Die in His Tenderness

“Mr. Craig, are you going to travel? Can you... take me with you?”

He was stunned for a few seconds, then felt helpless.

“Sure.”

On the way, I learned that Gordon was going back to his hometown to visit his grandmother first and I agreed to temporarily play the role of his girlfriend to prevent him from being forced to get married.

Gordon's grandmother lived in an ancient tourist town. 

What shocked me was there was a platform on top of the two-story building where she could bask in the sun, so I often went there to calm myself.

As a result, I had been infected by the slow pace of life there. But the result was good, since my heart seemed to have calmed down because of it.

I couldn't help but sigh.

“I really want to stay here forever.”

“Then stay.”

I didn’t expect Gordon’s Grandmother to show up with a quilt in her arms. I felt a little embarrassed and guessed that she was going to dry the quilt in the sun.

“Grandma, let me help you.”

But she sighed and complained, “My grandson is so unlucky. Even if he brings such a good girl home, she won't be his.”

“Grandma, I…."

Before I could finish my sentence, she took my hand and sat me down. She said that she knew I was not Gordon’s girlfriend the first time she saw me.

Just when I was wondering if I had exposed myself in some way with Gordon, her words made me freeze in place.

Grandma gasped for air when she said, “There's something in your body. It looks like they are a couple, which means you have someone you love.”

Suddenly Gordon's voice came. “Grandma, you are talking nonsense again. We should believe in science.”

Then he said to me, “Aubrey, ignore her. When I was a child, she often told me this nonsense to scare me.”

But I vaguely felt that what grandma said was true.

“Grandma, what did you see? What's inside my body? Is it a locator?”

She was more surprised when I asked about that. “So, you do not know about it?”

I shook my head blankly.

After that, she muttered something angrily, “Shame on you, scum.”

She asked me to tell her if anything strange had happened recently, so I told her about Troy.

“I don't know why he can always communicate with me. I used to think it was great, but now I think it's scary.”

After listening to my story, Gordon’s grandmother clapped my hands.

“Girl, you are in trouble.”

After that, she asked me to wait and went downstairs to make a phone call.

Gordon and I were left looking at each other and we both saw confusion in each other's eyes.

Half an hour later, his grandmother took me to see a little girl. She was wearing a traditional costume and looked only 15 years old.

She said after looking me up and down before saying, “Aubrey, it is called Substitute Insect.”

“Huh?”

I was even more confused, but emotionally speaking, I did feel like Terra's stand-in.

But what she said next made me feel really stupid.

“Aubrey, you have a Substitute Insect in your body. Originally, the female insect and the male insect were a pair, but because of the Substitute Insect, the male of the pair will ....”

After digesting it myself, I finally understood what she meant.

What she meant was that Terra and Troy were originally a couple, but Terra asked me to be her stand-in in order to study abroad.

As long as she did not show up, Troy would want to get close to me and fall in love with me. So, as long as Troy and I were within a certain range, his body would automatically sense me.

The tacit understanding between Troy and I was also due to the magnetic field connection generated in this way.

That would explain why I softened when I saw him and why he wanted to kill me blindfolded.

“And the Insect in your body, for some reason, seems to have been destroyed, so you can now suppress it rationally.”