The Stand-In

He didn't know who the other young man was, but he was certain the voice in the recording belonged to his boyfriend.

"Baby, I know Bian Jing, but our relationship really isn't what you think. I just felt sorry for him, so I helped him out. That's all."

That familiar voice was saying something so cruel that Bian Jing could hardly believe it belonged to his boyfriend. But he had no choice. He knew his boyfriend's voice too well.

After listening to the entire recording, Bian Jing stared at the voice recorder, his face blank.

He trusted his boyfriend, but the voices sounded real. He knew the recording hadn't been doctored. And when he remembered that stretch of time when he'd struggled to reach Wen Su, he began to think Wen Su really was hiding something from him.

He had his doubts, but he didn't want to condemn Wen Su on the strength of one recording alone.

He didn't tell Wen Su about the recording. Instead, over the next few days, he quietly began watching him.

Only then did Bian Jing notice that Wen Su wore clothes he'd never seen before when they weren't together. Even so, he could tell those clothes were beyond what either of them could afford.

And whenever Bian Jing asked where Wen Su worked, Wen Su never told him.

By then, Bian Jing had come to believe what he'd heard in the recording. He just couldn't understand why someone like him was worth such an elaborate deception.

He still didn't know who Wen Su really was, but anyone who could afford clothes like that lived in a world far beyond his own.

After thinking it over for days, he decided to break up with Wen Su. He didn't know why Wen Su had done this,