Chapter 64 Cannon Fodder Substitute Lover 12 Has the plot not fallen apart yet?! ...
Whether it was because the rain outside was getting heavier or for some other reason, Gu Qingyan looked at the young man with a flushed face on the other balcony and had the illusion that he himself had been drenched in the rain and his whole body had become damp and stuffy.
His breathing became difficult, and his throat grew increasingly dry, as if a fire was burning inside it.
How could this be?!
Didn't Li Qingran say she was at the convenience store downstairs? Why is she on Xu Luo's balcony, and in this... Gu Qingyan's gaze involuntarily fell on the boy's black trousers, which had slipped down a bit, revealing half of his fair and muscular waist. In a daze, he could only barely regain a sliver of rationality by clenching his teeth and relying on the smell of blood and the pain.
Now is not the time to dwell on this; he needs to bring Li Qingran back first.
Xu Luo has clearly gone mad, otherwise she wouldn't have started doing shameful things to the boy right there on the balcony.
Gu Qingyan bit her tongue hard and did not choose the main gate, which was a safe route. Instead, she used the railing to leap up, jumping more than ten meters below, and landed steadily on Xu Luo's balcony before being soaked by the heavy rain.
Gu Qingyan chose this dangerous method partly because there wasn't enough time, and partly because he was worried that Xu Luo wouldn't open the door for him if he chose to come through the main entrance. Moreover, given Xu Luo's current condition, the probability of this happening was particularly high.
Gu Qingyan straightened his clothes slightly and approached Li Qingran and Xu Luo.
Xu Luo had completely fallen into a state of frenzy, oblivious to everything around him, only wanting to finish what he was doing as quickly as possible to speed up the completion of his plan.
So much so that when Gu Qingyan got closer, he could clearly hear the muffled groans and gasps that Li Qingran couldn't control escaping from her lips. This made Gu Qingyan, who originally wanted to take a pure love route with Li Qingran, unconsciously turn his attention to the place where Li Qingran and Xu Luo's hands were constantly intertwined.
Then, he couldn't take his eyes off it.
How could this be...?
"No!"
Li Qingran's shout during her brief moment of lucidity barely brought Gu Qingyan back to his senses.
Before he could get any other crazy ideas out of him, Gu Qingyan bit his tongue again, then quickly walked over to Xu Luo, picked up a small pot of succulents from the balcony flower rack, lowered his gaze, and smashed the pot directly at the back of the young man's neck.
"Smack!"
The flowerpot shattered upon impact with the young man's head, and Xu Luo's eyes went blank for a moment. He didn't even have time to look at Li Qingran again, or turn around to condemn Gu Qingyan for suddenly causing him harm, before he collapsed straight onto the floor.
There was another "thud" when her head hit the floor, but Gu Qingyan didn't have time to comment on how crisp the "thud" was. He just wanted to hear that it was a good head and other similar rambling words. He just walked quickly to Li Qingran's side, bent down, and reached out to help her up from the ground.
However, looking at the door that was generously open to him, Gu Qingyan's fingertips twitched involuntarily twice as he looked away from Li Qingran. He looked away, but couldn't help turning back after a couple of seconds. He did this several times before finally making up his mind and saying in a hoarse voice:
"Li Qingran, Li Qingran?!"
Are you conscious right now?
"I'm going to take you back now, but your clothes... need to be tidied up. If you still have the energy, you can tidy them up yourself. If not, then I'll... tidy them up for you first?"
When he said the last word, Gu Qingyan's tone involuntarily rose slightly at the end.
However, of the three people present, one was unconscious, one was knocked unconscious by a flowerpot, and the other was himself, who was too caught up in the situation to see clearly.
No one noticed the barely suppressed excitement in his voice as he said those words, including Gu Qingyan himself…
Gu Qingyan stood there quietly for a minute, or maybe only a dozen seconds. After receiving no response from Li Qingran and seeing the boy do it himself, he licked his dry lips with his scarlet tongue, then bent down and slowly, without any hurry, put the things back in their place.
During the process of putting it back in, whether it was because Gu Qingyan's hands were too cold, or because the thing had just been abused and was still in a sensitive and fragile state, before Gu Qingyan's fingertips even touched the burning skin, Li Qingran's body couldn't help but tremble for a moment.
Gu Qingyan's breathing became erratic for a moment.
The absurd idea of continuing Xu Luo's work unconsciously popped into his mind.
Fortunately, Gu Qingyan still retained a shred of rationality, knowing that he shouldn't take advantage of someone in distress at this time. Moreover, even if he really wanted to, the incident shouldn't have happened on Xu Luo's balcony, and there certainly shouldn't be a competitor lying next to him whose life or death was uncertain, but who could wake up at any moment.
Yes, at this moment, after witnessing the series of things Xu Luo did to Li Qingran, Gu Qingyan's impression of Xu Luo had changed from that former stand-in lover who looked very much like Jiang Ming to a rival who would compete with her for Li Qingran.
That's why he wasn't careless at all when he did it.
After all, who would show mercy to their opponent?
Gu Qingyan took a deep breath, and with the idea of getting things done quickly, he haphazardly straightened Li Qingran's clothes, then reached out and grabbed Li Qingran's arm, and with his other hand under the boy's armpit, he helped him up, and in this half-hug, half-carry manner, he led him out of Xu Luo's house.
It was at the moment she stepped out of Xu Luo's house that Li Qingran, who had been dragged along by Gu Qingyan like a corpse with her head hanging low on her chest, suddenly twitched her tightly closed eyelids. As her lower eyeballs slowly moved, her rapid breathing gradually became steady.
Then, after Gu Qingyan took him back to his house and placed him on the sofa, while he was thinking about how to settle him down, he opened his eyes without any warning.
Gu Qingyan, who was deep in thought, was startled, but he quickly calmed down. When Li Qingran turned to look at him, he cleared his throat expressionlessly and said:
"You're awake."
"Hmm..." Li Qingran blinked slowly twice, her eyes filled with obvious confusion, as if she hadn't yet recovered from what had just happened.
Where am I?
Forgive him for not being able to distinguish between Xu Luo's house and his own. After all, Gu Qingyan had decorated the houses for the substitutes according to the same template and the furniture was exactly the same. When Li Qingran first walked into Xu Luo's house, he really had the illusion of entering a parallel world.
Gu Qingyan pursed her lips. "Your home."
He paused, then hesitated before speaking, "Just now, you and Xu Luo..."
Gu Qingyan didn't ask the remaining questions, but Li Qingran knew what he meant.
After all, the person who said they were going to the convenience store ended up on the balcony next door, in that state and posture... Li Qingran took a deep breath, and then, under Gu Qingyan's complicated gaze, slowly spoke:
"Regarding this, I must first apologize to you, Mr. Gu."
Gu Qingyan was stunned.
In front of him, the handsome boy continued to move his lips.
“When I told you I was at the convenience store, I was actually at Mr. Xu’s house. He kept telling me he wasn’t feeling well today. I thought, we’re all friends, and Mr. Xu usually takes good care of me, so I went over to check on him. Even if I couldn’t help with his treatment, at least I could help get him to the hospital while he was still feeling alright.”
"Considering that he and I both belong to you... plus Xu Luo told me at that time that you and he had terminated your contract, I thought he had done something to anger you, so when you called, I subconsciously lied. It was my fault, but later... later I don't know why that kind of thing happened."
The boy's voice was soft, and he spoke slowly, making it easy to sense his confusion and bewilderment.
"I don't know why Mr. Xu suddenly acted that way..."
Gu Qingyan listened quietly, her dark eyes, as black as ink, staring straight at the boy who was lying on the sofa, staring at the ceiling.
His eyes held a look that was hard to decipher—whether it was belief or doubt.
However, just as Gu Qingyan was fluctuating between these two emotions, Li Qingran suddenly turned her head and looked at him.
That gentle, warm voice rang in Gu Qingyan's ears once again. However, compared to its previous calmness, the boy's voice now carried a hint of barely perceptible fragility and struggle. He seemed to be asking Gu Qingyan a question, but it was more like he was pleading for help.
"Did I do something wrong, Mr. Gu...?"
Gu Qingyan heard the boy ask him.
"If I hadn't agreed to see Mr. Xu in the first place, would that whole thing have been avoided...?"
"If I had told you the truth back then, would that thing not have happened?"
"If I don't—"
"Alright!" Gu Qingyan finally couldn't take it anymore. He reached out to hold Li Qingran's hand, but after meeting the hurt in her eyes, he slowly withdrew his hand and stared intently into the boy's eyes, saying seriously:
"This isn't your fault, it's Xu Luo's fault. He deceived you first, and then did something... outrageous!"
Gu Qingyan paused for a few seconds, then asked, "Did he give you something strange to drink?"
"I remember taking two sips of water, then going to the balcony to answer your call. After hanging up and preparing to come back, my body suddenly went limp and became uncontrollable..."
Xu Luo must have used a tool on him, but the effect was no different from drugging him, so Gu Qingyan's guess was correct.
By this point, Li Qingran felt that the plot had collapsed to the point of no return, but he didn't know if the world rules had raised the standard for judging the chaos of the world line this time, or for some other reason, he still hadn't received a system notification.
Li Qingran felt a rare sense of anxiety.
The reason I didn't want to get entangled with these main characters was secondary; the main reason was that Xu Luo next door was really too crazy. He dared to use a prop on him right after the mission failed. When he was forced to quit a week later, wouldn't he just drag his soul away with him?
He'd already been bound to this situation once without warning, and he didn't want it to happen a second time...
The most urgent thing is to get away from Xu Luo, or at least get away from that 'Xu Luo' from before.
That's what Li Qingran thought.
It was at this moment, whether Gu Qingyan and Li Qingran were thinking the same thing, or whether he himself had some ulterior motives, that the man sitting next to him, who had been silently watching him, suddenly spoke up as Li Qingran pondered how to safely distance himself from the main characters before gaining freedom in the plot:
"Come home with me."
"Huh?" Li Qingran, who was pondering her own question, didn't react to Gu Qingyan's words.
The latter patiently repeated it again.
"Come home with me, back to where I live. The security there is better, and I can protect you better."
Li Qingran blinked.
Gu Qingyan continued, "I did break my contract with Xu Luo. In fact, I broke my contract with all my substitutes except you. But it wasn't because they thought that Jiang Ming was back and I no longer needed substitutes. It was because I discovered that I had fallen in love with someone else."
"This person is you, Qingran..."
"So, for your own safety, and for the change in our relationship, would you like to consider moving in with me?"
The man's eyes were deep and focused, the intense emotion in them almost melting you.
However, under such affectionate gazes, Li Qingran had only one thought in her mind at this moment—
no!
Isn't this a complete plot hole?!
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Author's Note: Pear: Something's wrong! Something's really wrong! The problem isn't me, it's the world! [Question mark][Question mark][Question mark]
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