After the SAT, I hadn't even recovered from the tense exam atmosphere when I got home and was immediately greeted by a tirade from my foster mother, Sienna Lark.

"As soon as you get home, you just flop on the bed like a dead fish. What kind of girl lazes around like you do?" she scolded.

"Come on, get up and help me pull weeds in the field. No dinner until you're done!"

Ignoring my frail state, Sienna yanked me out of bed, handed me a tattered straw hat with several holes and a heavy, blunt hoe, and dragged me to the sweet potato field to weed.

Watching Sienna's short, stout, and muscular silhouette, I sneered coldly.

In the past, Sienna's attitude would have hurt me.

I thought it was because I was naive and spoiled that she was harsh and abusive to toughen me up, to give me a taste of life's hardships.

Now, I not only knew I wasn't Sienna's biological child, but I had also found my birth parents!

I realized that Sienna's cruel treatment stemmed from her envy—her daughter lived in my home while I was the child she had swapped in secret, a hostage she had taken.

What right did Sienna have to be proud? Her daughter wasn't even hers by blood.

She was just a woman who had been used as a surrogate.

Did she really think her unrelated daughter would take her back and elevate her status to the heavens?

As much as I hated her, I couldn't immediately expose Sienna's scheme.

I was waiting...

I was waiting for my biological parents.

If they came for me, good. If not...

I would make my way back.

Following Sienna to the sweet potato field, I fought back the dizziness, squatted down expertly, parted the thick vines, and started weeding.

Weeding was the chore I'd done most since I could remember.

Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, no matter how harsh the winter or how scorching the summer.

Whenever I was free at home, Sienna would have me out in the fields weeding.

Weeding was as natural and familiar to me as eating, and I was quick and thorough.

My obedience and diligence didn't earn me Sienna's praise. Instead, she swatted the tattered straw hat off my head and yanked me up from the ground.

"Why are you weeding so fast? Are you in a hurry to die or afraid of going hungry?

"You think taking the SAT means you can escape me, that you can just fly away, huh?

"You're just a bastard with a life but no one to raise you!

"Even if you get into the best universities, I won't spend a dime on your education!"

Sienna's rough, mud-caked fingers jabbed at my forehead, her face twisted in rage, spitting curses at me as if she wanted to poke a hole in my head.

I hadn't eaten breakfast, let alone lunch.

Already dizzy with hunger, I lost my balance and fell into the sweet potato patch beside me.

A sharp snapping sound came from behind me as my body crushed a large swathe of sweet potato plants.

Seeing this, Sienna had even more reason to blame me. She raised her hand to slap my face.

"You little bastard, you did this on purpose!"

"You deliberately wanted to make me angry, deliberately wanted to ruin the sweet potatoes I worked so hard to grow!"

The fierce wind of her palm rushed towards my face. I closed my eyes in resignation, waiting for Sienna's next round of beating.

I was not a masochist; I didn't enjoy being beaten.

I wanted to fight back, but I was too hungry to move. Once I lay down, I didn't want to move an inch.

As Sienna swung at me, her face was full of triumph and malice. She cursed under her breath as if I were just a stray dog waiting to be slaughtered.

I heard a faint sound...

The expected slap didn't come. I opened my eyes in confusion.

Suddenly, my eyes lit up!

Sienna's hand was gripped tightly by a woman.

If I wasn't mistaken, the impeccably dressed woman with the perfect makeup standing before me was my biological mother.

The mole at the corner of her eye was the same as mine!

My birth mother held Sienna's hand firmly, her usually gentle voice filled with anger and coldness.

"Madam, this is not how you raise a child.

"The days of children being beaten and scolded at will are over. On the contrary, if you beat a child into rebellion, it won't be good."

My birth mother looked delicate and fragile, but her strength was surprisingly great.

She effortlessly gripped Sienna's rough and thick wrist with one hand, her expression unchanged.

Sienna struggled, trying to pull her hand back, but couldn't break free. Sienna's face changed at her words, her expression contorted.

Sienna's sallow face turned red, and she shouted in a nasty tone, "Who the hell are you, lady? What business is it of yours how I discipline my daughter!"

My birth mother disdainfully flung away Sienna's fat, sturdy wrist. Just like a scene from a CEO romance novel, she took a silk handkerchief from her luxurious handbag, wiped her hand, and tossed it away.

Her voice was icy cold.

"Oh, are you sure the daughter you're disciplining is your daughter?

"I think your daughter looks a lot like my daughter."

My birth mother stepped gracefully over Sienna and came to my side, helping me up from where I lay sprawled on the sweet potato seedlings.

"Darling," she said, her voice gentle but her gaze firm and unwavering.

"Who do you think is your mother? Me, or this fat woman with the mean face?"

Looking at my birth mother, dressed impeccably and smiling warmly, then down at my own hands, dry, skinny, and dark, a wave of shame washed over me.

I lowered my head, not daring to meet her eyes.

"You're my mom," I whispered, my voice trembling.

My mother smiled, her eyes filled with tears.

"Oh, my sweet girl. Mommy's taking you home."

Sienna, seeing my mother about to leave as if she didn't exist, gritted her teeth and blocked our way.

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded. "

Where do you think you're going with my daughter? Give her back to me!"

She reached out to grab me, but my birth mother wasn't about to let me get hurt again.

She lifted her leg and kicked Sienna's massive belly.

"Ouch!"

Sienna screamed, collapsing onto the sweet potato seedlings.

Her extensive body crushed twice the area of seedlings I had.

I blinked back tears, feeling sad for the poor, dead plants.

My birth mother held me, her face filled with arrogance.

"Madam, stop claiming my daughter as your own.

"You are not worthy!

"Since you can't afford to raise my daughter, I'll take her back.

"My family is wealthy, with properties galore. I can certainly afford to raise a daughter!"

Sienna lay on the sweet potato seedlings, clutching her stomach in pain, her face contorted.

She still refused to admit that I wasn't her biological daughter.

"Mary Lark is my daughter!

"If you're looking for a daughter, go to the orphanage. Don't try to steal mine!"

My birth mother paid no attention to Sienna's fierce yelling, swaying her hips as she led me away.

Sienna couldn't fight back against my mother, so my mother wasn't afraid of her at all.

Suddenly, a deep male voice boomed from above.

"Aria, why are you running so fast? I can't even catch up with you!"

I looked up and saw my biological father!

My father wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, exuding an air of elegance and refinement.

He looked exactly like the pictures I'd seen online.

No, wait. In-person, there were faint wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and a few blackheads on his nose. He seemed more approachable, more human than in the photos.

When my father saw my mother supporting me, a surge of joy flashed across his eyes, weathered by decades of life's experiences.

"Aria, is she our daughter?"

My mother nodded, her face beaming with a smile.

"Yes, Phoebe is our daughter."

Upon seeing my father, the harshness and coldness on my mother's face vanished. She became gentle and sweet, captivating my father completely.

My father touched his head and laughed.

His laughter was simple and innocent, like a lovestruck teenager.

"Phoebe, I'm your biological father, I..." Before my father could finish, my body suddenly fell backward, pulled towards Sienna.

"Are you all out of your minds, suddenly coming here to snatch someone else's daughter?

"Mary is my daughter, not yours!

"If you keep randomly claiming daughters, I'm going to call the police and have you arrested!" Sienna gripped my hand tightly, her face filled with malice and spite.

My hand ached from her grip, and I tried to break free, but Sienna held on tight as if she wanted to break my hand!

"Ma'am, please let go!" I stared coldly at Sienna, the woman who had raised me for ten years but also abused me for ten years.

Sienna's eyes, puffy with dark circles, widened in anger as she glared at me. "What did you call me?" she snarled.

"I said, ma'am, let go. My biological parents are here to take me home.

"I want to go back to my own home!" I shouted with all my might, wanting to vent all the grievances and frustrations I had accumulated over the past ten years.

"You little bitch, you're asking it!"

Humiliated in front of strangers for the first time, Sienna took out her anger on me, raising her hand to slap my face!

Just as the wind from her palm was about to hit me, my father caught Sienna's hand and flung it away.

"Ma'am, my daughter is not some bastard you can bully.

"If my daughter loses another hair, I'll make sure you never see the light of day again!"

My father's tone was even colder than my mother's, his aura even more intimidating.

Sienna was frightened by my father. Her eye bags trembled, and her body shook involuntarily.

I couldn't help but sigh.

It felt so good to be protected.

Mom saw that Dad was furious. She leaned against Dad's chest like a delicate willow in the wind and pointed at Sienna with a saccharine voice. "Quentin, you've finally stood up for our daughter."

"This big fatty slapped our daughter to the ground. It broke my heart."

I struggled to suppress the laughter bubbling up.

My mother was both fierce and manipulative, and I loved it.

My father seemed to fall for her act entirely. He tenderly wiped away the nonexistent tears from her eyes, then turned to the men behind him and shouted, "I've got my eye on this patch of wasteland.

"I don't want to see a single sweet potato sprout here tomorrow.

"Level this whole damn place by tomorrow!"

One of the men nodded and turned to find the village chief.

Sienna was dumbfounded.

"You... what are you all trying to do?"

Sienna finally realized her grand scheme had been exposed, and panic set in.

Dad held my hand and gave Sienna a cold look.

"I'm going to repay my daughter for the suffering she's endured for seventeen years, tenfold!"