Reborn as a Substitute

“You…you…” Su Jing was speechless.

Obviously, the extremely implicit dialogue between the two in front of him made his nose twitch in anger.

“Take care of yourself.” Annoyed, Su Jing threw down such a sentence, got out of the car and slammed the door shut.

Ji Sheng sat up straight, ready to follow after him, but Xie Xuanming blocked his way to the door.

“Let me have a few words with him,” Ji Sheng said, tilting up his head.

“Are you not dizzy anymore?” Xie Xuanming lowered his eyes to look at him.

“Much better.” Ji Sheng patted him on the shoulder, let go and spread out his hands upward, “Give me the keys. The phones are all in the co-pilot seat. I will go to the car you drove here to find you later.”

Xie Xuanming looked at him quietly for two seconds, then his left hand raised above Ji Sheng’s opened palm, his fist loosened, and the car keys jingled down.

“Thanks.” Ji Sheng held the keys and smiled at him, “I’ll be there soon.”

Xie Xuanming moved out of the way; Ji Sheng got out of the car through the gap between Xie Xuanming and the front seat and chased after Su Jing.

Su Jing sat on the flower bed in a daze with his head lowered, holding the mobile phone in his hand, the page stuck on the taxi app.

“You presume you can get a taxi in a place like this.” A teasing voice accompanied by a chuckle came from above his head.

Su Jing raised his head and a set of keys flicked in front of his eyes.

Seeing that Su Jing didn’t move, Ji Sheng carried the car keys over and shook it above his head.

“What are you going to do? Quarrel?” When Su Jing saw Ji Sheng, he became angry again. He did not take the keys, leaning back and almost falling into the flower bed.

Fortunately, Ji Sheng was quick enough to pull him upright.

“How can you not change at all?” Ji Sheng sighed.

“Scolding me?” Not meeting his eyes, Su Jing asked with a stern face.

“Complimenting you.” Ji Sheng threw the car keys forward casually. When Su Jing hurriedly caught them, Ji Sheng sat down beside him, patted his shoulder and said, “Anyway, thank you.”

Ji Sheng looked at the colourful ribbons fluttering on the tree trunks in front of him and narrowed his eyes, half-joking, half-sighing, “Of all my friends, you’re the only one who’s genuinely nice to me.”

Su Jing quieted down, holding the keys in his hand and letting out a slight snort.

“Then why don’t you listen to my advice?” He finally raised his head, scowled and kicked away the stones under his feet, “Are you really not leaving?”

“No. I told you I like Xiao Xie.” Ji Sheng said with a smile, “Why should I leave.”

“…your insight into men is really worrying.” 

“Xiao Xie is very nice.” 

“You said the same about Sheng Kongzhi before.” 

“That’s different.” Ji Sheng wrinkled his nose and said impulsively, “Sheng Kongzhi is not worthy of being compared to Xiao Xie.”

“…” Su Jing was silent again, and it took a while before he spoke, “Although Xie Xuanming is indeed not as much a jerk as Sheng Kongzhi, you are really sort of hopeless.”

“Sort of?” Ji Sheng laughed, “So don’t rescue me, I’m not stupid, I’ll leave when I want to.”

“When?” Su Jing was more serious.

“When I’m 80?” 

Su Jing stood up abruptly and scolded: “You are making fun of me!”

“I enjoy it.” Ji Sheng drawled.

Su Jing was about to get angry but lost his wish to quarrel when he met Ji Sheng’s eyes curved in a smile.

“Forget it.” He waved his hand wearily and settled on the flower bed, feeling that he really couldn’t stop this unlucky love-poisoned big child. “Just take care of yourself… Be smart and observe. If you see something wrong, run quickly… or give me a call.” 

“Okay, okay.” Ji Sheng smiled, “You too, remember to find me if you have any difficulties.”

“My biggest difficulty now is you!” Su Jing roared angrily, calmed down and then raised his hand and rubbed Ji Sheng’s head like patting a dog, “Anyway, live smart, I really don’t want to spend another 578 on a wreath.”

Ji Sheng let him rub his bangs into a mess, squinted and said, “Okay.” 

It took just ten minutes for Ji Sheng to finish talking to Su Jing and get into the co-pilot.

“Su Jing said he would send the car back when it is repaired, and asked for the address.” Ji Sheng said, fastening his seat belt.

“I’ll send it to him in a while.” Xie Xuanming said.

“You actually plan to contact him?” Ji Sheng wondered, ”I thought you were going to quarrel with him until you die of old age.”

“I do have this intention.” Xie Xuanming said coldly, “But you obviously won’t allow that.”

“En…” Ji Sheng clicked his seat belt, turned to look at Xie Xuanming, and said in a soft voice, “Still angry?”

“Yeah.” 

“I’m sorry.” 

“Not angry with you.” 

“Then I apologise for Su Jing.” 

Xie Xuanming was silent for a while: “I didn’t mean to bump into you just now. If something happened to you…”

“Nothing happened.” Ji Sheng said, “Just motion sickness.”

“…that’s good.” 

The two sat in silence for a while, then Ji Sheng asked, “Let’s go back?”

“En.” 

On the way back, the agent called, asking for details of the tour.

“There’s one song missing from the tour set list, and none of the members have any ideas, so they told me to ask you.”

“One song?” Ji Sheng thought for a while, “Not a Niepan song would be fine?”

“As long as it’s copyrighted.”

“Is “Fruit Candy” okay, from the Qingchu band?” 

“…will Qingchu be willing to sell the copyright?” 

“The copyright is not in the hands of Qingchu company.” Ji Sheng smiled, “The copyright is in the hands of the original singer.”

He turned his head as he said, “Original singer, do you give us the licence?” 

“Yes.” Xie Xuanming said without looking.

Satisfied, Ji Sheng turned back to the phone and said, “I’ve got the licence.”

There was a weird silence on the other end of the phone for two seconds. The agent knew the current state of affairs and didn’t ask much: “Okay, then I will add “Fruit Candy” to the tour set list.” 

“Okay, please.” 

Because Ji Sheng was hungry, Xie Xuanming didn’t drive back to the villa directly, but turned to a Japanese restaurant.

This Japanese restaurant was famous for its exquisite decor, attentive service and delicious dishes; the high price seemed to be its only drawback.

The workmanship of this place was exquisite, and the speed of serving was naturally not fast.

At the table, Xie Xuanming didn’t speak. Ji Sheng looked for a few topics but couldn’t really engage him in chatting, so he had to take out his mobile phone awkwardly and swipe through the messages.

Ji Sheng confirmed that Su Jing had made it to the afternoon’s live broadcast, and after a sigh of relief, his hand slipped to Weibo, unintentionally pulling up a video.

The name ”Xie Xuanming” made him continue watching.

The blogger who made the video had 100,000 fans. The content of the video was a satirical analysis of various news in the entertainment industry. To put it nicely, it could be called pioneering self-publishing; to put it badly, it could be called spraying dirt with some editing skills.

At this moment, the self-publishing sprayer pointed its muzzle at Xie Xuanming and blasted him for participating in a web drama, not cherishing his reputation, businessman’s way of making money, vulgar behaviour and even shamelessly rubbing the heat off the dead.

“Xie Xuanming can be regarded as squeezing oil from Ji Sheng’s corpse under the banner of affection and righteousness!” The video blogger sneered sharply.

Ji Sheng frowned.

That’s an awful thing to say. 

He quit the video, reported the slandering, and entered the comment area, but unexpectedly found that there were a lot of people who agreed with the blogger. The comments were full of criticism, making Xie Xuanming’s position as an exploiter a reality in public opinion.

This slander made Ji Sheng very angry, but he couldn’t do anything, so he could only click on the comments one by one reporting them.

“Don’t look at your phone while eating.” The moment the food was on the table, Xie Xuanming saw that Ji Sheng was still addicted to the Internet, so he tapped his finger on the table and reminded him.

“Oh, okay.” Ji Sheng hurriedly put down his phone.

He picked up a piece of cod, put it in his mouth and chewed it absent-mindedly. After swallowing it, he raised his eyes and said, “That web drama, can you stop filming it?”

“En?” 

“The sisheng went to jail, Qingchu is on the verge of collapse and Sheng Kongzhi’s reputation is damaged…” Ji Sheng counted all the points, “The wrongdoers have been punished as they deserve. There is no more need to film the web drama…”

“I said I didn’t want to talk about matters concerning the web drama.” Xie Xuanming interrupted him lightly, “Let’s eat.”

Ji Sheng didn’t move his chopsticks. The mean remarks of the blogger still sounded in his ears, the nasty speculations of netizens in the comment area still flashed in front of his eyes.

Thinking of Su Jing’s previous misunderstanding of Xie Xuanming’s web drama project, Ji Sheng had no doubt how many people would come online to speculate and insult Xie Xuanming with the utmost malice.

He couldn’t accept that Xie Xuanming was insulted because of him. Although Xie Xuanming might be used to it or didn’t care at all, this didn’t mean that Ji Sheng could accept everything with peace of mind.

Ji Sheng was quiet for a while, and then continued to insist: “You really don’t need to make this web drama…”

Snap!

Xie Xuanming put down his chopsticks. His movement was not heavy, but there was a crisp sound in the room.

“Can we stop this conversation now?” Xie Xuanming’s attitude was cold, “In what position are you asking me to give up filming now? As a friend?” 

“As a friend.” Ji Sheng hesitated and said, “If it’s okay with you… it can also be as a lover.”

He tested the relationship between them for the second time, but Xie Xuanming remained just as expressionless as when he’d heard it the first time.

“You are very good at using other people’s emotions.” Xie Xuanming raised his hand to stop Ji Sheng’s defence and said calmly, “I’m not being ironic… I’m happy you have this little bit of cleverness, compared to the previous life when you trusted people all over the world.”

“However, instead of trying to use the identity of a lover to dissuade me from filming the web drama, it is better to use the identity of the role prototype to refuse. More likely to make me sway.” Xie Xuanming looked at Ji Sheng calmly, “Originally I was reluctant to put it so bluntly, but you keep being stubborn talking about it, so I can only make it clear.”

“This web drama is not entirely made for you, and my own selfishness also accounts for a large part of the reason… It may be hurtful to say that, but Ji Sheng, you may not have thought about it at all. The time you want to avoid is the most precious memory of my life.” 

After Xie Xuanming finished speaking, the dining table fell silent.

Ji Sheng opened his mouth, wanting to speak but not knowing what to say.

Finally, Xie Xuanming asked again, “Are you still eating?” 

Ji Sheng was taken aback for a moment and nodded.

“I’ve finished eating, I have something to do later, so I’ll go back first. The driver will come to pick you up later, go home or go somewhere else, it’s your decision.”

Xie Xuanming stood up, turned around to leave, but thought of something, turned back and tapped on the table.

“By the way, liking and gratitude are not the same thing, and there is no way to replace one with the other, let alone to prove… at least not by you.” 

“You’re acting too deliberately, and I don’t really believe that you like me.”