People-Pleasing True Heiress Speaks Fate; Family Begs Silence

I have a people-pleasing personality that's desperately starved for love. When people yell at me, all I do is nod along.

Unfortunately for them, I have a blessing tonguewhatever I say comes true.

At a company team-building event, a two-faced female coworker stole credit for my sales numbers and made snide little remarks in front of everyone.

"Oh, what can I say, I'm just born to work hard. All I can do this life is work myself to death in a sea of money."

I nodded frantically, my face full of sympathy. "Yes, yes! You'll definitely get your wish!"

The next day, she was walking down the street when an armored money truck flipped over and landed on her.

She was buried under a pile of cash for three hours and barely survived.

My rich second-generation ex-boyfriend cheated on me with some minor internet celebrity, then shamelessly told me:

"A poor, shabby woman like you was never good enough for me. I've got fire in my destinyI'm meant to blaze bright my whole life!"

With tears in my eyes, I sincerely blessed him. "I bless you! May you catch fire from head to toe!"

That night, his multi-million-dollar detached villa suddenly went up in flames.

He fled in the middle of the night wearing nothing but red underwear, his whole body scorched like a red eel.

After that, no one around me ever dared say anything harsh to my face again.

Then my wealthy parents found me, and the fake heiress, beside herself with rage, pointed at me and screamed:

"You country bumpkin, you think you're fit to set foot in my house?"

"If you're really Mom and Dad's biological daughter, I'll drop dead on the spot and hand over my place as the eldest daughter to you!"

My own mother, afraid the fake heiress would feel slighted, made me bow my head and apologize to her.

So I quickly, obediently admitted my fault.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I wish you a meteoric rise, higher and higher!"

...

"Aahhelp!"

A scream tore through the night sky above the Henson mansion.

One second earlier, the fake heiress, Penelope Henson, had been pointing at my nose and cursing me.

The next second, the ornamental fountain in the courtyard suffered a sudden high-pressure malfunction.

A thick column of water, over thirty feet high, struck her with perfect accuracy.

Penelope was shot more than thirty feet into the air like a human bottle rocket.

After flailing her arms and legs in midair for three seconds, she came down in an arc and crashed into the decorative Taihu-stone rockery beside her.

There was a crisp snap.

Both her legs twisted outward at an eerie angle, bent into an M-shape.

"Penelope!"

Terrified out of her mind, her mother, Stephanie Fox, charged over like a madwoman, still in her high heels.

Her father, Sebastian Henson, rushed forward too, frantically pulling out his phone to call an ambulance.

Stephanie whipped her head around and pointed at me, her eyes full of venom.

"You've been home for one single day, and Penelope's already had a horrible accident like this!"

"How much bad luck did you drag back from the countryside? Are you trying to bring death down on this whole family?"

Sebastian's face was cold, his eyes full of disgust.

"If I'd known you were this cursed, I never should have brought you back in the first place."

My mind went blank. I stood frozen in place, trembling with fear.

I'd been back with the Henson family for less than three hours, and in my desperation to fit in, I'd been afraid to even breathe wrong.

My love-starved, people-pleasing nature took over in an instant.

My legs buckled, and out of habit I dropped to my knees on the ground.

"I'm sorry..."

"Mom, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I really didn't know the fountain would break."

Crying, I kowtowed hard against the rough stone paving.

The skin on my forehead split open quickly, and blood dripped down the tip of my nose.

Stephanie looked at me with an expression of utter revulsion.

"Don't call me Mom! I don't have a low-class daughter like you!"

Sebastian shot me a cold glance.

"Enough. Stop humiliating us. How could I, Sebastian Henson, have produced something as ill-mannered as you?"

"Go to the kitchen and get some hot water. Penelope's in terrible pain."

I scrambled to my feet and wiped the blood off my face any which way.

"Okay, right away!"

I rushed into the kitchen in a fluster, carried out a cup of warm water, and stepped carefully over to the stretcher.

Penelope lay on the stretcher, drenched in sweat from the pain.

"Get away from me."

"Anything you've touched, I consider filthy."

She swung her arm, and the warm water splashed straight into my face.

The glass smashed against my shoulder and shattered all over the floor.

"Don't touch me with those dirty hands of yours. Disgusting."

Penelope gritted her teeth, her eyes full of venom.

"Let me tell you, even if I've broken my legs today, I'm still the one and only eldest daughter of the Henson family!"

"A rat from a gutter like youyou could put on a dragon robe and you'd still be no crown prince. You'd better learn your place, and fast!"

The warm water dripped down my chin as I fought back the tears welling in my eyes.

I didn't want to be thrown out. I wanted a home so badly.

I crouched on the ground, picking up the shards of glass, and lifted my face.

"I'm sorry, sister!"

"It's all my fault. I hope you get well soon, and that your bones grow back harder than steel!"

Penelope sneered and was carried into the ambulance by the medics.

Before she left, she shot me a smug, triumphant look.

Late that night.

Screams rang out again and again from the VIP ward at Downtown General Hospital.

"Aah! It hurts so much! Help me!"

Penelope thrashed wildly on the hospital bed.

Even after three injections of the strongest painkiller they had, it did nothing.

The head of orthopedics rushed into the ward holding the freshly taken X-rays, his face stunned.

"Mr. Henson, Mrs. Henson, this is unbelievable!"

Stephanie was so frantic that tears streamed down her face.

"Doctor, what on earth is wrong with my daughter? Why is she still in this much pain even after the bones were set?"

The doctor swallowed and held the film up to the light.

"At the site of Miss Henson's fractures, there's been an extremely rare, extreme abnormal bone growth."

"The new bone she's forming is terrifyingly denseit's practically as hard as steel!"

"With bones this hard, every single movement she makes is like having her bones scraped raw!"

Stephanie's eyes rolled back, and she nearly fainted.

Early the next morning.

Stephanie came back to the mansion with red eyes, glaring at me like she wanted to devour me alive.

"You cursed little thing!"

The moment she walked in, she pointed at my face and started screaming.

"Penelope never so much as scraped her skin growing up, and the second you come back she suffers like this!"

"You're nothing but an evil spirit come to collect a debt!"

I shrank into the corner of the sofa, a thermos still cradled in my hands.

To smooth things over, I'd gotten up at four in the morning.

I'd stood over the stove in the kitchen, simmering bone broth for four full hours.

Swallowing my hurt, I forced myself to stand and held the thermos out to her.

"Mom, please don't be angry."

"I made pork rib soup to help my sister recover, and to warm your stomach too..."

Stephanie didn't even glance at it. She swung her hand and slapped me hard across the face.

Smack!

My head snapped to the side, my ears ringing.

"You still have the nerve to bring up bones?"

Hearing those two words, Stephanie's face twisted with fury.

"Penelope is in agony right now because of bone hyperplasia, and you deliberately made bone brothare you mocking her?!"

"You vicious little beast, you ungrateful wretch!"

She snatched the thermos and hurled it at me, the scalding bone broth splashing straight across my chest.

"Ah!"

I screamed in pain as my chest and arms flushed red, swelling into blisters in an instant.

Stephanie didn't spare my sorry state a single look. She turned and hurried back to the hospital.

That afternoon, Penelope was discharged in a wheelchair.

The doctor said her bones were too dense, and only conservative treatment was possible.

The moment she saw me burned in the corner, her eyes reddened.

"Mom, I don't want to see her."

Penelope slumped weakly in her wheelchair, pointing at me.

"Lock her in the basement. If I can't have a good day, then neither can she."

Sebastian had just come in, frowning as he loosened his tie. There wasn't a trace of pity in his eyes when he looked at me.

"Get her in the basement and lock it up. Let her think about what she's done. Tomorrow, at the Gilbert family's dinner, she absolutely will not embarrass us."

Stephanie immediately called in two bodyguards.

Ignoring my burns and my crying pleas, they dragged me into the dark basement like a dead dog.

The basement reeked of mildew, and there wasn't even a bed.

I curled up on the concrete floor, the pain in my wounds making me hiss for breath.

Before long, the basement door opened.

A bodyguard pushed Penelope in, and Stephanie was holding a document in her hand.

"Sign it." Stephanie threw the document in my face.

"This is the declaration renouncing all inheritance rights to the Henson Group."

"You little jinx, you don't deserve a single cent of the Henson family's money."

I stared at the document, tears falling in fat drops.

"Mom, I don't want money. I only want you to look at me a little more..."

"I'm your own daughter."

"Shut up!" Stephanie cut me off, her face full of disgust.

"I, Stephanie Fox, have only one daughter, and that's Penelope. The only socialite I poured my heart and soul into raising is Penelope."

"You? You're only fit to be an invisible nobody in this family, someone who never sees the light of day."

Penelope toyed with her freshly done manicure in the wheelchair, sneering.

"Did you hear that? What does blood matter? The only one the elite metropolitan circle recognizes is me, the eldest Henson daughter."

"Sign it, quick. The Henson family is rich and powerfulwe might still spare you a mouthful of food."

The two bodyguards stepped forward and forcibly pinned down my shoulders.

They pried my fingers open and jammed the pen into my hand.

I looked into Stephanie's cold, emotionless eyes.

The last shred of my fantasy about family love shattered like a bubble.

I lifted my head. "Fine, I'll sign..."

"I bless, I bless the Henson family fortune to take root underground, where no one can ever shake it!"

Penelope grabbed the document and burst into triumphant laughter.

"Smart of you to know your place."

"Trash is trash. One little scare and she tucks her tail right between her legs."

The words had barely left her mouth.

Outside, a violent wind suddenly howled, and the clear sky filled with dark clouds.

Then the rain came pouring down, thunder crashing overhead.

Stephanie's pupils shrank sharply, and she grabbed the wall to barely keep herself standing.

"An earthquake?!"

It wasn't an earthquake.

The foundation of the Henson family's luxury mansion, worth tens of millions, had suddenly sunk.

"Run!"

The bodyguard pushed Penelope's wheelchair, and Stephanie scrambled out on all fours.

Ten minutes later.

The whole main structure of the mansion caved in, leaving nothing but ruins.

The mansion had collapsed.

But to save face, the Henson family still booked out an entire banquet floor at a top-tier club.

Officially it was to celebrate the return of the true daughter; in truth it was to prove to the powerful and wealthy that the Hensons still had money.

Stephanie threw a cheap fluorescent-green gown at me.

"Put it on."

"You'd better behave yourself tonight. If you dare embarrass the Henson family, I'll break your legs!"

I looked at that clown costume and silently pulled it on.

The banquet hall was brilliantly lit, filled with elegant, perfumed guests.

I was led into the hall like some freak,

and instantly drew everyone's eyes.

Penelope sat in her wheelchair, wearing a couture gown,

dabbing at her tears in front of the socialites and young gentlemen around her.

"Please don't laugh at my sister. She grew up in the countryside, so her taste is a little... unique."

"Actually, with all the bad luck the Henson family has had lately, the master said it's because of clashing birth charts."

"But how could I bear to blame my sister? After all, she was lost out there for so many years."

With just a few words, she shifted the gossip about the Henson family onto me, the jinx.

A rich heir in a bespoke suit gave a cold laugh.

"Dressed like a green-haired turtle, what a country bumpkin."

"I hear the heir is coming tonight? If he sees the Hensons have a thing like this around, won't he be sick to his stomach?"

Another socialite covered her mouth with a fan, her eyes full of contempt.

"Exactly. The blood of the poor is filthy. Penelope, your family really is cursed with bad luck."

The way every guest in the room looked at me.

"Just drinking is no fun."

The man in the bespoke suit picked up a tennis ball from the table and rolled it around in a decorative potted plant beside him until it was caked in black mud.

"How about we play a target-practice game?"

He tossed the mud ball in his hand and pointed at me.

"You, stand there and don't move."

"Make us happy enough, and I'll toss you some money to buy clothes."

I stood where I was and habitually pulled out a fawning smile.

"As long as everyone's happy, I'm fine with anything."

"Smack!"

Before I even finished speaking, a mud-covered tennis ball hit me in the face.

Right after, a second and a third mud ball flew at me.

Someone even grabbed the rotten fruit from the platter and hurled it at my stomach and shoulders.

"Hahaha! Look how stupid she is, she doesn't even dare dodge!"

The whole hall roared with laughter.

These usually lofty elites were now like a pack of bloodthirsty hyenas.

Under the barrage, I instinctively turned a pleading look toward Stephanie.

"Mom, save me."

"It hurts so much."

But Stephanie turned her head away in disgust.

She was holding a glass of champagne, chatting and laughing with a few wealthy wives, as if she didn't know me at all.

Penelope watched my wretched state, a flicker of satisfaction in her eyes.

She waved a hand, and the bodyguard handed over a large wooden sign

with the words I am a jinx painted on it in big red letters.

"Little sister, since everyone's having such a good time, why don't you hang this sign on and crawl a lap around the hall?"

Penelope's tone was gentle. "Just think of it as praying for good fortune for our Henson family."

The bodyguard came over and looped a thick hemp rope around my neck.

Then he kicked me in the back of the knee.

Thud.

I dropped to the floor, my knees crushing a wine glass that lay there.

Shards of glass drove deep into my flesh, and blood soaked the fluorescent green hem of my skirt.

The pain made my whole body convulse, but I was still muttering on instinct.

"I'm sorry"

"I'm sorry, I'll crawl, I'll crawl right now."

I dragged my bleeding knees, crawling with effort between countless pairs of gleaming leather shoes and high heels.

Above me came an endless stream of jeers and whistles.

I saw Penelope's gaze land on something outside the banquet hall.

A deep, bottomless outdoor landscape pool.

"Drag her outside."

Penelope pointed at the outdoor landscape pool, the malice in her eyes no longer hidden at all.

"Since she's a jinx, she ought to wash all that bad luck off her with water."

Two burly bodyguards stepped forward and seized me by the hair.

My scalp burned with the tearing pain of strands snapping.

I was hauled up off the floor and dragged all the way to the outdoor landscape pool.

"Let me go please"

I struggled with everything I had, my knees smearing a long trail of blood across the marble floor.

The cold wind outside hit me, and I shivered violently.

A few socialites trailed out after them, laughing and giggling, ice buckets in their hands.

Splash

A whole bucket of ice mixed with cold water was dumped straight over my head.

"Bark like a dog for us, country bumpkin."

The socialite nudged my face with the tip of her heel, laughing so hard she was trembling.

In my despair, I saw my biological father, Sebastian Henson, standing inside the glass door.

I clung to the doorframe and screamed at him through my tears.

"Dad! Save me! I'm going to die, please, I'm your own daughter!"

Sebastian frowned, picked up his wine glass, and walked out.

I thought he was coming to save me.

Instead, he lifted his gleaming leather shoe and kicked me square in the chest.

"Don't spoil everyone's fun."

His voice was ice cold, and he scraped the sole of his shoe against the threshold in disgust.

"No sense of manners at all. What's the harm in playing along with your sister and her friends?"

That kick shattered the very last sliver of light in my heart.

The bodyguard grabbed the back of my neck and shoved my head into the freezing landscape pool.

Gurgle

Ice water surged into my mouth and nose in an instant.

The bone-deep cold was like countless knives slicing into my lungs.

"Ten, nine, eight"

Sitting in her wheelchair, Penelope clapped her hands in excitement and counted down at the top of her voice.

I thrashed in the water, hands clawing wildly at the walls of the pool.

Through the rippling surface, my vision went blurry.

But I could still see them clearly, all those mocking, condescending eyes around me.

I saw Stephanie clinking glasses with the wealthy wives, and I saw Sebastian straightening his designer cuffs.

So in their eyes I wasn't a daughter at allI was worth less than a dog.

Not one of them cared whether I lived or died.

That heart of mine that had longed for a home froze to death, completely, in that moment.

To hell with family. To hell with trying to please them!

The bodyguard yanked me out of the water just as Penelope reached "one."

"Why'd you stop screaming? Weren't you begging so nicely a moment ago?"

Penelope looked down at me, her face full of smug triumph.

I slowly lifted my head.

I reached up and wiped the blood and ice water from my face.

Then I split my lips into a smile, beaming at her, radiant and sweet.

"Sister, Dad, Mom, and all you young masters and ladies here tonight"

I smiled and looked right at them, offering my most sincere blessing.

"I wish every last one of you"

"a night of fortune crowning your heads, flowers blooming right over your heads, blazing bright and dazzling for all to see!"