The Young Miss Refuse To Love-Chapter 108: The ‘other’ him

"Xu Yichen?" Qi Jianyi mumbled. Her eyes widened at the sight of the man who looked eerily similar to someone she used to be close to.

For a moment, it felt as though her entire world was thrown into chaos as her eyes remained fixed on him. She was stunned to see a face that belonged to someone from her real world.

Her mumble wasn’t loud, barely more than a whisper, but Song Chengfeng, who stood beside her, heard it clearly. He caught the unfamiliar name as it left her lips.

The man, who looked exactly like Xu Yichen, turned his gaze toward Qi Jianyi, who stood not far from him. His eyes widened in confusion as he tilted his head slightly, studying her.

"Yichen, what’s wrong?" the woman beside Xu Yichen asked, lightly shaking his hand to regain his attention. She frowned in concern at his sudden silence.

Shaking his head, Xu Yichen offered her a smile. "Nothing. What do you want to play?" he asked, trying to divert his lover, Chen Changxin’s, attention away from the stranger, Qi Jianyi.

Chen Changxin pouted, dissatisfied with his vague response. Unable to figure out what was bothering him, she eventually pointed toward a nearby food stall. "I want to eat first. Let’s go," she said.

Hooking her arm through Xu Yichen’s, she pulled him along. Xu Yichen smiled and followed her, but as they walked away, he couldn’t help turning back to glance at Qi Jianyi, who still hadn’t regained her composure.

He wanted to ask if they knew each other. Why did she feel so familiar? Had they met before? Questions swirled in his mind, but he knew they would remain unanswered.

In the end, Xu Yichen could only give Qi Jianyi a small nod. His gaze flicked briefly to Song Chengfeng, assuming him to be her lover, before he turned away and left.

Although it was just a fleeting moment, it was undeniable that both Qi Jianyi and Xu Yichen were deeply affected by the encounter.

One was struck in disbelief, the other by confusion at the strange sense of familiarity.

"Jianyi?" Song Chengfeng spoke up, noticing the man had left. He gently shook their clasped hands to draw her attention back.

Qi Jianyi blinked and turned to Song Chengfeng, startled. Her wide eyes, still filled with disbelief, met his concerned gaze.

"What’s wrong?" he asked, raising his free hand to rest gently on her shoulder.

Qi Jianyi took a deep breath and glanced one last time in Xu Yichen’s direction before shaking her head. "It’s nothing," she replied.

But it wasn’t nothing. She couldn’t believe her eyes—she had just seen Xu Yichen. Not the one she knew, but another version of him. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

It was unbelievable, yet not impossible. After all, she and the original Qi Jianyi shared the same face. So why couldn’t others from her world exist here too?

"Do you know him?" Song Chengfeng’s voice held a slight edge as he recalled the way she had stared at the man.

For some reason, an anxious feeling crept into his heart, as though something precious to him was slipping away. Yet he couldn’t put this uneasiness into words, nor did he want to dwell on it.

"He’s Xu Yichen," Qi Jianyi said, turning her gaze back to Song Chengfeng. She could hear the jealousy in his tone but wasn’t sure how to explain.

"I knew him... but not him," she added, her voice softening.

"You knew Xu Yichen in your world?" Song Chengfeng picked up on her words quickly.

"Yes, but I haven’t seen him in years," Qi Jianyi admitted with a faint smile. Song Chengfeng studied her carefully, unable to discern what she was thinking.

"Why?" he asked, wanting to know more about this Xu Yichen and what he had meant to her.

Seeing the curiosity on his face, Qi Jianyi laughed lightly. She turned away from him and tugged him forward to catch up with her brothers.

On the other hand, He Zeqing, at some point, had surpassed them and walked in front turned back when he saw no one was following him.

Seeing how the two lovebirds who have yet become lovebirds talking and laughing, he glared in disastifaction before turning his attention back to the others.

"He was my ex-boyfriend," Qi Jianyi answered casually, her tone indifferent, as though it was a trivial matter.

To her, it was. Her feelings for Xu Yichen had faded over time, dulled by the repeated dreams of her high school years. She still had regrets but overtime, Qi Jianyi was too tired to think about it.

Not to mention that she realised that the memories she had with Xu Yichen and her friends were one of the best moments in her life, but they belonged in the past.

Even though their paths had diverged, those memories would remain. Or perhaps, she had simply relived them so many times in her dreams that she no longer felt the need to hold on to them.

Half of her cherished those days, but the other half refused to feel happiness from them anymore. After all, they were just memories—a dream she could never return to. A dream that if she fell deeper, she could no longer return to the present.

But while the matter seemed unimportant to Qi Jianyi, it felt entirely different to Song Chengfeng. The alarm bells in his mind rang louder.

When Qi Jianyi noticed his silence, she raised her brows at him.

"Why aren’t you saying anything?" she asked.

"Do you still like him?" Song Chengfeng blurted out.

He wanted to ask if Xu Yichen was the reason she wanted so desperately to return to her world, but the words stuck in his throat. Maybe he wasn’t ready to hear the answer.

"Are you jealous?" Qi Jianyi teased, standing on her toes to close the distance between them. A playful smile lit up her face as she tilted her head at him innocently.

"Are you worried that I suddenly want to abandon you and chase that guy?"

Song Chengfeng, helpless against her charm, gave in completely.

"You can’t leave me, and I won’t let you," he said domineeringly but his hand gently pinching her cheeks.

Qi Jianyi pushed his hand away and pouted. "Don’t pinch me," she grumbled in mock disdain.

Song Chengfeng said nothing and simply reached out to rub her cheek gently.

Qi Jianyi, unimpressed, rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand, holding it firmly in hers to stop him from taking advantage any further.

"They looked so familiar that I was shocked," she mused, her voice tinged with amusement. "But now that I think about it, doesn’t this body also look exactly like me?"

She found it almost hilarious that she had never considered this fact before. If she could exist in this world, it was entirely possible that other people she knew in her original world might also exist here.

"Then..." she murmured, her eyes widening in sudden realization. "If Xu Yichen exists in this world, and I exist here too, doesn’t that mean you must also exist in my real world?"

Her gaze shifted to Song Chengfeng, filled with a mixture of shock and exasperation. The idea left her dumbfounded. Why had she never considered this possibility before?

However, Qi Jianyi quickly reminded herself that she had been too consumed by her mission to return home. Her focus had left little room for entertaining such thoughts.

"I exist in your world...?" Song Chengfeng echoed her words, equally stunned.

Part of him was frozen in thought, while another part brimmed with jealousy. If there truly was another version of himself in Qi Jianyi’s real world, wouldn’t that mean she might end up with that Song Chengfeng instead?

"You’re not allowed to date him," he declared with a deep scowl.

The disdain in his tone was evident. No matter what, he hated the very idea of this "other" him.

After all, that person wasn’t really him. How could he allow Qi Jianyi to fall in love with a mere copy?

"What’s wrong with your brain?" Qi Jianyi groaned, rolling her eyes again. She couldn’t fathom how his thoughts had gone so far off track.

She was talking about the theoretical existence of other versions of themselves, and here he was, already jumping to baseless conclusions.

"What do you think your other self is doing?" she asked with a spark of curiosity.

"Look at me—I’m a popular author in my original world, while this Qi Jianyi is the only daughter of the wealthiest man in this country. You’re a soldier here. What do you think the other you would be doing over there?"

She blinked at him expectantly, genuinely intrigued by the idea of what the alternate Song Chengfeng’s career might be.

"Who knows?" he replied, shrugging dismissively. "Maybe he’s just some lazy guy who’s not even half as handsome as me."

Song Chengfeng clearly had no interest in dwelling on the existence of this supposed "other" him. He disliked the very idea of someone out there who looked exactly like him.

For the first time, he could understand why Qi Jianyi was so determined to return to her original world. Perhaps part of her urgency stemmed from the desire to return to her true self.

Living as someone else—even temporarily—was a reality Song Chengfeng couldn’t even begin to imagine enduring.

Follow current novℯls on f(r)eewebnov𝒆l