Just Wanting to Divorce My Love Rival - Chapter 1

“I like you!”

Mu Cheng wore a playful bun on her head, her shallow dimples appearing when she smiled. Nervous, she blocked a boy’s path, bowed, and held out a pink envelope she had spent the entire night preparing with both hands.

The boy, holding a basketball in one hand, had just stepped off the court drenched in sweat. He glanced at the envelope and said awkwardly, “Let’s forget it.”

A clear and casual rejection.

Mu Cheng’s hand froze in mid-air, her smile hardening as she stood dazed for a long moment.

She had actually been rejected. He was clearly the one who had been dropping hints, left and right—how did it turn into a one-sided show in the end?

The boy tossed the basketball back and forth between his hands, his expression idle and rude. “I’ll tell you the truth. My main goal in getting close to you lately was to get to know Zhong Yingzhi through you. Aren’t you guys in the same dorm?”

Hearing this, Mu Cheng thinned her lips, an anonymous fire rising in her heart. “For three whole months, you looked after me every day, and it turns out the person you wanted to pursue wasn’t me, but Zhong Yingzhi?”

The boy shrugged. “While it might not be appropriate for me to say this now, I’m just too desperate. Please bear with me. Can you help me out? Help me win her over.”

Mu Cheng found the situation utterly absurd.

The boy brushed back his short hair and gave her a sunny smile, full of expectation. “Didn’t you say you liked me? Since you like me, surely you wouldn’t be unwilling to help with such a small favor.”

Mu Cheng looked at him coldly, her hands hanging at her sides slowly clenching as she endured the anger and humiliation. “I’m not close to her. I can’t help you. You’ve found the wrong person.”

As Mu Cheng turned to leave, the boy grabbed her, pestering her. “Don’t be like that. I spent so much time on you—if you don’t help at all, I’ll be at a total loss.”

“You’re at a loss?” Furious, she gave him a shove. “Where’s your loss? Did I take advantage of you, or do I just look like someone easy to bully?”

The boy curled his lip. “I’m just asking for a small favor. No need to be so dramatic.”

Mu Cheng laughed out of pure anger. She immediately crumpled the love letter into a ball and threw it into the trash can like a piece of garbage. “Jiang Zhengzhi, consider me blind. People were right—you really are trash.”

Jiang Zhengzhi was a famous “figure” on campus. Captain of the basketball team, six-foot-two, sunny and handsome—but his reputation wasn’t nearly as perfect as his face. He changed girlfriends every three days, perfectly embodying the phrase “walking through a field of flowers and having every petal stick to him.”

It wasn’t that Mu Cheng hadn’t heard the rumors; she had just been impulsive, stuck in her own world, thinking they were just lies. This blow to the head had finally woken her up.

…

Bang, bang, bang.

The sound of explosions rang in her ears—it was party poppers.

Mu Cheng instinctively covered her ears, her bun trembling.

Her roommate, Xiao Xiaoli, sporting a mushroom haircut and holding a party popper, danced around cheering: “Congratulations to our eternal single dog! Today you’ve bagged a handsome guy and successfully left the single life behind!”

Xiao Xiaoli rushed up for a bear hug, shouting excitedly, “Congrats, congrats! You’re taken! You have to treat me to dinner today. I guided you hand-over-hand to write that love letter. It’d be wrong not to treat me.”

Mu Cheng pushed her away, her face dark.

Xiao Xiaoli noticed something was off. “What’s with that look? Don’t tell me your confession was rejected?”

Mu Cheng: “Isn’t being rejected a pretty normal thing?”

Xiao Xiaoli’s eyes widened in surprise. “Are you joking? How could you be rejected? He was so attentive to you, constantly buying food for our whole dorm. If he wasn’t interested in you, then he must have been bored out of his mind.”

Mu Cheng sneered. “Nothing is ever given for free without an ulterior motive. It’s not that he didn’t have one; it’s just that the person he wanted wasn’t me.”

Just then, a light breeze blew by, carrying the fresh scent of mint.

Someone passed by them. This girl was about 5’7″ with brownish-gold hair reaching her waist. Her face looked as if it were carved, with sharp angles and deep features. Her pale blue eyes added an exotic touch to her appearance.

Xiao Xiaoli waved at her. “Hi, Yingzhi.”

Zhong Yingzhi glanced at her, her gaze cold, as if looking at a stranger. When she looked over, the surrounding temperature seemed to drop several degrees.

Xiao Xiaoli swallowed hard, suddenly regretting saying hello.

Zhong Yingzhi retracted her gaze with indifference and continued walking.

Mu Cheng narrowed her eyes at Zhong Yingzhi’s departing back, her voice full of hostility. “Look at her. We’ve been in the same dorm for over two years, and she never acknowledges us when we say hi. It’s like she doesn’t know us. Putting on that stinky face all day—it’s annoying just looking at her.”

Xiao Xiaoli looked bewildered. “It’s not annoying. Even though she’s icy, her face is quite pleasing to the eye. A blonde, blue-eyed mixed-race beauty—just looking at her makes my mood better.”

“Superficial,” Mu Cheng glared at her. “What’s the use of being good-looking? She has no manners and looks down on everyone. Her nose is practically in the clouds.”

Mu Cheng’s chest heaved as she continued her angry grumbling.

At that moment, Zhong Yingzhi happened to turn back, hearing every single word of Mu Cheng’s rant.

Xiao Xiaoli nudged Mu Cheng’s shoulder, winking frantically to signal her to look to the side.

Mu Cheng was oblivious. “Is your eye twitching? What, am I wrong? What’s so great about her? Acting like a proud white swan—what right does she have to look down on us…”

Mu Cheng’s mouth stayed half-open, the words stuck in her throat. She was looking right into Zhong Yingzhi’s eyes.

The air seemed to freeze.

Zhong Yingzhi scanned her from head to toe—the fluffy bun, the loose brown denim overalls, the white sneakers. She looked like she was going for a “cute” style, but her cursing made her look no different from a shrew.

Zhong Yingzhi let out a cold, mocking huff. Without saying a word, she brushed past her.

Mu Cheng stood frozen for several seconds before coming to her senses.

Once she snapped out of it, she shook Xiao Xiaoli’s shoulders frantically. “You rotten pear! She was right there, why didn’t you warn me?”

Xiao Xiaoli, shaken dizzy, said helplessly, “You were cursing so enthusiastically! My eyes were twitching so hard I almost had a cramp trying to warn you.”

Mu Cheng stopped shaking her. Dropping her head, she asked dejectedly, “Did I look really trashy, badmouthing someone behind their back?”

Xiao Xiaoli nodded very honestly.

Mu Cheng scratched her head in frustration. A deep sense of defeat washed over her. What did her confession being rejected have to do with Zhong Yingzhi? She was the one who was blind and infatuated; taking her anger out on someone else was truly low-class and pathetic. She had completely lost face.

With nothing going right, Mu Cheng ran back to the dorm, splashed her face with cold water, climbed into bed, and pulled up the covers, intending to sleep it off.

Tossing and turning, she kept recalling Jiang Zhengzhi’s playful expression one moment and Zhong Yingzhi’s mocking gaze the next. After half an hour, she wasn’t sleepy at all.

She opened her eyes and let out a long sigh.

Unexpectedly, the moment she opened her eyes, she thought she was hallucinating.

The scene before her was no longer the familiar dorm. It had transformed into a completely strange environment. A glass chandelier hung overhead, casting a soft, yellow light.

Mu Cheng tried to get up to check her surroundings, but she found she couldn’t move at all. She couldn’t get out of bed, and she couldn’t even turn her neck.

Her whole body radiated pain—a pain that reached the marrow of her bones, a pain so suffocating it felt like she couldn’t breathe.

The medical equipment by the bed emitted a loud “beep-beep” alert.

Immediately, someone pushed the door open, followed by joyful shouting: “She’s awake! Miss Mu is awake!”

Mu Cheng desperately wanted to figure out what was happening, but even keeping her eyes open felt incredibly exhausting.

She couldn’t hold on. Her eyes slowly closed and the world plunged into darkness, but her senses remained. She could hear voices and feel the pain throbbing throughout her body.

She didn’t know how long this state lasted. During that time, someone peeled back her eyelids and shone a piercing flashlight into them. It was a man in a white coat, likely checking her condition.

There were faint sounds of conversation nearby—a man and a woman talking.

The woman’s voice was cold, but held a hint of familiarity. “How are her injuries?”

The male doctor replied, “Miss Mu fell from a high building. Her injuries are very severe. Being able to wake up at all is already a medical miracle. President Zhong, don’t worry too much. Her body is recovering well; she’ll wake up again soon.”

The conversation stopped. The “tap-tap” of high heels approached, and the bed sank slightly as someone sat down.

The woman took Mu Cheng’s hand, stroking it gently and slowly, as if touching a porcelain doll that might shatter at any moment—with both treasure and dread.

Mu Cheng felt a warm dampness on the back of her hand. Was it tears? Was this woman crying? Mu Cheng wondered to herself.

She suddenly felt a desperate, urgent need to open her eyes and see the woman sitting by the bed.

Using all her strength, she struggled and managed to half-open her eyes.

Her vision shifted from blurry to clear.

The person sitting by the bed was actually Zhong Yingzhi!

The high bridge of the nose, the sharp facial features—compared to the Zhong Yingzhi in her memory, the person before her had the mature charm of a woman.

She looked like Zhong Yingzhi, yet didn’t. How could someone as proud as her cry?

But the person before her truly was weeping. Her pale blue eyes were filled with sorrow, and tears fell silently, one by one, onto Mu Cheng’s hand.

Seeing this, Mu Cheng couldn’t help but marvel internally: When this woman cries, it looks like a goddess shedding tears. She’s so beautiful I can’t look away.

Keeping her eyes open was too much effort. After three or four seconds, Mu Cheng couldn’t hold on and closed them again.

“Xiao Cheng, promise me… you must survive.” Zhong Yingzhi’s choked voice carried a hint of begging, humbled to the point of dust.

Suddenly, Mu Cheng’s eyes flew open. She bolted upright in bed. The pain was gone. She was back in the dorm.

She gasped for air, a layer of fine sweat breaking out on her forehead.

Xiao Xiaoli, who was munching on an apple, looked at her in confusion. “What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”

Mu Cheng wiped the sweat from her forehead and came to her senses. “I did have a dream. It didn’t quite feel like a nightmare, but if it was just a dream, why did it hurt so much?”

Xiao Xiaoli’s eyes lit up. “Did you have a wet dream?”

Mu Cheng rolled her eyes. “Can your brain not be so weird? I just dreamed about Zhong Yingzhi…”

Before she could finish, Xiao Xiaoli dropped her apple in shock. “Your wet dream partner was Yingzhi?!”

Mu Cheng was speechless. How was her roommate’s reading comprehension so off the charts?

Mu Cheng was about to snap back when, as luck would have it, Zhong Yingzhi returned to the dorm after class and heard Xiao Xiaoli’s words in their entirety.

Zhong Yingzhi stood at the door, her long hair tied up casually with a hair tie, wearing a white shirt and light denim jeans—simple and cold.

Her eyes were indifferent as ever. she glanced at Xiao Xiaoli, then at Mu Cheng.

Mu Cheng had just woken up; combined with her thick hair, she looked like she had a “bird’s nest” on her head. She was also wearing her grandmother-style bright red pajamas.

Mu Cheng quickly reached out a hand to explain, “It’s not like that! Listen to me, it’s a misunderstanding! A total misunderstanding!”

Zhong Yingzhi retracted her gaze, placed her books on the desk, pulled out her chair, and sat down. She opened a book and began reading, seemingly having no interest in hearing an explanation.

Mu Cheng hopped off the bed and ran to her side barefoot. “I really did have a dream just now, and you were in it, but it absolutely wasn’t that kind of dream.”

Without turning her head, her eyes still on the book, Zhong Yingzhi’s voice was icy. “Understood. Regardless of what kind of dream it was… I’m not interested in you.”

Mu Cheng: “…”