CHAPTER 1: Don’t Lie to Me

#What’s it like to be found by your rich biological dad?#

1L: I’m the long-lost half-sister of the original poster.
2L: Hurry, let’s become sworn sisters.
3L: I’d wake up laughing in the middle of the night. Dreams do come true.
4L: How many novels and dramas has OP watched? Just go all in—inherit billions and be forced to spend at least a billion a month!
5L: I’m off to collect rent tomorrow from my hundred properties scattered across the globe. If you don’t want your idol to be blacklisted, you’d better give me a like.
6L: Reporting in from the sign-in system! Shocking—girl gives up the college entrance exam to become a food delivery worker, turns out she got a guaranteed admission! Before even arriving at university, she got a school district apartment from signing in!

…

Original Poster: Sigh, but I’m only a second-year high school student, and all I got was Five Years of Gaokao, Three Years of Simulations—one full set from every province and municipality! I’m even being forced into tutoring classes!
P.S. I also want a sign-in system that makes you rich overnight. Ying ying ying! 😭

198L: Just moo when you’re happy and bark when you’re scared, maybe you’ll even get to cosplay as a panda and sneak into a state job. P.S. Crybabies have no future.
199L: I swear pandas have zippers on their backs. Who reincarnated into a national treasure behind my back?
200L: Being a national treasure means your dad has to follow a set parenting script. Then OP won’t have to worry about getting spanked anymore.

…

Yi Xiaoya thought her biological dad was crazy. Straight-up insane.

Back then, her biological dad didn’t want her. He even told her mom to get rid of her. Now he suddenly shows up, trying to cram a million classes down her throat.

She suspected her dad had been reborn or something—like he believed she was destined to walk the path of crime, so he swooped in to snatch her up and force her into becoming some model student.

Damn it, this kind of dad is worse than having no dad.

Her bio dad told her: no hacking into other people’s computers, no spiking anyone’s drink with strange chemical compounds, no hypnotizing people…

Pfft. Maybe he just watched one too many crime dramas and got it into his head that she’d grow up to be a criminal mastermind!

If she were really going to do crimes, obviously she’d make sure no one ever found out. The key to success? Keep it all under wraps.

And what were these netizens even talking about? How did the thread end up discussing pandas?

“Pandas are definitely worth more than me,” Yi Xiaoya muttered.

Just half a month ago, she was still called Lin Xiaoya and went to school at Fourth High. It wasn’t exactly known for excellent teachers, but at least it was a public high school. According to her adoptive mother, it was already a big deal she even got into high school—it beat going to a vocational or technical school.

That day, Lin Xiaoya had just come back from school. The Lin family lived in a tube-style apartment building from the 1970s. The place was old and worn down. Power outages and water cuts were common. Ask why, and you’d be told the roads nearby were under construction—or that a nearby site accidentally broke a pipe.

Lin Xiaoya was already used to it. She used bottled water every day just to make sure there’d be water for cooking.

On the way home, she overheard someone saying that their neighborhood might be up for demolition soon.

Tsk tsk, time to strike it rich.

But knowing her parents, she probably wouldn’t get a share of the new housing or the money. She wasn’t eighteen yet, so even suing them would be tricky.

When she stepped inside, Lin Xiaoya saw her adoptive mom and cheerfully asked, “What’s for dinner tonight? Got any meat?”

Slices of pork belly—balanced layers of fat and lean—didn’t need any fancy prep. Just cut the meat into thin slices, heat a bit of oil in the pan, throw in some garlic, and spread the meat out evenly. Wait until one side turns golden and crisp, then flip it. Add salt, cooking wine, soy sauce. That kind of stir-fried pork smells amazing.

Lin Xiaoya licked her lips. High school life was tough—meat was a must.

“Your real dad came looking for you,” her adoptive mom said as soon as she saw her. “He gave us an apartment, and it’s even in a good school district. Just go with him, alright?”

“Huh?” Lin Xiaoya looked confused. “Mom, are you sure you got the right person? My brother and I are twins. He’s the one who’s—”

“Your brother is my biological son. There’s no way I’d hand him over to your biological dad. With DNA testing these days, it’s all very clear,” her adoptive mom said. “Anyway, pack up and go. That way, your brother won’t have to sleep in the living room anymore.”

The Lin family’s place was tiny—two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, and bathroom. The living room doubled as a dining area and wasn’t all that big.

Back then, her adoptive mom had agreed to help her cousin raise a child. One year turned into many. Her cousin used to send some money at first, but after she got married, the money stopped. The adoptive mom suspected it was because her cousin didn’t want her new husband to find out.

Most importantly, the cousin had other kids now. How could she possibly care about the daughter she had before?

Lin’s mother once considered putting a bunk bed in another room, with the younger daughter sleeping on the top bunk, surrounded by curtains. But after some thought, she ultimately decided to let her own son sleep in the living room instead.

When guests came over, the sofa in the living room would be folded up. When there were no guests, it would be laid flat. That sofa was already quite old—the kind that could be used as a bed when unfolded.

It was something Lin’s mother and father bought when they got married, and it had cost them quite a bit back then.

“Go, go, go—hurry up and go!” Lin’s mother said, pushing Lin Xiaoya out as she spoke. “All your books have been packed up and taken away by your dad’s people. As for the rest of your stuff, don’t even think about taking it. Just have your dad buy you all new ones!”

Lin Xiaoya was pushed out the door. She stared blankly at the now-shut door. She took out her key to try and open it, but it had been locked from the inside.

“Mom, don’t joke around, okay? I won’t eat meat, alright? I won’t, I won’t eat it anymore!” Lin Xiaoya knocked on the door, but the people inside refused to open it.

After a while, someone came to take Lin Xiaoya away. She looked puzzled. “Did my parents sell me off in exchange for betrothal money?”

“……”

When Lin Xiaoya said that, Yi Yao happened to be walking down the stairs.

There was no elevator here; people had to take the stairs, and the stairwell was dirty and messy. Some liked to pile stuff by their doors, and it smelled. Outsiders hated coming in here.

“Letting a minor get married is illegal,” Yi Yao said.

“Just don’t get the marriage certificate, right? Once you’re over fourteen but not yet eighteen…”

Yi Yao gestured for the person beside him to hand Lin Xiaoya a thick stack of cash. He himself took out a bank card. “Want to go to the bank and check if it’s real?”

“Sure, let’s go to the bank. There’s one right around the corner!” Lin Xiaoya said. “But they’re all off work now.”

Lin Xiaoya thought these people were super weird. Her eyes darted around. “Listen, I know I’m naturally beautiful, but you guys… I… I can call the police, you know.”

In the end, Lin Xiaoya still left with Yi Yao, because she deposited that stack of cash into her own bank account. The ATM didn’t reject the deposit, which meant the money was real. She even checked the balance on the card and transferred the money to her own account.

She had to transfer it. They said he was her biological dad—if she didn’t take it, she’d be a fool.

A few months ago, Yi Yao had a dream. In it, his daughter was a genius in chemistry. But so what?

His daughter was a love-brained, social-climbing, villainous supporting female character who had nothing in her head but romance. She even gave the medicine she painstakingly developed to that man.

That man took the drug she created but didn’t keep his promise. He never married her.

And his daughter was so dumb—she was terrible in most subjects in high school and even managed to mess up the college entrance exam. She didn’t get into a proper university, only a junior college, and the tuition was expensive. Her adoptive parents didn’t want to pay it, so they just stopped her from going.

She dropped out early and started working. While she was still young, she fell in love with a scumbag.

That guy knew the drug was her invention but claimed it as the result of his own research team. When she publicly said it was hers and accused the man of refusing to marry her, everyone thought she was crazy.

Damn it! How could Yi Yao’s daughter be so stupid? Even if she was meant to be a villain, even a toxic supporting character, she should’ve had a powerful background. She should’ve at least put on a better front.

Saying someone who didn’t go to college couldn’t invent something useful to humanity? That’s complete BS!

So what if she was bad at some subjects?

He had plenty of money—he could easily send her abroad to study, even with her uneven academic strengths. But he still thought she was salvageable.

If he hadn’t only had this one daughter, he honestly wouldn’t have wanted to bring her back at all.

Now, back in the present—Yi Xiaoya and Yi Yao were living together in a villa.

“Dad, you’re back,” Yi Xiaoya looked up.

Yi Xiaoya was convinced her biological father had a screw loose. He insisted she do her homework in the living room so he could “observe better,” monitoring her twenty-four hours a day.

Other people worked overtime at their jobs—she did homework overtime.

So annoying! Yi Xiaoya hated studying foreign languages. Those foreign letters were impossible to pronounce. Failing in her language class just proved how patriotic she was, got it? But her dad would just knock her on the head and call her dumb.

“Relax, today I’m just doing chemistry problems. Haven’t managed to invent any invisible poisons yet,” Yi Xiaoya replied.

“One day, you’ll succeed,” Yi Yao said.

“Dad, if you’re that love-starved, go to Grandpa. Don’t drag me into this twisted mess.”

Back in junior high, Yi Xiaoya’s grades were decent. Although her adoptive parents weren’t willing to spend much on her, she still got into high school. They let her go because a high school graduate gets more betrothal money than someone who only finished junior high.

She had originally planned that when it came time for college, if she didn’t get into a good school, she could still trick her adoptive parents into paying.

Her adoptive parents didn’t know who her birth father was. They were relatives of her birth mother’s side. Since the relatives were willing to give money, they took Yi Xiaoya in. At least they didn’t leave her abandoned in an orphanage.

“Isn’t this what people call love-hate relationships?” Yi Yao asked.

“Don’t put it that way. A lot of angsty romance novels use that term. We’re father and daughter—it’s not suitable,” Yi Xiaoya said.

“Don’t think saying this kind of nonsense will get you out of memorizing vocabulary,” Yi Yao replied.

Yi Yao truly did want to just send his unbalanced daughter abroad to study. But Lin Xiaoya herself wasn’t up to the task. She didn’t understand any foreign languages. Even the easiest one, she made a complete mess of. And she had the nerve to say, “At least I know dialects.”

Sure, she knew dialects. But she’d turn “airplane” into “huiji,” and her Mandarin was a disaster.

Yi Xiaoya puffed up her cheeks. This dad of hers was way too evil!

“If you can’t even do this, how are you going to study abroad in the future?” Yi Yao said. “And how are you going to be a proper villain?”

Yi Yao was the fastest to react—he spoke up right away.

“Whoa, Dad, don’t tell me you’re bound to some kind of system? One that wants you to raise your biological daughter into a villain?” Yi Xiaoya clicked her tongue. “No, wait, that can’t be right. What kind of real dad is that cruel? Or wait—did someone transmigrate into your body?”