I'm the most obedient child in the village.

Since I've failed to keep an eye on my younger brother, which has resulted in him suffering from a fall, my adoptive mother, Patricia Henson, breaks my left lower leg bone with an iron poker.

"You useless bastard! Why can't you just die already? I was the one who saved your life, so you should pay me back with that life of yours!"

As I look up at Patricia, I nod quietly. "Okay, Mom."

Then, I turn around to grab the bottle of rat poison that's sitting on the kitchen counter. After unscrewing the cap, I begin chugging down the chemicals.

Patricia is shocked out of her mind by my antics. Her screams fill the kitchen as she lunges at me just to knock the bottle out of my hands. But I've already taken a huge gulp of the poison by then.

I end up getting sent to the hospital, where the doctors spend the next few days saving my life.

Due to the severity of this incident, it's reported on the news, allowing my biological parents to track me down.

Later on, they take me back to my actual home, which is a luxurious manor. But my older brother, Dominic Richmond, calls me filthy and wants me to cleanse myself properly.

So, I grab a steel scourer and begin scrubbing my entire body with it. It doesn't take long before I'm completely drenched in my own blood.

Some time later, Derek Richmond, my adopted younger brother whom everyone sings praises about, calls me disgusting with tears streaming down his cheeks. He also claims that he doesn't want to see me at all.

Dominic points at the balcony while yelling at me, "Can't you just die already?"

As I look at him, I just smile serenely. "Okay, Dominic."

After that, I jump off the balcony.

At that moment, I hear Dominic's hysterical screams.

For some reason or other, I managed to survive the poisoning. However, I soon discovered that the family that ostensibly saved me didn't seem happy about it after all.

"What do you mean that Dexter is my younger brother now! I will only acknowledge Derek as my younger brother, and nobody else!"

"Who knows what sorts of horrible habits he's picked up while living in the slums? Why else would he keep threatening suicide like this? It's obvious that he's just trying to threaten us! He's trying to garner our pity so we'd feel sorry for him!"

The door was pushed open, and a tall young man walked in. He was Dominic Richmond, the eldest son of the family, and apparently, my elder sibling now. He was also the one who said all that earlier.

A younger-looking teenager was right behind him, wearing a white shirt and looking very spick and span. That was Derek Richmond, the Richmond family's adopted youngest son.

Derek's eyes were red and teary as he looked at me fearfully. "Dexter… You're finally awake… It's all my fault. I shouldn't have said such bad things about you."

Dominic patted Derek's shoulders comfortingly before turning to glare coldly at me. "I'm warning you, Dexter Richmond. You'd better behave yourself now that you're back with us. Derek is the most important person in this family, so you'd better put away that pitiful act and suicide threats.

"If you still insist on dying, then make sure you're far enough so none of us can ever see you again. Don't you dare leave a single stain on our family!"

I pulled out the IV needle in the back of my hand, and fresh blood poured out from the wound. I looked at Dominic and nodded obediently. "Okay. I understand."

He frowned as if his eyes had been pricked by the sight of my blood.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Going farther away to die," I said, pushing the covers off and trying to get out of bed.

However, since my lungs had been badly injured, I couldn't stop coughing as soon as I started to move. The blood dripped down from my hand onto the floor in a terrifying manner.

Dominic's expression changed. Meanwhile, Derek yelled, "Dexter! You're bleeding!"

Just then, my mom, Jenna Dalton, rushed into the ward and saw what was happening. She shoved Dominic aside and quickly put me back in bed.

"What are you doing? Are you trying to drive him to his death? Are you only going to be happy if he's dead?"

Dominic was frozen to the ground. He stared at the blood on the floor for a while and cursed.

"What a lunatic."

…

I was brought back to the Richmond villa after being discharged from the hospital.

They had a massive seafood spread that night for dinner. Derek was seated right between my parents as he dished out the seafood platters to everyone at the table.

"Here's your portion, Dad, and Mom's, and Dominic's…"

They looked like a happy family of four. Meanwhile, I felt just like an outsider, staring at the food on the table and not quite knowing what to do.

"Here, have some shrimp," Derek suddenly said, placing a peeled shrimp on my plate. "I peeled it myself. This is the freshest colossal shrimp flown in from abroad. It tastes really sweet. I bet you've never had it before since you lived in the countryside."

He smiled innocently at me, but I knew that he was doing this on purpose.

I'd done a full-body check-up at the hospital before, and the doctor specifically told me that I was deathly allergic to seafood, which would cause asphyxiation and ultimately death if I wasn't careful. And he'd been there too, listening.

I just stared at the peeled shrimp on my plate.

"Why aren't you eating it?" Dominic demanded, glaring fiercely at me. "What the hell are you putting on airs for when Derek was kind enough to peel the shrimp for you? What, you think it's too dirty for someone like you?"

I looked up at Mom. However, she was busy wiping sauce from Derek's mouth, and she wasn't looking at me at all. Dad was also staring intently at his phone instead.

"Dom, do you think Dexter won't eat it because he hates me?" Derek suddenly asked, lowering his eyes and sounding aggrieved.

"Dexter Richmond!" Dominic yelled, slamming his fist on the table. "Eat that fucking shrimp, you ungrateful bastard! You will accept everything Derek gives you in this household, even if you have to get down on your knees to beg for it!"

"Dom, that's not how you speak to your brother," Mom said, finally looking up. However, she simply chided him lightly like that before turning to me. "Hurry up and eat it, Dex. Don't make Dom mad. Derek's just being kind to you."

I picked up my fork and stabbed it into the peeled shrimp.

"Yes, Mom."

I put the shrimp in my mouth and chewed it for a while before swallowing.

It tasted very sweet and delicious, but it also tasted like death.

Less than three minutes later, I felt my throat constricting, and rashes also broke out on my skin. It got harder and harder for me to breathe, as though someone had wrapped their hands around my throat.

I began to choke, unable to stop myself from crying out.

"Shut up!" Dominic yelled, glaring at me in disgust. "Shut up and eat your dinner instead of making those horrible sounds like an animal! Don't you know any table manners at all?"

I immediately clapped a hand over my mouth as tightly as I could. If Dominic told me to shut up, then I had to make sure that I made absolutely no sound at all.

My throat kept swelling, making it harder and harder to breathe. My face turned purple as cold sweat streamed down my forehead.

However, I remained tightly seated with my mouth firmly over my mouth, not daring to make a sound.

Eventually, the fork in my other hand clattered to the ground, and I collapsed onto the carpeted floor with a heavy thud.

"Dexter!" Mom cried out in horror.

Derek got a fright and shot to his feet at once. "What's happened to Dexter?"

Dominic frowned and came over to me, kicking me in the calf. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Get up!"

I didn't move. I couldn't even move a muscle anymore.

My dad, Calvin Richmond, finally realized something was wrong and rushed over to turn me onto my back. He froze in shock when he saw my face had turned purple.

"It's an allergy! He's going into an anaphylactic shock! Call the ambulance! Hurry!"

Everyone was flustered. When I was finally wheeled into the ambulance, my eyes were still wide open as I stared unblinkingly at Dominic, my hand still tightly covering my mouth.

Dominic's face was pale. His hands wouldn't stop shaking either. Seeing me still covering my mouth, he suddenly remembered yelling at me to shut up.

I remained at the hospital for a few more days before waking up. My body was somehow just too tough and refused to die.

When I woke up, I realized that only Derek and Dominic were in the ward.

Derek was sobbing, tears streaming down his face.

"I'm sorry, Dom… I forgot that Dexter was allergic to seafood… I really didn't mean to do it…"

Dominic wiped away his tears, feeling absolutely sorry for Derek. "It's not your fault, Derek. You were just too kind. Dexter was just being a dumbass. It's all his fault for not saying a thing about his allergy. Apparently, that mouth of his is just purely for decoration."

When he turned around and saw that I'd woken up, the look in his eyes immediately turned to one of disgust.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you, Dexter Richmond?" he snapped, pointing a finger in my face. "You did this on purpose to frame Derek for it and make Mom and Dad think that he hated you and wanted you dead! How could you be such an evil, ungrateful brat?"

I yanked off the oxygen mask, my voice as hoarse as though sandpaper had gone through it. "Dominic told me to eat it. So I ate it. Dominic told me to shut up. So I did."

His breath stuck in his throat. He opened his mouth like he was going to retort, but when he saw that my eyes were about as calm as death, he suddenly felt a bout of fear coursing through him.

"You… You're just impossible! You're a lunatic!"

He grabbed Derek and led him out of the ward. "Let's go, Derek. There's no need to care about this lunatic anymore."

The atmosphere at home changed after going back. Mom and Dad felt a little sorry for me, but that was about it. Rather, they were more worried about Derek, afraid that this incident would traumatize him instead.

To be fair, Mom gave me a smartwatch as a present. It was supposed to be a birthday gift for Derek.

"I picked this out for you, Dex. Do you like it?" Mom asked, carefully putting it on my wrist.

I liked it. This was the first gift I'd ever received from anyone in my life.

Derek stood next to me, saying enviously, "It looks so nice on you, Dexter. It suits you so well. It's a pity that I don't have it though… But I guess it's fine as long as you're happy."

Dominic scoffed coldly. "It's a waste to give Dexter the smartwatch. How could someone from the slums even know how to use it? What a terrible waste."

He then came up to me and grabbed me by my collar in disgust. "That watch is too dangerous for you. You'd better not let it electrocute you to death.

"Also, you reek like hell, just like the slums. You smell so poor that no amount of clothing you wear can ever cover up that foul odor. Go and give yourself a good scrubbing and don't come out until you're squeaky clean, you embarrassing piece of trash!"

I touched my collar and then my arms.

"Okay. I understand."

I turned, went into the bathroom, and locked the door behind me.

I didn't run the bath or turn on the shower. Instead, I found a stainless steel scourer in the cabinet under the sink meant for heavy-duty cleaning.

Since Dominic said I stank and reeked of the countryside, maybe I should just scrub all my skin off. Without it, I'd probably finally be clean, right?

So, I grabbed the scourer tightly and began scrubbing my arms hard.

Eventually, my skin began to tear, and blood began seeping out from the welts in the skin. However, I didn't feel any pain. All I could think of was Dominic telling me to scrub myself clean.

After I was done scrubbing and scouring my left arm, I began with my right. Then, I did the same to my neck and chest.

The blood began soaking into my bathrobe, slowly streaming down my body and pooling on the floor. The bathroom soon began to reek of a metallic stench.

Half an hour later, Derek knocked on the door.

"Dexter? Are you still in there? Mom said to come down for tea."

I didn't reply and continued scrubbing my thighs hard.

"Dexter?"

Derek tried the door, but it was locked. "Dom! Dexter locked himself in the bathroom!"

Hurried footsteps sounded outside the door.

"Dexter Richmond! What the hell do you think you're doing inside the bathroom? Come out here right now!" Dominic yelled at the door, pounding on it hard.

He was just about to kick the door down when it opened, making him suddenly freeze on the spot, his leg hanging in the air.

I stood at the bathroom door without a single inch of skin on my body that wasn't bloodied or shredded to bits. I looked like a monster that had been completely skinned, with red muscle showing through.

Yet, there was a wide smile on my face as I still held onto the bloodied stainless steel scourer.

"Dominic," I said, raising my bloodied arms and showing them off proudly to him. "I'm all clean now. There's no skin left. The smell's gone too, right? Do I still reek?"

Derek screamed at the top of his lungs. Then, his eyes flipped upward, and he fainted on the spot.

Dominic's eyes widened, his body trembling as though he'd been struck by lightning. He stumbled backward and braced himself against the wall for support as he began to dry-heave.

"You… You…"

He pointed his finger at me, trembling hard, but he couldn't get another word out.

Mom rushed up just then. However, when she caught sight of me, her eyes also rolled up, and she fainted on the ground.

I was utterly confused. Had I been disobedient after all? Why were they all so afraid of me?

…

Ever since that incident, everyone in the family had begun to look at me differently. They didn't dare to give me any commands or even make any comments anymore. Even Derek would go out of his way to avoid me if he ran into me.

However, I knew that this calm was only temporary.

It was Derek's birthday a week later, and the Richmonds held a party for him, inviting a few friends and relatives over to celebrate.

Derek also owned a gray parrot named Pippy. Everyone was very fond of it because it was smart, witty, and could even recite lines from Shakespeare.

I sat alone on the living room couch when the party started, staring off into space. Derek came up to me just then with Pippy in his cage.

"Look, Dexter! Don't you think that Pippy is just the cutest?" he asked, opening the cage and letting the parrot out.

Pippy flapped its wings and landed on the coffee table before me. Then, it cocked its head at me and suddenly opened its mouth, squawking loudly, "Go kill yourself! Go kill yourself! Dexter the sewer rat! Dexter the sewer rat!"

Every guest in the villa, including family, friends, relatives, and even Mom and Dad, froze on the spot.

Derek hurriedly clapped his hands over his mouth and exclaimed, "Pippy! Who taught you that? How could you?"

He then turned to Mom and Dad and immediately began to cry. "I never taught it that, I swear! I didn't even know that it knew how to swear! Maybe… Maybe Pippy… Maybe Pippy picked it up from someone else…"

Dominic's face darkened like an approaching storm. However, he didn't yell at Derek. Instead, he turned to look at me in disgust, his eyes flickering dangerously as he yelled, "It was you, wasn't it? You taught Pippy to swear so that you could frame Derek for it!"