She just stared at me, without saying anything.
Then she took out her phone, as if she was going to call, but after thinking for a while, she didn’t.
I also took out my phone and called Nan Lin.
As I expected, the phone in the hands of Lili Huang, who was standing in front of me, didn’t ring. On the other hand, Nan answered the phone, “Hello?”
“Where are you?” I asked her.
“What can I do for you?” She was not unkind, sounding gentle.
“May I ask you something? where are you? I’ll come to you.” I said.
“Well, I’m on Jiangnan Road. Come over here.” She was talking about the road which was in Hai City.
She was in Hai City, so who was this person in front of me? Nan couldn’t show up in two places at one time, so the one standing here was not Nan, or the one in Hai City.
I said, “OK.” I hung up the phone.
“What do you want?” The Nan in front of me asked me. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call her Lili Huang.
“I’ve come a long way. How about buy me a coffee?” I said as calmly as I could.
“I’m afraid you guys from the big city aren’t used to the coffee in our small town.” She finally relaxed a bit.
I said, “We have known each other for so long, why don’t we just chat?”
After giving some instructions to the subordinates, Lili walked out of the supermarket with me. Then we turned left and went into a cold drink shop and she ordered me a cup of coffee.
We sat opposite and she was less flustered than before, though she still looked a bit nervous. I watched her carefully. Though she looked like Nan, she really wasn’t. she was not as fine as Nan, especially nose. Nan’s nose was pretty straight and natural, but hers was not.
“I’m sure now that you are Lili. Why are you pretending to be Nan?” I asked her.
She didn’t say anything.
That’s normal, for it’s her core secret. And how could she just tell me?
“Your boyfriend once told me that you were getting a picture of a girl and through plastic surgery, you would look similar to her. So, were you go to plastic surgery by using Nan’s photo? The aim of doing this was to cheat Leon for money?”
“He’s lying!” Now she was not calm, “I used to look like this and I just got my nose done and I didn’t have too much plastic surgery!”
“In other words, you two look alike?”
“We’re twins. It’s normal.” She asked back.
She said it so naturally that it didn’t seem like she was lying. I hadn’t really thought that they were twin sisters.
“Since you guys are twins, so why is your last name Huang and her last name Lin?” I stared at her and asked.
She then went silent again, which was supposed to be another core secret, which couldn’t be told.
“Did you kill your boyfriend?” I continued to ask.
“No! He’s not my boyfriend either. He was born here, but he’s not my boyfriend. He just tried to get money from me by following me.”
“Okay, I got it. The one who had a relationship with Leon wasn’t you, but the one in Hai City, wasn’t it? You just pretended to be Nan, trying to get some money?”
“Not true!” She got excited again.
“How was that?” I stare at her.
But she didn’t explain. When she got to the crux of the matter, she chose to remain silent.
“I’ve actually noticed the difference between you two, but you guys do look alike, so I’m now sure. Now that I’ve found my way here today, I’m sure I won’t stop until you tell me something. Your business is booming right now and you don’t want the past to affect your present life, right? Judging from the ring on your finger, you’re married, aren’t you? Maybe there’s a kid already? You have a good life now, so tell me the truth and I’ll stop. You can then say goodbye to the past.”
“My baby’s almost a year old.” Lili said softly and I could see the gentleness in her eyes.
“Good. How time flies. I have a kid too, you remember it, right?” I smile at her in a friendly way.
She nodded, “Yes, I remember. He is lovely and beautiful. He is growing very tall now, isn’t he?”
“He’s in America for school and I haven’t seen him for a long time. If you value the life you have now, then tell me the things I should know, okay?” I said softly.
“I haven’t done any harm to anyone. The reason that I approached your husband was only for money. Of course, your husband is excellent, who made me grow up. I was once at lost, thinking he liked me, for being so nice to me. But then I realized that he really didn’t. I’m sorry for the hurt I caused you before.”
I waved my hand, “He is a very good man and I think it’s normal for girls to fall into him. The past is the past and now I just want to know the truth.”
“I can tell you the truth. I’m Lili and I was for money to approach Leon. I’m not Nan. I did get a lot of money from him. I got the funds to open a supermarket from him, but for you guys, the money was just a drop in the bucket. When I earn enough money, I can give you back that money. I hope we won’t talk about these things anymore. My current husband is a civil servant and he loves me very much. I cherish my family. Leon’s life is so high up that I’ll never really fit in, so I wish you happy.”
I didn’t expect her to be quite eloquent when she spoke seriously. And she expressed it very clearly. She was once a liar, getting some money to open a supermarket, but she didn’t do anything else.
“But since you’re not Nan, then why do you know about Nan and Leon’s affair? Did that Nan in Hai City tell you that?” I kept asking.
“Yes.” She nodded to admit.
“Can you give me the details? Why did you think of lying to Leon? Was it Nan’s idea?”
“Yes.” She nodded again.
It was a bit surprising. She acted as Nan to deceive Leon, which could be allowed by Nan? This didn’t make sense.
Lili continued, “At that time, our family was very poor and our parents were laid off at an early age. Nan and I had to rely on other people’s financial support to go to school. Nan grew up with excellent grades, studying at Yang City No. 4 High School, which was free of charge and even her living expenses were funded by others. But then, I didn’t know what happened and her grades fell badly, so she didn’t end up going to a good university.”
I listened quietly, pondering a series of things in my head. Some things seemed to be just separated by a piece of paper and when I poked that paper through, a lot of things I couldn’t understand were straightened out at once.