Reborn as a Substitute

After Niepan withdrew, Xie Xuanming, as the mentor, continued to watch the farce coldly from the mentor’s seat. After the show crew quickly changed the ranking, made the second-place band the first and reluctantly announced that the season was over, he got up and left the recording scene without looking back.

Xie Xuanming wanted to go backstage to find Ji Sheng, but as soon as he got off the stage, someone rushed out in the corridor, blocking his way.

Ji Sheng braked abruptly in front of Xie Xuanming, patting his chest to suppress the big gasp caused by his hasty run.

The man he wanted to see bumped into him right away. Xie Xuanming’s indifferent expression became more relaxed: “Why are you in such a hurry?”

“Your watch.” Ji Sheng asked, “The Rolex one, the broken one, is it still there?”

“…it is.” Xie Xuanming didn’t know why he was asking, “Why do you suddenly ask about it…”

“I want to take a look.” Ji Sheng glanced at him, “Is it okay?” 

Xie Xuanming looked at him for a second and agreed: “Okay.”

Xie Xuanming drove Ji Sheng back to the villa, took out the key from the drawer, opened the study cabinet and took out a card and a key.

Ji Sheng watched him perform these operations and finally walked to the basement together with him.

“Is it in there?” Ji Sheng was slightly surprised. The master bedroom was equipped with a clothes room. In the middle of it there was an accessories table. Xie Xuanming’s belts, watches and cufflinks were stored in it. Ji Sheng originally thought that Rolex would also be there.

“En.” Xie Xuanming pushed open the door of the basement, “Come in.”

Ji Sheng walked into the basement; the drum set was still located in the centre and a new pair of drumsticks was placed on the wall. He didn’t pay attention when he came last time and only now did Ji Sheng see clearly that the brand of the drumsticks was the one used by him in his previous life.

While he was looking at the drumsticks, Xie Xuanming turned and opened a secret compartment in the wall and took out a box.

He opened the box and handed it to Ji Sheng: “See.”

Ji Sheng turned and stared intently. The skewed glass attached to the watch ring contrasted strongly with the dark blue velvet lining.

It was simply a piece of garbage packaged in a beautiful shell.

When he was young and stupid, he ignorantly ruined a famous watch like this.

Ji Sheng looked at the crooked screws and touched his nose in embarrassment.

Sorry as he was, Ji Sheng remembered the purpose of his visit and took the box, blocking out the light to take a closer look at the fluorescent scribbles on the watch glass.

Exactly the same.

The simple strokes drawn by him once were the logo of Xie Xuanming’s company.

At the sight of this reality, Ji Sheng’s hands shook, and Xie Xuanming stepped forward to help him, just in time to prevent the watch from being dropped once again.

“Sorry…” Ji Sheng said.

“It’s okay.” Xie Xuanming took the box and closed the lid.

Ji Sheng watched him put the watch box where he had found it, meticulously locking the secret compartment and pushing it to make sure it was correctly locked before turning back confidently.

Who would steal this kind of thing?

Ji Sheng swallowed hard; many words were stuck in his throat and couldn’t be uttered.

Xie Xuanming once again let him see his feelings generously. Even if it was a broken watch, Xie Xuanming solemnly stored it because it was related to Ji Sheng.

Ji Sheng wanted to convince himself that Xie Xuanming cherished the watch because it was given by his mother.

However, no matter how much he tried, he didn’t have the confidence to confirm it.

Ji Sheng wanted to stop talking, but Xie Xuanming had something to say: “Can you accompany me to a place tomorrow?”

“Where?”

“Hospital.”

“Are you sick?” Ji Sheng was taken aback, his tone of voice becoming more urgent.

“Not really.” Xie Xuanming said, “Just go get some medicine and do some review by the way… It’s not serious, I just don’t want to go alone.”

“Is that so?” Ji Sheng said, “Okay.”

Ji Sheng thought that Xie Xuanming had a chronic illness such as a stomach problem or an allergy. Who knew that Xie Xuanming would take him into the hospital and go straight to the Psychiatric Department.

“Wait a minute here.” Xie Xuanming said, holding the door handle, “I will say a few words to the doctor.”

“Oh.” Ji Sheng replied blankly.

Xie Xuanming went in; Ji Sheng was stunned for a while and then sat down on a chair.

There was a quarrel between a mother and a daughter on the side, to be precise, the mother was lecturing her daughter unilaterally.

“You! You can’t do well at school, and now you’ve got some kind of disease! What a waste!”

“Lady, it’s not appropriate for your daughter to listen to overly aggressive remarks, please…” A doctor tried to stop her.

“What’s appropriate or not, it’s all pretentious! Kids nowadays are so fragile, they’re not even a little bit considerate of their parents, like we were back then…”

Her daughter, who had been hanging her head, suddenly burst into tears, “It’s not like I wanted to get sick! Can you not blame me for everything…”

The girl’s sharp crying made Ji Sheng’s heart throb. He retracted his gaze and clenched his hands unconsciously on his knees.

Didn’t you say you’d go in for a few words?

Why wasn’t Xie Xuanming coming out yet?

Ji Sheng sat on pins and needles for a while until the girl’s crying turned to sobbing under the comfort of the doctor.

As Ji Sheng stood up, Xie Xuanming walked up to him with a bunch of papers and asked, “Do you want to talk to the doctor?”

“En?” Ji Sheng was startled, “What am I going to talk about with the doctor…?”

“He wants to talk to you about my situation.” Xie Xuanming said quietly, “I said I’m fine, it’s up to you.”

“So…” Ji Sheng said, “Let’s talk about it.”

Ji Sheng entered the room and Xie Xuanming closed the door from the outside.

The sound was so loud that Ji Sheng glanced back at the closed door, and the doctor’s voice came from behind.

“Mr. Ji, please sit down.”

Ji Sheng turned his head, and the doctor kindly gestured to the empty seat in front of him.

Ji Sheng took two steps forward and sat down, sniffing the remaining scent of grass of Xie Xuanming’s perfume: “Do you know me?”

“Mr. Xie often talks to me about you.”

“…Can a psychiatrist tell others about his conversations with the patient?” Ji Sheng was a little sceptical.

“The parts that Mr. Xie agrees to share are okay to discuss, and the parts that Mr. Xie wants to keep confidential are not.”

“Oh…” Ji Sheng nodded and asked, “What is his illness? Depression?”

“Mr. Xie didn’t want to say this part.” The doctor raised his chin slightly, “Probably because he is afraid you will be worried.”

This will only make me more worried.

Ji Sheng wrinkled his nose.

“Is his situation serious? Will there be… any extreme ideas…?” Ji Sheng moved his chair forward and asked, “Can you talk about this?”

“Yes.” The doctor said, “Mr. Xie is currently in stable condition. As long as he takes the medicine on time, maintains a good state of mind, and has a normal working schedule, nothing will happen.”

“This way…” Ji Sheng lowered his eyes, and silently recalled whether he had provoked Xie Xuanming to lose control of his emotions in recent days.

Unfortunately, there were such occurrences, and even more unfortunately, the number of times was not small.

Ji Sheng closed his eyes and let out a silent sigh, thinking that he had made a mistake.

“Mr. Ji, the reason why I am talking to you is that in Mr. Xie’s subconscious mind, you are a very important person. If I put it more heavily, you have the power to influence his psychological condition,” the doctor said seriously.

“…” Ji Sheng didn’t know how to react for a while, “Then what should I do?”

“You don’t actually have to do anything deliberately, after all, you have no obligation to do anything for Mr. Xie.” The doctor’s tone changed a little, “But since Mr. Xie is my patient, I hope he can make a speedy recovery. In his situation, it is best to have trusted and close people around to comfort him, but Mr. Ji, you also know the situation in Mr. Xie’s family…”

Ji Sheng listened to the doctor’s words in silence.

The doctor finally said:

“In fact, you don’t need to do anything in particular. Just stay with Mr. Xie. It would be great if you could comfort him when he is out of control.”

“I will try my best.” Ji Sheng got up, “I probably understand. Thank you, doctor.”

He hesitated and eventually did not ask what the consequences would be if he made a choice that made Xie Xuanming hurt and disappointed.

There was a high probability that nothing joyful would happen.

Ji Sheng instinctively avoided learning of this outcome.

He opened the door and found Xie Xuanming right in front of it, just as he’d left him when coming in.

“Didn’t you go to get the medicine?” Ji Sheng was taken aback.

“Waiting for you.” Xie Xuanming said, showing that kind of subtle childish temper again, “Everyone is accompanied, and I don’t want to go alone.”

“…then let’s go.”

While they were queuing up, Ji Yueming called and said she would go back to her hometown tomorrow and would not be back until more than a month later. She told Ji Sheng not to wait for the Dragon Boat Festival and go home for dinner tonight.

Ji Sheng hung up the phone and looked at Xie Xuanming.

“My mom.” Ji Sheng moved to put Xie Xuanming’s cap down over his head, covering those iconic eyes, “Are you free tonight? Want to come to my house for dinner?”

“Did Auntie invite me?”

“No, I invite you.”

“Oh.” The hair was pressed into his eyes but Xie Xuanming didn’t lift the cap, he just squinted, looked at Ji Sheng suspiciously, and agreed, “Okay.”

When Ji Sheng and Xie Xuanming entered the house in the evening, Ji Yueming was cutting vegetables.

She was originally a drummer and her arm muscles were strong, but after lying in bed for two years, she lost a lot of weight and there was not much meat left on her arms, so her hand was shaking when she held the kitchen knife.

Seeing her hands shake so badly, Ji Sheng was really worried, hurried over to stop her and started to work by himself.

However, Ji Sheng had never cooked a meal before, and he couldn’t hold the knife steadily. His hands shook more severely than Ji Yueming’s when he cut the vegetables. The knife was chopping dangerously close to his fingers. His reaction was quick, otherwise he would have shed blood a long time ago.

Xie Xuanming frowned until he couldn’t watch it anymore. He took the kitchen knife from Ji Sheng’s hands and inherited the great business of chopping vegetables.

He also did it to give some time for Ji Yueming and Ji Sheng to spend together. After the last time they met, the mother and son hadn’t had a chance to sit down and talk… And the changes and problems that have occurred in the past two years really needed to be solved by communication.

Ji Yueming and Ji Sheng sat down at the dining table. Ji Sheng just remembered that the last time he sat here was when he brought Xie Xuanming and Sheng Kongzhi to dinner… A little distracted, he listened to Ji Yueming speak.

“About Kongzhi… I know.” Ji Yueming sighed and said gloomily, “It’s really sad.”

She watched Sheng Kongzhi grow up, and she used to treat this unfortunate little boy as her own son, but who could have imagined that Sheng Kongzhi would actually do these things. It was really chilling.

Ji Sheng had already put it behind him but was still a bit uncomfortable to hear Ji Yueming mention it. He patted Ji Yueming’s hand and said softly, “Don’t think about it.”

“Okay, okay, I don’t want to mention him anymore.” Ji Yueming shook her head and pulled herself together, “But you, aren’t you sad?” ”

“Why should I be sad?” Ji Sheng smiled.

“Didn’t you like him?” Ji Yueming blurted out.

“Ahem…” Ji Sheng choked on his saliva and coughed loudly.

Ji Yueming sat up straight, slapped him hard on the back and said angrily: “Boy, you can hide it from other people, but can you hide it from your mother? Don’t worry, your mother is very open-minded and have no prejudice against homosexuality… As long as you find someone who is of legal age, is not a criminal and treats you well, I won’t mind at all.”

Ji Sheng relaxed a little, swallowed twice and whispered, not knowing how to react: “Thank you, Mom.”

“No thanks.” Ji Yueming withdrew her hand, covered her mouth and lowered his voice suddenly, “I think this kid is good.”

“Ahem, ahem, ahem, ahem, ahem!!!”

Ji Sheng missed a breath and coughed again in shock.

The author has something to say：

Except for Xiao Ji, the whole world is shipping Xiao Xie x Xiao Ji