Copycat - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

◎Roommate◎

Winter was bitter outside the window.

Wen Jiao took off her glasses, pinched the bridge of her nose, unplugged her charging phone, and opened her Moments. Once again, it was that time of year when “it’s snowing” posts were flooding the feed. Her finger stopped on one post.

Zhou Ziyan: “I bought the wrong size sweater.”

This post was from her copycat roommate.

Zhou Ziyan had posted a selfie with a “pure but sexy” makeup look, pouting cutely. She was wearing only a Christmas sweater that barely covered her hips, showing off a pair of long, slender, pale legs. The sweater’s sleeves were long enough to flail around, but she deliberately made a “V” sign to look cute.

She looked just like a child who had snuck into an adult’s clothes.

A faint smile appeared on the girl’s thin, beautiful lips as she sat by the window. After putting down her phone, her expression returned to a cold mask, her lips pressed into a straight line. Zhou Ziyan’s popularity was like her Moments. The post was three hours old, but it had zero likes. Out of pity, Wen Jiao gave her the first one.

Leaving the library, a cold gust of wind hit her face, messing up her bangs. Along the way, many guys stared at her, but Wen Jiao walked on, unbothered.

She wrapped her down jacket tighter, burying half her face in her scarf, letting the snow fall on her dark hair. As she neared the dorm building, a shadow blocked her path. Wen Jiao instinctively tried to go around, but the person called out her name.

“Junior Sister Wen Jiao.”

Wen Jiao looked up and, upon seeing who it was, frowned slightly. The guy wore a black suit with a blue tie, black trousers, and leather shoes—very formal.

In the snow, he held a bouquet of roses and stood inside a heart made of lit candles. A wooden guitar was on his right. The crowd that had gathered let out a deafening cheer when he called Wen Jiao’s name.

Wen Jiao subconsciously took a half-step back, but the guy stepped closer, relentlessly closing the distance. “I’ve been waiting for you for a long time, Wen Jiao.”

Wen Jiao was all too familiar with this kind of display. Her tone was calm and cold. “Senior Brother Li Xu, I think you’ve misunderstood me.”

Wen Jiao sometimes found her good memory annoying because it made her remember unimportant and even repulsive things.

Like the person in front of her.

Li Xu looked pleasantly surprised, stammering, “You… you remember me?”

As if encouraged by the goddess of love, he shoved the bouquet of roses into her arms without a second thought.

Wen Jiao frowned and recoiled in disgust, as if it were a monster, not a bouquet of flowers.

The bouquet fell to the ground, and whispers spread through the crowd.

Wen Jiao coldly eyed the people surrounding the candle heart, unsure whether Li Xu should be embarrassed or if it was her.

Being watched like a monkey in a circus seemed to be a source of pride for the guy in front of her.

Wen Jiao’s eyes were icy as she quietly put some distance between them.

For her, being pursued was never a sign of her own charm.

Wen Jiao was utterly sick of this self-righteous harassment.

Li Xu knelt to pick up the roses, his eyes filled with a crazed adoration.

He stubbornly continued his unfinished confession. “Junior Sister Wen Jiao, I’m graduating soon. There are some words that have been hidden in my heart, and I want to take this opportunity to tell you…”

“I like you!”

The crowd erupted in a thunderous cheer.

“Say yes! Say yes!”

Wen Jiao glanced at Li Xu’s out-of-season clothes and his trembling legs in the cold wind, a cold smile playing on her lips.

Li Xu was a year older than her and had already moved to another campus.

A year ago, he ran into her by chance, fell in love at first sight, and had been relentlessly pursuing her ever since.

“I told you I don’t like you.” Wen Jiao tried to walk past the heart of candles lit in the snowy night to get into her dorm.

But Li Xu blocked her way. “Why won’t you give me a chance?”

“What’s wrong with me?” Li Xu’s lips were pale from the cold.

He was wearing very thin clothes to look handsome.

“Why won’t you even give me one chance?”

“You probably don’t know, but I’m from A-City. My family has been in finance for three generations.”

“My family has a lot of connections in the business world. If you get with me, it’s like marrying into a rich family!”

Wen Jiao’s voice was frigid. “I don’t like you. It has nothing to do with any of that. How many times do I have to tell you?”

“Get out of the way. Stop bothering me.”

“Why?!” Li Xu blocked her path, confused.

His tone was astonished and bewildered, as if it were a matter of fact. “You’re just an ordinary student who needs financial aid, with an average family background. The most you have going for you is your looks. Why am I not good enough for you?”

Wen Jiao’s disgust reached its peak. She shoved his shoulder aside, and a gasp went through the crowd.

The rose petals in his hand scattered on the ground. White snowflakes landed on the withered petals, turning into water drops, as if the flowers were crying.

Wen Jiao hurried away.

Watching her retreating figure, the senior brother stubbornly followed her.

He stayed close behind her, raising his voice in the cold wind. “I’m not giving up! Wen Jiao, I like you!”

The people around them began to gossip.

Wen Jiao’s mood plummeted. She walked on with a cold face, trying to shake off the noise.

Her steps grew faster and faster until she was almost running.

She didn’t notice another figure slowly approaching her.

Wen Jiao only managed to react just before she collided with them.

Her feet stopped, but her upper body moved forward from inertia.

Her cheek crashed into a soft, snowy-white embrace. It was a girl’s hug, and a faint grape scent wafted from her chest.

Wen Jiao’s mind went blank.

“Wen Jiao?”

Down by the dorm building, a beautiful girl was standing in the cold, wearing thin clothes, her cheeks tinged with a faint blush.

She had casually thrown on a down jacket, with a V-neck pajama shirt hanging open, revealing her delicate collarbones and a large expanse of white skin on her chest.

If the lottery stand were still open, Zhou Ziyan felt she should go buy a scratch-off ticket.

She had only come down to watch the proposal out of gossip, but she didn’t expect her crush to run right into her arms.

Zhou Ziyan: Cat going crazy.jpg

When Zhou Ziyan got nervous, it showed on her face. Her cheeks were flushed, and her heart was racing, but she didn’t forget to slightly part her knees so the person in her arms could stand steady.

Her voice was soft and gentle, sounding a little shy. “Wen Jiao, what took you so long to come back?”

All the sounds around Wen Jiao disappeared.

All she could hear was the frantic pounding of a heart against her chest, unable to tell if it was her own or her copycat roommate’s.

Fate must hate her. She had to be embarrassed in front of the roommate she disliked the most.

“Are you okay, Wen Jiao?”

Zhou Ziyan called out again, but Wen Jiao still didn’t respond.

She looked up and saw the guy with the flowers next to Wen Jiao. Thinking that he had proposed to Wen Jiao, she immediately lost her interest in gossip and gave him an annoyed glare.

Her love rivals were as numerous as ever.

Zhou Ziyan: Angry cat.jpg

“Your body is so hot. Are you running a fever?”

Zhou Ziyan deliberately hugged Wen Jiao tighter in front of Li Xu, as if to declare her territory.

She had a bit of a scheme: on one hand, to make Li Xu back off, and on the other, to enjoy the rare feeling of holding her.

A surprising heat came from Wen Jiao’s back.

Zhou Ziyan was stunned and reached out to check the temperature of her forehead. “Wen Jiao, you…”

Before the scorching heat could touch her fingers, Wen Jiao reflexively swatted her hand away.

“Slap.”

A faint red mark appeared on the back of Zhou Ziyan’s hand, and she froze.

Wen Jiao hadn’t meant to do it, but when she looked up, she saw the pale skin inside the V-neck pajama top.

It was flushed with a large patch of red from where she had been hugged.

The red mark stood out jarringly against the snowy white skin.

Wen Jiao’s throat tightened, and she swallowed her explanation.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Zhou Ziyan rubbed her swollen hand. She smiled good-naturedly. “Do you want to go back to the do…”

Her words were cut short. She only saw a hurried back disappearing into the building.

Zhou Ziyan lowered her head, looking defeated.

The heroine of the proposal went straight through the gate and into the dorm, leaving her roommate standing there with a lonely expression.

After Wen Jiao left, Li Xu finally stopped trying to be tough. He pulled a coat out of his bag and put it on, but it wasn’t enough to fend off the cold. A frigid wind rushed up his trousers, and he shivered, letting out a sneeze.

Zhou Ziyan glanced at him and immediately put on her mask, zipping up her down jacket and pulling her hood tight, terrified of getting sick.

She was about to follow Wen Jiao back to the dorm when Li Xu called out to her. “Junior Sister Zhou, would you be free to get coffee with me?”

“I’m not free.” Zhou Ziyan was about to make up an excuse. “I have to…”

Li Xu quickly cut in. “To talk about Wen Jiao.”

“It’s really not a big deal.” Zhou Ziyan: “I’m very free.”

With a loud bang, the dorm room door was shoved open.

The roommate who was taking off her makeup was so startled that her hand trembled, and the cotton pad fell onto the desk.

Another roommate, Yu Zhou, who was lying on her bed with headphones on, pulled back the curtain and looked down at Wen Jiao, who had run back, panting.

Wen Jiao’s face was flushed like a freshly picked apple.

The roommate, Li Ranran, picked up the fallen cotton pad and, seeing Wen Jiao’s unnaturally red face, asked in surprise, “Are you running a fever?”

Wen Jiao didn’t reply. She went to her desk, poured a glass of cold water, and chugged it down.

The icy liquid flowed down her throat and chest, making her feel less hot.

Wen Jiao grabbed a mirror, looked at the unnatural blush on her cheeks, and said dismissively, “Yeah, a bit of a fever.”

“Must be from the cold.”

“I remember Zhou Ziyan has fever medicine. It’s right there. She went out just now; you guys must have run into each other downstairs.”

“We didn’t.” Wen Jiao immediately denied it.

Her reaction was so quick that it only made her look more suspicious.

Wen Jiao felt like a crab being cooked in a pressure cooker and needed to cool down immediately. She grabbed her toiletry bag and ran to the first-floor bathroom without even changing into her pajamas.

Now, only Li Ranran and Yu Zhou were left in the room.

Li Ranran with her hair down, tiptoed and leaned her face next to Yu Zhou’s arm, blinking her eyes and giving a knowing smile. “What’s the verdict?”

Yu Zhou gave her a helpless look. “Mind your own business.”

In the hair-drying room.

Wen Jiao expressionlessly blew her hair dry. The cold shower had washed away all her turmoil.

She felt emotionally dead inside, as if she’d been filleting fish for a decade.

When she went back upstairs, the dorm was already past lights-out.

The room was pitch black. All she could hear was the even breathing of those who were asleep.

Seeing the dark dorm, Wen Jiao’s heart suddenly sank.

She familiarly found a desk in the darkness.

Her roommates had different schedules. She often went out early and came back late, often after lights-out. Only Zhou Ziyan had a similar schedule, always staying up past midnight.

When she came back from studying, there was always a light on in the dark dorm.

That light would always go out silently after she changed into her pajamas and pulled her curtain.

They had synced up countless times.

It had never failed in three years.

But today, the light was not on.