“An’an, you aren’t our biological daughter. We’ve found our real daughter.”
Lin An’an had never imagined that the melodramatic plot of a true heiress and a false heiress would happen to her.
And what made it even more tragic was that she was the false heiress—the girl who had enjoyed someone else’s daughter’s wealth and privilege for twenty years.
To be precise, Mr. Lin was a Railway Bureau official, while Mrs. Lin was the head nurse at a workers’ hospital. By the standards of the 1980s, their family was fairly well-off, but calling it wealth and splendor was going a little too far.
That was how Mrs. Lin saw it, though.
That year, Mr. Lin was working on a railway in Kai County. Mrs. Lin, heavily pregnant, went to visit him, but she went into premature labor at seven months and gave birth to a baby girl at the local hospital.
Apparently, Lin An’an’s biological mother had also given birth that day, nearly losing her life in the process.
Someone at the hospital had been stealing babies. The babies who were stolen happened to be the true and false heiresses. After the children were recovered, they were taken away to be bathed and changed, and a nurse wrapped them in the wrong blankets. Thus, the bizarre case of the babies being switched was born.
That mistake had lasted twenty years. It was time to correct it. In all those twenty years, Lin An’an had never gone hungry for a single day. They have done right by her
But when Mrs. Lin thought about the hardship and suffering her biological daughter had endured, and that frail body of hers that looked as though it might be blown over by the wind, her heart ached terribly.
“Do I need to make room for her?” Lin An’an asked, unable to keep the sarcasm from her voice.
Blood ties really couldn’t be fooled. Lin An’an had spent twenty years by Mr. and Mrs. Lin’s side, yet she still couldn’t compare to the biological daughter they had met only once.
Mrs. Lin’s expression turned ugly. “Yes. I’m afraid she’ll feel unhappy when she sees you. After all, everything you enjoy now should have been hers.”
“You’re absolutely right. I grew legs the moment I was born and ran here myself. I stole all her wealth and privilege.”
She had been a baby at the time. She owed no one anything. Who was supposed to take responsibility for the twenty years of life that had been stolen from her by that mistake?
Lin An’an rose and returned to her room, paying no attention to Mrs. Lin’s face reddening with anger behind her.
Lin An’an didn’t cry. She had already experienced all of this in her previous life. Having been given another chance, there was nothing she couldn’t see through.
She remembered how, in her previous life, after learning the truth, she had cried and thrown a fit, hoping that Mr. and Mrs. Lin would let her stay. Even if she could remain only as an adopted daughter, it would still be better than returning to the countryside to suffer.
Mr. and Mrs. Lin had agreed, and Lin An’an and Qiao Xiaohong began living under the same roof.
Qiao Xiaohong was a delicate, timid-looking woman who smiled at everyone she met. Her first impression was one of shyness and harmlessness.
Lin An’an had been truly foolish back then. She had thought that, having entered the Lin family twenty years before Qiao Xiaohong, even if they couldn’t become sisters, they could at least live together in peace.
In another six months, she would turn twenty and marry Ren Jie. Then she wouldn’t need to depend on the Lin family anymore.
She never expected Qiao Xiaohong to give Lin An’an a solid slap across the face on the very next day after arriving.
That morning, Qiao Xiaohong cried and shouted that there was a rat in her bed.
Lin An’an found it baffling. Their family hadn’t seen a rat in years, yet Qiao Xiaohong had encountered one on her very first day. What rotten luck.
Mr. Lin stepped forward and indeed found a dead rat in the corner of the bed.
The rat’s head was a bloody mess. Anyone could see that it had been beaten to death.
Mrs. Lin, however, arbitrarily decided that Lin An’an—the only person in the entire family who wasn’t afraid of rats—had deliberately harmed Qiao Xiaohong.
Lin An’an had no way to defend herself.
After that, no matter how careful Lin An’an was, she still fell into one trap after another…
Lin An’an brought Qiao Xiaohong her meal, and afterward Qiao Xiaohong started having diarrhea…
Qiao Xiaohong came home through heavy rain, only to find that no one would open the door. Lin An’an was inside her room, and Qiao Xiaohong developed a high fever after standing outside, drenched to the skin…
Qiao Xiaohong was harassed and pestered by a young hoodlum. A few days later, Mr. and Mrs. Lin discovered that the hoodlum was “seeing” Lin An’an…
Lin An’an couldn’t merely be called incorrigible. She had to be described as morally depraved. She was driven out of the house.
While wandering aimlessly outside, Lin An’an met an unemployed young man and followed him south to start a business. Instead of achieving success, she ended up being packaged together with the debts and handed over by that scumbag to a small business owner.
The small business owner had a wife, children, and a family of his own. The consequences were obvious. Lin An’an lived through a period in which she was neither truly human nor truly a ghost.
Reborn, Lin An’an didn’t want to walk the same road again. If she couldn’t remain with the Lin family, she would return to the countryside. In any case, she needed somewhere that would take her in.
Now that she had made up her mind, Lin An’an began packing her things. She had been given permission to take her clothes. As for everything else, she—the false heiress—wasn’t worthy of taking any of it.
Knock, knock, knock.
Mrs. Lin pushed open the door. “Ren Jie is here. He wants to see you.”
Ren Jie was Lin An’an’s fiancé. They had grown up together, and their families had worked in the same residential compound. The year Lin An’an graduated from high school, their elders had played matchmaker, and the two of them had started dating.
Lin An’an knew what he had come for.
She curled her lips. In her previous life, she had actually liked someone like him. Her eyes must have been covered in dog shit.
Hearing footsteps, Ren Jie turned around.
“An’an, I only found out about what happened to you today. You must be very upset, right?”
Reborn, Lin An’an had already seen through the Lin family. Upset? That feeling no longer existed.
Ren Jie continued, “I know you’re very upset, and I feel terrible for you too. But from now on, you’ll be in the countryside while I’ll be in the city. We’ll be hundreds of miles apart. That’s an obstacle right in front of us…”
Lin An’an laughed. This was a classic case of acting like a whore while still wanting a monument to her chastity. Anyone who didn’t know better might think he was deeply devoted. In her previous life, she had actually believed him.
Yet the moment he turned around, that scumbag had started dating the True Heiress.
Wanting to disgust Ren Jie a little, Lin An’an forced two golden tears from her eyes.
“Ren Jie, I don’t want to go back to the countryside, but I can’t stay here anymore either. Let’s get married. Once we’re married, we won’t have to live apart, and you won’t have to worry about that anymore.”
Ren Jie took a step back. “But you don’t have a job.”
“I’ll ask my brother. I’m sure he can help me find temporary work.”
Ren Jie knew that if Lin An’an went to ask Lin Dong, she would definitely marry him.
But that wasn’t what he wanted.
“No, no. Temporary jobs pay poorly, and they aren’t stable.”
Lin An’an gave two dry laughs. “Ren Jie, is it really that hard to admit that you want to dump me? You want me to back down on my own, so you won’t have to bear the reputation of being a Chen Shimei…”
Ren Jie hurriedly cut her off. “An’an, don’t make things up. I never thought that way.”
“Then marry me. Let me see your sincerity.”
Ren Jie could no longer keep up the act. His true colors came out.
“Lin An’an, I’ll be honest with you. You’re just a country bumpkin. What part of you is worthy of me? Be sensible and stop clinging to me. Don’t mention our engagement again. The only person you’re suited for is some country bumpkin…”
“Bang!”
A fist slammed into Ren Jie’s stomach. Pretty boys really were useless. Clutching his stomach, he dropped to one knee on the ground.
“Lin Dong, you…”
The person who had hit him was the Lin family’s son—Lin An’an’s older brother, Lin Dong.
“Get lost. We must have been blind to take a piece of trash like you seriously.”
Lin An’an also stepped forward. “Ren Jie, we’ve known each other for so many years. There’s no point in putting on this hypocrisy. If you want to dump me and climb up the social ladder, then at least have the decency to act like a man. Seeing you look so bold when you do it, yet so cowardly when you refuse to admit it, makes me sick.”