Chapter 2

In her previous life, she had tried with all her might to escape the very thing she had dreaded, yet she had failed. She never expected it to be resolved so easily this time. She could hardly stop herself from laughing out loud. When the brothers, Shen Yunzhou and Shen Yunqi, heard that the household registrations were going to be changed, they immediately lost their composure. "Dad!" Shen Yunzhou shot to his feet. "Have you lost your mind?" "It's fine if Shen Yao comes back. She's just another mouth to feed. But if anyone's household registration needs to be changed, it should be hers!" Wang Guilan's expression changed instantly. How could they change Shen Yao's household registration instead? Wouldn't that mean her family had given away a daughter for nothing? She immediately opened her mouth and began wailing. "Oh, my goodness! What's wrong with this child? We're not trying to steal anyone away! Queying is my biological daughter..." "Shut up!" Shen Yunqi turned and shouted at her. "Your whole family is..." "Yunqi!" Shen Bainian interrupted him in a deep voice. Shen Yunqi's chest heaved violently as he glared at Shen Jianguo and Wang Guilan. Under his fierce gaze, Shen Jianguo instinctively shrank his neck. Wang Guilan stopped smiling as well. Her expression became awkward, and she pursed her lips as if she wanted to talk back. However, Shen Jianguo kicked her under the table again, forcing her to swallow her words. Shen Yao kept her head lowered, and the corners of her mouth involuntarily curled upward before she quickly suppressed her smile. She pinched her voice into a soft, delicate tone. "Brother, please don't be angry. It's all my fault. If I hadn't come to acknowledge my biological family, none of this would have happened..." "This has nothing to do with you!" Shen Yunzhou replied coldly. Shen Queying sat quietly to the side without saying anything. Her mind was buzzing. What kind of situation was this? According to the original owner's memories, Shen Bainian had always loved her the most. When she had a fever as a child, Shen Bainian had carried her in his arms and run three streets in the middle of the night to take her to the hospital. When she wanted to eat cream cake, he had searched nearly half the provincial capital to find one for her. When she casually mentioned wanting to learn painting, Shen Bainian had asked someone to bring back a set of imported paints for her. How could someone like him suddenly talk about returning a child to her biological family as if it were the most natural thing in the world? She instinctively looked toward Song Min. Her mother's face was frighteningly pale. Her lips moved several times, but not a single word came out. Something was wrong. Shen Queying reached that conclusion immediately. Their behavior was far too abnormal. Shen Bainian wasn't a cold-blooded person, and neither was Song Min. Shen Yunqi turned toward Song Min as well. "Mom! You agree with this too, don't you? You knew about it all along, didn't you? None of you want my sister anymore!" The table fell silent. Even Shen Jiabao, who had been stuffing half a rib into his mouth, stopped chewing. With his cheeks bulging, he shifted his eyes between the adults. By now, Shen Yunzhou's eyes had turned red with anger. He stared directly at Shen Queying. "Little sister, tell us yourself. Are you willing to go? If you aren't, then no one gets to bully you!" Shen Yunqi grabbed her hand. "Sis, I promise I won't fight you for candy anymore. I'll give you all my White Rabbit candies. Please don't go to their house, okay?" Looking at the two brothers, Shen Queying felt as though something had lodged painfully in her chest. The original owner's memories continued surging through her mind, intertwining little by little with her own soul. The overwhelming sensation made her dizzy. Her vision began to darken, and her eyelids grew heavier and heavier... ... "Queying!" "Sis!" "Little sister!" ... When she opened her eyes again, she saw a hospital ceiling with peeling paint. The air was filled with the smell of disinfectant. It was already completely dark outside, and she was alone in the hospital room. Her throat felt dry and painful, as though she had swallowed a handful of sand. She propped herself up and tried to get out of bed, but her legs gave way, nearly causing her to fall to her knees. She held onto the edge of the bed and waited for a while until the dizziness gradually subsided. The original owner's body had already been weak. Add a fever and the emotional shock she had suffered, and it was hardly surprising that she had collapsed. Leaning against the bed, Shen Queying thought about her previous life. Although she had been an overworked researcher, she had still read her fair share of online novels. She had transmigrated into a story involving the classic plot of a biological heiress and a fake heiress switching places. Surely she should have been given some kind of cheat ability, right? What about floating comments? A system shop? At the very least, shouldn't there be a system notification sound? She decided to give it a try and silently called out in her mind. "System?" Nothing happened. She clicked her tongue, thinking that she really must have been destined to be cannon fodder. Even after transmigrating, she hadn't received so much as a beginner's gift pack. A little irritated, she raised her hand to rub her temples. The moment her fingertips touched her temple, a gentle white light suddenly burst inside her mind. Then, a square-shaped space appeared in her consciousness. It was approximately twenty square meters, with no windows or doors. Both the walls and the floor appeared to be made of solid wood. She froze for a moment before coming back to her senses. Holy crap! I really do have a cheat ability! Shen Queying's heart began beating faster. She then stared at the enamel mug on her bedside table. Printed on it were the words "Serve the People." In her mind, she silently commanded, Store! Nothing happened. The enamel mug remained motionless on the table. She frowned and tried concentrating harder several more times, knitting her brows together. Still nothing. "What does this mean?" she muttered. "Are there restrictions on what I can store?" She looked around, reached out, and picked up her pillow. The moment her fingertips touched it, she felt as though something had clicked into place inside her mind. With a single thought, the pillow disappeared into thin air. Inside the space, the blue-and-white striped pillow lay right in the middle of the wooden floor. "It worked!" She immediately stared at the pillow, wanting to bring it back out. This time, it was even easier than putting it away. The moment she formed the thought, the pillow returned neatly to her hands. She tested it several more times, and it worked perfectly every time. It seemed that she had to physically touch an object before she could store it in the space. She couldn't simply retrieve or store things remotely. "Not bad! This is actually pretty useful." Having a portable storage space was already enough to help her accomplish many things. But right now, her most urgent problem was her throat, which was so dry it felt as though it were smoking. She picked up the thermos and shook it. It was empty. The hospital room door was slightly ajar, leaving a narrow gap. She had just walked over to it and was about to reach for the handle when she heard Shen Bainian's voice coming from the corridor outside. "Sit down first and let me finish explaining." Shen Queying immediately stopped moving. "I'm not sitting down." Shen Yunzhou's voice was cold and firm. "If you're still my father, then give me a reason." "Yunzhou, you mustn't speak to your father like that." It was Song Min's voice, filled with an exhaustion that seemed impossible to shake off. "Mom, are you and Dad hiding something from us?" Silence fell over the corridor for several seconds. Then Shen Bainian sighed. "When your grandfather was young, he went overseas to study for a few months. None of you younger generation knew about this. It wasn't recorded in my files, and nothing happened over all these years." "But things are different now. Old Zhou was suspended from teaching last week, and his home was searched yesterday. He works in the same teaching and research department as I do, and we've always been close. If something has happened to him, how much longer can I remain safe?" Standing behind the door, Shen Queying barely dared to breathe. She wasn't sure whether Shen Yunzhou understood everything he had just heard, but she knew very well what studying abroad meant during this era. The Shen family was in trouble. "Dad, do you mean..." Shen Bainian lowered his voice. "Right now, this is our best opportunity." "I know exactly what the Shen Jianguo family is planning," Shen Bainian continued. "I've made inquiries. Their family has a quota for sending someone to the countryside. They came to acknowledge their biological daughter because they intend to make Queying take their son's place and go to the countryside." "So, before anything happens, as long as we transfer Queying's household registration to their family and send her to the countryside under the identity of a worker's child, she won't be implicated in our family's troubles."