As the saying goes, with a stepfather comes a stepmother.

For example, Meizhou in March right now.

The dilapidated slum offered little soundproofing; the patter of rain mixed with sounds from the next room, making Ruan Chen increasingly agitated.

Although she was only twelve years old, she knew what this commotion meant.

After a clap of thunder, Ruan Chen finally found some peace and quiet, and she focused even more intently on the screen of the 21-inch old-fashioned television.

The reporter was interviewing a well-dressed entrepreneur. "This is Mr. Ruan Zhengde, who has topped the national rich list for three consecutive years. We just received news that Mr. Ruan has donated one billion yuan to establish the Spring Sprout Foundation for children in impoverished mountainous areas, to help..."

Ruan Chen hugged her thin, bruised legs and recalled the scene of her chasing after this man, calling him "Dad".

"You brat, did you take the twenty yuan on the table?!"

Ruan Chen stood up with a cold expression—although she was only twelve years old, her face already bore the beginnings of her mother's stunning beauty in her youth.

"I didn't take it."

Looking at this face that, once grown up, was no less beautiful than her own in her youth, Cong Rao thought of the suffering she had endured because of this face. Then, seeing the dashing, well-dressed man on television and remembering his heartless betrayal, all her emotions surged up at once.

"You were already stealing money from home at the age of twelve, and you lie too. What's the point of me raising such a good-for-nothing!"

Rao's clothes were half-open, revealing a patch of white skin on her chest. She casually grabbed a deformed clothes hanger and started whipping it all over Ruan Chen.

She had just experienced a passionate encounter, and her legs were still trembling, but her strength in her hands was undiminished. Ruan Chen was slapped hard several times and fled to the balcony, which was piled with clutter.

The other party in the affair—the stepfather that Cong Rao found for her—lay on the damp, moldy bed, a cigarette between his fingers, staring blankly at the mottled ceiling, still immersed in the afterglow.

"You brat, you dare to run away!"

Ruan Chen was cornered on the balcony. She turned around, covered her head, and screamed, "I said it wasn't me, so it wasn't me! Why can't you believe me just once!"

"Who else could it be but you! I've raised you for twelve years, and you've turned out to be a thief in my own home!"

Her eight-year-old brother, Hu Wanglong, whom her stepfather had brought along, was already used to his stepmother beating his sister and was fanning the flames from the sidelines.

"Oh! Sister is a thief! Sister is a thief! Beat the thief! Beat the thief to death!"

He proudly played with his newly bought transforming car, winking at Ruan Chen, with half a five-yuan note sticking out of his shorts pocket.

Ruan Chen's mind went blank for a moment, and she immediately got angry. She snatched the clothes hanger from Cong Rao's hand and pointed at Hu Wanglong's nose, "Where did you get your money!"

Hu Wanglong knew he was favored in this family and wasn't afraid at all. "I took it from the table!"

Ruan Chen glared hatefully at her own mother, wiped the blood from her arm, and gritted her teeth, saying, "I told you, it wasn't me!"

But Cong Rao showed no remorse whatsoever. She picked up a winnowing basket and threw it at Ruan Chen, saying, "What's wrong? I've raised you for twelve years and I can't even say a few words to you? You dare to fight back? Don't put on that face like you've suffered some great injustice!"

The winnowing basket grazed Ruan Chen's earlobe hard, and blood gushed out. Ruan Chen's head was half-closed, and he had a burning pain from a fever. Hu Wanglong's instigating voice still lingered in his mind.

"It's bleeding!"

"Kill your sister!"

"You're a money-loser! My sister is a money-loser!"

She vaguely remembered that Rao had been kind to her before she remarried.

Later, a stepfather came into the family, and he brought a little boy from somewhere, claiming he was her brother. Everything changed.

No matter how big a mistake Hu Wanglong made, they wouldn't lay a finger on him.

It would be better if Hu Wanglong were dead.

In this way, Rao will still be her only mother.

This thought popped into Ruan Chen's mind.

Once it emerges, it can never be suppressed.

When Cong Rao got tired of hitting her, she threw down her things, went back to the bedroom, lay down next to the man, lit a cigarette, and proudly showed off how she disciplined her daughter.

Hu Wanglong circled around Ruan Chen on his rollerblade, deliberately bumping into Ruan Chen's already battered legs again and again. He used a small twig to poke at the bleeding wounds on Ruan Chen's arms, and said gloatingly, "My dad said that when he sends me to school in a while, he'll sell you to the Paradise Hall to raise money for my tuition."

The Hall of Bliss—you can tell what kind of place it is just from the name.

For just ten yuan, any man can while away a lonely night there.

Before Rao remarried, she worked there for many years, and every morning when she returned home, she was covered in the smells of all sorts of men.

Ruan Chen's hatred reached its peak. With a chilling glint that a twelve-year-old girl shouldn't possess, she looked at Hu Wanglong and said calmly and coldly, "Go to hell."

That night, Hu Wanglong developed a high fever.

Three days later, he breathed his last on the tattered straw mat, and was hastily wrapped in that same mat and buried.

None of the three family members shed a tear.

For Ruan Chen, this wasn't the first time she had cursed someone to death.

She felt no remorse, because she didn't want to be sold into that kind of work at the ecstasy parlor.

She had long known she was a jinx.

Besides that, she had long known that she was actually a genius.

She has a photographic memory.

Unfortunately, when she reached the second grade, Cong Rao stopped her from continuing her studies, saying that girls would get married sooner or later, and there was no need to train someone else's daughter-in-law.

Ruan Chen always remembered that the man named Ruan Zhengde on TV was her biological father.

Before they were two years old, Ruan Zhengde, Cong Rao, and Ruan Chen were a happy family of three.

Then one day, Ruan Zhengde took all the valuables in the house and disappeared. Cong Rao cried for three days and then told little Ruan Chen that her biological father had died.

Ruan Chen believed it for a long time, until she was six years old. At an awards ceremony for outstanding entrepreneurs, she saw her father. Just as she was about to tell her mother that her father was not dead, Cong Rao used a kitchen knife to chop the TV into pieces.

Ruan Chen's word "Dad" got stuck in her throat.

Cong Rao and her stepfather, Cao De, were whispering to each other in the bedroom with the door closed, while Ruan Chen sat outside watching the drizzling rain, listening indifferently.

"I've worked so hard raising Wanglong for so many years, and I finally found a buyer to sell him. Now that he's gone, this deal has been a huge loss."

Cong Rao said, "There are still a few days until the delivery time, why not go out and find another boy?"

Cao De spat, "Otherwise, I'd say you women are short-sighted. What kind of world is this? Boys aren't so easy to find these days. I raised Wanglong for several years before daring to make a move after the storm had passed. Or you could sell that money-losing brat you gave birth to to the Paradise Hall. Brother Le offered 30,000 a few days ago!"

Cong Rao screamed, "You surnamed Cao, how dare you lay a finger on my daughter! She's my biological daughter, so she's not your daughter anymore? Selling her to a place like that, are you even human?!"

Immediately following was a loud slap. Cao De said disdainfully, "So what if it's the Pleasure Hall? Look at her figure at such a young age, she's born to do this! Tomorrow I'll go find Brother Le and get this brat out of here as soon as possible."