Su Qinghan stood up, looking down at Yan Yu sitting in the wheelchair.
“From today on, we have no relationship.
I’ll pay your tuition until the end of this semester, and the house lease is good until the end of this month. After that, please don’t appear in front of me again.”
After saying this, she took Jiang Muyun’s hand and turned to leave.
“Qinghan!”
Yan Yu suddenly braced her hands on the table. The moment she tried to stand up, an excruciating, sharp pain and weakness shot through her legs.
Her vision darkened, and her body uncontrollably tilted to one side, but she still reached out, desperately grabbing Su Qinghan’s sleeve.
This was the action written in the story.
She had to do it.
Su Qinghan stopped and looked back at her.
That gaze was cold, as if looking at something filthy, even carrying a trace of disgust for her current pitiful state.
“Let go.”
She said.
“Please, I don’t want to…”
Yan Yu cried, her whole body trembling, tears streaming down her face. She looked disheveled and pitiful, maintaining that awkward and painful posture. “Please don’t go…
“I don’t mind being a substitute, I really don’t mind…”
“I can keep being Miss Jiang’s substitute, staying by your side when she’s not here, just don’t abandon me…”
She spoke the lines of the original Yan Yu from the novel.
Every word was humble, pressed into the dirt.
The gazes of everyone in the coffee shop turned towards them. The hushed discussions pricked her back like needles.
Yan Yu could feel the sympathy, mockery, and voyeuristic excitement in those looks.
But she didn’t care.
She just needed to finish this scene.
Su Qinghan’s frown deepened.
She forcefully shook off Yan Yu’s hand, the strength so great that Yan Yu completely lost her balance. With a cry of surprise, she fell back into the wheelchair. The wheelchair slid back a short distance, bumping into the table.
The coffee cup was knocked over, dark brown liquid spilling all over the floor and splashing onto Yan Yu’s beige dress.
The stain slowly spread, like an ugly flower.
“Yan Yu, listen carefully.”
Su Qinghan’s voice was cold as ice. “The person I love is Muyun, it has always been Muyun. You were just a substitute, someone I pitied and stayed with. Now the real person has returned. Do you think I would still need you?”
Every word was like a knife.
Yan Yu sat slumped in the wheelchair, her whole body stiff, tears flowing continuously. A dull ache throbbed in her legs, reminding her of her disability and helplessness.
Jiang Muyun gently tugged Su Qinghan’s hand, speaking in a soft voice, “Qinghan, don’t be like this. This classmate seems unwell…”
“Whether she’s well or not, what does it have to do with me?”
Su Qinghan said, putting her arm around Jiang Muyun’s shoulders, her voice finally softening. “Let’s go. Didn’t you say you wanted to see the new art exhibition?”
The two left, holding each other.
As they reached the door, Jiang Muyun looked back at Yan Yu.
Yan Yu understood that look.
It was the smile of a victor, sympathy from a superior position, a declaration of “you can never win against me.”
Perhaps there was also a trace of pity for her being confined to a wheelchair, and that pity was more humiliating than mockery.
The coffee shop door opened and closed, the little bell ringing again.
Yan Yu still sat slumped in the wheelchair, the coffee stain on her dress slowly expanding.
The surrounding gazes pricked her like needles, the hushed discussions growing louder:
“Is that Yan Yu?
The substitute Su Qinghan used to keep?”
“So pitiful, thrown away the moment the real one came back.”
“Pitiful? She was just after the money from the start. Now that the rich person doesn’t want her anymore, serves her right.”
“She does look quite like Senior Jiang, but it’s a pity she’s a cripple. Feels far worse…”
Yan Yu slowly lowered her head, reaching up to wipe the tears from her face.
No one saw it, but in that moment she lowered her head, the corner of her mouth curved upward slightly.
[Ding!]
[Plot ‘Coffee Shop Separation’ performance completed.]
[Restoration Degree Evaluation: 95 points]
[Current Acting Progress: 2%]
[Rewards Distributed: Luck Value slightly increased, physical pain temporarily reduced.]
A cold, emotionless voice sounded in her mind.
Almost simultaneously, the severe pain in her chest really lessened a bit. Breathing became easier. Even the sharp pain in her legs eased somewhat. Although still weak, it was at least no longer as unbearable as before.
Yan Yu slowly sat up straight, trying hard to adjust her breathing, and waved over a server.
“Could you please clean this up for me? Thank you.”
Her voice was still hoarse from crying, but it had calmed down considerably.
The server gave her a sympathetic look and quickly cleared the table.
Yan Yu ordered another Americano, this time adding two packets of sugar.
Bitter with a touch of sweet.
She picked up the cup, looking out the window at the two figures already walking far away.
Su Qinghan was lowering her head, saying something to Jiang Muyun, the lines of her profile showing a gentleness never seen before.
How touching.
Yan Yu took a sip of coffee. She had put in too much sugar; it was sickeningly sweet.
But it didn’t matter.
The play had just begun.
She, this substitute supporting character, still had to keep acting.
Act until the two main characters are happily together. Act until she gets that one hundred million yuan. Act until she can leave this story healthy, on her own two feet.
As for her heart?
Yan Yu touched her chest.
It was very calm, without any pain.
Good.
The emotions left behind in this body should have been vented almost completely during that last scene.
From now on, she is Yan Yu.
A professional substitute who, for money and survival, to stand up again, can act any role.