Chapter 96: Body Double?
"What novel is that? Why haven’t you shared it with me for a read?" Mickey usually loves to clutch her phone and read romance novels—indulgent, torturous, tragic, joyful, she’s indiscriminate, and can be called the ancestor of the romance genre.
Gu Qili cleared her throat twice, smiling awkwardly to change the subject: "I’ve got a bad memory, forgotten the name."
"According to the conventions of romance novels, he should be in love with the female lead."
Gu Qili’s face grew hot, her heartbeat quickened, and a faint sense of anticipation emerged, but her gaze soon dimmed again: "But when he hugged the female lead while drunk, he was calling out another woman’s name."
Mickey immediately curled her lip, as if such situations were all too common, and scribbled two characters on a piece of paper nonchalantly.
Gu Qili looked down and saw—stand-in?
"This must be another stand-in story, where the male lead keeps the female lead by his side because she resembles the woman he loves in some way, often in appearance, as a consolation for missing his ex-girlfriend or ex-wife. As time goes on, the male lead realizes the female lead is quite different from the person he used to love, and then the two of them develop mutual affection, ending up either blissfully together or parting ways. I’ve read so many stories like this. Right, right, usually, the female lead runs away with a child, only to make a sudden reappearance years later."
"Stand-in?" Gu Qili repeated Mickey’s words, a heavy sense of loss welling up inside her.
If things are as Mickey described, then it all makes sense—his kindness to her is only because she resembles that "Xiaoyu," and his indifference because she is not that "Xiaoyu."
Xiaoyu, Xiaoyu... she must be a gentle and beautiful girl.