Chapter 1: You’re Saying I’m the Real Heiress?

When the inspection team came looking for Su Miaomiao, she was in the back kitchen of a state-owned restaurant, gutting fish.

One hand held the fish down, the other gripped a kitchen knife. With a loud smack of the blade’s spine, the flailing crucian carp rolled its eyes and went still.

Without hesitation, Su Miaomiao sliced open a carp weighing over eight jin (about 9 lbs), her movements skilled and efficient.

“Freeze!”

Just then, a large group of people burst in.

Su Miaomiao immediately raised her hands. The kitchen knife, still stained with blood and glinting coldly, dangled from her fingers. Her delicate, youthful face was full of panic.

Her eyes landed on the group of people in dated uniforms — clearly state officials — and even her eyelashes trembled.

“Um… Officer, is killing fish… illegal now?”

“Drop the weapon!” the middle-aged man leading the group barked.

Su Miaomiao instantly threw the knife aside.

“Are you Su Miaomiao?” The man’s tone softened when he saw how cooperative she was.

“…Yes,” Su Miaomiao nodded hesitantly.

“The adopted daughter of Butcher Su?”

“…Right.” Hearing them mention her adoptive father, she was certain they had the right person.

Could it be that her adoptive father did something illegal?

No, that didn’t make sense — her adoptive father had died three years ago.

Maybe… he killed pigs underground and it was only now being reported?

Su Miaomiao was utterly confused. But soon, she learned the shocking truth.

The good news: She was actually the biological daughter of a high-ranking officer from a certain military district who had been lost as a child.

The bad news: That entire officer’s family was about to be sent down to the countryside.

What kind of crap luck was this?!

“Captain Liu, look at her face! She looks exactly like my mom—no, I mean Tang Chunlan! She’s their real daughter, not me! I was the one switched at birth! She’s the one who should be sent down, not me! I’m innocent!”

Just as Su Miaomiao was still trying to process everything, a sharp, panicked voice yanked her back to reality.

She turned toward the voice and saw a girl about her age.

The girl was round-faced and fair-skinned, wearing a floral dress and delicate Western-style shoes — clearly raised in comfort and luxury.

This must be the girl who was switched with her.

“Huo Lingxiu!” someone from the Huo family, who had been silent until now, finally couldn’t hold back. A young man stepped forward and scolded her.

He was Huo Zhenbo, the eldest son of the Huo family.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have nothing to do with the Huo family,” Huo Lingxiu snapped back, her tone cold and defensive — like she was afraid of being tainted by something dirty.

The members of the Huo family looked at her, their hearts aching.

This was the little girl they had raised lovingly, cherished like a precious gem all these years.

Every single one of them had genuinely loved her.

But now that trouble had come, she turned on them in an instant.

She even brought the inspection team to raid their house, all so she could trample on them and secure her own position in the capital.

“Huo Lingxiu, do you even have a conscience? Have you forgotten how much we’ve cared for you all these years?” Huo Zhenbo asked, heartbroken.

“You call that caring? That was for your daughter, your sister — not for me. I had nothing to do with it,” Huo Lingxiu retorted, defiant and ungrateful.

“You…” Huo Zhenbo — a man known in the military for being decisive and ruthless — found himself at a loss for words in the face of Huo Lingxiu’s shamelessness.

“Heh.”

Just then, a cold scoff cut through the air.

Huo Lingxiu looked over and saw Su Miaomiao, who had been silent this whole time, now wearing a look of mockery.

She wore only a simple black undershirt beneath a blood-speckled apron. Her sleeves were protected by cloth guards, and her long jet-black hair was loosely tied up with a single chopstick. After the long journey, some strands had come loose, falling messily around her forehead.

Her appearance was rather disheveled — and yet, her face was breathtaking.

Lips red, teeth white, eyes clear and deep like autumn water. Every feature seemed full of grace and allure.

Looking at her, Huo Lingxiu nearly ground her teeth to dust.

Everyone in the Huo family had striking looks, while she herself didn’t even qualify as “decent-looking.” People had long said she didn’t resemble anyone in the family.

Now, those words had come true.

But what really drove her crazy was — this woman had grown up in poverty for years, so why did she still look so stunning?

She must’ve been supported by some man, Huo Lingxiu thought bitterly.

No way a girl in this era could raise herself to look like that on her own.

With that thought, her expression grew smug and superior.

“What are you laughing at? You’ll be heading down to the countryside with the rest of the Huo family’s reform-through-labor targets tomorrow! I hear you’ll be starving three meals a day — let’s see if you can still laugh then!” Huo Lingxiu sneered with contempt.

“How many meals I go hungry for is none of your concern,” Su Miaomiao replied calmly, her tone light. “Let’s settle the debt between us first.”

“What debt?” Huo Lingxiu frowned.

“Didn’t you just say you have nothing to do with the Huo family anymore?” Su Miaomiao asked.

“Yes!” Huo Lingxiu answered firmly, even straightening her back, confident since Captain Liu and the others were still present. She had to appear resolute.

“And you also said the care my parents and brothers gave you was only because they thought you were their daughter and sister — it had nothing to do with you personally, right?” Su Miaomiao continued.

“Yes!”

“Good.” Su Miaomiao nodded, her gaze slowly sweeping over Huo Lingxiu before curling her lips into a cold smile. “Then take off those gold earrings, that gold necklace, the watch on your wrist, those leather shoes on your feet, and the fancy dress you’re wearing — all of it.”

“Why should I?!” Huo Lingxiu’s voice instantly rose several octaves.

“Because all of that was bought by my parents and brothers — for me,” Su Miaomiao said coolly, lips parting slightly.

Huo Lingxiu was rendered speechless.

Su Miaomiao knew from her reaction that she had hit the mark.

They were about the same age, and the Huo family was well-off — they had surely sent her to school.

That meant she had likely just graduated high school. Everything she was wearing had to be worth several hundred yuan — an astronomical amount in this era.

There was no way she could’ve earned it on her own.

Huo Lingxiu gripped her dress tightly, her face alternating between green and red.

These were all valuable things — how could she bear to take them off?

“What’s wrong? Can’t bear to part with them?” Su Miaomiao said with a slight smirk. “Right, just the watch on your wrist alone costs a hundred yuan, doesn’t it? All of this belongs to the Huo family. Are you sure you want to have financial ties with us ‘reform-through-labor types’?”

Her words were calm, yet each one struck like a whip.