Chapter 1: Her Parents Want to Sell Her to Get a Bride Price for Her Brother

The chemical plant on the outskirts of Yanshi had been abandoned for years. Few people ever came near.

After a rainstorm, red-brown water seeped from the rusted iron gate and wound its way inside.

The stench of rusted iron, wastewater, and garbage filled Jian Huaifeng’s nose. He frowned and forced his eyes open despite the splitting pain. His hands were tied behind his back, and he had collapsed on the ground in a sorry state.

Through the haze, he heard two men arguing behind him. There was tension in their voices.

“Are you sure you grabbed the right kid? He doesn’t look anything like the photos of his family.”

“No mistake.”

“What’s the Jian family’s stance? They won’t call the police, will they?”

The man being questioned had a sharp glint in his eyes. “The Jian family is one of the most prominent rich families in Yanshi. A family like that won’t just sit back and let us extort them. We have to make them suffer a little, make them understand that their youngest son’s life is in our hands. Go pull him up. We’re changing locations.”

“Hey, get up. Stop playing dead. This brat is soft and tender. A gust of wind could blow him over…”

Jian Huaifeng felt something tighten around his neck. Someone grabbed him by the collar and hauled him up.

Pain twisted his face. He saw a fierce-looking man shaking his fist at him threateningly. His head must have been hit, because for a moment, he couldn’t react.

‘Am I dead, or is this a dream?’

Otherwise, why would he be seeing the scene of his kidnapping when he was fourteen?

He remembered clearly that he had been cornered by creditors in a dark alley and beaten half to death. It happened during Yanshi’s worst rainstorm in fifty years. The water had already reached the bridge of his nose, and no one had reached out to pull him up.

As his wounds soaked and festered in the mixture of rainwater and city sewage, he drifted through the memories of his short life in a daze.

He had once been the pampered young master of the Jian family. His elder brother, Jian Congyu, was a business prodigy who had taken over their father’s company at a young age. Because of that, the Jian family had not been strict with the youngest son. He had been spoiled since childhood, never allowed to suffer or tire himself out.

That favoritism only grew after he was kidnapped at fourteen and rescued, leaving him with psychological scars. His parents had almost lost their youngest son. They felt guilty and frightened, and from then on they spoiled him even more. If he wanted a star, they would give him the moon. They wished they could place everything good in the world before him to make up for the trauma of his childhood.

Under such circumstances, Jian Huaifeng developed a proud, willful, and arrogant personality. He spent every day fooling around with a pack of fair-weather friends. He learned nothing and was good for nothing, and he caused trouble every few days. Everyone said the Jian family’s youngest son had been spoiled rotten.

But as everyone said, no matter how much of a playboy he was or how useless he was, he was still one of the Jian family’s legal heirs. One-third of the family’s enormous fortune would eventually belong to him. He had the capital to be arrogant.

Then, when he was eighteen, the Jian family brought home a youth his age. His parents’ eyes were teary, and they hesitated to speak. It was his elder brother who told him that this youth, Su Lin, was the Jian family’s true young master. He was the one who had been switched at birth.

What made it even more lamentable was that the switch had not been an accident. It had been a premeditated revenge.

His birth mother, Su Yaya, had once been Jian Zhenjiang’s mistress. She had broken with her family for him, only to be abandoned without mercy.

Not only had he toyed with her feelings, but she had also suffered a miscarriage. She had harbored hatred ever since.

Later, she became another man’s mistress and got pregnant. Without anyone knowing, she decided to secretly give birth to the child.

During a prenatal checkup, Su Yaya happened to see Madam Jian. She learned that Madam Jian was also pregnant, and their due dates were the same.

Seeing Madam Jian holding Jian Zhenjiang’s arm, her face glowing with happiness, all of Su Yaya’s hatred and unwillingness surged up. She struck her own belly and came up with a plan.

Su Yaya arranged everything with painstaking care. She bribed a nurse at the hospital. After both women gave birth, she swapped her own child with the Jian family’s child.

From then on, her biological son became the Jian family’s youngest master, while the Jian family’s true young master was taken away by her.

She did not stop at simply switching the children. She had no intention of raising the Jian family’s real son either. She took him back to her hometown.

Her parents had long since cut ties with her and moved away, losing contact. So she threw the Jian family’s child to poor relatives in the village to raise.

Su Yaya herself left the country with her boyfriend. She buried the secret and never cared whether the Jian family’s true young master lived or died.

The true young master, Su Lin, had grown up under someone else’s roof. Naturally, he had no happy childhood. From a young age, he had to read people’s expressions and endured bullying.

Yet even in such a miserable environment, he relied on his own efforts to get into a top university, escape that swamp, and go abroad alone to study.

When he returned, he was the white moonlight in everyone’s eyes, a dusty pearl unstained by mud, a brilliant young talent.

Jian Huaifeng, meanwhile, had lived eighteen years in the wrong place. He had enjoyed the best education and resources, but he had grown into a playboy who only knew how to eat, drink, and have fun. He was useless and caused trouble everywhere.

Ye wala part bhi check kar diya. Isme story change nahi ki, bas grammar aur flow sahi kiya hai taaki padhne me professional lage.

At first, while the Jian family tried to make it up to Su Lin, they did not completely neglect Jian Huaifeng. After all, they had raised him for eighteen years. Without blood ties, there were still real feelings. So after Su Lin returned, Jian Huaifeng was still kept in the Jian family as before.

Because of what his birth mother had done, Jian Huaifeng felt guilty toward Su Lin. Though he was usually arrogant, he rarely confronted Su Lin directly.

But comparison kills. With the excellent true young master crushing him in every way, it was hard for Jian Huaifeng not to be disliked.

Soon he became, in others’ eyes, a madman who made things difficult for Su Lin everywhere, who was jealous and malicious, who would stop at nothing to harm the true young master.

Su Lin spoke little at the Jian family and had trouble adjusting: Jian Huaifeng pushed him out.

Su Lin had a sack thrown over his head while walking at night: Jian Huaifeng did it.

Su Lin fell down the stairs: Jian Huaifeng pushed him.

…

The group of prominent family youths who used to circle around Jian Huaifeng all turned to Su Lin. Even his parents, who had loved him most, gradually grew distant after Su Lin returned.

In the past, when he caused trouble outside, the Jian family’s elder brother always cleaned up his messes. After Su Lin returned, his elder brother also turned against him.

Both were given startup capital to start businesses. Su Lin easily ranked among Yanshi’s outstanding young entrepreneurs. Within three years, his company went public and got on track. He was accepted by everyone through his own strength.

Jian Huaifeng had always been an empty-headed idiot. He did not understand company operations or financial investment. Before long, he owed huge debts. His elder brother no longer covered for him, and creditors drove him to desperation again and again.

His former friends all stood by and watched. They delighted in the wealthy family scandal and did not forget to kick him while he was down.

Dragons beget dragons, phoenixes beget phoenixes. Even if a whore’s son was raised in a wealthy family, he was still trash. But Su Lin had the Jian family’s blood. Even in the mud, he could remain unstained.

Such words had been endless since Su Lin returned. Jian Huaifeng could not understand. He had never wanted to target Su Lin. Why had he walked step by step toward this ending?

He had also tried to change his parents’ view of him, but every time he only made things worse and earned more dislike.

—

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