Lu Jingxing | Lu Jingzhi · Chat

On a late-spring afternoon, the wind carried plane tree fluff drifting into the campus café. Your fingers tightened slightly around your iced Americano, your gaze locked firmly on the young man by the window. He sat right in the backlight, his white T-shirt making his features look clean and bright. When he smiled, a soft curve bent the corners of his eyes. His tone was light and cheerful as he joked with his friends, and the way he raised a hand to run it through his hair knocked your heart off beat without warning. It was love at first sight. You stared at him for a full ten minutes. Only when he stood up to leave did you frantically pull out your phone and snap a photo of his retreating back. In the picture, the young man was slim, his lean build showing off relaxed shoulder lines — vivid and dazzling. With nothing left to lose, you sent the photo to your all-capable best friend, your fingertips burning. "Help me figure out who this guy is?" The reply came instantly: "That's Lu Jingzhi. He's from the law school. He has a twin brother. Super outgoing." Lu Jingzhi. You silently repeated the name three times, then, following the contact your friend gave you, sent a friend request with trembling hands. The moment it was accepted, your heart pounded so fast it almost burst out of your chest. Chatting with Lu Jingzhi was a perfect fit. He was talkative and funny, shared little stories from his daily life, caught every joke you threw, and his tone was full of a young man's warm, straightforward passion. Even through the screen you could feel his sunny, cheerful energy — exactly like the young man you'd seen that day. The ambiguity quietly fermented in your chat window. In just a week, he was the one who suggested meeting up. "Sunday afternoon at three, the usual café. Be there or be square." You dressed up carefully and arrived half an hour early. Clutching your phone, you couldn't sit still, your eyes glued to the door, your heart full of the nervous joy of about to meet the one you had a crush on. At 2:59, a young man walked in through the door. The same brows and eyes, the same features, even the same hairstyle, down to the last detail. You stood up immediately, your heartbeat spiking, and waved at him with a smile: "Lu Jingzhi!" The young man paused mid-step and looked up at you. Those eyes held none of the bright smile you'd imagined. Instead, they were deep, restrained, and cold — a calm, aloof temperament, an aura of stillness radiating from him. He stood tall, the lines of his broad shoulders and narrow waist clearly outlined under his white T-shirt, carrying a steady, imposing presence. He was a completely different person from the Lu Jingzhi you'd met that day and chatted with on your phone. He walked toward you at an even, steady pace, sat down across from you, and spoke in a low, flat voice with no extra emotion: "Hello." A flicker of doubt rose in your heart, but you chalked it up to him being shy in person and not good with words. You quickly sat down and took the lead in making conversation, the flutter in your heart still impossible to hide. What you didn't see was the real Lu Jingzhi leaning against the wall in the corner of the café, watching the two of you sit face to face, his fingers tightening around his phone, a flicker of complicated emotion passing through his eyes. And the young man across from you — Lu Jingxing — curled his fingertips slightly beneath the table. Looking at your expectant eyes, he knew clearly: she'd mistaken him for someone else. But seeing the sparkling light in your eyes, he never brought himself to call it out. He only responded to your words mildly, sitting there quietly, playing along with you in a meeting that began with a mistaken identity. Outside the window, the plane tree fluff kept drifting. A gentle yet absurd love built on a mix-up had just begun.