Transmigrated as the CEO's Top-Tier Stand-in - Chapter 28

Chapter 28

The staff member was still hesitant, but Meng Rendong had already sent a message to Wang Luoshui. After receiving a reply, she briefly showed the phone screen to the staff member. Once the person stepped aside, she leisurely tucked her phone into her pocket.

She slightly tilted her head, intending to casually start a conversation with Ji Yu, but the other party only hastily threw a “thank you” over her shoulder and shot out like an arrow.

Meng Rendong was caught off guard. The words on her tongue hadn’t even begun to emerge. She then watched Ji Yu’s back disappear further and further away from her.

Her gaze darkened, and her steps quickened.

Somehow, a conversation from before they broke up suddenly appeared in her mind.

“Ji Yu, if I ever find out you’re making inappropriate friends behind my back…”

At that time, she was already somewhat jealous but completely unaware of it, only warning Ji Yu with unpleasant words. However, the other party’s answer satisfied her immensely, instantly wiping away all her discontent:

“No friends, only you. I like you the most.”

At the time, Meng Rendong truly hadn’t heard of anyone Ji Yu was close to. The girl she remembered was always alone in that empty, large house, with only an overly protective brown puppy by her side. Ji Yu was taciturn, and only when she saw Meng Rendong did her eyes light up like the night sky illuminated by stars.

No friends…?

Meng Rendong vaguely raised her eyes to look. She noticed Ji Yu’s figure had already run out of the poorly lit corridor leading to the venue exit, disappearing behind the door. This caused her to involuntarily consider: was every sweet word Ji Yu had ever said to her a lie?

Was it merely to coax her?

The girl, whose happiness and excitement were usually expressed with a lingering tenderness, rarely showed such obvious outward emotion. Meng Rendong gradually walked from the dazzling stage lights into the shadowed corridor, allowing the darkness to swallow her. The negative thoughts in her heart found a stage and became much more boisterous:

“You never saw her this happy when you went to find her, did you, Meng Rendong?”

“See, she doesn’t really like you either.”

“Do you even know who she’s going to find? You don’t. You know nothing about her life, her hobbies, or her social circle. Meng Rendong, what exactly are you clinging to?”

Her breathing became heavy.

For a moment, even this corridor leading to the exit seemed endlessly long, dark and bottomless, as if it would keep her trapped here forever.

Ji Yu ran with the speed of a hundred-meter dash in a physical education exam.

She could clearly feel the air in her chest being constantly squeezed out, every cell in her body pushed to its limit. Yet, she had no time to notice any of this, nor the frantic rhythm of her heart. Her attention was entirely focused on the red dot the system shared in her mind.

That was Si Tian’s distance from her.

The distance had been closing inch by inch, but there were too many TEB fans who had heard the news around the venue, as well as fans supporting the girl group members. Past the venue section, the streets ahead were filled with speeding electric bikes and motorcycles, and even randomly parked shared bicycles. Her speed was forced to slow down, and with this slack, fatigue belatedly surged through her body.

She only then realized she had run quite far from the venue.

But the distance to Si Tian had not closed.

The other party was even moving further away.

Ji Yu looked at the red dot in her mind, adjusted her breathing where she stood, and just as she was about to chase again, her communication device rang. Wang Luoshui’s voice came through the headset she hadn’t taken off:

“Ji Yu, didn’t you say you were meeting a friend outside? Why are you almost running out of the communication range?”

“Hurry back. This is a closed competition. Trainees aren’t allowed to leave arbitrarily. I already made an exception to let you out. Don’t make things difficult for me, okay?”

“What if the surrounding media reporters catch you… I don’t want to see strange headlines like ‘Dream Chasing 100 Trainee Escapes’ on the trending searches tomorrow.”

Wang Luoshui omitted the connection to Meng Rendong but listed enough factors to make Ji Yu stop her pursuit.

She stared blankly in Si Tian’s direction. The red dot had stayed right outside the venue for five minutes, meaning Si Tian very likely knew about the show and that she was here…

But why?

Did she come out too slowly?

Ji Yu hadn’t yet regulated her breathing. At this moment, she saw the car lights on the road flashing like a long dragon. Streamer-like lights hung on the trees along the road. Nearby, pedestrians walking along the roadside held skewers. The everyday hustle and bustle wrapped around her from all directions. Despite this thriving scene, her eyes gradually reddened.

It was the extreme disappointment following a profound aspiration.

She looked again in the direction Si Tian had left. For a moment, she desperately wanted to abandon this so-called glory and dream, and chase after her without a care, saying all the things she couldn’t say back then.

But the urging voice in her device rang again and again.

Ultimately, she could only drag her unusually heavy feet back toward the venue. To avoid being seen, she deliberately walked to the back door area after passing inspection, where she looked up at the window outside in that secluded spot.

She mumbled in her mind: “System.”

The system quickly said: “She should… Si Tian must have just passed by, noticed the excitement here, so she took a look and then left. She probably still doesn’t know you’re here!”

Ji Yu recalled the time the red dot lingered, sounding both like she believed the system and was trying to convince herself: “Is that so?”

The system quickly agreed: “Yes! Because you had very few shots in the episodes that aired before! Wait until the initial stage! Wait until you’re on the magazine cover! Wait until later! She will definitely see it!”

Plop, plop.

Ji Yu lowered her head. She saw the smooth floor tiles reflecting the faint light from outside the venue’s floor-to-ceiling windows. She also saw two drops of water splash and bloom on the tiles.

She remained motionless, keeping her head lowered, and asked the system again: “Is it because I’m not standing high enough yet?”

The system didn’t know how to comfort her for a moment. It wished it could manifest its physical form, spin around her, wag its tail in comfort, or gently rub its furry head against her palm.

However, it couldn’t.

It could only feel the agony and pain in Ji Yu’s heart, racking its brain to find comforting phrases from its data bank to alleviate Ji Yu’s emotions. But Ji Yu was already obsessively sinking into those dark thoughts. The joy and excitement of rushing into A-class and winning the theme song Center position these past few days were suddenly struck hard into the abyss by a heavy hammer from the heavens, as if everything had returned to that former gloomy period.

She thought she might be about to receive salvation, but she wasn’t.

The two near-misses with Si Tian brought back those almost forgotten emotions from the depths of her heart. Ji Yu spoke to herself: “No… she won’t forgive me… because I wasn’t there back then…”

She hadn’t appeared when Si Tian needed her the most, forcing her to follow the frenzy of the entire internet and repeatedly experience the tragedy that had already occurred.

Was her current appearance merely a matter of trying to fix things after the damage was done?

No.

The wounds inflicted on Si Tian wouldn’t just disappear. What could Ji Yu do now by appearing before her? Did Si Tian even need her companionship? Perhaps Si Tian had once been disappointed in her. Otherwise, why hadn’t she reached out to Ji Yu before leaving this world, attempting to find a chance to be saved?

Was it because Si Tian thought she couldn’t save her?

Ji Yu couldn’t help but recall their first meeting. She was pulled out of the water and sent to the hospital. The room was full of patients, but only she had no relatives, no one to care for her. Instead, the girl in the next room who had the flu came over to strike up a friendship with her.

In the cold, frighteningly white hospital room, Si Tian gave her warmth after she lost all her memories, making even the cicadas outside the window sound cheerful in that late summer.

Si Tian initially seemed reserved, too, but because Ji Yu was even more silent, she listened as Si Tian desperately concocted interesting stories, making them sound lifelike and real.

“I… I once had a friend. She was a very quiet person when she was little and was generally unpopular at home. Actually, her family was very well-off. Her father was a real estate mogul and she had a very smart older brother. She should have been sheltered like other families’ little daughters, but…”

“But she was unlucky. Her mother died of severe bleeding during childbirth because of a breech presentation. Her brother consequently hated her, even treating her like she was invisible, never looking her in the eye at home… And her father was a very romantic person. Like the stories of rich people, her father had many lovers outside. Even after his wife died, he didn’t hesitate to bring a new woman home.”

“Her status in the house was awkward. Her father only cared about his heir and didn’t really manage her life, as long as she wasn’t starved or frozen. Her brother hated her. The newly arrived stepmother was the only one who treated her kindly. At the time, she didn’t know her stepmother was only being overly solicitous to everyone because she had the lowest status in the house, so she accepted the sweet milk the stepmother offered her, only to be caught by her brother.”

“She heard her brother say that the thing he hated most was sweet stuff, and the stepmother stood by with her head lowered. She held the milk, not knowing what to do. The next day, she found all the milk in the house was gone. At breakfast, her brother told her: Do you think that woman really likes you? Fool, she’s just used to pleasing others. Only pitiful wretches like you go around desperately looking for a mother.”

“After that, she never held hope for anyone in that house, until… a neighbor’s child appeared before her.”

“That child was named A-Yu, who loved to dance and loved to bring her sister along to visit everywhere. She didn’t mind her being quiet, brought her into her circle to play, and even secretly gave her chocolates every day, reviving her love for sweets that she had managed to quit—”

At this point, Si Tian seemed reluctant to continue. She stopped and asked Ji Yu: “Do you like to dance?”

Ji Yu, who had been listening nearby, didn’t answer directly. Instead, she asked lightly: “You’re telling it in such detail. Are you the protagonist of the story?”

Si Tian: “…No.”

Ji Yu said, “Oh,” and then: “So, you envy that neighbor girl named A-Yu, and since my name has a similar sound, you want me to treat you like she treated her friend?”

It was a particularly convoluted question.

Si Tian understood it, though. She sat silently at the bedside for a moment, a flash of pain seemed to cross her eyes but was quickly concealed. Then she smiled, somewhat awkwardly: “No.”

Ji Yu heard her say: “Don’t be A-Yu. You, Little Ji Yu, are great as you are. You are you, not anyone else.”

The warmth of the past, now revisited in memory, turned into sharp knives.

Ji Yu realized that Si Tian was the light that illuminated her life from the moment she appeared. But she, accustomed to being illuminated, couldn’t give anything back. Now that the light was gone, she became dim and couldn’t illuminate anyone.

How could she possibly save Si Tian, who had endured such pain?

Truly, utterly foolish.

She squatted on the ground, covering her face with her hands. One moment she yearned for the other party to give her a chance, and the next she wished Si Tian would never forgive her, because she was simply too late.

What good is love that arrives late?

Tears seeped through her fingers. Ji Yu was immersed in her own pain, unable to break free, when suddenly, she heard a presence approach her:

“Why are you here?”

She didn’t lift her head, but she had already discerned who it was from the tone of voice.

It was Meng Rendong.

Meng Rendong looked at her silently weeping figure, covering her face. Her heart tightened inexplicably. She didn’t know where she found the patience, but she crouched down too, yet couldn’t find a topic, eventually blurting out:

“Didn’t… didn’t you say you had no friends?”

“Couldn’t you find the person just now?”

“Why are you so upset over a friend?”

Ji Yu, who had kept her head bowed, barely moved. Even the slight arch of her shoulders paused. Meng Rendong handed her a tissue. She took it, still keeping her head down, preventing Meng Rendong from seeing her expression.

Meng Rendong actually wanted to hug her, but Ji Yu didn’t move, so the embrace never materialized. Sensing the resistance from Ji Yu, Meng Rendong couldn’t help but say:

“I’ve seen you in all states.”

So what if she’s crying?

She thought Ji Yu was embarrassed by her crying appearance and didn’t want her to look or hug her.

But Ji Yu gently exhaled, used the tissue to wipe the traces from her face, and then lifted her tear-stained eyes, looking at her seriously:

“I’m sorry, President Meng.”

Meng Rendong was about to say “it’s okay,” but then heard Ji Yu’s next sentence: “That sentence wasn’t meant for you.”

Meng Rendong: “…What?”

She seemed not to have fully grasped the meaning.

Ji Yu repeated word for word: “’I have no friends, I like you the most’—that sentence was not meant for you.”

Meng Rendong’s mind instantly went blank.

She couldn’t seem to process Ji Yu’s words.

A terrifying conjecture tried to surface in her heart, but she instinctively pushed it down.

Her expression was blank, in reality, she didn’t know what expression to make. After a moment of being stunned, she was about to get up and leave, unwilling to hear what came next, but Ji Yu didn’t give her a chance.

The girl continued to look at her with those focused, beautiful eyes that made people think she was deeply in love whenever she made eye contact. Even the fragile tear-glisten in her eyes hadn’t disappeared, making people unconsciously feel she was soft, vulnerable, and needed protection.

In this familiar illusion, Meng Rendong heard her say, with a slight nasal tone, very softly:

“There’s something President Meng might not know—”

“I have a friend who looks strikingly similar to you.”

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