Chapter 1: You're Our Biological Daughter?

“Jiang Baodi, you stubborn girl, where have you gone off to again? Didn’t you hear your brother calling you?”

Zhang Wunu stormed out of the kitchen, wielding a bloodied kitchen knife. She had been preparing fresh black-boned chicken intended for Jiang Yaozu’s nourishment.

She had no idea what useless Jiang Baodi was up to. Yaozu had been calling her repeatedly, but she pretended not to hear.

With a swift kick, Zhang Wunu opened Jiang Baodi’s small, cramped room. The space was so tiny that a quick glance covered it all, but the troublesome girl was nowhere to be found. No one knew where she had run off to or whether she had taken Yaozu with her.

Muttering curses, Zhang Wunu left the room and hurried to set down the knife in the kitchen. She anxiously washed her blood-stained hands before rushing toward Jiang Yaozu’s room.

Though siblings, Jiang Yaozu’s room was bright and spacious, a stark contrast to Jiang Baodi’s cramped quarters.

At that moment, Jiang Yaozu sat at his computer desk, a paunch protruding from his belly. Wearing large headphones that framed his round face, he stared intently at the screen, muttering words like “Attack... go!” without pause.

“Baby, do you need something?”

Zhang Wunu’s earlier fury vanished when facing her only son. She was always patient with him, as if the world’s finest things owed to him alone.

The clicking of the keyboard and mouse nearly drowned out her voice.

Upon seeing Zhang Wunu, Jiang Yaozu’s expression soured, clearly annoyed. “What do you want? Where’s Jiang Baodi? Tell her to get here right now!”

Though only three years apart, Jiang Yaozu showed no respect for his sister. His commanding tone was typical in the household, and Zhang Wunu took no offense at his words.

“Mom doesn’t know. When she comes back, I’ll give her a good scolding!”

Fearing her son’s anger, Zhang Wunu softened her tone as she noticed his furrowed brow.

“You’re so annoying, always running off. Why don’t you just die out there!”

Jiang Yaozu’s curse made Zhang Wunu shrink back in fear, silencing her as she quietly withdrew from the room.

The very person they dismissed so casually—Jiang Baodi—was now sitting in the living room of the Jiang family villa.

She had made no effort to tidy herself. Wearing the old clothes discarded by Jiang Yaozu—loose garments large enough to swallow two of her—she sat unperturbed in the lavishly decorated parlor, completely out of place yet fearless.

Meanwhile, the Jiang couple remained stunned, especially the patriarch, Jiang Cheng. He could not accept that his daughter’s life had been switched, and that the girl raised as the Jiang family’s eldest daughter, Jiang Man, was actually the child of a thief.

“So, you are our daughter?”

His tone was one of reluctant disbelief, hoping desperately for denial.

“Yes.”

The answer shattered the last flicker of hope.

In truth, when Jiang Cheng first saw the girl, he was certain she was his daughter, her features strikingly resembling his own mother. Moreover, a paternity test lay on the coffee table—a black-and-white proof no one could contest, no matter how unwilling to accept it.

“Jiang... uh, child, what do you intend to do now? Will you return?”

Even the doting Jiang Cheng hesitated to say “Jiang Baodi” aloud.

Glancing at Jiang Cheng and her silent mother, Li Baizhen, she laughed softly. “What do you think?”

“And... Jiang Man?”

Li Baizhen finally spoke, referring to Jiang Man. Though she had little interaction with the girl, Jiang Man was the carefully cultivated eldest daughter of the family. Compared to this plainly dressed, unknown-natured biological daughter before her, she favored Jiang Man.

“May I speak with her?”

From the moment she arrived, she had noticed Jiang Man hiding by the stairwell, dressed in an expensive princess gown, her eyes innocent and naive, every gesture embodying the grace of a noble family.

“No...”

Li Baizhen began to refuse but was stopped by Jiang Cheng beside her.

For Jiang Cheng, who cared deeply about appearances, it mattered little who the true Jiang family eldest daughter was. What mattered was that such a scandal not be leaked—especially now, just as the old master had entrusted the company to him.

“Wang Ma, call the young lady here.”

Wang Ma responded promptly, setting aside her tasks to summon Jiang Man upstairs. In this household, Jiang Cheng was the undisputed authority, and no one dared defy him.

“Father, Mother, why did you call me?”

Jiang Man played her part well, feigning ignorance, but her tightly clenched hands betrayed her fear.

“My name is Jiang Baodi.”

A thin, bony hand suddenly extended, making everyone present tense, fearing she might lash out after years of injustice.

Before Jiang Man could react, Jiang Baodi spoke again. “You must have heard our conversation—I am the daughter of the Jiang family, and you are the biological daughter of another Jiang family.”

Rolling up her sleeve, she revealed scars accumulated over the years. “These were caused by that person. You have a younger brother named Jiang Yaozu.”

Turning away, she lifted her shirt to expose bruises and wounds on her waist. “These were inflicted by Jiang Yaozu. He’s very fat, three years younger than you and me, weighing two hundred and twenty pounds. When he hits, he targets the most vulnerable spots—like the waist and abdomen—and treats people like slaves, punishing even the slightest displeasure with fists and kicks.”

“Over the years, my clothes have been those Jiang Yaozu outgrew and discarded. The food I eat is what they leave behind. I live in a cramped storage room. The school supplies I use come from collecting bottles outside, and I earn money by copying homework for classmates.”

As she spoke, her eyes were bloodshot, fists clenched tightly, a mixture of deep resentment and bitterness pouring out as she lamented fate’s cruelty and heaven’s injustice.

“I don’t know how your life has been in the Jiang family, but I have spent eighteen years in the Jiang household living worse than a dog or pig...”

She was about to continue when Li Baizhen interrupted, “But Jiang Man is innocent after all.”

Her words brought a heavy silence, so still the ticking from the wall clock was audible.

“I’m sorry, I never expected this to happen. I’m willing to return...”

“Impossible!”

Jiang Cheng spoke, slamming the teacup in his hand onto the carpet with a dull thud. “Jiang Man is the one we’ve painstakingly raised, a top student admitted to Lin University. How could she possibly go back to that kind of place?”

They had never asked this biological daughter about her college entrance exam, assuming that surviving in such a household was miracle enough, and the odds of attending university were nearly zero.

“But...”

Jiang Man tried to argue, but a sudden tug on her arm silenced her.

“The real victim here is me. Let me finish speaking.”

“I know you’ve suffered greatly over the years, and we will make it up to you. But about Jiang Man, you must not say a word.”

Jiang Baodi sneered, “Weren’t you the ones who just asked me what I planned to do?”

Jiang Cheng and Li Baizhen were at a loss for words and fell silent.