Chapter 1: Released from Prison

The prison gates swung open with a boom, and a blinding beam of light shot into the dim corridor.

Five years of prison life had made Shi Yi's eyes sensitive to the light. She took a deep breath, dragged her heavy feet, and limped out of the gate.

"Get in."

A black Maybach was parked at the prison entrance. A man in a finely tailored suit stood leaning against the car with his arms crossed, speaking with a cold, indifferent expression.

Shi Yi opened her mouth, but the word "Brother" failed to make a sound.

In the end, she lowered her head and silently pulled open the car door.

Throughout the journey, both remained silent, with only the hum of the car engine. Shi Heng glanced at Shi Yi through the rearview mirror from time to time, discovering that his younger sister seemed to have changed. Not only had she lost a lot of weight, but her temperament also seemed different from before—especially those amber eyes, usually so rebellious, which now held a trace of submissiveness and humility.

Shi Heng sneered inwardly.

It seemed the prison labor reform had been effective after all.

An hour later, the car stopped at the entrance of a magnificent Chinese-style courtyard, where Shi Father and Shi Mother came out to greet them.

Shi Father had graying hair; although advanced in age, as the chairman of the Shi Group, he carried an imposing, dignified air that commanded respect without anger.

Shi Mother looked much younger, wearing a seemingly kind smile on her face:

"Yi'er, you've suffered these past few years."

Shi Yi said nothing, walking into the living room with her head down and placing her schoolbag on the expensive rosewood sofa.

"Hmph, after eating prison food for so many years, you're still so impolite! Can't you even call out to your parents?" Shi Zhenyuan suddenly said in a furious voice.

Shi Yi remained expressionless, turned her head, and whispered to Shi Zhenyuan and Liu Wanxin, "Dad, Mom."

Liu Wanxin immediately responded with feigned excitement, "Oh."

Shi Heng was astonished in his heart—his second younger sister had always been stubborn and perverse. Ever since she was seven, when she used a laser pointer to blind their little sister in one eye and was sent to an orphanage by the Shi family, she had never called them Mom or Dad again.

Who would have thought that after five years in prison, she would actually call them Mom and Dad?

"The Second Young Miss is back, let's eat!"

The maid, Zhang Ma, came out with a face full of kindness, serving dish after dish of sumptuous and exquisite food.

"Yi'er, this is wild coral trout, it's very fresh, try some."

Liu Wanxin enthusiastically placed a piece of fish into Shi Yi's plate.

Shi Yi looked at the fish in the plate and smiled bitterly to herself; she had a seafood allergy, and not a single person in the family knew.

"Why aren't you eating the fish?"

Seeing Shi Yi just eating rice with her head down, the fish in her plate untouched, Shi Zhenyuan's face darkened. "That was bought especially for you by your mother."

Shi Yi remained silent. She didn't know what to say; no matter what she said, it would be wrong, and in the end, it would only result in a vicious beating.

Five years of prison time had worn away all her resistance and struggle.

"What do you mean? Are you blaming us?!" Seeing Shi Yi still not speaking, Shi Zhenyuan became even angrier.

"Do you think that by serving five years in prison for Xi'er, you've atoned for your sins? You blinded one of Xi'er's eyes! Now you've come out unscathed, but Xi'er's eye will never recover for the rest of her life!"

Shi Yi smiled bitterly in her heart. Heh, unscathed?

Her body had long been covered in scars from torture; she had a lame leg and had lost a kidney.

But she didn't intend to tell the Shi family any of this. Anyway, no one would care; they would only think she deserved it.

Liu Wanxin said hypocritically from the side, "Yi'er, it was Mom's fault for letting you take the blame for Xi'er, but we had no other choice. If you want to hate someone, hate me alone. Now that you're out of prison, I will make it up to you."

Five years ago, the Shi family's third daughter, Shi Xi, was playing with an antique lighter at an important business banquet, which accidentally caused a fire.

The raging flames took the life of the 20-year-old Chu family daughter, and the Chu family was a dominant, untouchable underworld clan!

Even with the Shi family's vast wealth and influence, they couldn't afford to provoke the reckless Chu family.

Thus, the Shi family members conspired to come up with a plan—to push out the Shi family's second daughter, Shi Yi, who was almost unknown at the time, to take the blame, severing all ties with her to protect the Shi family.

Shi Yi would never forget that summer vacation.

She had just finished the college entrance examination and received an admission letter from Qinglan University, the top-ranked university in the country. The next day, she was brought home from the orphanage by her eldest brother, Shi Heng.

She was full of joy, thinking her parents finally recognized her as their daughter and that she could have the family affection she had dreamed of. But she never expected that upon pushing open the door, what awaited her were cold handcuffs and evidence carefully fabricated by the whole family.

"I don't like eating fish."

Shi Yi pulled herself out of her memories and said faintly with her head down.

"Dad, don't waste your breath. Don't you know? She's been a picky eater since she was little!"

Shi Heng added fuel to the fire from the side.

"Oh my, it's just a piece of fish. If she doesn't like it, don't eat it. Next time, I'll have Zhang Ma make something she likes," Liu Wanxin said with feigned kindness.

Shi Zhenyuan's face was terrifyingly gloomy. With a "slap," he slammed his chopsticks onto the table.

"Shi Yi, stop putting on that face for me! Do you think this family really owes you? It's just a piece of fish; where do you get so many problems? Will you die if you eat it? Your mother went to the market at five in the morning to buy this; do you know how hard she worked? It seems the five years in prison didn't teach you how to be a person!"

Shi Yi smiled inwardly. She suddenly felt that this family was truly meaningless.

Heh, yes, it's just a piece of fish; eating it won't kill me.

She said nothing more, picked up her chopsticks, took the fish from the plate, put it into her mouth, and swallowed it silently.

"How does it taste?"

Seeing Shi Yi obediently eat the fish, Liu Wanxin asked with great urgency.

"Not bad." Shi Yi spat out two words in a low voice.

"If it's good, eat more!"

Liu Wanxin enthusiastically placed several more pieces of fish into her plate. "This is the tender meat under the fish head, it's the most delicious. Yi'er, eat!"

Shi Yi kept her head down, said nothing, and swallowed the fish meat one by one.

Shi Zhenyuan's expression finally improved, even showing a hint of gratification. "That's right. As long as you are obedient in the future, the family won't treat you unfairly!"

But Shi Heng, sitting on the side, felt more and more that something was wrong.

Too obedient... How could Shi Yi become so obedient?

Obedient to the point of being eerie.

Shi Yi had been rebellious since she was a child. Back then, when she blinded one of Shi Xi's eyes, she refused to admit it was her fault no matter what. Her parents beat her, scolded her, whipped her, and even locked her in a dark room... she never admitted she was wrong.

Even until they threw her into the orphanage and cut off her ties with the Shi family, she never personally admitted her mistake.

But now, she was keeping her head down, eating the fish in her bowl bite by bite, quietly, like a submissive little cat...

Such a Shi Yi made Shi Heng suddenly feel very strange.

Just then, the door was pushed open from the outside with a "bang," and a shrill voice came:

"Is it that I'm not worthy of participating in such a family reunion moment?"