Chapter 1

“Landon? Why were you not saying anything? Were you so happy you went speechless?”

That familiar laugh sounded in my ear.

I struggled to swallow the last trace of bitterness in my mouth, as though I had hurriedly swallowed a lifetime of pain along with it. There were no tears, nor any trace of pain, only a bone-deep chill that seeped through the very marrow of me.

“I knew this kind of surprise was no different from getting rich overnight. It was perfectly normal that you could not take it all in right away.

“But you had to understand, we did all of this for your own good. Without this test, would you have ever made this much money? Would you have grown into such a strong and capable man?”

He laughed even more happily.

“Landon, every hardship you endured was worth it. You were about to inherit billions in assets and stand at a height most people could never reach in their entire lives.”

Then I heard my mother’s delighted voice in the background.

“Your dad and I are coming to your apartment right now. We will be there soon.”

I lay on my hard mattress, staring at the dim, yellowed ceiling light.

After a long silence, I finally let out a quiet laugh.

“So, it was all fake? Even when I was nine and Mom was diagnosed with leukemia and needed medication for the rest of her life, when Dad broke his spine and could never work again, was all of that fake too?”

The first half of my life had been nothing but suffering.

It began when I was nine, when my mother fell ill and my father had to quit his job. They said poverty forced children to grow up too soon. I was ripped from childhood and forced into adulthood before I ever had a choice.

Desperate to raise enough money for their medical bills, I knelt until my knees were bloody and raw. Not a single person was willing to lend me money.

I looked at my mother’s reddened eyes and my father’s graying hair. I swore to the heavens that either I died, or I made something of myself.

For ten years, I scavenged through garbage, I delivered food, I hauled bricks at construction sites, and I worked until I passed out and pushed myself until I vomited blood.

I even knelt before wealthy people and let them humiliate me for their amusement. Poverty had worn away every sharp edge of my pride. I did not care.

All I wanted was to hold this family together, was for my parents to live good lives, and for them to be safe and healthy.

“Fake. It was all fake. Those were just excuses we came up with to put you through hardships. After all, a person only truly grows after experiencing suffering.

“Landon, you did not disappoint your mother and me.”

My mother did not hear the tremor in my voice. Nor did she think, even for a moment, that deceiving me for all those years had been wrong.

The pain in my stomach began to twist and tear. My vision slowly blurred. The poison was taking effect.

For a moment, I even wondered if the pesticide had made me hallucinate. Perhaps the billions, the test, and all of it were fake.

It was not until my silence finally exhausted my father’s patience.

“Actually, you had an older brother. We spoiled him rotten from the moment he was born. He always spent money like it meant nothing. Even now, he dropped millions on sports cars and luxury watches without a second thought. All he knew how to do was waste money. He had no sense of responsibility whatsoever.

“So after you were born, we started to reconsider. If we raised you the way we raised him, giving you everything you wanted and showering you with love, you would have ended up just as spoiled and useless.

“Then what would happen to the company? Who would inherit the family fortune?

“You should at least try to understand why we had to do this.”

So I had an older brother who had been loved and spoiled his entire life.

All of this was real.

“Landon, we were already downstairs.

“From now on, you would never have to do those exhausting, miserable jobs again.”

I was just about to answer when a mouthful of black blood spilled from my lips.

All at once, my body felt strangely light. It was as though I had finally set down the weight I had carried on my shoulders for years. I floated freely in the air.

I really would never have to do those exhausting, miserable jobs again.

It was because I was already dead.