of few words. Furthermore, because the weather had changed and Ming Yan’s health had taken a turn for the worse, Wen Yuxiu was busy caring for the younger sister and hadn’t looked after Ming Lang. Thus, no one found it strange that she hadn’t said a word for so many days.

Han Xinyuan sat before the tombstone, gasping for breath. “Sister A-Lang, I want my mommy.”

“Your mom is dead, and your dad is dead too.” Ming Lang gripped Han Xinyuan’s hand tightly. “I will take care of you from now on. I’ll take care of you for a lifetime.”

Ming-Han Media didn’t exist back then; the Ming family had made their fortune in real estate. It was only after Ming Lang took over the family that she founded Ming-Han Media. She invested the money, and all the shares were in Han Xinyuan’s name. This was how the Han family was gradually brought back up. So, while people spoke of the Ming and Han families, they were actually one.

“You said you would take care of me for a lifetime!” Han Xinyuan was still sitting on the sofa crying. “Do you know how much I wished I was the one standing next to you on your wedding day? You clearly didn’t like Ji Chenli… Your ‘lifetime’ was supposed to be mine! You owe me this! Ming Lang, you’re a liar!” She grabbed a throw pillow from the sofa and hurled it at Ming Lang. “You’re a promise-breaking liar!”

Ming Lang looked at the disheveled, weeping Han Xinyuan and finally let out a sigh. “Xinyuan, go home. Grandma will be worried.”

“Grandma” referred to Han Xinyuan’s grandmother. When the Han parents died, the elderly woman had suffered the tragedy of the white-haired burying the black-haired. She only kept going for Han Xinyuan’s sake. Ming Lang called her Grandma, but in reality, the old woman hated this woman who had caused the deaths of her son and daughter-in-law. For the first few years, every time Ming Lang went to visit, she would be chased out with a broom. Later, Ming Lang stopped going and instead sent people to look after her.

Han Xinyuan sat motionless for a long time before finally standing up. She wiped away her tears and sneered, “Outsiders say you have a heart of stone. Ming Lang, I think even a stone is three parts softer than you!” Her face was a mess from crying, so her sneer lacked any sharp momentum, and her voice trembled, making one instinctively pity her.

However, Ming Lang’s expression remained unchanged. She simply instructed the butler to personally take Miss Han back and ensure she was handed over directly to Grandma Han.

Han Xinyuan wanted to find some other flicker of emotion on Ming Lang’s face—perhaps heartache, or even a sliver of guilt. There was none. Not a shred. Han Xinyuan’s heart sank to the bottom. Since they were children, she was the only one Ming Lang was close to. She thought she was someone significant to Ming Lang, but in the end, it was only this much.

After Han Xinyuan left, a look of exhaustion finally appeared on Ming Lang’s face. As if she could no longer hold herself up, her knees buckled and she sank into the sofa. She covered her eyes with the back of her hand, unable to recover for a long time.

“Why…” Ming Lang sighed softly with her eyes closed. The sound was very faint, yet in the empty side hall, it felt amplified a thousand times. It was unclear who she was asking “why,” and no one answered her.

After a long while, the butler finally dared to step forward and asked softly, “Miss, shall we serve the meal?”

Only then did Ming Lang realize it was already noon.

“Is Chef Li in the kitchen? I need him for something.”

“Sister, why was it porridge this morning and porridge again for lunch? I want braised pork ribs!” Ji Chenli looked at the white porridge and pickles before her with a long face, looking at Tao Yuan gloomily. “Sister, you’re abusing the patient…”

“Pah! A dog’s mouth can’t spit out ivory (you have nothing good to say).” Tao Yuan tapped Ji Chenli’s forehead lightly and served her a bowl of porridge. “Who told you to go looking for death? Is acute pneumonia a joke? Ribs? If you don’t take yourself seriously like this again, you won’t even get porridge. You can stay in the hospital and fend for yourself.”

“Is it my fault…” Ji Chenli touched her forehead and said aggrievedly, “It’s not like I wanted to get sick. It’s bad enough that I can’t taste anything, but my chest hurts like hell. It’s killing me.” Ji Chenli loathed the smell of disinfectant in hospitals. This time her nose was blocked so she couldn’t smell it, but her whole body felt off—even the gaps between her bones ached. Furthermore, everything in the hospital was white; it looked so eerie.

“Sister…” Including her past life and her current one, Ji Chenli was a woman in her 30s. Relying on the fact that she looked young now, she shamelessly acted spoiled toward Tao Yuan without even blushing. “I want to be discharged…”

“Like hell you will!” Tao Yuan rejected her without a thought. “You stay here and recover properly first.”

“If I stay in the hospital, I’ll never get better!” Ji Chenli huffed. “It’s bad enough that they ganged up to bully me, but now even my sister is bullying me!”

Ji Chenli was the type to “swallow her broken teeth with her own blood”—usually, when she suffered an injustice, she would endure it herself and wouldn’t easily tell anyone. This time, perhaps because she was ill and the person accompanying her was the long-lost Tao Yuan, she couldn’t help but act a bit temperamental. Tao Yuan caught it instantly: “They bullied you? Fine! I was wondering how you got acute pneumonia out of nowhere. It was that grandson-of-a-bitch Ming again!” Tao Yuan had a fiery temper and was fiercely protective. She wanted to go find Ming Lang to argue right then and there. Ji Chenli had to use all her persuasion and eventually faked some pain to get her to stay.

Seriously—it was fine if she was bullied, she’d just treat it like being bitten by a dog. She couldn’t afford to provoke those in the Ming family, but she could at least hide from them. She absolutely couldn’t let Sister Tao Yuan get dragged in.

Tao Yuan felt guilty for not protecting Ji Chenli well. She sat by the bed, thought for a moment, slapped her thigh and said, “Forget this movie. I don’t care about the stinking money you’re earning. Money can be made again, but you only have one life. Come home with me!”

Ji Chenli’s eyes widened immediately. “I won’t!”

“What did you say?” Tao Yuan’s eyebrows knit together.

“I… I won’t…” Ji Chenli shrank her neck, her momentum weakening instantly. She murmured like a mosquito, “Sister, don’t worry about me. I know what I’m doing…”

“Your ‘knowing what you’re doing’ almost cost you your life!” Tao Yuan scolded, her eyes turning red. “You’ve been by my side for so many years and never been bullied. Why should those people treat you like this…”

When she was a child, Ji Chenli relied on having Tao Yuan on her side; she was a little tyrant in the orphanage. It was always her bullying others. Why, now that she was grown, was she the one being bullied by those people? The more Tao Yuan thought about it, the angrier she got—angry and heartbroken. Having no way to help, she could only sit by the bed and wipe away tears.

Seeing Tao Yuan about to cry, Ji Chenli immediately became flustered. “Sister, don’t cry! Sister, I promise you this is the last movie I’ll ever film, okay? Sister…”

“Don’t call me sister! I can’t even take care of my own sister, what kind of sister am I…” Tao Yuan said while wiping her tears.

Ji Chenli couldn’t stand seeing Tao Yuan cry; her scalp tingled. She lowered her head and sighed, “Sister, really. I won’t film anymore after this one. Ming Lang already promised me: once this movie is done, she’ll divorce me. At most, three more months. Then we’ll find a place far away to hide and never come back…”

Hearing this, Tao Yuan stopped crying. She asked in disbelief, “Really?”

“If I’m lying, I’m a puppy!” Ji Chenli swore solemnly.

Tao Yuan was amused by her. She wiped her tears and laughed, “As if you haven’t been a puppy enough times already…”

A laugh meant things were okay. Ji Chenli let out a sigh of relief. “Hehe, Sister, as long as you’re not angry…”