Chapter 1

Chapter 1

At seven in the morning, I descended the spiral staircase.

Mother, Father, my younger brother, and Li Ruoyu were already at the dining table, chatting and laughing.

I stood there for three seconds, waiting for the dull ache around my heart to subside before walking over.

Li Ruoyu was the first to notice me. She looked up and smiled.

“Why are you up so early today?”

She looked even more like me now.

Three days ago, Li Ruoyu had been brought back to the Li family.

She had arrived with an enormous backpack, dusty and travel-worn, the cuffs of her cargo pants frayed ragged. Apparently, she’d been injured during a field expedition and taken to a hospital owned by the Li family. That was when everyone discovered she was the Lis’ biological daughter.

She hugged each member of the family in turn, then looked at me.

Her gaze lingered on my face longer than anywhere else.

While I nervously pinched the hem of my shirt, she swept me into a hug.

“So you’re Li Zhexue?”

“Why do you look like a little kitten? Your skin is so pale, and your eyes are so round.”

I tried to wriggle free without making it obvious.

But Li Ruoyu was half a head taller than me, and her fingers were callused. One arm circled my waist while the other looped around my neck, squeezing hard enough to hurt.

She buried her face in my hair and inhaled deeply.

“You smell amazing. What shampoo do you use?”

The next day, I smelled the same fragrance on Li Ruoyu.

On the third, she wore clothes and jewelry similar to mine.

I understood.

Li Ruoyu wanted to replace me and become the Li family’s one and only true daughter.

I didn’t hate her. My heart just throbbed with a dull, heavy pain.

These twenty-one years had been stolen time to begin with.

It was only right that she should want it back.

There was just one thing I refused to surrender.

I had him locked in a basement where sunlight never reached. No one could take him from me.

I spread butter on my bread with a table knife while Mother talked about the welcome ball she was arranging for Li Ruoyu.

“It’s set for the evening after tomorrow. I’ve ordered new jewelry and gifts for both of you.”

Then Mother complained fondly, “And your big brother! He said he was leaving on business, but something this important happened and he hasn’t even shown his face. He isn’t answering his phone either.”

“With that illness of his, who knows whether he’s taking his medicine on time.”

I pricked up my ears, hoping to hear more.

My younger brother cut in with a joke.

“Think he got kidnapped?”

The entire family burst out laughing.

“He’s taller than a utility pole and built like an ox. Who could possibly kidnap him?”

Only my hands went still.

My stomach felt weighted with stone. The bread I’d swallowed threatened to come back up.

It took all my strength to force a smile.

I lowered my head and said softly, “I’m full. I’m going to class.”

Li Ruoyu’s head snapped up.

“That’s all you’re eating? I baked cookies. Take some for the road.”

I politely refused her cookies and picked up my schoolbag.

As I left the dining room, I faintly heard my younger brother teasing her.

“How does it feel using your handpicked big sis as Dolly the sheep?”

Embarrassed and angry, Li Ruoyu seemed to yell at him to get lost.