When Lin Jinsen finished packing up and stepped out of the washroom, Su Lixia, who had long since returned to his own room to clean up and change into a fresh outfit, was sitting in that exact spot on the sofa outside, holding Andrew’s gaming console and destroying the competition in the game.
Hearing the commotion, he raised his eyes and arched a brow. “All packed?”
“Yeah.” For a moment, Lin Jinsen still found it hard to get used to their shift in relationship, moving from guest and waiter to employer and double.
Su Lixia asked, “Do you have a federal driver’s license?”
“I do.”
The moment the words fell, a set of car keys was casually tossed over by Su Lixia. Lin Jingshen caught them by reflex. “Then drive yourself back.”
“I don’t need it.” Lin Jinsen refused.
“Oh. What school do you go to?” Su Lixia asked suddenly, as if he hadn’t heard the refusal at all. “Do you live on campus?”
Lin Jinsen frowned, noticing that Su Lixia’s train of thought was always so erratic and headstrong, as though the option of being rejected simply didn’t exist in his world. Still, he answered, “Hoffman Military University. I don’t live on campus.”
“Fine, send me a copy of your class schedule. Don’t turn off your phone. I gave you the car so you can be on call whenever I need you. Otherwise, do you expect me to watch you spend an hour taking the subway every time I want to see you, followed by a half-hour hike up the mountain to Baiwu Mansion?” As he spoke, Su Lixia manipulated his game character to blast through two more enemy player heads without even looking up.
To finish, he didn’t forget to throw in a taunt. “Or were you planning to pay out of pocket for a taxi to come see me?”
Lin Jinsen placed the car keys directly on the lapis lazuli table in front of Su Lixia. “No, I don’t have the money for a taxi, let alone for gas and parking fees. If you want to see me, I’ll run here.”
Su Lixia’s hand jerked, and he was headshot by the opponent. He raised his head in disbelief, looking at him as if he were looking at a creature from Mars, and burst out laughing. “Then tell me, it’s already 11:30 PM, and the capital’s subway has stopped running, hasn’t it? If you don’t have money for a cab, are you telling me you’re going to run back too?”
Lin Jinsen replied, “I’m a military academy student. I’m used to night running and extra training.”
Su Lixia asked, “How many kilometers is the place you live from here?”
“Twenty kilometers.”
Su Lixia was caught off guard and startled by this inhuman number. “Wouldn’t that make it forty kilometers round trip?”
Lin Jinsen explained, “I do have money to take the subway. I only choose to run when the federal subway isn’t operating.”
Even Su Lixia, who was deeply fond of extreme sports, found a dull, tedious activity like running completely incomprehensible. Too lazy to keep bickering with him, he pulled a black card out of his wallet and tossed it over. “Alright, keep the car keys. Deduct whatever money you need to use from the card, do whatever you want with it.”
“I don’t need…”
Terrified that Lin Jinsen would refuse again and drag this out endlessly through the night, Su Lixia directly pulled out the body double contract. “Don’t forget the terms of the contract. You must unconditionally obey my orders, or it will be considered a breach of contract.”
Remembering the exorbitant penalty for breach of contract, Lin Jinsen felt a numbness wash over him and silently accepted the bank card and car keys.
Watching him turn and walk toward the door, Su Lixia let out a long breath of relief. After holding back for a long time, he took out a cigarette, clicked open a steel lighter, and a flame suddenly flared up.
“Xia Li.” Lin Jinsen’s voice suddenly rang out right in front of him, startling Su Lixia so badly that his hand holding the lighter shook, nearly singeing his chin.
“Ah? Hey,” realizing what was happening, Su Lixia quickly put out the flame, raised his eyes to cast a speechless glance at him, and asked, “What is it now?”
Lin Jinsen used his reflective lenses to mask his emotions, but the trace of resentment deep in his heart still bubbled up.
He let out a cold snort. “If I am completely the polar opposite of that old friend of yours, won’t you end up very disappointed?”
“Disappointed?” Su Lixia looked as though he had just heard something novel, his gaze shifting with subtle amusement toward the person before him as understanding instantly dawned on him. “How could that be?”
He repeatedly flicked the lid of the lighter open and shut with his finger, cooking up a reply within seconds. “I’m not stupid enough to not even be able to tell the difference between the genuine article and a fake.”
Only then did Lin Jinsen realize what it meant to humiliate oneself. He took a deep breath, his voice dropping another degree. “Then why bother looking for me?”
Su Lixia remained silent.
Sensing the lingering aura of resentment radiating from this substitute who had barely been on the job for a few minutes, Su Lixia gave Lin Jinsen a subtle, measuring look. “Are you jealous?”
Instead, Su Lixia was amused. He stood up and leaned in close to Lin Jinsen’s face with a smile. “Or is it that worldly wealth moves the heart? You don’t want to leave tonight after all?”
Lin Jinsen pressed his thin lips together. A flash of cold light erupted from beneath his frames, his complexion turning several shades colder. Glancing down, his eyes caught the litchi pendant swaying against Su Lixia, a small spot of red flashing past. He said, “I just don’t want you finding fault with me under some excuse of being out-of-character.”
His thoughts laid bare, Su Lixia raised an eyebrow. “Find fault with you? Haha, with a blockhead like you, just how much do you think I’m expecting? If you can manage to resemble him by even thirty percent, I’ll thank the heavens.”
He shook his head helplessly, shrugged, and smiled. “I came looking for you purely for this face of yours. Your personality and inner self are poles apart from his, differing by more than just a little bit. Anyway, aside from your face, I have zero interest in getting to know you.”
Su Lixia chuckled softly, reaching out to pat Lin Jinsen on the shoulder. “Still, since I’ve spent over three million on you, no matter how slow you are, I’ll patiently train you properly. Don’t worry.”
Lin Jinsen frowned. “What if I can’t learn?”
“If you can’t learn, I’ll dock your pay. It’s written right in the contract.” Su Lixia arched an eyebrow, smiling as he met his gaze.
Lin Jinsen thought as much.
Seeing the expression of pure frustration on Lin Jinsen’s face put Su Lixia in a fantastic mood. He raised a brow slightly. “I can see that temper of yours hasn’t worn off yet and your head isn’t quite clear. I suggest you find a designated driver so you don’t run into trouble on the way.”
Dragging that ruined suit with him, Lin Jinsen went downstairs to punch out. In the locker room, he slammed a fist against the metal locker, producing a muffled thud.
Afterward, Lin Jinsen took a shower in the staff bathroom, changed into his casual clothes, folded the suit and the blood-stained tie together, shoved them into his bag, slung his black cross-body bag over his shoulder, and turned to leave through the back door of Baiwu Mansion.
In early May, the capital was hit by a succession of nighttime spring rains, causing temperatures to plummet to around ten degrees Celsius. Wearing a black hoodie and carrying his bag, Lin Jinsen jogged out into the night. His unyielding twenty-kilometer night run training and the slightly chilly night breeze helped clear his head further. Yet, whereas twenty kilometers usually managed to drain every ounce of excess energy, tonight it felt significantly more strenuous than usual.
Finally, he jogged back to the foot of a weathered, dilapidated old apartment building in the northern suburbs of the capital. Resting his hands on his knees, Lin Jinsen breathed lightly, raised a hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, regulated his breathing, and walked toward the central entrance door.
The storefront on the ground floor had been partitioned and privately expanded outward by a new merchant, who had set up a canopy and arranged tables and chairs right outside the unit door. Two hot pot restaurants had gone out of business there last year, but this month a new owner had taken a different route and opened a snail and duck-foot hot pot restaurant. With very few diners, passersby were always hit by a lingering, inescapable stench whenever they walked past.
He climbed the stairs to the third floor, the draft from the opening door rustling the small advertising flyers pasted along the hallway. As soon as he got inside, Lin Jinsen poured himself a large glass of water and drank it down in one gulp, yet he still felt thirsty.
What on earth did that Xia Li extract and give him? When asked, Xia Li had clearly evaded the question; it was definitely nothing good. Lin Jinsen grabbed a fresh change of clothes and stepped into the bathroom, which was so narrow that only a single grown man could stand inside, fitted with an overhead shower head and a ground-level squat toilet right below.
The plumbing in the old building was antiquated and shared the same pipeline as the restaurant downstairs, causing foul odors to regularly back up. Previously, it had always carried various spicy hot pot smells, but recently the pungent scent of snail rice noodles was overwhelmingly strong, making the restroom live up to its name quite literally.
Frowning, Lin Jinsen turned on the ventilation fan and the narrow window, took a quick shower, but the wave of restlessness that he had managed to suppress through his night run flared up again. Gloomy and frustrated, he changed his clothes, came out, returned to the bedroom, grabbed a pack of facial tissues, and locked the door.
At 3:00 AM, the rhythmic clatter of tile-shuffling mahjong started up right on schedule upstairs, masking any noise he made.
He struggled with himself for a long time, bone-dry and feeling nothing at all. In the end, tilting his head back and closing his eyes, he slid his hand under the blanket and replayed every single detail from tonight.
He thought of that litchi pendant swaying in front of him.
He thought of that tiny, crimson mole.
He thought of the lines traced around that person’s bare ankles when he squatted down.
And the man, lazily taking a puff of a cigar before slightly lifting his chin, staring out of focus in his direction, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he slowly blew out a hazy ring of smoke, casually locking eyes with him through the smoke screen.
“I can’t bear to part with you.”
Ending as abruptly as it began, Lin Jinsen’s breath hitched. He lay flat on his back, resting weakly on his arm, staring up at the ceiling with a dull, creeping numbness in his heart.
The phone charging on the bedside table suddenly vibrated frantically, shattering his thoughts.
Impatiently, Su Lixia poked a hand out from under the blanket and blindly felt for the phone to silence it. Before two seconds had passed, however, the phone began vibrating once more.
“9526!” Su Lixia called out impatiently. “Answer the phone!”
“Coming right up, Master!” 9526 happily glided out of its charging dock. The moment signal takeover was established, it quietly retreated a safe distance away and answered the call, careful not to wake its young master.
A low hum of static brushed across the communication channel, followed by Su Chengyin’s clear yet husky voice flowing through, the tail end of his tone pitched extremely low:
“Lee.”
Recognizing whose voice it was, 9526 instantly dared not make a sound.
Master, you’re setting me up!
After a moment, 9526 slowly emitted a synthesized electronic voice: “Hello, 9526 is answering on behalf of the device owner. The young master is currently sleeping. You can let me know if you need anything.”
The other end of the line fell silent for a second before Su Chengyin said, “Regardless of anything else, now that you’re back in the country, go check on your mother.”
9526 replied, “Understood, President Su, I will pass the message along to the young master.” Before it could finish speaking, the caller directly hung up the phone.
Completely ignored, 9526 sighed once again. An AI’s life is not easy.
Looking up through its mechanical eye toward the window, it saw clusters of wisteria blossoms drooping outside. The vines wound their way all the way from the exterior to the windowsill, resembling a swaying, hazy sea of purple.
Meanwhile, the young master who had just been sleeping was already walking outside in the courtyard, raising a hand to stroke a cluster of wisteria. As a breeze blew past, scattered petals drifted down, brushing his soft, disheveled bangs over his lowered dark eyes.
Taking in the sight, 9526 couldn’t help bursting into song, its strange, synthesized electronic child’s voice passionately belting out a Cantonese tune:
“These scattered gray flowers, these scattered gray flowers have already fallen, past deep affections have long turned to emptiness, this flowing water drifts away endlessly and in a rush, who can hold it back for even a fleeting moment?”
Expressionless, Su Lixia walked over and brought his hand down to rap it on the head. “Shut up, that sounds awful.”
With a yelp of ouch, 9526 aggrievedly raised its two small mechanical arms to cradle its head. “But I want to be a top superstar in the AI world! Master, that’s my dream! What difference is there between an AI without dreams and a salted fish… Ouch! Master, stop hitting me!”
Su Lixia cast a cold, indifferent glance down at it. “Order breakfast.”
Just as 9526 began rolling away on its casters, it suddenly remembered something, spun around, and blinked its pixelated star-shaped eyes on the display screen. “Master, President Su asked me to remind you that since you’re back in the country, you should go visit Madam.”
Hearing this, Su Lixia, who had been rubbing a cluster of wisteria blossoms in his hand, froze. After a moment, he let out a dry, scornful laugh. “Hah, is this a reminder that while I’m still a member of the Su family and can still enter the Su family cemetery, I should take as many extra looks at my mother as I can?”
9526 remained silent.
Still, this served to remind Su Lixia that there was also that new son his father, Su Chengyin, had dug up.
While eating breakfast, Su Lixia used his phone to flip through the class schedule Lin Jinsen had sent him. Once finished, he went back to review the background check report on Lin Jinsen that he had previously only skimmed through.
To his surprise, the report showed that Lin Jinsen was born in the exact same year, month, and day as him, and even born in the very same private hospital, Suthen Private Hospital, which belonged to his family’s Su Mountain Group. He raised an eyebrow slightly; it seemed this real-versus-fake young master drama had been thoroughly prepared down to the smallest detail by the other party.
Raising a hand, he fed the document directly into the shredder.
Sliding over, 9526 asked in surprise, “Master, why did you stop reading?”
Su Lixia replied, “Why bother reading a fake?”
The morning at Baiwu Mansion was as quiet as a deserted wasteland after the bustling festivities had faded. Su Lixia had no interest in hanging around here during the day, so he casually grabbed a handful of car keys from the drawer. Having just returned to the country, he had only brought over a few cars from one of his private residences to drive.
Heading out and going downstairs, he arrived at the underground garage and got into a car, his gaze accidentally sweeping across the opposite bay when he suddenly froze: parked right there in the garage was the silver sports car he had casually tossed over to Lin Jinsen last night.
He raised an eyebrow, changed his original plan of going to the boxing gym, and turned the car around toward Holman University.
Lin Jinsen, who was practicing special-forces sniping at the shooting range, suddenly felt his wristband vibrate. Raising his arm, he received a couple of messages.
【Born Rich, Sorry About That: The woods behind the Holman shooting range.】
【Born Rich, Sorry About That: You have five minutes to run over here.】