Chapter 31
Lin Langyi rode her bike away from Shajiang Community. She quickly typed "I'll be there right away" in the chat box with one hand and sent it. Chi Shu immediately replied with a crying puppy emoji.
I'm sorry for troubling you, sister. It's all my fault. I interrupted your important business.
No sooner had Lin Langyi left than a black Koenigsegg, which had been waiting for a long time, started up at the entrance and exit of the Thorn Park parking lot, its headlights illuminating the road as it slowly drove onto the main road.
As oncoming vehicles interact, their headlights illuminate the interior of the car. A beam of light quickly sweeps across the cabin, revealing only a glimpse of the passenger in the front seat leaning back against the seat, his right leg crossed over his left, his hands clasped loosely on his knees, quietly gazing out the window.
The driver asked, "Is that the Kawasaki H2 in front of us?"
"Hmm." The streetlights gradually illuminated Yuan Chuyu's profile, his eyes still gentle. "Please keep a little distance, not too close."
"Thanks for your hard work."
*
Chi Shu's finger injury wasn't serious; at least in Lin Langyi's eyes, it definitely didn't need stitches at the hospital.
But when she arrived at Ying Shan Lake, Chi Shu was sitting alone on the steps at the company entrance, arms crossed, waiting for her like a homeless stray dog. So Lin Langyi raised her assessment of the pain level of her injury by another level.
Chi Shu's wound was treated haphazardly. Lin Langyi pinched his finger and re-disinfected and bandaged it. After finishing, she asked him, "If it hurts, do you still need to go to the hospital?"
Chi Shu immediately shook his head obediently. His eyes were swollen from crying, making him look pitiful, but he still smiled at her and said, "It doesn't hurt anymore, sister, you bandaged me so well."
"Let's go then, I'll get you a room." Lin Langyi picked up the key. "Take your things, I'll take you back to school tomorrow morning."
Chi Shu's smile froze for a second: "Do you need to take it? I haven't finished yet, or can I leave it here and come back after class tomorrow?"
Lin Langyi turned off the main power switch of the machine: "No need to come. Didn't you already find the pearls and drill the holes? You can finish the rest yourself in your dorm room."
Chi Shu quickly tried to salvage the situation: "I... I might need to pick a few more, I—"
"Didn't you finish the initial design? It was already down to the last few strokes, why do you need to make such major changes?"
He was momentarily stumped by the question, and after a long pause, he could only manage to say, "Perhaps there is some damage."
"Then tell me on WeChat, and I'll have someone drill the holes and bring them to you next time I come to the school."
Chi Shu followed Lin Langyi dejectedly, carrying his belongings.
Lin Langyi turned off the lights and locked the door: "Also, if your finger is injured, you don't need to do the proposal. I'll have someone from the department coordinate with you tomorrow, and I'll take care of it here. It's not complicated anyway."
Chi Shu stared blankly at her: "Do I need to coordinate with other people?"
"Hmm." Lin Langyi turned her head and glanced at him. "Didn't you say that you were short on time and hadn't even finished your own work yet? Then you don't need to worry about this. Just focus on your work."
Chi Shu was at a loss for words. Lin Langyi only came to school when she had something to do, and he could only talk to her a few words about official business. As a result, he had no daily topics to talk about with her.
He was anxious, but Lin Langyi yawned twice in front of him, wanting only to settle him down as soon as possible.
Ying Shan Lake was too remote, so she could only take him to a guesthouse. When it came time to pay, Chi Shu refused to let her pay, saying, "You're making me feel very awkward."
Lin Langyi paused for a moment, vaguely remembering that Bian Shu seemed to have said the same thing.
Around her birthday, Bian Shu gave her a necklace worth around three thousand yuan. This price was nothing to Lin Langyi, but it was a considerable sum for Bian Shu.
As a result, he didn't eat dinner for a month, and he cut his daily expenses to the bare minimum. When a training camp team was formed at the last minute, he even had to borrow the registration fee from his roommate.
Lin Langyi later learned about his borrowing of money. When she asked him about it, Bian Shu said, "I can borrow money from anyone, but I would never borrow money from you."
"There is no reason or situation that would require a guy to ask his girlfriend for money."
Lin Langyi felt a mix of emotions and said, "Then don't buy such expensive gifts in the future."
She still remembers the look in Bian Shu's eyes as he looked at her through his glasses after she said those words. He said softly, "Lin Langyi, you're making me feel very embarrassed."
"Sister, sister?" Chi Shu waved the room key in front of Lin Langyi. "On the second floor."
Lin Langyi pressed her glasses, shook her head, and saw clearly the room key in Chi Shu's hand, asking in confusion, "Why are there two?"
Chi Shu was taken aback: "Aren't you going to rest here?"
Lin Langyi shook her head: "I'll respond to Shanhu. There's a lounge behind my office."
Chi Shu's face immediately darkened. He forced himself to cheer up and said, "Then I'll see you out."
Lin Langyi waved her hand: "It's just a short walk, you can go up."
Chi Shu was somewhat hurt: "Sister, can you use the same standards you use to judge others to judge me? Don't treat me like a child."
Lin Langyi felt like she had seen a ghost today. The first half of Chi Shu's sentence was exactly the same as what Bian Shu had said before.
Because she subconsciously considers the pressure brought by Bian Shu's economic conditions, he once said that.
"What others can do, I can do too; what others can give you, don't deny me in advance."
The feeling of being possessed sent chills down Lin Langyi's spine. The commercial development zone of Yingshan Lake was practically non-existent; the only two guesthouses were located here, as desolate and quiet as an ancient house that suddenly appeared deep in the forest in a horror movie.
She wanted to get back quickly, so she stopped arguing with Chi Shu and let him help her into the car. She then clung to the window and got his promise to pick her up from school the next morning, which allowed her to escape.
Chi Shu watched Lin Langyi walk away until she could no longer see her figure. Then he looked down at his own tightly bandaged fingers and suddenly laughed.
He was thin and frail, his clothes hanging loosely on his body. Standing at the doorway, the wind made him appear even thinner.
But he held that finger up and looked at it for a long time, and laughed for a long time as well.
So what if she's fiancé? The fact that she abandoned her fiancé to be with him says something, doesn't it?
Few wealthy couples have a good ending. As long as he is patient enough, who knows what the outcome will be?
Moreover, who could understand Lin Langyi's preferences better than him? He was fortunate enough to completely understand her relationship with her first love, and he could copy her homework with perfect accuracy.
Chi Shu's smile widened as she looked at her phone again, skillfully opened Weibo, logged in to switch to her alternate account, and then clicked on the only account she frequently visited.
This is a private account with little attention. The nickname is just a string of random characters. There is no background image or profile picture. Everything about it seems ordinary and unremarkable, like a grayed-out account that has been "restored to factory settings".
However, the original blogger posted many daily life updates and short essays, almost several times a day, which shows that he was indeed using this account to record his life in detail.
She's in every single one of them.
Upon closer inspection, it can be found that all the content is from several years ago, but there have been no updates since a certain point in time, and the content has "stopped updating and left the community".
Chi Shu knew the entire content of this account by heart, but he still had the habit of clicking in and rereading it from time to time. Anyway, the original blogger had long since abandoned the account and would never know that someone had been spying on every word and every picture of the account for so long.
As he quickly located the passages he had been imitating in Chinese translation that day, he recalled Lin Langyi's stunned expression at the time, and a twisted expression of satisfaction and jealousy appeared on his face.
He must have integrated quite well, right? The inferiority complex stemming from his humble origins, the unwavering spirit, the sensitive yet proud self-esteem, the same scholarship recipient, the same student council president…
Does that mean he could also take a photo of him kissing her cheek under a ginkgo tree on a university campus?
Chi Shu precisely selected the photo he had in mind: under a ginkgo tree, a slender and upright boy was holding a book, the afternoon sun shining on his face. He wasn't looking at the camera, but rather tilting his head to smile gently and shyly at the girl beside him.
The girl held up a perfectly shaped, golden ginkgo leaf, blocking his attempt to kiss his cheek.
The passionate, romantic, and fervent emotions of youth are a unique experience that can never be relived.
Chi Shu stared intently at the photo, his smile completely gone. If Lin Langyi were present, she would be shocked by Chi Shu's sinister expression, because in her mind, such emotions should never appear on his face.
His left thumb was pressed heavily on the boy's face in the photo, completely obscuring it as if he were trying to kill him, so hard that faint rainbow stripes appeared on the screen.
Every time I see it, it stirs up the dark side of jealousy.
Chi Shu didn't like this photo. If it were a paper diary, he would have folded the page completely in half or glued it shut so that he would never see the photo again.
After a while, probably when his patience with it had reached its limit, he forcefully raised his finger and quickly swiped it upwards, making the unsightly photo disappear from his sight.
Chi Shu switched accounts again, this time to another alternate account he had hidden in the forest. It had the same garbled nickname, the same no profile picture or background image, and the same text, layout, events, and pictures.
It's like a bizarre mirror world, except this time, he's the protagonist in all of it.
Chi Shu scrolled to the group photo of the ginkgo tree from earlier. In this photo, the boy had been replaced and photoshopped to look like himself.
He stared at the photo, a morbid, utterly satisfied smile slowly spreading across his lips. He ran his fingers over the girl's face in the picture, rubbing against the golden leaves that obscured the kiss, a surge of immense happiness welling up inside him. It was as if he had truly participated in that innocent campus romance, in a love affair with her that he had never experienced before.
He thought that although he was similar to that person in many ways, in fact, their personalities were completely different at heart.
For example, he would never do something like going abroad to seek a better future for his self-esteem, or gambling on success and then rekindling a past relationship—the kind of plot that only appears in TV dramas.
He doesn't have such a proud sense of self-esteem, and he's more willing to sacrifice his pride and dignity than that person, even willing to bury his true self, so he won't leave her.
He will take his place.
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