Chapter Two: The Other Cheng Du

Two identical men appeared in the mirrored wall. Xu Man asked, “What color did I wear on our first date?” “Blue,” both answered. “And the day we broke up?” Cheng remembered her yellow umbrella. The double answered first. “It didn't rain. You wore a white shirt and said I always kept people waiting.” The storm vanished from Cheng's mind. The umbrella, the puddles, her reddened eyes were cut cleanly away. He understood: the double had spoken the stolen memory. “You repeated it,” the girl murmured from his phone. Xu Man had asked the double where Cheng was going. He had answered, “The rooftop at one.” Because they shared one name, the rule treated his words as Cheng's own.