Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The paternity test went quite smoothly.

The report would be ready in a month.

Du Ruoqing was not happy and started arguing with the staff.

“Why do we have to wait a month for the result?”

“Because we process cases by queue number.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“A citizen.”

“Who gave you the courage to talk to me like that?”

“The country. This is a state-run institution.”

The staff member was expressionless.

Du Ruoqing was so angry she nearly jumped.

My toes curled from secondhand embarrassment.

More and more people gathered around. I couldn’t watch anymore, so I went over, tugged at her arm, and tried to persuade her.

“How about we just wait? It’s only one month…”

Before I finished, Du Ruoqing flung me away.

“Shut up! Of course you’d love to keep occupying my place for another month! But I will never give you that chance!”

After shaking me off, she grabbed the young staff member by his white coat and declared in a powerful voice, “I order you to produce the result today, or you’ll bear the consequences!”

The consequence was that Du Ruoqing received a three-day detention package.

Three days later, Du Ruoqing came back to our house.

She demanded to move in, saying she wanted to feel the family warmth she had been missing for years.

My cold father said, “Wang Ma, prepare a room.”

Du Ruoqing was so happy she almost cried, her eyes turning red.

“Dad and Mom have already accepted my identity in their hearts. This is wonderful. From now on, I will stay by your side and be with you every day.”

She shot me a provocative look and said very loudly, “I want to make up for all the companionship we lost!”

I turned my head away and held my expression steady.

Companionship?

For as long as I could remember, I woke up every day in a five-hundred-square-meter mansion and ate breakfast at an eight-meter-long dining table.

The fixed members of the household were Wang Ma, Uncle Chen, my brother who came home on weekends, and the two Dobermans in the yard.

Loneliness, emptiness, and coldness were the labels of my childhood.

When I was young, my favorite thing was to look up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle and perfectly portray the sadness of youth-pain literature. My social media posts were all things like, “Money can’t buy love and companionship,” and “Those who understand need not ask; those who don’t, why ask?”

Of course, that behavior ended at New Year’s Eve dinner, when my brother screenshotted my posts, enlarged them proportionally, turned them into a quote PPT, and looped it at the dining table.

I did not want to relive that socially fatal past a second time, so I shed a sympathetic tear for Du Ruoqing.

Her dream was doomed.

Still, my incomparably dazzling mother smiled with great delight, clapped repeatedly, and echoed excitedly, “You said it so well! I also want to make up for the regrets of the past. You’re so pretty. I must dress you up as a stunning little princess!”

A stunning little princess?

The moment my brother and I heard that, we stepped back almost in sync.

Words rose to our lips, stopped, rose again, and stopped again.

But seeing my mother pull Du Ruoqing upstairs, excited like a young girl, my brother and I exchanged a look.

Our open mouths closed again.

“I have so many beautiful clothes that no one ever wears. Now I’ve finally found a model. This is wonderful.”

“Mom, if you want, I’m willing to be your model for the rest of my life.”

“Really? Really? Boohoo, you’re so sweet. I’m so touched. It’s so good to have you.”

Du Ruoqing was coaxed until she lost herself in joy.

After a while, she glanced toward me from the corner of her eye.

“Mom, did you never dress up Sister before?”

“But that makes sense. After all, she isn’t your biological daughter, so of course you wouldn’t be as close as a real mother and daughter…”

“Just like the two dogs in the yard by the gate. That deep parental bond, only a real mother and daughter can be that close. Fake can never become real!”

Du Ruoqing spoke at length, her words growing more and more naked.

“Look at how they lean against each other. It’s just like a reflection of our family…”

I couldn’t help reminding her, “Dahuang and Little Black are both male.”

Du Ruoqing’s smile froze.

I added, “They were neutered more than ten years ago.”

Du Ruoqing’s face changed through every color.

But soon, her proud expression returned.

My mother excitedly dragged her upstairs. Before leaving, she did not forget to provoke me with the gaze of a victor.

She did not notice the pity in my eyes.

Good luck to her.