SYLFS 01

Chapter 1: 

Go Back to Your Real Parents

The scorching June sun burned the sky.

The moment Kang Shushu stepped through the mansion gates, a large suitcase was hurled at her feet with a loud “thud!”

Standing at the entrance was an elegant-looking middle-aged woman dressed in flashy clothes. Her eyes swept up and down the girl’s refined features and snow-white skin. A flicker of jealousy flashed through them—quickly replaced by open disgust.

“I’ve packed your things. Starting today, you’re leaving this house. Go back to your real parents!”

Kang Shushu didn’t even glance at the suitcase. Her cold eyes fixed on the woman before her—Bai Shuqin, the woman she had called Mother for seventeen years.

The commotion drew attention. Soon, the Kang family’s father and his two biological children appeared.

Father Kang glanced at the suitcase thrown at his daughter’s feet and spoke in a reproachful tone to his wife.

“Shuqin, what are you doing? Shushu has been our daughter for eighteen years.”

“She’s a traitor who repays kindness with betrayal!”

Bai Shuqin glared at Kang Shushu.

“I told her to give up her spot for the city’s image ambassador competition so Ruirui could have it! But she ignored me and entered on her own! If I hadn’t checked the results ahead of time, we’d still be fooled. If she had even a shred of conscience, she’d never steal something that should’ve belonged to her sister!”

At those words, Kang Ruirui—standing demurely beside her mother—let a trace of jealousy flicker in her eyes. Then she quickly hid it, putting on a pitiful expression.

“Mom, don’t say that. The city image ambassador opportunity is precious, but if Sis didn’t give it to me, it’s probably because I wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t chosen, that’s all.”

“You’ve done nothing wrong. Everything Shushu has comes from this Kang family anyway.”

Bai Shuqin said this while embracing her daughter tenderly.

Kang Shushu simply watched the mother-daughter performance in silence.

—She’d seen this exact act countless times since childhood.

Now, it no longer stirred even a ripple in her heart. If anything, she almost found it amusing.

Three days ago, she had been hit by a car—thrown more than twenty meters—while trying to protect Ruirui.

Everyone thought she wouldn’t survive.

But when Bai Shuqin and the others rushed to the scene, their first concern wasn’t whether Shushu was alive.
It was how to comfort the terrified, crying Ruirui.

As she lay on the ground, barely conscious, she heard them whisper—

“The front of the car is crushed… she probably won’t make it.”
“Then Ruirui’s misfortune has been transferred to her. Raising her all these years wasn’t in vain.”

She had always known, deep down:
to the Kang family, she was nothing more than Ruirui’s stand-in.

As a child, she hadn’t understood why she was always made to nurse Ruirui whenever her sister fell ill—
or why every time Ruirui recovered, she herself would fall sick soon after.

Later, when she met her mentor, the mystery was solved.

Comparing their eight characters (birth-date elements in Chinese metaphysics), he discovered that she and Ruirui were bound by a Qiankun Contract—a rare yin-yang bond.

Qiankun—Heaven and Earth—two halves of one destiny.
And Shushu was the fortunate half.

The Kang family had raised her beside Ruirui to harness her fate’s positive energy, using it to absorb Ruirui’s misfortunes.

Each time, Ruirui’s destiny brightened—while Shushu’s slowly darkened.

Had she not prepared in advance, the accident three days ago would have completely drained her fortune—and killed her.

But that very accident became a turning point—
for it was when her real parents finally came searching for her.

“Are you done talking? Then can I go now?”

—After overhearing that cold conversation about her “death,” the last trace of affection she’d had for the Kang family vanished completely.

She felt no attachment whatsoever to this house.

“Shushu, don’t blame your mother. This time… you are partly at fault.”

Father Kang finally spoke, his expression stern as ever.

“Your real parents have come for you. It’s time to go home.”

Ruirui added softly,

“Sis, don’t blame Mom… she’s only doing this for my sake.”

Then she took out an envelope and held it out to Shushu.

“There’s a thousand yuan in here. Dad said your real parents live deep in the mountains and are very poor. I wanted to give you more, but Dad said mountain folk… well…”

She trailed off, sighing dramatically.

“…If you carry too much money, it might actually be dangerous.”

Bai Shuqin cut in with a snort.

“Ruirui is too kind. What’s wrong with me telling the truth? Mountain men can’t even find wives—so they buy women. When you go back, you’ll probably be sold off as someone’s wife anyway. You won’t get into college, so you might as well get married.”

She laughed coldly and went on.

“We’re being generous giving you this thousand yuan. That should last a whole year up there. You should be grateful.”

Kang Shushu didn’t so much as flinch at the woman’s self-righteous expression.

—Not worth replying to.

She had no intention of taking the envelope. Gripping her suitcase, she turned to leave—
then stopped.

Her gaze froze on the jade bracelet glinting around Ruirui’s wrist.

Her eyes sharpened. In the next instant, she seized Ruirui’s wrist.

“…Why do you have that bracelet?”

Ruirui had planned it this way—handing her the envelope to show off the bracelet on purpose.
But when her wrist was grabbed, she feigned fear and pain.

“Ow…! That hurts!”

Bai Shuqin immediately rushed forward, pulling Shushu’s hand away.

“Kang Shushu! What do you think you’re doing?!”

Still staring at Ruirui’s wrist, Shushu said quietly,

“That bracelet… was my grandmother’s keepsake to me.”

“What nonsense! That was left for the Kang family’s daughter! You’re not one of us anymore, so of course it belongs to Ruirui!”

Shushu clenched her teeth, let go of her suitcase, and turned to Father Kang.

“I won’t take a single thing from this house.
But please—return the bracelet my grandmother left me.”

—If she had any lingering attachment to this family, it was only because of Grandmother.

Grandmother had been the only one who truly loved her.
Even on her deathbed, she had worried about Shushu’s future.
That bracelet was her final token of affection.

Father Kang listened without a flicker of emotion.

“You were indeed adopted, but I raised you as my own. The Kang family values appearances—we won’t send a daughter off empty-handed. Your parents’ home must be hard up; take what you need.”

—But he said nothing about the bracelet.

Then Ruirui spoke again, her voice meek and “considerate.”

“Sis, I understand that you really want that bracelet… but it did belong to Grandma, after all. How about I give you money instead? Ten thousand yuan—no? Twenty thousand?”

Her tone made it sound like she was saying—
You just want to sell it for money anyway, don’t you?

At that, Kang Shushu’s eyes turned icy cold, a blade-like glint flashing in them.