Chapter 5

Honestly.

Who would not want to come home after a long day and find a sweet, pretty husband gazing at her like that?

I kicked a pebble along the roadside.

How could two people with the same face make me instinctively adore one and instinctively loathe the other?

“How many times did you think of me?”

The image on Shen Yu’s side wobbled. His ears red, he thought for several seconds and held up his fingers.

“Twelve times?”

I laughed so hard I could not stop. My heart melted into a puddle.

“Then tomorrow, I won’t leave you alone to miss me. Let’s go on a date, okay?”

The boy on the screen smiled, sweet and obedient, yet a thread of twisted resentment crept through my heart.

After we ended the call, I watched the constant stream of new friend requests on my phone, my expression dark.

[I didn’t do well today. I won’t act like that next time. Can we please not break up?]

[Tell me what I did to upset you. I’ll change. Please?]

[I thought you would prefer me when I could speak. If you don’t, then I can stay silent around you from now on.]

As I read the boy’s humble pleas, my grip tightened until my knuckles went white.

Why?

Why did Shen Ci get to wear that identical face and speak of himself as the “normal” one from a position of superiority?

Meanwhile, my boyfriend had been manipulated by him since childhood because he could not speak, until he became timid, sensitive, and unsure of himself.

This world had treated Shen Yu terribly.

Even the brother he trusted wholeheartedly had used him as a tool to humiliate someone else.

Early Monday morning, I stepped onto campus and came face-to-face with a familiar face.

Shen Ci held a bag of breakfast. He appeared to have been waiting for a long time, and his eyes immediately lit when he saw me.

I walked slowly toward him. The delight in his eyes was almost impossible to contain.

“Sunny, I knew everything you said yesterday was only because you were angry…”

I sidestepped his reaching hand and scanned the area, left and right. When I confirmed my little mute was not behind him, I turned away in disappointment.

Shen Ci’s smile froze. Coming back to himself, he hurried after me.

“Sunny, what were you looking for just now?”

“Would you like to try this? I went out specially to buy it this morning. And… did you see the messages I sent last night?”

I stopped and frowned at him.

“I was looking for the personality you seem to have misplaced. Shen Ci, I’m starting to think you have schizophrenia.”

The rest of his words lodged in his throat. For one instant, his expression twisted.

“Was I really that wonderful that day? We’re the same person with the same face. Why are you treating us so differently?”