Just Wanting to Divorce My Love Rival - Chapter 25

“My fault, my fault! I was wrong! You’re choking my neck, let go first!” Xiao Xiaoli slapped Mu Cheng’s hand away from her collar several times.

Mu Cheng rolled her eyes and released her grip. “If you talk nonsense like that again, I really will hit you.”

Xiao Xiaoli smiled. “Don’t be so violent.”

Zhong Yingzhi closed her laptop, stood up, and bypassed the bickering pair to walk into the bathroom. As she walked, her right foot seemed a bit shaky and unsteady.

Mu Cheng watched her feet and suddenly remembered something. She turned to Xiao Xiaoli and asked, “I remember you telling me that she twisted her ankle when she carried me to the infirmary. Looking at her now, it feels like her foot still hasn’t healed.”

Xiao Xiaoli, who had finished her chips and started rummaging for other snacks, answered with a mouthful of crackers, “No idea. It should be fine by now, right?”

Mu Cheng frowned. When Zhong Yingzhi came out of the bathroom, Mu Cheng’s gaze followed her feet relentlessly. Her walking posture felt unnatural; the place where she’d been sprained clearly hadn’t recovered.

Mu Cheng asked, “Is your foot still not better?”

Zhong Yingzhi ignored her. After drying the water from her hands with a towel, she sat back at her desk, pulled a book from the shelf, and began reading with her head down.

Mu Cheng took three steps in one, quickly reaching her side. She squatted down and grabbed Zhong Yingzhi’s foot to check.

Startled by the move, Zhong Yingzhi nearly dropped her book. “What are you doing?”

“What do you mean, ‘what am I doing’? I asked if your foot was okay and you wouldn’t answer. Since you won’t tell me, I have to see for myself.” Mu Cheng gripped her ankle and prepared to take off her shoe.

Zhong Yingzhi struggled twice and warned in a deep voice, “Get lost.”

Mu Cheng let out a “Tsk,” not fearing her at all. “And if I don’t, what are you gonna do about it?”

Regardless of the consequences, Mu Cheng deftly pulled off the cotton slipper. She held Zhong Yingzhi’s ankle and examined the injury seriously. At first glance, it looked fine, but upon closer inspection, the ankle was noticeably swollen.

Mu Cheng pursed her lips, displeased. “It’s been so many days and the swelling still hasn’t gone down? What’s wrong with you? Why didn’t you go to the infirmary and have Doctor Lin check it? Maybe you injured the bone. Do you want to end up a cripple?”

Although Mu Cheng was determined to keep her distance, the woman had been injured because of her, after all. She couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t show some concern.

Mu Cheng continued, “If you want to be a cripple, I have no objection, but don’t make my conscience suffer. This injury is because of me; if you end up with a limp, I’d be partially responsible.”

Listening to her lecture, Zhong Yingzhi’s face darkened. She said nothing and tried to pull her foot back.

Mu Cheng held on tight and glared at her, feigning ferocity. “What are you pulling for? Don’t move!”

As soon as she said that, Zhong Yingzhi actually quieted down. She became strangely obedient and stopped moving.

Mu Cheng nodded in satisfaction, then reached out to lightly touch the ankle. “Does it hurt when I touch it like this? If it does, you really might have hurt the bone.”

Receiving no response, Mu Cheng looked up in confusion. She saw Zhong Yingzhi’s thin lips pressed tight, her gaze averted. Her usually cold face had unexpectedly turned a light shade of pink.

Mu Cheng blinked. What’s with that expression?

“Why is your face red?” Mu Cheng asked bluntly.

Mu Cheng regretted it the moment she said it. Almost a second later, she was kicked squarely in the chest by Zhong Yingzhi, sending her tumbling onto her back.

Mu Cheng clutched her chest, coughing several times from the pain. “I give up on you! What the hell? Why did you kick me?”

Zhong Yingzhi retracted her foot, hurriedly put on her shoe, and picked up her book. Her expression returned to normal, but the redness at the tips of her ears hadn’t faded, and she was holding the book upside down.

On the night of the 8th, before going to sleep, Mu Cheng picked up the dorm transfer application form. The counselor hadn’t signed it yet, but it was only a matter of time.

The dorm she was moving to wasn’t in the same building as Zhong Yingzhi; it was quite far away.

If all went according to plan, after she moved, they would have no more contact. The campus was huge; if she intentionally avoided her, they might never meet again.

Mu Cheng nodded and murmured to herself, “Once the transfer is finalized, you won’t be my wife anymore. The connection will be broken. Maybe we’ll just be strangers who never contacted each other again after college.”

Strangers. Mu Cheng felt an inexplicable pang of melancholy saying those words. She actually felt a bit reluctant.

She shook her head, quickly suppressing the strange thought.

The previous few trips had provided scattered information, but nothing critical. This time, she had to ensure nothing went wrong.

Mu Cheng sat cross-legged on her bed in her bright red pajamas. she looked at Xiao Xiaoli washing up on the balcony, then at Zhong Yingzhi busy at her computer. Her expression was grave.

Mu Cheng cleared her throat. “You two, stop what you’re doing for a second. I have something very serious to tell you.”

Xiao Xiaoli, who was brushing her teeth with foam in her mouth, poked her head out. “What? I’m brushing my teeth. Just say it, I’m listening.”

Mu Cheng nodded and looked at Zhong Yingzhi. “You listen too, and listen carefully. This is important; you must remember it.”

Zhong Yingzhi glanced back at her, said nothing, and turned back to her keyboard. Mu Cheng caught a glimpse of her screen; she seemed to be working on a course assignment.

Mu Cheng took a deep breath. “It’s like this. What I’m about to say might sound crazy, and you probably won’t believe me—actually, you definitely won’t believe me. But time will prove it. When that day comes, you’ll know I wasn’t losing my mind.”

“I’ve truly run out of options. Every time I go ‘over there,’ I can’t get any useful info. I’m really anxious. All this buildup is to tell you: when I fall asleep, I travel nine years into the future.”

“You don’t have to believe it, and you can think I’m crazy. But if—and I mean if—one day nine years from now, I suddenly run up to you and say I have amnesia, that I’ve traveled from the past, and I’m here to change the future… please don’t think my brain is broken. Please recall what I’m saying to you right now, believe me, and tell me every single detail of why I got depression…”

Mu Cheng rattled off the whole speech in one breath. When she finished, she let out a long sigh of relief, as if she had completed a monumental task.

Xiao Xiaoli, still brushing: “…”

Zhong Yingzhi, still working: “…”

The atmosphere froze into an awkward silence.

Mu Cheng didn’t care what they thought. She had given them the heads-up. She just didn’t know if they would remember this nine years later. If she traveled over this time and, with her deliberate reminder, they recalled this conversation, they would probably start to suspect something even if they didn’t fully believe in time travel.

As long as they believe me and stop hiding things out of a misguided desire to protect me, everything will go smoothly. Once I know the full story, I can definitely change it, Mu Cheng planned.

Mu Cheng lay down, suddenly feeling the urge to praise herself: I’m actually pretty smart.

The plan was perfect, but the teammates were a letdown.

Xiao Xiaoli was playing with her phone while brushing her teeth and hadn’t listened to Mu Cheng at all. By the time she finished, Mu Cheng had already fallen asleep.

Xiao Xiaoli thought about waking her to ask, but decided against it. She looked at Zhong Yingzhi and asked, “Yingzhi, Xiao Cheng just babbled a whole bunch of stuff. What did she say?”

Zhong Yingzhi: “No idea. Didn’t listen. No time to listen.”

It was a four-person group project. Zhong Yingzhi had finished her part, but the other three were dawdling; a week had passed with zero progress, and one hadn’t even started.

Looking at this mess, Zhong Yingzhi was frustrated. She typed a message into the group chat: “Fine, I don’t have time to waste with you guys. Do it or don’t, I’ll finish it all myself. Just sign your names when I turn it in.”

Xiao Xiaoli and Zhong Yingzhi were each busy with their own things. Mu Cheng’s carefully prepared speech had fallen on completely deaf ears.