Ti Shen

Chapter 26

Su Yi Mo personally assisted in Ran Feng Ge's discharge from the hospital after his surgical wound had healed.

During his stint in the hospital, Chen Xi Ran and Mi Le had come by to visit him - and even though the two of them bowed their heads as Ran Feng Ge lectured them thoroughly, they were still able to work seamlessly hand-in-hand to extract the vital information from Ran Feng Ge with regards to his current job.

They found out that the job Ran Feng Ge had this time was indeed to impersonate Jing Qiu Han, with a time frame of a year. It was also known that contrary to his appearance, Jing Qiu Han was not a simple person; he and Lan Kuang had an unusual connection.

With regards to this new information, it seems, Su Yi Mo was not as dumb as he made himself out to be.

However, these two men, from the very first time they met, to the times they got to know each other and even more so, to the time they fell in love, they did indeed have an unforgettable tale.

With time, acquaintances can always become something more intimate, and who knows, intimacy can always lead to a sense of responsibility.

A sense of responsibility… in which love has no part to play in.

At the end of the day, whether it was love or not, only the people involved knew best.

?

Returning to the Su manor, Ran Feng Ge immediately prepared all the little bottles he had on hand and quickly created a Jing Qiu Han mask. For some time now, he had been rather unprofessional; instead of doing his job properly and becoming the Jing Qiu Han he was tasked with, he ended up in the hospital - what a waste of time!

Ran Feng Ge had only just attached the mask onto his own face when he smelled something which forced his eyebrows to meet in the middle. "What is that horrible smell?!"

Don't tell me something is burning? What a strong burnt scent!

Following the burnt smell downstairs, Ran Feng Ge realized the origin of the smell was coming from the kitchen where a steady stream of smoke was drifting out. A sudden coughing fit sounded and the silhouette of a man holding a wooden spatula came stumbling out soon after looking rather despondent.

Ran Feng Ge allowed himself to openly stare at Su Yi Mo, as he laughed slightly. "Ah Mo, what is it you are trying to do? Demolish the house?"

Suddenly hearing the voice of Jing Qiu Han ring out, Su Yi Mo could not help himself from staring at the familiar face before him before he realized that it was just Ran Feng Ge behind the mask. He quickly gathered himself and with a gentle voice, he said, "I just wanted to give you a surprise. I only wanted to try my hand at making your favorite porridge…"

Ran Feng Ge looked at the suit Su Yi Mo was dressed in and could not help the chuckle that escaped his lips. Shaking his head slightly, Ran Feng Ge could not help but wonder who on earth wears a brand name three-piece suit to cook in the kitchen? And is that a white silk shirt? What a waste!

"Why is there so much smoke? Didn't you turn on the ventilator?" Ran Feng Ge asked as he walked over to the window and pushed it open to help get rid of the smoke before he went back to the side of the stove to turn on the ventilator.

Su Yi Mo followed behind Ran Feng Ge before asking, "Ventilator… What is that?"

Ran Feng Ge sighed deeply, a rich young master, no doubt. He reached for the ventilator switch and flicked it to on. Within no time at all, all the smoke in the kitchen had been filtered out.

Su Yi Mo stood by one side and marveled, "So that is the ventilator… It truly is useful."

After the smoke had dissipated, Ran Feng Ge caught sight of the culprit - within a pot was a mass of burnt, dry-as-a-bone porridge debris.

Su Yi Mo calmly retrieved the pot from the stove top. Using the wooden spatula in his hand, he scraped out the porridge from within and dumped it.

After using water to rinse the pot, Su Yi Mo filled it with water and poured a variety of rice and grains into the pot, swished it around a little before putting the lid on it, and placing the pot onto the stove top.

Ran Feng Ge could not help it when his eyebrows creased even deeper as he scanned the trash can that was filled with numerous failed experimental porridge attempts from before. Reaching out with his hand, Ran Feng Ge turned off the fire. "It doesn't matter how many times you try; you will always fail if you cook it this way."

Su Yi Mo was unperturbed, "Not really. I've tried three times, and each attempt was better than the last, therefore it will work out sooner or later!"

"……"

Ran Feng Ge could not help but push Su Yi Mo out of the way, some things just need to be done by oneself. He grabbed the pot off the stove and drained the water from it before replacing the rice into a clean bowl. After which, he refilled the pot with water and placed it onto the stove, covering it with the lid as he reignited the flames. "You need to boil the water first before adding in the rice."

Su Yi Mo opened his mouth wanting to say something but could not - his first attempt had him cooking both the water and rice at the same time; there was too little water and too much rice which resulted in a disaster. His second attempt had him consulting a recipe book which said he had to boil the water first before adding the rice in. Therefore, he had followed the instructions and boiled the water before adding in the rice, but he had misjudged himself and spilled both water and rice all over the stove top. The third time lucky, he decided to try the first method again…

This time he wanted to incorporate both the first and second methodology and see if it would work out but judging by the practiced motions of Ran Feng Ge at cutting up the vegetables, he decided to step back and leave the master to his craft.

Su Yi Mo was suddenly reminded of the time when Ran Feng Ge had just moved into the manor with him. He had once made food as well; both the look and smell of it were wondrous, however, because of his own suspicious personality, in addition to Jing Qiu Han being in a coma, he was unable to appreciate Ran Feng Ge's good intention and instead had provoked him…

Thinking back now, the Su Yi Mo back then had indeed been too much.

It seems, Ran Feng Ge was also reminded of the incident back then. He had even sworn to himself that he would never cook anything anymore… Looking down at the vegetables he had been cutting, Ran Feng Ge's hands slowed down.

"I—"

"You—"

Both of them decided to speak at the same time, and what had been a comfortable atmosphere suddenly became awkward.

Ran Feng Ge self-consciously rubbed his nose. "Don't misunderstand this. I am only making this for myself. I'm not trying to win you over or anything, all I want is to do this job right and receive my pay after!"

Su Yi Mo replied, "What I wanted to say was… I am sorry…for that time."

Silence.

Su Yi Mo looked at the currently bowed head of Ran Feng Ge, and then turned his sights onto the diced vegetables on the chopping board - they were all evenly diced, the length and width were almost all the same - this said a lot about his cooking skills. It would be a waste of his talent if it was not appreciated.

Besides, the main reason why Su Yi Mo wanted to learn cooking was to help Ran Feng Ge make nutritional meals to aid in his gastric disease. Since Ran Feng knew how to cook, that was all the more reason he should not eat out and instead come home and cook something healthy to eat.

Su Yi Mo may be an iceberg of a man, but he still knew how to spare a thought for someone else, especially someone working for him—sure, he was using him, and he was paying him for his services. All they had between them was employer-employee status, but he could not ignore his employee's health condition now, could he?

If being a body double for someone meant that he would have to compromise on his health, wouldn't that be a huge loss, then?

Moreover, all these body doubles, they had to impersonate everything down to the little details such as their favorite food and all that - even if there were small discrepancies, no one other than their closest confidants would even notice it; ordinary acquaintances would never be able to recognize the flaws.

Therefore, Su Yi Mo did not want Ran Feng Ge to injure himself any further in order to impersonate Jing Qiu Han down to the last detail.

For example, regarding Jing Qiu Han being so famous in the entertainment industry, a major factor was their relationship, other than that was his frighteningly high tolerance to alcohol; Jing Qiu Han would often discuss business with A-list movie directors or movie stars over alcohol. If Ran Feng Ge had other means of obtaining the roles, or getting into the good books of the directors and writers, then he would not need to force himself to act like Jing Qiu Han by drinking himself to gain deals which would, in turn, further provoke his gastric disease…

Su Yi Mo didn't know why on earth he was so concerned over Ran Feng Ge. Perhaps it was the image of Ran Feng Ge trapped in the holding cell, suffocating slowly that made him feel… being a body double is actually quite miserable sometimes.

Living a life hidden in the shadows of his employers, waking up to an unfamiliar face each morning, needing to watch his every word and action, afraid to even let loose a single mistake that could lead to his failure as a body double—even having to risk his life to suffer consequences that were not even his to suffer…

Body doubles were still human; they also required care and concern. It doesn't mean they should give up and risk everything they are just because they were being paid for their service. Who would choose to work in a job that required such strict discipline with no actual advantages to oneself?

Money is not everything.

Ran Feng Ge had said this before.

Thinking back, Ran Feng Ge didn't seem like he was someone who was lacking money, so why did he choose to work in this sort of profession anyway?

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Translator: Jypoonie

Proofreaders: Charlotte Grey, Lyrick