Chapter 8
“Grandpa, Nuannuan has never suffered a day in her life. Expelling her is no different from sending her to her death.”
The eldest Sheng brother’s eyes reddened with desperation.
The second brother leaped forward and stubbornly echoed him.
“That’s right. If you’re expelling her, then expel all of us. We will never leave her alone.”
The other six brothers rose as well, resolve in their eyes.
“We leave together. Before Mom died, she made us promise to protect our little sister. We will never abandon her.”
The eldest brother looked at the old man kneeling on the floor and mocked him.
“We’re not shameless like you, Grandpa. You’ve served someone else all these years, gotten nothing in return, and now you still have to swallow this humiliation.”
Their ringing declarations made a grand display of sibling devotion.
Standing nearby, I could not help rolling my eyes.
“You got nothing? Everything you wear and everything you eat comes from the Sheng family.”
“Sheng Mingzhang, wasn’t that couture suit you’re wearing custom-made for you by the family last month?”
“Sheng Mingjue, didn’t you buy that limited-edition Patek Philippe on your wrist with a Sheng family black card?”
“And the supercars and esports teams owned by the rest of you burn through hundreds of millions from the Sheng coffers every year. Yet you claim you’ve gotten nothing?”
I paused, a mocking curve lifting the corner of my mouth.
“Oh, right. The black card you offered for my castle was loaded with Sheng family money too.”
“So you’re putting on this touching show of brotherly devotion with your master’s money. Have you no shame?”
All eight brothers went scarlet, as though someone had slapped them hard across the face.
Their mouths opened, but they found no way to argue.
“You’re not allowed to bully my brothers!”
When Sheng Nuannuan saw that I had rendered them speechless, she stepped in front of them with tears in her eyes.
“They’re not like you say. They’re good people! Who cares about your stupid money?”
“Brothers?”
I doubled over laughing until tears nearly came to my eyes.
“But they aren’t your brothers at all.”
I might not drink human blood, but my sensitivity to it was hundreds of times greater than any mortal’s.
There was no trace of the Sheng family in Sheng Nuannuan’s blood.
“What do you mean?”
The eight brothers looked at one another.
“It means you’ve been played.”
Mom sneered and snapped her fingers.
A huge screen of light spread through the air, projecting crisp surveillance footage.
“Open those dog eyes of yours and look. The sister you’ve treasured so dearly is nothing but an impostor.”
The footage showed the maternity ward at the Sheng family hospital eighteen years ago. A nanny secretly carried away the newborn Sheng heiress and replaced her with Sheng Nuannuan.
The image changed. Only a few days earlier, Sheng Nuannuan had been nestled in the nanny’s arms, affectionately calling her Mom as she boasted,
“Those Sheng brothers are a pack of idiots. They believe everything I say. They’re so easy to fool.”
The image shifted again. The true Sheng heiress was tied to a chair, a bowl of sour, spoiled slop placed in front of her.
Sheng Nuannuan crouched down and forced the girl to open her mouth.
“Eat. Didn’t you say you were hungry? I saved this especially for you.”
The castle fell deathly silent.
The eight brothers’ faces went from white to livid.
The bond they had taken such pride in had been a joke from beginning to end.
“It’s fake!”
Sheng Nuannuan finally panicked and shook her head frantically.
“The footage is forged! You’re framing Baby!”
“Then do you dare take a paternity test right now?”
Faced with my challenge, she opened her mouth but could not force out a word.
The eldest Sheng brother trembled with fury.
“We treated you like our own sister, and all this time you’ve been playing us for fools.”
The brothers began cursing her one after another, looking as though they wanted to rush forward and slap her themselves.
The old man clutched his chest in anguish and nearly fainted.
For eighteen years, he had cherished this granddaughter as though she might break if dropped or melt if held too close. He had never imagined she was an impostor.
“Men, throw her out of the Sheng family. She is never to return.”
Two bodyguards seized her arms.
When she saw that tears and pleas were useless, Sheng Nuannuan stopped struggling and snarled through clenched teeth,
“Fine. If you’re going to be this heartless, don’t blame me for what happens next.”
She abruptly shouted toward the darkness on the second floor,
“Mom, do it just like we planned!”