Chapter 1

My parents thought that the press conference announcing their experiment results would be a success.

The screen showed the formative years and life journey of the elite twin.

It was about my sister, Chloe Sullivan's life. It followed her from when she started receiving early education at a month old to when she earned her PhD at an Ivy League university. The video showcased her growth in a bright light.

My parents received thunderous applause as they stood on stage, smiling with humility and pride until the last second of the video. Suddenly, it stopped abruptly, and the screen turned black for two seconds.

When the lights came up once more, a sentence in red appeared.

'The experiment has not ended'.

My father's smile froze on his face, and the next second, I heard his panicked roar on the phone. "Pull the plug! Stop the signal at once!"

I was sitting in my rented house, dipping my head to take a bite of my instant chicken noodle soup. The noodles had turned soft, and the soup burned my tongue, but I swallowed it anyway.

Yes, I was the regular twin.

When the camera swept to the first row, Chloe stood up in her white dress. She looked exactly as I remembered her, and she was not flustered at all by the events. All she did was look at me. Chloe had never shown much emotion since young.

She walked up the stage and took the microphone. "I'm sorry for the misunderstanding caused by the video all of you just saw."

My father's tense shoulders relaxed slightly, while my mother looked down the stage with a proud look in her teary eyes. "Chloe has always been this way. She has always been calm during crucial moments." My mother's chin lifted slightly as she continued with pride, "She has proven herself as the child we brought up as the elite twin."

Chloe did not look at them. She handed a USB to the person behind the console and said, "Please play this."

My hands paused mid-air as the screen flashed twice, and a video of a nursery from 26 years ago appeared. Chloe was lying on the left, sleeping peacefully with a clean diaper, while I was on the right in an out-of-place diaper. I had wet half of myself and cried until my face turned purple.

When my mother came over to me, she frowned right away when she caught a whiff of the odor. "Why is this one so difficult to care for?"

My father did not carry me in his arms, but he zoomed in on me with the video camera in his hands. "She had a strong physiological reaction and displays obvious emotional fluctuations. She's suitable for low-intervention observation."

"Let's put Chloe in the elite group." My mother's voice softened as she turned to look at Chloe, who was nice and clean.

That was how my life took a dark turn just because of an out-of-place diaper.

Chloe was cared for and fed by a nanny while my mother held a bottle warmer in her hand. My father adjusted his video camera to focus on her. Every time Chloe swallowed some milk, my mother would praise her softly, "You're doing great, Chloe."

I lay in my cot as my mouth opened and closed, crying until my voice went hoarse, and all that was left was soft sobbing gurgling from my throat. I tried with all my might to grab at my mother's direction, but no one looked at me.

This continued until my maternal grandmother walked in. She looked alarmed the moment she saw me, and she quickly scooped me up in her arms with trembling hands. "Are you blind? How can you starve a baby this way?!"

She started feeding me milk slowly, and I drank it so quickly that I choked and heaved slightly, leaving some stains on my chin.

My mother snatched the milk from my grandmother. "Stop interfering with the experiment, Mom!"

"She's not an experiment. She's your daughter!" My grandmother hugged me tighter to her chest.

My father pointed the video camera at us. "The most common variable contamination is when the elderly insist on poking their noses into the upbringing of their grandchildren."

At this point, many had started commenting online.

[Isn't this abuse? One baby is starving, yet he's still focusing on recording the other one.]

Comments from another perspective soon flooded the comments section.

[Don't be quick to judge when you know nothing about education.]

I stared at myself on the screen. I was still crying as I tried to reach out for my mother with my little arms. My fingers tried to grab her in the air, as if believing that she would carry me if I just worked harder at reaching out.

This made me tear up suddenly. The heat from the scalding noodle soup got into my eyes.

I wanted to hug the baby so badly and get her out of that wet diaper. I wanted to tell her to stop reaching out with her little hands, because no one would ever hug her.