I Heard You Have Two Faces?

[Archived on Weibo] [The blurb may be revised, but the core characterizations and story will remain unchanged]

Jiang Qiao was an orphan who grew up in a mountain village.

At eighteen, she learned that her surname wasn't Jiang but Ruan, and that she was a wealthy family's daughter who had been lost to them. Her biological parents said they would bring her home.

But on the very day they were supposed to pick her up, they changed their minds. They thought she was strange-tempered and disobedient, and were afraid that Jiang Qiao, a girl from a poor family, would embarrass them, so they shut her out.

Worried Jiang Qiao might pester them, they had someone wait by the entrance for her to make demands. They didn't even want to see her. Jiang Qiao merely glanced inside with a cool gaze, then turned and walked away without looking back.

She had no particular desire to see parents who had never been there for her, anyway.

She returned to H City to work her way through school. Next door lived a man even poorer than she was. He had the face of a star, but lived in utter destitution, like a beggar.

The man was incredibly handsome and seemed vaguely familiar, but Jiang Qiao couldn't remember who he was. She just thought it would be a shame to let someone who could raise humanity's average level of attractiveness starve to death, so she often helped him out.

The Ruan family never came looking for Jiang Qiao. They kept waiting for her to run out of money and contact them herself, but as they waited, she never once came back.

Unable to resist, they went to visit Jiang Qiao's place, only to unexpectedly see the elusive current head of the Meng family, the second young master Meng, Meng Yunlian.

They had tried every possible way to meet him and never managed to get so much as a glimpse. Yet here he was, apologizing profusely to the younger daughter Jiang Qiao, whom they looked down on, because he'd broken her tableware.

The tall man held up a broken spoon as he followed Jiang Qiao, lowering his head to apologize. He looked like a big dog trying to beg forgiveness with an affectionate whine after doing something wrong.

The Ruan family: "..."

#The Ruan family: At that moment, we all thought we'd mistaken him for someone else. Who knew he had two faces?

#Meng Yunlian: At that moment, my secret identity was hanging by a thread. It's getting cold. The Ruan family should go bankrupt.

#Jiang Qiao: At that moment, I finally realized that I was the only one who was actually poor :)

I fed him so much rice, and this is how he repays me. Jiang Qiao

A few notes:

1. This blurb dates back to 2020 and has been archived. This is the first draft, pending revision, and I'll post it again when the story starts.

2. A sweet little treat, SC, 1V1.

Theme: Rather than envy the fish by the water, go home and weave a net.