They Locked Up the Real Heiress. The Staff Swapped Every Heir. - Chapter 1

Grandfather was eighty-five when something went wrong with his liver.

The Nan family was full of devoted sons and dutiful grandchildren. None wanted to undergo donor compatibility testing, so they came looking for me.

I wasn’t particularly willing, either.

When the family had thrown me out all those years ago, nobody had missed me this much.

But my biological parents had lived with me for a few months. They knew enough about my temperament.

The moment the money hit my account, I hurried over.

Who turns down money?

The Nan villa was still absurdly luxurious.

The sitting room at the family estate was packed with people.

Despite his age, Grandfather still held the family’s power firmly in his hands.

He was generous to his descendants, though. Every new child brought a fresh allocation of resources.

So the entire family bred as if their lives depended on it. Children born within marriage, children born outside it: whole litters, like rats.

My mother had four children.

Nan Yanguang, Nan Yanming, the fake heiress Nan Yanlei, and the youngest, Nan Yanluo.

What fine names. Open and honorable, every last one of them.

Yanguang and Yanming had each produced a swarm of children themselves, earning plenty of shares and money from Grandfather in the process.

Ever since marrying into the Gu family, Nan Yanlei had become more radiant by the day.

We were both thirty-seven. Standing next to me, though, she looked young enough to be my daughter.

She was as gentle as ever. Taking my hand, she smiled and introduced everyone.

“You haven’t been back in twenty years. You probably don’t recognize anyone. Let me introduce you.”

“These four are our eldest brother’s children, these three are our second brother’s, and these three are mine.”

I pointed at several more children running around nearby.

She smiled. “Those seven were born to the women our brothers keep outside their marriages.”

Her tone was intimate, as if nothing had ever come between us.

Nan Yanguang, beside her, merely gave me a cold glance.

He was forty-five now. He hadn’t managed to take control of the family.

But he was still vice president of the Nan Group, with real businesses and resources in his hands.

He looked tenderly at Nan Yanlei, then coldly at me.

“Why waste your breath on someone like her? We only called her here to get tested.”

I looked around at the roomful of Nans and smiled.

“Have all these people already been tested?”

The sitting room fell silent.

My parents looked distinctly uncomfortable.

That told me everything. Right. Not one of them had been tested. They were counting entirely on me.

My mother lowered her voice and gave me a knowing smile.

“Baodi, don’t overthink it.”

“Even if you turn out to be a match, that doesn’t necessarily mean there’ll be surgery.”

“He’s nearly ninety. How could he withstand all that?”

“We’re only doing this to put the old man’s mind at ease.”

I rolled my eyes.

Then I took out my phone.

“Grandfather.”

“You heard all that, didn’t you?”

“The Nan family has so many devoted sons and dutiful grandchildren. Every one of them talks a wonderful game.”

“But not one is actually willing to get tested for you.”

“Their devotion is all an act.”

There was silence on the other end.

For a moment, I thought I might make him drop dead from sheer fury.

Fortunately, my father reacted quickly.

He rushed over and cut in.

“Dad!”

“Don’t listen to her nonsense.”

“Who said we weren’t getting tested?”

“We’ve been waiting for Zhaodi to come back so everyone could be tested together!”

My mother glared at me.

From the look in her eyes, she wanted to eat me alive.

I just smiled.

Of course.

All these years had passed.

The Nan family hadn’t changed a bit.

When they needed me, I was their daughter.

When they didn’t, I was the fake heiress they could throw away whenever they liked.

Every part of the testing was arranged in strict secrecy.

After all, word of a serious health problem for Grandfather could get out.

That would affect the family’s position.

Every eligible member of the Nan family was tested.

Blood drawn, tests run, results awaited.

The process took several hours.

At last, the results came in.

The doctor looked at the report and was silent for a moment.

“As things stand, not a single person is a complete match for the old gentleman.”

The room went quiet for a second.

Then the strain on everyone’s faces eased a little.

If nobody matched, they could keep spending money to find a suitable donor elsewhere.

But if you were a match yourself, would you donate or not?

Soon, though, everyone in the room began to frown.

The result was hard to believe.

There were so many of them.

How could there not be even one?

The doctor explained.

My father, Nan Yanguang, Nan Yanming and I were partial matches.

But we fell well short of the requirements for a transplant.

The others met none of the conditions at all.

My father sat there without speaking for a long time.

He stared at the report in his hands, his expression growing harder to read.

His eldest son, Nan Yanguang, had four children with his wife and four more outside his marriage.

His second son, Nan Yanming, had three with his wife and three outside his marriage.

And there was Nan Yanluo, my parents’ late-born daughter… Not even a partial match among them?

The results brought the family back together in the sitting room.

Nobody looked happy.

As soon as I walked in, I saw a familiar face.

Nan Yanlei’s biological mother.

Zhou Guilan, the Nan family’s former cleaner, who had tormented me for seventeen years.

She had followed Nan Yanlei to the Gu family and become their household manager.

I hadn’t seen her in twenty years. She was stout and well-fed now, one eye clouded like damaged glass.

Her status might have changed.

But she still instinctively assumed an elder’s authority over me.

Hatred and fury on her face, she glared at me through that clouded eye.

“Bitch! What are you doing here?”

She had been frightened once, when people first discovered I was the Nan family’s biological daughter.

Back then, she had brought her fat son along and knelt weeping before my mother, then before me.

She had looked utterly pathetic.

Holding my hand, she explained herself over and over.

“Baodi, we’ve been mother and daughter for seventeen years.”

“Haven’t I been good to you?”

“Plenty of girls in the village get married off at fourteen or fifteen. I never even thought of marrying you off.”

“Some wicked families push their children into the road to scam compensation out of drivers. I never hurt you like that.”

“Studying is such hard work. I couldn’t bear to make you suffer, so I didn’t let you go to school.”

Tears covered her face, as if she were the one who had suffered some terrible injustice.

I fought back at the time.

“When I was thirteen, you let an old bachelor climb into my bed. I kicked him in the crotch!”

“When I was fifteen, you made me wash your son’s feet and sleep beside him.”

“Forgotten all that, have you?”

“I’m calling the police.”

Nan Yanlei, who had rushed home from abroad, began to cry.

“My marriage alliance with the Gu family is already settled. We agreed I’d marry as soon as I came of age.”

“If this blows up now, I don’t care what happens to me.”

“But what about the Nan family?”

At that moment, the family barely hesitated.

They unanimously decided I would not be allowed to call the police.

My father, grim-faced, ordered someone to take my phone.

My mother wept and urged me to reconsider. We were all family, she said. Taking it outside would only disgrace the Nans.

But their definition of family had never included me.

I refused to give in.

I fought desperately and kept shouting that I wanted the police.

I wanted everyone to know what their precious “debt of gratitude for raising me” really meant.

Nobody listened.

All they cared about was that Nan Yanlei couldn’t have a mother with a criminal record.

In the end, they decided to send me to a psychiatric hospital.

Before they could take me away, I broke free of every hand holding me.

I lunged at Zhou Guilan, who had raised me for seventeen years and worked me like an animal.

I clawed viciously at one of her eyes. Blood poured out.

She screamed and stumbled back.

Her pig of a son grabbed at me, and I kicked him hard too.

I snatched up a vase and smashed it down on him. His leg twisted at an impossible angle.

I looked at Zhou Guilan, then at the roomful of Nans, and enunciated every word.

“Yes, I hit you. So what? Will the Nan family call the police? Will they send me to prison?”

Nobody spoke. They didn’t dare.

The family’s reputation mattered more than anything.

I stared at Zhou Guilan’s bleeding face.

“You deserve this.”

“You should’ve been a little more ruthless and swapped both your son and your daughter into this family.”

“Then your precious boy wouldn’t have ended up crippled today!”

She covered her injured eye and stared at me in shock.

I went on.

“Or you should’ve been more ruthless still. Once you’d swapped me out, you should’ve strangled me.”

“Just you wait. When I get out, even if I cripple your whole family, the Nans will protect me!”

Nan Yanluo was born in the second year after I left.

By then, the family had already sent me to the psychiatric hospital.

This was my first time meeting my youngest sister.

My mother had been forty-eight when she was born. Yanluo was only seventeen now.

She had delicate features and a gentle manner.

Like the rest of the family, she had that unspoiled air that came from being carefully nurtured.

After hesitating for a long time, she finally asked.

“Why are our eldest brother, our second brother and Baodi all partial matches for Grandfather?”

“Yanlei and I don’t match at all.”

She paused.

“Could I be like Yanlei? Not their biological child either?”

The room went silent.

Nan Yanlei’s expression shifted slightly.

I couldn’t help laughing.

I went over and patted Nan Yanluo’s shoulder.

“What are you afraid of? The Nans have never cared much about blood ties.”

She stared at me blankly.

I looked at her and spoke slowly.

“Just look at me. Aren’t I the perfect example?”

“All those years ago, they wanted to protect Yanlei.”

“So they sent me, their actual daughter, to a psychiatric hospital.”

“So even if you’re not their biological child, you needn’t worry too much.”

Nan Yanluo stood there looking bewildered.

“What nonsense are you talking?”

My mother couldn’t hold back any longer.

Her face was livid as she stared at me.

“It’s been so many years. How much longer are you going to keep making trouble?”

Zhou Guilan’s expression changed as soon as she heard me.

She might be the Gu family’s household manager now, dressed in designer clothes.

She might be wearing expensive jewelry. But her spite and bullying were ingrained.

She shot to her feet and pointed at me.

“You little bitch! What rubbish are you spouting? You’ve been like this since you were a child!”

“I raised you for seventeen years. Even if you won’t thank me, you could at least acknowledge the work!”

“You blinded me in one eye and did that to your younger brother’s leg!”

“Now you have the nerve to come here? I’ll beat you to death, you bastard!”

As she shouted, she charged at me, ready to hit me.

She’d grown so fat that a slight turn was all it took. She lunged at empty air.

Then she hit the floor, looking like a turtle flipped onto its shell.

Nan Yanlei’s two daughters hurried to help her. “Grandma! Grandma, are you all right?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Grandma, is it?”

It had been quite a fall. The two granddaughters were beside themselves with concern.

Nan Yanlei’s youngest, a boy who looked about two, was in his nanny’s arms.

My mother looked awful. She kept glaring at Yanlei’s two girls.

But the Gu children didn’t care how displeased she looked. They went right on fussing over their grandmother.

Zhou Guilan climbed up and pointed at me again, pouring out abuse.

Nan Yanluo stepped back. “Yanlei, what’s wrong with your household manager? Her language…”

Nan Yanlei’s face turned scarlet. In her agitation, she turned her anger on me.

She quickly changed her tone. “Baodi, Auntie Zhou did raise you for seventeen years. She treated you as her own daughter.”

“You’ve been gone twenty years without coming back. She’s just angry. That’s why she doesn’t watch what she says.”

I looked at Zhou Guilan’s furious face and couldn’t help smiling.

“You keep calling me a bastard. Are you saying there’s something wrong with the Nan family’s stock?”

Life in the Gu household had probably been too easy for Zhou Guilan. She no longer cared about anything.

“Don’t try to threaten me with the Nans! I’m hitting you today!”

I stayed where I was, leaning against the sofa, and added lazily:

“Go ahead. Madam Nan won’t acknowledge me. Neither will Chairman Nan. But my grandfather does.”

As I said, Grandfather placed great value on his descendants.

Once he learned I was a Nan, he had given me a substantial sum of money.

Zhou Guilan froze with her palm raised.

But a moment later, she recovered.

Being frightened off in front of everyone by a “bastard they’d thrown out” must have seemed too humiliating.

She lunged again.

I merely turned aside, and down she went a second time.

Nan Yanlei’s daughters rushed over again.

Zhou Guilan even had the sense to shield the two girls.

“Stay away from her. That woman’s insane. She’ll break your legs too.”

Nan Yanlei had married into the Gu family. But even the Gus had to defer to Grandfather.

She panicked.

She blurted out, “Mom, stop it!”

The moment she said “Mom,” my mother’s face darkened completely.

I looked at my mother’s expression, then at Zhou Guilan, and laughed.

“One calls you Mom, two call you Grandma…”

“What a lovely family reunion.”

All the color drained from Nan Yanlei’s face. She instinctively looked at my mother.

After all those years in the Gu household, Zhou Guilan had grown accustomed to her daughter’s status.

She even felt that she herself had risen in the world.

Seeing my mother’s glare silence her daughter made her anxious.

She rushed over and seized Nan Yanlei’s wrist.

“Why are you afraid of her? You’re the wife of the Gu family’s heir now! What can the Nans do to you?”

Then she turned and glared at me. “You bastard they threw out, stop trying to drive a wedge between us!”

Nan Yanlei finally lost patience and sent Zhou Guilan and all three children back to the Gu house.

Next, Grandfather’s personal doctor wheeled him in. His face was livid with anger.

“There are more than a dozen children in this family.”

“Not one is a match?”

His gaze swept across everyone present, cold enough to frighten them.

“What is this? Have you falsified the results because you want me dead sooner?”

“Are you all desperate for me to die?”

“Once I close my eyes, there’ll be nobody left to keep you in line?”

That last sentence landed.

Every face in the room changed.

My father hurried to his feet.

“Dad, what are you saying?”

“How could we possibly think that?”

Several younger relatives nearby barely dared to breathe.

Grandfather snorted.

“You’d better not.”

“The Nans have supported so many people, and not one is willing to save me?”

“If that’s the case, I’d rather donate everything before I die than leave it to you.”

The entire family went pale.

My father hastily produced the earlier report.

“Look, Dad. It really is a matter of physical compatibility.”

“It’s not that we don’t want to.”

Grandfather didn’t believe a word of it.

In the end, there was nothing else they could do.

He insisted on choosing several institutions himself.

Every eligible member of the family had blood drawn again.

The tests were expedited, and the reports arrived that afternoon.

The doctor leafed through them, then went through them a second time.

“The results are the same as before.”

Nan Yanluo stood there, pale-faced.

“So I’m really not their biological child?”

The doctor said nothing. He merely adjusted his glasses.

I sat watching everyone’s faces.

“Maybe you were switched too.”

“If a member of the staff can swap one child, they can swap a second!”

My mother instinctively objected.

“She looks so much like me. How could she not be mine?”

I gave a derisive laugh.

“Your precious Nan Yanlei looks like you too.”

Everyone looked between their faces.

It was true. Nan Yanlei really did resemble my mother.

Especially after being raised by her. Her clothes, her styling, her hair: all reflected my mother’s tastes.

If you looked only at their features, Zhou Guilan bore some resemblance to my mother too.

That was why it had taken seventeen years to discover Nan Yanlei wasn’t her biological daughter.

We were still arguing about it.

Once Grandfather knew none of us was a suitable match, his patience ran out.

The doctor came over and lowered his voice.

“Sir, the hospital has found a donor liver. I’ll take you there.”

Grandfather nodded, his expression grim.

Before leaving, he glanced at Nan Yanluo again.

“Investigate this properly. If she’s not a Nan…”

He paused.

“Take back the shares she’s been given over the years.”

He said nothing more and left.

The sitting room was silent.

Nan Yanluo stood there, her face a little pale.

At seventeen, she was plainly unable to take it in.

A moment ago, she had been the family’s little princess, cherished by everyone.

Now she might turn out to have no blood ties to them at all.

I glanced at her, walked over and patted her shoulder.

“What are you afraid of? Have you forgotten what I just said? Look at Yanlei.”

“Didn’t the Nans raise her for all those years?”

“Gave her the best education, married her into the Gu family, made her the wife of their heir?”

I patted her shoulder.

“So even if Grandfather really won’t give you shares, your parents won’t abandon you.”

“They’ll give you money. They’ll arrange your future.”

“Besides, didn’t you grow up with the Lu family’s young heir?”

“Even if the real Nan Yanluo turns up and makes trouble, she’ll just be sent to a psychiatric hospital, like me.”

Nan Yanluo missed the sarcasm. She simply let out a relieved breath.

My mother and Nan Yanlei, however, looked worse by the moment.

My father sat on the sofa without speaking for a long time.

He rubbed the space between his eyebrows, looking exhausted.

“Investigate.”

Everyone waited. Three hours later, the results arrived.

“Miss Nan Yanluo is not the biological daughter of either of you.”

Such a short sentence.

It struck everyone like a bolt of lightning.

My mother’s face went white.

“Impossible… I gave birth to her… How could she not be mine?”

She stared at the report. Her hands began to shake.

Nobody answered. The silence in the sitting room was stifling.

Nan Yanluo shrank quietly into a corner and stayed perfectly still.

After a long silence, my father raised his head.

“Zhou Guilan. Bring her back.”

Everyone thought of her first.

If she could swap the first child, she could swap the second.

When Zhou Guilan was brought back to the estate, she was calmer than anyone had expected.

“What do you want me for now? My granddaughter is waiting for me to go back and comfort her.”

My father’s face was grim. “Did you do this to Yanluo?”

“What’s it got to do with me?” she asked calmly.

“You can’t blame me every time you find out a child isn’t yours.”

My mother finally lost control. She shot up and pointed at Zhou Guilan.

“How did you know Yanluo wasn’t my biological daughter? You must have switched her!”

Zhou Guilan stepped behind Nan Yanlei, her head held high.

“I’m not one of your servants anymore. Why are you shouting at me?”

Nan Yanlei stood rooted to the spot. She could neither move aside nor shield her mother. Her face reddened with embarrassment.

Nan Yanguang stood up, cold-faced, assuming the authority of the family’s eldest son and grandson.

“If you won’t give us a straight answer, we’ll call the police.”

Seeing he meant it, Zhou Guilan immediately shoved Nan Yanlei in the back.

“Have you lost your voice? Can’t you see them bullying your own mother?”

Nan Yanlei stumbled forward. Through clenched teeth, she whispered:

“…Stop talking…”

Zhou Guilan’s eyes widened.

“If I hadn’t switched you into the Nan family, would you be wearing gold and jewels and married to the Gu heir?”

“Tell me honestly. Your gold, your jewelry, your marriage into the Gu family: which of those didn’t come from what I did?”

“For your sake, I lost an eye and your brother had his leg broken.”

“Now they’re pointing at your own mother and insulting her, and you just stand there watching?”

Nan Yanguang stepped forward and pulled Yanlei behind him. His voice was low.

“Zhou Guilan, we’ll investigate whether you switched Yanluo.”

“But if you point at Yanlei and say one more word about switching her into this family, I’ll make sure you can’t stay with the Gus either.”

He hadn’t raised his voice. The room still fell silent.

Zhou Guilan opened her mouth. She clearly hadn’t expected him to protect Yanlei so openly.

She looked at Nan Yanguang, then at her daughter.

“…Fine. I won’t say it. Anyway, I don’t know who switched her.”

I sat nearby, watching her.

“Offer a big reward. Money will turn up a lead.”

Zhou Guilan’s expression changed immediately.

“I know who did it. Pay me first.”

Nan Yanlei’s lips moved, as if she wanted to say something.

In the end, not a word came out. She lowered her eyes.

Everyone was silent. Eventually, my father ordered the money transferred.

Only after the payment notification arrived did Zhou Guilan take her time answering.

“Old Shun did it.”

Old Shun was the family’s gardener.

They called him in. He wore his old gardening clothes and a deferential smile.

“You wanted me, sir?”

My father’s expression was grim. “Zhou Guilan says you’re responsible for what happened to Yanluo.”

Old Shun looked at Zhou Guilan and straightened his bent back.

“Yep. That was me.”

There was a second of silence.

My mother leaped to her feet, her voice pitching high.

“You… You switched my Yanluo?”

Old Shun cut her off as if he had every right.

“Put my nephew’s wife’s second elder sister’s daughter in her place. So I get to be household manager too, right?”

My mother went white with anger. The hand she pointed at him was shaking.

“Call the police! Have him arrested! Put him in prison!”

At the word “prison,” Old Shun raised his voice even louder than hers.

“Why? Zhou Guilan switched a baby and got to live in luxury! She’s even running a household now!”

“But I do it and I go to prison? Do you Nans have any sense of fairness?”

He sounded so indignant you would have thought he was the victim of some terrible injustice.

My mother was too furious to speak.

I leaned back against the sofa. Once I’d had my fill of the show, I spoke lazily.

“Madam Nan is joking.”

“We only called you here to ask where the child you took away ended up.”

My father pressed a hand over my mother’s.

“Yes. We’ve raised Yanluo for so long. Of course she’s our child.”

“We only want to know where our original child is.”

My father had, after all, been through plenty.

He knew it would all be over if they pushed Old Shun too far and he refused to reveal their biological daughter’s whereabouts.

His voice sounded calm. The knuckles pressing against my mother’s hand were white.

Old Shun straightened up.

“Sir, give me a household manager’s position, on the same terms as Zhou Guilan.”

“Then I’ll tell you.”

Nan Yanguang said coldly, “Dad, you can’t indulge him.”

My father nodded anyway.

“All right. We’ll sign the contract now. You’re the Nan family’s household manager.”

Every wrinkle on Old Shun’s face opened into a smile.

Just as he was about to sign, the sitting-room door opened.

The driver leaned halfway in, a document in his hand.

“Sir, that car in the garage…”

Before he finished, Old Shun snapped around and glared at him.

“Can’t you see I’m talking to the master? Have you no sense at all?”

“Get out! You’re fired! Wouldn’t even give me a lift last time I asked. Hmph!”

The driver stood frozen, looking from Old Shun to my father.

My mother was frantic to learn where her biological child was. She waved at the driver.

“Go collect some compensation from accounts and leave.”

His eyes widened. “Why? I’ve driven for the Nans for twenty-one years!”

Old Shun grinned.

“Why? Because my niece is that girl!”

He pointed at Nan Yanluo, seated in a corner.

She sat there while everyone looked at her.

Her fingers pressed against her knees, the knuckles white. She didn’t look up at anyone.

The driver’s mouth hung open. For a long time, he couldn’t close it.

Old Shun’s voice was full of triumph.

“My niece grew up in this family. Good food, good clothes, the best of everything.”

“When she’s old enough, she’ll marry the young heir of the Lu family.”

“Then I’ll follow her into the good life, just like Zhou Guilan!”

He grew more excited as he spoke, never noticing that the driver’s hand was shaking around the document.

The driver suddenly turned to Nan Yanguang. His voice trembled. “Mr. Nan.”

He swallowed as if he were staking his life on the next words.

“Mr. Nan… Your eldest boy is my cousin’s son.”

Nan Yanguang whipped his head around and stared at him.

The room was deathly quiet.

The driver retreated half a step under his gaze.

But he’d said it. There was no taking it back.

“Everyone was swapping them. I… Wouldn’t I have been losing out if I hadn’t?”

The Nan family began investigating every generation, from top to bottom.

I’d never seen so many of them in one place.

Children from marriages, children from affairs, several women whose names I didn’t know: they filled the sitting room.

Nan Yanlei didn’t dare bring her husband. She only managed to obtain a sample from him.

After the samples were sent away, nobody left the estate.

Nobody ate dinner. Nobody drank tea. Each found a corner and waited.

My mother sat on the sofa hugging a cushion, picking loose threads from its edge one by one.

My father leaned against the back of his chair with his eyes closed, as if asleep.

Every so often, though, his throat moved.

The results came back at midnight.

The doctor stood in the middle of the room and opened the report.

Even he was stunned for a few seconds. Then he began reading it out, sentence by sentence.

None of Nan Yanguang’s four children with his wife was biologically related to either parent.

Nor were his four children born outside the marriage a match for either parent.

Nan Yanming’s three children with his wife and three outside his marriage were also unrelated to both parents.

The same was true of all three of Nan Yanlei’s children.

After he finished, the room remained silent for a long time.

My father didn’t move from the sofa. With both hands braced on his knees, he looked as if he wanted to stand but couldn’t.

Nan Yanguang stared at the floor in front of him, his eyes empty.

Nan Yanming kicked over a chair.

It hit the carpet without breaking. He stood there panting for a long time.

Nan Yanlei sat on the floor. Her youngest was asleep against her shoulder.

She patted his back. Her hand paused, then resumed.

More than a dozen children, from marriages and affairs combined. Not one was biologically theirs.

What a magnificent show.

The nannies took their respective charges upstairs in the villa to sleep.

The adults stayed downstairs.

The Nans confined every member of the household staff to the guest rooms in the rear courtyard.

At my suggestion, they sent in food and all the alcohol the staff wanted.

At first, they kept up appearances. Three drinks later, they were boasting.

The driver’s face was red with alcohol. He slapped the table.

“Zhou Guilan’s a complete idiot! That Zhou Baodi could walk and run. Turned up as a teenager and made a scene.”

“Look what happened. She got money out of old Mr. Nan. What could Zhou Guilan do to stop her?”

The cook nodded.

“Exactly. If Miss Yanlei hadn’t been making a marriage alliance with the Gus, Zhou Baodi might well have got them to acknowledge her.”

The driver downed another drink, looking pleased with himself.

“The one I took home is an idiot now. Drools when he walks.”

“Would the Nans want him back? Of course not. They’ll have to keep raising my son.”

The cook sighed.

“You had easy access. I didn’t. I could only switch children born outside the marriages. But I switched two!”

“One was my older female cousin’s child. The other came from outside the family.”

“The parents gave me five hundred thousand yuan. We agreed they’d pay another million once the child made it big.”

The cleaner sighed too. “You’ve got better brains than me.”

“The girl I took away hasn’t had much schooling, but she can have children.”

“The Nans might reject an illiterate granddaughter. But what if they acknowledge their great-grandchildren?”

“I was too softhearted back then. Should’ve made sure she was ruined for good.”

Old Shun had drunk the most. Leaning back with his eyes half closed, he drawled:

“I sent that one to Africa.”

“Let’s see them find her there.”

The room went quiet for a moment. Then someone gave him a thumbs-up. “Nobody beats you.”

The camera in the corner recorded every word clearly.

When my father heard it from the next room, the cup of tea in his hand shook.

Tea spilled onto the back of his hand. He didn’t wipe it away.

The deeper the family investigated, the more horrified they became.

Gardeners, cleaners, cooks, nurses at the Nan family’s private hospital, drivers: all had taken part.

Not one was innocent.

They’d learned how to swap babies. They’d learned it well.

Whenever possible, they chose replacements who resembled the Nans, buying themselves more time.

If there was nobody close enough among their own relatives, they looked elsewhere.

They found children with vaguely similar features and charged their parents a fee.

Your child was going to a rich family to enjoy a life of luxury. Surely you could pay a few hundred thousand? A small investment, a huge return!

With Zhou Guilan’s example in front of them, everyone could see it clearly.

Every day a child stayed with the Nans was another day of access to their resources.

If you were lucky, you could be just like Zhou Guilan.

Wait twenty years. Once the child grew up and could stand on their own, follow them into the good life.

Getting caught didn’t matter either. Zhou Guilan had been exposed and still ended up running a household.

The sooner you swapped a child, the more you earned.

The Nan family descended into total chaos.

They called on every connection and searched the whole country, desperate to recover the children who had been taken.

But every piece of news they uncovered chilled them to the bone.

What had happened to me had served as a warning to every servant who switched a baby.

They’d seen it very clearly.

A biological Nan child only needed to be able to function normally, educated or not.

Once they knew who they were, they would come back to claim their family, fight over the assets and take a share of Grandfather’s resources.

So the servants had privately agreed on a vicious, unspoken rule.

No killing. No breaking the law. No criminal cases.

But the real Nan children had to be raised into ruin and misery, with no chance of ever turning their lives around.

Leave them physically disabled or mentally impaired for life, unable to compete for the family’s wealth.

The few biological children who could be found had already been destroyed.

Nan Yanguang’s eldest had suffered a fever as a child. Nobody treated it.

The fever damaged his brain. Now he drooled as he walked and grinned vacantly at everyone.

The real Nan Yanluo was found in Masai, Africa.

She had one baby in her arms and another in her belly. She couldn’t even work out how old she was.

Others had been starved for years. Their bones had grown deformed. They barely reached a meter and a half in height and had never left their county town.

The rest were scattered around the world. They simply couldn’t be found.

Nan Yanlei was the first among them to locate her children.

The moment she received the report, she turned pale and murmured:

“The Gu family isn’t like the Nans. Everything is closely watched, inside the house and out. How could they have been switched?”

Zhou Guilan sat opposite her.

“I switched them. Those three you’re raising in the Gu house are your biological brother’s children.”

“Your sister-in-law suffered for it too. To give birth at the same time as you, she had a cesarean before her due date.”

Nan Yanlei jerked her head up and stared at her with reddened eyes.

“What are you glaring at me for?”

Zhou Guilan didn’t yield an inch.

“When Zhou Baodi was switched, you said she deserved it. That she had bad luck.”

“Now it’s happened to you, and you glare at me?”

“If you want to blame anyone, blame your biological children’s bad luck.”

Nan Yanlei swayed. “Where are my children?”

“Your brother’s raising them. They’re alive and well.”

Nan Yanlei’s chest heaved. She was full of grief and anger.

“Why did you switch them? Aren’t they all your own grandchildren?”

Zhou Guilan sneered back.

“I asked you to adopt your brother’s children. You absolutely refused.”

“Went on about his gambling. Said bad stock couldn’t produce good offspring.”

“Bah! Don’t you both have the same mother?”

Nan Yanlei shook all over.

Zhou Guilan’s son’s three children had appalling grades. They’d picked up eating, drinking and having fun quickly enough, though.

Zhou Guilan was unconcerned.

“I sent them to school too. Your children have bad grades because they won’t study. What’s that got to do with me?”

“Back then, you blamed me for being too softhearted. Why hadn’t I killed that little bitch Zhou Baodi, you said. I let her find the Nans.”

“At least I sent your children to school. What right have you to blame me?”

The Gu family’s heir, Gu Yanshen, soon learned everything.

The Gus immediately brought the three children back from Zhou Guilan’s home.

However crooked Zhou Guilan was, these were still her own grandchildren.

Their grades were poor, and their temperaments weren’t much better. But at least they were still reasonably normal.

The Gus actually felt fortunate.

Compared with the ruined Nan children, they were immeasurably better off.

Still, to be cautious, Gu Yanshen had DNA parentage testing done with all three.

The doctor glanced at the results and spoke.

“Mr. Gu, none of these three children is biologically yours.”

Nan Yanlei’s expression changed at once.

Zhou Guilan was stunned too.

“Impossible! These… These are Leilei’s! I switched them myself!”

The Gu family’s investigation soon produced an answer.

The person who had taken the children was one of their nannies.

That nanny came from Zhou Guilan’s village.

It was Zhou Guilan who had used her connections to get the woman a position with the Gus, out of loyalty to a fellow villager.

When they brought the nanny to the Gu house, she spoke quietly.

“It was all because of Zhou…”

“Every day, she’d tell me how she had switched a baby thirty years ago.”

“Now her daughter was a rich man’s wife, and she was the Gu family’s household manager.”

“I wanted my children to have a good life too.”

Gu Yanshen asked, “So you wanted to switch my children too?”

The nanny gave a bitter smile.

“I thought about it. But I never had the chance.”

“Then I thought, if I couldn’t switch the Gu children, I could surely switch Zhou’s.”

“Her daughter had married into the Gu family. She herself managed their household.”

“I thought if I put my children in their place, they wouldn’t suffer.”

The nanny lowered her head.

“I knew those three were the Gu family’s real children.”

Gu Yanshen looked at her.

“Then where are my children?”

The nanny spoke softly.

“I just left them outside at the time.”

“I don’t know where they went after that.”

Once Gu Yanshen knew the truth, he acted immediately.

The Gu family threw out all the children, the nanny and Zhou Guilan.

He wasn’t even forty. Young and strong, with no shortage of women, he saw no need to stay entangled with these people.

Nan Yanlei wept and shouted that she wanted to find her children.

Gu Yanshen couldn’t be bothered to search. He didn’t want to, either.

“Go to your biological mother. She’s the one who switched them.”

“You’re still young, attractive and educated. Starting again after leaving this family won’t be difficult.”

“Divorce me quietly, and I won’t pursue this. Make a scene, and I’ll call the police.”

The Nan family didn’t call the police either.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to.

They didn’t dare.

Grandfather had only just undergone surgery. He hadn’t recovered yet.

If the shock harmed him, who could bear that responsibility?

So, for now, the family could only keep it all quiet.

The children presented another headache.

It was easy enough to give up the younger replacements.

Remove them before anyone grew attached. It wouldn’t hurt much.

But what about the older ones?

Nan Yanluo was seventeen. Her bearing, her outlook and the way she spoke were all first-rate.

She’d grown up with the Lu family’s young heir.

Both families had long accepted the match. Once she came of age, they would make the engagement official.

And Nan Yanguang’s eldest was already twenty-three.

He’d been raised from childhood as the Nans’ eldest grandson.

The company, the inheritance, the connections: everything had been laid out for him.

He’d married the Lin family’s daughter only six months ago. She was already carrying his child.

Nan Yanguang’s second son was also a promising young man with a name for himself.

Then there was Nan Yanming’s eldest son, studying at a prestigious university abroad, and his second daughter, who’d insisted on entering show business and was now an up-and-coming actress…

The Nans were overwhelmed, too busy with their own chaos to look after anything else.

I took the opportunity to leave. Before going, I made a special visit to Grandfather, whose surgery had gone well.

As the only person who went to see him, I pocketed another payout.

Damn, that felt good!