Family Survival Rules 9

Wait, Xu Si suddenly sat up with a swift flip, pulling her feet off the table.

Rule number nine was glaringly clear:

[Dad is invisible to you, so you don’t need to care about his feelings and can almost ignore him, though he occasionally shows faint fatherly love.]

Dad hadn’t appeared yet. Surely he wasn’t literally invisible. The grandfather and dad, both absent, must be a breakthrough.

What connection was there between the order of these rules? At this moment, she cursed her lack of intelligence!

Xu Si took out her little genius smartwatch and glanced at the time—she had to be back in her room before ten.

Opening the door, she found her mother waiting.

“Good girl, how’s your studying going? Have you seen anything you shouldn’t?” Her mother gripped her shoulder tightly, teeth clenched as she questioned her.

“What things I shouldn’t see? I’ve been reading extracurricular books. Mom, I’m sleepy. I’m going back to bed!” Xu Si said and tried to retreat.

But her mother blocked her path. “Heh heh heh… Let me see if you have anything you shouldn’t on you!”

She resigned herself to the ghost’s inspection.

Finding nothing, her mother’s face filled with guilt. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have doubted you. You’ll always be Mommy’s obedient little one, right?”

“Yes, Mom, I’ll always be obedient!” Xu Si the expert at bluffing was fully online.

Because all she wanted now was to lie down quickly. If she didn’t return before ten, she didn’t know what would happen.

Back in her room, she immediately lay down and hid under the covers to read that letter.

A letter found in the study, a daughter’s letter.

Thanks to the little fairy who helped her sneak it out, or it would have been found by that ghost earlier.

She opened the envelope and was startled—the paper was stained red, only a few large characters written across it: I am free.

Xu Si recalled the family mentioning at the dinner table that red signified mutation, and the last rule forbade suicide. Suddenly, a bold idea formed in her mind.

Had the original daughter been seriously hurt? Whether she was dead or not, Xu Si could not yet be certain.

“Thump, thump, thump.” Heavy footsteps sounded outside the door, then stopped. She guessed it was her mother checking if she had fallen asleep.

This oppressive love was unbearable.

Though Xu Si was a bit sleepy, she couldn’t sleep yet. She had to sneak out in the middle of the night—maybe she’d discover something.

After about half an hour, footsteps faded away outside. She relaxed instantly.

Damn, this ghost really knows how to lurk, Xu Si thought wryly.

She cautiously approached the door, cracked it open a sliver, observing. Outside, everything seemed normal. She tiptoed out.

Xu Si looked around, wondering why nothing seemed different here and why the rules insisted she come out at midnight.

“Plop, plop!”

Suddenly, blood water seeped from the ceiling, bathing the entire living room in red. The floor too was soaking wet with blood.

Xu Si quickly retreated to her room and instructed the little fairy to erase the footprints on the floor.

She hid behind the door, watching as her mother appeared, terrified, mopping the floor repeatedly, but no matter how hard she tried, the stains wouldn’t come clean.

“Knock, knock, knock!”

A dull knocking sounded at the door. Her mother’s expression softened. Opening it, in walked her father.

He pulled a black plastic bag from his briefcase and handed it to her mother, warning her to keep it secret.

He turned slightly, looking toward Xu Si’s direction. Her heart leapt—she’d been caught!

But her father’s eyes brimmed with tears as he waved at her, then firmly closed the door and left. Her mother took the bag into the kitchen, and the sound of chopping meat came next.

After the chopping stopped, there was a sound of water being drawn. Having completed the task, her mother returned to the bedroom, her expression numb.

Just as Xu Si was about to close the door, her mother suddenly turned her head and smiled at her eerily.

Shaken, Xu Si lay awake in bed, unknowingly falling asleep. The next morning, knocking woke her. Outside, her mother urged her to get up and study.

Rubbing her eyes, she struggled to sit up; it was only seven o’clock. Why did she still have to study in this copy of reality?

Xu Si resigned herself and sat at the desk. Her mother smiled approvingly and left.

As mealtime approached, occasional noisy shouting came from outside, seemingly about the grandfather.

“Damn it, where’s my steamed bun? How dare you hide it from me!” The grandfather roared, smashing things around the house. Meanwhile, her mother and grandmother cowered, no longer acting proud and commanding toward their daughter.

Along with the shouting came a vase thrown at her ear, which she nimbly dodged.

The grandfather grabbed Xu Si’s hand. “Good granddaughter, give me some buns! I’ll win them back for you soon!”

Xu Si was speechless.

So her grandfather was a gambler! No wonder he was never home. This family really was a hidden dragon and crouching phoenix.

“I don’t have any buns, but I can give you a few fists,” she said, punching him in the nose.

Buns? Xu Si wasn’t giving any.

Ghosts? Xu Si was ready to fight.

“If you won’t give them, then you dare fight me!” The grandfather panicked and fled, dodging wildly.

After beating him up, the grandfather left the house with a satisfied grin.

She turned her head to look at her brother, who was making a funny face.

Xu Si stepped forward, closing the distance bit by bit.