Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Not necessarily an alt account—it could be his main one.

But he was sure it had to be Gu Jingchi.

Because the avatar was a rough draft Song Yuan had once drawn. He’d never posted it online—only Gu Jingchi had seen it.

Song Yuan glanced up at Gu Jingchi on the other side of the table.

Gu Jingchi wore glasses, his black dress shirt fitted snugly, buttoned up to the top. Everything about him screamed uptight formality.

Hard to believe he’d make an alt just to stalk Song Yuan and even participate in a giveaway among the fans.

Total disconnect.

Like he felt Song Yuan staring, Gu Jingchi raised his eyes, a hint of amusement in their depths. He reached over and lightly grazed Song Yuan’s cheek with his knuckles.

“What’s wrong?”

Song Yuan bit back a smile. “Nothing.”

He itched to call Gu Jingchi out for being so childish.

But he bit his tongue. Business first.

When he checked the giveaway dashboard again, a strange thought flashed through his mind.

—How long had Gu Jingchi been following him?

He hadn’t posted anything sketchy, had he?

Song Yuan wracked his memory.

Shit. That half-naked model post!

Song Yuan pulled up his profile and scrolled endlessly, but after a long while, he still hadn’t reached the bottom.

Way too many posts to sort through. Halfway through, Song Yuan gave up.

No way Gu Jingchi had seen that one, he told himself. Back when he was posting like crazy, three or four times a day. With such a high update frequency, that old post must have been buried long ago. Gu Jingchi was crazy busy—no way he’d deep-scroll that far.

A guilty peek at Gu Jingchi sealed the deal.

No way he’d seen it.

If Gu Jingchi had seen it, he’d have lost his damn mind. There was no way he’d be sitting here so calmly, chatting with him like this.

His thoughts spiraling, Song Yuan decided to focus on the task at hand.

He set up another giveaway.

Gu Jingchi snagging a spot made Song Yuan feel kinda guilty.

Sure, he’d never done proper art for Gu Jingchi, but Gu Jingchi wasn’t exactly a serious fan either.

Some poor fan got robbed because of this.

Winners popped up fast, and the comments section was already flooded with exclamations of “Blessed by the algorithm gods!”

“OMG today’s my lucky day!!”

“Two drops? Do we all get double art?”

“Let’s gooo!”

“I GOT IT!!! LET’S GO!!! Easy clap!”

“Big L for me—struck out twice.”

After DMing winners about packaging preferences and details, Song Yuan caved and DMed Gu Jingchi.

“Heyyy ;)”

“Grats on the W!”

Instant reply.

“Yuan: Hello.”

“Yuan: Mm.”

Classic Gu Jingchi.

Song Yuan fought a smirk, guilt gnawing at him.

“Blue or pink wrap?”

The reply came immediately.

“Yuan: Both are fine.”

“Random it is~”

“Yuan: Mm.”

And then, crickets.

Song Yuan was dying inside.

He ached to confess, to tell Gu Jingchi that this was his account, to stop pretending, and just be honest with each other.

But he chickened out.

If he didn’t confess, Gu Jingchi wouldn’t bring it up either. The half-naked model post would stay in Schrodinger’s cringe limbo—he could keep pretending Gu Jingchi never saw it.

But if he confessed, and Gu Jingchi had, unfortunately, seen that post…

Then it would be instant, maximum-embarrassment death sentence!

His brain short-circuited, but the first thing he did was rush to the backend and hide that post.

“Food’s ready.” Gu Jingchi loomed over him.

Song Yuan jolted, slamming his laptop shut. “Yeah, yeah, coming!”

Gu Jingchi arched a brow—that knowing look.

Song Yuan felt a twinge of guilt. "Let's go, let's go, I'm hungry."

He cleared the chat box and sent a link.

"[Link] Here’s the address link. Remember to double-check before filling it out~"

How ridiculous.

Even though they were closer than anyone else, they still had to communicate like this.

But it was okay. He would have lunch first, then take some time to figure out how to get more details from the other person.

Lunch was with Pei Han.

Pei Han was the kind of person who couldn't stand silence. The moment they sat down, he started teasing them.

"You two really don’t hold back—you're taking your PDA act overseas."

Gu Jingchi cut him off. After that, no matter what Pei Han said, he pretended not to hear and focused on his food.

So Pei Han shifted his attention to Song Yuan instead. "Xiaosong, where do you find those male models for your clothing designs?"

"Huh... what?" Song Yuan felt like he had missed something. "What male models?"

Had Pei Han gotten it wrong?

"No way. I saw your post the other day. Wait, where was it? Let me think... where did I see it..."

Pei Han took out his phone and began scrolling through his feed.

As soon as the words "male model" came up, Gu Jingchi glanced at Song Yuan.

Song Yuan watched Pei Han curiously, wondering what he would come up with.

"Oh right! I saw it in Gu Jingchi’s likes." Pei Han declared confidently.

"That model—let me tell you—had a body just like Gu Jingchi’s. Too bad the face was cropped out, so I couldn’t see what he looked like. At first, I thought it was you, but then I figured you’d never pose shirtless. Almost got it wrong, hahaha..."

Gu Jingchi: "..."

Song Yuan peeked at Pei Han's screen and realized it was the same social platform he used for art commissions.

His face suddenly flushed, heart pounding.

Wait... this app.

Could it be...?

Song Yuan held onto hope—no, no, the world is huge. What were the chances of such an unlikely coincidence?

Unfortunately, Pei Han's next words shattered his denial.

"Lucky for me, I took a screenshot." He proudly showed them the captured post.

Song Yuan closed his eyes in despair.

The account, the post—everything matched.

And to make things worse, Gu Jingchi had liked it.

He lowered his head, staring at the fruit platter in front of him, too embarrassed to meet Gu Jingchi’s gaze.

"Come on, tell me, do you have his contact info? Can you introduce him? His build is seriously impressive. Our company has been looking for a corporate spokesperson—we’ve gone through tons of candidates, none of whom fit. I’d love to meet this guy."

Unaware of the sudden awkwardness, Pei Han continued chatting casually.

Song Yuan was trapped.

He couldn’t just admit that it was just a model—and that the model was based on Gu Jingchi!

"Similar?" Gu Jingchi suddenly looked at Song Yuan. "To me?"

Song Yuan panicked. "Uh… well…"

Pei Han jumped in. "Not just similar—it was practically identical!"

God, just stop talking!

The atmosphere grew tense.

"What's the big deal? Why so serious?"

Pei Han patted Gu Jingchi’s shoulder. "Back in the day, who was always so stiff-faced? Xiaosong came to see you every single day, and you didn’t even smile once. If you'd just said one more word back then, maybe Xiaosong might have asked you to be his reference model?"

Gu Jingchi: "..."

Song Yuan: "..."

Finally sensing the tension, Pei Han, still clueless, said, "This round is on me. You two enjoy your meal."

After Pei Han left, the booth fell silent.

Song Yuan hurried to explain.

"That wasn't a real person. It was a model."

Gu Jingchi zeroed in on the key point. "But you made the post private."

Well, that's because—

Song Yuan blurted it out, his face burning red. "Because... the model was based on you!"

Gu Jingchi found him adorable and couldn’t resist teasing. "When did you decide that?"

"Didn’t you say you didn’t know you liked me back then?"

Flustered, Song Yuan stammered, "I—I… It wasn’t about liking you! I just thought… your physique was good… yeah, perfect for a fitness model."

Gu Jingchi nodded, as if satisfied, and said casually, "Once again, treating me like a mannequin."

After a pause, he added softly, "I knew it. You'd rather design clothes for my doppelgänger than for me."

Doppelgänger?

What nonsense was that?!

Song Yuan felt like the lowest of the low.

Watching Song Yuan’s slightly reddened ears and the way his chest rose and fell in flustered breaths, Gu Jingchi’s eyes crinkled with amusement.

His smile was faint, fleeting, but Song Yuan sharply noticed it.

What’s the deal?

He had confessed his feelings to Gu Jingchi, so why was Gu Jingchi so calm?

Song Yuan stayed silent.

After thinking it over calmly, he realized an oversight he’d ignored.

"You knew this whole time, didn’t you?" Song Yuan asked him.

Gu Jingchi hesitated briefly. "No, I didn’t."

"You definitely knew." Song Yuan connected the dots and felt mocked.

"I’m mad at you. No more perks for you."

Gu Jingchi froze slightly—just a tiny reaction, but Song Yuan didn’t miss it.

The "perks" Song Yuan mentioned were the rewards from a giveaway.

But he clearly...

Song Yuan grinned and leaned in. "Looks like someone doesn’t realize they’ve been found out."

The next second, Gu Jingchi expressionlessly pulled out his phone, awkwardly navigated to the backend, and hid his "liked" and "saved" items.

"What’s the point of hiding them? I’ve already seen them—every single one was me."

Gu Jingchi’s finger hovered in midair.

In the end, he didn’t tap.

Song Yuan suddenly hugged Gu Jingchi’s arm, beaming. "You’re adorable!"

Gu Jingchi had never been so embarrassed.

His chest rose and fell more noticeably, and instead of backing off, Song Yuan only teased him more.

Minutes later, Gu Jingchi pressed the "Do Not Disturb" button on the control panel, then coolly pulled Song Yuan—who was trying to escape—and held him close, kissing him for a long time.

*

A new academic life began, and Song Yuan learned many things at his new school.

After getting his schedule, he noticed this semester had an unusually high number of practical classes. According to school requirements, each session involved meetings, drafting patterns, designing, revising, redoing...

Making clothes wasn’t the hard part—the fabric was.

The cheapskate school didn’t even provide any.

So, every weekend afterward, Song Yuan dragged Gu Jingchi to nearby markets to scout around.

He bought plenty of fabrics and even practiced his skills on Gu Jingchi, but still couldn’t find anything satisfying.

"I think it’s good," Gu Jingchi said after trying every trick to finally get a shirt.

Song Yuan wasn’t satisfied. "I think it can be better."

Thanks to Jiang Ming’s help, Song Yuan found the perfect fabric. Though the domestic factory was in China—quite far—he decided to make a trip home.

Coincidentally, Gu Jingchi was also traveling for work during those days.

The night before departure, Gu Jingchi helped Song Yuan pack, and they were up packing till nearly 11.

Worried Song Yuan might get cold, Gu Jingchi insisted on cramming two coats into the luggage—even pulling out his own larger suitcase for Song Yuan’s things.

"It’s already spring. I probably won’t need these," Song Yuan said, wearing a short-sleeve indoors and finding it unnecessary.

The shirt’s neckline was low, and when Song Yuan bent over, his collarbone—covered in hickeys left by Gu Jingchi—was exposed.

"What do you think?" Song Yuan glanced at Gu Jingchi, noticed his gaze darkened again, and quickly tugged his shirt up. "Eyes up here!"

Pulling up the shirt revealed his waist, where the marks were even more numerous and vivid.

Gu Jingchi chuckled lightly and draped a blanket over Song Yuan.

"No coats, they’re too heavy," Song Yuan put on a sad act. "And they take up space."

In the end, they compromised—Gu Jingchi took them out and shipped them directly to China via priority shipping.

Song Yuan didn’t wake up until noon the next day.

After lunch, it was time to catch his flight.

He’d only gotten two hours with Gu Jingchi today, which felt like a waste.

At the gate, Gu Jingchi hugged him and didn’t let go immediately. Song Yuan didn’t want him to either, but the boarding announcement for his flight began.

Gu Jingchi kissed him. "Be good and wait for me."

Song Yuan really wanted to ask why *he* was the one waiting for Gu Jingchi.

But time was too tight, and before he could ask, Gu Jingchi hurried him toward the gate.

During their days apart, they had nightly video calls. Gu Jingchi had a time difference, but he still waited until Song Yuan was ready for bed to share a goodnight call.

One night, as Song Yuan was about to sleep as usual, his doorbell chimed.

He checked the security feed and saw—Gu Jingchi.

"Gu Jingchi? What are you doing here?"

Gu Jingchi glanced inside and spotted the life-sized dummy of himself.

"I came to see what clothes my *stand-in*’s wearing."