Chapter 3

The next second, Wei Luoluo lunged and missed.

She hit the ground hard.

Jiang Yu didn’t even glance at her. He calmly said to the person outside the door, “This is your problem. Handle it yourself.”

Only then did I notice someone standing outside.

Silver hair…

Jiang Yan.

His so-called girlfriend was sprawled on the floor, but he didn’t even spare her a glance.

He only stared silently at me.

With a stubbornness in his eyes.

They had the same face, but for some reason, the moment I saw Jiang Yan, my whole body began shaking uncontrollably.

It was like falling into an endless abyss.

An inexplicable despair and hatred surged through me again.

“Go… tell him to leave!”

I staggered and fell to the ground, pain filling my eyes.

Jiang Yu’s expression turned cold at once. One word—“Get out”—was enough to force Jiang Yan to leave.

He also told Jiang Yan to take Wei Luoluo with him.

Only after the two of them disappeared from my sight did I gradually calm down.

But being cursed out of nowhere still felt awful.

“What kind of eyes does Jiang Yan have? How can he like a girl who opens her mouth just to insult people?”

I muttered angrily, “If you ask me, any girl who likes Jiang Yan ought to get her eyes checked.”

Jiang Yu patiently tried to comfort me.

Hearing my mutter, he raised an eyebrow slightly. “Mm. You’re right.”

“Anyone who likes Jiang Yan is blind.”

Me: “…”

Why did it feel as if he was making an indirect dig at someone?

9

After a series of investigations,

The only thing they could determine was that the surveillance camera near the school’s abandoned rooftop was broken. The only footage it had caught was me tumbling down the stairs. After that, there was nothing.

My parents couldn’t accept the result and kept hiring people to investigate.

Just then, all sorts of rumors started spreading around school.

Some people said I’d simply fallen down the stairs by accident, and was deliberately blaming the school to extort compensation.

They also said I’d made up the whole thing to avoid the dance competition.

They claimed my past achievements had all been dishonest, and that I’d put on this act because I was afraid I’d be exposed at a bigger competition.

Zhou Zhou told me all of it over WeChat.

She was furious on my behalf. “These brainless people just believe whatever they hear.”

“If I told them poop was delicious, would they try a bite?”

I lay in my hospital bed, laughing until the corners of my eyes stung.

Zhou Zhou added that although she had no proof, her woman’s intuition told her this had to be connected to Wei Luoluo.

“I even asked around. Those rumors started with her group.”

“Could she be taking it out on you because Jiang Yan broke up with her and was so upset he completely lost control?”

I yawned and replied, “This is such a ridiculous case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m so unlucky.”

First I’d been cursed out for no reason. Now this.

I wasn’t too concerned about it.

But before Wei Luoluo could come looking for trouble again, I ran into someone I never expected to see.

“Ning Shuang.”

I was resting in the little garden and looked warily at the person in front of me.

He’d dyed his hair black, and his face was exactly the same as Jiang Yu’s.

But I recognized him at a glance.

The person in front of me was Jiang Yan.

“Can I help you?”

After several days of medication, I no longer reacted as violently to Jiang Yan as I had before.

But I still hated him.

That feeling was embedded in my flesh and blood.

I looked at him calmly.

“Ning Shuang… Maybe because you’ve lost your memory, you won’t believe anything I say now.”

Jiang Yan looked much more haggard than he had a few days ago.

His face was worn and gloomy, a deep crease between his brows.

Ever since I first saw him after waking up, he’d seemed miserable and disheveled.

He no longer looked like the cold top student he’d once been.

“No. I’ve actually remembered a lot.”

“What?!”

I watched the light flare in Jiang Yan’s eyes.

“Ning Shuang, are you serious? Then you must know that I’m the one who’s been by your side all these years! Not my brother!”

I simply watched him in silence.

Only after a long moment did Jiang Yan fall quiet. His eyes gradually dimmed.

“Yes, I remember everything.”

“I also remember how you had people break my legs to get revenge for Wei Luoluo, made me fall down the stairs, and nearly killed me.”

“Jiang Yan, have you forgotten all of that?”

Jiang Yan froze.

His eyes darted about in panic. His lips moved as though he wanted to say something, but in the end he lowered his head in despair.

“What right do you have to show your face in front of me now?”

“I… I, Ning Shuang. It wasn’t like that.”

Jiang Yan looked at me pleadingly. “That night, Wei Luoluo was crying in front of me. I really thought you’d bullied her. I was so angry that I let them provoke me into teaching you a lesson.”

“But I told them those were just foam batons. They were supposed to look scary, but they wouldn’t hurt. I don’t know why they ended up using real iron rods and actually broke your legs.”

“When you fell down the stairs, I was going to save you. But Wei Luoluo said the commotion was so loud that she was afraid the school would find out and expel all of us. And I was scared too, so… so I ran away.”

“But, Ning Shuang, I truly didn’t mean to hurt you. Can you forgive me?”

Ridiculous.

So ridiculous.

Just because of a few lies, Jiang Yan had left my legs crippled, made me miss the competition, and destroyed my dream of dancing freely ever again.

Could a few weightless apologies make up for that?

If the dorm supervisor hadn’t noticed I was missing and searched all over the school, perhaps she would have found my cold, lifeless body if she’d been any later.

What right did he have to stand in front of me and say any of this?

Smack!

I raised my hand and slapped Jiang Yan hard across the face.

His cheek swelled at once.

But Jiang Yan acted as if he felt nothing. He only said, “Go ahead and hit me, Ning Shuang. I’m right here. Hit me as much as you want. If you can forgive me, you can beat my face to a pulp!”

He even tried to grab my hand and make me slap him again.

But before he could touch me, a powerful kick sent him flying.

Watching Jiang Yan sprawled on the ground, unable to get up for a long while—

Wow. That must have hurt!

I blinked, enjoying the show of two brothers fighting…

No, actually, it was one brother beating the other.

Only then did Jiang Yu lower his long leg. He turned to look at me, a flicker of concern in his eyes.

“Are you all right?”

I shook my head and was about to answer when Jiang Yan spoke first.

Clutching his stomach in pain, he snarled, “Jiang Yu, your good days are over. Ning Shuang has remembered everything. You’re nothing but an impostor.”

“You were never the childhood friend who stayed by her side. I was!”

The moment he said that,

I felt the figure blocking my way tremble slightly.

But Jiang Yu stood firm, still shielding me behind him.

I looked at him, then took a deep breath. “Jiang Yan, those aren’t the only memories that have come back.”

“Stop pretending.”

“Ask your own conscience.”

“Was that childhood friendship really yours?”

In the next instant, I saw Jiang Yan’s face turn deathly pale.

10

That was right.

The boy who really praised my dancing, went to school with me, called me his little swan, and stood up for me when someone else was in trouble—

Was no one else.

It was Jiang Yu.

Jiang Yu had been my childhood friend all along.

In fifth grade, Uncle Jiang and Auntie Jiang divorced amicably. Each parent took one of the boys.

Jiang Yu went with Uncle Jiang. Because of his work, Uncle Jiang moved to another city.

Jiang Yu was taken away so suddenly that I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye. I chased after the car as it drove off, then fell and hit my head. Afterward, I had a high fever that wouldn’t go away. When I woke up a few days later, my memories had become jumbled, and I mistook Jiang Yan for Jiang Yu.

Jiang Yan knew perfectly well that Jiang Yu was the childhood friend who had grown up with me.

But whenever I told him memories from our childhood, he never hesitated to claim them as his own.

The person who made my heart flutter, the one I’d secretly loved for years, had never been Jiang Yan.

He had shamelessly taken Jiang Yu’s place.

He was the impostor.

And…

I looked calmly at Jiang Yan. “That night on the rooftop, when I went to find you, I had a voice recorder with me.”

Jiang Yan had tricked me into leaving the dorm by pretending he wanted to ask me about a homework problem.

I’d trusted him without a second thought. I thought he’d changed his mind and finally come to his senses.

So I’d brought him the notes I’d taken during the days I’d been away.

I never imagined the nightmare waiting for me.

But that tiny recorder had become irrefutable evidence.

11

A week later, the school informed me of what had happened.

In front of a crowd, the police escorted Wei Luoluo away.

The people who had bullied and tortured me that night were arrested too.

They were all old enough to be held responsible. The law would punish them.

Jiang Yan couldn’t escape either.

When Auntie Jiang found out that Jiang Yan had been one of the people who hurt me, she fainted on the spot. When she woke up, she kept apologizing to me and saying she was terribly sorry.

“He was a child I watched grow up. How did he turn into this…”

I gently patted Auntie Jiang’s back and comforted her.

Jiang Yan was Jiang Yan. Auntie Jiang was Auntie Jiang.

Just as I would never forget that Jiang Yan had destroyed my dream of dancing,

I would also always remember how Auntie Jiang had taken me in and cared for me when my parents were busy working.

Fortunately, the doctor said my injuries were healing fairly well.

More than half a year passed.

When I put on my dance shoes again and completed an entire routine, I was so overcome with joy that I burst into tears.

After I stepped off the stage, a slender hand reached out in front of me.

I smiled and put my hand in his without hesitation.

The next second, a warm coat settled over my shoulders.

“Jiang Yu.”

“Mm?”

The young man beside me answered softly.

I turned to look at him. “What if I’d never remembered?”

Jiang Yu said nothing. He only tightened his grip on my hand.

Little by little, our fingers intertwined.

His ears turned red.

At that moment, I was incredibly grateful that I’d lost my memory.

That day, when I woke up in the hospital room,

The first person I saw was the boy I’d buried in the depths of my unrequited love.

It wasn’t like meeting for the first time.

It felt like seeing him again after being apart for only a day.

—The End—

Enjoyed this story? Discover more completed short romance stories at NovelPotato.asia.