CH 15

I was completely dumbfounded there and then.

The words he just said kept on replaying in my head. My mouth was hanging open for a long time before I finally remembered how to speak.

“I-I-I….s-s-still haven’t agreed…w-what do you mean by that?”

A food delivery driver flew by from behind me. He pulled me closer towards him by my wrist and we crossed the road together. He frowned at me before answering my question earlier like it was nothing, “What do you think? Of course I meant that I’m going to pursue you.”

Oh, so he wants to pursue me.

Wait, wait. D-D-D-Did he say he wanted to pursue me?

This guy actually wants to pursue me?

Who would’ve thought that the very first time I’m getting pursued, it’s coming from a gay dude…

Oh, wait. I’m a gay dude now too.

What a sad turns of events.

I was too engrossed in this magical drama that just happened that I didn’t react even until we had almost reached the hotel after getting into the car. I touched the member’s card in my pocket that felt as hot as a roasted potato. Although it was vain to feel embarrassed at this point, I still felt really puzzled and asked, “Why did you give me this ice-cream membership card?”

“Don’t you like it?”

He turned his head to glance at me, then said it in a matter-of-fact tone, “Because I’m pursuing you. Of course I have to try to get on your good side and give you what you like.”

“…Of course, it’d be best if you like me instead.”

I realized that my face was burning up.

Fuck! What kind of pretty, flowery words are those! How frustrating!

It felt as if there were a few dozens of tiny people fighting in my heart, making everything a huge mess. I was at a loss about what to think at all. Nothing made sense even when we reached the hotel.

He unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the car, walked over to my side and leaned in closer. He knocked on the window and said, “Are you planning on staying the whole night in there?”

I fumbled to open the door and get out, crashing into something with my forehead on my way out. It hurt so much that I winced painfully, but it cleared my head up quite a bit.

He reached out to rubbed my forehead a little. I flinched and backed two steps away as if I had been burned and looked at him warily.

He frowned but didn’t say anything. Instead, he asked, “Are you coming to my place tonight?

Even though his expression looked really serious, it was hard not to take it the wrong way. Plus he just said he wanted to pursue me ten minutes ago. I couldn’t help but associate what he said with something that wasn’t…good.

For example, being thrusted or something like that.

I shuddered and couldn’t help but take two more steps back, shaking my head frantically to show my resistance.

He didn’t try to force it though. Probably because we have ended our money relationship so he didn’t have any blackmailing leverage anymore. Anyway, he used a gentle tone that I could hardly imagine coming out of him to say, “Be safe on your way back. And remember to ice your forehead.”

The more he treated me this way, the more I was panicking. I couldn’t wait to run away and escape to a place where he couldn’t find or see me to vent out all my feelings right now.

He stood in place and watched me leave. I barely could maintain my composure as I walk quickly down the street, turned a corner out of his sight and immediately stomped around. Then I turned a dog that was tied by the side of the road and started letting out all my thoughts without stopping. Only then I felt a little better.

I called for a car and while waiting, I stared at the innocent-looking Alaska dog on the side of the road and had a staring contest with it. My irritation slowly got eased, and I started processing what just happened moments ago while also thinking of some solutions.

When I returned to my room, I made a quick decision to call my childhood friend.

“So, that first year announced that he’s pursuing you?”

“Yeah.”

“And he also gave you a membership card with 2,000 yuan credit in it?”

“That’s right.”

“…Oh my god, to think there’s such great things that happen in this world…”

“…My ass! How is that a good thing! I don’t even like him! How can I say yes!”

“Then, do you like money?”

“Only a fool wouldn’t like it. What about it?”

“Then it’s actually a really simple matter.” She reasoned, “Since he’s rich, and you like money. Then doesn’t it mean you indirectly like him?”

It sounded oddly logical.

I fell into a deep silent.

Where in the world did this world get all his strange reasoning from?

I sighed with a tired heart, intending to stop this weird conversation from going on.

Yet, she continued on the other end, “And he likes you too. Wouldn’t that be okay then?”

I said, “Who said he likes me? I’ve only known him for a week. Is there such a casual ‘like’?”

She said, “Well, if he doesn’t like you, why is he pursuing you then?”’

“If I knew that, would I still need to ask you?”

My childhood friend fell into silence on the other end of the call for a long time. She was probably in a deep thought again. When she finally spoke again, it’s as if she regained some seriousness, “It does feel strange now that you’ve mentioned it. Although you look really cute, Xiao Xia, but from how you described him…he’s obviously handsome and rich. Such a person won’t need to cling to someone like you.”

“After careful thought, these are the only possibilities.”

“First, he really likes you and it was love at first sight. So he deliberately tried to find a way to tie you to him and bend you.”

I shuddered with goose bumps all over me. “Are you writing a novel?”

“Fine. This does seem unlikely.” She continued, “Them secondly, he doesn’t really like you. Saying he wants to pursue you and all is just for fun. After all, rich people’s way of thinking is really odd.”

Although I was really reluctant to agree with her, but that possibility sounded more logical. Though, I somehow felt a little down from that.

“Of course, there’s also the third possibility…” My childhood friend suddenly lowered her voice in a mysterious way, “According to my many years of experience, usually this unexplainable forcefulness and aggressive pursuit…80% of the time meant you’re a stand in.”

“Stand in for what?”

“It means you’re a spare tyre. The scumbag of a gong can’t forget someone he loves, but he had no other choice, so he could only take a step back and find someone else as replacement. Finding someone who resembles the one he loves. Which means the poor little shou became a stand in for the main character.”

“……”

Maybe because I didn’t reply to her for a long time, she laughed brightly on the other end and said, “Haha, I was just kidding, just kidding! Something like this is really too unlikely to happen. I just casually thought of it, so don’t mind it too much.”

I’m not too sure why, but after the discussion session with my childhood friend, it didn’t help me relax and instead made me feel even more stressed.

I couldn’t sleep again at night and only barely fell asleep in the middle of the night. My dreams were still as unsettling and the vixen had appeared once again after a long time. This time, we were at the entrance of the ice cream shop. He held a pink strawberry ice cream in his hand and walked towards me. I couldn’t stop staring at the cone in his hand and was about to reach out to grab it when he suddenly pushed me away and walked straight ahead.

When I turned around, there was another Xia Zhi standing there! He looked exactly like me! He grabbed the strawberry ice cream that should have been mine and smiled with such deep dimples. He was even more frustrated to look at than the vixen!

This weird dream caused me to be in a deep trance even the morning after. While I was writing the volunteer feedback form, I subconsciously put “Shen Die” in the signature column, which made all my female senior look at me weirdly.

I was in a muddled, lost state for most of the day. But the person who started all of this looked like he was glowing. He recovered after a night of cold and arrived at the venue early in the morning. He was on time, wearing a new suit, looking extremely cool and sauve. To the point where a few girls were secretly taking his photos.

Tsk, he was saying he wants to pursue me yesterday. Yet today, he’s treating me so neutrally again. How shameless!

I secretly cursed at him relentlessly in my heart. But I still avoided him the entire morning, up until noon when I quietly ran back and ran into him who stood together with my female senior, talking to her. The both of them were smiling and the atmosphere around them was pleasant and happy.

I pursed my lips together and was just about to leave when I was stopped by my female senior. I had no choice but to walk over slowly and asked with my head hung low, “What is it?”

“Student Shen wants to invite all the volunteers to a meal. Xiao Xia, can you help and be in charge for it? Count the people present and I will go and let everyone know.”

Why is this person so nice all of a sudden? Did he find his conscience and wanted to treat everyone to dinner?

Although I was confused, but I couldn’t just not carry out the task given by my senior sister. So I went to find today’s attendance list and sat at the table, silently counting the people while trying not to care about the person standing next to me.

He put one hand on the back of my chair and another hand propped himself up on the table. He was watching me with his body leaned in closely, as if he was watching some kind of entertainment program. I barely finished the task under his strong, sharp gaze. Then I looked up at him and asked annoyingly, “What do you want to eat?”

He took out his phone and clicked on the food delivery app, placing it in front of me. “Order it yourself. You can get anything you want.”

Hmph! Then I won’t be reserved with you! My surname is not Xia if I can’t cause you to go bankrupt!

I looked down and blitzed through the menu. But because I was too excited, I accidentally knocked over his phone. In a hurry, I grabbed it right before it fell but somehow the photo album app was tapped into when all that happened.

I had no interest in prying into other people’s privacy and was just about to turn it off. But suddenly, my eyes landed on a familiar-looking photo and I couldn’t resist looking at it.

I zoomed in. T-This…isn’t this me?!

Although it was only a close up of half my face, but I could still recognize it at a glance. My heart started beating really loudly as I slowly scrolled through the next few photos. The rest of the photos looked similar. None of them were of my full face and the focus of the photos were all aimed at the same part.

Dimples.

What’s going on? Is he a pervert? With a dimple fetish?

With my heart a whole mess now, I looked up dumbfounded and saw him standing by the door chatting with my female senior again. I wasn’t sure what he just said, but she suddenly lit up and laughed, showing two beautifully-shaped dimples on her cheeks.

Fuck! Since when did he get so close to her! Is he going after girls too?!

She also has dimples.

Two of them.

…I only have one.

As if possessed by a ghost, my mind began replaying yesterday’s phone call with my childhood friend. Especially when she talked about the whole thing about being a ‘stand in’. Along with last night’s dream, it felt like I just fell into a strange relationship circle.

I couldn’t figure out what I was thinking and what I really wanted. All I knew was that I wasn’t happy at all.