Ji Yueniang thought she must be crazy.
Under the boy’s gaze—tinged with a hint of hope and a slight sigh—she had somehow, as if possessed, agreed to Jiang Chi’s request to spend the night with him.
Damn it! This must be the guilt acting up!
A certain “strong man” on the bed muttered to herself in her heart.
Creak~
The door to the rental apartment’s bathroom opened. Ji Yueniang hurriedly straightened herself and sat upright, just as Jiang Chi walked out wrapped in a pristine white towel, droplets of water still dripping from his damp, short hair.
His physique was fairly ordinary, nothing remarkable, but there were clear signs he worked out. A few glistening beads of water clung to his chest, twinkling under the lamplight.
He looked at the girl sitting upright on the bed. Her long, black, lustrous hair was casually draped over her shoulders, revealing a delicate half of her face. Her hands were nervously entwined together, and her pale feet were tucked up, pressed to her lower abdomen.
“Jiang Chi, let’s make this clear first: I’m just sleeping with you tonight—nothing else is possible, so don’t even think about it.” Ji Yueniang stressed each word.
“I understand.” Jiang Chi nodded calmly.
After blow-drying his hair, his gaze landed again on the girl sitting uneasily on the bed. Ji Yueniang clutched a silver coin in her palm, met his gaze, snorted lightly, and shook the coin.
“Alright, tell me—which mode do you like? The ‘Mature Lady’ or the ‘Young Girl’? Seriously, I never thought there’d be a day when I’d take the initiative to let a man sleep with me. Ugh, this damned guilt—if I’d known, I wouldn’t have deceived your feelings just to save face.”
“And now look at me—fooled myself right into this mess.”
“I want both.”
At this, Ji Yueniang rolled her eyes. “Keep dreaming. You think I’m an earthworm? Cut me in half and I turn into two? Even if I could, I wouldn’t let a man like you have it easy.”
While she complained, Ji Yueniang still opened her arms to Jiang Chi, as if bravely resigning herself to fate. “Come on, one night—just remember, copping a feel is fine, but if you dare pull a ‘I’ll just rub it, not go in’ halfway through, I swear I’ll knock every single one of your teeth out.”
The night fell like a curtain, darkness surging in people’s hearts.
In the end, Jiang Chi chose the “Young Girl” mode. This wasn’t the first time Jiang Chi had embraced Ji Yueniang’s “young girl” mode. For now, he referred to her in this mode as “Ji Qingchan.”
The person in his arms was soft, small, and fragrant, giving off the faint scent of gardenias. Time seemed unable to leave a single trace on her, as if she were forever sixteen—adorable and petite.
That month before summer vacation, he’d held her, kissed her, played with her—in short, they’d done everything intimate except the very last step.
Now, gazing at the small, curled-up figure in his arms, with her curved lashes, delicate nose, and soft pink lips, it was as if everything had returned to the beginning, nothing ever changed.
Suddenly, Jiang Chi’s gaze fell on the double-sided silver coin tightly gripped in the girl’s pale palm—a mysterious object modern science and technology couldn’t explain.
An involuntary thought surfaced in his mind.
If he could make Ji Yueniang into two people, what would happen?
*****
Meanwhile, the night was stirring, lights shimmering. Inside a private paternity testing institute—
Chen Mengrou sat in a chair, ticket in hand, quietly waiting for the results.
Ever since she got the sample that afternoon, she’d driven straight here and waited until the results came out.
Maybe because it was almost midnight, there were… more people at the testing center. That’s right—definitely more.
People’s thinking had become more open in recent years, especially when it came to men and women. With less restraint, the next generation’s parentage had become a lot more uncertain.
Most visitors were lone men, faces hidden behind masks and sunglasses. Some were quarreling couples.
Of course, most people, upon receiving the test report, were both shocked and furious, laughing and crying at the same time.
Just like the burly man Chen Mengrou was comforting now. He claimed he’d worked three jobs, supporting his wife and three children, sneaking off to get a paternity test—only to find none of the three kids were his. And they weren’t even all from the same man.
He was crying his heart out, snot and tears everywhere, looking like he was ready to go home, knife in hand, and die together with his wife.
“Number 508.”
The nurse at the front desk called out. Chen Mengrou temporarily left the sobbing man, collected her paternity test report, then sat back down and looked at the last line highlighted in red:
After genetic testing, it is confirmed that Ji Qingchan and Huang Qingchuan share a blood relationship within three generations.
The beautiful woman could no longer suppress the astonishment in her eyes.
“Don’t be sad, young lady.”
“If the child isn’t your own, you can always have another.”
The burly man, just comforted by Chen Mengrou, now saw her looking dazed and came over to comfort her—but as he spoke, he felt something was off.
*****
The next day, after sending Ji Yueniang off, Jiang Chi began to clean the apartment.
He swept, mopped, wiped down the tables, and while doing so, he found the double-sided silver coin wedged between the bed sheets—most likely dropped from Ji Yueniang’s hand during the night while she kicked off the covers.
He picked it up and messaged her, telling her to come get it when she had time.
On the nanmu desk, the double-sided silver coin lay quietly. A pair of deep blue eyes, like the starry sea, stared silently at it.
This was the second time Jiang Chi had properly examined the coin. Its whole surface was covered in silver patterns; up close, they resembled tangled vines. As the vines intertwined, they formed two images—the coin’s male and female faces.
But now, the “male” side was gradually fading, replaced by the profile of a cool, domineering long-haired mature lady. Two similar yet distinct faces overlapped, dizzying to behold.
Jiang Chi picked up the coin, but didn’t do anything else. His fingertips lightly caressed the “mature lady” side. Suddenly, a wave of heat shot from his fingertip through his whole body, making him shudder.
But the heat faded as quickly as it came, making Jiang Chi wonder if he’d imagined it.
Rubbing the coin, swallowing today’s “special medicine,” Jiang Chi walked over to the nightstand. There, two framed photos stood—one of him and “Ji Qingchan” at the school arts festival after their piano performance; the other of him and Ji Yueniang after they cleaned the nursing home.
Staring at these two photos, the thought surfaced again in his mind.
If he could study the power of transformation in this double-sided coin, maybe he could make Ji Yueniang into a pair of twin sisters—never needing to face that damned multiple-choice question again.
Lost in thought for a moment, a flash of green light suddenly glimmered across the coin in his hand, then vanished in an instant.
*****
Ji Family, at the dining table.
Eating breakfast again at Jiang Chi’s place before coming home for another breakfast was nothing new for Ji Yueniang. However, this time, she seemed distracted at the table, mechanically eating her rice noodles.
“Little brother, what do you think of Dad and Mom’s proposal?” Her parents seemed to have made a decision over breakfast. Ji Haotong poked the distracted Ji Yueniang with his elbow.
Ji Yueniang snapped out of her daze, saw everyone looking at her, and had no choice but to grit her teeth and say, “Mm, sounds good. Let’s go with that.”
“It’s settled then! Next week you’ll bring your girlfriend home! We’ll get to know her properly.” The housewife, Huang Qingchuan, made the final decision, giving Ji Yueniang no chance to object.