Transmigrated as the CEO's Top-Tier Stand-in - Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Meng Rendong would find it difficult to forget this night.

Of course, she would later realize that no matter how many times Ji Yu had astonished her, the next time she saw her on stage, in the moment of being crowned queen, she would still feel an involuntary tremor in her heart.

Perhaps this was Ji Yu’s charm.

“…Next, let’s announce the total votes received by the top two places.”

“Second place received 1,044,523 votes.”

“And first place received 1,083,422 votes.”

Qi Feng, wearing a sparkling suit, looked at the girls from the side of the stage and asked them: “Guess who is first, Ling Lan or Ji Yu?”

That’s right.

Ling Lan, with her incredibly appealing personality and the contrast of her appearance since the first episode, had won the audience’s favor. Coupled with her consistently good stage performances from the start, this had attracted a large fanbase, even surpassing Rong Bai, Jiang Lianque, and Chu Nanxing.

“How about we announce the second place first…”

Qi Feng raised an eyebrow and asked the audience below. He was met with the unconditional, spoiled voices of the TEB fans in the front row: “Okay! Whatever you say is fine!”

“Brother Feng is the number one in our hearts!”

Qi Feng, of course, heard their calls, only smiled, and then pulled everyone’s attention back to the stage. In the instant the spotlights simultaneously fell on Ji Yu and Ling Lan, Qi Feng curved into a perfect smile—

“Or the first place?”

A chorus of playful groans erupted from below.

The perfect mask on Qi Feng’s face broke, and he laughed along. That brilliant smile flashed across his face, then transformed into a serious and solemn sentence:

“Let us welcome tonight’s victor to step onto the throne!”

The words fell!

The final curtain behind the stage drew open, revealing chairs arranged exactly like those previously seen in the hotel performance hall, except now there were only sixty-seven of them. The one at the very top—luxurious, adorned with a golden crown, and featuring a pair of beautiful white wings behind it—still drew everyone’s attention just as it had the first time.

And then.

The light falling on Ling Lan and Ji Yu was withdrawn in a flash. In less than half a second, with a rapid, flashing rhythm, one, two, three… countless beams of white light fell upon Ji Yu.

The dry ice and fireworks at the front of the stage were released again, meeting the fans’ frenzied screams. The scene instantly became as lively as an emperor’s enthronement.

Ji Yu was initially hit by the intense light and didn’t react until she saw one orange light after another illuminating the audience in the backlight—those were the glow bracelets uniformly distributed by the fan club to all the fans. The light they emitted was like fireflies, or like twinkling stars in the sky. Ji Yu blinked, as if seeing the flashlight beam that pierced the sky at the end of her very first stage, now scattered throughout the sea of people.

Her eyes inexplicably became a little moist.

But she quickly blinked away the moisture. She bowed deeply to the audience, and after Ling Lan finished her speech, she took the microphone, finding herself unusually blank-minded.

It was the system that asked her: “Yuyu, should I search for a speech draft for you?”

Ji Yu finally reacted. She glanced toward the audience, smiled, and finally came back to her senses. She declined the system’s help. From this moment, feeling all the fans below quietly holding their breath and waiting for her to speak, she suddenly understood what Qi Feng’s words to her before the stage began truly meant.

Receiving such an honor, being pushed to such a high place, carrying the love and expectation of those who liked her—in this instant, she genuinely wanted to transform into a perfect idol, to never disappoint her fans, and was willing to pay any price to achieve it.

So Ji Yu moved her lips and very seriously said:

“Thank you.”

“Thank you all.”

She bowed deeply again, vaguely hearing someone shouting loudly at her from the front of the audience: “Don’t mention it! You earned it!”

“Ji Yu! You have to charge forward!”

“Keep up the great work!!!”

“We’ll always support you!”

Perhaps her pause was too long. More and more encouraging voices poured into her ears from all directions. When Ji Yu stood up, holding the microphone, her lips moved, but she managed not to let the tears fall.

Her gaze swept over the scattered orange lights in the audience. Ji Yu finally spoke again, her tone as solemn as a vow:

“I promise you, from the moment I step onto the stage in the future—”

“I will always give my absolute best!”

Watching her step by step toward that supreme throne afterward.

The frenzy, the cheers at the venue, and the overwhelming hot searches online—Meng Rendong could no longer remember them clearly.

Meeting Si Tian, solving parts of her own mystery, and Ji Yu’s first place in the second public performance, now also with the highest number of support votes… these things were enough to make Meng Rendong joyful, so much so that even in her dreams, those screams still echoed in her ears.

But the next moment.

The dream quieted down again.

Another voice appeared by her ear:

“Why did you care so much about Ji Yu the moment you first saw her?”

Meng Rendong couldn’t help but go blank.

Why, indeed?

As if to show her the answer, a scene suddenly appeared before her. She was abruptly pulled into the setting, seeing a classroom with somewhat worn wooden floors and yellowing walls.

Standing in front of her was sixteen-year-old… Ji Yu.

It must be Ji Yu, because the Chu family would never let Chu Jianyu come to such a low-grade place.

Meng Rendong thought.

Ji Yu was wearing a somewhat faded school uniform, completely out of place among the surrounding classmates in pink and blue tight dancewear.

The girl nervously tugged at her: “What should we do? Si Tian, the teacher will be here soon. I heard that everyone else here has been practicing dancing for years, and many wanted to sign up but couldn’t. How about we… forget it?”

Meng Rendong subconsciously clenched her hand.

“It’s okay,” she heard her own voice say somewhat dryly: “How do we know it won’t work before trying? At worst, after being eliminated, we’ll go back and self-study for a while and come back.”

Ji Yu obediently replied “Oh.”

But she still couldn’t help but look around, staring at others’ dance moves. She happened to see a girl in the corner practicing dancing by herself to the music. She watched intently for a while. Just as Meng Rendong was about to ask her what was wrong, she heard Ji Yu whisper:

“Huh… that looks so simple. I feel like I can do it too.”

Meng Rendong: “?”

She turned to look, realizing the little girl was dancing Jazz.

Because she often watched Chu Jianyu dance when she was free, and had unknowingly been filled with a lot of dance knowledge, although many concepts were still vague, she was familiar with Jazz, which the Chu sisters excelled at.

So she heard herself ask: “Really? Didn’t you say you’ve never learned to dance?”

Ji Yu rubbed her head, looking confused and conflicted: “I haven’t learned, no… but I don’t know why, I just feel like dancing isn’t that hard.”

Meng Rendong: “???”

While she was still completely bewildered, the dance instructor responsible for the class entered.

Before the class started, the instructor assigned some stretching and review exercises, then looked at the two new girls and said: “Are you the ones who wanted to sign up today? Have you studied dance? How many years?”

Ji Yu and Si Tian both shook their heads, indicating they hadn’t learned.

The dance instructor glanced at them, understanding: “Oh, then you need to start from the basics. Wait a moment, after I finish this class, I’ll take you to check out the beginner class—”

Ji Yu and Meng Rendong had no choice but to wait together.

During the wait, Meng Rendong watched with wide eyes as she, in the dream, pulled a fruit-flavored hard candy from her pocket and put it in Ji Yu’s mouth. She involuntarily blurted out:

“Wait!”

Ji Yu can’t eat candy!

But no one in the dream could hear her voice.

She could only frustratedly give up, planning to wait for this dream to pass and then ask Si Tian tomorrow about Ji Yu’s digestive health when they were together in that world.

Could it be that Ji Yu’s poor digestion was due to her feeding her this random candy?

While she was lost in thought, the dance instructor’s class had already begun. The instructor led all the students through the previous dance progress, and then started teaching a new section…

Unknowingly, Ji Yu next to her started dancing along.

Meng Rendong couldn’t help but widen her eyes.

By the time the class was halfway through, due to the mirrors in the classroom, many girls in the front row saw Ji Yu following the teacher’s movements with remarkable fluency and ease.

Finally, even the dance instructor came over.

“What’s your name?”

“…Ji Yu.”

“Your dance foundation is good. Why didn’t you tell me before?”

Ji Yu unconsciously looked at Meng Rendong, feeling a bit helpless.

Then she whispered: “I… I really haven’t learned.”

The teacher, however, frowned, suspicious: “Impossible. Only someone who has practiced dancing since childhood can have such quick physical coordination and dance learning ability…”

Meng Rendong moved her lips, and a voice was eager to come out from her mind.

She heard her dream self defending Ji Yu: “Teacher, she had a head injury before and can’t remember some things.”

Meng Rendong couldn’t hear how the matter was vaguely glossed over later.

All her attention was on Ji Yu beside her.

It was as if the other person’s dancing held some kind of magic.

Even after class, Ji Yu didn’t go to the teacher to fill out the form first. Instead, she came anxiously to Meng Rendong, tugging at her clothes, and quietly asked:

“Si Tian, did I really use to dance?”

“But why don’t I remember anything? The uncle and aunt I live with now also said I never danced…”

Meng Rendong suddenly raised her hands and hugged her tightly—

Even through the dream, she could feel the temperature of Ji Yu’s body.

And her own body trembling and shaking.

“It’s, it’s okay…”

“That teacher is just ignorant. Maybe you’re a dance prodigy and can learn just by seeing it?”

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we successfully signed up today! Now you can come here to dance every day. Are you happy?”

Ji Yu seemed to have some difficulty understanding her excitement, trying hard to crane her neck out of the embrace to avoid being squeezed too tightly. After a long time, she whispered:

“A little bit, but I’m happier if I’m with you…”

The person in the dream nodded vigorously, absentmindedly agreeing.

Meng Rendong, reliving all of this, couldn’t stop herself from feeling an urge to cry, as if the dream could control her body—

The scene before her shattered.

An even earlier scene appeared.

A girl in branded dancewear stood before her. After finishing a newly learned dance segment, she smiled slightly at her, her voice carrying three parts anticipation and three parts nervousness, asking:

“Is it, is it okay?”

And her own voice answered: “Of course.”

Chu Jianyu sighed in relief, but then looked at her with some disbelief: “Don’t you not understand dance? Aren’t you just humoring me?”

“Who says I don’t understand? I paid attention every time you danced for me.”

“Really?”

“If you don’t believe me, pick another section to dance now. As long as you’ve danced it in front of me, I can definitely recognize it.”

“Alright!”

“Hoo…”

In the dark bedroom.

Meng Rendong suddenly opened her eyes, feeling the hair beneath her ear slightly damp and warm. She reached up to touch it, realizing she had been crying in her sleep, her eyes wet with tears.

She slowly sat up, closing her eyes to recall those scenes. She felt many moments flash through her mind: those that appeared in the dream, and those that hadn’t appeared but were only described in Si Tian’s story…

Finally.

The images of Chu Jianyu and Ji Yu in her memory completely overlapped.

Meng Rendong raised her hand to cover her face, whispering in a low murmur:

“It’s you…”

It was always you.

I had already found you again.

But I completely forgot all of it.

5:20 AM

Ji Yu realized that despite finally achieving first place, she couldn’t seem to sleep. Although she was completely exhausted, she didn’t want to go back to the dorm. Unknowingly, she ended up at the balcony where she used to practice dancing, wanting to see the rising sun.

Her steps were unhurried, carrying a sense of leisure. As she entered that floor, she felt the morning breeze blowing in from outside, still carrying a slight chill from the night.

It felt like winter was approaching without anyone noticing.

Ji Yu turned the corner of the corridor, quietly rubbing her slightly cold arms. She was about to chat with the system when her peripheral vision caught a silhouette on the balcony—

She was startled.

Her steps halted.

The excellent non-slip sole of her athletic shoe squeaked against the floor.

The person who had been standing on the balcony for an unknown period turned around. Ji Yu somehow saw a spot of dampness on their shoulder, and she wasn’t sure how it got wet.

Immediately, she saw Meng Rendong’s face, still with the obsidian eyes and pale complexion, but hastily without makeup, making her look less cold and severe than usual.

Or perhaps it was because…

Her eyes today were exceptionally gentle.

Even Ji Yu was momentarily distracted, wondering who she was seeing, until the next moment, she saw Meng Rendong raise her hand to smooth her hair back, revealing the beautiful golden watch on her wrist.

She silently let out a sigh of relief and called out: “CEO Meng.”

At the same time, she subtly retreated a step.

As if planning to turn back.

Meng Rendong saw her movement, felt a pang in her heart, but smiled at her: “Good morning.”

She quickly added: “You didn’t sleep last night.”

It was a statement, not a question.

Ji Yu was speechless for a moment, an odd feeling of being caught in the act of doing something bad washing over her. She instinctively changed the subject: “CEO Meng is here to watch the sunrise, right? Then I won’t disturb you—”

Meng Rendong seized the conversation: “I came to wait for you.”

Ji Yu: “…”

She parted her lips.

Realizing that Ji Yu was about to reject her again, Meng Rendong lowered her gaze and said to her: “…There is nothing else.”

Ji Yu looked at her with some hesitation.

As if she didn’t believe her.

Meng Rendong didn’t believe herself either.

Because what she had meant to say was.

I miss you.

Very, very much.

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