Chapter 73

Chapter 73: Could He Also Be Another Unlucky Chump?

After laughing to herself for a while, Du Yu Xi followed up and asked: “Besides relatives and friends, you also want to invite the company’s partners, right?”

“That is the plan.”

Du Yu Xi’s eyes moved and she instantly understood what the Du family was thinking.

“You want to use this chance to introduce An Rao to our Du family network in City S.”

Mother Du smiled and nodded. She was not surprised that Du Yu Xi could guess. But Du An Rao frowned slightly. She did not really agree.

“Relatives and friends are fine, but there is no need to invite partners. It is just a small birthday. There is no need to make it such a big deal.”

She was not very interested in this so-called social circle. She could not help much with business, and those people might not care about her when it came to relationships either.

So in the end, announcing her existence to them did not seem that important.

It was enough if the relatives and friends who would matter later on knew about her, so that they would at least recognize her when they met in the future.

Of course, the most important reason was…

[Things with the Li family are still not settled. If my identity is made public to Grandfather, there will definitely be a few gossiping busybodies who like to dig into everything and spread it everywhere. If they accidentally drag out the matter with Wang Xue He and people misunderstand that Fourth Sister really is the human trafficker’s daughter, what will we do? Fourth Sister is already very sensitive about this. If a happy event like this birthday ends in a huge mess that no one can clean up, it will not be worth it at all.]

Du Yu Xi froze for a second. She really had not expected Du An Rao to think of her feelings first.

She must have misunderstood because of what happened at the Li family banquet that day. Du An Rao probably thought she still did not know the truth and was holding a grudge about Wang Xue He.

But no matter what, it felt good to be taken seriously and cared for.

Du Yu Xi’s heart warmed. She lowered her head to hide the smile at the corner of her lips.

Mother Du of course wanted both daughters to be well and support each other. So after hearing Du An Rao’s worries, she did not insist.

“All right, all right, it is your birthday and you decide. Then it is settled. In the next two days, you two think about which classmates or friends you want to invite and tell me early so I can prepare.”

There was nothing more to say on Du An Rao’s side. She wanted to invite her master.

But that elder had gone off to wander somewhere some time ago. She could not even find him to ask about the Inner Library and her changing eyes, so there was no way to ask him to come to her birthday.

As for Du Yu Xi, she did have a few close girlfriends, but they were mostly childhood friends.

In these months since she started college, she had not really made any new friends. She did not know if it was because of Li Qian Xi secretly stirring up trouble. When she thought about it, she realized she had not gotten close to anyone. The only person she could barely count as a friend was… Ye Meng Zhen?

Du Yu Xi: …This was kind of ridiculous.

Even so, after thinking it over, she still put Ye Meng Zhen on the invite list.

“By the way, will Third Brother be back by then?”

Du An Rao paused.

[Right, I still have a third brother.]

She had been back for more than a month and still had not seen him. She had almost forgotten he existed.

Du Yu Xi: I knew it.

Mother Du’s mouth twitched. Thinking of that third son, who disappeared every time she turned around, gave her a headache.

“Your third brother went overseas to compete last month. I heard that during the competition he suddenly got inspired. When he came back, he went straight into the school lab and has not come out since.”

They only heard this because Du Jun Yan asked around with classmates from the same school as Du Yi Han.

He had found it strange that Du Yi Han had not come home even after the competition. When he called, he could never get through.

So he asked around and learned that right after coming back, Du Yi Han had gone straight into the lab and never come out. Du Jun Yan had almost laughed from anger.

Clearly, every single message he sent about the birth secrets of Du An Rao and Du Yu Xi had not been read at all.

[So he is actually a research maniac?]

Mother Du wanted to protect her third son’s reputation a little and rescue his image in his sisters’ hearts. But at that moment, Du An Rao was thinking about something else.

[Since I came back, I have only met a few people. Big Brother is the unlucky guy in a dog-blood, old-fashioned abuse novel, chasing while she runs, ending up the sad backup husband. Second brother is from a wish-fulfillment entertainment circle novel, the real person behind the early-dead stand-in, the male lead’s white moonlight, and also a walking blood bank that props up the male lead. Fourth Sister is from a fake rich girl story, a real big sucker who blocks the female lead’s path and gets stuck with a bunch of labels as a “vicious supporting actress.” What kind of script is this third brother holding? Could he also be another unlucky chump?]

As soon as she said that, both Du Yu Xi and Mother Du felt their hearts drop at the same time.

They looked at each other and saw fear in each other’s eyes, because to them, this really sounded possible.

Du An Rao felt a bit worried. If it was really like that, she had never even met this third brother or the people around him. She would not be able to help him even if she wanted to.

Mother Du and Du Yu Xi knew this too. The words they had meant to say turned into: “In a while I will have your brother contact his academic advisor and tell him to come home as soon as possible. As his sisters, you are both having your coming of age ceremony. How can he, as your brother, not be here? That is just wrong.”

Du Yu Xi agreed: “Yes, we have to make him come back.”

Du An Rao blinked, surprised.

[Is our eighteenth birthday really that important? But whatever. If Mom and Sis think it is, then it must be. And it is a good chance for me to finally see what my third brother looks like in real life.]

Even though their birthday was next weekend, the invitations had to go out these two days so that people would have time to make arrangements, especially since many guests did not live in the same city.

What Mother Du did not expect was that, while they thought they had kept the matter of Du An Rao and Du Yu Xi quiet, someone still found out ahead of time and came looking before the girls’ birthdays.

“What on earth is going on?”

Du Lian Shuang had just brought her husband and child back from another province. Dusty from travel, she did not even go home first and rushed straight to the Du family’s house.

Mother Du was shocked to see the whole family suddenly show up: “When did you come back? Have you had lunch yet?”

“At a time like this, who cares about lunch? Tell me what is going on.”

“What do you mean, what is going on?” Mother Du was confused by her sudden words.

“What else could it be? It is about Yu Xi. How can she not be your real child? Could it be a mistake?”

Mother Du’s face changed. After a long moment, she said: “Where did you hear that?”

They did plan to make the truth about Du An Rao public, but they also wanted to keep it under control. If this news was already spreading everywhere…

“Don’t worry about where I heard it. Just tell me if it is true.”

Facing Du Lian Shuang’s sharp stare, Mother Du finally sighed and gave in.

“Yu Xi is indeed not our biological daughter. An An is.”