The younger sister mistakenly identified her brother when visiting relatives and was kissed by the c

Before, her parents looked at her with doting affection and pride, as if they wanted to offer her the best of everything in the world for her to choose from. But just now, their gaze was clearly cold, laced with dagger-like disgust, as if they were looking at a shameless enemy!

Qiao Mingzhu's nose tingled, and tears of grievance welled up in her eyes, but she gritted her teeth and forced them back.

It's okay! It's okay! She desperately tried to convince herself.

Mom and Dad were just feeling embarrassed and angry! They've loved her so much since she was little, to the point that they didn't even care about the life or death of their own daughter, Qiao Xinxin. How could they really abandon her over such a "trivial matter"?

Now that the matter has become a major scandal, it's only natural that parents are angry.

Once things calm down and the anger dissipates, everything will return to normal!

She is the daughter they have raised with their own blood and sweat for twenty years, and they would never really abandon her!

Yes! It's all that country bumpkin Qiao Xinxin's fault!

A vicious glint flashed in Qiao Mingzhu's eyes.

If Qiao Xinxin could have obediently gone to marry in place of another like a dog, how could her parents have been so embarrassed today?

How could my affair with my older brother have become the talk of the entire compound?!

It's all her fault! Why couldn't she just obediently marry that cripple?

Why rebel in public?

Why go to such extremes and make it known to everyone?!

"You bitch!"

Qiao Mingzhu grew increasingly resentful and angrily threw the half-washed rag into the basin.

"Snap!"

A large splash of water rose from the basin, and the cold, murky water splashed directly onto her face.

The water droplets on her face, mixed with the greasy smell of swill, made her feel more wronged than ever before. With red eyes, she vigorously wiped the dirty water off her face with her sleeve, silently making a vow in her heart.

As long as that brat Qiao Xinxin is still in this family, she will always have a chance to win back her parents!

As long as that bitch comes back, she'll sow discord between her parents, sabotage Qiao Xinxin, embarrass that country girl, and make her do stupid things.

This will only make your parents dislike that unpresentable country girl more and more!

With that bitch acting like a piece of mud in comparison, her parents will naturally remember how sensible and kind Qiao Mingzhu is, and will continue to treat her as their precious jewel, just like before!

Thinking of this, Qiao Mingzhu's panic finally subsided, replaced by a twisted sense of reassurance.

-

The family of four, each with their own ulterior motives, worked tirelessly until late into the night to finally tidy up the yard, which resembled a garbage dump.

The four of them were so exhausted that their bones felt like they were about to fall apart. They didn't even bother to take a shower and went straight back to their rooms to fall asleep.

Throughout the entire process, not a single person seemed to care where Qiao Xinxin went!

Before returning to her room, Qin Fangfang did pay attention to something, but she was only concerned about where that lazy girl had run off to, and she couldn't even catch a trace of her!

"That heartless, good-for-nothing! All the housework falls on the four of us, and she just runs off to relax! Tomorrow I'll skin her alive!"

Qin Fangfang entered the house grumbling.

Exhausted after finishing her work, she immediately forgot about the incident.

Anyway, that brat has no money on her, but she has the house key. She can come back whenever she wants.

Tomorrow morning, she'll settle the score with this unfilial daughter!

However, Qin Fangfang never dreamed that at this very moment, Qiao Xinxin was already sitting steadily on the train bound for the capital with all of the Qiao family's wealth!

The green train clattered along in the deep night.

Outside the car window, there were no dazzling neon lights like those of later generations, only dark fields and villages that flashed by occasionally, with scattered lights in the distance reflecting faint spots of light on the glass.

Qiao Xinxin bought a hard sleeper ticket.

Given her current status and rank on her household registration, without a special letter of introduction from her work unit, she simply couldn't buy a high-class soft sleeper ticket. Getting a hard sleeper ticket at all was already incredibly lucky.

The carriage was dimly lit, and the sounds of snoring filled the air.

Qiao Xinxin climbed the iron ladder with difficulty to her assigned middle bunk.

She stuffed the canvas bag containing self-defense tools and a few pieces of clothing to conceal her identity under her pillow, then lay stiffly on the hard bed.

As soon as she lay down, she felt uncomfortable all over and frowned.

The berths were extremely narrow, with such cramped space that it was impossible to sit up completely upright.

What's even more deadly is the smell!

The blue and white striped quilt covering me had a faint musty smell, as if it had never seen the sun.

The pillow had been slept on by countless people, and it still carried the strong smell of the previous passenger's cheap cigarettes.

The pungent, pungent smell of feet wafting up from the lower bunk or some other bunk felt like a biological weapon, piercing straight into her nose.

"vomit……"

Qiao Xinxin's throat tightened, and she abruptly covered her mouth, almost vomiting on the spot.

She turned her head toward the car window, trying to breathe in some of the cold air seeping in through the cracks, but the nausea and nausea made it impossible for her to fall asleep.

This feeling is just too awful.

The nauseating mix of pungent, sour foot odor and cheap tobacco made Qiao Xinxin almost vomit.

She turned over in frustration, her mind uncontrollably drifting back to the comfortable days of her previous life.

Back then, when we traveled, we either flew or took the high-speed train. Even if it wasn't the best option, we could comfortably sit in a spacious and bright business class seat. Unlike now, we're crammed into a cramped, musty-smelling carriage like sardines and suffer.

"It's okay, it's okay..."

Qiao Xinxin took a deep breath of the cool air seeping in through the window in the darkness, silently comforting herself.

Just bear with it, it will pass quickly.

Accompanied by the regular "clatter" of the wheels, Qiao Xinxin's tightly furrowed brows gradually relaxed, and she finally fell into a deep sleep.

……

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking.

Qiao Xinxin took the train and flew away, but the area around the Qiao family compound in the south was in complete uproar!

The shocking scandal of the breakup between the Zhou and Qiao families spread like wildfire, reaching almost the entire street overnight.

These days, ordinary people have little money to eat and very few forms of entertainment.

Such a series of bombshell revelations—"fake heiress sleeping with her older brother," "forcing her own daughter to marry in her place," and "the Zhou family publicly announcing the engagement"—are absolutely explosive news of nuclear bomb-level magnitude! Their spread is comparable to a wildfire!

Anyone who witnessed or heard anything yesterday has been busy today.

People didn't even have time to eat properly, and they weren't in a hurry to go to work. The first thing they said to acquaintances was always a wink and a knowing look: "Hey, did you hear about what happened with the Qiao family yesterday?"

At the entrance of the alley, in front of the breakfast stall selling soy milk and fried dough sticks, steaming white smoke rose into the air. Several aunties and grandmas casually moved a low stool and sat in a circle around a broken wooden table, tearing at the fried dough sticks in their hands while gossiping with shining eyes, full of energy.

"Have you heard? What happened between the Qiao family and the Zhou family yesterday..."

"Oh my goodness! How could I not have heard? I live right behind the Qiao family's house. Yesterday, the commotion was incredible!" A middle-aged woman with curly hair slammed her bowl of soy milk down, gesturing wildly with spittle flying. "You didn't see it! The Zhou family's wedding procession arrived, and they immediately turned on each other, smashing up the Qiao family's house!"

"Oh? It really broke?" The old lady holding the bowl next to her was so surprised that her eyes widened.

"Absolutely! They even tore up the Double Happiness cigarettes!" The curly-haired woman curled her lip, her face full of disdain. "You know, that daughter raised by the Qiao family, so delicate and pretty, I don't know what got into her, but the night before her wedding, she actually slept naked in bed with her own brother! So shameless! Oh, by the way, you might not know, that girl isn't the Qiao family's biological daughter; it was just recently discovered that they were switched at birth!"

"They were switched at birth? I thought they were their biological children..." Another older woman gasped, lowering her voice, "Then tell me, if they really were their biological children, wouldn't this kind of thing be just chaos..."

She didn't dare utter the last word. The curly-haired woman rolled her eyes and loudly interrupted, "You clearly didn't understand! Although they're not blood siblings, they've eaten from the same pot for twenty years, been like siblings for twenty years! Think about it, they only found out they weren't related in the last two months. What kind of family's children get together so quickly? Maybe, behind the scenes, those two have already..."

The older woman gave him a knowing look, and the people around him immediately let out a series of knowing snickers.

"If you ask me, the Qiao family is utterly despicable!" someone interjected indignantly. "Those two, Qiao Shouguo and his wife, usually act all respectable, but after doing something so shameless, they still want to pretend nothing happened! They actually have the audacity to want their newly returned biological daughter to marry that shameless adopted daughter in place of her. They're utterly immoral!"

"Absolutely! As the saying goes, it's not that you don't know the goods, it's that you don't compare them. Comparing the two families, the Zhou family really handled things with generosity!" An aunt wearing arm sleeves next to her gave a thumbs up. "Even though the marriage didn't go through with it, they didn't cause a scene at the Qiao family's house. They went back to the Red Star Hotel, quietly treated their relatives and friends to a nice meal, explained things clearly in public, and decisively called off the engagement. They're truly a respectable family!"