"Jane Sterling, I'm warning you. Our family has raised you for so many years, given you the best of everything, and now we just need a little bit of your bone marrow. How can you be so ungrateful?"
"You'll donate this bone marrow whether you want to or not! Right now, you're the only match for Dahlia. This is fate telling you to give her your marrow. If you don't, I'll go to the media tomorrow and plaster it all over your school what an ungrateful person you are! Let's see if society has a place for you then!"
At this moment, inside a VIP ward at People's Hospital.
As Jane Sterling listened to the cold words spoken by the parents who had doted on her for eighteen years, a bone-deep chill spread through her, and her mind went blank, ringing.
Just three hours ago, these same parents had been texting her, full of concern.
Today was the first day of summer vacation, and they were supposed to go to a newly opened Sichuan restaurant near their home to celebrate her eighteenth birthday.
She had been overjoyed, even turning down an invitation to a dinner party with her roommates, and had dressed up beautifully to go eat with her family.
But she never expected that what awaited her was a bottomless hell.
Her parents hadn't taken her to the Sichuan restaurant. Instead, they brought her to a hospital.
Inside a VIP ward, she saw a girl who looked terribly unwell, her face as pale as paper.
Jane Sterling was confused. 'Why on earth have they brought me to a hospital?'
'It's my birthday!'
Just as she was reeling in confusion, the mother who had loved her for eighteen years dropped to her knees with a THUD, her face streaked with tears, begging.
Meanwhile, her father, who had never spoken a harsh word to her in his life, looked at the girl in the hospital bed with a pained expression before turning to lash out at Jane with vicious words.
It was only then that Jane Sterling learned the truth: she was merely the fake heiress, switched at birth.
And the real heiress was now lying in the hospital bed, on the verge of death.
Fate always had such a cruel sense of humor.
Jane Sterling had lived a charmed life for eighteen years, never encountering any real hardship.
Every difficulty she had ever faced was solved with the help of her loving parents.
She had never experienced such a dramatic scene; she even began to wonder, 'Is this all a dream?'
'How could fate be so cruel to me?'
She pinched her fair arm hard, trying to break free from the nightmare.
But she failed. What was before her was reality.
What was even more ironic was that after she refused to donate bone marrow to a stranger, the parents who had doted on her for so many years had turned on her with vicious words.
They even threatened to ruin her life.
It was only then that Jane Sterling understood.
'What fucking family bond?'
'In the face of blood ties, it's pathetically fragile.'
Jane Sterling didn't want to donate bone marrow to a stranger. She had taken health classes.
She knew that bone marrow donation often came with numerous side effects.
Donors could experience bone and muscle pain, fever, fatigue, and in severe cases, it could even affect their bodily functions.
'On what grounds? Why should I donate my bone marrow to a stranger?'
'This isn't fair to me.'
'I'm a victim, too.'
She never even knew that the parents standing before her were not her biological ones.
But...
Jane Sterling's heart felt as if it had shattered into a million pieces. The jagged shards ached, and she felt like she couldn't breathe.
Even so, she had lived with them for eighteen whole years.
'All those days and nights together weren't fake, so how could they treat me like this?'
At this thought, a sharp pain pierced through Jane Sterling's numb heart. She wiped her tear-soaked face and struggled up from the hospital floor.
She stared coldly at the two strangers before her and said resolutely.
"I won't donate my bone marrow. You can just watch her die!"
"SLAP—"
A heavy slap cut through the air and struck her face.
Instantly, her ears rang, and the whole world spun around her.
Jane Sterling felt a liquid trickle from the corner of her mouth.
She gently wiped the blood from her lip, let out a cold laugh, and looked at the furious Charles Sterling.
"Dad, even if you beat me to death, I won't donate."
With that, Jane Sterling yanked open the door to the ward and stumbled out.
From inside the ward came the sound of Jillian Pierce's hysterical sobbing.
"Charles Sterling, I told you! That child has always been an ungrateful brat! You should have just tricked her into the operating room and taken the marrow directly! Now look, she's run off! We finally found a match... what do we do now? Is our real daughter just supposed to wait for death in this hospital bed?!"
"What do you want me to do? If she's not willing, are we supposed to kidnap her and drag her back to the hospital? I can't believe it. We raised an ungrateful wretch for eighteen years! She won't even grant such a small request. All those years of doting on her were for nothing! How can a good-for-nothing, useless piece of trash compare to my sweet, precious daughter? Don't worry. I will definitely find a better marrow match and save our daughter!"
Jane Sterling ran, leaving their cold words far behind her.
It felt as if her entire world had collapsed.
'The heavens wouldn't mess with me like this, would they?'
Now, she was suddenly abandoned by the world, and her loving parents had become completely different people.
She could definitely never go back to that house.
In all of vast Aethelgard, there was no place for her.
"God! How can you be so heartless? Won't you even give me a sliver of a chance to live?!"
"What am I supposed to do now..."
Jane Sterling walked out of the hospital, wandering the streets like a zombie.
Her tears seemed to have run dry. She didn't know where to go or what to do.
[DING—]
[Congratulations, Host. You have successfully bound with the Yin Yang System and become a glorious Yin Yang Deliveryman.]
[Please deliver the key to the main lobby of People's Hospital to Drew Thorne, located on the 34th floor of People's Hospital.]
[Upon task completion, you will receive ten billion Joss Paper and a delivery fee of three thousand yuan.]
[Does Host choose to accept the mission?]
A cold, mechanical voice exploded in Jane Sterling's mind, sending a jolt through her entire body.
"Who? Who is it?!"
Jane Sterling, like a startled fawn, scanned her surroundings warily.
It was getting late, and there were few pedestrians on the street.
She looked around for a long time but couldn't find the source of the voice.
Only then did her thoughts slowly begin to clear.
She slowly began to mull over what the system had said.
'Yin Yang Deliveryman?'
'A delivery fee of three thousand yuan?'
Jane Sterling's expression was a little dazed.
'What's going on?'
'Could something so incredible really be happening to me?'
But if it was real, that three thousand yuan would be enough to solve her immediate problem.
She could leave that house, find a quiet place to live, and get back on her feet.
Then she could figure out how to get through the rest of the summer.
Jane Sterling turned her head and looked at People's Hospital in the distance.
'Screw it!'
'Even if it's a prank, I have to give it a try.'
'In this day and age, money is hard to earn. A single delivery for a three-thousand-yuan reward?'
'A deal that good is like a pie falling from the sky.'