Chapter 279: Chapter 272: The Step-mother’s Past

Not knowing how much time had passed, Ren Li gently sighed.

“Okay, I knew I could keep this secret from others, but not from you. No wonder your classmates call you Tang the Monster. You really are a little monster.”

“Let me tell you,” she curved her lips upward in a defiant manner, a side of her Tang Yuxin had never seen.

“Yes,” she admitted, “I know about the future construction in Qing’an, and I also know which part of Qing’an will become the main city area.”

Tang Yuxin’s eyebrows furrowed even deeper. Would she go as far as to tell her it was because she had been reborn?

“What you probably didn’t expect,” Ren Li placed her hand on her abdomen, “is that no one could guess…” she sighed, the corners of her lips curling up with a hint of reminiscence. It wasn’t happiness though, nor was it joyful.

“In fact, I’m like you in a way, except you’re luckier… you have a father who loves you.”

Yuxin knew this well. Her father loved her dearly because she was his only daughter.

Ren Li smiled casually. As painful as the past was, she still forced herself to speak. Forced herself to recall.

“I’m from Beijing, and I had a twin sister,” she said, staring into Yuxin’s eyes with an unwavering smile, yet her memories seemed to overflow with hurt.

“We didn’t look alike at all. Maybe it’s because I was born earlier, or maybe I was naturally more domineering. I was always the type to have the last word.”

“But my sister was different. We were twins, but drastically different ones,” she paused for a moment, as if recalling something before resuming her story.

“Where did I stop just now?”

“Domineering,”

Tang Yuxin reminded her.

“That’s right, domineering,” Ren Li adjusted herself into a more comfortable position and started telling her own story.

The story was long, about a woman’s entire 35 years of life. Many people don’t even live to be 35, like Tang Yuxin in her previous life. So you might as well say it’s the story of a lifetime.

Yet the story was also short. It was a mere few sentences long, and it encompassed the past 35 years of a woman’s life.

Ren Li and Ren Na were twin sisters. As Ren Li herself had said, her domineering nature was evident from the time they were in their mother’s womb.

She weighed at least two pounds more than Ren Na at birth. Ren Li seemed to absorb all the nutrients in the womb. Because of this, she was plump and healthy when she was born, while Ren Na was extremely frail, possibly due to a lack of nutrients. As a result, she was often ill.

Because they had a sickly daughter, their parents showered all their love on Ren Na. To them, it felt like Ren Li was the one responsible for their daughter’s ill health.

Throughout her life, she experienced neglect, indifference, and even resentment. Yet, being a naturally domineering girl, she grew up healthy and strong, despite the lack of care. She never got sick while Ren Na, a pampered girl, was always in danger due to the slightest illnesses. She was like a princess locked in the Ivory Tower, immune to problems, except for a lack of health, freedom, and sunlight.

Ren Li, however, lived under the sunlight, an unapologetic tomboy. From childhood, only their eldest brother took care of her. Without him, young Ren Li wouldn’t even have had enough to eat. One could say Ren Na was raised by their parents, but Ren Li was brought up by her big brother.

As the sisters grew up, they differed greatly in personality and looks. If no one disclosed it, nobody would’ve known they were sisters, let alone twins.

The elder sister was lively and cute, while the younger one seemed like a fairy from Jiangnan. The elder sister was casual, while the younger one was always meticulous. Still, people seemed to favor the younger sister a bit more.

Why? Because she knew how to behave, how to be clever, and how to sweet-talk people.

But the elder sister wasn’t like that. She was straightforward and didn’t say nice things for the sake of being likable. She liked telling the truth, which was always the case growing up. So what about the truth? People don’t usually want to hear it. They prefer lies, who would want to listen to the truth or even like it?

However, the elder sister didn’t care. She would live life the way she wanted. She wasn’t a flower in a greenhouse. She was just a weed growing on the lawn, braving the elements with her vitality and life force, challenging the world.

Eventually, they both grew up, and both had their first brushes with love. Unfortunately, the sisters fell for the same man, the son of their father’s friend.

But the man was not in love with the elder sister; he was in love with the younger one. They even got engaged. However, before the wedding, something happened, and the younger sister left. She left and never came back.

The man was depressed and anguished. In the end, the elder sister couldn’t bear it anymore. She couldn’t resist her longing heart, the torment of love, and so she decided to stay by the man’s side.

She stayed with this man for ten years, accompanying him through his most difficult times. No matter the situation, she stuck with him. When he started his own business, she woke up early and slept late. She never considered herself a woman, or even a person. She saw herself as a machine, solely there to lighten the man’s burden.

Such a life aged her prematurely.

She overstretched her body and vigor, so that by the age of 35, she was already old. The couple had always had disputes due to the lack of children. After all, everyone says having no descendants is a grave concern, but she couldn’t bear children.

Then, her sister came back, now a renowned musician.

At birth, the elder sister took away all the nutrients from the younger one.

And at the age of 35, the younger one seemed to have stolen back all her youth.

One grew old due to hardships of life while the other, with the refinement of music and a few years of careful living, became beautiful, elegant, and captivating to all men.

Of course, this included her sister’s husband. He began spending nights out, caring more about his appearance, dressing better, becoming more refined.

Then things happened as they were destined to.