I was the real son of the Carter family. But my family chose the fake one. April Fool’s Day. To make the fake one happy, my fianc¨¦e and sister turned me into their plaything. the fake one ripped my clothes to shreds. Used a marker to write “TRASH” across my face. When I didn’t react, he kicked me straight into the septic tank. When they fished me out, a crowd stood around with phones raised. Mocking laughter pierced my ears. My sister stayed a hundred feet away, covering her nose in disgust. She wouldn’t come closer. the fake one’s smile was smug. “Ethan, happy April Fool’s. You played along great.” My fianc¨¦e stepped in front of him, her tone dismissive. “It’s just a joke. Don’t take it personally.” She gestured to someone. They blasted me with a pressure hose. I got knocked flat. Freezing. Body turning purple. But I didn’t beg for mercy. Overnight, the video of me naked went viral in our circle. My sister hated me for dragging the fake one’s reputation down. She threw me out. My fianc¨¦e publicly canceled the engagement. “The Astor family can’t have a man with such a stain on him.” I nodded to everything. Didn’t argue. They thought I was faking composure. They didn’t know my mission had only three days left. These people? I felt dirty just looking at them. … In the courtyard, Dad swung his whip. Each lash tore into my flesh. “Shameless! Filthy!” I didn’t explain. Just endured silently. Fighting back only made the beating worse. A few days after being brought back to this house, Ryan¡ªthe fake son¡ªaccused me of stealing his watch. Mom and Dad ransacked my room. My sister Clara stripped me in front of everyone. They found nothing. I thought they’d apologize. Instead, Clara slapped a tooth out of my mouth. “You must’ve sold Ryan’s watch! Where’s the money!” My room was closet-sized. I didn’t have a single bank card. I tried to explain. She hit me harder. Called me unrepentant. I huddled in the corner. Got kicked until I coughed blood. Ryan suddenly gasped. “Found it.” The diamond-studded watch gleamed in the sunlight. All I felt was a stabbing pain in my eyes. I looked at Clara. No guilt on her face. Just a flat response. “Just a misunderstanding. Don’t worry about it.” “I’m Ryan’s sister. I trust him unconditionally.” Clara knew she was Ryan’s sister. But she forgot I was her actual brother. In the courtyard, Dad’s whip kept falling. Blood streaked my body. Clara stood by. Didn’t say a word in my defense. She was the one who let Ryan humiliate me. Let him take naked photos of me. But she blamed me for ruining Ryan’s reputation and threw my few belongings out the door. She wanted me gone. I agreed. But Dad roared. “You think you’re leaving? Want to embarrass us more?” He ordered the whip. Made them execute family discipline on me. Two hours later, Mom stopped him with a frown. “Enough. Make him bang his head on the floor 99 times. Write a confession. Then we’re done.” Dad threw down the whip, annoyed. “You spoil him too much!” Spoil? I found that funny. Mom’s “bang head” meant smashing my head into the ground hard enough to make a sound. If it didn’t echo, it didn’t count. The confession? Had to be written in blood. Less than ten thousand words? Not sincere enough. They’d make me rewrite it. I said nothing. Banged until my forehead bled. They splashed cold water on me to wake me up. I kept going. Wrote twenty thousand words in blood. Every word dripping with humiliation. Crushed into the dirt. I remembered every insult clearly. Waiting for the day I’d collect what they owed me with interest. I thought that would be enough. Ryan covered his nose and stepped back. “Clara, it’s not that I won’t let Ethan inside. It’s just… he stinks.” Clara ruffled his hair affectionately. Shot me a sideways glance. “You don’t deserve the servants’ quarters. Go stay with Goliath.” Goliath was Ryan’s python. And I was terrified of snakes. I remembered the day the cops first brought me home. Ryan looked disgusted back then too. But Clara didn’t make me sleep in the snake pit that day. She just made me stay in the dog cage. The pet dog’s cage was bigger than the servants’ room I got later. When Ryan didn’t give orders, the dog didn’t bite me. I could barely get some sleep. The snake pit? No way I’d survive. I fell to my knees in front of Mom and Dad, begging. “Please, I know I stink. I can leave the Carter estate. I can sleep in the dog cage. Just don’t make me go to the snake pit.” A flicker of emotion crossed Dad’s face. He was about to speak. Clara grabbed the back of my neck. “Ethan, stop playing the victim!” “If it weren’t for you, would the Carter family be a laughingstock? You should be grateful you have anywhere to sleep!” She dragged me toward the snake pit. I looked back at Dad. He looked away. The stench from the pit nearly knocked me out. A forked tongue flicked against my face. Just as I closed my eyes in despair, the system’s cold mechanical voice echoed in my mind. “Time until Host’s mission completion: two days remaining.”
I suddenly calmed down. Slowed my breathing. Two days left. I couldn’t give up. Three years ago, Ryan got a stomachache after dinner. Eyes red, he accused me of spiking his food. Before I could react, Clara pried my mouth open and forced an entire bottle of laxatives down my throat. The pain left me unconscious on the bathroom floor. No one checked on me. The whole family went to the hospital with Ryan. On the verge of death, a mechanical voice rang in my head. “Host life value has reached zero. Forcibly binding Revenge System.” “Current Mission: Survive three years.” “Success: Pain Rebound. One hundred million dollar cash reward.” “Failure: Soul annihilation.” I didn’t understand what a system was back then. Thought it was a hallucination before death. But when I woke up on that bathroom floor and the pain was gone, I believed. The system gave me a second chance. I was eighteen. I started valuing my life. Became silent. Compliant. I recalled survival shows I’d seen on TV. Forced down my fear. Stayed perfectly still. The python slithered past me. Its touch cold and terrifying. Outside the glass enclosure, Ryan held my fianc¨¦e’s hand. That smirk on his face. “Lucy, your fianc¨¦’s dirty, so he got tossed in the snake pit.” “Does it hurt your feelings?” Lucy’s eyes barely flicked over me. “Stop talking nonsense. I don’t have a fianc¨¦. That engagement has been canceled.” Even now, my heart twisted painfully. Lucy was different from the Carter family. She was my childhood friend from the orphanage. When she first came to the orphanage, her leg had been broken. No one wanted to adopt her. I pretended to be dumb. Stayed behind to keep her company. Her leg made it hard to walk. I fought for food for her. Stood up for her. One winter, some older kids stole her crutch to burn as firewood. I threw myself in front of her. They hung me upside down from a tree. Packed snowballs hard as rocks and used me as target practice. They broke my nose. Blood splattered everywhere. Lucy held my frozen body and cried all night. She said when she grew up, she’d protect me. I laughed in my haze. Thought she meant it. Later, when the cops brought me back to the Carter family, the first thing I did was help Lucy find her family. Turned out she was an illegitimate daughter. The Astor family had thrown her away on purpose. To help her return home, I proposed a marriage alliance. Clara called me pathetic. Said I’d just gotten back and was already chasing women. I knelt in the courtyard for seven days. No food. No water. My knees bled through the scabs. In exchange for a marriage contract. It wasn’t that the Astor family was bad. Mom and Dad just wanted me to marry better. To be a stepping stone for Ryan’s rise. The day I went to pick Lucy up from the orphanage, her eyes were red. She hugged me tight. Swore to the God. “Ethan, once I’m stable in the Astor family, I’ll marry you!” But she never married me. She personally tore up our marriage contract. Threw me to Ryan to humiliate. When did it change? Maybe the first time Ryan put his arm around her shoulders. He was stronger than me. More outgoing. Better at making people happy. He’d put his arm around Lucy’s shoulder and say, “Lucy, your engagement to Ethan was forced on you, right?” Lucy didn’t deny it. Maybe it was that business dinner when I drank myself to a bleeding ulcer trying to shield her from toasts. Collapsed on the floor, couldn’t get up. Lucy frowned. “Ethan, you’re so embarrassing.” I brought up marriage. Brought up rings. A wedding. She got impatient. Plucked a weed from the roadside and wrapped it around my finger a few times. Then turned around and dropped a fortune on a luxury watch for Ryan. Personally picked out the style. I asked her, “Lucy, do you remember what you said back at the orphanage?” She laughed. That laugh was mocking in a way I’d never seen before. “Ethan, you drag up the orphanage every single day. Aren’t you tired?” “Yeah, you helped me. But you’ve used that favor to tie me down for years. Isn’t that enough?” I tied her down? I shattered my knees kneeling. Went on a hunger strike. Fought like hell to get her a future. But she said, “Ethan, stop pretending. You wanted this marriage because you’re the least favored son in the Carter family.” “Couldn’t find a wife, so you latched onto me?” “That desperate to get married? That starved for a woman?” In that moment, something inside me shattered. Ryan’s laughter pulled me back from the memory. “Lucy, don’t be so heartless. Ethan was your fianc¨¦ for years.” Lucy sneered. “Fianc¨¦? A freeloader like him? As if.” I took a deep breath. Silently asked the system. “Will betrayal get reflected back too?”
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