Chapter 3
Sophia could not bear the foul smell and retched in nausea for a while.
She really could not stay any longer, so she hurriedly opened her exquisite Louis Vuitton bag, took out five hundred dollars, and placed it on the trash-covered table.
There was a plate of fat dead bugs on the table, already covered in mold and giving off waves of stench.
Sophia ran outside in disgust and threw up for a long time.
“Anna, dead child, dead child, give me bugs... big fat bugs...”
Grandma chased after her, barefoot, hunched over, dirty and disheveled, like a madwoman.
Before she even got close, that thick stench filled the air.
My mom reached out to stop her. “Don’t come over here. You stink!”
“I put five hundred dollars in living expenses on the table for you and Anna, so tell her to spend it carefully.”
“I’ll come see her again next time.”
My soul followed them outside too, numb as I watched her disgusted expression.
Just as she was about to hurry away, a video call came to her phone, and the contact name was Husband.
“I didn’t see Anna. She seems to have gone out to catch bugs. She’s so old, yet still so naughty.”
Sophia’s tone was full of disgust as she summarized what she had seen in a few words.
I leaned closer and saw Dad in the video.
His hair was slicked back and shiny, he wore an expensive suit, and his skin looked good.
His whole body gave off the rich air of someone raised by money.
The house behind him was bright and exquisitely decorated.
My heart felt sour, because this good life had once belonged to me.
It was just that after they adopted my sister, Mom and Dad felt that ordinary me was too spoiled, so they sent me here to receive hardship education.
I did not dare call them often, afraid they would think I was delicate, and the only time I called was seven days before I starved to death.
Maybe after suffering too much pain, nothing could stir up much emotion anymore.
I just stood numbly beside Sophia.
“Honey, I thought about it, and shouldn’t we bring Anna to the city now?”
“Anna is eight, and it’s inconvenient for her to go to school there.”
My shattered heart was instantly stitched together a little, and tears of surprise filled my eyes.
Mom did not love me, but Dad still cared about me.
I stared at Dad and smiled.
Even though he could not see me.
Sophia let out a deep sigh, and her tone was disappointed, disgusted, and hopeless.
She covered her nose and walked into the house, aiming the camera inside:
“Look, Anna made the house look like a dump.”
“I want to take her back too, but look at how filthy she is. How can we take her?”
I felt extremely wronged and said dully:
“I’m not filthy.” What could a five-year-old child do?
I had been dead for three years, and you still did not know.
“Let me see my sister’s house, let me see!”
A lively and cheerful voice came through, and a seven-year-old girl with two pretty braids appeared in the video.
She was my adopted sister, Clara.
She had been raised very well, wearing a beautiful princess dress, her skin tender like a peeled egg.
She was confident and lively, like a little princess from a wealthy family.
Her smile disappeared when she saw the ruined house in the video, and her disgusted expression was exactly like Sophia’s.
“It’s so dirty. Even a dump isn’t this dirty.”
“I won’t let her come to our house. Someone this unhygienic will definitely bring lots of germs!”
But the fishing village I was in had clearly been her former home.
Ethan quickly pulled Clara into his arms and coaxed her:
“Okay, okay, we’ll listen to our little princess and not bring your sister here yet.”
“We’ll have your sister fix all her hygiene habits, and after she becomes a clean little kid, we’ll bring her here, okay?”
Clara pouted proudly and pulled Ethan’s hand to the side:
“Let her see my room. When she makes her room as pretty and clean as mine, then you can bring her here.”
With a great sense of superiority, Clara showed every corner of her room to the camera.
“Mom, let her see what a girl’s room should look like.”
“I don’t want a sister who lives in a trash heap.”
I stared without blinking at Clara’s room, because it had once been my bedroom.
The room was decorated cutely and brightly, and a cabinet of toys and figurines was arranged neatly inside.
Her room was very big, connected to a transparent walk-in closet.
All kinds of dazzling clothes hung inside.
Even the carpet in the room was snowy white and fluffy, like walking on clouds.
I just watched, my mind completely blank.
My heart, riddled with wounds, could not muster even the slightest strength to hate or resent.