Dare to Take Me as a Stand-in? Are You Worthy?

On that night, there was a bloodbath on Weibo and various forums, but Xie Qing slept very well. He woke up from a heavy sleep at 8 o’clock in the morning the next day. He changed his clothes as usual then opened the curtains. The sunlight from outside shone on the lush trees and casted large shadows on the ground.

After making plain porridge and having it with a salted duck egg brought by his adoptive mother, Zheng Jie, Xie Qing checked the situation on Weibo. After all that, Yu Kaize was still a film emperor, it was not easy for him to go cold. However, after this incident, the good image that he had been building in front of the media was completely lost. In addition, many fans of his from his own fan base turned back and stepped down. It was estimated that he would be very busy in this period of time.

Xie Qing then released Yu Kaize’s number from his blacklist and unexpectedly noticed that more than a dozen missed calls and messages had been coming from the same number for over a few hours. He narrowed his eyes, scanned through the contents of those angry messages and finally settled on the words, [Xie Qing, wait for me1!]

The youth leaned on the sofa, looked up at his light-colored ceiling and softly clicked his tongue.

‘Let’s see who’s going to wait for whom.’

‘You don’t really think that my retaliation is over now do you?’

…

…

At around 8:30 in the morning, Xie Qing took his mobile phone and went out.

The sun’s rays weren’t so strong in the morning. 

A youth wore a simple shirt and trousers as he walked under the shade of trees in the old neighbourhood. During this working hour, many people walked past Xie Qing. As if they all had an agreement, almost everyone who passed by him involuntarily turned their eyes towards him2.

After getting on the bus3, Xie Qing glanced at the seats and finally chose to stand by the handrail. The bus started moving and inertia made him grip on the bus-ring. The girl standing beside him quietly raised her head to look at his almost transparent white hand. She then turned her gaze towards his face. It was his face that made her startled.

“You… aren’t you Xie Ling?”

“No.” Xie Qing wasn’t at all surprised when he heard that name. He smiled gently at the girl and touched the corner of his eye softly with his fingertips, “We both look very similar, but I have a tear mole.”

The girl’s eyes widened and she took a closer look when she heard his words. She found that it was exactly what he had said. The tear mole at the end of his eye made Xie Qing very different. When she saw Xie Qing for the first time, she didn’t think about Xie Ling at all. The young man next to her had a pale face and a thin body, but the tear mole dyed him in a more glamorous and bright light.

Different from Xie Ling.

The girl had just watched a TV series starring Xie Ling the day before. Xie Ling played a big role, wearing expensive clothes and standing under the spotlight, making him seem untouchable to others.

Thinking of this, the girl scratched her head in embarrassment. She then said in a low voice, “If I didn’t know that Xie Ling was an only child, I would’ve thought the two of you were brothers. But the two of you really feel different. You’re really good looking.”

Xie Qing smiled, “Thank you.”

The bus soon stopped at a bus stop. Xie Qing waved at the girl, receiving one back in return. He then turned around and got off the bus. A movie poster was pasted on the bus stop and on the poster, standing at the right side of the centre position was the protagonist Xie Ling that Xie Qing and the girl on the bus talked about.

‘It’s been almost twenty years since I last saw him. Xie Ling still looks so proud.’

They were only less than five minutes apart. In Xie Qing’s memory, the young Xie Ling treated him very well as a child. At that time, the two were still young and they were no more than five years old. Xie Qing was bullied by other children living nearby and Xie Ling always helped him vent his anger.

But such days only lasted for a short period of one or two years.

When they turned six, Xie Qing felt that his older brother started to distance himself from him. When he went to find him, his elder brother would always give him different excuses——

‘I’m going to practice the piano4.’

‘I’m going to go study.’

‘I’m going to play with my friends.’

“Hey, quickly take a look at Weibo. Liao Yu came out to clarify!”

A voice next to Xie Qing brought him back from his thoughts and he looked away from the poster. When the two youths walked away from the bus stop, he took out his mobile phone and checked Weibo.

Liao Yu, who was a protagonist in last night’s topic, posted a Weibo at this time with only two simple words: ‘A misunderstanding.’

What it meant was self-evident.

This post was to clarify for Yu Kaize. It was to show that the director’s decision in kicking Liao Yu out of the crew and the cancellation of Liao Yu’s endorsements were all just misunderstandings.

Xie Qing just curled his lips and walked towards the residential building not far away.

After standing on the bus for around 20 minutes and walking for nearly half an hour, when Xie Qing finally opened the door, a layer of cold sweat had already formed on his forehead. He leaned against the door to take a few breaths and rearrange himself. With a clear expression, he called into the house, “Mom.”

This was where Xie Qing’s adoptive parents, Gu Mingguo and Zheng Jie, lived. It was also the house that Xie Qing lived in for more than ten years.

He had been living here ever since he was picked up by Gu Mingguo when he was seven till he graduated from highschool.

Not waiting for his mother’s response, Xie Qing frowned slightly. After wiping away his sweat, he quickly walked towards the living room. At this time, the sound of a ceramic bowl coming in contact with the ground came from the inner room accompanied by a sound of a heavy object falling to the ground. Xie Qing’s heart tightened and he quickened his pace.

Pushing open the door of the inner room, what could be seen was a bright and warm room. A man was lying quietly on the bed and beside the bed was a woman in her forties on the ground, her face full of surprise and disbelief.

“Mom, what’s going on?”

Xie Qing hurriedly went forward to help Zheng Jie up. But because of his poor health, his own legs weakened first. Fortunately, Zheng Jie regained her senses in time, so she quickly got up from the ground and held Xie Qing’s hand. Her eyes were full of worry, “I’m fine. But don’t you know what’s wrong with your own body? Quickly sit down. I’ve told you multiple times to call me to pick you up when you arrive at the station, but you don’t listen every time.”

Her chattering voice never stopped. But in her complaints, there was love and concern for him.

Xie Qing’s eyes bent as he held Zheng Jie’s palm. His fingers inadvertently touched the thick calluses on her palm. Xie Qing kept smiling, but sighed inwardly.

During the years of him doing missions in the small worlds, 034 would occasionally inform him about the situation here. It would even directly cast a screen in order for him to see his parents with his own eyes. Xie Qing even once thought to himself that if Gu Mingguo and Zheng Jie didn’t pick him from the snow all those years ago, would the two of them now have their own children and be living happily together?

At the very least, there wouldn’t be an unfortunate matter such as getting into a car accident when picking him up that caused Gu Mingguo to go into a vegetative state and made him lie in bed for ten years.

But this matter had already happened. All Xie Qing could do was to compensate them.

Zheng Jie didn’t notice the change in Xie Qing’s eyes. She took Xie Qing’s hand into her own, her eyes shining brightly and full of tears as she stared straight into Xie Qing’s beautiful eyes. She suppressed the excitement in her heart that had nowhere to be vented. With a hoarse voice she said, “I- I just saw your father’s hand move.”

Xie Qing froze for a moment.

“Really. I can guarantee that I didn’t see wrongly. He really did move a few times just now. I saw it.” The tears in Zheng Jie’s eyes dripped down as she kept repeating her words, “Really. He really moved.”

In a daze, Xie Qing seemed to hear 034’s voice.

[Xianzun, I forgot to mention it to you yesterday. All the life points are in place. Your father will recover soon. This time I’m really going to say goodbye. I hope your family will be blessed and stay happy forever.]

Xie Qing’s fingers moved and he embedded his nails in the flesh of his palm. He closed his eyes and said softly, “Thank you.”

“What?” Zhen Jie looked over towards him.

“I’m thanking the heavens.” Xie Qing smiled, “The heavens have returned dad to us.”

…

…

The news that Gu Mingguo seemed to be regaining his consciousness quickly spread among the Gu family. On that day, all members of the Gu family hurriedly gathered in front of his bed.

There were many members in the Gu family. The patriarch and matriarch were still alive. But the current matriarch was actually the old man’s second wife. Gu Mingguo was the eldest son of the Gu family and was born to the patriarch and his first wife. Later on, Gu Mingguo’s mother passed away and the patriarch married his second wife. Soon after his youngest son, Gu Jinghao, was born. Gu Jinghao was already married and had a son who was going to attend highschool soon.

There were so many people in this family and the amount of friction in the family wasn’t small either.

The matriarch was born with a pair of upturned eyes that made her look very fierce. She indeed was fierce and had a bitter temper. At the beginning, she was very dissatisfied with Gu Mingguo and Zheng Jie for adopting the seven year old Xie Qing. After Gu Mingguo had a car accident, she became even more dissatisfied with Xie Qing. It was common for her to call Xie Qing a ‘fool’ and today was no exception.

Standing in front of the bed while holding a cane for less than five minutes, the old matriarch frowned, “Didn’t you say the eldest is awake? From what I can see he looks the same as before. Who was it that even saw the eldest’s hands move? It can’t be this fool right?”

Zheng Jie’s good mood because of the awakening premonitions of her husband, who had been in a coma for ten years, was easily broken by the old lady’s words. She calmly dragged Xie Qing behind her, trying to use her thin body to block the old lady’s excessive eyes that were aimed at Xie Qing. Pursing her lips, she repeated once more, “Qingqing is not a fool. Mom, don’t say that. Besides, I was the one who saw Mingguo’s hand move.”

The old lady snorted angrily, rolled her eyes and muttered in a low voice, “From what I can see, you don’t seem to be normal either. Maybe you were mistaken.”

Her words fell into Zheng Jie’s ears, making her even more unhappy.

She didn’t like the old lady of the Gu family from the beginning to the end. The old lady was from the old man’s second marriage, so she didn’t like the son that was left behind by the old man’s first wife. But since they were family anyways, she couldn’t just say anything. The gap in treatment between the old lady’s son and Gu Mingguo was really a bit big.

The reason why she didn’t like Xie Qing wasn’t because he wasn’t a member of the Gu family, but because of his existence that enabled Gu Mingguo to have an extra child and ask for his share of the property to be left to Xie Qing.

Without Xie Qing, the money would have belonged to her grandson at the end of the day.

Zheng Jie was well aware of the old lady’s mind but she didn’t say anything due to wanting to preserve the face of the family. What’s more, although the old lady was too much, the old man still loved Gu Mingguo. Zheng Jie didn’t want to make things too ugly.

Zheng Jie, as always, didn’t quarrel with the old lady. Suddenly a hand was put on her shoulder. She saw that it was Xie Qing who had put his arm around her shoulder. He took advantage of his tall height to glance at the old lady. His lips curled up as he chuckled and said, “If you don’t know how to speak, just shut up. It’s displeasing to those that hear your words.”

For a moment, the whole room fell silent.

The old lady, Gu Jinghao and even Zheng Jie all stared at Xie Qing.

Zheng Jie opened her mouth and was about to say something but found that her shoulders seemed to be gently squeezed by the young man beside her. This movement also made Zheng Jie realize that he seemed to know something. Her hands that were on either side of her body clenched slightly.

“You… eldest nephew, how can you talk like this? This is your grandma. Have you really lost your mind?” Gu Jinghao’s life was very different from Gu Mingguo’s. He was a strong man with a rough voice that was enough to make Xie Qing’s ear buzz.

Xie Qing held Zheng Jie’s shoulders and took a step back, smiling at Gu Jinghao, “Second uncle must be joking. If I really had become a fool, I should have been as transparent as I was before when you mocked my mother.”

Gu Jinghao was stunned for a while and turned dumbfounded in an instant.

But the old lady lost her temper.

“You little bastard! What did you say? Is this how you treat your elders? I’ve said this from the beginning that things that were picked up on the streets must be unwanted by others. There should be something wrong with the person. You still didn’t believe me, saying that he’s a good boy! Is this a good boy? This good boy can’t compare to Xuanxuan who is going to attend junior highschool!”

Her cane angrily knocked on the wooden floor and the sound that reverberated sounded harsh. No one noticed Gu Mingguo who started to frown slightly on the bed.

“Is this my attitude towards grandpa?” Xie Qing laughed, “Aren’t you ashamed to use the word ‘elder’ in front of me to suppress me? My mother respects you, so she bore with it and listened to your sarcasm all these years. I was a fool before to also have just listened all those years ago silently. But it’s different now. If you’re too old to learn how to speak human words, then you can just quickly roll out of my house.”

Even when he said the word ‘roll’ he said it calmly, looking gentle and polite.

After a pause, he looked into the eyes of the old lady and found the disgust and anger in those cloudy but shrewd eyes, “From what I can see, you’ve always disliked our family of three. It’s best for you and for us if you can just leave here as soon as possible.”

Seeing that the atmosphere in the room was becoming more and more tense, as if it was going to explode with just a slight touch, the old man hurriedly used his hands to pull the old lady back. At the same time, Gu Jinghao’s wife said in a low voice, “I seem to have seen elder brother’s hand move.”

“Really?” The old man stopped holding back the old lady and immediately stepped forward towards the bed.

Looking at Gu Mingguo’s wrinkled face on the bed, the old man’s thoughts were in a disarray and his mood was extremely complicated. When Gu Mingguo and Zheng Jie picked up Xie Qing and decided to adopt him, they were only in their twenties. The old man didn’t think badly of that decision at that time. Xie Qing was a well-behaved, obedient and sensible child.

But as time passed year by year, he found that his eldest son and daughter-in-law seemed to have no plans to have children. He pulled his son aside to ask and his son told him that they had already regarded Xie Qing as their own son.

At that time, the old man was really unwilling. But this reluctance gradually disappeared with the passage of time. However, at that moment, his eldest son had a car accident and laid in bed for ten years. The old man also blamed Xie Qing for this matter.

Emotionally, the old man blamed Xie Qing. But rationally, what did it have to do with Xie Qing who was just a child?

Xie Qing was also very pitiful. Such a small child was thrown in the snow and he almost froze to death. He was then frightened stupid in a car accident. Even so, when he knew that the family was short on money, he went to look for part-time jobs. According to his daughter-in-law, it had not been easy for the child all these years.

The old man flattened Gu Mingguo’s clothes and said softly, “Mingguo, you should really wake up soon. Your wife and son have been waiting for you for ten years.”

Zheng Jie and Xie Qing stood on one side as she held her husband’s fingers, praying silently.

On the other side, the old lady looked at the warm ‘family’ and was very angry. She wished that she could pick up her cane to knock Xie Qing and Zheng Jie unconscious. Out of sight, out of mind. She gave a look at her son and Gu Jinghao immediately rushed over towards her to hold his mother’s hand, howling loudly as he did so, “Aiya! What’s wrong with you mom? Are you feeling uncomfortable?”

The old lady held her chest as she weakly said, “My heart hurts. I can’t breathe.”

“What——”

Gu Jinghao’s words were interrupted by Xie Qing, “Don’t worry, I’ll help you call an ambulance right now. You can go to the hospital for a general examination. If you’re not healthy, I’ll help you pay your medical bills.”

Gu Jinghao had a bad feeling when he heard this. Sure enough, the old lady couldn’t hold back.

“Little bastard! Who are you cursing to get ill?! Even if you die, I still won’t get sick!”

Xie Qing looked at her with an insincere smile, “Looks like your body is indeed very good. Your reaction is fast enough and you’re full of anger when you curse. What’s the matter? Does your heart still hurt? Can you still breathe with the pain?”

The old lady, “…”

The old lady’s face turned as green as the hulk toy that Gu Jinghao bought for his son. 

1

guys this is in a threatening tone like wait for my retaliation. I REPEAT ML IS NOT THE ACTOR. ML IS NOT THE ACTOR. ML IS NOT THE ACTOR. IMPORTANT THINGS MUST BE REPEATED 3x Anyways… the ML here is actually so side-charactery that even the villains had more scenes than he did

2

Oh ya I forgot to mention. LMAO THE AUTHOR ACTUALLY WARNED US SAYING THIS NOVEL IS MARY SUE MC HAHAHAHAHA DUDE I’M TRANSLATING A NON MARY SUE NOVEL AND A MARY SUE NOVEL HAHAHAH STEPPING ON TWO BOATS HAD NEVER BEEN SO SATISFYING FOR ME!!

3

Xinghe: Me, who is currently standing in a bus while editing this……….

4

At this point I’m not exactly sure if he meant piano or zither cuz they use the same word and my tiny brain doesn’t know which it was but I’m pretty sure it’s the piano cuz in a standard modern Mary Sue, one must know how to play the piano