جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

I froze and raised a hand to wipe away my tears. "Why would you say that? How did I die?""I can't tell you just yet." The system in my mind lowered its voice. "I'm bound to you. If you die, I die too. I'm just trying to save myself."The next second, it began urging me along. "Hurry up. The reunion is about to start."I wiped my tears dry and boarded the bus.…A week earlier, I'd just finished my SATs. The moment I handed in my exam paper, a system suddenly appeared in my mind. It introduced itself as the Disobedience System.Simply put, its job was to make me disobey my parents and go against everything they wanted me to do.I'd been the perfect daughter for 18 years, so I immediately refused and demanded that it sever our bond. But the system had warned me that if I didn't follow its instructions, I'd lose the most precious thing in my life. Terrified of losing my family, I meekly agreed.Over the past week, it had first demanded that I replace all my shoes. I frowned. "Mom

The system wanted me to do something truly outrageous that day.As I made my way there, I couldn't shake the strange feelings stirring inside me.…When I was five, I learned to wash dishes for the first time. I was so small that I needed to stand on a little stool just to reach the sink. By the time I was eight, I'd started learning to cook, and Mom had scolded me several times for not being able to handle a kitchen knife properly.When I was little, I once asked Jordan why he didn't have to wash dishes or cook. Mom told me that he already knew how to do those things, while I still had a lot to learn and needed to practice.But thinking about it carefully now, Jordan had never actually done any of those chores. Did he really know how? He'd slept in this morning, too, yet he'd gotten a full plate of breakfast without lifting a finger. Why hadn't I been allowed to eat anything?I didn't have time to dwell on it.…Soon, I arrived outside a cosmetic surgery clinic.Last week, Da

I froze.The system continued, "You guessed the secret phrase correctly. I will disappear in three seconds. Congratulations! Your gift is ready and will be automatically delivered once our bond is severed. Three…""The secret phrase?" I murmured. "Do they even love me?""Two…""System?" Suddenly, I found myself reluctant to let it go. "Can I choose not to sever our bond? I…""One…"Finally, there was a beep, and then nothing.The system had truly disappeared.An overwhelming sense of emptiness washed over me, and my eyes grew damp. "You lying system! You haven't even told me how I'm going to die!"Almost instantly, memories that didn't belong to me flooded into my mind.They seemed to belong to another Grace Sawyer, one who lived in a parallel world.She had obeyed her parents and attended a tuition-free community college on the outskirts of the city, returning home every weekend to help her mother with the housework.She was timid and followed Jordan's advice to avoid gett

I froze. "My dad's been hospitalized?"That night, I couldn't sleep.The system was gone. There was no one left to tell me what to do. I had to judge the situation for myself and make my own decisions.…The next day, I skipped my part-time job. I stayed in the dorm with my laptop open, staring at the screen without absorbing a single word.That afternoon, my phone rang again. Another unfamiliar number.I stared at it until the ringing stopped.When my screen lit up again, there was a text message from a number back home."Grace, it's Mom. Your father is sick and in the hospital. Could you please come home and see him? I'm begging you."The message went on and on, describing in painstaking detail how serious his condition was and how difficult things had become for the family. Every word seemed drenched in desperation.I stared at the screen, my fingers turning cold. The memories and emotions I'd tried so hard to suppress came surging back with a vengeance.Should I go home?

I sat in front of my computer, watching the stream of vicious comments scrolling across the screen. My fingers were cold, but my heartbeat remained strangely steady.If they wanted to make a scene, fine. I'd give them one.I created a new social media account and posted the complete, unedited video, along with the evidence my photographer friend had obtained proving that my father had no hospital admission records. I gave the post a simple title. "The Truth About Grace Sawyer, the Ungrateful Daughter."Then, I tagged several popular local influencers and media accounts that had shared the original video.The truth would always be more powerful than lies.In the full video, my parents could be heard discussing how to "marry" me off for money, how to get their hands on my savings, and how to fabricate my father's illness to trick me into returning home. Every word was like a resounding slap across the faces of the netizens who had been manipulated into attacking me. More than that,