Lulu asks me on the phone, "If you meet a classmate you haven't seen for ten years, what would your reaction be?"
"Thrilled." I reply.
"What if she wouldn't recognize you?"
"I was too unimportant to remember."
"What if you were her savior or benefactor."
I stop Lulu. "No more of these what-if's – just tell me what happened!"
"Have you heard of a real estate development project called GWD – Great Wall Dreamland?" Lulu asks.
"Yes. Expensive villas at the foot of the Great Wall."
"Let me tell you about an escapade at the Dreamland," Lulu says with a deep sigh.
Lulu had attended a fashion show followed by a cocktail reception at the GWD. There she ran into a stream of movie stars, TV talk-show celebrities, and high-profile singers and musical groups. Her photographers were busy photographing these people, but she was bored.
Her friend Mary, editor of Family, came to her. "Let me introduce you to a really cool woman – Jenny. I was told that she is going to buy one of these mansions here. She just came back to China from the United States and doesn't have many local friends. I think the two of you would hit it off."
As Lulu saw Jenny, she couldn't believe her eyes. She knew this woman! But she had known her as Yu Zhen not Jenny. Yu Zhen was Lulu's college classmate; actually, they were even closer, as they had lived in the same dorm room for four years. Yu Zhen was a bit older than the other girls. She had always been quiet. In her second year at college, she had started to skip classes and come back to the dorm late at night. Sometimes she disappeared for a few days at a time. She had become a woman of mystery. The only way to track her down was by her perfume.
At that time, most college girls couldn't afford to wear perfume. But Yu Zhen did. She came back occasionally, leaving wafts of Christian Dior's Poison or YSL's Opium in the room. Lulu's fashion education first began by guessing the brands of perfume Yu Zhen used.
Rumor had it that Yu Zhen might be dating a sugar daddy, but nobody knew exactly what had been going on with her until one night when Yu Zhen came back around midnight and all girls were sound asleep.
"Save me! Help me!" She begged the girls in the dorm, who were still only half-awake and confused.
Yu Zhen made a confession. She wanted to change her fate by going to the States. In order to earn money for application fees and tuitions to American universities, she had prostituted herself. But one time she had been stupid and greedy. She had stolen 20,000 RMB from her customer, Big Feet. He had been so angry that he hired thugs to watch her outside the campus. He sent out a message that he would have her fingers cut off if she didn't return the money.
"Give the money back to him," her roommates suggested to her.
"I've sent it to the American schools that I applied to," she said.
"Why don't you go to the police?" Lulu asked her.
"I'd be expelled for what I did."
At that time, Lulu was the richest girl in the room. Because her parents had been newly divorced, both of them sent her money to compete for her love. She gave Yu Zhen 4,000 RMB in cash. Others also donated some money. Together they collected 20,000 RMB for Yu Zhen. Yu Zhen cried and kowtowed to everybody, saying that they were her reborn parents. She would work like a dog from now on to repay their money.
Then Yu Zhen vanished totally. Of course, the money they had lent her was gone forever, like a rock thrown into a lake.
Jenny greeted Lulu gracefully in English and excused herself for her sluggish Chinese. Mary helped her explain. "Jenny was born to a Taiwanese mother and a Macau father. She spent most of her time overseas. So that's why speaking Chinese is difficult for her."
Jenny didn't recognize Lulu.
As I listen to this part of the story, I ask Lulu, "Are you sure Jenny is Yu Zhen? Maybe they just look alike! Otherwise, she'd have recognized you."
"I was wondering about that," Lulu says, her voice rising on the telephone, "because Jenny's nose looked higher than Yu Zhen's and Jenny's breasts were bigger than Yu Zhen's. But as she kept talking, she started to stutter! I realized it was the same Yu Zhen. The only difference was that back then in college she had stuttered in Chinese, and at the cocktail party, she stuttered in English."
"So she pretended she didn't know you!"
"Yes! The ungrateful bitch!"
"But how can you explain the changes to her nose and breasts?" I ask.
"If she can fake her identity, I guess it's a piece of cake for her to get a fake nose and fake breasts!" Lulu concludes.