Reborn as a Substitute

The address given by Xie Xuanming was a famous villa area in Baimao City.

Municipal planning did not allow building single-family villas that could seize already tight land resources in the city. The villa area where Xie Xuanming’s house was located could be regarded as unique. Although it was not in the centre of the city, it was still the sub-center circle and the surrounding city parks made a house in this community a real symbol of affluence.

Generally speaking, as long as someone announced this address as their destination, the public would admit their wealth and status and cast envious glances at them.

Of course there were exceptions.

Ji Sheng finally stopped a taxi in his urban village. After he mentioned the address, the driver took a subtle look at his shabby clothes, then glanced at his handsome face, at the split corner of his lips and the unhealed scar by his eye…

A beautiful boy with injuries on his face.

The driver sighed quietly. People with a lot of strange fetishes had money, who could blame poor young people for rushing to eat this bowl of rice.

Ji Sheng’s urban village and the wealthy area were at opposite ends of the city and to get there one had to cross more than half of the city. The rehearsal ended at eight o’clock, and after taking a shower, it was already half past eight. Ji Sheng looked at the time; it was definitely too late for a subway and a bus if he wanted to arrive before nine o’clock, so he had to take a taxi.

In the back seat, Ji Sheng touched his pocket. There was only 110.7 yuan in the second-hand mobile phone account, and this pitiful amount was destined to be greatly reduced when he got out of the car.

Ji Sheng arrived at the villa area at ten minutes past nine.

Security guards in wealthy areas were paid twice as much as their counterparts in other places, so their work was naturally first-class and dedicated.

No matter how Ji Sheng tried to explain, the security guard insisted that no one should enter without being picked up by a property owner or at least a telephone permission.

Ji Sheng wanted to give Xie Xuanming another call, but he was afraid that Xie Xuanming would make a fuss because of being bothered for this “ordinary matter” and order to get kicked him out of here. So Ji Sheng had to take a step back: “Can I wait for someone to pick me up at the gate?”

The security guard was still not happy, probably because he thought that Ji Sheng standing there would spoil the view.

However, the entrance of the community was not under the jurisdiction of the security guard and he could only reluctantly agree to Ji Sheng’s suggestion.

Ji Sheng stood by the gate for two hours.

Xie Xuanming was very punctual, and at the same time very prone to having double standards.

He asked Ji Sheng to arrive by nine o’clock and Ji Sheng had to work hard to appear by then, but at the same time he did not say “I will wait for you there at nine o’clock”, cutting off any expectations for the possibility of his appearance at this time to zero.

By the time Ji Sheng figured it out, he had been standing by the gate for more than an hour and a half. Without changing his expression, he gave Xie Xuanming an international friendly gesture in his heart, lowered his head and rubbed his legs.

Ji Sheng’s injured legs had not healed yet and it hurt to stand for too long. In the end, he couldn’t stand anymore, so he squatted down, shrinking himself into a hamster under the frowning gaze of the security guard.

When Xie Xuanming came back, he saw the following scene——at the entrance of the community, Ji Sheng curled up in a ball, hugging his knees and with his head lowered, revealing only a fluffy curl of hair to the outside world. The ever-dedicated security guard was holding a stick defensively, confronting the hamster as if meeting a great enemy, like Runtu facing a badger(1).

Shame.

This was Xie Xuanming’s first thought.

He asked Ji Sheng to wait, but he didn’t expect that this guy would use such a hamster nesting casual waiting method.

“Stop the car,” Xie Xuanming said coldly.

He pushed the door and got out of the car, walked over to the ambiguous ball on the ground, resisted the urge to reach out and kick it, and leaned down.

Ji Sheng was hugging his legs and reviewing the rehearsal in his mind, when he suddenly realized that his feet were off the ground.

He tilted his head, looked at Xie Xuanming, who had picked him up, and said politely, “Good morning.”

He glanced at the time calmly and apologised: “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought it was already early in the morning. ”

Xie Xuanming ignored his eccentricity: “If you are willing to squat until the early hours of the morning, I don’t mind.”

“I mind.” Ji Sheng straightened his legs and put his feet on the ground, patted his pants, smiled and waved to the security guard, “The person who picks me up is here, can I go in?”

The security guard sensed some ambiguity in his words, but before he had time to think about it, he saw that the movie star surnamed Xie tsked and walked towards the car without looking back. The boy who had been squatting for a long time hastily said goodbye and turned to catch up with him.

The two got into the car and drove into the community.

The security guard withdrew his gaze.

The guys were quite good-looking, but either one really didn’t look right.

The strange world of the rich.

When Ji Sheng entered the villa, he was stunned by the familiar decoration and design style.

He was sure that he had never been to Xie Xuanming’s house, at least not in his previous life. Then this kind of vague sense of familiarity could only come from the original owner of this body, Ji Hui.

Xie Xuanming had brought Ji Hui to his home before.

Ji Sheng was a little surprised.

Xie Xuanming didn’t seem to be the kind of character who would easily allow people to invade his private realm.

While Ji Sheng kept looking around, Xie Xuanming poured a glass of water in a small open kitchen and said coldly: “Who are you going to sell the information to?”

Ji Hui was selling information?

Ji Sheng captured the key point.

What information? Was it related to Xie Xuanming? Who was it being sold to?

Was this why he annoyed Xie Xuanming?

Ji Sheng’s brain worked quickly, but he almost immediately chose to ignore the large number of doubts that followed and focused on the problem that needed to be solved most at the moment.

He walked up to Xie Xuanming and stretched out his hand.

“130.”

“What?”

“130, reimburse the taxi money.”

“It costs 70 to your dorm any day,” Xie Xuanming said coldly. “No matter how much you love money, cheating for 60 is too much.”

“65 is one way. If you don’t have any plans to keep me in the golden house, I have to go back tomorrow.” Ji Sheng calmly settled the accounts, “You shouldn’t be short of money, so those 60 are not your last.”

The atmosphere solidified.

After two seconds, Ji Sheng took out his mobile phone and shook it tentatively: “WeChat? ”

Xie Xuanming put down the cup lightly, turned and walked into the room.

The door panel slammed shut, making the thin wall tremble.

Ji Sheng was stuck in place, putting away his mobile phone and shrugging.

So, it’s cash.

Xie Xuanming didn’t come out for a long time.

Ji Sheng didn’t expect to have to wait when he came here. He really couldn’t stand anymore. He cautiously found a place to sit down and prayed that Xie Xuanming would not go crazy and kick him out, or beat him up first and kick him out later because he had defiled his leather couch. 

Just after midnight, Xie Xuanming came out. He gave Ji Sheng a very stingy look and said succinctly: “Come here.”

Ji Sheng didn’t know where to go, so he had to get up and follow him upstairs.

Walking up the stairs, Ji Sheng hurriedly took a glance at the layout of the villa.

The room Xie Xuanming was staying in just now should be a study or a studio, and the direction he was going to——

It was the master bedroom.

“You sit there.”

Ji Sheng glanced silently at the large bed in the centre of the master bedroom, and according to Xie Xuanming’s instructions, sat down on the couch beside the large bed.

As soon as Ji Sheng sat down, Xie Xuanming walked towards him.

In the shadow of his tall figure, Ji Sheng leaned back silently.

You don’t sleep in a bed, you choose a couch.

What a strange fetish.

Xie Xuanming took two steps closer, propped his hand on the back of the couch and looked down at Ji Sheng from above: “Do you know what to do?”

Ji Sheng froze for a second, then began to take off his shirt without saying a word.

He was wearing a shirt with many buttons today. It was painful to put it on, and it was even more painful to take it off.

Ji Sheng unbuttoned it slowly, his movements deliberate and sincere, as if he was the only one left in the whole world, alone with the white-washed shabby denim shirt.

Xie Xuanming sneered.

When the third button was undone, Ji Sheng finally couldn’t maintain his composure and looked up with his collar open, asking a self-defeating question, “Got any lube and condoms?”

“No.” Xie Xuanming sneered even more, “I don’t need those things.”

Very good; Ji Sheng was expressionless.

God d*mn it, die and get reborn.

And die again of pain on a man’s bed.

It’s so d*mn good.

While Ji Sheng was cursing the injustice of fate frantically, Xie Xuanming didn’t have the patience to wait and pushed him down.

Ji Sheng was startled, forced back by him, and reclined on the couch.

Xie Xuanming’s sharp Adam’s apple was right before his eyes. Ji Sheng closed his eyes instinctively and only a strong fragrance of cut grass filled his senses now.

In this chaos, Ji Sheng suddenly became distracted.

Xie Xuanming clearly didn’t like to use perfume before.

At least the time at the bar when Xie Xuanming pressed up against him, his mouth tasted sour with sparkling wine but his body was unexpectedly clean, with only the residual scent of shower gel.

Not like a breakout star, more like a high school student.

But that was ages ago, after all.

People do change.

Ji Sheng felt inexplicably uncomfortable. He kept his eyes closed and gave up struggling, lying like a corpse. He lay for some time in self-loathing, but the grassy scent suddenly dissipated and the light before his eyelids changed from dim to bright orange.

Ji Sheng opened his eyes tentatively when he heard the rustling sound.

The first thing he saw was a bright crystal lamp illuminating the master bedroom. Then his gaze shifted down to Xie Xuanming standing by the couch, a towel and pyjamas hanging from his arm, as he tilted his head to drip eye drops into his eyes.

After he finished dripping into his right eye, he changed to dripping into his left eye.

After dripping the eye drops in both eyes, Xie Xuanming leaned over and put the vial of eye drops back on the bedside table.

He quickly brushed past Ji Sheng, in a perfunctory manner as if he could not see that there was a living person sitting on the couch, or as if he simply regarded Ji Sheng as an unimportant, negligible object like a pillow.

A humanoid pillow that looked like his white moonlight.

A beautiful one-to-one handcrafted reproduction.

Ji Hui, or Ji Sheng, was probably something like this in his eyes.

After putting away the eye drops, Xie Xuanming went to the bathroom. Soon the sound of pattering water came from behind the wall.

He didn’t give Ji Sheng an extra look the whole time, except for the upward curve of his mouth, which was mocking in every way.

Ji Sheng sat on the couch, his clothes tattered and messy.

He didn’t care to be annoyed by Xie Xuanming’s ridicule; his mind was filled with only one piece of data.

He probably knew what information Ji Hui leaked.

Xie Xuanming, the newcomer movie star, the pillar of the box office, the king of hot topics.

The prince on a black horse of countless girls, the dream lover of countless gay guys.

Such a popular lover, oh no, he couldn’t do it.

Ji Sheng came to this conclusion with great seriousness.

He bought a pitiful young boy who looked seven or eight points similar to his white moonlight just to let him sit by the bed and tell himself the bedtime story of three little pigs.

Such abstinence in a magnificent young man who looked like a wolf or a tiger…

Either he was a staunch follower of Plato.

Or a potential buyer of Viagra.

Ji Sheng felt that Plato might not be happy to accept this kind of unfilial disciple who would knock out human teeth without saying a word.

Therefore, Xie Xuanming must have been the latter.

Thinking of this, Ji Sheng suddenly understood Xie Xuanming’s anger.

If this kind of private matter was exposed by a pillow man (literally), who would be able to bear it?

Ji Sheng certainly felt that he wouldn’t.

So Xie Xuanming should be even more unable to.

After Xie Xuanming took a shower, he instructed Ji Sheng to stay still, and went to bed.

His movements were proficient to perfection. Ji Sheng thought that similar things must have happened many times. The simple couch under him that was seriously inconsistent with the bedroom decoration style was estimated to be a XXXXL-size “action figure stand” in Xie Xuanming’s eyes.

Ji Sheng was solemn for a moment.

It once again affirmed the authenticity of the information about Xie Xuanming’s impotence.

Xie Xuanming didn’t know that he just took a shower and Ji Sheng had already created such a misconception in his mind.

Xie Xuanming took his mobile phone to reply to some messages, glanced at “Ji Hui” who was honestly staying where he was put, and thought that judging from the stress response just now, the amnesia he mentioned was probably not a lie.

This made Xie Xuanming have a bare minimum of trust in ”Ji Hui”.

Xie Xuanming turned off the phone and lay down on his side.

He fell asleep, but Ji Sheng was still a little dumbfounded.

Of course it was good not to have to sell his body, but did he have to sit on the couch like this all night?

As soon as this thought came out, Ji Sheng felt his backache instantly soared up a few levels.

Ji Sheng hammered his waist bitterly, thinking that the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility, and the deeper the sickness, the better the golden master.

Everything had a reason, but Ji Sheng didn’t want to hear it.

Fortunately, Xie Xuanming specifically told him to sit until he fell asleep.

In other words, after Xie Xuanming fell asleep, Ji Sheng could lie down.

After Ji Sheng completed his reading comprehension exercise, he began to hypnotise Xie Xuanming silently in his mind.

Go to sleep, go to sleep, my dear gold master, my dear drum kit supplier.

Mom loves you, Dad loves you, and I love you too.

It’s just that your white moonlight doesn’t love you.

He kept urging steadily, as if praying.

Xie Xuanming seemed to have problems sleeping. Several times Ji Sheng felt that he was going to fall asleep, but he suddenly opened his eyes and looked like an eagle at Ji Sheng who was about to lie down.

Ji Sheng could only return to his post and sit up straight as honestly as a student caught by the head teacher while skipping a lesson.

Xie Xuanming opened his eyes several times, and Ji Sheng suddenly developed a subtle feeling.

Xie Xuanming would not be so idle as to supervise him.

It was more like he was looking at someone through Ji Hui’s face.

Someone who was not by his side.

Ji Sheng smiled, dumbfounded.

What?

Xie Xuanming, movie emperor on stage and mad dog off stage, was unable to fall asleep without seeing the white moonlight’s face?

It was really weird.

It was the kind of weird that no one would believe even if you told them about it.

Xie Xuanming closed his eyes and opened them a few times, then finally closed his eyes at two o’clock in the morning and fell asleep.

After several previous lessons, Ji Sheng didn’t dare to lie down immediately. He cautiously decided to observe for a while.

Xie Xuanming wore a face of the King of Hell when he was awake, and was not easy to approach when he was asleep either. His elegant eyebrows were furrowed and his eyelashes twitched uncontrollably in his restless sleep.

His compressed lips gradually opened slightly and a faint whisper floated out.

Ji Sheng held his breath and concentrated but could not capture the words.

He got up quietly, leaned forward, about to eavesdrop, and froze suddenly.

At a distance of one foot from him, Xie Xuanming frowned with a deep wrinkle between his eyebrows, his forehead covered with cold sweat.

He clutched the quilt and whispered bitterly:

“Ji Sheng… you owe me…”

1. Runtu is a character from ‘My Old Home’ by Lu Xun, apparently having some enmity with badgers