Chapter 2: Diary of Life Among the Elite

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Wang Lingyi followed Kong Changdong and his wife Lu Fang onto a flight that same day, arriving in City B, where the Kong and Meng families resided.

All along the way, Lu Fang kept recounting to Wang Lingyi the story of Kong Lingxin’s life from childhood, just as Wang Lingyi had dreamed: Kong Lingxin had grown up in a privileged household, living the life of a pampered young lady who never had to lift a finger. She didn’t have to help her mother with housework from as early as she could remember, nor did she have to help her mother assemble cardboard boxes for a meager living as she grew older—

Ah, perhaps it was precisely because life had always been so smooth for her that her sister couldn’t bear the blow of losing her child and chose to end her life.

Only Kong Changdong and Lu Fang knew about Kong Lingxin’s suicide. They used their connections to have Kong Lingxin’s body transported to the county where Li Lijuan lived, cremated her, and buried her beside her biological father’s grave. After twenty-one years apart, the father and daughter were reunited in the afterlife.

Upon arriving at the Kong family home, the servants were overjoyed to see Wang Lingyi, exclaiming, “Miss, you’re back! You look much better now.”

A boy of about thirteen came running down the stairs and hugged Lingyi. “Sister, you’re finally back! I’ve been so down these past few days not seeing you.”

Wang Lingyi looked bewildered.

Lu Fang pulled the boy away and said, “Tianling, your sister is exhausted. Let her go back to her room and rest.” Without caring about the boy’s reaction, she took Wang Lingyi upstairs, leading her to a room at the corner and opening the door. “This was Lingxin’s room. Rest for a while. I’ll have someone call you for dinner later.”

Wang Lingyi nodded and asked, “Auntie, who was that just now?”

Lu Fang looked at her and said, “From now on, you need to call me Mom. You can’t let outsiders know you’re not Lingxin, understand? That was your younger brother, Tianling. I used to think I couldn’t have children, but when Lingxin was seven, I suddenly became pregnant. The siblings were very close. I hope you won’t mind that I kept Tianling a secret from you before. I was afraid you’d refuse to come to City B if you knew.”

Wang Lingyi smiled. “Since I couldn’t love Lingxin as I should have, I’ll treat Tianling well. Auntie—no, Mom, you can rest assured.”

Lu Fang nodded with satisfaction. “You sisters not only look alike, but you’re both kind-hearted. Rest now, I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”

After the door closed, Wang Lingyi looked around the room. It was as luxurious, spacious, warm, and stylish as the heroine’s room in a novel. The large bed with its floral coverlet looked soft and comfortable. Along the wall stood a wardrobe with a crystal mirror, and a vanity table covered with designer skincare products.

The room was larger than every house she had ever lived in, and it even had an en-suite bathroom! An actual bathroom! This was the home Wang Lingyi had always dreamed of. In winter, she used to have to go outside into the cold for the toilet—she didn’t even want to remember that discomfort.

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Wang Lingyi was filled with emotion. How could someone living in such comfort come to such a desperate end? Poor sister!

To avoid arousing the servants’ suspicion, Kong Changdong hadn’t touched any of Kong Lingxin’s belongings; everything was just as it had been when she was alive.

Wang Lingyi opened the wardrobe and looked through the clothes—every piece was a world-famous brand, any one of them costing as much as her annual salary. The shoes and handbags were so numerous they made her dizzy, and this was only a small portion; there must be more at the Meng family home.

Bit by bit, Wang Lingyi examined everything, eager to understand the sister who had never even called her “sister” once.

Opening the cabinet beneath the vanity, Wang Lingyi found a thick notebook. She opened it and discovered it was Kong Lingxin’s diary. Flipping through the dates, she saw that her sister had written almost daily from her engagement to Meng Zexiao up until her suicide.

Lu Fang had said Kong Lingxin graduated from the prestigious Chinese department at B University. Perhaps because of her major, she liked to record her life in this way.

Maybe fate had truly arranged this. Through her sister’s diary, Wang Lingyi could learn about her life.

Cradling the diary as if holding her sister, Wang Lingyi carefully began to read.

But the more she read, the more pained she felt. It turned out Kong Lingxin’s year in the Meng family had been one of torment. She could not confide in anyone and poured her heart out only in her diary. If Wang Lingyi had hesitated about going to the Meng family before, reading the last entry made her resolve completely.

Kong Lingxin’s final diary entry read:

After all this time married, Zexiao not only hasn’t touched me, he doesn’t even want to look at me. If it hadn’t been for that one drunken night, I would never have conceived his child. I thought having a child would, with my in-laws’ guidance, make him settle down and finally live with me as husband and wife, but he’s always on the entertainment news, attending events with various celebrities and models. The women around him glitter with starlight, while I grow duller and duller in this mansion…

Alone in a vast villa, my husband gone night after night, outsiders see the Second Young Madam of the Meng family as living in glory, but in truth, I’m worse off than a caged canary—at least a canary’s owner notices it and teases it sometimes.

But as for me…

All along, I knew Peng Nan’s real purpose in coming to our villa as a “family nutritionist” was to seduce Zexiao, but since her mentor is the Meng family’s doctor, all I could do was watch her throw herself at him, swallowing my anger. Whether at our villa or the Meng family’s old estate, my words carried less weight than a housekeeper’s.

I saw Zexiao and her act intimately more than once, yet as the nominal wife of the Meng family’s second son, I couldn’t say a word. How much that hurt, who could possibly understand?

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That day, I was in the third-floor study reading a book on prenatal education. I dozed off, and only when the book dropped from my hands did I wake. I wanted to return to my room to rest, but when I arrived, I found my room and my bed occupied by another woman.

The moment I opened the door, I was stunned.

I have no courage to write what I saw—Peng Nan and Meng Zexiao together. The scene is forever burned into my memory.

In that instant, my mind went blank, the world went dark. I stood frozen in the doorway for several seconds. Lying on the bed, Peng Nan seemed to see me and called out provocatively. As for Meng Zexiao, perhaps too absorbed, he didn’t even notice the door open.

It was clearly my room, yet I had to slink away as if I were the intruder.

Staggering, I tried to return to the third-floor study, but at the corner, I tripped and fell. Lying there, I felt blood running down my thigh. I wanted to cry for help, but my mouth felt sealed—I couldn’t make a sound.

Meanwhile, the voices of that man and woman downstairs rang clear in my ears…

When I woke up, my child was gone. As the first “doctor” on the scene, Peng Nan was especially vocal; she swore in front of my in-laws that I had lost their grandchild because I vainly wore high heels at home and stumbled.

And Zexiao stood by coldly the entire time, never uttering a word of concern.

Why, when it was their fault, did they both blame me?

Why, when I loved him so much, wouldn’t he even pity me?

Why, if he felt nothing for me, did he marry me—only to allow the woman he slept with to humiliate and slander me after?