Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The guests at my birthday party that night were all wealthy and prominent figures—some were my friends, and others had come to curry favor with me because of my status as the young lady of the Gong family.

Mia took out a small gift box, which contained a bracelet crocheted with pink yarn. She said, "I hope you won't mind, Sis. It's a small gift, but it's the thought that counts. Right now, Shawn and I are a bit tight on money. When we earn more in the future, we'll buy you a nicer gift."

Wasn't she just hinting to everyone that I was being harsh to my own brother, forcing him to the point where he couldn't even afford a decent bracelet?

Before I could say anything, Mia continued, "Last time Shawn came to see you, I don't know what you two talked about, but he hasn't come back to this house since that day. Everything is my fault—please don't blame Shawn anymore. I know you look down on my background. We're just an ordinary family, and we really don't deserve to be with the Gong family."

What a perfect act of a poor, innocent victim! Anyone who didn't know the truth would have thought I had been bullying this poor girl. With just a few words, she had painted me as a snobbish person who was tearing apart a loving couple.

"Did Shawn know you were coming?" I asked.

"Huh?" Mia didn't expect me to ask that out of the blue. She hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

I took out my phone, "Then why isn't he here? Let me call and ask."

Seeing me about to dial the number, Mia quickly stopped me, "He... he's busy."

"Busy with what? Let me ask him," I said, reaching for the call button.

Only then did Mia confess, "Sis, I came here on my own. I want to talk to you."

I looked at her with interest, "Talk about what?"

"Shawn is your biological brother, after all—do you really want to kick him out of the family like this?" she asked.

There were quite a few people standing behind me, all eager to see what would happen. When they heard this, they all fell silent, clearly enjoying the drama.

"Wasn't this all caused by you in the first place?" I said calmly. "When Shawn first brought you home, I told you clearly—the Gong family doesn't care about the background of their in-laws. As long as you're a good girl, it's fine. But what about you? Since you've come here today to disgust me, I don't see any need to save face for you anymore. Mia Carter, you and your parents abused and exploited your own sister Luna, and you even stole her identity to go to college. You played a prank by writing a love letter to my brother and posted it online using your sister's name—while your sister was working outside, pretending to be you. When you saw that my brother had fallen in love with the girl who wrote the letter, you forced your sister to switch identities back with you. Do you think someone as scheming as you is worthy of marrying into the Gong family? And you even tricked my brother into running away from home with you. Is this something a good girl would do? You just picked today—when everyone is here—to pressure me. Well, let me tell you this—it won't work. As long as I'm around, you'll never step foot into the Gong family."

The people here were all smart—none of them could fail to see through Mia's little tricks. She clearly hadn't expected me to be so straightforward, not giving her or Shao Qin any face at all. Mia's face turned deathly pale, and she was so angry that she couldn't speak. A female manager who wanted to cooperate with the Gong Group spoke up, "Miss Gong, people like her—who only want to climb the social ladder—aren't worth getting angry over. And she even had the nerve to bring a yarn bracelet as a gift? Even if you earn 3,000 yuan a month, after working for a while, you can still afford a silver necklace worth a few hundred yuan."

The murmurs about Mia grew louder and louder. With tears streaming down her face, she ran away in embarrassment.

This little incident didn't ruin my party. And I didn't see Shao Qin again until he graduated from college. He wanted to stay in school and take the postgraduate entrance exam, but he didn't pass. Later, he got a job at a branch of a state-owned enterprise, working in cybersecurity penetration testing. His internship salary was only 3,500 yuan, and even after becoming a regular employee, it would only be 8,000 yuan—but that was far from enough to satisfy Mia.

Mia's life with Shao Qin over the past year had been far from easy. She had tried to find a job later, but due to her lack of education, she could only take tiring jobs—and she couldn't stick with any of them. In the end, she had to ask her family for money, and her attitude toward Shao Qin grew colder and colder by the day.

Sophia Chen and her husband weren't good people either. When Mia asked them for money, they went to ask Luna for it instead.