Chapter 9: Seeing Lin Ran as a substitute

The mansion’s doorbell rang and Song Zhi Xu glanced from upstairs to see that the clothes he had bought for Lin Ran at the mall had been delivered.

He went downstairs and opened the door, let someone carry the cardboard boxes in and put them in the living room.

“Mr. Song, these are the clothes and shoes you bought. The bill is all here. Do I still need to check it one by one in front of you?”

Song Zhi Xu shook his head, took out a few red bills from his wallet and gave it to them, thanking them before letting them leave.

Lin Ran still had some fear of strangers, so he kept peeking down the stairs, only until he saw that everyone had left did he come down, widened his eyes as he stared at the dozen or so carton boxes on the floor.

“….So many.” When they bought them Lin Ran already knew he had bought a lot, but he hadn’t expected it to be so many, pursing his lips for a moment not knowing what to say.

“Hmm.” Song Zhi Xu nodded slightly and said, “Find out for yourself which ones that you want to wear and put them in your room. The rest, you can put it in the cloakroom on the first floor.”

Lin Ran pursed his lips and only after a moment did he squat down, very carefully unpack the cardboard box, taking out a paper bag from inside and opening it to look at the clothes inside.

His eyes gradually reddened, his nose was a little sour and tears rolled down unconsciously.

Not expecting him to cry, Song Zhi Xu squatted down and looked at him, puzzled, “What’s wrong? You don’t like it?”

Lin Ran shook his head vigorously and hugged the clothes tightly in his arms.

“Ran Ran likes it, like it very much, before Ran Ran could only wear what Auntie’s family Gege didn’t want. This time, Ran Ran finally has new clothes.” Lin Ran’s eyes were red, but there was still a smile on his face.

Song Zhi Xu sighed with relief and stood up.

He took Lin Ran to see the cloakroom, told him to hang all the ones he didn’t wear for the time being in a separate cloakroom, and to bring the ones he liked back to his own room for easy access when he was going to wear them.

Lin Ran obediently agreed and Song Zhi Xu went back to his study room first as he still had some things to do, leaving him to be busy on his own.

Lin Ran sat cross-legged on the floor, opened all the cardboard boxes, sorted the clothes inside, put a few pajamas and casual clothes upstairs in his room. He moved the rest into the cloakroom to hang them one by one.

There were only Song Zhi Xu’s shoes in the shoe cupboard. He also put his newly bought sneakers next to Song Zhi Xu’s leather shoes.

He moved the clothes little by little, one by one, putting them all away and tidying them up.

Because there was so much stuff, Lin Ran’s legs were a little sore by the time he had finished packing. The bead of sweat had formed on the tip of his nose but he didn’t feel tired at all, instead he felt happy.

Although he had only been here for two days, it seemed even better than the place he had lived in for many years before, because he had a lot of things that belonged to him here.

Lin Ran packed it up and rested for a while. Lin Ran thought about it before he went upstairs to find Song Zhi Xu in new clothes.

After pushing open the door several times, he saw Song Zhi Xu sitting behind his desk, he then showed his head through the doorway and called out in a small voice, “Song Zhi Xu.”

Song Zhi Xu raised his head and looked at him. Lin Ran broadened into a grin.

“What’s wrong?”

“Song Zhi Xu, Ran Ran has changed into new clothes. Let me show you, okay?” The new clothes he had just bought today, Lin Ran wanted to wear it for Song Zhi Xu to see.

Song Zhi Xu looked at him for a moment and nodded slightly.

Only then did Lin Ran open the door and walk in, turning in a circle to show Song Zhi Xu the new clothes he was wearing, and then looking at Song Zhi Xu eagerly as if he was waiting for his comment.

Song Zhi Xu only said two words indifferently, “Not bad.”

Lin Ran immediately became happy, as he ran outside he said, “There’s more.”

After ten minutes, Lin Ran changed his clothes again and ran in, only to receive a “Okay.” from Song Zhixu.

Lin Ran continued to change his clothes again.

Song Zhi Xu originally wanted to work for a while, took advantage of the interval when Lin Ran left, but as Lin Ran was running back and forth, he simply turned off his computer and leaned back in his chair to wait.

Lin Ran and Lin Mu indeed looked rather alike, but probably because of his younger age and his small and slim body, Lin Ran looked more like a child and when he smiled, his eyebrows were curved and he could easily bring people into it.

Lin Mu, on the other hand, was much more mature than him. Lin Mu also liked to smile but he smiled more like a gentleman and his every movement and gestures were extremely nice. He was well brought up and was more likely to cause people to want to get close to him.

Lin Ran and Lin Mu had similar faces, yet they were two completely different personalities.

“Song Zhi Xu?” Lin Ran changed his clothes and stood up for a while yet he didn’t hear anything from Song Zhi Xu, so he approached him and asked him once again.

Song Zhi Xu looked up at the sound of his voice and was caught off guard when he met Lin Ran face to face. He didn’t remember to look away for a moment and only after a while did he slowly turn his head to the other side.

Lin Ran’s cheeks blushed, somewhat bewildered while he took two panicked steps backwards, running out as he left.

Song Zhi Xu lowered his eyes slightly only after he left, just now, as if his heartbeat stopped for a moment.

Was it because of Lin Ran’s face that resembled Lin Mu’s?

But Song Zhi Xu was (clear-headed) sober, he knew clearly that Lin Ran and Lin Mu were two different people.

He would not be so shitty (lowering oneself) as to treat Lin Ran as the substitute or anything like that.

The phone rang, disrupting Song Zhi Xu’s train of thoughts. Song Zhi Xu glanced sideways, looking at Mu Qingting’s name moving up and down on the screen.

He picked up the phone and put it to his ear. He could hear the sound of the airport announcement faintly from the other side. Song Zhi Xu said indifferently, “You’re back?”

“That’s right.” There was some noise around Mu Qingting, so he raised his voice slightly, “Lin Mu’s Didi is coming over so no matter what I have to come back and see him. I didn’t even finish my exchange conference and come back.”

Mu Qingting spoke in a serious manner but Song Zhi Xu still heard some hint of gossip from it. He guessed that he didn’t simply come over only to see Lin Ran.

“When are you coming over?” Song Zhi Xu asked again.

The person on the other side paused for a moment before saying.

“I’m just getting off the plane now. I’ll take a taxi so I should be there in an hour or so, just in time to dine. For dinner, please ask Aunt Chen to cook more!”

Mu Qingting had been abroad for almost a month, listening to those old men chattering every day and the western food that he disliked so now he couldn’t wait to have some Chinese food to change the taste.

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard Song Zhi Xu say, “Aunt Chen is not here, if you want to eat, go and bring food here.”

Auntie Chen was not there, so Mu Qingting brought him food which saved him from having to cook.

On the other side, Mu Qingting sighed and could only agree, then silently hung up the phone.

Song Zhi Xu stayed in the room for a little longer, calculating the time to go downstairs. He was afraid that if Mu Qingting came over later, he would scare Lin Ran.

As expected, not long after he came downstairs, Mu Qingting arrived.

Song Zhi Xu went to open the door while Lin Ran kept pulling Song Zhi Xu’s sleeve, the moment he felt Mu Qingting’s gaze on him after entering the house, he timidly and over cautiously hid behind Song Zhi Xu.

“This is Lin Mu’s younger brother? Sure enough, he looks like him ah!”

Hearing Lin Mu’s name, only then Lin Ran looked at Mu Qingting carefully and muttered in a small voice, “Gege?”

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