In the crowded kitchen, a thin figure bustled about cheerfully, like a hardworking little bee.
Before long, an enticing aroma wafted from the kitchen.
Xu Lin picked up a piece of egg and popped it into her mouth, her peach-blossom eyes narrowing in enjoyment, a satisfied smile appearing on her palm-sized face.
Delicious, truly delicious, so she took several more large bites.
Seeing that half the eggs in the pan were gone, she waved her small hand. A handful of yellow sand flowed from her palm and into the pan.
Xu Lin grabbed the spatula and gave it a dozen quick tosses.
Once she was sure the yellow sand and the golden-brown eggs had merged into one, she plated them with a grin.
Excellent, mission accomplished. Time for dinner. She picked up the plate and headed toward the main room.
“Coo, coo, coo, time to eat, time to eat.”
Xu Lin shouted as she stood by the dining table in the main room. Her tone and cadence sounded a bit like one might use to call chickens or dogs.
Soon, several people walked out of the rooms. Ignoring Xu Lin standing at the corner of the table, they sat down quickly, their appetites whetted by the fragrance.
As Xu Lin gazed at the people sitting there, a deep-seated hatred flickered in her eyes.
Yes, it was hatred. Xu Lin’s hatred for this family was etched into her bones and fused into her soul.
She hadn’t forgotten a shred of it even after traversing through a thousand worlds.
In her previous life, she had worked like an ox or a horse to serve this entire family.
At a young age, because of the saying “an elder sister is like a mother,” she started doing housework before she was even five. By six, she was standing on a stool to cook.
Initially, she was beaten until her skin was raw and her flesh was torn because the food tasted bad, and she was cursed for wasting grain.
It was only because Aunt Guihua next door couldn’t bear to watch and gave her a few private pointers that she finally learned how to cook.
Originally, the family was unwilling to let her go to school. It was only after the neighborhood committee aunties couldn’t stand it and came to persuade them many times that she was sent to school at age twelve.
The teacher disliked her original name for being unpleasant and changed it to Xu Lin. She was a bright student and finished elementary school in just two years.
Despite this, she dropped out immediately after elementary school. It wasn’t because she failed the middle school entrance exam, but because her sister, Xu Nuan, took her spot.
Xu Nuan had hated studying since childhood and had started school years earlier than her, yet while Xu Lin had already passed the middle school exam, Xu Nuan was still stuck in fourth grade.
She hadn’t scored above twenty on a single subject.
If she hadn’t stolen Xu Lin’s educational opportunity, Xu Nuan would never have hoped to attend middle school in her life.
After dropping out, besides doing housework, Xu Lin also took on jobs gluing paper boxes and doing needlework to earn money, never having a moment’s rest all day long.
Xu Lin believed her contributions to the family were more than enough.
If they had even a shred of conscience, even if they didn’t love her, they would have found a good family to marry her into.
Even if they kept the entire dowry, it would have been fine.
But the Xu family didn’t. To keep her working and earning money for them, they dragged it out until she was twenty-eight before letting her marry.
No, it couldn’t be called marriage; it was a sale. She was sold to an old cripple in a remote mountain ravine.
That old cripple was a domestic abuser who had beaten three wives to death. Less than a year after Xu Lin married him, she was beaten to death.
Unwilling to accept her fate, Xu Lin’s soul wandered the world after death, eventually drifting back to the Xu family home.
Only then did she hear from the Xu family that she wasn’t their child, but the true daughter who had been swapped at birth.
The Xu family’s biological daughter was enjoying a life of luxury and wealth under her identity.
Most importantly, her biological parents also knew of her existence.
Just because one of her legs had been broken by Father Xu, making her a cripple, that family gave up the idea of reclaiming their biological daughter.
They continued to raise the girl they had taken by mistake as their own, no longer caring whether Xu Lin lived or died.
At that moment, the sky-high hatred in Xu Lin’s heart caught the attention of the Cannon Fodder Counterattack System.
The system told her that as long as she completed a thousand plane missions, she would gain a chance at rebirth.
To be reborn, Xu Lin traveled through different worlds with the system, inhabiting one cannon fodder character after another. To learn various skills and counterattack, she endured all sorts of hardships and experienced the coldness and warmth of the world.
Only then did she complete the counterattack missions to earn today’s rebirth.
At the moment of her rebirth, the system unlinked to find a new host, but it left Xu Lin a Spatial Dimension.
The Spatial Dimension was ten mu in size, equipped with a Spirit Spring, and could be used for farming, ranching, and housing living people.
Inside, there was also a courtyard house she had built in an ancient plane, plus a large warehouse with a Time Stasis Array.
Items placed in the warehouse were in a state of suspended time and would never spoil.
Furthermore, she was allowed to keep some of the skills she had learned across the various planes, giving her the means to protect herself after rebirth.
Xu Lin closed her eyes, suppressed her swirling thoughts, and sat at the corner of the table.
“Why did you make so much porridge? You wasteful little slut, don’t you know there’s a food shortage these days?
Do you want to finish it all in one meal and then starve the whole family to death?
Tell me, how can your heart be so venomous at such a young age? Raising you in the Xu family is truly worse than raising a pig. A pig is worth more than you.”
Old Mrs. Xu grumbled and cursed while portioning out the food. This was Old Mrs. Xu’s daily ritual; no matter how much food was made, she had to scold her.
It was as if she couldn’t swallow her meal without a round of abuse.
Xu Lin narrowed her peach-blossom eyes. Her numb little face showed no change at all, as if she had long ago grown accustomed to such insults.
Father Xu, Mother Xu, and the two younger Xu siblings all wore looks of disdain and disgust. Not one of them stood up to say a kind word for her.
Soon, Old Mrs. Xu finished portioning the porridge.
Old Mrs. Xu’s bowl was the thickest, while Xu Lin’s was the thinnest—so thin it was like a mirror, without a single grain of rice.
Xu Lin acted as if she didn’t see the injustice and stared blankly at the tabletop.
Old Mrs. Xu was the first to move her chopsticks, and the others at the table immediately followed. Eating was like going to war; the table was filled with the afterimages of chopsticks.
“Ah!” The old woman clutched her mouth, her eyes twitching in pain.
She wanted to open her mouth to spit it out, but she couldn’t bear to waste the eggs. She wanted to swallow, but it felt like grit against her teeth.
While she was struggling, the sound of spitting echoed around the table.
Ptu, ptu, ptu…
“What is this? Why are the eggs so gritty?” Father Xu slammed down his chopsticks and continued to spit, feeling as if he had eaten a mouthful of sand.
“You dead slut, just how many eggshells did you break into this?”
Mother Xu spat the eggs into her palm, cursing while poking through them as if trying to find eggshells.
The younger brother, Xu Kun, spat out his eggs and raised his hand to give Xu Lin a heavy slap, but Xu Lin tilted her head and dodged it.
His palm struck the edge of the table. Xu Kun clutched his hand and screamed in pain, feeling as if his palm was about to break.
“You money-loser, who gave you permission to dodge?” Xu Kun barked in rage.
For a moment, the room was filled with curses, rebukes, and blame—it was quite a scene. Yet, not a single person said a word in Xu Lin’s defense.
“Little slut, tell me, what are you even good for? You can’t even stir-fry eggs properly. Why… why is there sand in these eggs?”
Mother Xu stared at the eggs in her palm with wide eyes. The others did the same. Sand in the eggs—it sounded so bizarre.
Soon, everyone’s gaze focused on Xu Lin. Mother Xu asked angrily, “Little slut, tell me, did you add sand on purpose?”
Xu Lin blinked her innocent eyes. She certainly wouldn’t admit she had done it intentionally. Instead, she explained in a timid, mosquito-like voice:
“I didn’t… I didn’t do it. It wasn’t me. Maybe, probably, perhaps the hen grew up eating sand!”