Reborn as a Substitute

The air conditioner kept working and the flow of cold air swept over Ji Sheng’s neck, literally causing him goosebumps.

He looked at the woman at the head of the bed and his pupils dilated for a moment before shrinking.

“Who are you?”

The woman didn’t answer, but turned her head slightly, revealing a hideous scar on her forehead: “You don’t look scared at all.”

There was a bit of surprise in her tone: “I have seen so many artists, and you are the calmest one.”

Ji Sheng didn’t want to accept the appreciation of someone who appeared at his bedside in the middle of the night.

The bad feeling in his heart intensified; Ji Sheng shrank back, the back of his head gently touching the wall.

He raised his eyes to stare at the visitor, sizing her up in the dim light of the air conditioner sensors: “Are you a sisheng?”

The woman at the head of the bed smiled when she heard his words, but did not answer.

Ji Sheng squinted.

Despite the bandages and the slight distortion of her face, the woman in front of him still matched a certain abominable image in his memory.

His pupils suddenly contracted, his hands trembled uncontrollably clenching into fists, and the phantom pain tearing his wrist became clearer.

“You are not worthy of me being your sisheng. I have no interest in chasing paste coffee.” The sisheng laughed.

“Then why come to my house?” Ji Sheng resisted the nausea and pretended to be confused, “There is no need to break into the house illegally for a passer-by.”

“Is this your house?” The sisheng asked mockingly.

“…” Ji Sheng was silent for a moment, then changed the subject, “Do you like Xie Xuanming?”

“Xie Xuanming?” The sisheng raised her eyebrows, and her scars squirmed in the shadows, “Merely a handsome face, but too uninteresting. I don’t like lunatics.”

She leaned over, getting closer. Ji Sheng couldn’t stop his nausea when he saw the insect-like scar on her forehead approaching.

“You really look like him.” The sisheng lowered her face and said fiercely, “Looking at you… makes me want to slash your face.”

The tone of her voice in the second half of the sentence was grim and cold, carrying the malice that was not fake.

Ji Sheng leaned back silently, pressing his neck against the bed: “Lady, I don’t understand what you are talking about. But this is my bedroom. If you don’t leave, I will call the police.”

With that said, he straightened up, pushed the sisheng’s shoulder and made a gesture to reach for the mobile phone on the bedside table.

The sisheng clasped him with a reverse grip, sticking the nails of her bandaged hand into his arm.

Her next sentence made Ji Sheng freeze.

“Is this really your bedroom?“ The sisheng’s words were like the hiss of a poisonous snake, “Xie Xuanming, a well-known actor, nurtures a 18th tier star in a private villa… guess how many days it can dominate the headlines.”

Ji Sheng retracted his hand, threw away the sisheng forcefully and asked in a deep voice, “Are you here for Xie Xuanming?”

“No.” The sisheng denied quickly; she took a step back and stood upright, her snake-like eyes staring at Ji Sheng viciously, her gaze horrible, “I’m here for you… it’s just a matter of pulling him into the water by the way.”

“Me?” Ji Sheng’s face also showed a bit of confusion, “Where did I provoke you?”

“You went to see Sheng Kongzhi a few days ago, right?” The sisheng asked quickly, “What did you talk about?”

“Oh, so you are a sisheng of Sheng Kongzhi… You are so powerful but you can’t tap some wire?” Ji Sheng didn’t hold back the sarcasm, “Or… did you use too many similar methods and made him wary?”

He lowered his voice, easily causing the sisheng to feel anxious: “Senior Sheng is not the type who turns away from people. To make him so guarded… What disgusting thing have you done?”

“Cut the crap.” The sisheng was really irritated and her tone became sharp. She said harshly, “I know more than a dozen marketing accounts. If you say a few more words, I will have them post the news now.”

Ji Sheng didn’t doubt the truth of her words, so he had to answer, and said half-truth and half-falsehood: “Sheng Kongzhi asked me to change jobs and go to his company.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, maybe he wants to poach from Xie Xuanming, or…” Ji Sheng paused and said, “I happen to have a face similar to his late friend.”

After hearing this, the sisheng exploded immediately, suddenly screaming frantically.

“I knew it… I knew it! Ji Sheng, that bitch is a ghost!!” She lunged forward, grabbing Ji Sheng’s face like crazy, “One Ji Sheng wasn’t enough, now there is another one of you!! I clearly told them to kill you at the time… This bunch of trash, good-for-nothings, useless, you…”

Before she finished speaking, she was pushed away by Ji Sheng.

“It was you who kidnapped Ji… me in the first place?” Ji Sheng looked at her in disbelief.

“So what, you are really lucky, hiding here with Xie Xuanming for a long time.” The sisheng stumbled to her feet, a sardonic grin of cynicism and hatred on her face.

“Senior Ji Sheng, did you also do it?” Ji Sheng asked loudly, “Why did you do this? Even if he sexually harassed your idol, it should be public opinion and the law that punished him. Besides, Sheng Kongzhi told me that Ji Sheng didn’t harass him at all, it was just the company…”

“Shut up!!” The sisheng screamed again, “What do you know? Ji Sheng, that bitch, getting next to Kongzhi is blasphemy against Kongzhi. How dared he seduce Kongzhi, he deserved to die!!”

Ji Sheng’s throat trembled with anger; he barely managed to steady his mind as he said in disgust: “You should really go to see a psychiatrist. Maybe you can reduce the sentence for the crimes of intentional injuries and premeditated murder.”

When he said this, the sisheng calmed down. She hugged herself with her arms, chuckled a little and said with a gloomy expression: “You should worry about yourself first.”

After that, the sisheng pounced on him again fiercely.

Ji Sheng’s nerves were on edge; the lessons of the previous life made him dare not underestimate the methods of the person in front of him.

He quickly leaned back to dodge, but this made the sisheng even more intent on achieving her purpose. She swung her hand, her palm going straight to his neck.

Ji Sheng quickly grabbed her left hand and wrenched it away, but he couldn’t stop the movement of her other hand approaching his face.

Ji Sheng vaguely saw a cloth-like thing in the sisheng’s hand. Before he could understand what it was, the cloth pressed against his face and the wet touch made his heart sink.

Ji Sheng’s mind was blank for a second, and then he struggled violently, but the sisheng on top of him was pressing the cloth to his face with all her strength. The cloth was soaked in some unknown medicine that gradually entered Ji Sheng’s lungs as he breathed. Ji Sheng only felt weaker and weaker, and his struggles began to falter…

His mind was falling into a daze, and his sense of foreboding and desire to resist disappeared.

When he was about to close his eyes, the bedroom door was kicked open with a bang.

The sisheng was grabbed and thrown aside.

Ji Sheng only felt a light touch on his body, and when he raised his eyes again, he was helped to sit up by Xie Xuanming, and the lights in the room suddenly lit up.

Ji Sheng’s eyes stung from the white light, tearing up, but Xie Xuanming covered his eyes in time, pressing his other hand to his midsection, rubbing it gently.

“Are you okay?” Xie Xuanming’s words were full of chaotic emotions.

Ji Sheng was somewhat dazed and it took a while before he replied: “Yes, I’m fine.”

His vision was blocked, but his hearing was more acute.

There were quick footsteps on the stairs, and someone shouted: “Don’t move, squat down with your hands on your head.”

Then the screams of the sisheng started again, and the shouts of “behave yourself” and “don’t move” followed, accompanied with the distinctive metallic sound of handcuffs clicking.

Ji Sheng gasped for breath, allowing Xie Xuanming to rub his stomach.

The noise gradually faded away, and Ji Sheng could only hear Xie Xuanming whispering, “It’s okay, don’t be afraid.”

The sisheng was quickly taken away by the police, the farce ended, and Ji Sheng finally emerged from his state of shock.

Xie Xuanming carefully pulled away his hand. After Ji Sheng squinted to adapt to the light, he was startled when he saw how pale Xie Xuanming’s face was.

“I’m going to wash my face.” Xie Xuanming also knew that he had lost his composure. His back was soaked in cold sweat and he didn’t want to be seen like that, so he whispered that quickly and headed for the bathroom.

Ji Sheng gently grabbed the corner of his clothes.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Xie Xuanming didn’t look back, and repeated, “I’m going to wash my face… I’ll be back soon.”

When Xie Xuanming said “soon”, it was really soon. In less than a minute, he came out of the bathroom. His lips were still pale, but there was finally a bit of blood on his face.

“What did she have on the cloth she used to cover my nose?” Ji Sheng asked, relieved to see that he was better.

“I don’t know, we have to wait for the police to test it, but it’s not a legal drug.” Xie Xuanming walked back to him, lowered his head and asked, “Are you uncomfortable? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

“No, I’m fine.” Ji Sheng hurriedly denied, “I just wanted to confirm whether she was guilty as charged.”

Xie Xuanming looked at him; there was a red mark on Ji Sheng’s cheek, a wound that had been scratched by a nail.

A touch of red on his fair face was particularly shocking.

Xie Xuanming looked for a while, raised his hand, and gently stroked the red mark with the back of his hand. A shadow of a long-forgotten violence flashed in his eyes.

“You shouldn’t have been left alone.” He gritted his teeth tightly.

The plan for the trap had been decided by the two of them together. The sisheng acted cautiously, but unfortunately for her, the more she moved, the more she exposed herself. Especially after Ji Sheng and Sheng Kongzhi met, she acted almost irrationally, going so far as to sneak into Xie Xuanming’s home while he was out.

Xie Xuanming noticed that the door lock was strange and pulled up the home surveillance. When he saw the figure of the sisheng in it, he directly contacted the police and reported the case.

After receiving “an anonymous threat message about Ji Yueming’s disappearance” tonight, Xie Xuanming knew that it was the sisheng who was going to act. He pretended to say goodbye to Ji Sheng and left in his car. In fact, he came back after driving a circle, confirmed that Ji Yueming was not in trouble and called the police. He took the police from the underground garage into the house, used surveillance to confirm the situation in the bedroom, and immediately went upstairs to subdue the sisheng when he saw her.

“If I were not alone, how would she feel comfortable telling the truth?” Ji Sheng smiled, raised his head and asked, “It’s all recorded, right?”

“Yes, the recording was handed over to the police, and they also caught the accomplice downstairs.” Xie Xuanming withdrew his hand, “She was very confident, and she was experienced doing this kind of thing herself.”

“Fetish.” Ji Sheng was not surprised. From the moment he caught a glimpse of the sisheng in the surveillance of “Music First”, he guessed that she had a habit of doing things herself. After that he discussed it with Xie Xuanming and came up with this decision.

Not only did they capture her, but there were also bonuses.

Ji Sheng rubbed his neck; the moment the sisheng pounced on him, her hideous face overlapped with the face from the forgotten memory of his previous life.

“I just got a good look at her and suddenly remembered that I actually had seen the face of the owner of the car involved in the accident.” Ji Sheng said softly.

Xie Xuanming’s body stiffened, and he asked gloomily, ”Wouldn’t it also be…”

“Yes, it was her.” Ji Sheng let out a long breath and affirmed.

Xie Xuanming was silent for a few seconds, and said in a low voice, “The police should not have been allowed to intervene…”

His voice was frighteningly cold, and Ji Sheng didn’t doubt the hidden meaning of his words.

After all, from the time he was a teenager, Xie Xuanming was not an innocent image of a good boy.

But this did not mean that Ji Sheng would let him drift in the dark river either.

Ji Sheng raised his head to look at Xie Xuanming. Half of his face was illuminated but his eyelashes blocked the light, his pupils dark and unreadable.

Ji Sheng sighed, frowned, covered his wrist and said softly, half-true and half-false: “My hand hurts.”

This immediately distracted Xie Xuanming from all kinds of thoughts. He leaned closer, asking eagerly, “What’s the matter, did you hurt anything?”

“No…” Ji Sheng held his wrist and pursed his lips as if in pain. “It’s probably a phantom pain from a psychological effect, but it really hurts.”

Xie Xuanming looked down for a while, then straightened up: “Wasn’t it your right hand that was injured before?”

Ji Sheng: ……

Ji Sheng changed his hands without changing his expression and switched to covering his right wrist with his left hand.

“It hurts…”

The gloomy expression quickly faded from Xie Xuanming’s face, replaced by a cold look of “pretend again, I will watch”.

As if he hadn’t seen it, Ji Sheng grabbed the hem of Xie Xuanming’s clothes with a hook of his finger, and softly said shamelessly: “Sing me a song. It won’t hurt if you sing me a song.”