Chapter 82: I’m... Done Playing...
A single sip of crane’s beak red could kill an ordinary person, but Xiao Li poured a whole bottle of it into Liu Xueyin.
She forced Liu Xueyin to swallow it, even using water to wash it down.
As Liu Xueyin’s face twisted in agony, a crazed smile spread across Xiao Li’s own.
"Go on, live. Let’s see you survive this!"
"COUGH, COUGH..." Liu Xueyin coughed violently, desperately trying to vomit up what she had swallowed, but Xiao Li’s hand was clamped tightly around her neck, making it impossible.
"Ugh... Gnn..."
In agony, Liu Xueyin glared at the deranged Xiao Li as the life slowly drained from her, right before her very eyes.
THUD!
Liu Xueyin collapsed heavily onto the floor. Her face was a shocking shade of bluish-purple, and she was no longer breathing.
’So, she’s dead...’ Xiao Li slowly slid down the wall to a sitting position.
She hadn’t wanted to hear any more of Liu Xueyin’s idiotic pronouncements. She had acted decisively, and Liu Xueyin had died quickly.
Everything had gone unbelievably smoothly.
’Did I really just kill Liu Xueyin?!’
She looked at her own hands, a sense of unreality washing over her. She couldn’t help but crawl over to check again.
No breath, no pulse, no heartbeat. She was dead.
She picked up the dagger and tested it; the mysterious power that had once stopped her was gone.
’Lu Yanzhi is dead. Liu Xueyin is dead. Everything should be over now, right...?’
’So, why am I still here?’
’Why haven’t I left?’
Xiao Li sat there, staring blankly at Liu Xueyin’s corpse, her eyes filled with confusion.
She watched for a long, long time—long enough to be certain Liu Xueyin wouldn’t come back to life, long enough that her own body grew as stiff as the corpse—but she still couldn’t leave.
Still the same dungeon. Still the iron door, the dagger, the poison, the corpse.
"Ha..." A scornful chuckle escaped her lips, and the sound grew louder and louder.
"Ha... haha... HAHAHAHAHA..."
’So, it was all wrong from the very beginning.’
’Killing the female lead wouldn’t let me leave. Killing anyone wouldn’t let me leave. I can’t escape this world at all.’
"HAHAHA..."
Laughing maniacally, she snatched the dagger from the floor and, without hesitation, plunged it deep into her own heart. "I’m... done playing this game..."
Pain exploded from her heart and instantly spread through her entire body. She felt death approaching.
’So be it, then, death. These crazed days should finally come to an end.’
But in the instant right before she died, she saw a transparent barrier. Within the barrier was a blurry, human-like shadow.
Her intuition told her this might be the very thing she had been searching for.
She lunged toward it with the last of her strength, and then her consciousness faded completely.
-------------------------
Xiao Li was a piece of merchandise.
The heads of the Xiao Family were top-tier tycoons. They were deeply in love and had an adorable daughter. That daughter was not her.
The Xiao Family’s little princess was born into nobility, receiving all the love of her parents and family, and enjoying a life unattainable by ordinary people.
Perhaps the heavens felt she had been given too much good fortune, for they took back her health. At the age of three, she was diagnosed with leukemia and aplastic anemia.
The Xiao Family’s little princess needed a bone marrow transplant. For ordinary people, this would be a difficult ordeal, but for the Xiao Family, their immense wealth made it simple.
Unwilling to have their own precious bodies undergo the procedure, the Xiao family began screening for a donor.
The candidate could not be much older than the little princess, had to be attractive, have exceptional parents, and, ideally, be a girl.
Xiao Li’s mother was a high-level executive at a subsidiary of the Xiao Family’s corporation. When she happened to learn of the situation, she suddenly remembered the daughter she’d had on a whim after breaking up with her ex—a daughter she had promptly abandoned in her hometown after birth.
Although she and her ex were never married, they were both elites in their respective fields and were both above average in appearance. As for the daughter she’d borne, she had heard her own parents praise the child more than once, saying the girl was growing up beautifully, having inherited all the best features from both of them.
She had long coveted a promotion to the main corporation and was desperate to seize any opportunity.
’A bone marrow match was a long shot, but what if?’
’Besides, even if it wasn’t a match, she could use this chance to get her face in front of the big boss and leave a good impression. It might prove useful later on.’
She rushed back to her hometown to pick up the daughter she hadn’t seen in four years. She was overjoyed to see the fair-skinned, chubby little girl her parents had raised.
Her joy wasn’t from seeing her daughter, but from the fact that this healthy, beautiful child could be exchanged for a good price.
She had left for the city to work less than two months after giving birth and hadn’t returned in four years. What maternal bond could possibly be left?
She had assumed that bringing the child would grant her an audience with the big boss, but there were far too many people like her, trying to use a child as a stepping stone. She didn’t get to see anyone important and was simply instructed to take the child to the Xiao Family’s private hospital for testing.
She was disheartened, thinking her chance was lost, but it turned out she had just used up a lifetime of luck in that single moment.
Her daughter was a match—a perfect match.
The patriarch of the Xiao Family met with her and offered her everything she wanted: money, a promotion, assets.
There was only one condition: they were buying the child outright.
Faced with a choice between her daughter and an immense fortune, she hesitated for only ten minutes before agreeing.
The Xiao Family bought the child and gave her a new name: Xiao Li. The "Li" was from the word for "dawn," hoping she would be the dawn that dispelled the darkness for the Xiao Family’s little princess, Xiao Wan.
She became an awkward presence in the Xiao Family. You couldn’t call her a servant, as she shared the Xiao surname, and Mr. and Mrs. Xiao provided her with resources nearly identical to those of the little princess, Xiao Wan.
Her food, clothing, housing, and transportation were the same; her education was the same.
The only difference was that when she went to the hospital with the little princess, it was so they could extract bone marrow from her body for Xiao Wan.
People called her merchandise. Merchandise belonging exclusively to the young miss of the Xiao Family.
In the beginning, Xiao Li had resisted. Even as a young child, she couldn’t accept suddenly becoming part of another family, being held down for injections and blood draws. She knew what pain was.
But she was too young, and her resistance was futile. All her attempts were suppressed.
Once she understood that her struggles were in vain, she could only accept her fate.
Study. Survive. Be a mobile donor for Xiao Wan.
Xiao Wan was a bright and cheerful child. Despite her illness, she was never gloomy; instead, she warmed everyone around her with her smile.
But Xiao Li was different. Her name, "Li," meant rising sun, yet there was not a trace of sunlight about her.
The Xiao Family’s top-tier education molded her into someone exceptionally outstanding, and she grew to be unexpectedly, breathtakingly beautiful. At the same time, however, she was withdrawn, always preferring to be alone and quiet, rarely initiating conversation.
Others found her demeanor too cold, but Mr. and Mrs. Xiao were extremely satisfied. A quiet and compliant Xiao Li was exactly what they wanted.
If a child more brilliant and beautiful than their own daughter were also cheerful, radiant, and busy forging connections in high society, they would have to wonder if she was harboring inappropriate ambitions.
Xiao Li became Xiao Wan’s shadow.
From the moment she was old enough to understand, Xiao Li knew her status, knew what she faced, and knew what she wanted.
She wanted to leave the Xiao Family and become her own person.