He Said: I'll Be the Stand-In!

When the bold declaration “It’s all you! It has to be you!” was still echoing in the room, Gu Yan had already started mentally composing his eulogy.

He could imagine tomorrow’s social news headline: “Shock! Famous Illustrator, Due to Emotional Dispute, Suffers ‘Physical Liberation’ by Client Daddy!”

How embarrassing. Too embarrassing.

He squeezed his eyes shut tightly, like a convict awaiting the guillotine, even holding his breath. One second, two seconds, three seconds… The anticipated storm never came.

The surrounding silence was eerie.

Gu Yan couldn’t help but cautiously crack his eyes open.

Then he saw a sight he would never forget.

Jiang Lin—the domineering CEO who moments ago had exuded full presence and murderous eyes—was staring straight at him. He wasn’t angry, nor was he mocking. In those deep eyes, it seemed… it seemed like a small flame was crackling and burning.

Then, under Gu Yan’s shocked gaze, the corners of Jiang Lin’s mouth slowly lifted, inch by inch.

He smiled.

It wasn’t a cold, mocking smile, but a heartfelt one, tinged with pleasure and triumph. That smile was like the first ray of sunshine breaking through the ice in winter, dazzling Gu Yan’s eyes.

Then he heard Jiang Lin utter three words in an infuriatingly lazy tone:

“Well, that’s that.”

Gu Yan: “Huh?!?!?!”

‘That’s that’?

What’s that?

Is it my life that’s done, or your anger that’s done? Those three words carried too much information for his little brain to process at once.

Jiang Lin seemed to thoroughly enjoy Gu Yan’s expression of “Who am I? Where am I?” He leisurely released his grip on Gu Yan, took a step back, and slowly adjusted his collar, which had become disheveled from the “strenuous activity.”

The action was as elegant as if he were attending a high-class banquet, rather than just having pinned his boyfriend against the door and kissed him senseless.

Gu Yan stared at him, his mind filled with question marks that could circle the earth three times.

Was this guy… not angry anymore?

Just because of those shameless “standard answers”?

Was this CEO’s temper really that easy to soothe?

While Gu Yan was still struggling with his logical reconstruction, Jiang Lin dropped another bombshell, completely shattering Gu Yan’s worldview.

He strode over to the sofa, sat down, crossed his legs, and, in a casual tone as if commenting on the weather, said lightly to Gu Yan, who was still standing dumbfounded:

“Since I’m stronger in every aspect, then I’m happy to be the stand-in.”

“Boom——”

Gu Yan felt the top of his skull blown off by those words.

He… what did he just hear?

Stand-in?

Happy to be?

‘I’???

These words combined—he recognized each character, but when they held hands and formed a sentence, Gu Yan felt his nine years of compulsory education in Chinese had been wasted.

That’s not how the script goes!

According to the eight hundred stand-in romance novels he’d read, Jiang Lin should now be heartbroken, throw down a line like “Gu Yan, you disgust me,” and storm out, launching them into a painful, angsty chase-and-reconciliation trope.

But here, the style was so bizarrely different.

Not only was the CEO not angry, he was enthusiastically offering to “officially work” as a stand-in?

What kind of new humiliation tactic was this?

Gu Yan’s worldview, in just a few minutes, went through cycles of “collapse—rebuild—collapse again,” leaving only ruins.

He watched the man who now leisurely picked up a glass of water to drink, opened his mouth, but couldn’t utter a word.

And Jiang Lin, as if completely oblivious to Gu Yan’s thunderstruck expression, finished drinking and even lifted his chin at Gu Yan, gesturing with his eyes: “What are you standing around for? Come here?”

The gesture seemed as if the one who had just undergone a “social death storm” wasn’t Gu Yan, but some neighbor Jiang Lin barely knew.

Gu Yan stood there, utterly bewildered.

He felt that things… were starting to develop in a completely unpredictable, extremely strange direction.