Chapter 2

2

In my previous life, I lost control again, but they turned it against me.

My mother started sobbing. My father and Zane grew louder with their accusations.

"Sia, you're still holding a grudge, aren't you?"

"Sis, they already apologized. Can't you be a little more mature?"

"Your mother did this out of love. She cooked this specifically for you. Stop being a brat!"

"It's just a goose! Are you going to destroy the whole family's peace over a bird?"

Just a goose.

Just a goose...

Those words were like heavy stones crushing the life out of me. I felt suffocated and powerless.

By the end, I was the one feeling guilty.

To prove I didn't hate them, I choked down that meat while tears streamed down my face. At that moment, my boundaries were dismantled bit by bit.

From then on, whenever I disagreed with them, they used that same tactic to force my submission.

It wasn't until I was dying that I realized they were simply testing my limits over and over again.

This time, I put down my forks.

"We can't eat this."

The moment those four words left my mouth, they looked at me like I was a criminal.

They opened their mouths to start the lecture.

"But this was cooked just for―"

I cut them off, my face turning dead serious.

"Mom, Dad, this is a laboratory specimen. It hasn't passed any safety inspections. What if something happens to our health if we eat it?"

My mother's anxious gaze darted between my father and Zane. She looked like she wanted to say something but hesitated.

I acted as if I didn't notice. "Since this was for me, I assume you guys haven't eaten any yet, right?"

Their faces turned pale. Their mouths hung open. "No..."

"Good," I said, letting out a breath of relief. I added casually, "If you eat it and get a lab-grown virus, there might not even be a cure."

Their expressions became even more horrified.

They claimed they cooked it for me, but how could my mother not let her precious son have the first bite?

I knew their patterns all too well.

My mother would always give me the leftovers of Zane's soup and claim she made it specifically for me.

She would give me the things Zane didn't want and claim she bought them just for me.

My mother licked her dry lips. "Sia... it can't be that serious, right? A goose is just a goose."

"Maybe. But in a bio-lab, who knows what hormones or experimental drugs were used during breeding... But it doesn't matter. You didn't eat it, right?"

I glanced at their guilty faces and laughed, shaking my head.

"Relax. I'm just joking."

Just as they relaxed, I pulled out a pair of latex lab gloves. Right in front of them, I carefully dumped the entire pot of meat into a biohazard sealable bag.

Then, I washed my hands meticulously.

My parents were speechless.

Zane looked like he'd seen a ghost.

I sat back down, served myself a fresh bowl of plain rice, and smiled brightly.

"Mom, Dad, Zane, don't just sit there. Let's eat."

The three of them looked like they were chewing on ash. They were distracted and terrified.

By the end of the meal, I was the only one who had enjoyed it.

After dinner, my brother pulled out a high-speed data drive. He spoke with his usual sense of entitlement.

"Sia, my coding project has a few bugs. Finish it for me."

Zane was three years younger than me. He wasn't bright, and he certainly wasn't hardworking.

In the past, I stayed up night after night tutoring him just to get him into a decent college.

Once he chose Computer Science, he went right back to being a useless slacker.

Eighty percent of his coursework was done by me.

Including his senior capstone project.

My parents had brainwashed me into believing I had to support my brother, so I kept doing it.

Once, I ended up in the ER with exhaustion because I stayed up for forty-eight hours straight finishing his overdue assignments.

The program he wanted me to fix now was the core of his graduation project.

In my last life, he used the core program I built to attract the attention of a wealthy girl in his department.

He became famous during the final presentations and got recruited by a top tech firm.

Right now, he was already trying to impress that socialite. He wanted to officially pursue her.

To fund his lifestyle and pretend he was a rich tech genius, he had his eyes set on me. He planned to "sell" me off for a bride price.

To him, what was a faster way to get cash than selling his sister?

Nothing.

I smiled and took the drive, asking about his progress as I usually did.

Zane gave his usual vague, dismissive answers.

I opened my laptop, inserted the drive, and began typing line after line of code. I explained why I was making certain changes.

Usually, Zane was too impatient to listen to my explanations. But this time, he forced himself to watch.

After all, if the rich girl asked him questions he couldn't answer, his cover would be blown.

As I typed the final line of code, my fingers hovered over a specific key combination. Then, I hit Enter.

The program began to run, syncing with other remote-controlled processes.

Zane had been worried I might sabotage him because of the goose incident. Seeing the program running smoothly, he finally relaxed.

However, just as it reached peak performance, the interface suddenly started to lag and stutter.

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