The Stand-In, Ah Zhao (GL) - Chapter 1

It was mid-September, half a month into the school year, and Jiangcheng was still sweltering in the tail end of summer. The afternoon sun beat down so fiercely that heat shimmered above the asphalt road.

Shen Zhao held her phone between her ear and shoulder as she spoke, rummaging through her bag for her keys while walking toward the school gate. Smiling, she said, “Okay, I’m already on my way. See you soon.”

She had only just hung up when she walked straight into someone.

The strawberry drink with milk foam she had just bought spilled all over the woman.

“Oh! I’m sorry—” Shen Zhao apologized at once. Without even looking up, she pulled tissues from her bag and began wiping haphazardly at the woman’s clothes.

Song Ling frowned. She looked down at the mess on the jacket draped over her arm and, displeased, pushed away the hand reaching toward her.

Shen Zhao froze for a moment. Only then did she look up at the person in front of her.

She was an exquisitely beautiful woman, with long waves of hair falling past her shoulders. She wore a deep red velvet dress with a plunging V neckline and had an allure Shen Zhao couldn’t quite put into words.

Seeing her brows drawn tight, Shen Zhao knew it was her fault. She had been on the phone and looking down for her keys, so she hadn’t seen the woman coming toward her. She had run straight into her and spilled her drink all over her.

Shen Zhao apologized sheepishly. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going. How about I take your jacket and have it cleaned for you?” As she spoke, she reached for the jacket over the woman’s arm.

Song Ling’s brows tightened impatiently. She was about to say there was no need, but when her gaze met the eyes of the person before her, she faltered for a moment and let Shen Zhao take the jacket from her arm.

Holding the jacket, Shen Zhao looked up and apologized cautiously. “I’m really sorry. I have something urgent to attend to right now, but I’ll bring it back once I’ve had it cleaned. I’m so sorry.”

The woman said nothing, which made Shen Zhao uneasy. She started off with the jacket, then remembered after a couple of steps that she hadn’t given the woman her contact information.

Shen Zhao took a sticky note from her bag, quickly wrote down a number, and handed it to her. “I’m terribly sorry. I’ll have your jacket cleaned and return it tomorrow. You can reach me at this number.”

Shen Zhao glanced up at her again. The woman seemed distracted, but there was a chill in her dark eyes, and she looked difficult to deal with.

Shen Zhao said nothing more. Carrying the jacket, she hurried out through the school gate, where a taxi was waiting.

A sticky note had been pressed into Song Ling’s hand. She lowered her eyes and glanced at it.

“Boss, everything’s been settled with the principal—” Her assistant, Ji Mingshu, came over from another direction. Seeing Song Ling standing there in a daze, she noticed the fluorescent green sticky note pinched between her fingers. She stopped short, then asked, “Did something happen?”

Without betraying anything, Song Ling folded the note in half and closed it in her palm. “Nothing. Let’s go,” she said coolly.

Ji Mingshu paused and looked around.

On a Saturday afternoon, the area around the teaching buildings was empty. There was hardly anyone there.

She thought no more of it and followed Song Ling toward the parking lot.

At the train station exit, Shen Zhao stood with a bag in her hand. After waiting for what felt like ages, she finally saw the person she was looking for emerge.

She waved and called out happily, “Si’er!”

Rui Si’er spotted Shen Zhao in the crowd at once and ran toward her with a smile, pulling her suitcase behind her.

The station was crowded and chaotic, and it took Rui Si’er two minutes to reach her. Shen Zhao rushed forward and threw herself into her arms, wrapping both arms around her neck. “I missed you,” she said softly.

Rui Si’er smiled, lowered her head, and brushed a kiss beside Shen Zhao’s ear. “I missed you too.”

They looked at each other and smiled.

Taking Shen Zhao’s hand, Rui Si’er asked gently, “Have you been waiting long?”

Shen Zhao shook her head with a bright smile. “No. I’d only just arrived when I saw you.”

Rui Si’er glanced at the bag in her hand. “What’s that? Did you buy new clothes?”

Shen Zhao looked at it. “No, I’m going to take it to the dry cleaner’s.” She hugged Rui Si’er’s arm and asked eagerly, “How many days off did you get this time?”

Rui Si’er paid the bag no further attention. “Three days.”

Shen Zhao’s face fell at once. She lowered her eyes and pouted. “Only three days? If we don’t count today or the day you leave, we only have tomorrow. Then the day after that, you’ll be gone again.”

Rui Si’er smiled at her reassuringly. “It won’t be much longer. Once I graduate next year, I’ll come to Jiangcheng. Then we won’t have to be apart anymore, okay?”

Shen Zhao and Rui Si’er were in a long-distance relationship. They were two years apart: Rui Si’er had just started her fourth year of university in Tingcheng, while Shen Zhao had only just begun her second year in Jiangcheng.

They had met at a high school graduation ceremony in Tingcheng. Rui Si’er had returned to her old school to give a speech as an outstanding alumna, and there she had met Shen Zhao, who was then in her final year of high school. They had been in a long-distance relationship for exactly one year.

During that year, they had seen each other only a handful of times. Most of their time together had been through video calls and phone calls.

So whenever Rui Si’er managed to find time to visit, Shen Zhao treasured every moment they could spend together, even if this visit would last only three days.

Shen Zhao tipped her head up to look at her, her eyes curving into pretty little crescents. “Okay,” she said with a smile.

“I’ve booked a hotel nearby. It’s close to the subway station, so getting around will be easy. Xiang Garden and Changtong Street are both close, too. I’ll show you around Jiangcheng properly.”

“Okay,” Rui Si’er said, smiling.

They left the train station, hailed a taxi at the taxi stand, and went to the hotel.

It wasn’t peak season, so the hotel wasn’t busy. Shen Zhao had booked a room with a large bed—a Passionate Rose themed suite, no less.

They checked in and entered the room. The moment Rui Si’er stepped inside, she stopped in surprise. She stood in the doorway for a long while before letting out a laugh. “You booked this?”

Once the door closed, Shen Zhao tossed aside what she was carrying and embraced Rui Si’er from behind. “Si’er…” she called in a soft, sweet voice.

Rui Si’er turned and drew Shen Zhao between herself and the door. She raised her hands to cup Shen Zhao’s face, her eyes brimming with a smile and affection she couldn’t contain. “Why didn’t you tell me beforehand?”

Shen Zhao wrapped her arms around Rui Si’er’s waist and smiled. “If I’d told you beforehand, it wouldn’t have been a surprise—”

Rui Si’er lowered her head and kissed her. All the longing of the past several days suddenly intensified in that moment. Shen Zhao went still for an instant, then gripped Rui Si’er’s shirt tightly and tipped her head back to meet the kiss.

The harder it was to be apart in a long-distance relationship, the more intensely they felt their love when they met again.

Shen Zhao closed her eyes, savoring how real this moment felt.

Rui Si’er rested her forehead against Shen Zhao’s and brushed her lips lightly against the tip of her nose. “I missed you so, so much…” she murmured.

Shen Zhao went soft all over, a tingling sensation passing through the small of her back. Her lips curved. “Carry me,” she said softly.

Rui Si’er smiled, bent her knees, and lifted Shen Zhao into her arms. She carried her farther into the room and laid her on the bed, then leaned over her. “It smells nice,” she murmured.

The room was full of the scent of roses, wafting right up to their noses.

Shen Zhao pressed her lips together, cupped Rui Si’er’s face, and kissed her. “It cost six hundred yuan a night!” she said between kisses.

Then she opened her eyes beneath her fine brows and smiled. “We can’t let it go to waste.”

The hand beneath Rui Si’er’s shirt wandered restlessly. Rui Si’er was ticklish; she quickly caught Shen Zhao’s hand and laughed. “So this was your plan all along? You’ve been waiting here to trap me?”

“Yes,” Shen Zhao said. “So, are you going to fall for it?”

Rui Si’er’s lips lifted as she teased her. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I? I’d fall for it willingly.”

Bracing herself on the bed beside Shen Zhao, Rui Si’er spoke gently. “Just not right now.”

“I couldn’t celebrate with you when you turned eighteen. When you turn nineteen this year, I promise I’ll be there with you. Okay?”

Lying on the bed, Shen Zhao looked at the woman above her. She had been the one to pursue Rui Si’er; when it came to love, she had always been brave.

In their youth, love was pure and romantic. She had met Si’er at the most beautiful time of her life.

Si’er hadn’t been able to make it to her eighteenth birthday. She had never forgotten it and regretted missing such an important day in Shen Zhao’s life.

But Shen Zhao didn’t think it mattered. The fact that Si’er remembered it now made her happier than celebrating countless birthdays could have.

“Okay,” Shen Zhao said with a smile.

“Kiss me.”

Rui Si’er smiled. Shen Zhao was like a child asking to be indulged, so adorable she was impossible to refuse.

She lowered her head as asked and kissed her.

——

Summer weather changed without warning. The sun had been blazing at noon, but after a gust of wind, rain and hail began to fall.

Song Ling stood by her office window, watching the sudden, extreme turn in the weather.

The air conditioning was turned up high. Inside, it felt like a different world from the sweltering heat outdoors.

Song Ling lowered her eyes, her expression distant for a moment.

She thought of the face she had encountered that afternoon at Jiangcheng University…

The note was still in her palm. She looked down at it: an eleven-digit phone number.

After a long while, as though something had occurred to her, she gave a rueful laugh, crumpled the note, and threw it into the wastebasket.