Chapter 9

The acrid smell of gasoline suddenly spread through the air.

My expression changed.

“No. She’s going to burn down the castle!”

“That’s right.”

The tears on Sheng Nuannuan’s face had not yet dried, but her smile had twisted into something ugly.

“Baby’s original plan was to lure those eight Sheng idiots to an abandoned castle in the mountains, burn them all to death, and make it look like an accident.”

“Then Baby would be the Sheng family’s sole heir. But Baby never expected a country bumpkin like you to ruin everything.”

Undisguised hatred filled her eyes.

“It doesn’t matter. Vampires are afraid of fire too. Once Baby burns all of you to death today, the inheritance will still be hers.”

Click.

Without hesitation, she dropped a lit lighter.

Flames leaped toward the ceiling and swallowed the entire first-floor hall in an instant.

“Run!”

The eight brothers charged toward the doors in a frenzy, only to discover that Sheng Nuannuan had already sealed the iron gates.

While no one was watching, she escaped outside with her people.

Looking at the raging inferno, Sheng Nuannuan said smugly,

“Since you loved this little sister so much, don’t worry. Baby will collect your bodies once they’re burned to a crisp.”

“Baby simply never imagined that all those years of affection would mean less to you than your ridiculous blood ties.”

“But soon, Baby will send the real heiress down to join you.”

Inside the castle, my brother and sister were already half dead from the heat. Mom and Dad were weakening too.

“Mom, Dad, what do we do?”

My sister was frantic.

“Don’t panic. I have a way out.”

I remained strangely calm. I pushed aside an inconspicuous stone slab in the corner, revealing an opening just large enough for one person.

Long ago, so I could secretly grow vegetables beneath my parents’ noses, I had dug a tunnel without telling anyone.

I had never expected it to save us today.

Everyone stumbled and crawled into the passage.

We finally escaped in the last few seconds before the castle collapsed with a roar.

Sheng Nuannuan was still ordering her nanny mother around.

“Hurry and call those reporters. Tell them the eight young masters of the Sheng family fought over the inheritance inside the castle and ended up killing one another.”

“A little late for that, don’t you think?”

A cold voice sounded without warning behind Sheng Nuannuan.

Before she could turn, a powerful hand closed around her throat.

Dad lifted her into the air, his face expressionless.

“How can this be…”

Sheng Nuannuan stared at the unharmed figures behind him, her eyes bulging nearly out of their sockets.

She would never have another chance to argue.

Dad moved one fingertip. A wisp of mist slipped between Sheng Nuannuan’s brows.

“Since you love acting so much, you can keep acting forever.”

Her eyes quickly lost focus.

She clawed wildly at her own face, as though she had seen the most terrifying things in the world.

In the end, Sheng Nuannuan was committed to a psychiatric hospital, where she suffered endlessly in her hallucinations every day.

Her nanny mother and driver father were sent to prison.

Once the turmoil had passed, I opened a vast new vegetable garden.

This time, Mom and Dad no longer objected. They threw their full support behind me.

Mom even organized a vampire vegetable-growing contest with great enthusiasm.

With my unmatched skill at growing premium cabbages, I won first place by a landslide.

Holding the trophy, I looked at my applauding parents and at the eight Sheng brothers toiling miserably as my servants in the vegetable patch. I smiled more brightly than the sun.

This was the life I wanted.

The End