The Reborn Scummy A and the Sickly O Got Together - Chapter 14

But after saying this, Lu Le soon sighed as well. “Little sister, sometimes I also feel that Luo Mingyue is quite pitiful. Everyone in the Lu family except herself can see that Lu Jia has never been sincere with her. Why is Luo Mingyue so foolish?”

Lu Xi pondered for a moment. She and Lu Le were fraternal twins, and their appearances were not alike. Her elder sister was more composed, while she herself was sharper and more perceptive.

Soon, Lu Xi replied, “It’s easy to understand. Luo Mingyue has never received much kindness since childhood. Forget about our aunt even Grandmother, who seemed strict with her, disciplined her more harshly than she did us, the Lu family’s own children. On the surface, it appeared as though she valued her highly.”

Lu Le said, “Grandmother claimed it was ‘deep love, strict teaching,’ but in the end, she molded Luo Mingyue into someone who…”

“Looks refined and gentle on the outside, but even when someone slaps her across the face, she can still respond with calm, polite excuses. I used to think people like that were impressive, but later I realized Luo Mingyue doesn’t have an ounce of fighting spirit in her.”

“An alpha, Grandmother ruined Luo Mingyue,” Lu Xi said. “Her backbone is too weak. Luo Mingyue has never known genuine kindness. Lu Jia exploited that, using the pretense of familial affection to make Luo Mingyue shield her from all hardships.”

“People always crave what they lack the most,” Lu Le nodded. “I get it now. No wonder Lu Jia took advantage of her. Do you think if we were also kind to her, she’d go to the ends of the earth for us, just like she does for Lu Jia?”

Lu Xi linked arms with her sister, and the two walked away affectionately from the rooftop.

Luo Mingyue only heard Lu Xi say, “Sister, we’re not Lu Jia. We don’t need someone like Luo Mingyue to take arrows for us.”

The night breeze swept across the rooftop. Though it was midsummer, the wind in Shangjing was still stifling and humid, no better than the scorching daylight.

Only after Lu Xi and Lu Le had completely disappeared did the slender, tall girl step forward. Her face was pale, her expression blank as she stared in the direction her cousins had gone.

The air around her was thick and damp, yet Luo Mingyue felt a chill seep into her bones.

She descended from the rooftop and passed a full-length mirror hanging in the third-floor hallway. The reflection staring back at her was like a ghost in the night, a face drained of color, utterly desolate.

So everyone knew. From the very beginning, Lu Jia’s affection for her had been nothing but pretense.

Suddenly, Luo Mingyue realized the most detestable person in the Lu family wasn’t just Lu Jia. Grandmother’s so-called strict upbringing had always been accompanied by the words: “Know your place. Don’t repeat your mother’s mistakes.”

How could that be considered favor? It was nothing but endless suppression, ignoring her innate temperament, molding her like a lump of clay to be shaped at will.

In the end, even she knew her personality had been warped by it. On the surface, she lacked nothing dressed in elegant, expensive clothes, driven to and from school in luxury cars worth millions, eating fresh and clean food, living in a ancestral mansion worth billions.

She appeared to be a noble, beautiful young lady. But beneath the lavish attire, her so-called good temper, her inability to get angry, her lack of fighting spirit.

All of it stemmed from a heart drowning in deep-seated inferiority.

In a book Luo Mingyue had once read, there was a story about a princess. Though she was peerlessly beautiful, she was also deeply envious. Whenever another girl was praised for her beauty, the princess would order her face to be ruined.

In the end, the princess was naturally defeated by the righteous hero, and the fairy punished her by stripping away her beautiful face.

The story concluded with a moral lesson, stating: “The ugliest soul in this world is one filled with jealousy.”

But Luo Mingyue thought, no.

The ugliest soul in this world is one forever plagued by inferiority.

No matter how gorgeous the appearance or how expensive the clothes and jewelry, they cannot conceal an inferior heart, which reduces a person to the lowliness of dust and ultimately ruins their entire life.

From as far back as she could remember, Luo Mingyue constantly heard people say upon seeing her, “What a beautiful child, and her eyes are especially lovely.”

Yet it was these very eyes that her mother despised, inherited from the father who had abandoned them.

Her grandmother once pinched her face, scrutinized her for a long moment, and delivered her verdict: “Such restless eyes. Who knows how much trouble they’ll bring?”

From then on, she learned to keep her eyelids lowered, rarely looking directly at others.

Her already inferior heart, combined with her self-effacing behavior, made Luo Mingyue acutely aware of this severe personality flaw. But what could she do?

She didn’t know how to save herself, so she poured all her emotions into her family.

Lu Jia was her weak, pitiable omega sister who needed her protection. Her grandmother and mother were the relatives she strove to prove herself to, desperate for their approval.

And then there were Lu Ping, Lu Le…

At this moment, Luo Mingyue suddenly clenched her teeth in hatred for these so-called family members. The world always said blood ties were unbreakable, but right now, she loathed her grandmother and mother with every fiber of her being.

The Third Miss Lu exchanged a few more pleasantries with the Feng family parents, politely urging them to stay the night at the Lu residence.

However, with a tight schedule the next day, the Feng parents declined after some insistence, leaving only their second daughter behind to stay with the eldest daughter for a few days.

“Safe travels,” Third Miss Lu said warmly. “I’ll treat Bai Ming as my own daughter, and you’re always welcome to visit.”

Madam Feng, sharp-eyed, noticed: “Isn’t that Mingyue?”

Third Miss Lu turned around, her affectionate expression unchanged, as if carved onto her face.

Seeing her daughter wandering over like a lost soul, she chided lightly, “Look at this child of mine. We’ve spoiled her too much, she can’t even walk properly now. Nothing like Bai Ming, who carries herself with such grace.”

Madam Feng showed some concern: “Has something upset the child? Her face is so pale, is she ill?”

Luo Mingyue had already reached her mother’s side. Softly, she said, “Mom, I had a fever today. A high fever. It only went down this afternoon.”

Third Miss Lu smiled sweetly. “Oh, you silly girl. How can someone your age still not take care of herself?”

Luo Mingyue glanced at the Feng parents and let out a quiet laugh. “Being treated as a daughter by my mother isn’t a good thing. She’s never cared for her children.”

“Every time I’ve been sick since childhood, she’s only blamed me. At three, it was because I didn’t know better. Now, at this age, it’s still my fault. If the problem always lies with the child, the mother can justifiably turn a blind eye.”

Madam Feng: “…” How was she supposed to respond to that?

Mr. Feng, unwilling to meddle in another family’s affairs, quickly wrapped an arm around his wife and smiled. “We’ll take our leave now.”

With that, he took his wife and left the scene of this family dispute.

The Third Miss Lu immediately dropped her affectionate smile, frowning at her daughter. “Luo Mingyue, have you lost your mind? How old are you? Still holding onto something from when you were three? Do you think complaining about me in front of outsiders will earn you my concern?”

“Mother, you’re overthinking it,” the girl replied calmly.

The Third Miss Lu watched as her eldest daughter opened those peach-blossom eyes, eyes inherited from her father, which she had once adored but now despised after years of hardship.

But this time, more than disgust, what sent a chill down her spine was the icy indifference in those pitch-black pupils as they stared back at her.

She nearly shuddered, because this was an expression that should never and would never have appeared on Luo Mingyue’s face.

“I truly wish you had never given birth to me. Then who else could you blame for the misfortunes of your life?” Luo Mingyue sneered.

The Third Miss Lu’s face darkened instantly, but her daughter turned and walked away without another word. “You know what? I’d rather have stayed in the orphanage back then. I’ve never wronged a single person in the Lu family.”

Luo Mingyue, until her dying breath, had betrayed no one.

Yet, as she headed upstairs to her room, she still found herself quietly stepping toward the master bedroom on the first floor.

She stood silently outside the door, where Feng Shaoyang’s hearty laughter seeped through, the soundproofing was decent, making it hard to hear much else.

After lingering for a long while, Luo Mingyue finally turned to leave, though she couldn’t help but let out a bitter chuckle. But if she claimed she had never failed anyone.

Was that really true?

In truth, she had failed one person the only one in this world who had ever shown her genuine affection.

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