Chapter 1
I never had a father, growing up with my mom in the village.
The village was poor; from eighty-year-old grannies to five-year-old kids, everyone had to help with household chores.
The villagers loved to say, “Kids from poor families grow up fast.”
But my mom was different.
She never made me do any work.
From the time I could understand, my mom told me the world is cruel, with no fairness in it.
When Aunt Li taught her daughter Erya to be kind,
She told me to abandon unnecessary kindness and seize any opportunity to climb, no matter the means.
When Uncle Zhang taught his son Jun to be filial, putting family above all,
She taught me that family, friends, and love would betray you, but money wouldn’t.
She taught me to read people’s expressions, to be sweet-talking but ruthless inside.
She showed me through her own actions that only money never betrays.
At fifteen, my biological father showed up.
He wore a crisp suit, his hair neatly combed.
His shiny leather shoes clashed with our concrete floor.
Aunt Li teased me: “Girl, you’re about to live the good life.”
I sat at the front gate, staring at the little gold figure on the car hood.
I knew good fortune doesn’t just drop on your head.
That day, I got in the car and went to the hospital.
The driver took me for a full checkup and drew several tubes of blood.
After leaving the hospital, I was sent back to the village.
My mom said nothing, just told me to wait.
Ten days later, the man came again.
His brows were relaxed; he seemed in a better mood than last time.
He wanted me to leave, but my mom insisted I stay and listen to their conversation.
“The matching results are in—it’s a half-match.”
My mom looked as if she’d expected it, her expression calm.
But I knew she wasn’t as composed as she seemed.
Her hand gripping mine was trembling.
At fifteen, I didn’t understand what a half-match meant.
That day, the two people closest to me by blood negotiated for three hours in front of me.
In the end, I went home with my birth father, and my mom took fifty million yuan.
My bone marrow was sold by her for fifty million.