After being discovered and brought home by her affluent birth family, Du An Rao awoke to the unsettling realization that the world she inhabited was a chaotic collage of overused narrative tropes.
Her eldest brother was the pitiable scapegoat of a tragic romance.
Her second brother was the expendable martyr in an entertainment-industry drama.
Her third brother had been wrongfully cast as the delinquent antagonist in a school romance.
Her older sister filled the role of the venomous rival in a swapped-at-birth melodrama.
Even her parents existed as troubled supporting characters in a saccharine, middle-aged love story.
Du An Rao fell silent, reflecting:
[This family really is a finely tuned disaster waiting to happen. Could things possibly get any worse?]
Her family, having clearly heard every word of her inner monologue: “……”