Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Qi Xu looked up at the sky and sighed.
He wasn’t so cunning when he was twenty; she even knew how to change her WeChat name to insult people.
The ancients were right; only women and petty men are difficult to deal with.
Qi Xu shook his head and smiled, then had no choice but to get back into his car and drive towards the residential area where Ming Yao lived.
Around nine o’clock, Ming Yao sat comfortably on the sofa, eating fruit and reading a script.
The more she looked at it, the angrier she got.
In the original drama, Gu Yuan stood up Lin Yunyun for their date because he had accompanied his Bai Yueguang’s parents to see a doctor. Lin Yunyun was angry. Although Gu Yuan did not truly love her, he at least knew that he was wrong and specially bought Lin Yunyun a gift.
Money was secondary; at least his attitude was evident.
What about Qi Xu?
Heh, he said a couple of words and then swaggered away.
What, your temper has gotten worse after meeting your “White Moonlight”? Look at you, so capable.
Ming Yao was munching on an apple and grumbling to herself when she suddenly heard a rustling sound coming from the kitchen.
She was home alone, so everything around her seemed exceptionally quiet.
Ming Yao listened intently, confronting the sound for a long time without it disappearing. Helpless, she mustered her courage, picked up a broom, and slowly moved towards the kitchen.
She turned on the light first.
The kitchen was lit, and the sound suddenly disappeared.
Just as Ming Yao was about to go in and take a closer look, a black shadow suddenly flashed past her feet.
Ming Yao’s feet were clearly brushed against by something furry. She froze for a second, then her blood rushed to her head, her scalp tingled, and she screamed as she dropped the broom and ran outside.
She rushed out without thinking, but as soon as she opened the door, she bumped into someone’s arms.
It was Qi Xu.
The more definitive her words were just now, the more slapped in the face Ming Yao felt now.
The terrifying memory of being brushed by fur completely dominated Ming Yao’s pride. It was as if that horrible thing had already caught up with her at her feet. She could no longer be cold-blooded and jumped up to hang on Qi Xu.
Caught off guard, Qi Xu: “…?”
The worst thing was when the air suddenly went quiet.
Ming Yao knew her behavior was baffling. But as a professional actress, even in this incredibly embarrassing moment, she remained calm and composed, deftly justifying her actions—
“What are you looking at?”
“Let me, let me check how strong your back is.”
Qi Xu: “…”
Ming Yao kept her eyes closed.
Laugh, laugh.
I won’t go down no matter how much you laugh.
During her sophomore year, the school organized a performance in a mountainous area. In the middle of the night, Ming Yao was awakened by strange noises and found that an apple she had placed next to her pillow before going to sleep had been half-eaten.
In other words, while she was sleeping soundly, a mouse was eating an apple next to her pillow.
What a terrifying thing.
From that moment on, Ming Yao developed a lifelong phobia of rats.
So just now, when the familiar shadow darted away from her feet, Ming Yao was truly terrified.
Qi Xu was now her only lifeline, and even if she was called shameless, Ming Yao was unwilling to go down.
But that person knew how to seize the key point, turning the tables with a half-smile, “Whoever speaks first is the dog?”
Ming Yao: “…”
She never expected that this name would end up being the one that offended her.
She simply stopped acting and broke down, saying, “Are you even human? I was terrified by a mouse and you’re laughing at me!”
It turned out to be a mouse.
No wonder she pounced on him as soon as she came out.
Qi Xu deliberately walked into the house, “Where is it?”
“No, no, no!” Ming Yao grabbed Qi Xu tightly, now like a lamb to the slaughter, completely devoid of dignity. “Please don’t go in.”
Ming Yao refused to go back to her room no matter what. Qi Xu suppressed his smile, took her to the car outside, and then went in to get her bag and phone.
When he came back, he asked, “Where are we going now?”
Once she calmed down a bit, Ming Yao felt a sense of shame for having lost her integrity. Without looking at Qi Xu, she said, “Let’s go to my friend’s.”
She called Jian Ning, and the result was—
“Honey, I’m at a fashion show in Shanghai, what’s up?”
Ming Yao: “…”
Called Guan Xingdi again.
Sister Guan—
“It’s my boyfriend’s birthday today, I’m celebrating with him. Want to grab a couple of drinks?”
Goodness, those two best friends are both living it up. Meanwhile, she was all alone, pitifully homeless because of a rat.
She had already handed in the dormitory key. Did she really have to bite the bullet and go back to share another night with the rats?
Ming Yao was still hesitating, but Qi Xu calmly drove the car out of the community. “Let’s go to a hotel and get a room to stay in for now.”
Ming Yao’s eyes lit up. Oh right, how come she didn’t think of that?
She pointed to the road ahead with an aloof expression, “There’s a budget hotel on the left ahead. You can drop me off there.”
Qi Xu ignored her and continued straight ahead.
Ming Yao: “…”
Ming Yao: “What are you doing?”
Ten minutes later, the car stopped in a place that Ming Yao was familiar with.
She came here not long ago.
Qi Xu took out a black key card from his pocket and handed it to her, saying, “You know my room, go and stay there for now.”
Ming Yao opened her mouth, “…Where will you live?”
A man in a hotel uniform walked out of the revolving door, stopped next to Qi Xu’s car, and bowed respectfully.
Qi Xu rolled down the car window and said calmly, “Take this young lady upstairs.”
“Yes.”
“It’s too late, I won’t go up. You should rest first, and I’ll come find you again tomorrow when I’m at work.”
Qi Xu took a nicely packaged paper bag from the back seat. “Take this with you.”
Without asking what it was, Ming Yao got out of the car and was escorted to the 28th floor by the butler.
The butler, quick-witted and perceptive, stopped by the elevator. “Miss, Mr. Qi instructed us to replace all the household items before you arrived. You can use them with peace of mind. If you need anything else, please call me on the internal line at any time.”
Ming Yao nodded blankly, “Uh… thank you.”
The familiar entrance to room 2808.
Not long ago, Ming Yao knocked on the door here and called out “Brother Xu”.
At that time, she never imagined that she would soon move in herself with a key card…
It’s so surreal.
Ming Yao breathed a sigh of relief and placed the black access card in the sensor area.
With a beep, the door opened.
Ming Yao stood at the door, staring blankly at the room that was now in front of her.
Ming Yao thought the river-view room that Jian Ning stayed in before, which cost 3,800 yuan a night, was already very luxurious, but compared to this, it really wasn’t even a tenth of that.
The spacious room, spanning approximately 300 square meters, featured high-quality oak flooring throughout and floor-to-ceiling windows offering unobstructed views of the stunning nightscape of the riverbank. Even the kitchen counter was crafted from precious agate, exuding unimaginable ultimate luxury in every detail.
Qi Xu then called the guest room, asking, “Do you like it?”
Ming Yao: “What?”
“The gift I brought you from Paris.”
Ming Yao then remembered the bag that Qi Xu had just stuffed into her hand.
She thought it was his stuff and he had asked him to bring it up for her.
Ming Yao said, “I haven’t seen it yet…”
“I asked a friend, and they said it’s what young girls like these days.” Qi Xu’s tone was unusually gentle. “It’s getting late. There are some new pajamas in the closet. Take a shower and get some rest.”
Ming Yao had some words stuck in her throat, wanting to say them but unable to utter them.
She was not really the kind of woman who was difficult or demanding. Even if Qi Xu just said goodnight to her gently like he was now, she would soften her heart.
After all, they weren’t a real couple.
Conflicts should be kept to a minimum.
Ming Yao hesitated, but Qi Xu seemed to understand her thoughts and brought up the concert again:
“Ming Yao, please believe me, I didn’t break my promise on purpose. If you’d like, we can go listen to another orchestra another day.”
“…”
“Considering you hung up on me for so long, could you add me back?”
Ming Yao couldn’t help but chuckle after hearing this. “How can you talk like that? What do you mean by ‘hanging for so long’? I’m not a monkey.”
Ming Yao smiled, and Qi Xu also smiled slightly.
Finally, the afternoon’s “cold war” between the two came to an end because of the appearance of a mouse.
After hanging up the phone, Ming Yao opened the gift Qi Xu had given her.
As expected, just like the gift Gu Yuan gave Lin Yunyun to coax her with, it was a bag.
Qi Xu gave Ming Yao a new mini shoulder bag from a major brand. It was hard to find in China and was also very expensive abroad.
But she was not Lin Yunyun, and she would never allow herself to be a substitute for someone else.
Ming Yao packed her bag away untouched and prepared to take a shower. When she went to find her pajamas, she saw rows of men’s shirts hanging in the closet.
Ming Yao stood there, suddenly feeling a sense of unreality and disorientation.
She remembered.
In the script, after Lin Yunyun moved into Gu Yuan’s house, she also paused in front of the wardrobe.
Looking at Gu Yuan’s neatly arranged clothes, she felt a sweet warmth in her heart, as if she had finally entered this man’s world.
But she didn’t know that she was just a placebo for that man’s self-deception from beginning to end.
From an outsider’s perspective, Ming Yao suddenly felt very uncomfortable.
She closed the wardrobe, no longer wanting to stand there and watch.
She took a quick shower, turned off the lights, and went to sleep.
Lying in bed, Ming Yao closed her eyes and tried hard to fall asleep, but the images in her mind kept coming back, one after another, and she couldn’t stop them.
Recalling the moment when she was terrified by the rat and completely lost her composure, Qi Xu’s appearance really seemed like destiny.
Unable to sleep, Ming Yao opened her phone and entered keywords such as “Paris, hotel, accident,” and soon saw related news.
Qi Xu wasn’t lying; an accident occurred on the opening day of one of SG’s high-end business hotels, and people were injured.
As a high-ranking executive at SG, it was normal for him to personally fly over to handle the situation.
Logically, it all made sense.
So maybe she was being arbitrary, or it was just a coincidence?
After a moment, Ming Yao curiously opened Jin Tang’s Weibo.
Jin Tang’s latest Weibo post was as follows:
Your arrival has made the Parisian nights even gentler.
The accompanying picture showed a table with a dinner table for two, which was quite ambiguous.
A fan asked in the comments section: “Who’s here? Hehe, is it your boyfriend?”
Jin Tang had replied with an ambiguous smiley face.
Ming Yao immediately became suspicious and scrolled through the comments section.
A few minutes later, when Ming Yao realized that she was like Sherlock Holmes frantically searching for evidence to prove that the two had met, she paused, then closed Weibo.
It was also because she was being impulsive.
What does it have to do with her?
Even if Qi Xu really did go to Paris to see Jin Tang, does it have anything to do with me?
Wouldn’t it be better to just stick with the stand-in role, go all the way through the tragic ending, fully understand the character’s joys and sorrows, play Lin Yunyun well, make a dark horse debut, and reach the pinnacle of life?
At least Qi Xu explained, apologized, and even bought a gift this time.
She would also know when to stop and continue experiencing the story according to the script.
That’s right, that’s exactly it.
Ming Yao calmed herself down, forced herself to turn off her phone, and slowly fell asleep amidst her chaotic emotions.
….
The next day, after waking up, Ming Yao called the landlord and explained the situation. The landlord promised to send a pest control company to come and take a look later.
Ming Yao had a French class in the morning. She got up, quickly tidied herself up, and was about to leave when a staff member suddenly arrived.
“Hello, here’s your breakfast.”
Three minutes later, Ming Yao stared blankly at the three whole trays of food presented in front of her.
The uniformed staff were very polite. “Mr. Qi didn’t know your dining habits, so he asked us to send you a little of each kind, hoping it will suit your taste.”
After saying this, the group left respectfully without disturbing anyone.
The breakfast, laid out like a Manchu Han Imperial Feast, made Ming Yao sigh. She hadn’t found the feeling of being a stand-in, but she had found the feeling of being the Empress quite well.
Since it had already been delivered, it would be a waste not to eat it. Ming Yao ate her fill and then sent a message to Qi Xu.
[Thank you for the breakfast, it was delicious.]
Qi Xu did not reply.
Ming Yao had gotten used to it; after all, she was a body double, so she couldn’t ask for too much.
After finishing her meal, she made an internal call to the butler who had assisted her the day before. She handed him the room key and said, “Please pass this on to Mr. Qi. I must be leaving now.”
The butler was very polite. “Please wait a moment, I will arrange a car for you.”
Ming Yao hurriedly waved her hand and ran outside, saying, “No need, no need, I can walk by myself.”
She certainly didn’t want a row of cars parked in front of her later. The butler gave a wicked smile: “Your Majesty, which carriage would you like to ride in today?”
The Uni-President Hotel wasn’t far from the French language training center where Ming Yao took her classes; it was just the right distance for her to walk there. After finishing her two classes, it was already noon. Ming Yao hailed a taxi home, glancing at her phone on the way.
The last message in Qi Xu’s chat box was one he had sent himself that morning.
He hadn’t replied all morning.
Ming Yao leaned back in the back seat, gazing absently at the scenery outside the window. After a while, she couldn’t help but mutter something under her breath—
“Doesn’t a stand-in have any dignity? He never replies to my messages. Humph.”
After returning to her apartment complex, Ming Yao bought a bowl of fried noodles from a small restaurant near the entrance. Just as she was almost home, Ji Muyang suddenly called her.
“Ming Yao, where are you?”
Ming Yao, confused, answered the phone as she walked, “I’m almost home, what’s up?”
“Don’t go back!” Ji Muyang’s voice was urgent. “I was secretly photographed when I helped you move yesterday. The media got the photos, and now they’re all staking out your neighborhood, trying to take a picture of your face. Don’t go back!”
Ming Yao immediately stopped in her tracks.
Even without Ji Muyang saying anything, she had already seen the people squatting at the entrance of her house, a dark mass of at least twenty.
Ji Muyang was currently very popular and had always been clean with no scandals. However, he was suddenly photographed helping a girl move, which had almost certainly secured a sensational headline.
Ming Yao knew how powerful the fan community was; getting involved in this kind of news before even debuting was definitely not a good thing. She hung up the phone and quickly turned to leave. But sharp-eyed reporters noticed her suspicious movements and recognized her immediately, “Over there!”
Good heavens, a dark mass suddenly appeared like zombies that had been activated, carrying machines and pressing towards Ming Yao.
Ming Yao, who had been walking calmly, was so frightened that she turned and ran away.
She was inexperienced and unaware of the tactics these professional reporters used to ambush people; there were people waiting at every intersection. Surrounded and unable to escape, Ming Yao finally hid in the community’s public restroom.
Ming Yao’s heart was pounding as she closed the door.
What to do, what to do?
In any case, I must not be photographed.
Jian Ning had gone to Shanghai, and Guan Xingdi was probably still asleep at this hour, so she couldn’t ask her two best friends for help.
Ming Yao thought it over and over, and in a second she locked onto Qi Xu.
Only he could help her now.
She immediately took out her phone, her hand trembling slightly as she dialed.
As Dudu continued to wait, Ming Yao’s inner monologue was frantic—
Answer it, answer it quickly.
Do you know that your white moonlight substitute is in deep trouble?
Aren’t you going to answer?!
Okay, I know I’m not that important, but…
Waaah, please, please pick up.
At worst…
Ming Yao, in her haste, blurted out her innermost thoughts to herself: “At worst, if your white moonlight doesn’t want you anymore one day, I’ll sacrifice myself and be the sucker who takes over.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the beeping miraculously stopped.
After a two-second silence, the man’s cool voice carried a hint of doubt—
“What kind of sucker?”
The author has something to say:
Xiao Ming: It means I’m inviting you to do outdoor sports together, play frisbee, and exercise.
Mr. Qi: Would you like to learn about a better way to exercise? Indoor exercise.
Xiao Ming: ?
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