The comments in the live-stream had already gone nuts:

‘Oh my god! I actually just saw a plot twist online! She isn’t his biological daughter! My goodness!’

‘No wonder she isn’t close to her father! As it turned out, she isn’t his biological daughter! It’s no wonder, then!’

‘That’s too biased an opinion. The way I see it, the kindness one shows by raising a child outweighs that of giving birth to the child. Just because she isn’t his biological child, does that mean she can just forget how painstakingly he had raised her?’

‘I agree. If you can be a total ingrate just because you aren’t your parents’ biological child, then what kind of position do you put the families in who so kindly adopt children in the orphanage?’

‘I am an adopted child myself. My biological parents abandoned me at birth, but my adoptive parents treated me very well. Our relationship now is no different from that of blood-related parents and children. Does it matter whether we are blood-related or not?’

…

At the Andersons.

Roxanne, who was astounded by the turn of events, was actually feeling a little embarrassed. She had come here solely to hype it up for her live-stream, as well as to persuade them to reconcile.

She hadn’t expected such twists and turns at all.

She couldn’t help but secretly blame and resent Henry for not telling her the truth. Besides, from the way he was reacting, he obviously knew about it. He just didn’t want to admit to it, that was all.

She frowned and glanced at the comments in the live-stream. Then, the quick-witted reporter said, “There’s no greater kindness than the love and care that one receives from their parents when they’re growing up, Ms. Smith. A DNA test report doesn’t explain anything. Since you grew up in the Smiths, then that makes them your parents. Do you really want to sever ties with your parents who had so painstakingly brought you up?”

The moment she said that, Wendy reacted very quickly. She took out a handkerchief from who-knows-where and held it over her eyes as she cried. She said, “I see. Did you distance yourself from us because of that? But think about it—when have we ever treated you badly during all these years?”

Henry’s expression had also darkened.

Having a fact like this exposed put him in an embarrassing situation. However, now that things had come to this, it wasn’t just a matter of whether it was embarrassing or not anymore.

He clenched his jaw and said, “Yes, you are indeed not my biological daughter, but on account of my relationship with your mother, I’ve treated you like my own all these years. I worked so hard to make money so that I could provide for you. Are you going to just negate our kindness in bringing you up just because you’re not my biological daughter?”

Roxanne heaved a sigh and said, “They’re your parents, Ms. Smith. It’s all thanks to them that you’ve grown from a helpless baby to the beautiful young woman you are now. As far as I know, you were home until you were at least 19 years old. You…”

The trio joined forces to denounce her.

Nora cast her eyes down.

She didn’t like exposing her affairs to others, and letting them know that she had never been loved since she was a child; or that she had always hidden herself in a pitch-dark room since she was a child; or that when she was still a child without any means of retaliation, she could only eat food that had gone bad and drink cold water.

She disliked even more letting others know how miserable her life had been when she was a child.

Someone as strong and powerful as she had never needed anyone’s sympathy.

Besides, she wasn’t eloquent enough to talk about those things.

However, it wasn’t her style to allow those three people to twist and distort the truth, either.

Nora lowered her head, held up her cell phone, and tapped a few times on it with her long and slender fingers.

As a result, all the viewers in the live-stream could see was the sight of her completely ignoring the three people’s words and playing with her cell phone with her head down, which made her look very rude.

The negative comments in the live-stream became even worse.

‘That little missy is really pretty, but why doesn’t she know how to conduct herself properly?’

‘No matter what, your parents did raise you into an adult. You can’t just do that!’

‘Those are the Andersons. Looks like I really can’t patronize Harmonia Pharmacy’s medicines anymore. How can their medicines be any good when the people making them are so heartless?’

‘I heard that her aunt—that is, Mrs. Anderson over there—isn’t any decent human being, either.’

…

All sorts of verbal abuse bombarded the comments in the live-stream.

Melissa was livid. She said, “Why don’t you ask yourselves whether or not you really treated Nora well?! If you had, why would you stop her from ever going to school?!”

Wendy let out a sigh. “That’s because she has in poor health. We’ve spent a lot on her over the years because of her health! In fact, we used to have quite a lot of income, but because of her condition, we’ve depleted all our savings… I know you must think that we’re doing this for money, and to tell the truth, we are indeed doing this for money; but that’s because we’ve been driven into a corner and are at our wits’ end!”

Wendy held her hand over her eyes and wept as she said, “Even though our elder daughter has spent all our savings, by right, since the money was for her medical fees, it shouldn’t matter. Our younger daughter is now in graduate school and isn’t working, the family is out of money. At this point, our elder daughter is found by her wealthy relatives. I heard that Nora’s mother owns some of the Andersons’ company’s shares, so she’s very rich now… We’re not asking for riches and honor; we’re just hoping that she can take out some money—even just a few thousand dollars would do—to help the family out. I have my own selfish motives too! I really feel so terrible seeing my younger daughter live from hand to mouth! Nora, as an elder sister, can’t you even spare your sister a bit of what you have when you’re doing well? Your father and I are old, so we can do without it. We’re willing to even live off scraps! But your younger sister is such an outstanding girl…”

Her acting could really make anyone listening to her weep in sadness.

Melissa had always been a very eloquent woman, but even she was astounded by Wendy’s shamelessness.

Simon took an even more straightforward approach. To him, if spending a small amount of money could resolve the issue, then he would just do it and have them drop the issue altogether. He wouldn’t hold it against them anymore, either. Thus, he asked, “How much are you planning to ask Nora for?”

His question made Wendy’s eyes light up. She replied, “How about this? Not only is Nora rich now, but we also only sent her to the doctors last time because she was supposedly Henry’s biological daughter. In that case, we’ll have her return us all the money we spent on her medical treatment during all these years. If she doesn’t want to be involved with us in the future, we won’t come anymore, either. We’re not asking for too much, right?”

The live-stream was filled with comments such as:

‘Their request isn’t too much at all!’

‘Exactly. I don’t find Ms. Smith a good person, either. In that case, they might as well have her pay them a lump sum and cut her off after that!’

‘Since she wants to cut them off so much, they should properly settle all the accounts from the past. Why stick to just medical expenses? They should also include everything else like living expenses and so on!’

…

While such comments were being passed in the live-stream, Nora finally raised her icy-cold eyes and spoke. She said, “Sure. In that case, let’s settle the accounts properly. Let’s take the meals I ate ever since I was a child as five dollars each. That makes fifteen dollars a day. In total, that’s—”

Wendy smiled and interrupted her. She said, “Is there a need to go into such detail, Nora? All of this happened twenty years ago. Who would remember them that clearly? Why don’t we do this instead? Let’s just calculate the few big expenses instead. The first is your medical expenses. Next, during those few years you were abroad…”

Henry nodded and said, “Yes, that’s right. We’ll forget about the daily food expenses and so on. I’ll just take it that I was feeding a dog. Let’s just calculate the few big expenses instead…”

“No, that won’t do.” Nora stood tall and straight, and a sharp glint flashed in her drowsy-looking eyes in this instant. Her lips curled upward into a smile and she said unhurriedly in a low voice, “I’ve always been one who distinguishes clearly between gratitude and grudges, so I mustn’t leave out even a single cent. I have a detailed breakdown of your bank records here…”