I found myself reborn, lying in a hospital delivery room.
I was the true heiress of the wealthy Lin family, but the family’s nanny had switched me at birth.
I spent eighteen years suffering in the countryside, only to be found by the Lin family after they’d already adopted a girl to fill my place.
Now, I was back at the moment of the swap.
“Waaah waaah waaah~”
I tried to call for help, but all that came out were baby cries.
[Mom, wake up! If you don’t, your daughter will be taken away.
Goodbye, Mom. Tonight I set sail, and we’ll meet again in eighteen years.
After I’m taken, Auntie Wang will swap me for her own daughter, who’ll inherit half of our family’s fortune.
Oh, poor cabbage left to wither in the field~]
Maybe my singing was so off-key that my mother, Lin Yuxin, suddenly woke up from her nap.
She saw Auntie Wang holding me in her arms.
“Auntie Wang, where are you taking my child?”
“Uh… I… I just wanted to take little Miss Lin out for some sunlight.”
Auntie Wang hadn’t expected my mother to wake up and was completely flustered.
I kept wailing and wriggling, trying to make a scene.
[What baby needs sun only days after being born?
Don’t you hear yourself? Your own daughter is next door, just waiting to be swapped in.
You never even rehearse your lies. Weren’t you super efficient bossing me around last life?]
Last time, I believed Auntie Wang was my real mother and obeyed her every word.
From as early as I could remember, I was cutting pigweed, cooking, and planting vegetables.
She only ever complained I wasn’t fast enough in the kitchen.
I always thought I wasn’t good enough—never realizing she wasn’t my real mother.
“Give me my baby. She’s crying—she must be hungry,”
my mother said calmly.
I let out a few more cries for effect.
Auntie Wang had no choice but to hand me over.
I snuggled into my mother’s arms, curling my tiny fingers around hers.
[Day one, victory: I get to stay.
But she won’t give up that easily.
She’ll look for another chance to swap me out.]
With that, I drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, I woke to see several bodyguards stationed around me.
Oh right—my mom was the eldest daughter of the powerful Lin family.
Hiring a few bodyguards was nothing to her.
To my surprise, the fake daughter still showed up in my mother’s room.
Along with her came my scummy dad, Lin Jianyu.
“I found this baby outside the hospital. She reminded me of our real daughter.
Yuxin, why don’t we adopt her? She’ll be a good companion for our own daughter.”
Lin Jianyu rubbed his nose awkwardly.
“What did you say?”
My mother, Lin Yuxin, was stunned.
She held me close.
“One daughter, Lin Yanran, is enough for me.
Besides, Jianyu! Did you forget you already have a son?”
The room fell into an awkward silence.
I watched my new-life father with curiosity, thinking:
[Yeah right, if you missed your real daughter, why did you keep making excuses to work late and never visit?
This baby isn’t some orphan you found—she’s Auntie Wang’s daughter.
Auntie Wang is just one of your many women. Tsk, tsk.]
Last life, I never understood why my real father, Lin Jianyu, still treated the adopted daughter so well after I was brought home.
I thought he couldn’t let go of their eighteen years together.
After my death, I learned the truth: the adopted daughter was his and Auntie Wang’s illegitimate child.
“What?”
A flicker of confusion crossed Lin Jianyu’s face.
He stared at my mother’s lips, but she hadn’t spoken aloud.
“I’ve already donated a building to the orphanage to adopt this child!
She’ll have the same status as our daughter Yanran.”
“For Yanran’s sake, let’s adopt her, Yuxin.
Yanran’s grandfather agrees too.
I even gave her a name: Lin Xiaoyue.”
My heart sank. The fake daughter’s name in my last life was also Lin Xiaoyue.
It seemed I couldn’t avoid this fate.
Lin Jianyu’s words left my mother dazed.
“You insist on adopting another child?
Jianyu, do you just enjoy raising other people’s kids?”
They’d been married for years—from an arranged engagement to a marriage of love.
They were the envy of the social circle.
Everyone said my father was the model of fidelity, and my mother the happiest woman in the elite.
But after I was born, my father changed completely.
“I don’t—”
My mother started to refuse again.
I opened my mouth and wailed, desperate for attention.
[Mom, just let Dad have his way.
I have a feeling Auntie Wang will stop at nothing to get her daughter into our home.
That’s just how the story goes.
Last time she swapped me for Lin Xiaoyue; this time, I refuse to be separated from you.
Thank goodness you hired bodyguards, or we’d be apart for another eighteen years.
Let her in, I just want you to be happy.]
After a few seconds, my mother’s face calmed.
Lin Jianyu’s face stiffened.
“I just didn’t want Yanran to be lonely.
You know our Lin family has only had sons for generations—no girls.
Meeting this child is fate.”
He pushed the baby’s stroller closer, showing off the new child’s cuteness.
“Fine. The Lin family is wealthy—what’s one more mouth to feed?”
My mother stared at the baby for a few seconds, then smiled.
“But she’s only a foster daughter!
My real daughter is only Yanran!”
Chapter 01
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