Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Qin Family and the Li Family had been close for generations. Recently, they were jointly investing in a biotech project, and Grandpa Li had warmly invited me to stay at the Li Family estate. In truth, he was plotting to have me and his precious golden grandson fall head over heels for each other.

Shareholding really was no match for marriage ties. Though in my sister Qin Zhou’s eyes, this so-called alliance was nothing more than a joke the elders from both families had made.

But I took it seriously.

If this project truly needed a bridge and a bond, then I could make the sacrifice.

Marriage was just marriage. No big deal.

Only, I hadn’t expected the two young men of the Li Family to look down on me, one more than the other.

I got shut down by Li Xinghe again. When I returned to the living room, I was met with Li Xinglan’s mocking gaze. “My little brother’s into art. His standards can only be even higher than mine.”

“Qin Meng, you think you get to choose?”

I was so irritated I nearly burst, and strode straight past him upstairs.

Back in the guest room, I stood in front of the full-length mirror on the dresser and swept my bangs aside, revealing a plain, cool face.

Li Xinglan was right. I really was copying my sister.

My sister, Qin Zhou, had earned her PhD in biology at a top California university by the time she was twenty-seven. Compared with me, a failure from a third-rate university who had barely scraped by with enough credits to graduate, she had already crushed me in IQ alone, let alone in looks and temperament, which left me a full street behind her.

For the past twenty-five years, I had done my best to learn her intellectual elegance, her simple propriety, even her gentle grace. Unfortunately, all my effort had only turned me into a clumsy imitation of Dong Shi.

Not only had I failed to win anyone’s affection, I’d only ended up making people dislike me more.

I dragged myself onto the bed in low spirits, and before long drowsiness welled up. Soon, I was vaguely asleep.

That sleep led to an indescribable dream.

In the dream, my sister and I lived inside a fictional novel. She was the heroine, and I was the supporting actress who kept trying every trick in the book to imitate my far more outstanding sister, all just to win the male lead, Li Xinglan’s, favor-even to the point of turning against her.

That plot…

What the hell.

So the next morning, I got myself dressed properly and headed straight to the salon to get a slutty big-wave perm.

Tony, the stylist who had done my sister’s hair, had some name in influencer circles. He had said more than once that although Qin Zhou and I were sisters, our faces and temperaments were completely different.

It had to be said that because our natural looks were so different, I had spared no effort in trying to imitate her.

“I’ve told you long ago, you don’t suit the forest-girl look.”

Above my head, Tony gestured flamboyantly with orchid fingers as he gave me an emphatic critique. “Look at you-you’ve got a waist and hips. What a waste to hide a body like that. You should be going for a big-sister, Hong Kong-style vibe, not trying to copy your sister’s pale, skinny, baby-faced look.”

After that, he had the makeup artist redesign my makeup.

I endured a whole afternoon of my scalp being yanked at, and then shelled out extra for a LADY DIOR midi skirt. In the end, the finished effect could only be described as night and day.

Which was why, as I walked toward the entrance of the Li Family’s private estate, car horns kept blaring one after another along the way.

I stopped at the roadside to let traffic through, and a two-tone Maybach slowly pulled up in front of me. The window rolled down, revealing a familiar, coldly handsome face.

The other person stared at me for a long time, his eyes filled with both astonishment and hesitation.

“You are…”

“Thanks. Qin Meng.”

“………”