Sylvana's POV

Elowen’s face lit up instantly. She bounced over to my father and planted a loud kiss on his wrinkled cheek. “Thank you, Dad! You’re the best!”

Then she turned to me, her concern obviously fake. “Sylvana, you smell a little… stinky. Life in the mountains must make it hard to bathe regularly, right?”

She smiled sweetly, as if doing me a favor, and continued, “But don’t worry! Our company has great benefits. You can shower in the restroom after work! Isn’t that amazing?”

Listening to something this brainless, I seriously considered calling the institute and asking them to send over special agents.

"Is this family secretly a foreign hostile force in disguise? Letting the adopted daughter intern as the CEO’s deputy assistant, while sending the biological daughter to be a janitor? What kind of ridiculous plot is this?" I scoffed.

The hand my father had resting on Elowen’s head stiffened.

And Jasper let out a careless sneer. “Do you think our company lets just anyone walk in? Even a cleaning job comes with full social insurance and housing funds. You probably don’t even know what that is, do you?”

I sighed quietly. "I don’t really pay attention to benefits at the research institute, but I remember my senior saying we have something like ten insurances and three funds. Is ‘five insurances and one fund’ really that impressive?"

The smug smile on Jasper’s face froze.

"Besides, I own five patents. I’m not short on money, okay? Do they really think I’m some trash-eating pauper? This is exhausting," I continued.

The atmosphere at the dinner table grew even stranger.

Elowen, meanwhile, happily ate the shrimp everyone had peeled for her. Her cheeks puffed out as she chewed, occasionally shooting me smug, provocative looks.

Watching her childish attempts at provocation, I felt nothing at all—no anger, no emotion.

“Enough,” my father said irritably. “Since she doesn’t want to eat, don’t force her. Just take her back to her room.”

I stood up and followed the maid upstairs, my mind calmly reviewing the steps of my successful experiment.

“This is your room,” the maid said, pointing to the very last door at the end of the hallway. “Miss Elowen sleeps lightly, so unless necessary, don’t come out at night. As for the bathroom, you’ll handle that inside the room. I’ve prepared a bucket for you. In the morning, clean it yourself in the yard.”

I stopped walking and frowned.

So, this was what passed for a wealthy household. Small temple, vicious spirits. If I didn’t do something now, even a maid would think she could step all over me.

I looked at her calmly, then leaned closer and whispered, “I can tolerate that this family is stupid. We share blood, after all. But you’re just a maid. Who gave you the nerve to target me?”

The maid froze and stuttered, “I… I didn’t…”

“Oh? Didn’t you?” I let out a cold laugh, about to expose her little act when, unexpectedly, she shoved me hard.

I fell to the floor, and the noise drew attention from downstairs. My family soon rushed up.

“What are you doing? Why are you hitting Agnes?” Elowen accused me the moment she arrived, without bothering to ask what happened.

With Elowen backing her up, the maid put on a smug expression. “She didn’t like the room. She deliberately fell down to frame me.”

“I knew she shouldn’t have been brought home,” Jasper said coldly from the side, his tone dripping with mockery. “She starts scheming the moment she gets here.”

Frowning, my mother said, “If you were unhappy with the room, you could’ve told us directly. There was no need for this. Agnes has worked in our home for over ten years. We know what kind of person she is.”

"What a bunch of idiots. Believing a mysterious adopted daughter is one thing. But even trusting a maid without question? I’m your newly reunited daughter. Even a stranger wouldn’t deserve to be shoved around by a servant."

Sylvana's POV

"Is this what you call 'a room'? Even a prison isn’t this bad. A chamber pot? And I’m supposed to scrub it in the yard every morning? Even rural villages don’t live like this anymore," I added aggrievedly.

My mother stood there awkwardly, clearly at a loss, and looked to my father for help.

A flash of confusion crossed my father’s face before he frowned and began to think.

Before he could speak, Elowen beat him to it. “Sylvana, I heard you came from the Colorado Plateau. Don’t people there live in cave houses? Emptying a chamber pot every morning should be normal for you, right?”

She tilted her head, then added self-righteously, “Agnes is honest and hardworking. Why would you bully her? Mom and Dad are exhausted after work every day. Can you stop making trouble? If you’re upset, take it out on me, okay? If it makes you feel better, you can even hit me.”

She looked at me with open contempt, as if she’d already seen through all my “schemes,” wearing the expression of someone completely fed up.

My mother immediately pulled her into her arms, her voice full of pity. “Elowen, you don’t need to wrong yourself like that. You’re the treasure we’ve raised with our own hands. How could we ever let someone lay a finger on you?”

“Try touching her and see what happens!” Jasper shouted, pointing at me like a street thug, spit flying as he spoke.

I let out a quiet sigh and replied, “Our institute chose the Colorado Plateau because it offers a stable experimental environment. This isn’t the 1980s. Who still lives in cave dwellings?”

My tone steady, I continued, “And if you really didn’t want me back, you didn’t have to go this far. Using a chamber pot inside a villa, have the Kesslers really sunk to this level of absurdity?”

The moment I exposed the issue in front of everyone, Elowen knew she had no ground to stand on. So, she immediately threw herself into my mother’s arms and burst into loud sobs.

To my disbelief, my mother hugged her back and started crying just as hard.

Ignoring them, I pushed open the door to the room, and a cloud of dust instantly rose, making me cough.

The place looked like an unfinished construction site. The walls were scarred where the plaster had been scraped off, the window glass was even broken, and cold wind poured in nonstop.

“You’ve really outdone yourselves,” I said, covering my mouth as I coughed.

Seeing the miserable state of the room, my father frowned deeply. “Why isn’t this room renovated yet? I arranged this long ago.”

“Dad, it’s cold lately,” Elowen replied nervously under his gaze. “No workers are willing to come.”

Was she actually brain-dead? What kind of excuse was that? Did renovation workers pick seasons now? Then who tore the place apart? Did she do it yourself?'

Helpless, I sighed. 'No, I need to contact the institute today. If I stay in this place too long, it might affect my intelligence, and that would be a loss to the country.'

Furious, my father immediately arranged for me to stay in a guest room temporarily.

Soon, news of the Kesslers' biological daughter returning home spread quickly. Competitors, aware of how the Kessler family treated their adopted daughter, seized the opportunity. They joined forces online, spread rumors, and stirred up drama, eager to watch a “real vs. fake heiress” power struggle unfold.

The Kesslers, unsurprisingly, decided to host a formal reunion party.

I knew exactly what it was really for.

Calling it a reunion was just a cover. It was a move to reassure shareholders and stabilize the company.

The party was scheduled for the evening, yet I, the supposed main character, received very little attention.

Instead, Elowen bounced around like an overexcited peacock. She went shopping for dresses, contacted guests, and busied herself with arrangements, as if she were the true star of the event.

Night fell quickly, and guests began arriving one after another.

The first floor was transformed into an event hall. Tables were laid out with exquisite dishes and expensive, well-known wines.

Standing at the entrance holding a wine glass was Elowen, greeting guests with syrupy smiles and nauseating pleasantries.

Sylvana's POV

Although I was called downstairs early as well, the Kesslers kept their distance, and almost no one paid attention to me.

Even so, I didn’t mind. In fact, I was happy to be left alone, curled up in a corner with my phone, reviewing research data.

I was so completely absorbed that my grip loosened, and my phone was snatched right out of my hand.

On the screen, a biological reaction under a microscope was still playing, so I was instantly alarmed. “What are you doing? Give it back now!”

But Elowen, who had taken my phone, looked completely unconcerned. “Sylvana, today is a big day for our family. We've been running around for you. Even if you don’t want to help greet the guests, how can you just sit here playing on your phone so shamelessly?”

“My phone… my phone is classified!” I said urgently, ignoring her taunts as I stood up to grab it back. “Give it to me!”

But Elowen was clearly prepared. She stepped backward into the center of the banquet hall, waving my phone and deliberately raising her voice. “Sylvana, even if you look down on us, there’s no need to act like this. Mom and Dad held this reunion banquet so you could integrate into the family faster. Can’t you at least consider the bigger picture?”

“No, just give me my phone back!” I demanded for the nth time.

I was frantic now. The data on that phone was top-level, national confidential material. If it leaked, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Elowen’s eyes lit up, her words turning even sharper. “So, your phone is your life? Can’t you stop staring at it for even a moment? Don’t you know even basic manners? How did you even grow up?”

“Absolutely classless!” Jasper suddenly appeared from who-knows-where and launched into me. “You’ve completely embarrassed our family!”

“You! This is a crime, do you understand that?” I shouted, rushing forward to grab the phone.

But Jasper casually took the phone from Elowen’s hand and looked at me with a smirk. “You want it? Then come and get it.”

I hurriedly wiped away the tears that had spilled from sheer panic and stepped forward.

But just as my fingers were about to touch the phone, Jasper suddenly tossed it over my head.

Elowen, standing across from him, caught it perfectly.

“Sylvana, the phone’s over here,” she giggled, shaking it at me like she was teasing a dog.

The surrounding guests all turned their attention toward us, watching with clear interest.

Drawn by the commotion, my parents frowned and walked over.

Before long, the two of them had toyed with me until my legs gave out. I collapsed onto the floor, completely drained of strength.

My father glanced down at me, then frowned at the siblings. “That’s enough. What kind of behavior is this? Give the phone back to her.”

Elowen glanced at the screen and immediately lost interest.

“Wow, there’s even an ‘Alert’ screen,” she scoffed. “You really know how to put on a show. Do you think you’re some kind of top-secret government agent?”

“Such an act,” Jasper added disdainfully.

Seeing the red "ALERT" screen on my phone, I finally let out a breath of relief.

All of our researchers’ phones were specially designed.

Not only did they outperform commercial devices, but they also had extremely powerful security systems.

The moment my phone was taken, it automatically triggered fingerprint and iris verification.

After Elowen and Jasper repeatedly tossed the phone around, the authentication had long since failed, activating an internal emergency channel that sent an alert to the nearest special security unit.

“I’m terribly sorry, everyone,” my father said smoothly, holding up his wine glass. “My daughter grew up in the mountains and doesn’t understand proper etiquette. Please don’t laugh at her.”

He didn’t spare me a single glance as I lay collapsed on the floor, focusing instead on polite smiles and empty social niceties.