Chapter 44: The Stand-in Supporting Female Character
Wen Ye could tell by now that Gu Qinghuan didn’t think highly of him. If he kept talking, she would only dislike him more.
He wasn’t the polite, roundabout type to begin with, so he simply said, “Think whatever you want. I was just going to say—if you ever need help in the future, you can come to me. But since you’ve made it clear, let’s just pretend we didn’t see each other today.”
With that, he turned around and walked away without looking back.
Gu Qinghuan raised her brows.
First of all, she didn’t even know Wen Ye, so she had never considered asking him for help. She already knew plenty of people at Mingde High. If she really needed something, she could always find someone—why would she go to him?
To put it bluntly, if Wen Ye couldn’t even help Su Lin’s family cover their missing surgery costs, what could he possibly do for her?
Stuffing down her snarky thoughts, she quickened her pace toward the student council office, afraid she might run into someone like Wen Ye again.
Just as she reached the bottom of the student council building, she happened to cross paths with a girl coming out—short hair to her ears, holding a stack of books.
The girl didn’t pay her much attention, just met her eyes, nodded slightly, and left.
Gu Qinghuan wasn’t sure if she was from the same grade or an upperclassman.
She calmed herself down, went into her office, tossed her schoolbag onto the desk, then flopped straight into her “dog bed.” After lying there in a muffled heap for a while, she finally got up.
Sitting at the desk, she pulled out her exercise book and started on her homework.
She didn’t like doing homework, but at least when she was solving problems, she wouldn’t be thinking about other things—it was a good way to clear her head.
She had set an alarm beforehand, but today the work went unusually smoothly. Before eight o’clock, she was already done.
Looking up, she saw that the outside world was pitch black, lit only by the quiet, deep glow of the campus street lamps.
For a moment, a trace of fear crept in.
Nighttime. A silent office building. Alone. At school…
But she quickly called out in her mind: [System—]
System: Why are you shouting so loud?!
Gu Qinghuan: Oh, I was just getting into the mindset of a horror movie protagonist.
The system went silent for a few seconds: Don’t worry. This world is an ordinary modern world. No supernatural horror elements.
Gu Qinghuan: What’s that got to do with anything? Sometimes you just get scared for no reason! Like how after a nightmare, you feel like if your arms and legs stick out of the blanket, a ghost will grab you!
The system thought for a moment: And before you had me, what did you do?
Gu Qinghuan: I’d loop “The Five-Starred Red Flag Flies in the Wind~” in my head.
With the system to exchange silly banter, Gu Qinghuan felt at ease. She packed up and left the school.
While waiting for the bus, she got a call from her mother, Gu Haiyan.
“Where are you? Why aren’t you home?”
“I had dinner at the cafeteria, then stayed at school to finish my homework.” Her mother’s voice sounded normal, so her grandmother was probably fine. She felt much more relaxed. “I’m waiting for the bus now. I’ll be home soon.”
Even through the phone, she could hear her mother’s sigh of relief. “Good. Be careful on the way.”
“How’s Grandma?” she asked.
“She’s alright. She caught herself with her hands when she fell, but broke her left hand. The doctor said it’s a common Colles fracture—something like that. It’s already in a cast. Your dad just took her home.”
Gu Haiyan’s father—Gu Qinghuan’s grandfather—had passed away early. Now Grandma lived alone. She was still fairly spry, often traveling with friends from the seniors’ community.
“Do we need to hire someone to take care of her for now?”
“Mhm. Your dad’s staying with her tonight—he took a day off. Tomorrow we’ll hire someone from a housekeeping company.”
The bus came, and Gu Qinghuan hung up. As she sat down, she started searching “fractures” on her phone.
It was probably a Colles fracture. According to the encyclopedia, it was common and related to osteoporosis.
When she got home, Gu Haiyan was eating instant noodles, the air filled with braised beef aroma.
She looked tired—going to the hospital was more draining mentally than physically.
But Gu Haiyan wouldn’t let her daughter worry too much. After a few words, she sent Gu Qinghuan to shower and go to bed early.
Lying in bed, Gu Qinghuan tossed and turned—thinking about visiting Grandma after school tomorrow, about checking her diet to make sure she was getting enough calcium.
She knew her parents would handle things better than she could, but she just couldn’t relax.
After several more turns, she decisively grabbed her phone and opened a certain app to read stories.
At times like this, a brainless wish-fulfillment novel or a silly comedy was perfect for shutting her brain off.
The system read along for a few chapters and remarked: These stories are actually quite realistic.
Gu Qinghuan: Huh? Realistic how?
System: They’re kind of like your classmates’ situations.
Gu Qinghuan: Huh???
The system hesitated: To avoid erasing possibilities, I can’t tell you too much about the future… but a little hint should be fine.
Gu Qinghuan: Like what? she asked, curious.
System: “Like your classmate Xie Xiangxue—she was originally a supporting female character in a “stand-in” novel.”
Gu Qinghuan: “A stand-in? Whose stand-in?”
Then she realized. “Don’t tell me… Lin Xiaoxue? As Yan Zhengqing’s stand-in? But she and Lin Xiaoxue don’t look anything alike!”
System: “Both are in dance and arts, and both have “Xue” in their names,” it “kindly” reminded her.
Gu Qinghuan was dumbfounded. “What the hell? Even this counts?”
The system coughed and reminded her to mind her language.
But she felt only profanity could express her feelings. “So, unless I intervene, Yan Zhengqing will treat Xie Xiangxue as Lin Xiaoxue’s stand-in—tormenting her physically and emotionally until she dies?”
If the system’s mission for her was to stop a rebirth, then clearly she had to die first to be reborn.
And if she died in the most miserable way, there was no avoiding both physical and emotional torment.
The system stayed silent—it wouldn’t reveal that part of the future.
Gu Qinghuan hadn’t expected an answer anyway. She just found it absurd.
Sure, she called Yan Zhengqing and Lin Xiaoxue “crazy man” and “crazy woman,” but if one of them had a bigger screw loose, it was definitely Yan Zhengqing.
Judging by the two times he’d picked fights with her, he didn’t seem like the type for “stand-in” drama.
Honestly, in her eyes, Yan Zhengqing and Lin Xiaoxue were more suited for a “forcible possession” plot.
The two of them together were bad enough—why drag someone else into it?
How could a “stand-in” trope even happen here?
Wasn’t that usually when some “white moonlight” went abroad and the rich scumbag who couldn’t even buy a plane ticket found a replacement back home?
