Chapter 76: The Book is Fake

On the car, Shen Yunhe’s face was dark because the remarriage didn’t go through. Jiang Banyue, who had no reason to be upset, was irritated and refused to speak to him. She opened the car door to get out, but he pulled her back forcefully.

“What are you doing?!”

Jiang Banyue shook off his hand, and Shen Yunhe immediately locked the car door and drove them back home. Upon arriving, Jiang Banyue noticed that the children weren’t around.

“Where are the three kids?”

“They’re at their grandmother’s house!”

Shen Yunhe finished speaking and left her to go upstairs to his room. Jiang Banyue looked at the empty house, a wave of sadness overwhelming her. It felt like she hadn’t seen the children in a long time.

“What’s going on? Am I forgetting something?”

Late at night, Jiang Banyue, dressed in a white nightgown, sat in front of the vanity, staring blankly at the reflection of herself in the mirror. The longer she stared, the stranger the face seemed. She raised her hand and touched the mirror, and the reflection in the mirror did the same. Suddenly, the reflection smiled widely.

“Ah…” Jiang Banyue was so startled that she fell off the stool. The figure in the mirror laughed loudly.

“Scaredy-cat, hehe!”

Su Jian pretended to reach out, scaring Jiang Banyue, who hurriedly took several steps back, panicked, and ran out of the room. Hearing the commotion, Shen Yunhe rushed out of his room. Jiang Banyue, terrified, collapsed onto the floor.

“There’s a ghost in the mirror! I’m scared.”

“A ghost?” Shen Yunhe scooped her up and carried her back to the bedroom, then looked into the mirror.

“Su Jian!”

The reflection of Su Jian in the mirror was startled, her eyes full of guilt as she avoided looking at him.

“I was just playing, seriously, such a scaredy-cat! Hmph! I’m leaving!”

The figure in the mirror disappeared, and Jiang Banyue, still shaken, sat on the bed, clutching Shen Yunhe tightly, trembling and not daring to let go.

“Is she a ghost? Is there a ghost in the house?”

Seeing how scared Jiang Banyue was, Shen Yunhe tried to comfort her.

“Don’t be afraid. She’s not a ghost. She’s Su Jian, a child by nature who loves to play around.”

Jiang Banyue, her face pale, looked up at him and asked,

“Why does she look exactly like me?”

Shen Yunhe sat on the chair and was silent for a long time before finally speaking.

“First, tell me, are you Jiang Banyue?”

Jiang Banyue, panic rising in her eyes, looked at him, “What do you mean by that?”

“My wife would never mention divorce. She doesn’t make cakes, nor does she design clothes. So, who are you really?”

Shen Yunhe dropped the pretense and didn’t want to continue pretending. He wanted to remarry his wife and live a good life with the children.

After panicking for a moment, Jiang Banyue calmed down. She sat on the bed, hugging her knees and remained silent. Shen Yunhe watched her intently.

“I come from the 22nd century. The world here is from a book I once read. Jiang Banyue, the original wife, died early. You and Liu Juan are the main characters, and the three children’s futures aren’t good either. I wanted to divorce you to protect the children, to stay away from you all.”

Shen Yunhe thought of that nightmare. “Have you ever considered that the book you read might be fake? Perhaps all of this is just your fantasy.”

“What do you mean?” Jiang Banyue looked at him in confusion.

“In the book you mentioned, I once dreamt about it. But in my dream, it wasn’t the same at all. I loved my wife, even though she’s no longer here. What I’ve always wanted was to raise the children well. I never once thought of remarrying.”

Jiang Banyue clutched her head, desperately trying to recall everything. Shen Yunhe continued, breaking her fantasy:

“There’s no such thing as traveling into a book, and you haven’t crossed over. This is all just your imagination. You’re the second personality of my wife, Jiang Banyue. I suspect she must have known about her past life. Perhaps, like Jiang Huaijin, she’s been reincarnated but is afraid of reliving what happened before, so she hid away. That’s when you came into being, and all the memories she had were transferred to you. Everything you think you know is just a result of her fears and your fantasies. Su Jian is also a part of this.”

“No, that’s not true!” Jiang Banyue shook her head vehemently, “I remember! I made cakes! I know clearly, I learned to make cakes in a big bakery with a master!”

Shen Yunhe’s words broke her illusions. “Could it be that my wife in her past life learned to make cakes from someone else at a bakery?”

“No, no!” Jiang Banyue grabbed a pillow and started hitting him, “I’m Jiang Banyue! I’m not some second personality! You’re lying! You’re lying!”

“Calm down!” Shen Yunhe stood up and grabbed the pillow away from her, looking down at Jiang Banyue, who was sitting on the bed with disheveled hair, “It’s late. Rest for now, we’ll talk more tomorrow.”

After Shen Yunhe left, Jiang Banyue sat alone for a long time, contemplating everything. She gathered the courage to sit at the vanity again, staring at the familiar yet strange face in the mirror. The face belonged to Jiang Banyue, the same as in her past life.

With the words Shen Yunhe said still lingering in her mind, she began to question everything she thought she knew. The life she believed she had lived seemed like a mirage, blurry and elusive, with nothing to clearly remember.

A few days later, Shen Yunhe’s mother decided to take the whole family to the capital, and the trip included the triplets. Before they left, Shen Yunhe received a call from Lan Haizhou.

“Yunhe, my teacher is here. After hearing about Jiang Banyue’s condition, he flew here. Bring her over.”

“Alright!” Shen Yunhe, realizing that Jiang Banyue’s condition was worsening, decided that taking her to the hospital was more urgent than the trip to the capital. He told his family to take the children and went with Jiang Banyue to the hospital.

At the hospital, Jiang Banyue hesitated to enter. Shen Yunhe took her hand and led her into the consultation room. A plump, middle-aged foreigner in a suit sat on a chair, speaking broken Chinese.

“Hello, I’m Meng Xi.”

“I’m Shen Yunhe, and this is my wife, Jiang Banyue,” Shen Yunhe said, gesturing to her.

Meng Xi gave Jiang Banyue a warm smile. “Please, have a seat.”

Shen Yunhe sat beside Jiang Banyue, who seemed nervous and out of place. Meng Xi casually poured a glass of water for her and sat back on the sofa opposite them.

“Don’t be nervous. Let’s just talk as friends.”

Jiang Banyue took the water, her hands gripping the cup tightly, her fingertips turning white.

“I… I don’t know what to do. It’s Shen Yunhe… well, the one sitting next to me. He’s my ex-husband. But inside my body, there are three different versions of me, and I don’t feel any of them.”

Meng Xi spoke slowly, his tone gentle. “Do you ever find yourself forgetting things or suddenly appearing in unfamiliar places, not knowing how you got there?”

“Yes, that happens often. I’m not sure why,” Jiang Banyue admitted, still grappling with the confusion.