Who is the real Mrs. Lu? - Chapter 1

Today is the first anniversary of my marriage with Lu Zhan.

He went abroad on a business trip two months ago. Despite the time difference, he still made a point to call me at 8 o’clock this morning, saying he had bought my favorite flowers and asked me to pick him up at the airport tonight.

Sure enough, right after I put down the phone, the doorbell rang.

I opened the door, and the flower delivery guy was all smiles. “Madam, wishing you and Mr. Lu a happy anniversary and a hundred years of happiness.”

In his hands were nine white roses.

I took the flowers, smiled, “Thank you.”

After closing the door, I placed the flowers in a vase, gently caressing the petals.

In truth, I don’t like white roses.

White roses are delicate and wither easily.

White roses were my elder sister Lv Qingqing’s favorite flowers.

And for the past year, that name has belonged to me.

The phone on the table kept ringing. It was a number I had never saved, yet knew by heart.

A number I once used for ten years.

The caller was clearly impatient. Finally, when the ringtone sounded for the third time, I hung up and sent a text message.

“I’ll be right there.”

Putting on my coat, I left the compound. This is the most upscale neighborhood in Hai City, with high-precision facial recognition at the entrance. The security guard, who knows every resident, smiled and greeted me, “Mrs. Lu, heading out?”

I nodded with a smile, turned a few corners after leaving, and saw a white sedan splattered with mud parked at the intersection.

I opened the passenger door–an acrid smell of smoke hit me.

“Stop smoking,” I said as I sat down, rolling down the passenger window. “Zhan doesn’t like the smell.”

The driver turned her head. “Why didn’t you answer my calls?”

I hesitated. “Zhan had someone send flowers this morning. When you called, I was talking to the flower delivery guy at the door.”

“Oh,” she stubbed out her cigarette. “What kind of flowers?”

I paused for a moment. “White roses.”

She suddenly laughed. “He still remembers I like white roses, huh?” With that, she turned to look at me. “Che, honestly, you dropped out of school and didn’t take the film academy entrance exam. What a waste.”

She rolled down her own window for some air. “After we go back to our own places, you should go back to school. I’ll give you money, get some cosmetic work done, and enroll in a university acting department. Who knows, you might become a big star. That’s better than waiting tables like you used to.”

“Forget it.” I said softly, “The entertainment industry is too murky.”

She snorted with laughter. “So what if it’s murky? You used to wait tables during the day and sell drinks at KTV at night, didn’t you always get groped by customers? If you become a star,” she smiled, “maybe some diamond bachelor will fancy you and keep you as his mistress. Isn’t that better than before?”

I looked at her in disbelief.

She paused, coughed a few times, and made a face. “Come on, I’m just kidding. Why are you so serious?”

With that, she started the car, muttering as she turned the key, “You weren’t like this before. I used to joke even worse and you’d always laugh along. Have you been playing me for so long this past year that you’ve forgotten who you really are?”

“Maybe.” I turned my head, looking at the face identical to mine. “Sis.”

That’s right. The person in front of me is my twin sister.

A sister I didn’t even know existed two years ago.

I was raised by my father alone. According to him, my birth mother had an affair with a wealthy businessman who came to our city shortly after giving birth to me. She divorced my father in a hurry and married that man.

Every time he mentioned my mother, my father would fly into a rage.

He was very handsome in his youth, known as the local heartthrob. Back then at the factory, it was said that many girls had chased after him.

But my mother’s betrayal became a lifelong humiliation he could never smooth over.

In those days, in a small town, something like cheating could quickly become common knowledge.

My birth mother went to live in that man’s city, while my father became the subject of gossip in every street and alley.

People would embellish the details of how he caught her cheating, turning it into stories that spread everywhere. Eventually, even he stopped avoiding the subject.

Once, a co-worker mocked him in public, saying, “You must be a eunuch, that’s why your wife ran off.” He couldn’t take it, so he beat the guy up. Not only did he have to pay for medical expenses, but the factory fired him.

Without a job, he became even more despondent, started drinking, gambling, and neglecting himself. Every time he got drunk, he would grab my hand and curse my birth mother, whom I’d never met.

But all my life, he never hit me.

Drunk, he’d always pull me close and say, “Che, my girl, thank goodness you look like me.”

He told me that his new girlfriend was simple and hardworking, and that once he married her, I could focus on my studies and stop working part-time jobs.

But just a few months later, an accident happened at the construction site–one of the co-workers died. He and some of the other co-workers went to confront the general contractor and the developer, and a fierce conflict broke out between both sides.

He got into another fight. This time, it was even more serious–not only did he lose his job again, but he also ended up in the police station.

Back then, I was in my second year of senior high school. I rushed to the police station as soon as I got the call, only to hear his girlfriend standing at the entrance, hands on her hips, hurling insults at him.

I didn’t know what had happened. I only heard her scolding him, calling him a liar.

“Didn’t you promise to buy me a gold ring? If you have no money, what kind of marriage are you talking about? Shameless bastard!”

After that night, she broke up with him cleanly and completely.

From then on, he fell back into his old habits of gambling and heavy drinking. Years of excessive drinking and irregular meals made him more overweight, his hair turned much whiter, and the once-stunning beauty of his youth had completely faded from his sagging face.

When I was in my third year of senior high school, he got into another fight. This time, he wasn’t the one who came out on top. By the time I rushed to the hospital, he was lying in bed, unconscious.

From that day on, he never left the hospital again.

At that time, the debt collectors came right up to our front door. I cowered in the kitchen, trembling, gripping a kitchen knife tightly in my hand.

Until the appearance of Lv Qingqing.

She took off her sunglasses and gave me a toothy smile. “Hello, I’m your twin sister, Lv Qingqing.”

My father was lying in the hospital, needing care. The daily medical expenses and the ever-mounting debts forced me to make a decision.

I dropped out of school.

After leaving school, I took care of my father in the hospital during the day and continued working at the restaurant at night.

On my twentieth birthday, Xiao Xi, who had once worked with me at the restaurant, found me and slipped me a business card.

Her makeup was flawless. She said to me, “Che, you’re so good-looking. Don’t waste it.”

At that time, I really had no money left. The mountain of debt left me with no way out, so I went to work at that KTV.

I never dared to attend any of the class reunions.

Back then, I was in the honors class of a prestigious high school. Most of my classmates had gone on to famous universities, while I was selling drinks in a KTV.

I thought, maybe this was just my fate.

Until the appearance of Lv Qingqing.

That night, after my shift, she stopped me at the entrance of the KTV.

“Are you Che?” she asked as soon as she spoke, and I was stunned.

She took off her sunglasses and gave me a toothy smile. “Hello, I’m your twin sister, Lv Qingqing.”

I stared blankly at the face in front of me.

According to her, she never knew she had a sister until a few days ago, when she came across a photo that our mother had secretly hidden away. Only then did she realize she had a twin sister.

Because the name of a local photo studio was written on the back of the photo, she secretly came looking for me.

She was dressed head to toe in designer brands, with perfectly styled hair, and a cool boyfriend who rode a motorcycle.

She said she wanted to see our father, so I took her to the hospital.

“I can’t believe you’ve been living so hard,” she cried in front of the hospital bed. “Che, we’re sisters. I’ll help you.”

She secretly paid a year’s worth of nursing fees for our father in advance, hired a professional caretaker to stay at the hospital, paid off our debts, and let me quit my job at the KTV.

She took me traveling, bought me clothes, took me to beauty salons, brought me to high-end restaurants, and taught me etiquette.

With her, people around me always treated me politely. I was no longer the country girl from a small county, nor the KTV girl forced to smile and sell drinks.

At first, I didn’t want to accept her kindness, but she said it was to make up for what our mother owed me.

“All these years, you’ve had such a hard life. I think if Mom knew, she’d do the same.”

“Don’t worry,” she said with a wink. “I have plenty of money. My parents don’t care what I do.”

The “dad” she spoke of was her Stepfather, one of Haicheng’s richest men, Lv Ning.

Maybe all these years, apart from my father, I really hadn’t received any other family affection. So for her, what I felt was gratitude, was being moved, and even a little bit of attachment.

Once, when we were playing by the pool, I was pushed into the water by a group of people. I didn’t know how to swim, and neither did she, yet she grabbed a swim ring and jumped in after me.

In the end, she didn’t hold on to the float properly, and both of us choked on water.

Afterward, I asked her why she jumped in to save me even though she couldn’t swim.

She just laughed. “Silly, I’m your sister.”

She brought me to Haicheng and asked, “Do you want to see Mom?”

I agreed. She dressed me in her everyday clothes, and I pretended to be her to meet the mother I hadn’t seen in twenty-three years.

She didn’t notice that I wasn’t Lv Qingqing.

That night, Lv Qingqing seemed especially excited. She dragged me and her boyfriend Liao Fan out for drinks. I got drunk, and in my haze, I heard her say, “See, I told you–even Mom couldn’t tell the difference. Who else could?”

She said, “Fan, even the heavens are helping us.”

After staying in Hai City for a while, I discovered Lv Qingqing’s secret.

She seemed to have another boyfriend.

It was Lu Zhan.

I saw him waiting downstairs at Lv Qingqing’s apartment, holding a huge bouquet of white roses.

Lv Qingqing’s room was piled high with the gifts he’d given her, from lipsticks to necklaces to handbags, all top international brands.

Yet she never even glanced at them.

I couldn’t understand why she acted this way. When I asked her, she stayed silent for a long time, her eyes reddening as she said, “Che, I really don’t know what to do.”

She told me Lu Zhan was the man her stepfather had chosen for her to marry, for the sake of a business alliance.

But Liao Fan–a motorcycle youth, an unemployed artist–was her true love.

“I know Lu Zhan is wonderful. He said he fell for me at our very first blind date. He’s really a great person, flawless, like the perfect idol… but, but I just love Liao Fan.” Tears streamed down her face. “Che, what should I do?”

Clumsily, I wiped her tears. “Can’t you just not marry Lu Zhan?”

“How could that be possible?” She shook her head. “It’s already set in stone. The whole Hai City knows. It’s not just about the two of us–if I run away, my mom will be implicated too. Dad would definitely send someone to take out Liao Fan. Liao Fan is an artist, he’s going to be a great artist someday. I can’t drag him down.”

She took out a bottle of pills. “Actually, before I came to find you, I’d already been on antidepressants for more than half a year. I’m really in so much pain, I’ve even thought about dying.”

“Che,” she looked at me, eyes brimming with tears, “I’m pregnant. The child is Liao Fan’s.”

I was stunned. “What did you say?”

“Che,” she grasped my hand, “can you do me a favor?”

That day, Liao Fan drove, crashing us into a tree, staging a fake car accident.

When I woke up in the hospital, I had become the “amnesiac” Lv Qingqing.

In the hospital, Lu Zhan held my hand and said to me, “Qingqing, don’t be afraid. It’s okay if you can’t remember anything. I’m here.”

For the next three months after leaving the hospital, I replaced Lv Qingqing and went on dates with Lu Zhan.

I still remember our first official date–his eyes were full of surprise as he smiled and said, “You actually didn’t make me wait half an hour today.”

My heart skipped a beat, but I still imitated Lv Qingqing’s tone, “Did I? Maybe I changed clothes faster today.”

He looked me up and down. “Hmm, you forgot to wear gloves today.”

My heart pounded even harder and I started to regret agreeing to help Lv Qingqing. No matter how much we resembled each other, this was her boyfriend. At the hospital it was fine, but actually dating–how could he not realize I was an imposter?

As I nervously searched for an excuse, he took my hand, wrapping it in his warm palm. “Here, now you won’t feel cold.”

No one, especially no man, had ever treated me so tenderly.

I stared at him, dumbfounded, forgetting for a moment that I was supposed to be acting.

He smiled, brushing my hair aside. “What are you daydreaming about? Why do I feel like you’re looking at me so much more kindly today, little princess?”

Just like that, after three months of dating Lu Zhan as Lv Qingqing, I married him.

It was a perfect business alliance–Lv Family and Lu Family each got what they wanted, both sides satisfied.

I became Mrs. Lu, moving into his upscale apartment in Hai City.

But Lv Qingqing’s child was not saved. One time, after riding on the back of Liao Fan’s motorcycle and racing excitedly with others, she miscarried.

Yet even so, she still loved Liao Fan, and using my name, Yin Lanche, she left Hai City with Liao Fan for another city.

That year, I played my part perfectly. No one ever discovered that I was not the original Lv Qingqing.

Even I felt I was too deeply in character.

A sudden brake snapped me back to reality.

“Liao Fan–have you been in touch with him lately?” I asked softly.

“Don’t mention him. He’s just a liar.” She gave a self-deprecating smile. “Turns out, what Mom said was true–love without material security really can’t be relied on. I didn’t believe it before. I was such a fool.”

She stopped at a red light and turned to look at me. “Che, it took me a year to realize how great Lu Zhan is. Thank goodness for you. Thank goodness you were the one who kept him for me back then.”

“Your habit of keeping a diary is really something.” She stopped the car and handed the diary back to me. “Otherwise, we’d have to act out that amnesia scene again. That would be way too melodramatic.”

I caressed the diary. It was a wedding gift from Lu Zhan.

“You… have you memorized everything?”

She waved her hand. “Of course I have. Don’t worry. He didn’t recognize you back then, and he won’t notice any difference with me now. Besides, he’s always traveling abroad for business. You two have rarely been together, and this time he’s been gone for two months. Even if there are slight changes, how could he notice?” Indeed, this past month, she’d cut her hair to match mine, even dragged me to the same beauty salon from before, comparing every inch of our skin to ensure that from face to body, skin tone to weight, we were exactly alike.

She took out her lipstick and applied it, then suddenly turned to me. “By the way, I forgot to ask–usually you use my No. 96 and No. 32 shades the most, right?”

I was silent for a moment and softly answered, “Mm.”

She smiled and reached out her hand. “Come on, let’s swap our phones and car keys back. Zhan will be home tonight, so we’ll officially switch back. You stay here for now. If everything goes smoothly, in three months, I’ll have someone take you for plastic surgery.”

I paused, then took out my phone and car key and handed them to her.

“Zhan,” I hesitated, “his stomach isn’t good. If he comes home late from overtime, remember to cook some plain porridge for him.”

“Got it,” she replied with a smile. “You’ve said that several times already. Don’t worry, I won’t slip up.”

She winked and blew me a kiss. “When it comes to acting, the two of us sisters are top-notch, aren’t we?”

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