Substitute Girlfriend Contract (GL) - Chapter 3

Tao Anyu and Xiao Tao exchanged numbers. When she saw that his caller ID was from S City, she asked, “Are you here in F Province on vacation?”

Xiao Tao nodded. “Yeah, my aunt lives here, so I came to visit.”

“Are you having fun?” Tao Anyu asked.

Xiao Tao said, “It’s alright, but I’m not really used to the food.”

Tao Anyu laughed. “F Province food is spicy. I can’t really handle spicy food, either.”

Xiao Tao’s eyes lit up. “Then you have to come to S City. The food is lighter, and there’s a lot of seafood.”

“Alright, then you have to treat me.”

“It’s a deal.”

“Hey, Sister.” Xiao Tao lightly tapped Tao Anyu’s wrist and looked at her phone. “This model is a new one that just came out this summer. It has a GPS anti-theft satellite positioning function. Did you connect it to the internet and set up the positioning?”

“Huh?” Tao Anyu blinked. “I don’t know.”

“Want me to help you check? If you lose your phone, you can track it. If you get lost, you can call the police, and they can find you with the location.”

Tao Anyu thought for a moment. This phone was quite expensive, so it would be great if she could get it back if she lost it. “Okay, that would be great. Thank you.”

“No problem,” Xiao Tao said, taking her phone and logging into her account. “Sister, just press your finger to unlock.” He held the phone out to her. Tao Anyu pressed her finger into the circle that appeared on the screen. “Done.”

“Okay.” Xiao Tao quickly pressed a few keys, and the phone made a computerized, mechanical announcement: “Positioning successful.” He handed the phone back to her. “All set, Sister.”

“Thank you,” Tao Anyu said, playing with her phone with great interest. It didn’t feel any different than before. When she bought the phone, the salesperson had hyped up all its powerful features, but she only ever used it to make calls, send texts, read novels, and play games. She had no use for the other functions, so she hadn’t paid much attention to them.

Xiao Tao smiled. “You’re welcome.”

After sleeping on the train for one night, they arrived in D City at nine the next morning.

Xiao Tao had woken up early to help her with her luggage.

Tao Anyu quickly thanked him. “Thank you, Xiao Tao, but I don’t have any luggage. You don’t have to walk me out.”

Xiao Tao insisted on walking her to the compartment door, waving goodbye with a look of reluctance. “Keep in touch, Sister Tao! Remember to come to S City for a visit!”

“I will! You be careful on your trip!” Tao Anyu waved back at him.

Lost in the crowd of people getting off the train, she didn’t have to move on her own—the crowd pushed her along. Tao Anyu held on to her bag and walked out of the train station, where she was immediately met with a vista of lush green and a rush of fresh, moist air.

“Ah—” Tao Anyu stretched and took a deep breath, trying to expel the foul air she had inhaled on the train.

She lifted her arm and sniffed her sleeve. It smelled of the train’s unique mix of odors, mixed with cigarette smoke and instant noodles.

She frowned and looked around. Outside the station was a commercial plaza with a large garden in the middle. She slung her bag over her shoulder and walked toward the plaza, but she had no intention of finding a business hotel to stay in. First, her budget didn’t allow for it, and second, she was afraid her fake identity might be exposed.

Tao Anyu let out a soft sigh and looked up at the sky. I wonder how my mom is doing now… The only person she felt bad for was her mother, but even so, her mother might not forgive her for what she had done. Besides, that certain person might not even know that “she” had met with an accident. That person wouldn’t care about her at all, and even if they knew “she” was dead, they wouldn’t feel a shred of sadness, right?

Thinking this, Tao Anyu gave a self-deprecating smile and quickened her pace toward the subway entrance at the edge of the plaza.

No matter how impoverished a region was, there were always wealthy residents; no matter how prosperous a country was, there were always poor citizens.

The same was true for D City, a highly modernized garden city. Not every street was lined with distinctively designed green buildings. In the suburbs of D City, there were small wooden houses hidden in orchards—short, little houses, about 40 to 50 square meters. These rental houses, leftover from a farmer relocation project, were very cheap, and they didn’t require any ID checks.

Tao Anyu’s landlord was a man in his early sixties. He ran an orchard in the suburbs, growing many newly introduced foreign varieties as well as grafted varieties recently cultivated by the agricultural research academy. Each season, he had corresponding fruit-picking events, which attracted many customers.

Especially when the peach blossoms bloomed. Mixed with the plum and pear blossoms nearby, the pinks and whites were a sight of natural beauty. With a gentle breeze, it was a fairyland of fragrance and snow.

All in all, Tao Anyu was quite satisfied with her new environment. The only downside was that the transportation wasn’t very convenient. After all, the house was in the suburbs, and it took an hour on the subway to get to the city. Fortunately, Tao Anyu’s work was writing, so she only needed an internet connection at home. She didn’t have the worries of an ordinary office worker.

The landlord’s last name was Cheng, and his neighbors all called him Old Man Cheng.

It was autumn, and Old Man Cheng had just pulled a cart of chrysanthemums from the next-door nursery. Tao Anyu, who had been dozing in a rocking chair in the yard with a magazine in her arms, woke up when she heard him pulling the cart.

She was always a light sleeper.

“Old Man Cheng?” Tao Anyu rubbed her sleepy eyes. The colorful chrysanthemum seedlings that came into view immediately woke her up. She stood up and walked over to look at the flowers. “So many chrysanthemums. Do chrysanthemums grow fruit now?”

Old Man Cheng laughed and stroked his beard. “Little Taozi, you’re getting better and better at making fun of me!”

Tao Anyu chuckled and lightly touched the petals of a small white chrysanthemum with her finger.

Old Man Cheng wiped his forehead with a handkerchief, leaning on the cart. “I brought some flowers back to plant. It’ll look nice for when people come to pick apples in a few days! I’m even thinking about getting a few crabapple trees to plant!”

“Oh,” Tao Anyu nodded. “That’s great! Business is booming, Old Man Cheng!”

Old Man Cheng pointed at her, smiling and shaking his head. “What a sweet girl you are!”

Tao Anyu walked back to her house with her book, saying as she went, “However sweet I am, I’m not as sweet as the peaches in your orchard!”

“You cheeky little girl, ha ha ha.” Old Man Cheng laughed and went to call for help to unload the flowers from the cart.

Tao Anyu returned to the house, read some blogs by famous writers, and then browsed the news for County B. She saw a news report about the suicide by jumping off the Cliff of Oblivion. The news didn’t name the deceased, only that the family didn’t want to reveal her identity, but according to eyewitnesses, it was a young girl…

“Heh, they’re only reporting this now. It’s been a month,” Tao Anyu said, smiling and shaking her head. She looked out the window and sighed. “Mom, I hope your life will be easier from now on.” She stared blankly at the computer screen for a while before getting up to go to the kitchen to cook.

Tao Anyu was a great cook, and she liked to spend time on it when she had nothing else to do. She loved making nourishing medicinal dishes and also enjoyed making sweet soups and desserts. Tonight, she planned to use the seasonal fruits from the orchard to make a fruit porridge. Later, she could even go and “steal” some of Old Man Cheng’s chrysanthemum petals for a bath. Hehehehehe.

Just as Tao Anyu was planning her comfortable and leisurely life, there was a knock on her door.

She put down her ladle, walked out of the kitchen, and asked with a smile, “Are you here to mooch dinner again, Old Man Cheng?”