[Stand-In + Bittersweet Romance + The Long Road to Winning Her Back]
Lian An’an had always known that Xie Jinyan had a weakness he never acknowledged: whenever he looked at her face, he would lose himself, his gaze surging with tenderness and pain she couldn’t understand.
She was one of the many assassins in the Xie family. With a face strikingly similar to the younger sister Xie Jinyan had lost years ago, she gradually let herself drift away from her role as he indulged her day after day. He remembered the things she casually mentioned liking, quietly covered for her whenever she “slipped up,” and treated her with a warmth that seemed to come from nowhere.
In the midst of this carefully disguised closeness, Lian An’an’s heart fell completely. She began to crave a tenderness that had never been meant for her.
Then Xie Jinsi came back, the younger sister he had longed for day and night.
Xie Jinyan’s world turned upside down in an instant. His gaze toward Lian An’an suddenly went cold. His indulgence became a piercing scrutiny, and he tore apart every tender gesture with his own hands, leaving only a chilling question: “From the very beginning, you were just imitating her, weren’t you?”
Only then did Lian An’an understand that she had never been loved. She was merely a shadow bearing someone else’s longing. When the truth came to light, love became a poison-coated blade. Her hand trembled around her gun. Should she stay by his side, or summon the courage to betray him one last time for a love she had given in vain?
Only after losing the “stand-in” who had filled that void did Xie Jinyan belatedly realize that the feelings he had dismissed as “similarity” had taken root through their daily life together, quietly becoming something meant only for Lian An’an. But by then, thorns had sprung up everywhere, and the two of them were already on opposite sides with no way back.
