Yang Huixian had been in a daze all day because her home had been burglarized. When she saw her adopted daughter return crying, she immediately became irritated: "What are you crying about? Is it really that hard to accept swapping parents?"
Upon hearing this, An Shu shouted at Yang Huixian: "If you suddenly found out that the parents you'd called Mom and Dad for over a decade weren't your biological parents, wouldn't you be upset? It's all your fault!"
Yang Huixian: "…"
Her fault?
If she hadn't swapped her back then, would she have lived like a little princess all these years?
Because An Hegui was an ordinary skilled worker, the housing he was allocated wasn't as large as An Heping's. Looking at the room that was nearly half the size, An Shu felt even worse.
An Jianshe and An Jianbang put their things down and left immediately. They had never really liked their aunt Yang Huixian to begin with, and now that they knew she had deliberately swapped their older sister back then, their dislike turned into disgust. In the past, when they saw Yang Huixian, they would at least call her "Aunt," but today they treated her as if she were invisible. However, Yang Huixian's attention was on An Shu, so she didn't notice their reaction.
After leaving Yang Huixian's house, the two brothers couldn't wait to rush home and press their mother for more details—like how An Ran had suddenly thought of getting a blood test.
She must have suffered a great injustice to suspect whether she was really the biological daughter of their uncle and aunt!
After learning from their mother what An Ran had gone through, the two brothers were deeply distressed. They never imagined Yang Huixian could be so heartless. If An Ran hadn't endured until she couldn't take it anymore and gotten the blood test, who knows how much more she would have suffered in the future~
"Where's Big Sister?"
"I sent her out to take care of something."
"Mom, why couldn't you wait for us to come back and have us do it? Big Sister just got back and you're already ordering her around. What's the difference between you and a stepmother?"
"…"
Seeing her two sons scolding her for defending their daughter, Yang Huishu was a bit annoyed but more so gratified: "Your big sister has suffered a lot over the years. She's only just been acknowledged, and now she's about to go suffer in the countryside again. If you truly care about her, treat her well when she comes back."
The two brothers immediately swore they would treat their big sister well: "Mom, what are we having for dinner? Since Big Sister just came back, shouldn't we make a nice meal to welcome her?"
Yang Huishu: "I bought pork ribs. We'll make potato stewed with ribs tonight, and steam some cured meat with fermented black beans…"
The two brothers' mouths watered at the sound of it: "Mom, we'll help you…"
In the evening, when every household was having dinner, An Ran quietly returned home carrying a bamboo basket on her back.
An Jianshe and An Jianbang, who had been waiting for her downstairs at the family building, immediately rushed over enthusiastically: "Big Sister~"
An Ran looked at the two brothers in surprise. In her previous life, when her identity was revealed, the two brothers hadn't been this warm.
"Big Sister, why are you so late? The whole family is waiting for you to eat~"
"Big Sister, what are you carrying? Let me carry it for you."
Although An Ran was surprised by the two brothers' enthusiasm, she accepted their welcome and help graciously: "Thank you~"
Back home, An Heping and Yang Huishu immediately called her over to eat. An Ran didn't act coy and sat down naturally. When Yang Huishu asked why she was so late, she explained her whereabouts: "I went to Qingchengshan and took a stroll through the village at the foot of the mountain. I saw someone growing watermelons in their backyard, so I bought two watermelons to bring back."
As soon as An Jianshe and An Jianbang heard this, they immediately clamored to have watermelon after dinner.
Yang Huishu shot the two brothers an exasperated glare: "After dinner, will you even have room for watermelon?"
The two brothers nodded eagerly: "Yes, yes, yes~"
Yang Huishu had the two brothers take a watermelon and soak it in the water vat, then said to An Ran, "You worked hard."
Hiding things in Qingchengshan was something she hadn't thought of, but Qingchengshan was so vast—it really was a good place to stash things.
The two brothers lifted the watermelon out of the basket and couldn't help letting out a "Wow": "What a huge watermelon~"
With watermelons this big, they could eat to their heart's content later.
An Heping and Yang Huishu were also drawn to the watermelons: "These two watermelons together must weigh at least fifty jin. How did you manage to carry them all the way back from Qingchengshan by yourself?"
Of course, she'd put them in her Space and brought them back that way~
An Ran replied with a smile: "I just carried them back. They were a bit heavy, but really, I only carried them for the stretch before getting on the bus and after getting off."
Although they didn't know how far An Ran had walked before getting on the bus, even just the stretch after getting off was enough to wear her out. Hearing this, Yang Huishu immediately scooped meat into An Ran's rice bowl with concern and told her to eat more.
An Ran's current body was in a state of chronic malnutrition. The moment she saw meat, her mouth began to water uncontrollably. She smiled at Yang Huishu, stopped being polite, picked up her chopsticks, and dug in.
Seeing how skinny she was, An Heping and Yang Huishu felt uneasy. Their household basically maintained a rhythm of a small meat dish every three days and a big meat dish every five, which had raised all the children to be sturdy and strong. But now, An Ran sitting at the dinner table stood out as an anomaly.
Thinking that An Ran would be heading to the countryside in just a few days, Yang Huishu wished she could bring out every delicacy in the house and fatten her up nice and plump within that short time.
An Jianshe and An Jianbang, the two brothers, set down the watermelon and sat, then were also moved by the sight of An Ran burying her head in her food. These two brothers, who usually couldn't enjoy a meal without meat, weren't fighting over the meat today—instead, they were competing to pile meat onto An Ran's plate.
Where was this their older sister?
She looked more like their little sister!
An Ran looked at the mountain of meat piled in her bowl and felt a bit embarrassed: "That's enough, that's enough. You two eat too, don't just keep piling it on for me. I won't be able to finish it all…"
Although this body of hers was severely lacking in oil and grease, everyone's excessive enthusiasm was still a bit overwhelming. In the end, it was only when she said she wanted to save room for watermelon that they finally backed off.
Strange!
In her previous life, after her identity was exposed, why hadn't she felt this kind of warmth?
Could it be that after more than a decade, people had been through so much that they'd lost some of their sincerity?
While An Ran was enjoying a harmonious time with her biological parents and biological younger brothers, An Shu, in a different family building in the same neighborhood, was having a very unpleasant clash with her biological parents and biological younger brothers.
The cause of the matter was that An Shu was dissatisfied with her room being narrow, small, and dark, and wanted to swap with her two younger brothers' room. Yang Huixian, thinking she had just returned, didn't outright refuse but told her to wait until the two brothers came back and discuss it with them.
Yang Huixian's intention was that if the two brothers agreed, then she would agree too. But An Shu figured that the two brothers, being men, couldn't possibly disagree, so she directly threw the two brothers' belongings into the small room.
That's right, threw.
When An Quan and An Jue, the two brothers, came back and hadn't even had time to process that their second sister had changed, they discovered their room had been taken over by their new second sister. Naturally, they wouldn't stand for it, but An Shu refused to return the room, so the three siblings erupted into a fierce argument over the room's ownership. If Yang Huixian hadn't stepped in to stop them, they might have come to blows. In the end, though no fists were thrown, the three siblings looked at each other with nothing but resentment…
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