Hard to Escape/In Love with a Counterfeit Tall Rich Handsome

Then when school officially started, things really did follow Yin Li’s arrangements to a tee. Uncle Chen had my class schedule, and everyday he’d be right on time, giving me me no opportunity to stay longer at school, and furthermore no opportunity to socialize with my classmates. A week passed with me coming and going alone, returning home immediately after the end of class, and no one took the initiative to strike up a conversation with me.

Ai, so lonesome. In the resting interval between French intensive reading lessons, I could only stare absentmindedly towards the front of the room, my eyes glazed over.

“Hi, nice to meet you. You’re called Yan Xiao right?”

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by having such favor bestowed upon me, I stared at the girl in front who’d taken the initiative to talk to me. If I remembered correctly, her name was Wu Mei.

“It’s like this, tomorrow on Friday afternoon we don’t have class, so we wanted to go watch the new movie No Escape. Something came up for Su Lin Lin so she can’t go. There’s an extra ticket, want to come?”

I saw that there were other female students behind Wu Mei watching me. What a wonderful opportunity! Of course, I agreed with my eyes shining, “Okay!”

Wu Mei was stunned by my unexpected response. She was surprised that I agreed so easily. Then with a shy smile she said, “Then we’ll meet up tomorrow at one o’clock at the school gates.”

I nodded with a smile, my mind already calculating how to obtain a leave of absence from Yin Li.

That night as Yin Li and I ate dinner, I sensed that the mood was good and spoke.

“Tomorrow afternoon I’ll return later than usual. Don’t make Uncle Chen pick me up, when I’m done I’ll call a taxi.”

Yin Li put down his fork and knife. “Do you have something scheduled tomorrow afternoon?”

His eyes watched me closely. Although his voice didn’t have any particular undertone, I still faintly sensed his displeasure. Driven by some supernatural impulse, I lied.

1 鬼使神差 is an idiom translating to “demons and gods at work”. It’s used to describe an unusual event that seems to have a supernatural explanation; a curious coincidence.

“There’s a general assembly for our class in the French department.”

Yin Li’s appetite for control was too strong, and I desperately craved freedom. I disliked not being able to keep a single secret from Yin Li. But I had a vague feeling that I lacked the qualifications to talk with Yin Li about secrets, and that Yin Li didn’t actually want me to have my own social circle.

Yin Li at this time declined to comment. He only cut out a piece of steak and unhurriedly brought it to his lips, not feeling any urgency to state his opinion.

Even though my mind was in a mess, I endured it and squarely met his eyes. Very frankly and without reservation I stared at him, the expression on my face magnanimous. When telling lies I had a great poker face, which had always been my pride and joy.

When Yin Li finally finished his steak, he smiled. “Seeing that it’s a school activity, go ahead and attend.” Unexpectedly, none of the obstacles I had prepared for appeared, making me feel like I’d used a villain’s heart to gauge a gentleman. I really felt ashamed of myself.

2 以小人之心度君子之腹 is a chengyu that means “to use the behavior one would expect from an evil person to anticipate an upright person’s behavior.”

But anyway, this was only small matter and I quickly set it aside. On Friday afternoon, when we agreed to meet up, my cheeks were already glowing red from my cheerful and excited mood.

But compared to my excitement, everyone’s expressions had some hesitation.

I jumped up from my motorized wheelchair, kindly explaining, “I heard that Shining Theater has a rule: if there’s a disabled customer, the theater will provide a VIP box. And also, this way we don’t need to go early to line up for seats.”

Then I sat back in my wheelchair. “See, this is motorized. It’s very convenient. There’s no need for someone to push me.”

“So you really got into a serious car accident? Was this the wheelchair you had used?” Wu Mei asked in amazement.

I spread my hands. “More accurately, I couldn’t even walk properly a month ago.” I swept my gaze across the group. Their guarded expressions relaxed and some even eked out a smile. Only a tall male student with a playful look narrowed his eyes and stared daggers at me, causing my hair to stand on end.

Regardless, I managed to take the first step towards making friends. The whole way, people were vying to talk with me.

“So you were this easy to get along with Yan Xiao! Originally, we were all afraid to even greet you.”

“That’s right! You’re a transfer student but besides class, you don’t even hang out on campus.”

“And you don’t even speak French with an accent. It’s as if you grew up in France. And all your clothes are designer. I’ve never seen you wear the same piece of clothing twice yet this week. At first, we all thought you were a snob and ignoring us broke college students.”

All my clothes were ones Yin Li had placed in my closet. Prompted by the reminder and discovering a complication, I snickered and said, “Don’t tell others but my clothes are all knockoffs. How about that? You can’t tell, right?” I then pointed at my scarf. “I bought this at a stall across the street for ten bucks.”

A girl shrieked: “Ah! Knockoffs are so amazing. They churn out the current trends so quickly! This design is an exact replica of one from Burberry’s current season! Next time you go shopping bring me along!”

The other girls also started clamoring. “Even knockoffs can have this effect! You don’t know this but upon your arrival, you stole the entire spotlight from Su Lin Lin.”

Then they pointed at a tall male student behind them. “You’ve got to recognize Wei Yan, right? Su Lin Lin is his girlfriend. They’re a union of the hottest guy and the prettiest girl.”

Phrased that way, I seemed to have remembered, especially Su Lin Lin. I remembered her unkind gaze and the resentment written across her face. She was indeed pretty. My presence today was actually thanks to her. Wu Mei told me Su Lin Lin didn’t like watching war flicks and thus, didn’t want to come with Wei Yan, who ended up coming with all of us. Subconsciously, I felt like Wei Yan harbored ill intentions towards me. He always looked at me pensively. I didn’t know whether the curve of his lips was a deriding sneer or not.

He saw through my lies. But in any case, I couldn’t care less about him.

Soon, we arrived at the movie theater. No Escape was an epic war film, and today was the premiere. As expected, even the line to get inside was long.

Because of my wheelchair, we were directed to the VIP pathway. Though it was the VIP pathway, there were esteemed guests who had first priority. The attendant apologized and asked us to wait while the esteemed guests went in first.

I sat listlessly in my wheelchair, but Wu Yan shouted: “Ah! It’s Liu Nian!”

The shout drew attention. Liu Nian was the female lead of No Escape. Because it was a war film, she didn’t have much screen time. Nevertheless, Liu Nian was the hottest rising star. Because of her pure appearance and upright image, she had many fans from both genders.

I curiously looked over. But I immediately regretted doing soon and felt like gouging out my own eyeballs.

Next to Liu Nian was Yin Li. Because of Wu Mei’s loud shout, the two looked over in our direction. Liu Nian displayed a radiant smile and waved magnanimously at her fans. Meanwhile, Yin Li had finally spotted me.

I was incredibly startled. In a frenzy, I wanted to stand up. But I was off balance and instead took a tumble and faceplanted on the carpet. Wei Yan crouched to help me up but I pushed him aside and struggled to get up by myself. I touched the corner of my lip and found blood.

At this point, I felt something amiss. Wei Yan’s playful smile became more apparent and Wu Mei and the group were all giving me meaningful glances.

“Miss… your leg?” The attendant spoke in slight shock. Finally reacting, he said, “Miss, you aren’t disabled?!”

With this, I also realized what went wrong. Cold sweat nearly trickled down from my forehead. Today I was supposed to act as a disabled person! Didn’t I ruin it just now?!

In the midst of the bright lights, I yelped, “Aiya!” and tried my best to crumple back down onto the ground, as if what just happened was just a dream.

Wei Yan couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

I could only grit my teeth and continue to crawl, cursing silently, Why isn’t he offering a helping hand now? When I had pushed him aside earlier, he should have insisted and used brute force to drag me back up to my wheelchair. At least that wouldn’t be as bad as making an embarrassment of myself in front of Yin Li. I regretted my actions earlier. It really would have been better to just stand.