Showbiz Scandal: The Official Announcement of My Ex and Myself

Chapter 516: Thought of You, Heartless Man

After being in love for so long, Yu Xia finally experienced the feeling of "being forced into something."She felt a bit awkward, embarrassed, yet there was an impulse to fulfill his wishes, but the words were stuck in her throat and she couldn’t call them out.

A slight blush rose to her ears as she pursed her lips and glanced at the screen repeatedly.

Xie Qingci watched her squirming behavior with keen interest.

"Well, have you decided? Do you plan to do it now, or wait until we meet?"

The words "wait until we meet" lingered ambiguously as if they were being rolled over his tongue.

Yu Xia could easily imagine what would happen when they met.

From the last time he visited her on set, she could understand that the saying about absence making the heart grow fonder held some truth; she couldn’t quite handle such high-intensity pressure.

Maybe... it’s better to do it now?

She thought to herself, rubbing her fingers on the table.

Xie Qingci was already familiar with her body’s reactions. When he saw her little movement, a smile spread in his eyes, and he added fuel to the fire.

"Looks like you prefer to meet later? Then I’ll go find Mr. Yang..."

"I didn’t say that!" Yu Xia interrupted his movement to turn around and find Mr. Yang, bringing her phone closer and quickly saying, "Turn back, turn back! Now!"

Upon hearing this, Xie Qingci raised an eyebrow and turned back with a smile, looking at her.

"Right now? Fine, I’m ready, go ahead."

She hesitated for half a minute, mentally preparing herself and mustering an actor’s conviction, taking a deep breath, coughing twice, then pinching her voice to say:

"Come on~"

"You’re the best~"

"I really want to see you cry, darling~"

After she said this, she was so overwhelmed with herself that she quickly tipped her phone face down on the table and buried her head in her arms to ease the embarrassment.

However, even though she couldn’t see Xie Qingci’s face anymore, his voice still came from the phone, continuous soft laughter making her face feel hot.

"What’s so funny? Is it really that funny?" she gritted her teeth and asked.

The two of them communicated via video call with the screen covered, yet it felt like the other person was right there beside them, expressions and actions full of life.

Xie Qingci tried to suppress his laughter and said, "You’re especially cute, really, so cute that..."

He wanted to tease.

He deliberately didn’t finish the sentence, but his tone was so savoring that even without seeing his expression, Yu Xia could guess what he was thinking.

She bit her lip again, flipped the phone back up, staring at his beaming face on the screen, and said, "What’s so cute about it? Your preferences are really problematic."

It’s no different from being forced into something!

Xie Qingci raised his hands in surrender, "Only with you, you can think of it as our little game."

"It’s not a game; it’s a transaction with give-and-take. Since I’ve paid the price, shouldn’t you cry for me now? Right now, hurry up, cry for me."

After paying a hefty price, she wanted quick and satisfying service to ease the feeling of having been ripped off.

She was like an overbearing nouveau riche, pointing at Xie Qingci and threatening him to cry immediately, even giving off an "If you don’t cry, I’ll punch you to help you out" vibe.

Xie Qingci was not surprised at all; he adjusted the screen a little straighter and asked her, "How do you want me to cry? I can’t just look at you and dry cry."

Crying in front of the camera during a video call with his girlfriend was something he never imagined doing before falling in love.

After all, that often happened during fights, break-ups, or when a girlfriend was about to break up, and the guy cried miserably to win her back.

He couldn’t imagine this was just a couple’s game, but he was willing to play along.

Like what Mr. Yang casually remarked a few days ago, "Love truly makes people blind."

He pretended to sigh and honestly said, "I don’t have any emotions that make me want to cry right now; my eyes are as dry as the Sahara Desert."

"That’s simple," Yu Xia said casually, "I can give you some psychological stimulation."

"Such as?"

"Such as your fund turned negative, your stocks hit the limit down, your money was stolen from the card, your house collapsed, and you got stung by a bee on the way to the restroom."

"...Do you think I would cry over those things?"

If he cried over a bee sting, how was he different from a delicate and timid little girl? He hadn’t cried over such things since he was three.

He furrowed his brows a bit lower, his tone carrying a hint of threat, and said, "Your approach to psychological stimulation is all wrong; try a different angle."

Yu Xia looked at him solemnly.

"You said it yourself. Your girlfriend ran away, pregnant, and called another man ’dad’ later on."

"..." Xie Qingci was left speechless, trying to take deep breaths to suppress the absurdity, but it was fruitless.

Finally, he closed his eyes for a while, mentally throwing away this absurd hypothetical scenario.

"Are you sure in such a case it’s me crying, not you?"

The person’s already gone; what’s there to cry about? Then would she smile at him for half an hour on the video call, Yu Xia muttered to herself.

So if this doesn’t work, under what circumstances would he really cry his eyes out?

Should she recite some heartwarming tales of familial love? Talk about the melancholy of the end of adolescence? Or play a sentimental song to dissect the insecurity that love brings?

Thinking about it got her nowhere, so she impatiently said to him, "I don’t care, you have to cry now, not crying isn’t a valid excuse, don’t think you can take a loan and not pay it back."

Xie Qingci was helplessly left with no choice but to recall any sad memories.

Since he could remember, he hardly cried.

His parents were rarely home; he didn’t cry. As a child, encountering a thunderstorm and floods one night, he remained composed until the firefighters came to rescue him.

He didn’t cry over bad exam results, being provoked, sitting in a classroom feeling lost about the future, getting injured while camping, or getting the flu.

The only time he almost felt like crying was during their argument and silent treatment on the set of "Burning Spring."

At midnight, he had a high fever, thinking she was just next door but coldly wouldn’t see him, even ignored him when they met face to face, his chest felt stifled.

He closed his eyes, still frowning, as Yu Xia lay on the screen bored, watching him squeeze out tears, occasionally touching her fingers to the screen, pressing on his nose and his furrowed eyebrows.

"Ready? Crying isn’t difficult, just think of something sad, or think of some heart-wrenching drama you’ve watched. If that doesn’t work, think about the country’s prosperity stemming from each soldier’s hard work... Oh, there’s a tear."

Slowly, he opened his eyes. His eyes were slightly moist, shimmering with tears under the light, clearly visible.

And when he cried, his eyes reddened first; even if there were no tears yet, just seeing those reddened eyes showed how fragile his emotions were at that moment.

Gradually, the tears gathered, and his eyelashes couldn’t bear the weight of the droplets, forced to release them.

Tears streaming down his cheeks, Xie Qingci moved closer to the screen, huskily asked, "Is this enough, Yu?"

Yu Xia was a little curious, "What did you think of? You’ve mastered this crying technique halfway."

Xie Qingci, unfazed, wiped his tears away, so casually it seemed like it was just a bit of rain from the sky.

"I thought of you, the heartbreaker."

"..."