After the farce of the blood test during the day, Wang Xiuying had remained in a daze ever since.
Su Dashan was so angry that he slammed the door and went to the village secretary’s house to drink. Su Wanrou locked herself in her room and never came out again.
The entire family seemed to have been torn open by a bloody wound.
And the mother’s incoherent muttering became the strangest echo of the night.
Su Wantang curled up on her side, protecting her abdomen. In the darkness, the system panel quietly glowed:
[Remaining lifespan: 26 days 10 hours 47 minutes]
[Fetal health value: 79/100]
[Spiritual Spring Space Level: Beginner (1 cubic meter)]
[Available item: Time Reversal Mirror (single use)]
Her gaze stopped on “Time Reversal Mirror.”
This was a reward she had received, along with the Beauty Pill, after completing the “Expose Fake Pregnancy” mission.
The description only contained one sentence:
“Allows the user to witness a segment of the true past.”
Her mother’s abnormal behavior.
The strange result of the blood test, where neither sister’s blood merged with Su Dashan’s.
Su Wanrou’s threat:
“Three months later, when the child is born, we’ll test whose blood it carries.”
Fragments of information swirled chaotically in her mind.
Su Wantang bit her lip.
Her fingertip hovered over the virtual panel for a moment.
Finally, she pressed “Use.”
Everything suddenly went black.
When she opened her eyes again, her vision seemed separated by a layer of mist.
She was seeing a scene from eighteen years ago.
A delivery room in the county hospital.
The air was filled with the mixed smell of disinfectant and blood.
On the delivery bed, a younger Wang Xiuying lay weakly after giving birth, her forehead covered in sweat.
A nurse came over carrying a swaddled baby.
“Comrade Wang Xiuying, it’s a daughter. Six jin and three liang.”
(Approximately 6.3 pounds.)
Wang Xiuying barely opened her eyes to look.
Then she fell into a deep sleep.
The scene fast-forwarded.
Late at night.
The hospital room was quiet except for Wang Xiuying’s steady breathing.
The door was gently pushed open.
A woman wearing a red headscarf slipped inside.
She was slightly plump.
On her wrist was a dark red birthmark shaped like a maple leaf.
The woman walked skillfully toward the baby beds.
She looked down at the two swaddled infants lying side by side.
Su Wantang’s heartbeat suddenly accelerated.
The woman removed the label from the swaddle on the left.
Then attached it to the swaddle on the right.
After that, she untied the cloth strip around the right baby’s wrist and tied it onto the left baby’s wrist.
The entire process took less than three minutes.
After finishing, she carefully checked everything again.
Only after confirming there were no mistakes did she pick up the baby on the right—the baby that originally had the label:
“Daughter of Wang Xiuying.”
She hurriedly carried the child away.
Before leaving, she glanced back at the sleeping Wang Xiuying.
In a low voice, she murmured:
“I’m sorry, little sister. My husband insists on having a son…”
“Your daughter is lucky. Going to my family to be the only child is better than staying with you.”
The scene abruptly ended.
Su Wantang returned to reality.
Cold sweat had soaked through her thin clothes.
The baby swap.
The woman with the red headscarf.
The maple-leaf birthmark on her wrist.
So…
Su Wanrou was the one who had been switched into the family?
No—
That couldn’t be right.
During the blood test, Su Wanrou’s blood also failed to merge with Su Dashan’s.
Could it be that both of them were not Su family daughters?
Or…
“Creak—”
The door of the main room suddenly opened.
Su Wantang held her breath.
Through a crack in the damaged window paper, she looked outside.
Under the moonlight, Wang Xiuying walked out wearing only an outer garment.
She staggered directly toward the woodpile in the corner of the courtyard.
Then she began searching frantically.
She moved aside bundles of firewood one by one.
Her fingers felt along the earthen wall.
Finally, she pried loose a brick.
From inside, she took out a rusty iron box.
Wang Xiuying tremblingly opened the box.
Inside was a yellowed piece of paper.
Under the moonlight, Su Wantang could barely make out that it was a rough birth certificate.
The handwriting was blurry.
But at the bottom, there was a handwritten note:
“Baby’s wrist tied with a red string. A strand of fetal hair kept inside.”
A red string?
Fetal hair?
Su Wantang suddenly remembered—
In the Time Reversal Mirror scene, when the woman in the red headscarf switched the babies, she had indeed removed the cloth strip from one baby’s wrist and tied it onto the other.
That strip had been red.
“Mom…”
She almost rushed outside to demand answers.
But then she heard a faint sound from the other side of the room.
Su Wanrou’s door also opened slightly.
Moonlight fell on Su Wanrou’s face.
The woman who normally always wore a gentle smile now looked as pale as paper.
She stared at the birth certificate in Wang Xiuying’s hands.
Her lips trembled.
Her eyes were filled with an emotion Su Wantang had never seen before.
Fear.
And…
Understanding.
Su Wanrou knew.
Not only did she know about the baby swap—
She might know even more.
The sister who had been reborn…
Had she discovered this secret long ago?
Was that why, in her previous life, she had no attachment to the Su family?
And in this life, was her obsession with Lu Zhanye mixed with a desperate search for where she truly belonged?
Wang Xiuying had no idea she was being watched by both daughters.
Holding the paper tightly, tears fell onto the yellowed page.
She began murmuring again:
“I clearly carried the one with the red string…”
“I clearly checked…”
“Why didn’t the blood merge…?”
“Why…?”
The one with the red string was the biological child.
But during the blood test that day, both daughters’ blood failed to merge with Su Dashan’s.
Unless…
Su Dashan was not the biological father either.
That thought made Su Wantang’s entire body turn cold.
She instinctively touched her abdomen.
A life was growing there.
And the child’s father, Lu Zhanye, was perhaps already on the military vehicle returning to his unit.
Completely unaware of the flesh and blood growing inside her.
Her own identity had become a mystery.
What about her child’s future?
“Bang!”
A sound came from the direction of the woodpile.
Wang Xiuying had accidentally knocked over the iron box.
The contents scattered across the ground.
Besides the birth certificate, there were several letters written in elegant handwriting.
And a faded silver lock pendant.
Su Wanrou’s door suddenly closed.
Wang Xiuying hurriedly picked everything up.
She tightly gripped the silver pendant in her hand.
Like it was the last lifeline she had.
She looked around carefully.
After confirming no one had noticed, she hid the iron box back behind the brick.
Then she returned to her room in a daze.
The courtyard became silent again.
Su Wantang leaned against the earthen wall and slowly slid down.
At that moment, the system notification sounded:
[Follow-up clues from the blood test incident have been triggered.]
[Hidden identity storyline unlocked: 30% progress.]
[Warning: Su Wanrou’s hatred value +10 (current total: 40)]
[New crisis countdown: 89 days (before the baby is born)]
89 days.
Less than three months.
By then, the child would be born.
Su Wanrou would definitely force her to identify the father through blood.
And Lu Zhanye…
If he knew the child was his, how would he choose?
Even more frightening—
If her own identity truly contained a hidden secret, how long would the Su family continue to accept her?
Footsteps sounded outside.
Very light.
But Su Wantang still heard them.
Not her mother.
Not Su Wanrou.
The footsteps stopped outside the courtyard gate.
Separated by the fence.
They remained there for a long time.
Su Wantang slowly moved toward the window.
Through the crack, she looked outside.
Moonlight stretched the shadow of the person standing beyond the courtyard.
He leaned against the old locust tree outside the fence.
A tiny red glow flickered between his fingers.
He was smoking.
The outline of his military uniform remained upright in the darkness.
But his shoulders were slightly lowered.
As if exhausted.
Or as if struggling with some suppressed emotion.
Lu Zhanye.
He hadn’t left.
He was still here.
How long had he been standing there?
How much had he heard?
And how much had he already figured out?