novelraw Chapter 109 Verification
Chapter 109 Verification
Jiang Ran was very surprised.
He had originally thought that the “Cheng Mengxue” standing before him—whose authenticity was still unknown—would greet him in the same carefree manner she had used while chatting and laughing with their classmates just moments earlier.
Or perhaps…
just like in their childhood days as inseparable friends, she would run up to him laughing, grab his sleeve, and chatter nonstop.
Yet he had never expected…
that the composure she had forced herself to maintain all evening would collapse the very moment their eyes met, tears instantly filling her face.
That scene truly caught Jiang Ran off guard.
He admitted that he held a certain “bias” toward the Cheng Mengxue now standing before him.
Even though all their classmates believed the story she had told, and even though Jiang Ran himself felt that the story possessed a certain degree of plausibility.
Still…his very first instinct kept hammering the same thought into his mind:
This Cheng Mengxue is fake.
This Cheng Mengxue is fake.
This Cheng Mengxue is fake.
The suggestion was so strong it felt like a brand stamped into his mind, allowing him to suppress the emotions that the sight of her stirred inside him, preventing himself from losing his composure or panicking.
According to Jiang Ran’s original assumption, this fake Cheng Mengxue would probably approach him with some sort of hidden motive.
Would she run toward him?
Would she look delighted beyond words?
Maybe even throw herself into a big hug?
Jiang Ran had already prepared for all of it.
If she actually did that, he had planned to step back and avoid her.
Toward this Cheng Mengxue—whose sudden appearance was so bizarre and whose circumstances were riddled with doubts—Jiang Ran felt not only vigilance, but even a kind of instinctive rejection.
But.
What he had never expected was that the emotional shift in Cheng Mengxue’s expression—lasting barely a second—would throw Jiang Ran completely off balance.
He was shaken.
Overflowing tears carried a deep longing, but also a mixture of hope and guilt, fragile and cautious.
[She’s too much like Cheng Mengxue.]
For a moment, Jiang Ran didn’t know how to respond.
He believed that after so many years of growing up together as childhood friends—spending high school and university constantly at each other’s side—he understood Cheng Mengxue thoroughly.
Aside from Cheng Mengxue’s parents, there was probably no one in the world who understood her better than Jiang Ran.
In fact, he might even understand her better than her parents did.
That was precisely why he was convinced that real was real, and fake was fake. Trying to impersonate a girl and deceive the childhood friend who had grown up beside her from infancy was simply impossible.
Jiang Ran had been waiting for an opportunity.
Waiting for the moment to tear the mask off this impostor.
That had been the plan.
Yet at this very moment, Jiang Ran found himself doubting his own judgment.
Because the same thought kept echoing again.
[She’s too much like Cheng Mengxue.]
If he discarded his bias and psychological suggestions, Jiang Ran could almost be certain that this reaction, this expression, this state of mind—
was exactly Cheng Mengxue herself.
“Why didn’t you contact me?”
Jiang Ran looked directly into Cheng Mengxue’s eyes.
“Even if you say you had to fulfill your promise, that you had to keep your word and repay the scientist who saved your life—I can understand that.”
“But since you were planning to return to the country to attend the class reunion anyway, why didn’t you contact me in advance?”
“Even two days earlier, one day earlier, or even this morning would have been fine. At least give me some time to prepare myself mentally.”
Cheng Mengxue had already explained the situation to their classmates earlier.
In mid-July, she had logged into a QQ account she hadn’t used in two years and saw the notice about the reunion.
She had been afraid that suddenly appearing in the group chat would frighten everyone, and that she would be unable to explain the truth clearly online, which might cause even more misunderstandings.
So she had decided to come without telling anyone, attend the reunion in person, and explain everything face-to-face.
That reasoning, Jiang Ran could understand.
The only thing he couldn’t understand was—
why she hadn’t contacted him in advance.
Their relationship had been so close. After returning to the country, shouldn’t Cheng Mengxue have found him first and explained everything she had just said?
If that had happened, Jiang Ran might have been able to accept it.
Instead, she had appeared at the worst possible moment.
A coincidence arriving at the worst possible time.
And it happened immediately after Zhou Xiong had made a wish to Lilith.
How could Jiang Ran possibly accept that calmly?
“I had no choice.”
Cheng Mengxue looked directly into Jiang Ran’s eyes. Her makeup had been dampened by tears.
“I didn’t know how to explain everything to you over the phone or online in a way that you would believe.”
“So originally I did plan to find you first before the reunion. I wanted to find Wang Hao too—explain everything to both of you first, and then attend the reunion together.”
“If, as you said, we hadn’t contacted each other for two years, and in your understanding I had already died, then how could I possibly make you believe me through a phone call or the internet?”
“[Only by standing here in front of you, letting you see me with your own eyes, could you believe that I truly didn’t die back then.]”
Cheng Mengxue’s explanation left Jiang Ran speechless.
Indeed.
If Cheng Mengxue had suddenly contacted him online, his first reaction would have been that it was a scam.
Even if the voice matched, even if there were a video call, it might still be an AI simulation.
Nowadays AI technology had advanced rapidly. Voices and video were no longer reliable proof of identity.
In the end, they would still need to meet in person and see each other face-to-face.
From that perspective, Cheng Mengxue’s reasoning wasn’t wrong.
But still…
why did Jiang Ran feel that the entire situation was absurd and riddled with contradictions?
“Jiang Ran! Xiaoxue!”
The two of them turned toward the sound coming from the roadside.
It was Wang Hao running toward them, panting heavily.
As the class monitor, he had stayed behind to make sure every classmate got into a taxi safely before returning.
His heavy body bounced with each step until he finally reached them, wiping sweat from his forehead.
“Tonight was seriously intense.”
He looked at Cheng Mengxue and grinned.
“Xiaoxue, your timing was unbelievable! You have no idea what happened earlier at the reunion. Otherwise everyone wouldn’t have been scared half to death when they saw you.”
“But… it’s good that you’re back. Really good.”
Wang Hao was clearly delighted, his face bursting with smiles.
“It feels like a dream. Jiang Ran is back to normal and got into Donghai University, and Xiaoxue didn’t actually die and has come back from overseas.”
“Our… our Iron Triangle is reunited again!”
Hearing this, Jiang Ran looked from one of them to the other.
Wang Hao was right.
If this Cheng Mengxue really was Cheng Mengxue, then the Iron Triangle of Worldline 1—long since broken apart—had indeed reunited.
Cheng Mengxue pressed her lips together and lowered her head.
“Actually… there are a lot of things I want to say to both of you.”
“We feel the same.”
Wang Hao nodded.
“But it’s already late tonight. We’ve both had quite a bit to drink, and this isn’t exactly the place to talk.”
“Let’s find somewhere nice tomorrow and have a proper conversation. We can talk about everything that happened over the past two years, alright?”
Cheng Mengxue nodded in agreement and looked at Jiang Ran.
“I’m sorry, Jiang Ran. I just heard from our classmates about what happened to you. If my parents hadn’t faked the news of my death… these past two years might have been easier for you.”
“That’s all in the past.”
Jiang Ran waved it off.
“Your family sold the house too. Where are you staying now?”
“I’m staying at a hotel near the airport.”
Cheng Mengxue pointed toward the direction of Xiaoshan.
“Things didn’t go as planned. I originally wanted to find you two first, but it got so late that after my flight landed I had to come straight to the reunion.”
“In a couple of days, I plan to go find Xu Yan’s sister and stay with my uncle’s family for a while.”
Then she clasped her hands together and made a small request to Jiang Ran and Wang Hao.
“Please don’t tell her about me yet. Something like this… it’s better to explain in person.”
“After all, I’m standing here alive. Once she sees me, that’s the best proof. It will make everything easier to explain and easier to accept.”
In the end.
Wang Hao and Jiang Ran hailed a taxi.
They first sent Cheng Mengxue to the hotel where she was staying, then turned back toward home.
Along the way, Wang Hao chattered excitedly like a woodpecker, talking nonstop.
He kept expressing how happy he was that Cheng Mengxue had returned, occasionally lamenting Zhou Xiong’s death, and gossiping about various classmates.
The noise was so constant that Jiang Ran’s head began to ache.
“Let’s get out and walk for a bit.”
Once they entered the city area, Jiang Ran suggested,
“We’ve had a little too much to drink. It’s less than two kilometers to home now. Let’s walk.”
Wang Hao let out a drunken burp and agreed.
Even late at night, Hangzhou was still lively—a city that truly never slept.
But Jiang Ran walked with his head lowered, lost in thought, ignoring the neon lights and bustling nightlife around him.
“Hey.”
Wang Hao looked at him, puzzled.
“Why are you so down today?”
“This is huge news about Xiaoxue! I thought you’d be jumping for joy. But you’ve been acting strange the whole time.”
“Now that we know Xiaoxue is alive, I can finally talk about how you were two years ago. Back then, after Xiaoxue died, you were depressed to the point that it felt like you might kill yourself every day.”
“Now Xiaoxue is back, the misunderstanding from back then has been cleared up, and even your uncle and aunt are living well in America and planning to return to China soon.”
“With such incredible news, why do you look like you’ve fallen back into that same state from two years ago?”
Jiang Ran shook his head.
“That’s not it.”
He sighed. His thoughts were as chaotic as the crowds moving along the street.
“Wang Hao, don’t you think Xiaoxue’s situation is strange?”
“What’s strange about it?”
Wang Hao replied immediately.
“You don’t need to worry about that grave or anything. Xiaoxue is standing right in front of us alive—that explains everything.”
“It means she never died. That tombstone must have been fake.”
Sigh.
Jiang Ran stopped walking.
He remembered the black-and-white photograph at Jingshan Bamboo Cemetery—the smile of Cheng Mengxue frozen in time.
“Is it possible…”
Jiang Ran spoke softly.
“[Is it possible that the tombstone is real… and the Xiaoxue we just saw is the fake one?]”
“Pfft!”
Wang Hao shot him a disdainful look.
“What nonsense are you talking about? Watches can be fake, clothes can be fake, cosmetics can be fake… but this is the first time I’ve heard of a fake person!”
“Go on then. If Xiaoxue is an impostor, what exactly is fake about her? Tell me what’s different from before.”
Jiang Ran fell silent.
He couldn’t answer.
From the outside, it was Cheng Mengxue one hundred percent—every tiny detail identical.
From the inside, her personality, the way she spoke, her mindset, even the feeling she gave people—Jiang Ran couldn’t find a single flaw.
“Well? Say something! Open my eyes!”
Wang Hao urged.
“Tell me how someone could fake a person like that. I’ll learn the trick and make a fake Liu Yifei!”
“I don’t know.”
Jiang Ran truly couldn’t figure it out.
Cloning was far too science-fictional, and it was illegal in every country.
Plastic surgery was even more unrealistic—there was no technology capable of replicating someone this perfectly.
Even if, for the sake of argument, technology could perfectly recreate Cheng Mengxue’s appearance…
what about her inner self?
Her personality?
Those things couldn’t be simulated so easily.
Everyone’s life experiences, environment, emotional history—each one was unique.
Cheng Mengxue was Cheng Mengxue.
There was only one Cheng Mengxue in the world.
No one could imitate her perfectly, let alone fool Jiang Ran.
And yet the Cheng Mengxue he had just seen had no flaws at all.
Still, deep inside—
“I can’t explain it.”
Jiang Ran suddenly said,
“But… my intuition tells me she isn’t the real Cheng Mengxue.”
“Ridiculous.”
Wang Hao took out a cigarette and stuck it between his lips, scoffing.
“You’re impossible. I seriously have no idea what goes on inside your head.”
“Fine. If you really think Xiaoxue is fake, that someone’s impersonating her, then exposing her should be easy, right?”
“Just ask her about things from the past.”
“In high school our Iron Triangle went through plenty of things only the three of us know. And you two were childhood friends—you share even more secrets from when you were kids.”
“[If someone were impersonating Xiaoxue, they might fool people with appearance, but could they possibly have Xiaoxue’s memories too?]”
Jiang Ran nodded.
That was exactly what he had been thinking.
No matter what kind of cloning, disguise, or cosmetic surgery it might be—
the life Cheng Mengxue had lived over the years could never be perfectly replicated.
During this entire walk, Jiang Ran had already formed a plan.
“Tomorrow, when we ask Xiaoxue out, don’t talk too much.”
He instructed Wang Hao.
Then he looked up at the pitch-black night sky above Hangzhou, empty of stars.
“If this Xiaoxue really is fake…”
“Then tomorrow, I’ll prove it to you.”