When A-Xin woke up, she was in a room fit for a princess, with a pink teddy bear taller than a person lying on the bed, incredibly cute.
This room was very large, filled with many trinkets girls loved. Limited edition Barbie dolls, keychains, jewelry boxes... and a spacious walk-in closet, even larger than an ordinary family's master bedroom, hung full of beautiful expensive clothes and dresses. Shoeboxes were stacked very high, most never opened.
She walked before the mirror, examining the girl inside with delicate features, incompatible with everything in this room.
"When I woke up then, I was stunned by everything around me. At first, I didn't realize what this meant. I thought I was dreaming, or it was someone's prank, or maybe I was visiting Jiang Cancan's house and my memory had gone wrong, which was why I was puzzled about waking up in Jiang Cancan's room. Jiang Cancan and I were in the same class. Her family was well-off, she was beautiful and generous, well-mannered, and never looked down on us poor girls. As for how I knew this was Jiang Cancan's room—she and I had a good relationship."
"I went downstairs wanting to ask what was happening."
"At that time I still thought maybe Jiang Cancan wanted to play some game."
"I went downstairs. On the living room sofa sat a man reading a newspaper—Jiang Cancan's father, Jiang Bailei. Seemingly hearing me come down, he looked up and showed me a kind smile. At that moment, I only thought his kind smile was merely for me as a junior. I never imagined his next words would freeze me in place. He smiled and called out, 'Cancan, why are you up so early today? It's the weekend—why not sleep more? You usually love sleeping in, don't you?'"
"I was stunned and quickly turned back, thinking Jiang Cancan must be right behind me. However, behind me was no Jiang Cancan, only empty stairs. Jiang Bailei spoke again: 'Cancan, you silly girl, how can you not pay attention coming downstairs, even looking back? What if you fell? You just never grow up, making Dad worry.'"
"From these words, I could confirm he was indeed calling me Cancan. But my name was Yu Xin, not Jiang Cancan. My name had been Yu Xin since birth—how could I possibly be Jiang Cancan? I quickly said, 'Uncle Jiang, did you call the wrong person? I'm Yu Xin, not Jiang Cancan.' He came over, touched my forehead, muttering about no fever, how could I not even recognize my own father, and so on. In short, his meaning was very clear—I was Jiang Cancan, not Yu Xin."
"My mind was chaos. I thought this must be a dream. I wanted to wake up but couldn't no matter what. I went into the room wanting to find traces of Jiang Cancan's existence, but there were none. Pens, schoolbag, books, phone—all mine. The name on the books was mine. That expensive limited edition phone needed my fingerprint to unlock. Clothes, shoes, everything—all my size. I felt the world had gone mad. I was clearly Yu Xin—how could I be Jiang Cancan? How could the things in the room be mine?
I rushed out the door and saw the housekeeper returning from shopping. I grabbed her and asked who I was. She looked bewildered: 'Miss Cancan, what's wrong with you?' I pushed her away and, still in pajamas and slippers, ran to school, grabbing everyone I knew to ask who I was. I thought this would surely prove I was Yu Xin, not Jiang Cancan. Never expected that everyone I once knew, who knew me, all said I was Jiang Cancan.
I crouched exhausted on the ground. At that moment, I felt the world had changed. The fruit shop I always visited, the convenience store, those vendors all said they didn't know me. Right—they'd never seen Jiang Cancan. How would they know Jiang Cancan?"
"Finally, I went to my home and pounded hard on the door. My mother opened it. Though life in this family wasn't particularly happy, seeing her at that moment, I seemed to see sunlight. I hugged her and called out 'Mom.'
I thought I'd get a response. Never expected her to gently, incredibly tenderly, push me away. I even thought my mother had started to like me. Never imagined she'd say strangely, 'Isn't this Cancan? What are you doing here? Did you come to find Yu Xin? That dead girl went crazy early this morning. We've locked her up now. Cancan, you should go back. When that girl goes mad, what if she hurts you?'
At that moment, my heart turned cold.
I rushed in and saw my younger brother and father inside. I called to them too. They all had strange, bewildered expressions. Dad said, 'Cancan, what did you call me?' My brother said, 'Sister Cancan, you're so strange today.'"
That voice choked up at this point. A-Xin didn't interrupt. After a long while, it continued: "From that day on, I spent my whole life asking who I was. Every day I had to recite: I am Yu Xin, I am Yu Xin, I am not Jiang Cancan."
"What happened next?" A-Xin asked.
"Later... later..." Yu Xin's voice held some helplessness. "Later I encountered Jiang Cancan at school. Her arms and legs were all pinched black and blue. I recognized immediately—that was my mother's handiwork. On her face was a red handprint, swollen high—that must have been my father's beating. We looked at each other, eyes holding only confusion. Had we really remembered wrong? Otherwise, why did everyone say I was Jiang Cancan and she was Yu Xin?"
"Jiang Cancan was stubborn, always refusing to admit she was Yu Xin, getting beaten every day. While I lived at the Jiang house, Jiang Bailei was always kind and amiable, touching my head saying I'd remembered wrong, I was his daughter, don't think so much in the future. Perhaps because I received too much warmth at the Jiang house, I gradually came to believe their words, believe I was Jiang Cancan, that beautiful, generous, wealthy young lady.
Only when seeing Jiang Cancan would I suddenly remember something, my mind producing the thought that I was Yu Xin, not Jiang Cancan. But this was quickly ignored by me. I met someone in my life—he was Jiang Bailei's student, named Cheng Yiling, a handsome, talented man. The warmth of the Jiang family, his love, made me accept being called Jiang Cancan, forget the past, live as Jiang Cancan."
Yu Xin laughed lowly, the laugh full of sarcasm. "I thought I'd surely live happily ever after. But then I got pregnant. Everyone was very happy. Cheng Yiling was also very happy. After giving birth to my baby, I fell into deep sleep. When I woke up, I wasn't in the hospital but in my room. No baby beside me, no Cheng Yiling either."
"I ran downstairs and asked Jiang Bailei where my baby was. He was very strange and told me I had no baby. I said I was married. He said I'd remembered wrong, also saying I'd been unconscious for several months for some unknown reason and only woke up today."
"I asked him about Cheng Yiling. He asked why I was asking this. I told him Cheng Yiling was my husband, we were married and had a lovely baby."
Yu Xin's voice grew heavy. "He told me very strangely that Cheng Yiling was Yu Xin's husband, and Yu Xin had indeed given birth recently. The Yu Xin he spoke of was Jiang Cancan."
"What did you do next?" A-Xin asked.
"I went to the Yu house to find Jiang Cancan, but saw only a corpse. She'd committed suicide. Left a suicide note written in blood with just one sentence: 'My name is Jiang Cancan.'"
Yu Xin's voice choked up. "I also wanted to commit suicide, but seeing the child in Cheng Yiling's arms, I lived on. In the time that followed, many things happened. A teacher who'd once interned there recognized me and said my name was Yu Xin. Within two days she died—died in an accident.
In a daze, I didn't even know if I was Yu Xin or Jiang Cancan anymore. Until the day my life ended, vision blurred, Jiang Bailei's cold voice sounded in my ears: 'Seems when a woman becomes a mother, she indeed has tenacious vitality. She actually managed to live until now.' Tell me, isn't it ridiculous? Jiang Cancan and I were just test subjects in their hands.
In this remote city, Jiang Bailei truly covered the sky with one hand, using any means to experiment with two living lives, one of whom was even his own daughter. From the moment we were born, we were test subjects."
Yu Xin was finally sent away by A-Xin. She entrusted her body to A-Xin without making any demands.
A-Xin opened the room door and walked downstairs, seeing Jiang Bailei sitting on the sofa reading a newspaper. She stood in place without moving. A minute later, showing a strange expression, she asked uncertainly, "Uncle Jiang, how did I get here?"
Jiang Bailei's lips curved. The instant he turned around, his face changed to a loving smile. "Cancan, what did you call Dad? Uncle Jiang? My little princess, tell Dad when did Dad offend you?"
"Dad?" A-Xin walked down, looking very confused. "Uncle Jiang, how could you possibly be my dad? Isn't my dad Yu Luncheng? I'm Yu Xin."
"Cancan, you're being naughty again." Jiang Bailei touched A-Xin's head. "Little girl, teasing Dad again, even playing amnesia. Cancan, you just celebrated your eighteenth birthday yesterday. You're already an adult yet still so mischievous."
While speaking, Jiang Bailei observed the girl's performance. This crazy experiment—he'd planned it for so long. From the day Jiang Cancan and Yu Xin were born, he'd been scheming. Two girls from different backgrounds suddenly swapping environments and identities at eighteen. Except for themselves, no one thought anything was wrong. He really wanted to see how these two girls' lives would turn out. Truly an exciting experiment.
"But I remember my name is Yu Xin." A-Xin frowned.
Jiang Bailei shook his head with a laugh, tapping her forehead. "Sweetheart, you must have remembered wrong."
"Really? Then can you tell me about my past? I just feel something's not right." A-Xin said.
Jiang Bailei's brows furrowed. How was her reaction different from what he'd imagined? Was this poor children taking charge early, encountering things more calmly? For the experiment to continue, he patiently told A-Xin about childhood events. He also took her to her room to see traces of her existence. Finally patting the back of her head: "Does my little princess still have any questions? Still doubt I'm not your dad?"
"No more questions. Seems I really am Jiang Cancan, not Yu Xin. Probably remembered wrong." A-Xin nodded. Under Jiang Bailei's somewhat shocked gaze, she sat on the sofa, grabbed an apple and started peeling it. "Then my previous experiences must have been a very long dream. I happened to dream I became Yu Xin. Upon waking, I couldn't distinguish between memory and dream."
"Oh right, Dad, what are we eating for lunch today?"
Jiang Bailei felt something wasn't quite right in his heart. Had he made everything too perfect, causing her to firmly believe she was Jiang Cancan?
"Whatever my little princess wants to eat, have Auntie make it."
After lunch, A-Xin told Jiang Bailei she was going out.
"Go ahead, have fun." Jiang Bailei's voice held some excitement, as if he very much hoped she'd go out.
He still believed Yu Xin hadn't completely accepted being Jiang Cancan. Most likely, as a poor child she was different—first observing the environment. When no one was following, she'd secretly investigate the truth.
Jiang Bailei stroked his chin, eyes narrowing. He was very much looking forward to her reaction.
A-Xin understood that from the moment she left the villa, every public area had cameras filming her. Especially every place Yu Xin had been—all had cameras observing her every move. Behind the cameras sat a group of people observing her reactions, probably holding notebooks recording things.
Along the way, several people Jiang Cancan once knew came up to greet her. She very calmly greeted them back, looking as if they truly knew each other. Her expression left this group of experiment participants completely bewildered. Something seemed off?
She also went to places Yu Xin had been, saw people once familiar with Yu Xin looking at her very strangely. She truly had no reaction at all.
She even muttered to herself: "Sure enough, it was a dream."
The observers: "..."
Jiang Bailei was also watching this, his brows deeply furrowed. At this moment, he received a call from A-Xin. Hearing the young girl's voice: "Dad, seems I really did have a very long dream. Really magical—I actually dreamed I became Yu Xin. I saw those people familiar with me in the dream didn't know me. Clearly what you said is true—I'm not Yu Xin, I'm Jiang Cancan."
Hearing A-Xin's slightly happy voice, Jiang Bailei remained expressionless, unable to smile at all.
"Dad, I'll go to the Yu house to look. I want to ask if Yu Xin also had the same dream as me. If she really did, that would be too interesting."
Jiang Bailei: "..."
"Dr. Jiang, isn't Yu Xin's reaction somewhat strange? Could she know about our experiment?"
"Impossible." Jiang Bailei said coldly. "I observed her micro-expressions. She seems to truly believe her previous experiences were a dream, completely thinking she's Cancan."
"Then can the experiment continue like this?"
"See what she does next," Jiang Bailei said. "Painstakingly preparing for eighteen years, ending it like this—wouldn't that waste our efforts?"
Following memory, A-Xin came to the Yu house and gently knocked on the door.
The person who opened it was still Yu Xin's mother, Chen Meilan. Chen Meilan was already prepared, looking strangely at A-Xin and asking, "Cancan, why did you come here?"
"Aunt Chen, I came to find Yu Xin to play. Is she home?" A-Xin smiled faintly. "I have something very interesting to tell her. May I?"
Chen Meilan's expression instantly showed something off. She quickly reacted. "That girl hasn't gotten up yet. Really a lazy girl—lazy and gluttonous, still not up at this hour." She even wondered if the Jiang family had given her too much medicine, causing Jiang Cancan not to wake yet.
If the person hadn't woken, she didn't dare call her.
Chen Meilan opened the room door for A-Xin. She glanced at the bulging blanket, walked over and called out, "Yu Xin, Yu Xin, get up quickly. Let's go out and play, go shopping. How about it?"
Jiang Cancan, who'd been hiding under the blanket, was surprised. Yu Xin had come?
She remembered in her previous life, the other had made a huge fuss at the door, shouting to the whole world that she was Yu Xin, not Jiang Cancan. Though in the previous life she wasn't much different from Yu Xin, she'd died early. Fortunately she'd been clever—seeing things were wrong, she simply killed herself to avoid becoming those people's test subject.
Thinking she'd actually returned, Jiang Cancan felt somewhat sad inside. Knowing what she'd face going out, she didn't want to face it at all. Everyone outside except Yu Xin—she hated them all. She'd just returned. Being a test subject from birth—temporarily she couldn't think how to escape. This city was very remote. Wanting to flee, she simply couldn't escape. So she hid under the covers thinking about what to do next. Finally she did think of a method that should let her survive for a while. She couldn't kill herself again, right?
Her plan was—whoever the outside people said she was, she'd be that person. They said she was Yu Xin, she was Yu Xin. They said she'd just given birth to a baby, then she'd given birth. They said she had a husband, then she'd accept having a husband. One day she'd escape.
"Yu Xin, get up quickly."
A-Xin pulled back the covers, meeting Jiang Cancan's gaze directly. She spoke first: "Yu Xin, I want to tell you something very fun. When I woke up this morning, I actually thought I was you and you were me. Later I learned I'd been dreaming last night. In the dream I was you. If not for my dad being there, I definitely couldn't distinguish reality from dream. Later I even went out to verify—they all called me Jiang Cancan. Clearly I really am Jiang Cancan."
Jiang Cancan was stunned. What was happening?
Then she heard A-Xin say, "I wanted to ask if you had such a dream too?" A-Xin held Jiang Cancan's hand, her finger hooking in the other's palm. Jiang Cancan's eyes held only shock. Had Yu Xin also returned?
Very likely. Otherwise she wouldn't be so calm. Thinking of their two's experiences, Jiang Cancan also hooked A-Xin's palm with her finger.
A-Xin's eyes narrowed slightly. Reborn? No wonder when she came, she felt something strange. Being reborn was also good.
"Really?" Jiang Cancan quickly reacted, somewhat surprised. "I also seemed to think I was Jiang Cancan. My mind was a mess, all memories were Jiang Cancan's. So it's like you—I had a dream?"