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- 1/9
- Elva’s prediction wasn’t wrong. In fact, Hardy’s bullying started even earlier than in my previous life.
- At school, my head was forced into a sink, surrounded by boys‘ mocking laughter. Just as I was about to suffocate, someone grabbed my neck and pulled me up. Hardy smiled at me: “Want my family’s money? Sure thing.”
- “Drink all the water from the toilet. I’ll give you a hundred grand for each sip. How about it?” His followers cheered excitedly.
- I looked at Hardy. In my previous life, this man had tenderly professed his love to me. Now he was unleashing his malice on me without restraint.
- But Hardy wasn’t looking at me. His gaze passed over me to someone behind me. I knew Elva was there, bent over cleaning the floor.
- “Isn’t that Elva?” “Why is she cleaning the floor?”
- One follower told Hardy: “Elva’s mom is the school cleaner. She attends school during the day and helps her mother work at night.”
- A flash of shock crossed Hardy’s eyes, followed by a hint of sympathy. He called out to Elva: “Hey, it’s freezing cold. Stop
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- cleaning–nobody’s checking anyway.”
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- Elva straightened up, her black hair falling over her shoulders, her delicate face wearing a stubborn expression. She shook her head: “I can’t.”
- “If someone comes to check,““If they find the floor dirty, my mom will lose a hundred yuan from her salary.” “I know a hundred yuan means nothing to a young master like you, but for my family, it’s my food budget for an entire week.” After saying this, Elva bent down and continued wiping the floor.
- Actually, Elva’s intentions were completely obvious. With so much floor to clean, she deliberately chose to work right in front of Hardy. She had purposely let her hair down and positioned herself at the perfect angle to appear most attractive. And sadly, Hardy fell right for this kind of manipulation.
- Sure enough, Hardy stepped forward, helped Elva to her feet, and snatched the cloth from her hand before tossing it to one of his followers. “You guys, finish cleaning the rest for her.” He glanced at Elva’s hands, reddened from the cold, thought for a moment, then draped his jacket over her shoulders. “It’s getting late. How are you planning to get home?”
- “By bike.”
- “You’re cycling in this cold?” Hardy looked shocked, then said firmly, “Wait downstairs. I’ll have my driver take you home.”
- Elva left under Hardy’s protection. Before disappearing, she turned back discreetly and flashed me a mocking smile.
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- Moments later, everyone had dispersed, leaving only me by the sink. I struggled to my feet and used my sleeve to wipe the water. dripping from my hair.
- “Use this instead.” A cool voice sounded behind me.
- I turned around to see Shirley from our class. She was a quiet girl who studied diligently and always wore long sleeves regardless of the season. In my previous life, she had also helped Elva when she was being bullied. She had offered Elva a towel and advised her to expose Hardy’s bullying. But Elva had slapped her hand away: “What do you know? He’s my brother!” Back then, Elva was still harboring unrealistic dreams of making Hardy fall for her. After that incident, Shirley stopped getting involved and went back to her solitary ways. Later, as graduation approached, Shirley committed suicide. Only then did we learn that her family was extremely poor, her grandmother was
- bedridden, and
- her but also tri father was a gambler who not only abused
- her but also tried to sell her to pay off his debts. Now, she stood beside me, holding a clean towel. I hesitated before taking it. She didn’t say much, just turned to leave. She probably thought there was nothing worth saying to someone like Christine. As I watched her figure about to disappear, I suddenly called out, “Shirley!” She stopped in her tracks. I ran my fingers through my hair casually. “Well, I just transferred here and don’t know my way around yet.” “Where’s the cafeteria? Could you show
- me?”
- The cafeteria table was set with four dishes and a soup: braised pork ribs, steamed egg with meat, cola chicken wings, stir–fried vegetables, and clam winter melon soup. As expected of
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- Mistwood, the best high school, the cafeteria food was always something to be proud of. I ran my fingers through my hair again. “Oops, I accidentally got too much food.” “Wasting food is shameful. You haven’t had dinner either, right? Let’s cal together?”
- After a moment of silence, Shirley finally picked up her fork and began eating in small bites. I noticed her wrists pecking out from her uniform sleeves, thin and bony. In truth, girls like Shirley were the ones who truly needed help. But because they weren’t pretty and didn’t cry out in pain, they would only become. forgotten weeds in the garden of youth, never qualifying to be the protagonist of a teen drama. In this life, I was determined to save not only myself but her as well.
- My mind made up, I spoke, “Gosh, conic sections are so difficult, I can’t understand them at all.” “Shirley, you’re good at studying. Would you mind tutoring me?”
- Shirley, with a mouthful of braised pork ribs, looked shocked, as if thinking, “Since when are we this close?” I didn’t give her a chance to refuse. Throwing an arm around her shoulders, I said cheerfully, “Then it’s decided! I’ll pay you for the tutoring!”
- I gave Shirley part of my allowance, calling it “advance payment for tutoring.” Looking at the envelope containing a hundred red bills, she was too shocked to speak. In truth, whether in my previous life or this one, the Brook Family never skimped on basic necessities and living expenses for their adopted daughter. But what was pocket change to Hardy was enough for Shirley to buy medicine for her grandmother, pay hospital bills, and even rent a small place off–campus to escape her abusive father.
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- After arranging the next day’s tutoring session with Shirley, I returned home. The luxurious mansion was empty. Jason was out at a business dinner, and Rita was at the beauty salon for treatments. As for Hardy, he was probably having dinner at the Roland Family’s home. In my previous life, Hardy had his driver take me home, and when the Roland Family’s adoptive parents saw him, they enthusiastically invited him to stay for dinner. Then, just like in a typical teen drama, that single dinner allowed the young master, who had grown up in a cold, wealthy household, to experience the warm family atmosphere of a humble home. The Roland parents‘ perpetually sincere smiles. The small, shabby but homey room. All of it made Hardy yearn for such a life and grow even fonder of the poor, innocent flower. who had grown up in such a family.
- Right now, he and Elva would be eating simple food with little flavor, yet they were probably both very happy. I slowly changed into my Hermès nightgown, washed my face with Chanel cleanser, ate the bird’s nest soup with rock sugar that the housekeeper brought up, and smirked coldly.
- No one knew that while the Roland couple was indeed poor, they were far from wholesome. The husband and wife strongly favored boys over girls, a common traditional bias in some families, and had originally wanted to adopt a son. But since there were no non–disabled boys at the orphanage, they settled for a pretty girl, hoping she would attract a wealthy husband in the future. When they saw Hardy dropping their daughter off, the couple was practically buzzing with excitement, immediately inviting this potential son–in–law in and treating him well. The so–called family warmth and homey atmosphere were nothing
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- but an act. After all, to impress a young master from a wealthy family, this was all they had to offer.
- In my previous life, when I told them I didn’t want to marry Hardy, my adoptive mother locked me in my room, and my adoptive father beat me half to death with a table leg and a belt. Elva thought she had entered heaven in this life, not knowing that true heaven doesn’t exist in this world. The Brook Family was a wealthy hell, while the Roland Family was a poor hell. Who could crawl out of hell alive depended on one’s own abilities.
- In the days that followed, Hardy’s malice grew increasingly vicious. When I opened the lunchbox prepared by the housekeeper, I found it filled with thumbtacks. My facial cleanser and toothpaste would squeeze out dead spiders. The dresses in my closet had holes burned into them by cigarettes. And whenever I looked up in shock, I would meet Hardy’s malicious smile. He would mouth to me: [Christine, you deserve this.]
- Hardy thought I would cry. But I simply emptied out the thumbtacks, threw the spiders in the trash, and folded the dresses neatly away. At this, the smile disappeared from Hardy’s face. He stared at me intently, saying through gritted teeth, “Let’s see how long you can keep up this act.”
- …Fortunately this time, although I had to endure Hardy’s malice, all the resources of the Brook Family were at my disposal. I no longer had to spend my days at school and nights being forced to help my adoptive mother with chores. Instead, I had a housekeeper to take care of me, a driver to take me places,
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- and I could focus solely on my studies.
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- In my previous life, I had to save for ages just to buy extra study materials, always fearing my adoptive father would find and take my money for alcohol and gambling. Now, my closet was filled with designer clothes, and my jewelry box contained Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier pieces–all casually given by Rita without me having to spend a penny. Additionally, at the beginning of each month, I received fifty thousand in cash allowance and a credit card with a hundred thousand limit. If I ran out, I just needed to tell the butler, and within half anWithin hours, new money would be deposited into my account. Meanwhile, the hardships I once endured had completely fallen on Elva’s shoulders. I noticed she slept through classes because she had to help her foster mother with chores at night, leaving her perpetually exhausted. Gradually, she stopped doing homework and began turning in blank test papers. In my previous life, I survived on black coffee and would stab myself with a compass when I was too tired, doing whatever it took to study. But Elva had lived her past life as a pampered young lady, lacking both the determination and perseverance, not to mention she didn’t care about academics. In her mind, becoming the fiancée of the Brook Family heir was far more valuable than getting into Tsinghua or Peking University. So, Elva focused all her energy on making Hardy like her more. During math class, she wouldn’t listen, instead secretly writing diary entries meant for Hardy’s eyes. She skipped dance rehearsals to sneak out with Hardy for countryside drives and stargazing. Then, on the eve of the dance performance… she sat crying outside the rehearsal room. I suspected Elva had carefully studied how drama heroines cry–looking up at a forty–five–degree angle, tears welling in her eyes, stubbornly
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- refusing to let them fall. And that’s exactly when Hardy
- 8/9
- happened to walk by. The moment Hardy asked what was wrong, Elva’s long–restrained tears finally streamed down. She threw herself into his arms and burst into sobs: “Zhiyue, I’ve lost my chance to perform.”
- “Every girl in class gets to go on stage except me… Christine won’t let me participate…”
- Hardy, who already despised me intensely, immediately flared up: “Why?”
- Elva bit her lip, desperately trying to stop crying, but still couldn’t help whimpering: “She said my mom is just a cleaner and my dad is just a security guard.”
- “I can’t even afford the performance costume, so I don’t deserve to be on stage.”
- Hardy’s expression grew increasingly dark.He looked at Elva who was crying so hard she could barely breathe, and said softly, “It’s just a performance costume, isn’t it? I’ll buy it for you.’
- Elva shook her head, radiating the righteousness of a poor innocent flower: “No, it costs eight hundred yuan. I can’t accept such an expensive gift from you.”
- Hardy was both angry and heartbroken. “How dare Christine do this?” he blurted out in anger.
- Elva shook her head tearfully. “After all, she’s your sister, she’s Christine. Several buildings at school were donated by your
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- family, and your father is an honorary school director. Even if the teachers know she’s bullying me, what can they do about. it…‘
- Elva didn’t notice that at that moment, a reporter who had
- come to the school for an interview was passing behind her. The reporter, like a shark smelling blood, leaned over and sensitively asked, “Bullying? What bullying?”
Exchange Foster Parents Chapter 2
Exchange Foster Parents Chapter 2
Posted by , ? Views, Released on April 26, 2025
Exchange Foster Parents English Novel
Status: Ongoing Native Language: English
