Chi Nian was the industry’s most professional “romantic stand-in.” In three years, she’d impersonated someone in thirty-seven breakups and had never botched a performance.
Until she received a strange, long-term job: move into Room 703 of Qingchuan Apartments in the north of the city, a place rumored to be haunted, and play the girlfriend of its resident, Lu Yan.
The client had just one request: “You don’t need to imitate anyone. Just be yourself.”
Chi Nian practiced smiling in front of a mirror and realized she had no idea what “herself” was like.
A strange set of rules was posted in the lobby:
1. Don’t look in the mirror after ten p.m.
2. Don’t ask any resident, “When did you move out?”
3. Don’t fall in love with Room 703.
The first time she stepped into Room 703, Lu Yan took one look at her and said, “That smile you just gave me was fake.”
Lu Yan saw through every one of her disguises, and became the only person who could make her speak honestly.
She thought it was just a sweet romance with a touch of the supernatural. Only later did she discover that every rule in the apartment was a “love letter” Lu Yan had written for her. And her next assignment was to help the man who couldn’t leave the apartment escape.
“Stand-in, take your place. But this time, I’m playing myself.”
The theme: There are people in this world who are good at becoming anyone but themselves. She moved through countless lives under the guise of a stand-in, leaving cleanly and never looking back. Until a man trapped in Room 703 asked her, “You’ve played thirty-seven people and never once messed up. What about your own story?”
