Before the college entrance exam, I had no father, no mother. After the exam, I became the top scorer in the entire province.

And somehow, I suddenly gained two sets of parents.

They went on TV, crying and accusing me of not recognizing them.

Fine. If they like crying so much, I’ll make sure they cry their hearts out!

I was working in the factory when a swarm of reporters suddenly appeared, demanding an interview.

“Ella Vance, as the top scorer in this year’s provincial college entrance exam, how do you feel?”

“Ella Vance, do you have any study tips you can share with us?”

I took off my gloves and lab coat, wiping the sweat off my forehead.

Before I could speak, a shrill voice rang out.

“Ella, your mom and dad are here!”

Hearing this, all the reporters turned around and saw a middle-aged couple jogging toward us.

They were visibly excited, their faces full of flattery and greed.

It was Nathan Vance and Clara.

Nathan eagerly slung his arm around my shoulders, and Clara grabbed my hand.

“Ella, you’ve been through so much,” Nathan said, pretending to choke up, as though he were about to shed tears.

I shoved them away, disgusted. “Don’t touch me.”

“I don’t have parents. I never had them, and I won’t have them now.”

The reporters were stunned, quickly pointing their cameras at us, eager not to miss this sudden twist of the story.

“Ella, I know you’re still angry with us, but no parent is perfect. After all, we’re a family,” Nathan said.

“Yeah, I suffered so much to give birth to you. Do you know the pain I went through during your birth?” Clara added.

I looked at them coldly. “What a joke. You suffered for me? Pain? You had three more daughters after me, and only stopped when you finally had a son. Don’t talk to me about suffering.”

My words sent a wave of murmurs through the reporters, and Clara’s face turned pale.

“Ella, how could you speak like that to your mother?” Nathan struggled to hold his composure.

I looked at him, feeling even more disgusted. “When I tried to reconnect with you, you said you never had a daughter and that I shouldn’t call anyone ‘mom’ or ‘dad’ so casually.”

“Now, I’m returning your words exactly: Don’t call me ‘daughter’ so casually.”

The couple’s faces turned red with anger. “Ella, you ungrateful little brat, how dare you speak to your elders like that?”

Before I could respond, a woman’s voice called out from outside the factory.

“Who said she was raised without a mother?”

Another middle-aged couple approached. They weren’t as well-dressed as Nathan and Clara, and they looked older.

The woman speaking was plainly dressed, her face haggard.

Though I hadn’t seen her in three years, I recognized her immediately—Ruth. The man with her was Owen Holloway, Ruth’s husband of three years.

Ruth stepped protectively behind me, her face full of anger as she glared at Nathan and Clara.

“Ella is my daughter, and I won’t let you speak about her like that!”

The reporters were flustered, unsure of how to handle this sudden appearance of new parents.

“I told you, I don’t have parents. I never had them, and I won’t have them now,” I said calmly.

Ruth turned to me in disbelief. “Ella…”

“Owen, you can’t say that! No matter what, she raised you for so many years. She’s a woman, she struggled! You can’t just deny her as your mother!” Owen said, his bulging beer belly almost ripping through his shirt.

“Mother? Where did I get a mother?” I asked, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I knew it. She’s an ingrate. Now, not only does she refuse to acknowledge us, but she won’t even acknowledge you guys either,” Nathan and Clara smirked.

I turned my gaze to Ruth and Owen, my eyes cold. “Three years ago, when you kicked me out of the house, you said whether I lived or died had nothing to do with you. You severed all ties. Don’t you remember?”

“I remember. You seem to have forgotten.”

Ruth’s gaze shifted uncomfortably, avoiding mine.

“But she did raise you for fifteen years. Even if it wasn’t for her effort, at least give her credit for the hardships she endured. How can you be so heartless?” Owen said, dismissing it lightly.

“Ella, I was wrong. Please, don’t hold it against me. Come home with me, okay? I’ve come to take you back. Owen agrees too!” Ruth emphasized the words, “Owen agrees too.”

Because three years ago, Ruth wanted to marry Owen, and Owen didn’t want to take me in. Ruth had to choose between me and Owen, between her daughter and her husband.

And she chose him. Then she kicked me out.

I turned to Owen, expressionless. “You really agree?”

“Of course. Come back with us. We’ll be a family. Who would’ve thought you’d become the top scorer in the province? You’ve really made something of yourself. I’ll treat you like my own daughter from now on. You can call me dad, just like you would your real father.”

How laughable. Three years ago, they considered me a burden, heartlessly kicking me out when I was fifteen. I had no money, no place to go. I ended up working in an electronics factory, where they rejected me because I wasn’t even sixteen.

I had no money for food, so I secretly scavenged leftovers in the school cafeteria.

To make money, I dug through trash bins at school, collecting bottles to sell. But when it came time to pay my tuition the next semester, I still didn’t have enough money. In the end, I had to drop out.

My homeroom teacher found out about my situation and covered my tuition. She even found me a job in the school cafeteria, washing dishes to earn living expenses.

I remember crying uncontrollably at the time, vowing that when I made money, I would pay her back double.

From then on, I studied tirelessly. I knew how hard it was to get an education. These three years, I worked to earn money and studied day and night.

And now, after becoming the top scorer in the provincial exam, these people have the nerve to show up, asking to be part of my life.

Nathan and Clara sensed the situation escalating and quickly rushed over to stand between us, trying to separate us.

"Ella, you can't do this! We are your real parents! You are flesh of our flesh!"

"Yeah, you can't deny your real parents and go after people with no blood relation to you!"

Nathan and Clara bombarded me with words, trying to reason with me and appeal to my emotions, clearly desperate that I wouldn’t accept Ruth and Owen.

"Who says we don’t share blood? Ruth and Ella—they share the same blood!" Owen immediately shouted.

Nathan and Clara’s argument with Owen intensified.

"Blood or not, does it compare to your real parents? We are the ones who share the same blood!" Nathan snapped, hands on his hips, glaring at Owen.

Owen was furious with Nathan and Clara’s shameless behavior.

"I can see through you! It’s because Ella’s finally making something of herself, isn’t it? Now you rush over to claim her as your daughter, thinking you can just ride her coattails, right?"

"Who was it that abandoned her? Who threw her away the moment she was born? If it weren’t for Ruth rescuing Ella from a mass grave, she would’ve been dead by now."

"You left her in that grave, giving her no chance to survive! You wanted her to die!"

I thought my heart had long turned to stone, but hearing Owen’s words still made it ache.

I’d always believed my parents abandoned me because I was a girl and handed me over to Ruth. I never imagined they could be so cruel.

"Is that true?" I turned to look at my so-called biological parents.

"Don’t listen to him! He’s just trying to sow discord between us!" Nathan and Clara showed no shame at all, and instead, they defended themselves boldly.

"Oh, really? I almost believed him for a second. Almost thought you were really my parents." I said flatly.

"If you don’t acknowledge me, then we have nothing to do with each other. Your real daughter must be someone else."

"Ella, don’t say that! We are your parents, how could you deny us?" Clara panicked immediately.

"I was picked up from a mass grave. If you are my parents, then you must have thrown your daughter into that grave too."

"The mass grave... It’s true. When you were born, your father did leave you there, but that was because we were poor and couldn’t afford to raise you. It was out of desperation."

Nathan and Clara started crying as they spoke, going on about how tough things were for them back then, how hard their lives had been. They’d throw a glance at me now and then, watching for my reaction.

Clara and Nathan played their parts, weaving a sob story about how I should be more understanding of their struggles, that I should accept them as my parents. It was a performance worthy of an Oscar.

Ha! I was waiting for that line. I glanced up at the camera aimed at us.

"Even if you did throw me into a mass grave, it doesn’t prove I’m your daughter. Do you have any evidence?" I suddenly pushed back.

The couple, who had been crying, froze at my words.

"Th-there’s no need for evidence. You’re our daughter!" Nathan stammered, caught off guard.

"Isn’t this just because you don’t want to accept your real parents? You’re just saying this to make it hard on us!" The woman wailed again.

The noise was giving me a headache, and I frowned, stepping back.

The reporters were whispering among themselves when one of them came up with a solution.

"You could do a DNA test! That way, it would prove everything, right?"

Nathan and Clara, hearing this, grabbed onto the suggestion like a lifeline.

"Yes, Ella, let’s go get a DNA test."

Owen quickly stepped in to stop them. "No, don’t do it. Even if the DNA says they’re your real parents, does that make up for what they did? Do you really think they acted like real parents?"

"Which parent would throw their own daughter into a mass grave? That’s something only animals would do!"

"What’s it to you? Didn’t we already explain that it was something we had to do?" Nathan and Clara shot angry glares at Owen.

"Don’t think we don’t know what’s going on in your mind. You were the one who kicked Ella out! If it weren’t for you, would Ella be in this situation now? And now you’re here pretending to be the good guy. You don’t deserve it!"

Ruth, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up, "Don’t go, Ella. If you do, they’ll drain you dry."

I watched them fighting like dogs, and I couldn’t help but find it all ridiculous. Who among them was any less guilty?

"Fine, I’ll do it."

I agreed to go with Nathan and Clara to the hospital tomorrow for a DNA paternity test, and the reporters would follow us the whole time, documenting everything.

I didn’t expect that after the reporters left today, they quickly turned this into a special feature, and it went viral online in no time.

People were talking all over the internet. After becoming the top scorer in the college entrance exam, I actually had two sets of parents coming forward to claim me as their child. It was truly bizarre.

But I had no idea about any of this. I had spent the entire day working in the workshop, and by evening, I dragged my exhausted body back to the dormitory.

To my surprise, there was an unexpected guest waiting for me.

Nathan's biological mother, Martha.

Martha hobbled in, her back hunched, her hair completely white, but her eyes still gleamed with calculating shrewdness.

She came in, first crying and complaining, saying we were all family, calling me her "good granddaughter," begging me to come home.

I snapped back at her, furious.

"Spit! Who the hell are you calling granddaughter? Who the hell would want to be related to someone like you?"

Now that there were no reporters or cameras, I didn't care about saving face.

Martha froze, clearly shocked. She hadn't expected me, who had always been quiet, to suddenly lash out at her like this.

But I knew, deep down, that she was the one who started all of this misery.

I was born into a family that placed extreme importance on sons over daughters. My biological mother first gave birth to my sister, and when Martha saw her, she cursed and left. Just three days later, she had my mother work in the fields, while my father, a mama's boy, followed his mother's every command.

My mother suffered, endured pain, but she never blamed my father or his mother. Instead, she became determined to give the Vance family a son.

I was the second daughter born. As soon as I was born, Martha cursed me, telling my father to throw me in a mass grave, hoping I would die quickly and never be born into their family.

At that time, my father's sister, Ruth, my aunt, heard about it. She went to the graveyard alone and secretly brought me back.

Ruth was already forty at the time, unmarried, because her family never introduced her to any suitors or let her date. She started working as soon as she left school, and almost all of her wages went to support her younger brothers' education. Later, the money she earned went toward the house and her brothers' weddings. Ruth worked tirelessly for her family.

So, of course, Martha would never let Ruth get married.

Ruth took me in not just because she couldn’t bear to see me die, but also because she hoped I would care for her when she grew old. She knew all too well that once she was no longer useful, no one would care for her.

At first, Ruth said she found me at the factory gate, but as I grew older, it became clearer that I looked more and more like my real parents. This became an unspoken secret among us.

After my real parents killed three female fetuses, they finally got their son, just as they had wanted.

My mother finally stood tall, and with a son to back her up, she started arguing with Martha. Later, they joined the village’s timber business and actually prospered, becoming one of the first families in the village to get rich.

I had always lived with Ruth, and she never told me any of this.

I called her "mom," and I had always thought she was my mother.