Chapter 5

Before long, Shen Yi messaged me on WeChat, demanding to know what had happened.

I hadn’t finished having fun, so of course I kept stringing him along.

“I’m sorry, Yi. Shen Jibai was already on his guard against me. He set a trap for us, and we both fell for it!”

Everyone said Shen Jibai was meticulous and calculating. Naturally, a young woman like me was no match for him.

Shen Yi didn’t suspect anything. He simply told me to look for another opportunity.

I’d just lain down for a little beauty sleep when the caller ID on my phone caught my attention.

I stared at it for a while, growing more interested by the second.

Yes, it was about time I met that stepsister of mine.

When the original woman was very young, her mother had married her stepfather and brought her along.

The man openly favored his own daughter, spoiling her into a domineering brat who had bullied and belittled her stepsister all their lives.

Dependent on him for her livelihood, the woman’s mother had always sided with father and daughter. Her own child had grown up like a weed, stubbornly surviving years of hurt and repression.

As she grew more and more beautiful, the family couldn’t wait to marry her into money in exchange for an enormous bride price.

Disgusting. Every last one of them.

I’d barely stepped through the door when a middle-aged woman came bustling over.

“Ah Xue, you’re finally home! Come and sit down. Have a rest.”

I’d have sat down even without the invitation.

I hadn’t come back to play housekeeper.

But the instant my backside touched the sofa, a shrill voice rang out. “Lin Chenxue! Do you think we asked you home so you could lord it over us? Are you blind? Can’t you see all the work in the kitchen?”

Apparently not satisfied, she sneered, “Let me tell you something. A sparrow will always be a sparrow. Marrying a blind man doesn’t change that!”

This had to be Lin Yao, the original woman’s stepsister. Her figure? Ordinary. Her looks? She wasn’t fit to hold a candle to me.

This was what I was dealing with?

I laughed.

Deliberately narrowing my eyes, I looked her up and down, then gave her a thoroughly scornful look.

“My, your eyesight really is poor. All these years, and you still can’t tell which of us has the face and figure of someone born to be a maid?”

“You—”

Lin Yao jumped as though I’d stepped on her tail.

My mother hurried over. “Ah Xue, what a thing to say! Apologize to your sister.”

I crossed my legs and sprawled on the sofa. “Yes, being so beautiful that my sister never stood a chance was terribly inconsiderate of me.”

“Aaargh! I’ll tear that mouth off your face!”

Lin Yao flew into a rage and charged at me.

I quietly stuck out a leg. She took care of the falling flat on her face herself.

Honestly, I was beginning to worry about her.

With brains and coordination like that, how was she supposed to fight me?