Chapter 5

In the afternoon, the wedding concluded perfectly.

After seeing off the guests, my father’s face immediately darkened, and he told my mother to keep calling me.

Xu Jiao’s eyes were red, the few rhinestones stuck to the corners of her eyes refracting the light of her tears. She held her father’s hand, her tone understanding. “Let it go, Dad.”

“Taotao is still a child. Maybe she’s just throwing a tantrum. After all, I’m her sister. I shouldn’t hold it against her.”

As expected, a flicker of sympathy crossed my father’s eyes.

Xu Ze said with dissatisfaction, “Sis, you just think too highly of her. You treat her as a sister, but has she ever treated you as one?”

Xu Jiao bit her lip, looking as if she was about to cry.

I stood beside them, watching her, finding it incredibly ironic.

Xu Jiao was always like this.

The family’s favoritism towards her was already as obvious as it could be, yet she still felt it wasn’t enough.

I knew it was because she hated me.

In the very beginning, although my mother didn’t like me, she wasn’t that bad to me.

On my birthday, she would bring home a cake to celebrate.

But just as the candles were lit and I was about to make a wish, Xu Jiao would suddenly start crying.

She would wipe away her tears and force a brave smile.

“It’s nothing. I just suddenly remembered that today was supposed to be a birthday for two people.”

Those words would make my mother’s face change.

As I clasped my hands to make a wish, she would suddenly and violently pull out the candles.

“Eat, eat, eat, that’s all you know! Xu Tao, do you know your brother died because of you? Do you even have a heart?”

I would be so frightened I’d just stare at her blankly.

My mother would get even angrier and sweep the cake into the trash can.

After she went to her room, I would look at Xu Jiao with tears in my eyes.

With no one else around, she finally revealed her true feelings to me.

The ten-year-old Xu Jiao, her face still wearing a gentle smile, spoke words as sharp as poisoned blades.

“Xu Tao, why were you born?”

She brushed my face with her warm fingertips, then suddenly pinched it hard.

“Originally, Mom and Dad only loved me. Now you’ve stolen a share of their love. You should have died along with your brother.”

I never understood why she hated me so much.

Yet, after Xu Ze was born, she was very good to him.

The year I took my college entrance exams, Xu Ze was about to enter his last year of middle school.

It was a crucial year, but my father’s business was too busy for him to get away, and my mother was at a critical point for a promotion.

My mother demanded that I apply to a local university to make it convenient to take care of Xu Ze.

I didn’t agree.

She looked at me with cold eyes. “Xu Tao, you know the situation at home. Why are you so inconsiderate?”

After I went to college.

The twenty-two-year-old Xu Jiao suddenly wanted to learn piano.

My mother had someone throw out my bed and wardrobe, and packed my clothes into the storeroom.

My bedroom became Xu Jiao’s piano room.

She posted a video on her social media feed of her sitting at a newly bought, expensive piano.

Sunlight streamed in.

And her smile was serene.

I called home. My mother, still angry that I hadn’t listened to her, spoke in a cold voice.

“Your wings are strong now anyway. You don’t listen to anything I say, and you don’t plan on coming back to this home. What’s the point of keeping the room?”

Xu Jiao took the phone. “Taotao, please don’t make Mom angry, okay? When you come home, you can sleep in my room. The family won’t leave you without a place to stay.”

Even though she tried her best to hide it, there was a hint of a smile in her voice.

I had only been gone for a month, and she couldn’t wait to drive me out of this home.

And my mother chose to permit it, to indulge it.