01.
I woke from a dream.
A warm sensation came from beside me.
I stiffened and turned my head. My pupils suddenly contracted.
It was Grace Turner, my younger half-sister.
She was naked, her long hair tangled, and a flush from their lovemaking still lingered on her face.
She slept soundly, looking blissfully content.
But… how could this be?
Half a year ago, a fire had swallowed the Shen family residence in a single night. No one in the entire household had survived.
Grace Turner had perished in that blaze, too.
So how could she be here now?
Could she be a ghost?
I suddenly sat bolt upright, cold sweat breaking out all over me.
As if my movement had woken her, Grace Turner drowsily rolled over and reached out an elegant arm, wrapping it around my waist.
“Darling… are you leaving?”
Her voice was as sweet and soft as honey, yet it made me feel as though I’d fallen into a pit of ice.
Darling?
Why was she calling me that?
I lowered my head and looked at my body.
A flat chest, a firm waist, and…
My trembling hand moved down and touched the unmistakable bulge of a man’s anatomy. I nearly cried out.
This… wasn’t my body!
I stumbled out of bed and staggered over to the dressing table.
The bronze mirror reflected a handsome face, but its complexion was deathly pale and its eyes filled with panic.
It was him!
My husband, Xiao Yunji!
I shakily pressed a hand to my cheek, and the “Xiao Yunji” in the mirror did exactly the same.
What on earth was happening?
I stared at the person in the mirror…
02.
Before I could make sense of what I was seeing, a pair of soft, boneless hands came to rest on my chest.
The warmth of her palms was utterly real.
I wasn’t dreaming.
And she wasn’t dead.
“Darling…”
Grace Turner pressed close to me, acting coy.
Her fingertips traced teasing circles across my chest.
The scent of their lovemaking still clung to her.
My stomach churned with nausea.
I bit down hard on my lower lip, forcing myself to resist the urge to shove her away.
This wasn’t the time to expose everything.
I had to find out what was going on!
Grace Turner lifted her head and gazed at me expectantly.
“When will I be able to be with you openly? I truly don’t want to keep sneaking around like this.”
I reached out and gently stroked her hair, trying to imitate Xiao Yunji’s usual manner of speaking.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t we already discuss this?”
Grace Turner pouted her red lips, looking deeply aggrieved.
“You gave her a contraceptive, but the thought of our child having to bear her name for now still makes me miserable.”
A contraceptive?
Those words struck me like a bolt of lightning.
My vision went dark.
I’d been married into the Xiao family for three years, and still I hadn’t been able to conceive.
My mother-in-law’s cold stare, the scorn of outsiders, bowl after bowl of bitter medicine that burned my throat…
I’d even knelt before Guanyin for three days and nights, praying for a child, hoping to give the Xiao family an heir.
But it had all been in vain.
Then disaster struck the Shen family, wiping them out.
I was even more determined not to ruin Xiao Yunji’s future.
With tears in my eyes, I’d offered to divorce him.
And how had Xiao Yunji answered me then?
He’d tenderly lifted my face, his expression utterly serious.
“My dear, you’re all I need. I’ve thought it over. If we truly can’t have children, we’ll adopt one from the clan.”
How bitterly ironic!
So he’d given me a contraceptive long ago!
And the child he’d claimed we would “adopt”…
was the bastard growing in Grace Turner’s belly!
03
A surge of rage rose in my chest.
I couldn’t stop myself from clamping down on Grace Turner’s hand.
I squeezed so hard I could almost hear her bones pop out of joint.
“Ah! Darling! You’re hurting me!”
Grace Turner cried out in pain.
She struggled to pull her hand free, her neatly trimmed nails raking several bloody scratches across my arm.
At last, my senses began to return.
I let go of her hand, but my gaze fell involuntarily to her belly.
At that size, she had to be at least seven or eight months pregnant.
A chill crept from the soles of my feet straight up my spine.
Suddenly, everything from the past came rushing back with perfect clarity.
Half a year ago, when I returned to the Shen family residence, Grace Turner had already been eating ravenously and had grown noticeably plump.
Worried, I advised her, “Grace Turner, eating so much will harm your health. You should show some restraint.”
At the time, she was chewing on a piece of osmanthus cake, her cheeks puffing with every bite.
When she heard me, she looked up, her face glowing with happiness.
“Sister, full-figured beauties are all the rage in the capital these days. Besides, having a hearty appetite is a blessing!”
I was about to say a little more when Xiao Yunji appeared and pulled me into his arms.
“My dear, Grace Turner will come of age in two months. Don’t keep treating her like a child and lecturing her.”
And that was the end of it. I hadn’t given it another thought.
But looking back now, I saw just how foolish I’d been.
I hadn’t even noticed that, as he spoke, Xiao Yunji had gently pushed a plate of preserved plums toward Grace Turner.
So Grace Turner had been pregnant even then.
And I, the fool, had still been lost in my dream of a happy marriage…
04
“Darling? What’s wrong with you today? You nearly squeezed my hand to death…”
Grace Turner rubbed her reddened wrist, her voice tinged with reproach.
I forced down the rage surging in my throat, my knuckles clenched until they turned white.
“Grace Turner… do you hate her that much?”
At that, Grace Turner abruptly lifted her head.
Her eyes blazed with hatred.
“Of course! Everyone knows the Shen family has a talented and beautiful eldest daughter, while I can only live in her shadow!”
“From the time we were little, the matrons all told me to be sensible and not compete with her—but why should I?”
“Just because my mother was a maid who washed feet? Just because I was born two years after her?”
She gripped my hand, her eyes brimming with a desperate need for understanding.
“Xiao, don’t you hate her too? That wretched woman’s been married to you for three years, and she still guards you like a hawk!”
“She knew you were at a critical point in your career… and she still kept the gold mine a secret from you.”
“My father was such a fool, too. He wouldn’t say a word about it before he died.”
She suddenly giggled.
“But it doesn’t matter… In the end, I’m the one who won… You’re mine… Ah!”
Grace Turner’s laughter abruptly stopped.
Because I had my hands tight around her throat.
Her carefully made-up face twisted with terror.
“Let… go…”
Her voice was hoarse with pleading, her legs kicking wildly in the air.
If I tightened my grip just a little more, Grace Turner would truly die.
But just as her pupils began to fade, I suddenly let go.
Grace Turner crumpled to the floor like a broken puppet.
“Cough, cough, cough…”
She clutched her throat and coughed violently, tears and snot smearing her face.
I leaned down, gripped her chin, and forced her to look up.
“So… you were the one who set the fire that burned the Shen family residence to the ground?”
Grace Turner’s coughing stopped at once.
She stared at me in horror, eyes wide, as if she were looking at a ghost.
“Xiao… have you gone mad?”
Her voice was hoarse and rough.
“That night… weren’t you the one who led the men in setting the fire? You said… said you wanted to force my father to talk in the middle of the flames…”
It felt as if I’d been struck by lightning out of a clear sky.
On the day disaster struck the Shen family residence, Xiao Yunji came home “drunk,” with strange dark stains on his clothes.
They weren’t from wine.
They were from kerosene!
And back then, I’d been foolish enough to brew him a hangover remedy…
05
While I was distracted, Grace Turner struggled to crawl toward the door.
Just as she was about to reach the threshold, I grabbed her ankle and dragged her back toward the bed.
“Ah!”
Her belly scraped hard against the floor as I dragged her along, leaving a long streak of blood behind.
I gently placed my hand on her round belly. Violent jolts from the baby thudded against my palm.
It seemed even the baby in her womb was frightened.
I gently wiped the tears of terror from her face.
“Grace Turner, you had quite a hand in the fire at the Shen family residence, didn’t you?”
Grace Turner’s whole body shuddered.