Chapter 2

2

Grandpa adopted me from an orphanage when I was five.

Before me, he had tried to adopt another little girl.

That girl had run back to the orphanage in tears, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Gross! He smells like garbage! I don't want a filthy hobo as my grandpa!"

Grandpa had chased after her, wheezing and out of breath.

He reached into the pocket of his worn jacket and pulled out two hard-boiled eggs.

"Be good, sweetie. Grandpa brought fresh eggs for you. Please come home with me!"

The little girl shoved the old man hard.

The warm eggs tumbled onto the gravel, where she stomped them into mush with her shiny shoes.

"Get lost! I don't want your nasty eggs!"

Grandpa stood frozen in place with his hands outstretched, silently enduring her verbal abuse.

I couldn't stand watching it any longer.

I rushed forward, pushed the brat to the ground, and shielded Grandpa with my small body.

"Leave my grandpa alone!"

That was the day I became his granddaughter.

To be honest, I only stepped in back then because I felt bad about the wasted eggs.

I never imagined I would gain a family member who loved me more than his own life.

Grandpa had once been an ambitious artist.

When he was young, his family opposed his passion, prompting him to leave home in defiance.

He spent his entire life wandering, never finding a patron who recognized his talent.

I followed him everywhere, living from hand to mouth.

Whenever Grandpa scraped together a little money, he would always buy me warm hard-boiled eggs.

I helped him collect scrap cardboard and plastic bottles to make ends meet.

We supported each other through thick and thin for years.

When I started high school, we finally settled down in a small rented room in the city.

To pay for my tuition, Grandpa gave up his artistic dreams entirely.

He became a full-time scrap collector.

Sometimes, he would get into bloody brawls with other scavengers just to claim a few cardboard boxes.

I used to think I was a burden holding him back.

If it weren't for me, Grandpa wouldn't have been reduced to such a desperate state.

Seeing his back grow more hunched by the day, I told him I wanted to drop out of school.

For the first time in his life, Grandpa lost his temper with me.

"Even if I have to sell my kidney or sell my blood, I will put you through school!"

"If you ever talk about quitting again, I'll break your legs!"

Shortly after yelling at me, he walked over with two steaming eggs to comfort me.

"Don't say foolish things like that anymore, sweetie."

"You're brilliant. It would be a crime if you didn't get an education."

Grandpa peeled an egg and placed it gently in my palm.

The white egg was smooth and warm, carrying the heavy weight of his unconditional love.

From that day on, I never mentioned dropping out again.

To honor his sacrifices, I studied relentlessly until I graduated at the top of my class in the entire city.

When I returned home holding my scholarship certificate, the house was dead silent.

Usually, Grandpa would have dinner waiting on the table for me.

A suffocating sense of dread tightened around my chest.

Grandpa died a brutal death, his body mangled beyond recognition.

Countless bystanders witnessed the entire incident.

His cart had accidentally grazed the silk hem of a wealthy heiress's dress.

Even though he knelt on the ground and begged for forgiveness, it wasn't enough to soothe her rage.

The heiress tied a rope around Grandpa and hooked it to the back of her red sports car.

Then, she slammed the gas and dragged him at ninety miles per hour for nearly ten miles down the highway.

Witnesses said that when she finally got out to look at Grandpa's remains, she merely sneered and called it disgusting.

Her billionaire father controlled the city's media and legal system, casually burying the murder as a simple traffic accident.

As long as his precious daughter remained untouched, nothing else mattered.