I crouched down and picked up the rabbit.
Half its ear was gone.
Cotton hung from its torn body.
But the crooked embroidery remained.
Exclusively for Thoi Thoi.
I carefully gathered every piece of cotton I could find.
Lam Diem Diem watched me.
“Sister, don’t be upset. I’ll buy you another one.”
“No need.”
“But that one’s ruined.”
I looked at her.
“It can’t be replaced.”
Her smile disappeared.
Behind her, my eldest brother frowned.
“Thoi Thoi, don’t make Diem Diem feel guilty over an old toy.”
Second brother added:
“Tomorrow we’ll buy you something better.”
Third brother pointed toward the dog bed.
“You can sleep on the sofa tonight.”
I nodded.
“Okay.”
They exchanged satisfied looks.
They thought prison had taught me obedience.
Only I could see the translucent numbers floating before me.
【Remaining time: 7 hours 51 minutes】
Soon, none of this would matter.
Dinner was worse.
The Tham family had prepared an enormous welcome banquet.
But when I approached the table, Mother covered her nose slightly.
“You haven’t showered?”
“Not yet.”
Diem Diem immediately said:
“Sister probably wanted to eat first.”
Mother hesitated.
“Then perhaps…”
She pointed toward the kitchen.
“You should eat there tonight.”
Seven years ago, I’d called this woman Mom.
Now I simply nodded.
“I understand.”
The eldest brother looked uncomfortable.
But instead of stopping me, he said:
“Tomorrow everything will return to normal.”
Tomorrow.
Everyone kept promising me tomorrow.
They didn’t know I didn’t have one here.
I took my bowl into the kitchen.
Ten minutes later, laughter came from the dining room.
They were discussing Diem Diem’s birthday.
A yacht.
A designer dress.
A trip abroad.
No one remembered that my twenty-fifth birthday was tomorrow too.
Diem Diem and I had been born on the same day.
That coincidence had once made me believe we were destined to become sisters.
How foolish.
【Remaining time: 5 hours 26 minutes】
At nine thirty, someone knocked on the villa door.
A gray-haired woman stood outside.
The moment she saw me, her eyes filled.
“Thoi Thoi.”
My bowl nearly slipped from my hands.
“Director?”
She was the woman who had raised me at the orphanage.
The woman who had sewn my rabbit.
She hurried forward.
Then she noticed the chain around my neck.
Her expression changed.
“Who put this on you?”
No one answered.
I removed it myself.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
Those four words almost broke through the numbness I’d spent seven years building.
She saw my bandaged arm.
“What happened?”
“Dai Bao bit her by accident,” Diem Diem explained quickly.
The director stared at my brothers.
“And none of you took her to a doctor?”
My eldest brother frowned.
“It’s only a small injury.”
The director looked at him as if she’d finally understood something terrible.
Then she took my hand.
“Come with me.”
I shook my head.
“I can’t.”
Not yet.
The system hadn’t finished.
【Remaining time: 3 hours 08 minutes】
She didn’t understand, but she stayed.
And perhaps because she was there, the truth finally began to unravel.
Father came downstairs after hearing the argument.
The director looked at him.
“Did you ever tell Thoi Thoi why she was adopted?”
Father stiffened.
My brothers exchanged glances.
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
The director slowly opened her bag.
“You weren’t abandoned.”
My heart stopped.
She handed me an old document.
Twenty-four years earlier, a serious accident had separated an infant girl from her family.
The rescue records were chaotic.
The child had been sent to an orphanage under the wrong surname.
Me.
My hands trembled.
“But my biological family died.”
“That was what we believed.”
She swallowed.
“Three months ago, someone reopened the missing-person case.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“Why?”
“Because your biological mother never stopped searching.”
The entire room went silent.
My mother?
Alive?
The system suddenly flashed.
【Mission anomaly detected.】
I stared at the message.
【Remaining time: 2 hours 41 minutes】
Diem Diem suddenly laughed nervously.
“This is ridiculous.”
The director ignored her.
“There is something else.”
She produced another folder.
“The school incident seven years ago was reviewed after the victim’s family requested access to archived evidence.”
My eldest brother went pale.
“Why now?”
“Because the victim woke from a long-term medical condition and gave a complete statement.”
Nobody moved.
The director looked directly at Diem Diem.
“She said Thoi Thoi wasn’t the person who tampered with her drink.”
Diem Diem’s face turned white.
Second brother immediately said:
“That doesn’t prove—”
“There was surveillance footage.”
Silence.
I stared at him.
“You knew?”
His expression betrayed him before his mouth could.
My eldest brother turned.
“What?”
Second brother stepped backward.
“I found out later.”
“How much later?”
“Three months after sentencing.”
My ears began ringing.
Three months.
He had known for almost seven years.
“You knew I was innocent.”
“Thoi Thoi, listen—”
“You knew.”
His eyes reddened.
“Diem Diem was seventeen! A conviction would have destroyed her future.”
I almost smiled.
“And mine?”
He had no answer.
Because mine had apparently been available for destruction.
Diem Diem began crying.
“I was scared!”
She grabbed Father’s arm.
“I didn’t mean for her to get seven years!”
I looked at my brothers.
“You promised that if I confessed, I’d become your real sister.”
The eldest brother lowered his head.
“We were foolish.”
“No.”
My voice was strangely calm.
“I was foolish.”
I had believed love could be purchased with suffering.
That if I sacrificed enough, someone would finally choose me.
The system chimed.
【Remaining time: 59 minutes】
I picked up my damaged rabbit.
Then I walked toward the door.
My eldest brother caught up.
“Where are you going?”
“Outside.”
“It’s almost midnight.”
“I know.”
Tomorrow was my birthday.
And according to the system, it was also supposed to be my last day in this world.
All three brothers followed me into the courtyard.
The eldest stood in front of me.
“Thoi Thoi, we’ll make this right.”
“How?”
“We’ll reopen the case.”
“You should.”
“We’ll compensate you.”
“I don’t want your money.”
Third brother spoke desperately.
“Then tell us what you want.”
I looked at them.
For seven years, I’d imagined this moment.
I thought I would scream.
Make them regret everything.
Instead, only one answer remained.
“Nothing.”
Their faces changed.
Nothing meant they had nothing left to bargain with.
No promise could make me eighteen again.
No apology could return seven years.
【Remaining time: 8 minutes】
The director came outside.
She placed a coat around my shoulders.
I whispered:
“When the countdown ends, please keep my rabbit.”
She frowned.
“What countdown?”
I smiled.
“Thank you for loving me when nobody else did.”
Her eyes filled.
“Thoi Thoi—”
【60 seconds】
Headlights suddenly appeared beyond the villa gates.
One vehicle.
Then another.
Then another.
Black cars stopped along the road.
My brothers turned.
The system flashed violently.
【30 seconds】
The first car door opened.
A middle-aged woman stepped out.
She looked at me.
And stopped breathing.
Behind her came an older man and three young men.
One of them was holding a photograph.
A baby wrapped in a yellow blanket.
【15 seconds】
The woman covered her mouth.
“Shi Shi?”
I froze.
That name.
Somewhere impossibly deep inside my memory, it felt familiar.
She began walking toward me.
Then running.
【5】
The system suddenly changed.
【Return procedure suspended.】
My heart stopped.
【3】
【Biological family successfully located.】
【2】
The woman reached me but stopped before touching me.
As though afraid I might disappear.
Tears streamed down her face.
【1】
“I’m your mother.”
The countdown vanished.
I remained standing there.
Alive.
Confused.
My eldest brother shouted:
“Who are you?”
One of the three men turned toward him.
His expression became cold when he saw the dog chain lying near my feet.
Then he saw my bandaged arm.
“Which one of you did this to my sister?”
Nobody answered.
My biological mother finally hugged me.
Carefully.
As though I were something precious.
I didn’t know how to respond.
I had spent my entire life begging to belong somewhere.
Now strangers were crying because they had finally found me.
The following weeks revealed everything.
My biological family had searched for me for twenty-four years.
A clerical error after the accident had placed me under the wrong identity.
The system hadn’t been sending me away to another world.
It had been counting down to the completion of the life I had mistakenly believed I needed to endure.
My conviction was overturned after the original evidence was reviewed.
The victim confirmed I wasn’t responsible.
My second brother admitted he had discovered the truth years earlier and hidden it.
Diem Diem finally had to answer for what she had done.
I didn’t stay to watch her fall.
I had already spent enough of my life looking backward.
Three months later, I celebrated my twenty-fifth birthday again.
My biological mother repaired the rabbit herself.
The stitches weren’t perfect.
Neither was I.
But damaged didn’t mean worthless.
That afternoon, someone delivered three enormous boxes.
Gifts from the Tham brothers.
I returned them unopened.
Then came a letter.
Thoi Thoi,
Can we still call ourselves your brothers?
I read that sentence twice.
Then folded the letter.
My oldest biological brother was waiting beside me.
“What did they say?”
I handed him the envelope.
“They asked whether they’re still my brothers.”
“And?”
I looked toward the garden.
My mother was arguing with my second brother about birthday candles.
My father was carrying a cake.
The youngest brother was secretly trying to repair the crooked embroidery on my rabbit again.
For once, nobody was asking me to prove I deserved to be there.
I smiled.
“No.”
I had once believed family was something I had to earn through pain.
Seven years in prison had taught me the opposite.
Anyone could call you family when they wanted something from you.
Real family was the person who kept searching when you were gone.
The person who believed your wounds mattered.
The person who opened the door and said:
You don’t have to pass another test.
You’re already home.
