Chapter 7: Why Do I Need to Tell Them Apart?
"Break up!"
"It was your fault to begin with!" Gu Jiashuo said indignantly. "You are my boyfriend. It's one thing for other people to confuse me and my sister, but you're the only one who shouldn't mix us up!"
"Before the college entrance examination, you went to our grandmother's house to deliver scoring pencils. My sister was sitting on the sofa just because she happened to wear my skirt that day and swapped hair clips with me, so you just recognized the clothes and not the person? You didn't even ask a single question before you went and hugged her?"
Lu Man couldn't help a bitter smile. Hearing this, he realized that bringing up old grievances meant Gu Jiashuo didn't actually want to break up at all. Someone who truly wanted to break up wouldn't waste so many words; they would end the conversation in two or three sentences.
Failing to tell twin sisters apart was certainly a major problem, but dragging it out to harp on and amplify it during every single argument had simply become her foolproof trump card for demanding a breakup.
Lu Man reminisced, comparing the differences between the two sisters.
His way of getting along with Gu Lingyi before his rebirth was: I was wrong, I will make it up to you, I will grow from this, and we will further nurture our intimate romantic relationship.
Yet Gu Jiashuo's demand back in high school had always been: You were wrong, which means you are forever in my debt, so you must obey me entirely, or else we break up.
It seemed that immaturity in girls when it comes to romance transcends age. From their teens all the way to their thirties, there is never any shortage of those who love to use the threat of a breakup.
Every time she broke up and got back together with Lu Man, playing hard-to-get was meant to force Lu Man into adopting an even lower posture to please her.
She would deliberately pick faults in his shortcomings within the relationship, and deliberately give him the cold shoulder whenever his emotions were running high. Her way of gauging whether Lu Man loved her was to manufacture these tiny wounds called "humility." Whenever he didn't do as she wished, she would poke at the wound; if it hurt, it meant he still loved her; if it didn't hurt, it meant he didn't love her anymore.
"Jiashuo, let's trace this logic for a moment. We currently have no disagreement and both agree that breaking up is a good thing, right?"
Gu Jiashuo pursed her lips. She had wanted Lu Man to coax her quickly, yet he was actually trying to reason with her?
With a deadpan expression, she said, "Brother, what's under discussion right now is your attitude!"
Lu Man was speechless.
Although Gu Jiashuo appeared more extroverted and lively than her sister, deep down she was just as inept at dealing with people.
On the surface, she looked like the pampered, proactive one in the relationship, but the way she handled romance bordered on the extreme. After every major fuss over a minor issue, it might look like her boyfriend couldn't live without her, but in reality, it was pushing true affection further and further away step by step.
She was only seventeen or eighteen, experiencing a tender first love, and Lu Man, having returned through rebirth, couldn't find it in his heart to blame her for anything.
However, breaking up was the "main quest," so break up they must.
Lu Man had to resort to some special tactics. Otherwise, if she kept talking on and on until dark, her only goal would still be to make Lu Man admit his mistake and beg to get back together.
"Why do I need to tell you apart?"
Gu Jiashuo was right in the middle of a stream of complaints when she heard Lu Man's sudden remark, and she froze in shock.
"Brother, what did you say?"
"I hugged her on purpose. If I happened to hug your sister, I'd make a killing; if I hugged you, it wouldn't be a loss either." Lu Man felt how liberating it was to talk big now. "Why would I ever need to tell you apart?"
Gu Jiashuo blinked in astonishment. She had expected Lu Man to back down, feeling guilty and reluctant to let go just like the previous few times, repeating things like "I was wrong," "Won't you please not be angry," and "I'll listen to you from now on."
Instead, what she waited for was a hundred-percent scumbag statement.
Gu Jiashuo suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of grievance. Clearly, he was the one who had pursued her, yet now he was starting to stop cherishing her!
Having spent so much time together, Gu Jiashuo knew that Lu Man was well aware that twins hated being mistaken for each other the most; he was using this exact point to provoke her into anger just to force a genuine breakup.
Gu Jiashuo sniffled and fought back her tears. "Then leave! I never want to see you again!"
The destructive impact of this single sentence was off the charts.
Even knowing he was deliberately provoking her, she would have to be a saint not to lose her temper at such a scumbag remark!
Thud—
The heavy exterior door of the villa was slammed shut. It went a bit better than expected; he had originally thought she might slap him or take a vicious bite out of him.
Lu Man sighed softly. "Once some time passes and she calms down, I'll apologize to her then."
…………
There was still some time before lunch, so Lu Man slipped into an internet café.
Amidst a crowd of gamers playing World of Warcraft and Audition, he put on his headphones, listened to some current pop music, and spent half the morning reading the news.
During this time, quite a few passersby holding instant noodles and puffing on cigarettes walked past behind Lu Man.
Upon seeing his computer screen, the passersby let out repeated cries of "Holy crap." In the middle of QQ Music switching tracks, Lu Man even heard the "snap" of a photo being taken right behind him.
His photo would probably end up on Baidu Tieba or some other forum before long, and Lu Man could already guess the headline: most likely something like, *"What a riot! Are there really weirdos who go to internet cafes just to read the news?"*
As it neared twelve o'clock, Lu Man dusted off his pants and stood up to leave, dropping by a nearby mini-supermarket to buy the Sprite Ice Mint that Lu Xiaoshuang had asked for, then strolled home swinging the bag.
This blue-bottled Sprite with the ice mint flavor was very refreshing and quite to Lu Man's liking, though many people thought it tasted like toothpaste water. Perhaps for this reason, it was only sold for a brief period before being pulled from shelves nationwide. Getting to taste this flavor again could be considered a small perk of his rebirth.
As soon as he stepped back into the house, he saw Lu Xiaoshuang wrestling with the storage drawers in the entryway, rummaging through everything in a noisy clatter of commotion.
"Xiaomin, did you use my almond honey lotion?"
Seeing him enter the house, Lu Xiaoshuang fixed Lu Man with a suspicious stare.
Lu Man put down the drinks and shook his head. "Mom organized where everything goes, why don't you let Mom find it?"
Lu Xiaoshuang irritably tugged at her hair. "I'll demonstrate for you!"
She yelled toward the kitchen, "Mom! I still can't find the almond honey!"
"It's right on the north side toward the back, look properly—" A distant response drifted over from the kitchen.
"Mom, help me find it~"
"Look for it yourself! It's definitely right there."
"See?" Lu Xiaoshuang spread her hands, gesturing for Lu Man to look at the drawer. "I've rummaged through the whole thing, it's just not here."
A thought crossed Lu Man's mind, and he grinned at Lu Xiaoshuang. "I have a way to find it. Care to make a bet?"
"I don't believe you. How old are you and you still want to bet? So childish." Lu Xiaoshuang scoffed, then pressed, "What are we betting on?"
Lu Man thought about it. "How about a case of Sprite Ice Mint?"
"Deal. So you just wanted an excuse to buy me something good to drink, thanks Xiaomin!" Lu Xiaoshuang was overjoyed.
Lu Man smiled. The foolish little sister was celebrating far too early. "Just wait to admit defeat."
He shouted toward the kitchen, "Mom, Xiaoshuang and I are heading out for a bit, we're going to buy a bottle of almond honey!"
As soon as his voice trailed off, Liu Jing came over brandishing a spatula.
"Neither of you gives me any peace of mind."
"You haven't even finished the old one, and you're already wanting to buy a new one." Liu Jing scolded them as she reached out and plunged her hand into the drawer. "What if I pull it out! Will you two eat it on the spot?"
Sure enough, mothers were the ultimate natural enemy whenever children wanted to buy new things.
In less than ten seconds, without even peering inside with her eyes, Liu Jing rummaged around and pulled out a small glass bottle with a label reading "Palace Lantern Almond Honey."
With a "thwack," she set it down on the entryway cabinet.
"Isn't this right here!"
Lu Xiaoshuang was dumbfounded. As her mother walked back to the kitchen, she looked at Lu Man. "Talk about infuriating! How on earth does she always manage to find it?!"
"Maybe every mother is a grand spacetime archmage of the household," Lu Man laughed. "They can always make up a fake time to trick us into waking up early, and they can always tidy things away as if they've vanished into thin air."
"You two wild beasts, come over and eat!" Liu Jing shouted again.
In the living room, their father, Lu Weihua, was leisurely seated on the sofa with one leg crossed over the other, propping up a copy of the *Qilu Evening News*.
He was a tanned, tall, and thin man with the weathered, calloused face of a seasoned farmer—the kind of familiar face you could find in practically every village. Whenever the family of four visited relatives, the remark relatives made most often was, "Xiaomin and Xiaoshuang turned out so fair-skinned, entirely thanks to inheriting their mother's genetics."
Before even taking her seat, Lu Xiaoshuang picked up a steamed flower roll and clamped it in her teeth, speaking indistinctly, "Wow, so lavish, there's even Wangwang Braised Beef!"
Liu Jing said as she arranged the serving plates, "This braised beef is what your dad brought back in a doggy bag after entertaining clients last night. Finish it all in one meal, don't leave any leftovers."
Lu Weihua put down his newspaper, stood up, and rearranged the plates, moving the beef and stir-fried meat dishes closer to the siblings' eyes, while pulling the vegetable dishes and small plates of pickled cucumbers over to his own side.