The engagement was with the younger brother, but I've fallen for the older brother.

Si Congshan grabbed the statement, the edges of the pages crumpling into waves in his hand.

He stared at those few lines of text, his eyes quickly becoming bloodshot.

Ruan Qiutang took a half step back and grabbed Si Congshan's sleeve.

"From the mountain..."

He only managed to call out her name once before the rest of his words got stuck in his trachea.

Si Congshan didn't respond, and finished reading the statement with trembling hands.

He suddenly remembered the day Si Yimian was found when she was fifteen.

She was as thin as a bean sprout, standing in the entryway, afraid to change her shoes for fear of dirtying the floor.

Despite how pitiful Mianmian looked back then, he still let her give in for eight years.

Give up the room, the attention, everything that should have belonged to her.

This guilt was planted and nurtured by his own hands, growing into a towering tree that sheltered his adopted daughter and bent his biological daughter under its weight.

Si Congshan looked at Si Ningyou and suddenly smiled.

He laughed so hard that the corners of his mouth stretched to both sides, until his cheekbones ached and his face was covered in wrinkles.

"You were only six years old that year!"

Si Ningyou shrugged, and the light in her eyes faded away inch by inch.

"I...I don't remember..."

"I was only six years old then... What bad thoughts could a six-year-old have..."

Si Congshan threw the stack of confessions at Si Ningyou's face.

The pages scattered, like a flock of white doves flapping their wings and crashing down.

"You sold your sister when you were six years old, and at sixteen you were able to frame someone and instigate your classmates to bully you."

"At twenty-four, you can still make Qin Enyu take the blame for you."

He paused, and the muscles in his jaw twitched.

"Mianmian has been back for eight years."

"For eight years, she has been bullied and harassed by you, framed by you, and forced to the point that she could no longer stay in this home."

"You watched her back down time and time again, remain silent time and time again, and swallow her grievances."

"Have you ever thought that she's also my daughter?"

"Si Ningyou, in your entire life, have you ever lived a single day like a human being?"

The last sentence was almost shouted out.

Si Ningyou suddenly looked up, her voice shrill.

"I just wanted to... I just..."

She couldn't continue.

Because everyone was watching her.

Ruan Qiutang's tears, Si Congshan's silence.

Huo Siyue stood to the side, her mouth agape, unable to close it for a long time.

Finally, he managed to squeeze out, "Fuck!"

He Nanxian stood there, his face ashen, his mind blank.

Si Ningyou was only six years old at the time, and at six years old she already knew how to ruin someone's life.

He suddenly felt that every choice he had made over the years was a joke.

And Song Yuehua.

Song Yuehua's cane slid out of her palm, and she placed her hands on her knees, her knuckles like old tree roots, the veins throbbing.

The old lady seemed to have been suddenly pulled out of a long dream.

"Ning You..."

Her voice sounded like it was being squeezed out from between her teeth.

"Because your mother passed away early, I owe her an apology."

"That's why I cherish you like the apple of my eye, the lifeblood of my family, and the hope for the future of the Si family."

"If your parents were alive, would they be at peace seeing you like this?"

These words were like a knife stabbing into Si Ningyou's deepest wound.

Tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.

"Grandma, no, I..."

"I just want a place in this family!"

"If I don't fight for it, I'll have nothing..."

Ruan Qiutang suddenly took two steps forward.

She raised her hand and slapped Si Ningyou across the face.

Si Ningyou's face was slapped to the side, and her ears rang.

Before I could react, Ruan Qiutang's voice came crashing down from above.

"Do you know that your parents were rear-ended by a truck while driving out overnight to look for Mianmian?"

"Your dad was sitting in the passenger seat and he left right there."

"Your mother lay in the ICU for seven days, but in the end, she couldn't be saved."

"Her last words before she left were asking if Mianmian had been found."

"She never knew until her death that it was her own daughter who put Mianmian on that car."

Si Ningyou loosened her fingers that were covering her face, revealing half of her swollen face.

"mom……"

"Shut up!"

Ruan Qiutang's voice trembled, her eyes filled with disappointment and disgust.

"I actually asked you to take good care of Mianmian."

"I personally sent my daughter back to hell, and I even begged the guards there to treat her well!"

She raised her hand and slapped herself hard across the face.

The sound was crisp and clear.

Everyone was stunned.

"mom!"

Si Yimian rushed over from the side and hugged her waist.

"Mom, please don't do this."

Ruan Qiutang looked down at the fluffy head in her arms.

He raised his finger, wanting to touch her hair.

They lifted it halfway, then put it down again.

"Mianmian, Mom is so sorry."

Ruan Qiutang turned around, her steps unsteady, and she almost bumped into the floor lamp.

Si Congshan grabbed her and supported her, his arm trembling.

"From the mountain, are we fools?"

"What have we been doing all these years?"

"After Mianmian was found, we made her a stepping stone for the murderer, and she was trampled on for eight years."

"Are we even fit to be parents?"

Si Congshan didn't say anything, but pulled her closer to his chest.

He looked up at Si Ningyou, his eyes red-rimmed.

His lips moved, but he only said one sentence in the end.

"Ning You, you can't stay in this house anymore."

Si Ningyou suddenly looked up, her face covered in tears.

"dad……"

Si Congshan interrupted her.

"Stop calling me Dad. If you call me that too often, I'll forget that you're not my daughter."

"Your biological parents died searching for my daughter, and my daughter's life was ruined because of you."

"From today onwards, Si Ningyou is no longer a member of the Si family."

"I will have my legal department handle the follow-up matters."

"Everything you own in the Si family is being taken back."

Si Ningyou's heart skipped a beat, her knees buckled, and she knelt on the carpet.

He grabbed Song Yuehua's wrists with both hands, clinging to her only lifeline.

"Grandma...Grandma, please say something for me..."

"I don't know... I really didn't know it would turn out like this..."

Song Yuehua looked down at her, something slowly sinking into her cloudy eyes.

Like the last lamp, swaying precariously in the wind.

He neither withdrew his hand nor shook it back.

"Ning You, some mistakes can't be forgotten just by saying you didn't expect them."

"Your parents passed away early, and I feel sorry for you, so I've been especially biased towards you."

"I have to raise Jingyi and take good care of her."

"I thought you were lacking love, and if I gave you more, you would grow up well."

"But some things are rotten to the core."

"No amount of sunshine and rain can save it."

Si Ningyou knelt on the ground, her knees sinking into the carpet, tears falling one by one.

She looked up at He Nanxian.

"Nanxian...please say a word for me..."

He Nanxian stood there, his shoulders suddenly slumping down despite his height of over 1.8 meters.

He looked at her, his eyes filled with complex emotions and a hint of dazedness.

"Ning You, everything you said is in the recording."

"The evidence of Mianmian going missing is all there."

"How can I help you?"

He paused, then turned his head away, no longer looking at her.

"I can't help you."

Si Ningyou's last hope was like a cigarette butt that was stubbed out.

The embers glowed briefly before going completely black.

She knelt there, her knees already numb.

She suddenly felt like a house that had been under construction for over a decade, being demolished tonight, starting from the foundation.

A brick, a beam, a wall.

It was all demolished.

In the end, nothing was left.