A fortune teller once predicted that I was destined for a dark and gloomy life, so my mother named me "Zhao," and I became Lin Zhao.

As a child, I was ignorant and didn't understand what people meant by "prostitute." I only knew that my mother and I were a stain on our lives and were looked down upon by the world.

At that time, my family was poor and we didn't know where our next meal would come from. We were also humiliated by other children, but I didn't care. I thought that such days would continue forever.

Until I was eight years old, my mother got involved with a wealthy and powerful man in the city. This man, with his greasy belly, tried to grope my mother. As a little child, I only knew to stop him, but I was pushed to the ground. Crimson blood quickly flowed down my face and head. The thick blood blurred my vision. At that moment, I felt that this world was so beautiful, so beautiful that I wanted to lick my own blood.

I found a knife, and unsurprisingly, I killed him—the fat man who wanted to humiliate my mother.

My mother didn't intend to abandon me because of this, which is good. But she had to fawn over the Qiao family's warlord over this matter just to suppress the fact that I committed murder.

Marshal Qiao was very kind. He elevated my mother to the rank of second concubine, providing her with all the necessities of life as a wife. I, too, was protected by the Qiao family. However, he did not take me to the Qiao family mansion. He said that his daughter was the one he loved most in his life, and he could not allow her to suffer any injustice.

I think this is good too. I don't have to live under someone else's roof, and I don't have to worry that my rudeness will bring trouble to my mother.

But the eldest daughter of the Qiao family came back for vacation. Since she came back, my mother has visited me less and less, and my protection has been reduced. Every time my mother sees me, she looks much more haggard, so I asked her not to visit me anymore. I said I was doing well, but that's not true. I was isolated by my classmates, gossiped about by my neighbors, and even a drunkard beat me up to vent his anger.

But I was powerless to change any of this. The turning point came when I was eight years old. The eldest daughter of the Qiao family wanted to bring me into the Qiao mansion. My mother was afraid of angering her and that she would treat me even worse, so she personally sent me into the courtyard of the eldest daughter of the Qiao family.

I saw her, the eldest daughter of the Qiao family I'd heard about from others. She came out casually, wearing only a coat. Her features were gentle, not at all like the sharp-tongued person others described. But I still pushed her away. I didn't want to stay here, didn't want her to use me to torment my mother.

I ran into a courtyard and heard a woman scolding a servant. So I deliberately bumped into her and provoked her. In the end, I was beaten, scolded, forced to kneel, and doused with cold water. I felt like I was going to die and go to hell because I had taken lives.

But to my surprise, the young lady of the Qiao family saved me from the brink of death. She put a candy in my mouth; it was very sweet and fragrant, and it cleared my head considerably. After I woke up, I acted like the fat dog next door, throwing a tantrum at his mother. I messed up the young lady of the Qiao family's wardrobe and trampled on her clean and beautiful clothes.

She was furious. Looking at her angry face, I felt a surge of accomplishment. I thought she would abandon me because of this, but she didn't. She was making a veiled promise to me. She said, "Little Lin Zhao, Grandma knows you want to provoke Grandma so that she'll kick you out. But Grandma has to tell you, that's impossible. And there's a traditional virtue you may not have heard of—respecting the elderly and caring for the young. Only by respecting the elderly can Grandma care for the young. So please be a good girl from now on, okay?"

She would play along with my quirky banter, which I found very amusing. What made me trust her was her eyes—clean, clear eyes, like flawless gems, so captivating that I wanted to possess them.

So I repeatedly provoked her, cautiously testing her tolerance for me. The result was good; she never blamed or punished me. She treated me as if I were a younger brother. Commander Qiao saw everything she did and allowed her to take me with her to Y country.

I knew she was a high-born lady, and if she was alone in Y country, barely scraping by on bread every day, how could she possibly take care of me? I made a silent vow to myself that I would definitely take good care of her, at least when it came to cooking.

But after she went to Y country, she was like a different person. Her eyes were full of sarcasm and disgust when she looked at me, but my heart was not hurt because I felt that she was not the Qiao Zhen I trusted.

This "Qiao Zhen" seemed to disdain mistreating me, so she casually hired a nanny to do my laundry and cook for me. However, the nanny seemed quite incompetent; she took all the food from the apartment and only occasionally gave me a piece of bread when she remembered me. The time I almost starved to death, I only had two pieces of bread a week; thankfully, I could drink water to stave off hunger.

Later, I fainted in my apartment. My neighbors found me, and they were talking incoherently. When I woke up, I was in the hospital.

After I was discharged from the hospital, "Qiao Zhen" took me to school. I was very happy, thinking that she had become the Qiao Zhen I trusted again. But when I met her eyes, which looked at me like I was looking at a virus, all my expectations were shattered.

Later I learned that it was a neighbor who called the police for me, which forced "Qiao Zhen" to send me to school. The school wasn't my school; I couldn't understand what my classmates and teachers were saying, nor could I guess their meaning. At that time, I don't remember what panic felt like. I was a loner, quiet and withdrawn, until an old professor who spoke H language personally taught me Y language and those courses.

Three years have passed in the blink of an eye. "Qiao Zhen" is going back to H country. Before she left, she asked me if I wanted to go back with her. I refused. She is not the Qiao Zhen I know, and she never was.

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