Chapter 1

I was the real son of the Minister of Rites' household in Westland, switched at birth. After reclaiming my place as the true heir, I also got back the engagement that was supposed to be mine.

But one year after I married Evelyn Foster, she took her dead younger sister's place and married Charles Hartley. She even handed our son and daughter over to childless Charles to raise, treating me like nothing more than a baby-making tool.

I held on until the seventh year, and the system finally said--

[Host, Evelyn Foster has finally fallen in love with you. Mission complete. You may now choose to leave this world or stay.]

I answered without a second of hesitation: [I'm leaving!]

After I chose to leave this world, the system gave me one day to say goodbye. I wanted to have one last meal with my children.

But they refused.

My son even said, "Uncle, you keep coming to see me and my sister. Our dad won't be happy about it."

Then he told Evelyn Foster all about it.

Before long, Evelyn came to see me. She had just come back from court. Dressed in a rose-colored official robe, she looked cold and stunning.

"Edward Hartley, did you go see the kids again today?"

Her voice was calm, but I could still hear the displeasure underneath. She had always treated me like this.

Every time, I would lower my head and quietly admit I was wrong. But now that I was about to leave, I didn't want to keep taking the blame anymore.

For the first time, I pushed back. "I'm their biological father. Asking them to have one meal with me before I die isn't too much, is it?"

"Nonsense."

Evelyn's face darkened at once. "If you're sick, call a doctor. Don't say crap like that."

I was telling the truth, but she didn't believe me.

Instead, she scolded me. "From now on, stay away from the children. And don't you dare use those pathetic tricks you learned while begging on them just to fight for attention."

"Today's punishment is to copy the house rules once. Consider it a warning."

With that, she turned and left.

I stared at her retreating figure, my eyes stinging.

In her eyes, me getting anywhere near the children was like contaminating them. Did someone who looked down on me that much really love me?

But the system said: [Host, the system does not make mistakes. Evelyn Foster's love level for you has indeed reached one hundred percent.]

[Maybe humans just have... a very subtle and weird way of showing love.]

I didn't know why Evelyn had to be subtle. But by now, the flutter I felt when I first met her had already been ground to dust.

I didn't want to copy the house rules anymore either.

A little while later, a servant came with a message saying my two-year-old daughter wanted to eat the lotus pastries I made, so I was to prepare some and send them to Moonlight Manor.

Moonlight Manor was where Charles lived.

I was dying soon anyway. I figured I could make something for my daughter one last time.

About half an hour later, the lotus pastries were done. The moment I stepped out of the kitchen, a gust of cold wind hit me, and I suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.

My chest throbbed with pain. I asked the system, "System, is this the death warning you set up?"

The system replied: [That's right. I adjusted your body's settings. This body will become gravely ill and eventually die after coughing up a large amount of blood.]

[Some of the pain will be rough. Hang in there.]

I wiped the blood from my lips, gasping as I braced myself against the doorframe.

"It's fine. I'm good at enduring pain. I just need a minute."

Back then, the person who swapped me threw me away. I grew up begging, and I got beaten for food more times than I could count.

Later, the system helped me reclaim my identity, and I married into the Foster family so I could win Evelyn over.

The Foster family had nine hundred house rules. Evelyn took all my efforts to please her as shameless pestering, and she would punish me by making me kneel in the ancestral hall for whole nights at a time...

Pain had long since become part of my life.