Substitute Lover [Entertainment Industry] - Chapter 94

At the beginning of March, as winter faded and spring arrived, the peach blossoms in the courtyard filled the trees. On the lakeshore, willow branches began to sprout, a carpet of green floating on the tips of the boughs.

Jiang Cha carried a watering can into the yard to tend to the flowers.

Walking across the gravel path, she looked up and her footsteps paused.

The courtyard was filled with white rain lilies. On a patch of green lawn crowded with these pure, four-petaled white flowers, there was a little girl.

It was hard to tell her age, but she was only as tall as Jiang Cha’s thigh—the kind of child who could wrap her short little arms around one’s waist and swing like a pendulum.

The girl had her back turned to Jiang Cha, playing with the parrot.

From behind, her dark, silky hair draped down like fine satin, gleaming beautifully. Having played for a long time, she was sweating profusely, and her hair was clumped into damp, shimmering strands. The back of her neck, peeking through her dark hair, was snow-white. She wore a little dress with a Peter Pan collar, into which a small handkerchief had been tucked—likely placed there by a parent to absorb sweat.

Where did this little girl come from?

Was she lost?

But looking at her back, Jiang Cha felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

Familiar, yet she couldn’t recall where she had seen her before.

“Little one.”

Jiang Cha lifted her skirt and walked through the dew-drenched orchids toward the center of the lawn.

“What are you doing? Where did you come from?”

The girl didn’t answer.

She was mischievous and restless, her eyes fixed forward as she tried to catch the parrot. The little grey bird hopped forward, and she followed with a pounce. In the end, she didn’t catch the bird at all, but she ended up covered in sweat.

Whose child was she?

Jiang Cha circled to the front of her, squatted down, and looked her in the eye.

The tiny girl stopped and stared at her.

Jiang Cha froze.

The girl’s eyes were beautiful, as clear as a landscape painting in black and white; her eyelashes were long and dense, appearing as if they had been naturally traced on. The girl watched her for a while, then suddenly burst into a laugh and ran toward a wooden vine swing.

She grasped the ropes and sat on the swing in the yard. Her lips were rosy and lustrous, tilted up slightly like a kitten’s. She looked at Jiang Cha and said in a milky voice: “Swing me.”

The main gate was locked; it was impossible for her to have come in from outside.

In that instant, Jiang Cha realized she was in a dream.

Dreams can be lucid.

She was very awake.

Jiang Cha leaned forward slightly, watching her quietly, and suddenly let out a soft chuckle: “What’s your name?”

She looked at the little girl, thinking: Is this what Ji Fan looked like as a child?

The eyes, the bridge of the nose—

The resemblance was uncanny.

She couldn’t resist moving closer, leaning down to look at her, and asked again: “How old are you this year?”

The little girl’s eyes curved into crescents: “Four!”

Jiang Cha was slightly taken aback.

No, she didn’t look like Ji Fan.

The shape of the lips was different.

Looking again, the expression in the eyes was different too.

This girl’s eyes were naturally filled with smiles, very endearing; she probably wasn’t Ji Fan’s younger self.

But her smile was strangely familiar.

Jiang Cha frowned slightly, feeling a surge of affection.

Whose child was she? Where were her parents?

“Mama—”

The girl reached out her hands, her big eyes filled with a sense of grievance. Wearing her floral dress, she looked like a ragdoll: “Hug me!”

Jiang Cha woke up with a start.

It was still the middle of the night. The woman beside her was sleeping peacefully, but she still had her arm tightly around Jiang Cha’s waist, pressing against her so closely that it made her breathing a bit restricted.

Sleeping with pressure on her heart.

That was likely why she had the dream.

She had actually dreamed that she and Ji Fan had a child.

A very beautiful girl.

The spring night was humid and stuffy. Jiang Cha felt a bit hot and couldn’t help but gently move the slender, pale hand on her waist downward to get some air. Her movements were very light, but Ji Fan trembled slightly and slowly woke up.

“What’s wrong?”

Her jade-like arm reached over again, hugging her like a ragdoll.

“I had a dream.”

“What did you dream about?”

“A little girl,” Jiang Cha said softly, leaning her head against Ji Fan’s warm, soft chest. “Very beautiful and very cute.”

Ji Fan opened her eyes, every trace of sleepiness vanishing instantly.

She was quiet for a moment, then asked as if casually: “Beautiful?”

Jiang Cha recalled dreamily: “Her eyes looked a lot like yours, but her temperament wasn’t quite the same. She was cuter than you, more cheerful, more mischievous…”

A combination of herself and Ji Fan.

A tiny life that merged the features of them both.

The more Jiang Cha remembered, the more lost in thought she became.

How wonderful it would be if she and Ji Fan had a child.

Jiang Cha was only halfway through her sentence when she became groggy again, snuggling back into Ji Fan’s arms to go back to sleep.

But this time, it was Ji Fan who suffered from insomnia.

Dreaming of a beautiful little girl?

And better than her?

Ji Fan simply couldn’t fall back to sleep.

Ever since that dream that night, Jiang Cha began to notice things she wouldn’t have noticed before.

Even certain scenes.

It seemed as if something was always missing.

It wasn’t that the feelings were fading as they spent more time together; rather, the feeling became more obvious whenever she saw others with families.

Opposite genders have it easy.

What about same-sex couples?

What if…

There was a life in the world that was the child of her and Ji Fan.

Why couldn’t it be possible?

For this reason, Jiang Cha made a special effort to contact Jiang Han.

“Are you planning to have a child?”

Jiang Han walked with her by the lake and asked, “It is indeed possible for same-sex couples to have children now, although the technology isn’t completely mature.”

“Hmm?”

Jiang Cha was slightly stunned. She hadn’t looked into the specifics of this area before and didn’t know that the technology already existed. Her wish truly could be realized.

Jiang Cha pursed her red lips, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks, and said somewhat shyly:

“I don’t know why, but one day, I suddenly really wanted a child.”

Jiang Han laughed softly: “It’s always like that. When you’re young and don’t understand things, you want to be free and live for yourself, thinking children are a burden.”

“But it’s different later.”

Passing a willow tree, Jiang Han pinched a branch and said with a sigh:

“There are so many people at the hospital who want to be mothers but can’t have children because of age. They can only come for treatment. Do you know that?”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“Some things won’t wait for you.”

Jiang Cha looked down in thought. After walking for a long time, she felt a bit hot, so she pinned up her long hair, exposing her fair, delicate neck.

“It’s still early.”

Jiang Cha smiled gently, thinking she would go back and test Ji Fan’s thoughts before deciding.

Jiang Han waved her hand with a smile: “It’s fine.”

It was evening, the sky was dimming, and the sunset light spilled across the soft lake surface, the dazzling gold reflecting slowly and rippling with the fine waves.

Jiang Cha was about to wave goodbye when two young women approached. They were also taking a stroll, pushing a pale beige stroller where an infant of just a few months old was sleeping soundly.

Jiang Cha’s departing footsteps paused.

The two women smiled at Jiang Han: “Doctor Jiang? What a coincidence!”

Jiang Han pulled Jiang Cha: “Wait a moment before you go.”

The two women were both foreigners, blonde and fair-skinned, quite tall. Their Chinese was a bit clunky, but their smiles were very kind.

“And this is?”

They faced Jiang Cha, observing her quietly for a moment: this woman was younger than Doctor Jiang, with very beautiful features. With her hair pinned up, her neck was white and slender, and her crimson T-shirt made her collarbones look white and smooth. She had the aura of a young woman who had been married for a short while.

One of the women gave an ambiguous smile: “Doctor Jiang’s girlfriend?”

“No, no.” Jiang Han waved her hands repeatedly, unable to stop herself from laughing. “Just a friend. She also wants a child.”

Jiang Cha realized: the two women were also a same-sex couple, and the baby in the cradle was their child.

“At this stage, it isn’t legal domestically yet.”

Jiang Han began to explain after they had left: “After all, it’s a new technology, and there might be impacts on the fetus, so the country is more cautious. In short, everything is just starting.”

Same-sex reproductive technology was indeed just emerging. In the current situation, the children of the first generation of same-sex partners haven’t grown to adulthood yet, so physiological defects caused by technical deficiencies cannot be observed for the time being. Even so, relying on this emerging technology to have a child still required paying an unbelievably high cost that most people couldn’t afford. As a result, even the number of “experimental subjects” was pathetically small.

Having gained a general understanding of the situation, and with the sky growing dark, the two said their goodbyes.

Walking on the road, she suddenly received a call from Ji Fan: “Where are you? I’ll come pick you up.”

Jiang Cha looked around: “By the lake.”

Just as she hung up the phone, almost at the same time, the sound of a horn came from nearby. The car window slowly lowered, revealing the familiar profile of a woman inside.

Ji Fan’s curly hair draped over her shoulders, and the bright pendant by her ear flashed slightly. She glanced sideways: “Get in.”