Su Qingyan never imagined that four men at the very top of the pyramid would seek her out at once because her face looked so much like Lin Qingyi’s.
Gu Yanchen, the head of the Xingqiong Group, was cold and taciturn. He used a ten-billion-yuan contract to bring her under his wing, asking only that she imitate the woman who bore that name and sit quietly with him for two hours every Wednesday night. Fu Sinian, a playboy who moved through high society, took her to all kinds of events but told her, “You don’t have to imitate her. Just be yourself.” Lu Mingyu, a refined and elegant top doctor, kept a seat just for her at the hospital, but all they talked about were the paintings Lin Qingyi had once loved. Li Jingshen, a ruthless business titan, said little, yet always quietly cleared away obstacles whenever she ran into trouble.
They all called her a “substitute,” their eyes concealing an obsession with someone else. But Su Qingyan knew her place: she was a paid “worker,” not anyone’s shadow.
With a salary of a hundred billion yuan in hand, her grandmother’s surgery costs were covered. All she had to do was play her part, then walk away unscathed a year later.
But gradually, things seemed to veer off course.
Gu Yanchen remembered that she didn’t eat green peppers. Fu Sinian turned down every flirtation for her. Lu Mingyu hid Lin Qingyi’s medical records. And Li Jingshen began factoring her into his decisions.
When their eyes stopped chasing traces of Lin Qingyi, Su Qingyan finally realized, belatedly, that someone seemed to have fallen in love first in this game of substitutes.
But all she had ever wanted was to take the money and paint her own pictures.
