She had no choice but to play along

"No!" All four brothers objected in unison.

The next second, they turned to stare at one another. They had never been this in sync before.

"Mom, we brought home the wrong sister back then. It was one thing when we didn't know.

"But now that we know, and our seventh sister is back, there's no reason to send her away."

Shen Shenxing was the first to take a stand.

He wanted to see just what his biological sister was up to!

"How could I possibly send my own daughter back to suffer?"

Shen Shuyi couldn't help laughing. She turned to gaze tenderly at her biological daughter and reassured her,

"You're a child of the Shen Family, Mommy's precious girl. We're a family, and we'll never be separated."

Just as Shen Shuyi finished speaking, Xu Mingyue and Xu Junshan came out of the study, chatting and laughing.

When Xu Mingyue saw Shen Banxia, she froze for a moment, then couldn't help laughing.

She hadn't expected Shen Shuyi's biological daughter to look like that. Other than being taller, how could she possibly compare to Xu Mingyue?

Xu Mingyue felt even more pleased with herself, her confidence growing.

She walked toward Shen Banxia and asked sweetly,

"You must be my big sister, right? May I call you that?"

Shen Banxia rolled her eyes inwardly. Xu Mingyue knew perfectly well that Shen Banxia had been born a few days before her, yet still had the nerve to ask about calling her big sister.

But since she wanted Shen Banxia to be her big sister, Shen Banxia certainly couldn't disappoint this "little sister" of hers.

Still wearing her signature silly grin, Shen Banxia answered slowly,

"Sure!"

That response, combined with her appearance,

made Shen Banxia as good as an idiot in Xu Mingyue's eyes.

She felt even more certain that she had made far too much of the situation by preparing so carefully.

"Big sister, I prepared a welcome gift especially for you. I wonder if you'll like it?"

With that, Xu Mingyue turned to fetch the gift box she had prepared beforehand. Then she held it out toward Shen Banxia and let go, without waiting for Shen Banxia to take it.

Just as the gift box was about to hit the floor,

Xu Mingyue gave a cry of alarm. It came before the box even landed, making it sound rather abrupt and deliberate.

She had indeed been a little too hasty, because Shen Banxia leaned forward and caught the gift box securely before it could hit the floor.

Xu Mingyue was dumbstruck, looking even more foolish than Shen Banxia had just moments ago. She hadn't expected Shen Banxia to react so quickly, much less catch the box.

"Little sister, if you're giving me a present, why didn't you wait for me to take it? Good thing I reacted quickly and caught it." Shen Banxia looked delighted, as though she hadn't noticed Xu Mingyue's trick at all.

As she spoke, she untied the ribbon around the gift box and opened the lid, moving too quickly for Xu Mingyue to stop her.

Inside the gift box lay several shards of a broken crystal cup.

"Little sister, why did you give me a broken cup?" Shen Banxia's eyes suddenly widened, and she exclaimed so loudly that even people outside the living room could hear her.

At the same time, she lowered the gift box and tilted it toward Xu Mingyue, allowing the other members of the Shen Family to see that it really contained nothing but a few crystal shards.

"I... I didn't. Maybe... maybe it wasn't packed properly and got chipped on the way home." Xu Mingyue flushed scarlet and hastily tried to explain.

She had intended to frame Shen Banxia. How could she have expected her own scheme to backfire and throw her into such a panic?

"Little sister, I've only just come home, and you're giving me a broken cup? That's such bad luck!

"I don't want this gift. Take it back and keep it yourself!"

With that, Shen Banxia replaced the lid and stuffed the gift box back into Xu Mingyue's hands, acting as though she had no social tact whatsoever.

The box had contained a broken crystal cup from the start. Xu Mingyue had wanted to frame her, making everyone think she was picking on Xu Mingyue, giving the Shen Family a bad impression of their newly returned daughter, and making it impossible for her to stay.

If she couldn't even see through such a petty trick, all those years of watching drama unfold and navigating life would have been wasted.

She had done it deliberately, beating Xu Mingyue at her own game and leaving her nowhere to turn.

"I... I really didn't do it on purpose." Xu Mingyue defended herself with tear-filled eyes, looking utterly wronged. She truly was panicking now.

"If it's broken, it's broken. Just buy a new one tomorrow to make up for it. Don't dwell on it. Let's eat!"

Xu Junshan spoke up. He hadn't expected Mingyue to give her a broken cup either.

But all he could do now was help his daughter out of this awkward situation. After speaking, he was the first to get up and head toward the dining room.

Shen Shuyi glanced at Xu Mingyue without saying anything. As she passed her own daughter, however, she said gently,

"Let's eat."

Shen Banxia answered and immediately followed her with eager devotion.

For a foodie, if she couldn't even get excited about mealtime, life would be pointless even as an immortal.

Xu Mingyue stood frozen in embarrassment. She had thought that once she cried, the Shen Family would gather around to comfort her as they always had, as though Shen Banxia really had bullied her.

Instead, apart from Shen Qingfeng, no one came over to comfort her. They all went straight to the dining room.

Shen Banxia glanced back at her sixth brother, who was comforting Xu Mingyue, and inwardly grumbled,

Oh, sixth brother, sixth brother. You're kindly comforting her, but you have no idea she's planning to cut out your kidney and use it to do someone else a favor.

Shen Qingfeng turned to look at Shen Banxia as though he had been shocked by electricity, but she had already entered the dining room. All he could see was her retreating back.

"Sixth brother, it's all my fault. I wanted to give big sister a welcome gift, but I didn't realize the cup was broken, and she didn't want it." Xu Mingyue lowered her head and explained, looking pitiful and deeply wronged.

"It's fine. If it's broken, it's broken. Let's eat first!" Shen Qingfeng comforted her awkwardly. Not knowing what else to say, he could only turn stiffly and head toward the dining room.

He couldn't understand how a perfectly good cup had broken when it hadn't even fallen on the floor.

And what had his seventh sister meant by what she had just said?

Seeing that Shen Qingfeng had left too, Xu Mingyue knew that continuing her act alone would only embarrass her further. She had no choice but to follow him into the dining room.

In truth, anyone observant, especially someone sitting where Shen Shenxing was and able to see the entire sequence of events, would already have noticed something was amiss.

The gift box hadn't hit the floor. If the cup could still break under those circumstances, either it was poor quality or it had already been broken.

The former was a matter of chance. The latter had more complicated implications.

Shen Shenxing looked at his two younger sisters.

One wasn't as innocent as she looked, and the other wasn't as stupid as she appeared!

He was beginning to think that this biological sister they had just welcomed back-

was rather interesting!