On New Year's Eve, which was also my twentieth birthday, my parents left an egg as a birthday present and went to work overtime. 

I ran out secretly to buy an instant noodle for extra food, but I only found out that my parents were celebrating a girl’s birthday. 

They had chartered a luxury restaurant for her and invited many classmates. They drove luxury cars. They also had a private driver. Their birthday gift to her was a villa, a pink super car and a back card with a hundred thousand dollars.

Dad smiled kindly as he touched her head. “My good girl, when you graduate from college, I will hand over the entire group to you to manage.”

Mom hugged her with tears in her eyes. “My good child, although you are not mom and dad's biological child. In the future, we will love you for the rest of our lives, more than our own daughter. All the best are reserved for you.”

I tried to get closer, but I was beaten by the bodyguard and thrown out. 

The egg I cherished most rolled to the ground. Then it was crushed by their feet, as they had crushed the ionic bond between my parents and me.

——

I struggled to get up from the ground. My face was covered in dirt. My body also became filthy. 

I tried to call out to my parents, but their next words hit me like a hammer in the heart. 

My throat felt like it was being pinched. I couldn't say “Mom and Dad”.

I could see my mom and dad hugging that girl. Their eyes pointed at me, who was lying on the ground with a mocking smile.

Dad said, “My Evelyn, look at how pitiful that little beggar is. If you don't work hard in the future, you will be as pitiful as her.”

Mom replied, “Yes, that's right, such a cheap bastard can only look up to you.”

They didn't recognize me and just laughed uncontrollably. 

Evelyn Ainsworth was my college classmate. She recognized me. But she just cast provocative and pitying glances at me. She then acted coquettishly at Mom and Dad.

“Mom and Dad, don't worry. I'll be competitive and strive for success. I swear that I'll be your proudest little princess.”

‘Little beggar, you are a bastard.’ Every word hurt my heart. 

I picked up the trampled egg on the ground. Then I stuffed it into my mouth, chewed it, swallowed it and left it in a mess.

On the way home, I found that my feet were as heavy as lead. It felt like I had walked for a century on that short ten-minute walk. 

My tears wet my clothes. I couldn’t stop flowing down. 

Since I was born, my home has always been so dilapidated in my memory.

There was no TV, no refrigerator, no microwave or oven and even the furniture was picked up by my parents from the garbage dump. My dad worked hard as a labourer. His hands were covered with blood every day when he came home.

In the first grade, his arm was hit by a heavy object and swelled to a blue-purple colour. 

That day, I secretly hid in the corner and cried like a tearful girl. 

It was also after that time that I began to mature earlier than my peers.

When I was a child in school, I borrowed tuition fees to go to school.  I could only go to the construction site at night to pick up nails to sell them to help and support my family. Once I was discovered by my employer and beaten half to death. 

I could only look at the dolls I liked in front of the window for a day. It made me feel as if I had seen them, I had owned them.

In college, I worked hard as a part-timer and wore a piece of clothing over and over again for several years. I even went to the garbage cans of garment factories to pick up waste fabrics to stitch themselves into clothes. 

I was used to the mocking looks of my classmates. When I saw my favourite male classmate, I could only avoid him from a distance for fear that my presence would stain his eyes. 

All of that was because my parents often kneeled in front of me and cried bitterly. “My daughter, our family is poor. It's your parents who are incompetent. We are ashamed of you.”

But now I realize that it was just a realistic show of bitterness. My parents, whom I had always respected the most, turned out to be the CEOs of wealthy families. They gave me a poor life and also gave the fake daughter a rich life.

I smiled to myself and threw the dirty clothes on my body into the trash can and took a fresh shower. Mom and Dad came home very late. They thought I was asleep. They then walked into the house quietly. They were shocked to see me sitting frozen in the living room.

My mother sat beside me. Her face was full of pity. 

“Audrey Ainsworth, why are you sleeping so late?”

I asked as if nothing had happened, “Mom and Dad, why are you working overtime during New Year's Eve? I've been waiting for you guys to come back.”

My parents smiled with a guilty look on their faces. Then my dad screwed a bag onto the table with a fatherly smile. 

“Audrey, it's good that you didn't sleep early. I brought back a cake just to celebrate your birthday with you.”

I glanced at my mom and dad indifferently. Then I noticed that their faces, which were originally dressed in bright clothes, had returned to paleness again and their brand-name clothes had turned back into patched work clothes. My dad took out a small piece of cake covered with dirt from a bag full of rotten vegetable leaves and brought it to me.

“My daughter, this cake has been dropped on the ground, but it's still edible. You can eat it, sweety.”

In the past, the birthday gift they prepared for me every year was an egg. I would have been happy if there had been a piece of cake, even if they had picked it up from the trash. 

But when I thought that this piece of cake was left over from eating with their baby daughter and not thrown on the ground. They then picked up for me. It made my stomach churning.

Along with the intense heartache, my body could not stop trembling. I pushed the cake back to my dad.

“Dad, you eat it. I've eaten eggs. You guys have never eaten anything good in your life. This cake should be given to you and your mom, especially my mom. You carried me to term and gave birth to me after nine months of pregnancy. My birthday is her day of suffering. So, I give it to my mom.”

The two of them glanced at each other. Although they disguised themselves well, I still saw a hint of disgust and dislike in their eyes. Seeing this made me even more heartbroken. 

My biological parents gave their own daughter food that someone else had dropped on the floor. On the other hand, they had ordered a nine-tiered buttercream cake for their adopted daughter.

Dad's eyes were red at the end and he choked up.  “It's my fault. I can't afford to let you eat this kind of thing on your birthday.”

My mom took Dad's hand and sobbed. “You've tried hard enough, my hubby.”

Seeing them repeating the same old trick, I took the cake woodenly and stuffed the cake mixed with mud into my mouth one bite at a time.

“Mom and Dad, this cake is so yummy and sweet.”

As I said this, I stopped the tears in my eyes from flowing down. My heart was broken to the ground. My parents saw me obediently eat the cake. They were very relieved to turn tears into smiles.

My dad said, “Our daughter has really grown up.”

Listening to these words, I suddenly felt ridiculous. Dad stared at me and suddenly saw a bruise on my face and asked me angrily, “What happened to your face? Was it beaten by someone else? Who dares to hit my daughter? I'll fight him to the death!”

Dad rolled up his sleeves and looked furious. Seeing this, my mind was full of thoughts.

When I was in elementary school, I was bullied by my classmates because I was poor. My face was scratched with blood marks by them. My father was so angry that he went to find the other parents to argue. Unfortunately, the other side was so crowded that he was bruised and swollen. In the end, he forced them to swear that they would never bully me again.

At that time, he became a hero in my heart. Other people were chasing stars. But I only worship him alone. But now when I thought about it, how naive and childish were my thoughts as a child? My father, it was obvious your bodyguard injured your own daughter, but he was still angry here.

I hid the gloom under my eyes and shook my head. “No one bullied me, Dad. I fell by myself.”

My mom then hugged me and cried. “You have to be more careful in the future. You are a piece of flesh that fell from my body. If you get hurt, I will feel my heart out and hurt.”

Taking this opportunity, I spoke up, “Mom and Dad, didn't I give you my scholarship the other day? Can you give it back to me? That is the cost of my study abroad.”

Mom and Dad both were stunned at the same time. Dad was silent for a moment. He only showed a difficult look.

He told me in a serious tone, “Audrey Ainsworth, what's so good about going abroad? You just worship foreign things. We don't want you to go abroad. Why don't you stay at home with us instead of going abroad? This money, Mom and I will keep only for you. So that you won’t be cheated.”

Mom followed the conversation and said, “Your dad is absolutely right. Didn't you have a working part-time program recently? Isn't that money enough for you? I also heard you've got a boyfriend. Did he give you this idea? I advise you not to keep such a man. You have to break up quickly.”

The two of them looked as if they were doing me a favour, but it made me feel even more heartbroken. I handed in all the scholarships and as well as work-study two jobs to earn money. I didn’t have a penny left over in addition to the living expenses, where was there any money left?

I remembered Evelyn in school wearing a famous designer. She also had a driver to pick up and drop off. She usually spent more money on water at other times.

She invited classmates to hold parties in her mansion from time to time. She had even bragged in the class that she spent no less than one hundred thousand dollars a night. But I just wanted to get back my scholarship, but I got a lot of words.

Compared to Evelyn Ainsworth, she was more like a biological daughter than me. They even asked me to give up the love that I got with great difficulty.

In college, I was so poor that everyone knew it. No one of the opposite sex was willing to get close to me. Only Cornelius Holbrook, who was also from a poor family. We sympathize with each other. Although we didn’t officially confirm our relationship, we already regarded each other as our other half in our hearts.

I pulled the corners of my mouth. I felt a deep disappointment in my heart. Seeing my face pale, my father patted my shoulder to comfort me.

“My daughter, please, don't think too much. You also know the situation of our family, right? We have to spend money everywhere. It's not safe for you to keep those scholarships on you.”

My mom also said, “Yes, my daughter. Your previous tuition fees are borrowed. You have not yet returned to others. So, do not think so much. You have to go to bed early. Don’t stay up late all night. It’s not good for your health and body.”

I nodded my head despondently and went back inside the house. Just after I closed the door, I heard my dad's cell phone ringing.

He made a point of glancing at my room first. The two of them sheepishly ran to the restroom. I quietly approached and heard them ask in a very patient tone.

“Evelyn, why are you suddenly calling Mom and Dad? Didn't I tell you, that when we're at home, don't call us.”

Evelyn replied, “Dad, I need a sum of money.”

Mom and Dad exchanged a look. “Didn't I give you a card just now on your birthday? That's a hundred thousand dollars there, Evelyn.”

Evelyn's tone carried impatience, “It’s not enough, Dad. I just now invited a group of classmates to my birthday party. We ordered a few bottles of red wine and it was all gone, Dad. So, please, give another hundred thousand over.”

Dad was still hesitating at that time. My mom pushed his elbow with a dissatisfied look on her face.

“My hubby, why are you still considering it? Evelyn is not like Audrey, honey. Let alone one hundred thousand dollars, even five hundred thousand you have to give her. Evelyn is the future heir of our Ainsworth Family, right? Think about it, Evelyn is prettier and has a good temperament than Audrey. Wasn't she adopted in the first place so that she could give face to the Ainsworth Family?”

Dad silenced for a while. But my mom still said, “Audrey has scars on her face. She can't inherit the family business. Our family can't afford to lose this person.”