Chapter 3

    The Same Life Returns

    Knock! Knock! Knock!

    Someone was at Li Yin's door shortly after she had just hung up on Donglu.

    She glanced at the time on her phone and realized it was time for dinner. However, what made her grimace was noticing the time displayed prominently on the screen against a backdrop of her and Donglu.

    Sickeningly sweet.

    Delete!

    "Miss, dinner is ready," a voice called from outside the room.

    "I'll be down in a moment."

    Li Yin responded while dealing with that cringe-worthy screen background. She switched it from the lovey-dovey photo to a plain black screen, bidding farewell to her past love and a lousy life.

    She was here this time to change everything. Thus, the past didn't matter anymore.

    Delete and forget, that was the plan!

    Once she had sorted everything out, the young woman opened the door to step out. Her room might have been small, but the Wang Mansion was anything but that. Contrary to its size, it was vast. Yet, she lived in a tiny space at the end of a corridor, barely touched by the light from the hall.

    It was conveniently empty so she could stay otherwise she might have had to sleep downstairs.

    "Ah...Looking back at this moment, I see I was more pressured than I thought," Li Yin mused, smirking sarcastically as she shook her head as her old memories started to flood back.

    Her bedroom used to be attached to a balcony.

    However, when her father remarried the woman he had been having an affair with for years, just a month after Li Yin's mother's death, that woman boldly moved into the Wang Mansion with her daughter, only two years younger than Li Yin. At that time, Li Yin was 15, and Li Zhu was 13.

    Her room was given to Li Zhu, simply because the stepmother who casually seized power said so.

    "Consider it a gift to your sister, Li Yin. It will help her feel more at home. After all, we're all one family now. No...actually, we've always been one family."

    Make my sister comfortable, huh…

Her mother had just passed away less than a month ago. Her father remarried immediately and had a child who was only two years younger than her appear suddenly. No matter how foolish she might be, it's obvious that her father had been unfaithful to her mother since the first two years of their marriage.

    And it's despicable that she never knew at all.

    Li Yin once thought her family, though not very warm-loving due to her father's absence, was just a regular, simple family.

    Until that day she uncovered the family's secret, her whole perspective on things changed instantly.

    And from that day on,

    this house never really felt like hers…

    Li Yin sighed. Normally, returning to your old home brings joy, but Li Yin’s memories of this place were of emptiness. The feelings she always harbored were of claustrophobia, suspicion, and being squeezed out.

    Or should she say she became an outsider?

    The more she thought about it, the more she pitied her younger self, unable to fathom how she had endured living in this house for years.

    She had to stay here from the age of 15 until she was 23 before she could move out and have her own place.

    Li Yin reminisced all along the familiar hallway. Although her face didn’t reflect sadness about those times anymore, a scornful smile remained ever-present.

    Her steps descended the spiral staircase, her hand on the railing, humming a tune as she went. Her mind was filled with numerous memories of the house until she found herself in the large dining room.

    And it was empty…

    "Everything is really the same," said Li Yin as she took her seat. This family was rarely present together. Her father had countless workloads to do, one of which must have been taking care of the various hidden small families of his, which only became known many years later after his death. The heirs from these small houses then showed up, seeking the Wang family's inheritance.

    Li Yin remembered it well.

    When her father passed away, before she could even recover from her grief, she had to deal with dividing his vast inheritance among his many heirs while dealing with their legitimacy. She couldn't tell if her tears during that time were from exhaustion, sorrow, or disdain for her own fate.

    As for her stepmother, Li Zhu's mother, she knew all too well about her husband's other families. She spent most of her time shopping or traveling abroad, lavishly spending money to feed her own desires she so-called happiness, completely unaware when she might be replaced.

    Besides the comforting pile of money, this house lacked everything that a 'home' should have. And perhaps because Li Yin grew up in such an environment, she was serious about her relationship with Donglu, even planning a future marriage.

    She didn't want to make the same mistakes as her mother, but in the end, she made a grave error by overlooking the possibility that Donglu could still turn out to be terrible over time.

    Good men are hard to find.

    She should have spent more time getting to know him rather than competing with him about money.

    Li Yin continued eating as her eyes scanned around the room, contemplating her next moves.

    In the past, she would spend another two years in this house before saving enough money to buy a condo and move out. But now, she was planning to make herself independent sooner to finally leave this house.

    It wasn't that she didn't love her family,

    but she had no significance in this house.

    She had always loved her family, hence why she was devastated for days when she found out she had a sister she never knew. Plus, living here only reinforced her feelings of disappointment and being an outsider. Her stepmother did nothing but oppress her, ensuring she remained under her thumb.

    And her father never really saw her,

    well…

    Actually, she did catch his eye around this period because her boyfriend was Donglu, whose family was affluent and well-respected in her society. Her father liked him a lot.

    More than that, she would become significant again at the age of 30.

    Her father called her for the first time in years, after they had lived separately, to let her know that the Wang family was on the verge of bankruptcy, and he needed her help.

    By then, Li Yin could stand on her own with her investments yielding substantial profits.She had no problem helping her family, but what pained her was that…

    if her father hadn't been in financial trouble,

    would he think of and call her at all?

    Li Yin's grip on her fork and knife tightened as her lips pressed firmly together as those memories came flushing in. This was inevitable given the atmosphere of this house.

    There were lingering memories everywhere she turned.

    This is annoying!

    Li Yin tried to shake off those bothersome thoughts, resuming her meal, when footsteps approached the dining room, followed by a cheerful voice from behind,

    "Oh, hey, Sister!"

    The owner of the voice spoke and walked up to grab both of Li Yin's shoulders from behind, showing no consideration or manners towards someone who was eating.

    She leaned in close and continued, "You came down early today. In a good mood for something? Aren't you supposed to be mad at that handsome, rich boyfriend of yours? Or have you made up already?"

    Li Yin immediately turned to look at the person behind her. Of course, it could be no one else other than...

    Li Zhu...

    That half-sister of hers.