Chapter 1

Before dropping me off at school, my aunt Brenda brought my cousin Brad to our house, their arrogance practically radiating.

“What’s the point of a girl going to school anyway? You might as well marry her off to my family. We’ll give you a full twenty thousand dollars for the bride price.”

Everyone tried to convince my mom to marry me off, but she insisted on sending me to school.

I was gone for five years, and my mom endured five years of mockery.

They’d say it would all benefit some other family in the end, that after five years, she still hadn’t turned into a golden phoenix.

Until I came to take my mom away.

During the holidays, I drove her back in a luxury car. My mom, decked out in designer clothes and a pigeon-egg diamond ring, was absolutely beaming.

“Isn’t this diamond ring dazzling? My daughter bought it for me! Surely no one else’s daughter bought them a massive diamond ring like this, right? *Right*?”

My mom’s name was Elara.

It was pretty obvious she was the child her parents never really cared for from the start.

When my mom was little, she was beautiful, sweet, and well-behaved.

A couple, both teachers in the city, wanted to adopt a daughter.

My grandparents were initially planning to give my mom away, hoping to get a good price for her.

But my mom was smart even as a child. On the day she was supposed to be sent away, she cried and fussed endlessly.

The couple couldn’t calm her down, got annoyed, and brought her back.

My grandparents grit their teeth and returned a duck and twenty dollars they’d received.

“You worthless drain! You don’t have a fortunate bone in your body!”

Grandpa was furious, gnashing his teeth.

My mom later told me that Grandpa had even considered suffocating her that day.

But Grandma got pregnant again.

Grandpa said, “Don’t give her away yet. She can help take care of Dustin.”

Yes, Dustin.

My uncle wasn’t even born yet, but my grandparents had already asked the most educated person in the village to pick out his name.

They placed all their hopes on this unborn boy.

That’s how my mom survived.

But unfortunately, Grandma’s second child was also a girl.

After a lot of trouble, my other two aunts were given away by my grandparents.

Finally, four years later, Grandma gave birth to my uncle.

And my mom, at a very young age, took on the entire family’s burden.

Her primary task was to take good care of my uncle.

Not only that, she had to work the fields, helping my grandparents lighten their load.

She also had to help my grandparents with their homemade fried pastries business.

Because of all this, my mom didn’t even finish elementary school before she came home to work the farm.

Later, the pastry business didn’t work out, so my grandparents opened a small general store in their house.

My mom still just helped out at home.

She hadn’t had an education; the most advanced math she knew was making change at the store.

But my uncle was different.

He was my grandparents’ darling, their precious treasure. Whatever he wished for, he got.

My grandparents even *begged* him to study.

Though my uncle’s grades were always at the bottom, and he even repeated elementary school twice.

Yet, Grandma still believed that my uncle was the family’s only hope.

My mom yearned to learn. Sometimes, she would secretly flip through my uncle’s textbooks.

But Grandma discovered her.

Grandpa grabbed a rope and tied my mom to the persimmon tree in the yard.

“Stealing! I’ll teach you to steal! How dare you touch your brother’s things?!”

My mom cried until she fainted, saying she knew she was wrong.

My grandparents felt the lesson wasn’t enough and left her tied up all night before letting her down.

My mom almost died that night.

Life went on like that.

My grandparents remained biased, but my mom was already content.

At least she hadn’t been sold off, she thought.