My name is Lin Zhao. I'm the vice president of the student council at a top high school. I'm a good student, well-behaved, and everyone likes me.
But she doesn't like me. She likes the other person inside my body, Shen Jingzhe. The alter who smokes, gets into fights, and climbs over the wall to the rooftop in the middle of the night. The girl who bears all my darkness for me.
The person who discovered our secret was my Chinese teacher, Cheng Yanqiu.
She saw when Shen Jingzhe and I switched. She called her by Shen Jingzhe's name, gave her cigarettes, and taught her to control the switches between our personalities. Then she kissed her on the rooftop, but called out my name.
I thought she liked Lin Zhao. Later, I realized she liked the way the two of us fit together: one complete, undivided person, just like she had been at seventeen.
Because Cheng Yanqiu herself once had a split personality.
Eight years ago, her alter, Cheng Tingyun, disappeared after psychological intervention. Eight years later, she met us: two personalities still alive, who had not yet lost each other.
She won't let go. She wants both of us.
But she only has one to give.
And the boundary between Shen Jingzhe and me has begun to blur under her gaze.
Thesis: This story explores the independence of personalities and how they coexist. An alter is not an abnormality that needs to be "eliminated". She is a whole person, worthy of being seen and remembered. It also asks a question: Who is the person you fall in love with? Is it their face, their name, or the one-of-a-kind soul beneath their skin?
